Caïna – Hands That Pluck Review
By the time Andrew Curtis-Brignell started Caïna in 2004, one-man black metal projects had already earned themselves a sterling reputation – fairly, in many cases – for laughably rudimentary songwriting, glass-shards-being-flushed-down-a-toilet production, and all-around foolishness. …
Avichi – The Devil’s Fractal Review
At what point is black metal too nice? Orthodox black metal basically begs this question every time it rears its ever-so-serious head. The paradoxical beauty of much of this movement of the past half-decade or …
Midnight Priest – Midnight Priest Review
Move over, female-fronted occult doom/rock, there’s a new old thing in town, and its name is obnoxious throwback NWOBHM (or should that be OTNWOBHM, then?). (Sidebar: the fact that Christian Mistress neatly evades both of …
Saviours – Death’s Procession Review
Saviours is one of those sneaky bands that you might not be sure if you’re supposed to like or not. Of course, if the music speaks to you, then let it speak, but this Californian …
Helheim – Heiðindómr Ok Mótgangr Review
Assuming that one was ever able to stomach grown men tromping around in full-on chain mail, constantly poised as if to spring from the bow of a longboat and onto the unspoiled shores of a …
Seidr – For Winter Fire Review
Louisville, Kentucky’s Seidr is the full-band doom project of Austin Lunn, mastermind and sole member of anarcho/atmospheric black metal outfit Panopticon, and For Winter Fire is the band’s first full-length. It is also fucking awesome, …
Sonne Adam – Transformation Review
Let’s think about album covers for a while, shall we? Much like lyrics, album art is one of those things that usually matters only when it is either exceptionally good or exceptionally bad. Nevertheless, when …
The Konsortium – The Konsortium Review
Black metal sure is one hell of a mangled corpse these days, isn’t it? Partisans of the narrowest sort are easily mollified by the diversity on offer: from the weepiest, nature-fondling scarf-wearers to the mankind-devoured-by-the-machines …