(Andy Synn wrote this review of the second album by the Ukrainian band Octopus Kraft.)

With so many highly-anticipated, big-name albums scheduled for release in the last quarter of 2016 it would be all too easy to fall into the trap of spending all our time focussing on the big releases by the big bands, to the exclusion of the smaller and lesser-known ones. After all, content drives traffic, and more traffic means more clicks and more massaging of the old ego, right?

The thing is, as much as we do love writing about the bigger bands when the mood takes us (and no-one’s going to tell us we’re not allowed to write about whatever/whoever we damn well want), we understand that writing about a big band or a big new release won’t always be the best use of our time.

Obviously, if we think we have a particularly interesting take on things we’ll probably put pen to paper/digit to keyboard and rattle something off which will (hopefully) be worth reading, but there’s always the danger – especially if we’re just one more voice of praise amongst a wider chorus– that whatever we write will just get lost in the general cacophony.

So as much as we enjoy writing about the big names… it’s often more worthwhile for us to focus our energies on covering the smaller, less well-exposed bands. Which is precisely what I’m doing this week, beginning with yesterday’s review of the fantabulous We Had It Coming, by Dormant Ordeal, and continuing today with the second album from Ukranian Post Metal prodigies Octopus Kraft. Continue reading »