Category: Reviews

DÖ “Black Hole Mass” () DÖ are Finns. DÖ means die in Swedish. It is a short and to the point word. Which kinda makes me feel that that the music is gonna be the opposite of short and to the point. And I am was kinda right. This is doom with a blackened feel to it. I don’t know what it is with me but I like the extreme ends of the spectra. From full on Speed to slower than slow. And this is slow. Not funeral doom slow but slow. If you fancy your doom metal with vocals… Continue reading

GRIMORTE “Esoteric Ascendance” () GRIMORTE is a UK two piece blackened doom metal entity that is bordering the atmospheric side of black metal. Or at least that is what I’ve managed to read up on them. I totally love old Paradise Lost and My Dying Bride alongside Cradle Of Filth. Listening to this I get a feeling of funeral doom gone black metal. There is that feeling of claustrophobia that you get from funeral doom, that there is no escaping from hell, mixed with a black metal aesthetic. I like what I hear. This moves at the speed of a… Continue reading

HIGGS FIELD “Paracusia” () “The Higgs field is a field of energy that is thought to exist in every region of the universe. The field is accompanied by a fundamental particle known as the Higgs boson, which is used by the field to continuously interact with other particles, such as the electron.” Almost all I know about Higgs Field I know from The Big Bang Theory. HIGGS FIELD on the other hand are new to me. Not knowing anything about them makes for a not so uncommon premise. This one will be interesting exploring. This South Australian band play a… Continue reading

HYRGAL “Fin de Règne” (Les Acteurs de Lombre) As I wrote in my review of HYRGAL’s “Serpentine” album I have always liked French metal. It hasn’t always been an easy relationship but never a boring one. I have no doubt that this new album from HYRGAL will be as challenging as the previous one. This is the second one and the follow up to “Serpentine” from 2017. I am looking forward to hearing this new one. If you like your black metal twisted and full of anguish and pain then this is for you. Listening to this is like a… Continue reading

LEVIATHAN “Förmörkelse” () Just to show how confused I am at times I didn’t even know I owned the first album from this Swedish band/project. I knew that I owned a LP by a band called Leviathan but I thought it was the US one. Had it not been for a Facebook group had I not known that there was a Swedish LEVIATHAN and that I owned that album. I almost sold that album. This is the second album and with 18 years between albums even Metallica seem quick. But was the wait worth it? Having heard this one I… Continue reading

SAARKOTH “Cult Of Nature” () UKBM is not something that I come upon all too often in the past but this year I have found some really cool underground UK labels that fly the UKBM banner high. Prior to this I cannot remember the last UKBM band that I heard that wasn’t Cradle Of Filth. With a demo, a single, an album and an EP under their belt SAARKOTH is by far not a new band, yet this is the first I hear of them. But I am looking forward to dive deep into the universe that is “Cult Of… Continue reading

SKAM “Sound Of A Disease” (Petrichor Records) I really, really like Anti-Cimex. I have done so since the 80s. I am also a fan of stuff like Moderat Likvidation and Black Uniforms. Classic Swedish crust/metal. I am also a huge fan of Discharge. When all this is combined I am in my own little heaven. That is where I am hoping that this one-man army will take me with this album. I am not too convinced that this will ever take me to a cross between Discharge and crust/käng because this one sounds more like a grindcore explosion. This is… Continue reading

SOMETHING ON 11 “S/T” () I gotta apologize to Jen Majura because the interview I did with here about her solo album got lost (erased) and was therefore never published. My enormous mistake. Jen is usually to be found at the side of Amy Lee in Evanescence. I have no idea who Alen Brentini is. And for that I also apologize. Because hearing this album is like being taken back to a time when guitar heroes where true heroes and Malmsteen what the God. Musically this is much more along the lines of Steve Vai and Joe Satriani. Hardrock-ish with… Continue reading

SPECTRALE “Arcanes” (Les Acteurs de Lombre) 4 I have a nagging feeling that I am familiar with this one from before but when I check the archive I cannot find anything on this one. Until I realize that I spelled the name wrong. Boy, did I scare myself there. Thinking that my memory had finally given in. Reading the review I did for the 2017 album I realize that not only does this album have be much better than the previous one, which according to my words was good to great, but I to have to come up with an… Continue reading

TORCH ”Reignited” (Metalville) TORCH has made one of the greatest heavy metal albums of all time with their eponymously titled debut album. That one is a true masterpiece. Unfortunately they didn’t manage to match it with the “ElectriKiss” album. By 1984 it was all over. Until 2009 when we saw an album of rerecorded songs. Not the greatest of albums to be released. As we write 2020 a new album sees the light of day. And this is one I am looking forward to based on the previews I’ve heard. It can never be like it was in the early… Continue reading