Aug 172025
 

(written by Islander)

About half an hour after I finished yesterday’s roundup I left home with my wife and didn’t return until nightfall. Waking up later than usual today, I immediately got diverted from anything musical by reading a long discussion by two really smart people about a harrowing political and economic subject. By the time I finally re-oriented myself to the column you’re now reading, my clock for this thing was winding down, so it’s shorter than I had hoped it would be.

In deciding what I’d need to leave on the cutting room floor, I found myself focusing on music that in different ways is unorthodox, at least in how I think about black metal orthodoxies. But you can be the judge of that, as I hope you will be. Of course, to judge, you need to listen. Continue reading »

Apr 252023
 

(Andy Synn continues his streak of brilliant Black Metal bands/albums with the “new” one from Porenut)

Some of you may have noticed a trend over the last several weeks, where I’ve almost exclusively written about Black Metal (most frequently erring towards the weirder end of the spectrum too).

Looking ahead, however, I can see a lot more Death Metal and/or Sludge-related content coming down the pipeline, so it looks like I’llbe switching things up sooner, rather than later.

It would be remiss of me, however, not to take this opportunity to write something about the recently-released new album from perennial outsiders Porenut, especially since it happens to be a real dark-horse candidate for best Black Metal album of the year (so far).

Continue reading »