Kval are a black metal band from Finland and this is their second album.
I’ve been greatly anticipating the next Kval release, as the band’s 2017 self titled debut album was quite the underground find. The debut seemed to be a solo affair, whereas this new one seems to have added a guitarist. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Ornamentos del Miedo, a one man funeral doom band from Spain.
Here we have 62 minutes of atmospheric funeral doom. It’s slow, heavy, and played with an obvious love for the style. Continue reading
Spirit Adrift’s new album Divided by Darkness is my favourite album yet by this superlative band. Filled with rousing songs, engrossing melodies, infectious riffs, and quality writing, Divided by Darkness is sure to make an impact on many best of 2019 lists I’m sure.
I quizzed band mastermind Nate Garrett about the band’s latest release, and found out a few interesting things… Continue reading
This is the fifth album from US hard/stoner rockers Lo-Pan.
This sort of highly engaging and infectious stoner-influenced hard rock is not typically my sort of thing most of the time, but it’s hard to deny how damn good Lo-Pan are at what they do. I really, really got Continue reading
This is the third album from US doom band Aseethe.
2017’s Hopes of Failure is still one I regularly visit, (as I do all of their very tasty material), so I’m glad to see a new album appear again. Continue reading
Glassing are a blackened hardcore band from the US and this is their second album.
I do so like these hybrid styles that are almost impossible to lump into a single genre, or to easily categorise. This particular release mixes hardcore, black metal, and post-metal into something quite personable, and it’s a very effective and enjoyable listen because of this. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Heathe, a blackened doom/drone project from Denmark.
Apparently created by a core of one person who was then aided and abetted by multiple others, this band have crafted here a single 38-minute track named On the Tombstones. It has apparently been recorded live, with a structure enhanced by improvisation in places, which is probably why the music feels so vibrant, albeit in a bleak, nihilistic ways. Continue reading
Starless Domain are a US black metal band and this is their debut album.
Consisting of a single track lasting almost an hour, (at least my version is – I’ve seen others that are divided into four tracks), EOS is an ambitious journey into the night sky. Continue reading
This is the fourth album from US grinders Full of Hell.
The noise-enhanced grinding extremity of Full of Hell returns, and with Weeping Choir we get a further 25 minutes of abrasive nastiness and inventive grindcore intensity. Continue reading
Nyss are a French black metal band and this is their second album.
Nyss’s 2017 debut album Princesse Terre (Three Studies of Silence and Death) was an atmospheric and raw slice of blackened art that struck a chord with me, and I’ve returned to it many times since. Continue reading
