wonderboxmetal

Interview with Obscure Sphinx

Obscure Sphinx are one of those special bands that openly wear their individuality like a badge of honour while still fashioning songs that really, really hit the spot. Post-metal can sometimes be one of the most emotional, atmospheric and intense sub-genres there is, and Obscure Sphinx embody this realised potential perfectly. Their third album Epitaphs is 57 minutes of pure class. Here is a band that know what they’re doing and know that they’re doing it very well indeed, thank you.

Guitarist Aleksander Olo Łukomsk told me all about their latest release, with tantalising hints of secrets and ambitions to come… Continue reading “Interview with Obscure Sphinx”

Cowards – Still (Review)

Cowards are a blackened hardcore band from France and this is their latest EP.

I do so very much enjoy the work of Cowards. Their last album, 2015’s Rise to Infamy, was a tight ball of violent blackened extremity filled with hardcore’s passion and sludge’s ugly heaviness. Still continues this theme, boasting three new tracks and two covers. This is 19 minutes of music guaranteed to stop you in your tracks and then hit you around the head. Continue reading “Cowards – Still (Review)”

Ashes of Nowhere – Emptiness (Review)

Ashes of Nowhere are a post-black metal band from Italy and this is their debut album.

This is a release that combines a fair few different blackened styles into its 54 minute running time. Across the seven tracks one can hear raw, traditional black metal, atmospheric post-metal, melodic black metal, depressive shoegaze and a touch of the avant-garde.

Phew. Continue reading “Ashes of Nowhere – Emptiness (Review)”

Obake – Draugr (Review)

Obake are an Italian experimental sludge metal band and this is their third album.

Obake are an unusual band, as you may have surmised from the oddly unsettling album cover. They essentially take a sludge metal base and use this to launch an experimental foray into avant-garde waters, usually quite defying the listener in their expectations. Continue reading “Obake – Draugr (Review)”

Bearstorm – Biophobia (Review)

Bearstorm are a progressive black metal band from the US and this is their latest EP.

Bearstorm play progressive black metal, but if you haven’t heard them before I can all but guarantee that they don’t sound as you’d expect them to.

Their previous album Americanus was an unusual record. A very good one, but a very individual one that was probably too much of an acquired taste for most. A shame, but their loss, (whoever they are), is our gain. Continue reading “Bearstorm – Biophobia (Review)”

The Infernal Sea – The Great Mortality (Review)

This is the second album by UK black metallers The Infernal Sea.

This is sophisticated black metal that still manages to somehow sound filthy, ugly and grim. It’s a beguiling combination that sees the band combine atmosphere and ferocity in tantalising ways across this 42 minute release. Continue reading “The Infernal Sea – The Great Mortality (Review)”

Gränslandet – Solidum (Review)

Gränslandet are a hardcore band from Sweden. This is their debut album.

This is 41 minutes of filthy hardcore that combines d-beat, crust and sludge together into a grime-covered mass of aural pollution.

The band have the kind of production that sounds as if they’ve been dragged out of the swamp, kicking and clawing into the sunlight. Raw, underground and filthy doesn’t quite cover it in many ways. Continue reading “Gränslandet – Solidum (Review)”

Nuisible – Inter Feces et Urinam Nascimur (Review)

Nuisible are a blackened hardcore band from France. This is their debut album.

Inter Feces et Urinam Nascimur sort of sounds like what would happen if Darkthrone embraced a love of Scandinavian d-beat and produced one massively pissed off record. Add in some elements of crusty death metal and grindcore and you have 23 minutes of red-hot anger. Continue reading “Nuisible – Inter Feces et Urinam Nascimur (Review)”

Soulburn – Earthless Pagan Spirit (Review)

This is the third album from Soulburn, a predominantly black metal band from the Netherlands.

Featuring ex-members of Asphyx, this is a solid slab of prime-time metal that effectively mixes black and death metal, (with some doom), into a tasty 47 minutes. Continue reading “Soulburn – Earthless Pagan Spirit (Review)”

A Sense of Gravity – Atrament (Review)

A Sense of Gravity are a progressive metal band from the US. This is their second album.

I bet you’ve always wanted a record that mixes Dream Theater and Between the Buried and Me haven’t you? Well, now you have one. With symphonic/neoclassical elements combined with extreme metal, this is 68 minutes of progressive metal delivered just the way we like it; interesting and exciting. Continue reading “A Sense of Gravity – Atrament (Review)”