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Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Castle Rat – Into The Realm

There’s getting to be so many cosplay metal bands around now that it’s almost a rarity to see a band with no image. CASTLE RAT goes all-in on the dress-up aspect, but in a pretty low rent way, with very home-made looking get-ups good for a quick trip to the RenFaire. Almost all of this band’s interest is going to center around the statuesque Red Sonja-looking frontwoman the Rat Queen aka Riley Pinkerton. With chain mail brassiere, thigh high boots and an enormous mas of red curls, she cuts a striking figure without a doubt. Is the music any good […]

Music News

QAALM: First Light Of The Last Dawn EP From Los Angeles-Based Atmospheric Doomsayers Out Now On Hypaethral Records

First Light Of The Last Dawn, the new EP from Los Angeles-based atmospheric doomsayers QAALM, is out on Hypaethral Records. The follow-up to the band’s critically lauded Resilience & Despair debut, First Light Of The Last Dawn ushers in a new era of QAALM, introducing influence from black metal and progressive rock and ultimately pushing their new material beyond the boundaries set by their earlier work. Even the production, graced by the skillful engineering of Paul Fig and expert mixing and mastering of Zeuss, two powerhouses who have collectively worked with the likes of Slipknot, Hatebreed, and Municipal Waste, displays […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Huntsmen – The Dry Land

‘This, Our Gospel’ leads off HUNTSMEN’s third, swirling scales and surrounding sonics until the psychedelia the band has toyed with before is ushered into the forefront with chanted refrain and off-kilter meter. Then, sadly, not even three minutes in, we’re back in typical post-gaze-whatever-land, where we stay for the remainder of this 8+-minute opener. Sure, there are moments that pique the interest, but they’re brief and peripheral, a grasp too light to hold the attention; vital when you’re dealing with any style, but this one most especially. Digressionary from the start, ‘Cruelly Dawns’ repeats the pattern, an appealing vocal melody […]

Music News

ORANGE GOBLIN Share Third Single And New Video For ‘The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine’

Science, Not Fiction is now released via Peaceville. The track, titled ‘The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine’, follows ‘(Not) Rocket Science’ and ‘Cemetary Rats’ as the third single to be taken from the album and is accompanied by a new lyric video by Matt Vickerstaff (https://www.instagram.com/matthew_vickerstaff ). Watch the lyric video for ‘The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine’ Speaking about the new track, singer and lyricist Ben Ward said, “We are very proud to present our new single ‘The Fire At The Centre Of The Earth Is Mine’. We consider this a […]

Short Sharp Shocks

Trail Of Tears – Winds Of Disdain [EP]

Norwegian Sympho-gothers TRAIL OF TEARS were always at the very least reliable for being TOT, and now, after just over a decade, these early progenitors of the “Napalm sound” make their return on the Winds Of Disdain. New female vocalist Ailyn shines amid the gruffness of Thorsen on the title track, the band seeming breathing, alive, as if the silence has been a time of true reevaluation and this move forward purposeful, focused. I would’ve liked to see the melodic, subtle ‘Take These Tears’ continue in that way through the whole tune, but ‘No Colors Left’ bounces off the walls, […]

Music News

ALUNAH: new album, Fever Dream, streaming in full

Birmingham proto-metal and hard rock pillars ALUNAH return with their seventh album, Fever Dream, this September 20th on Heavy Psych Sounds, and premiere the debut single, ‘Never Too Late’, exclusively on The Obelisk today! Featuring guest vocals by Francis Tobolsky from Wucan, their new single ‘Never Too Late’ is an uplifting heavy metal stomper crammed with infectious vocals and heroic riffing. The band comments: “‘Never Too Late’ combines the bones of an idea we came up with right at the start of the writing process for the album, along with fresh inspiration that happened once in the recording studio. Fran […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Alarm! – Alarm!

There’s just something about Swedish hardcore/punk that stands apart from any other movement. From ANTI-CIMEX to Mob 47 to the ‘90s crust influences of SKITSYSTEM and DISFEAR, it just hits different. The members of ALARM! have pedigree up the wazoo but, refusing to rest on the laurels of their past (bands such as VICTIMS and OUTLAST), the foursome has crafted a brief but boisterous album in Alarm!. A tellingly ominous bass/drum opens up ‘Into The Dark’, and when I say “opens” up, I mean “sonically eviscerates”, all speed and high register screams/spits. Not slowing down for ‘Alerta!’ (which I think […]

Music News

Midwife Announces New LP, No Depression In Heaven

MIDWIFE’s fourth studio album No Depression In Heaven explores themes of sentimentality, the interplay between dreams, memory, and fantasy, and a familiar subject seen throughout all of MIDWIFE’s work: grief. Madeline Johnston takes a look at the tender and transcendent underneath the hard exterior of leather and studs, exposing a different side of the heavy music scene, where Johnston’s project has been living and evolving. Inspired by ephemeral moments that make up life on tour, the totemization of vehicles, outlaws, and the psyche of America’s underbelly, No Depression In Heaven affirms Johnston’s existential status as a woman of the highway. […]

Short Sharp Shocks

ViOS – SlaveForm [EP]

While the words “progressive instrumental metal” often cause a nervous tic when first heard together, that’s what Steve Lewis is on about with his ViOS project. ‘Druj’ captivates from the start, as if NEVERMORE had made more use of keyboards, or PENAL COLONY had made more of guitars. TRIBE AFTER TRIBE percussion, and time signature leaps that actually make sense. More accessible on its face, ‘Abort’ is no less interesting, and the beauty of what’s on offer here is that it wasn’t written for vocals, enabling Lewis true free rein. ‘Saturation’ breathes out sonic cosmology, quite darkly alluring. I’m not […]

Music News

NIGHTHÄMMER: Oakland Black Metal Crew Announce Debut Album Land Of Fear / Pre-Orders Now Available via Inferna Profundus

American black metal outfit NIGHTHÄMMER has announced its debut album Land Of Fear, due out June 28 via Inferna Profundus Records. Born in the vilest gutters of Oakland, NIGHTHÄMMER was conceived by guitarist Coffin in 2023. Shortly thereafter, drummer Grond and bassist Frost Tormentor joined the ranks, and the trio plunged into Earhammer Studio to record Land Of Fear with the renowned Greg Wilkinson (Autopsy, Brainoil, Necrot), crafting their formidable sonic heresy. Channeling the spirit of second-wave black metal titans like Gorgoroth, Immortal, Darkthrone and Deströyer 666, NIGHTHÄMMER fuses thrash and d-beat into their blitzkrieg of speed-driven riffs, thunderous drums, […]

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