Another cold night in Manchester, and another quality show beckons. Paradise Lost are always going to be a decent draw, and tonight the venue is packed and enthusiastic. Continue reading “Paradise Lost/Outshine/King Goat – Manchester Gorilla, 23/02/18 (Live Review)”
Entropy Created Consciousness is a one man black metal band and this is his debut album.
This is obscure, underground black metal of the rarest variety. Individual and self-styled, it’s like Impressions of the Morning Star has been formed in a void of its own making, keeping itself apart from anything ostensibly similar to ensure its own dark purity. Continue reading “Entropy Created Consciousness – Impressions of the Morning Star (Review)”
This is a collaboration between Japanese multi-instrumentalist Keiji Haino and US post-metal band SUMAC.
SUMAC feature an impressive calibre of members, (Isis, Baptists, Russian Circles), so it’s a real shame I’ve never encountered any of their work previous to this. Keiji Haino I’m even more unfamiliar with, but it seems he has built up a significant body of work and collaborative projects over time. Continue reading “Keiji Haino & SUMAC – American Dollar Bill – Keep Facing Sideways, You’re Too Hideous to Look at Face On (Review)”
Nòtt is a one man atmospheric black metal band from the US and this is his debut release.
The man behind Nòtt is also a member of the impressive Amiensus, and this first release is full of icy blackened darkness. Continue reading “Nòtt – Nòtt (Review)”
Verheerer are a German black metal band and this is their debut album.
Here we have 49 minutes of black metal that’s both obscure and creative. Continue reading “Verheerer – Maltrér (Review)”
Profane Burial are an orchestral/symphonic black metal band from Norway and this is their debut album.
There’s a lot of music out there in the world, and sometimes you have to decide just how you’re going to filter through it all and give something a listen. Sometimes this can be tricky work, but not in the case of Profane Burial. I knew I had to listen to this due to the presence of Continue reading “Profane Burial – The Rosewater Park Legend (Review)”
Ritual King are a rock band from the UK and this is their latest EP.
This is personable blues/stoner rock, with plenty of groove and attitude. At 15 minutes in length it’s a good introduction to the band’s approachable brand of rock and roll. Continue reading “Ritual King – Earthrise (Review)”
Har are a black metal band from Israel and this is their latest EP.
Containing 18 minutes of the foulest black magicks, this EP is not for the weak of constitution. Har create black metal that’s threatening and malevolent. Continue reading “Har – Visitation (Review)”
Byyrth are a US black metal band and this is their second album.
This is some really nasty stuff. Here we have 27 minutes of raw black metal that goes straight for the jugular and JUST DOESN’T STOP. Continue reading “Byyrth – Echoes from the Seven Caves of Blood (Review)”
New Gridfailure. Great. More nightmares tonight for me. Why do I even bother listening to this kind of stuff? I mean, what’s to like here? Is it the urbanised terror of an impending soulless apocalypse? Is it the gradually-encroaching realisation that everything you have ever loved and everyone you have ever known will eventually be taken form you? Is it the digitised psychic pain of countless trapped, hopeless lives? No? Then what? I’m really asking. What draws you, and me, to listen to something like Gridfailure. If you’re reading this then you must have at least a passing interest in hearing the aural equivalent of long-buried mental scars burrowing their way to the surface, so why do you subject yourself to it? Why do you, actively, probably passionately, seek out this experience, a horrific, mind-killing experience like Irritum? Go on, tell me. Please. I’m begging you. Because try as I might, I can’t help but really, really like Gridfailure’s work, so I need to know why I’m so irresistibly drawn to it. Maybe this says more about me than the music, but there’s something maddeningly relaxing about having your ears slowly bleed as you endure the 52 minutes of grim soundscapes that occupy the radiation-blasted landscape of this album’s playing time like corrupted mechanical cockroaches. Something about Irritum calls to me in binary, demanding to be understood by my hopelessly out-of-date grey matter, clawing at my subconscious, like a cyberdaemon being birthed behind my eyes. I mean, what the Hell? Why can’t I let go? Why do I rate this stuff so highly? Why do I think that Irritum is actually some of the best material that Gridfailure’s twisted controlling intelligence has conceived and unleashed so far? Maybe I’m just in pain, in deep, internal pain, and Irritum soothes me, by letting me know I’m not the only one suffering. Or maybe I’m just a masochist, torturing myself with prolonged exposure to industrialised fear. Or maybe I’m just deceiving myself. Maybe I’ve known the truth all along. In fact, I know I have, I’ve just been unwilling to admit it to myself, as if admitting something as terrible as this would make it somehow even more real than it already is. The real, true secret is terrible. Of course it is. The truth is, that I
Wonderbox Metal 