Category: Reviews

ARS VENEFICIUM “Usurpation of the Seven” (Immortal Frost Productions) The previous encounters I have had with ARS VENEFICIUM have all left me majorly impressed. I have no reason to doubt that this new one will do anything but the same. I usually don’t follow a band with that sort of consistency unless it is a very special band to me. and ARS VENEFICIUM grow with each release I hear to be that kind of band. There is black metal and then there is black metal. The latter totally different from the first one, but still under the same banner. This… Continue reading

BACKWATER “Rock’N’Roll History” () I’ve seen this band’s name a couple of times now as I write this review but the feeling of this being some sort of swamp thing doesn’t escape me. I know that I am weird in so many ways that it is hard to list them all but with a name like BACKWATER what else is there to think about than old horror movies like “The Swamp Thing” etc. What this band is all about musically I am about to find out. Swiss hardrock is not something I am that familiar with although one of my… Continue reading

BEASTLURKER “Sanguine Elixir of Psychotropic Divination” (Godz Ov War) I have really high hopes for this one. With a name like BEASTLURKER this is most certainly gonna be a real creeper of an album. for some reason I imagine that this could very well be along the heaviness of Bolt Thrower or Asphyx but with a more blackish feeling. It is heavy. That is for sure. More towards Asphyx than Bolt Thrower if anything. This is just a 4 track EP, but the songs I get to hear on this record are so bloody good that I cannot wait for… Continue reading

BHLEG “Äril” (Nordvis) I know of Bluuuurgh but BHLEG are new to me. But half the fun doing this is to get to know new bands. It is head first that I dive into the pool that is BHLEG. I have no idea what this swill stain me with but hopefully I’ll come up alive and well. This is supposedly folk metal from this Swedish combo but to my ears this is much more black metal than anything else. And as a huge sucker for anything black metal it is with the greatest wide open ears, I take this one… Continue reading

BLUE DAWN “Cycle Of Pain” (Black Widow) To be totally honest with you I have lost all info on this one. And the more I search for facts about it the more confused I get. I’ll leave all the info searching to somebody else and just concentrate on what I do know about it. This is BLUE DAWN’s second album, originally released in 2013. I don’t know how doomy this actually is. Sure, there is a doomy vibe the same way that there is a doomy vibe to Trouble’s first three albums or the early Black Sabbath albums. Sound wise… Continue reading

DIBELLO “American Hard Rock” () This is one of those things where I feel I should know everything there is to know about LOU DIBELLO but actually know nothing, even though I am not from Barcelona. It is with a clean sheet that I take this one on. Not knowing anything can at times be a bliss. As I sit here listening to this I find myself actually liking it. There is a bluesy Gary Moore vibe to this album. it mixes instrumentals with vocal ones. So if you like bluesy hardrock you could do worse than checking this one… Continue reading

EHLDER “Nordabetraktelse” (Nordvis) By adding an H to a word like elder you get a pretty cool band name. This is one band that I am looking forward to hearing. I have no idea what to expect musically but the band name has built up certain expectations. With a pedigree that includes Armagedda, LIK. Lönndom you know that the man behind this knows his black metal. This is primitive and dark. Minimalistic in is nature, almost like a cleansing ritual. Listening to this you cannot help being transported into a place of loneliness and solitude. Not the darkest, baddest or… Continue reading

FORMICARIUS “Rending the Veil of Flesh” (Schwarzdorn Production) If I am not too far off this is gonna be a really cool blast of black metal. What do I base this on. To begin with, the band name screams black metal a long way. This is one release I am looking forward to checking out. I have high hopes that this one is gonna blow my socks off. There is a symphonic vibe to this that brings to mind Emperor on a calm day. Perhaps also a bit of Cradle Of Filth with the strains on. But just because it… Continue reading

Burzum – “Thulêan Mysteries” (Byelobog Productions) Uh oh. Definitely one of the most feared names in metal (and for good cause) the name of Varg Vikernes has its place in history, either rightly or wrongly, even garnering attention to this day through 2018’s “Lords Of Chaos” movie. Vikernes’s history is well documented, along with his music that has continued both during incarceration and afterwards right up until 2014 when he released “The Ways Of Yore”. Then silence, until now. “Thulêan Mysteries” is essentially a 23 track compendium of everything Varg had not released on CD before but recorded between one… Continue reading

White Stones – “Kuarahy” (Nuclear Blast) Named after the native Uruguayan people’s word for ‘sun’ as depicted on their national flag and formed by Martin Mendez, bassist of Opeth during their year long break following the “Sorceress” tour, White Stones is a solo project that brings him full circle both as a musician and a man! Composed by Mendez, who naturally plays bass but also the guitars and featuring guest solos by Opeth’s Frederik Akesson and Per Eriksson (Katatonia, Bloodbath), the core sound is death metal, which Mendez used to sing 25 years ago, although the material here is far richer than… Continue reading