A DIRTY (BLACK) HALF DOZEN: AKROTHEISM, DIM AURA, KHNVM, NORDJEVEL, SCHATTENFALL, TOTALED

 Album Reviews  3 Responses »
Apr 012019
 


Akrotheism

 

(Andy Synn prepared the following reviews for six new albums from the realms of black metal.)

It’s already the first of April and, somehow, I am already about six months behind in my reviews for 2019.

To try and address this problem, this week I’m going to be grouping together a bunch of different bands/albums to try and simultaneously clear some of this backlog AND get the word out about a few new (or relatively new) releases I think you all need to hear.

So let’s begin with six (well, five and a half) examples of the black (Metal) arts, shall we? Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: EYE OF SOLITUDE, AKROTHEISM, INCANDESCENCE

 Metal News, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Mar 052019
 

 

I’m kind of scrambling due to interferences from my damned day job, but I didn’t want too much time to pass before sharing with you a few items of interest — the first of which is an exclusive piece of very exciting news.

EYE OF SOLITUDE

Those of you who’ve been following the site for a while will probably be aware that we’re big fans of Eye of Solitude and their fearsome brand of funereal death/doom. We’ve been writing about these Romanian/British doom lords for well over six years now, and have featured articles on their work a number of times (such as here, here, here, and here), as well as one of Andy Synn’s Waxing Lyrical interviews of the band’s main man Daniel Neagoe (here).

Eye of Solitude’s most recent album, 2018’s Slaves of Solitude, presented (in Andy Synn’s words) “some of the best music we’ve heard from the band since their career-defining Canto III“, and was definitely one of the year’s doom metal high points, successfully achieving “that rare feat of providing a listening experience which is both utterly devastating yet eminently re-listenable.”

And now we are delighted to report that this year Eye of Solitude will be returning with another album named Godless, and to reveal the album’s cover art (above). Continue reading »

SEEN AND HEARD: SWALLOW THE SUN, AKROTHEISM, OUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON US, TERRE, THE STEEL WOODS

 RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC  1 Response »
Jan 182019
 

 

Within the world of heavy metal, the new year is in full swing. I’ve noted more than four-dozen new songs, EPs, and albums that have been released just this week alone and that, at least on a superficial level, seemed worth checking out. But for me it hasn’t been the best week to go exploring. With multiple premieres to write each day, and the time required to compile new installments of our evolving 2018 Most Infectious Song list (one more of which is coming later today), almost all my free time has been consumed.

By chance, however, I woke up at an even more ungodly early hour than usual this morning, and got far enough ahead on today’s planned posts that I spent a bit of time digging into that giant list of new things that appeared this week. I didn’t get far, but, serendipitously, everything I checked out proved to be appealing. All those new discoveries are collected here. Be forewarned: this list includes a healthy dose of clean singing, and one not-metal track.

SWALLOW THE SUN

Swallow the Sun threw more than a few people off-balance when they released the single “Lumina Aurea“ last month. But since then they’ve followed it with two tracks from their next album, When A Shadow Is Forced Into The Light, which will be released by Century Media on January 25th. The first was “Upon the Water“, and then more recently they debuted a video for the song “Firelights“. Continue reading »

A PAIR OF REVIEWS: CROM DUBH (“HEIMWEH”) AND A SPLIT BY AKROTHEISM AND SEPTUAGINT (“SPHINX: THE GREAT ENIGMA OF TIMES”)

 Reviews  2 Responses »
Apr 022015
 

 

(We welcome back Norwegian guest contributor Gorger, who has provided us with a review of a new album by Crom Dubh that originally appeared in his native tongue on Gorger’s Metal, as well his review of a new split by the Greek bands Akrotheism and Septuagint.)

I tipped Islander off to a track by London-based Crom Dubh not long ago, but he’s a busy bee, and I think these guys deserve some attention, so I asked if he wanted me to present a few words on their first album. Today I discovered yet more delightful metal, this time from two Greek bands. What has crawled into the drinking waters of Greece and infected the metal community of the nation lately? I’m adding them as a bonus.

CROM DUBH – HEIMWEH

When the British quartet Crom Dubh released their debut after more than ten years of existence, that is something we could take delight in, for these lads deliver rapturous grimness and a poignant fresh take on “melodic” extremity. Continue reading »