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Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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Album Reviews

Album Review: Darkness Everywhere – The Seventh Circle [EP]

Admittedly I’ve always dug both key variants of the Swedish death metal sound, those being Stockholm and Gothenburg. While the Stockholm sound was ripping, cavernous, gutted by the HM-2 pedal (Swedish Chainsaw, y’all!), the Gothenburg sound was inherently more melodic, generally faster, a distant cousin of the US thrash of its time. Oakland, California is nowhere near Gothenburg, though, so when DARKNESS EVERYWHERE’s debut EP landed on my desk, I had to investigate. As much as I despise intro tracks, ‘Apocalyptic Nightmares’ gets a pass due to its nod to my beloved doom, a simple pattern delivered over dual guitars […]

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OPETH Confirms North American Spring Tour With Mastodon

OPETH will return to the stage this Spring on the second leg of their North American co-headlining tour with Mastodon. The journey will commence April 21st in Montreal, Quebec and make its way through sixteen US and Canadian cities, coming to a close on May 11th in Riverside, California. See all confirmed dates below. Comments OPETH mainman Mikael Åkerfeldt, ”We’re excited to come back to North America for the second leg of shows together with our ‘brothers from other mothers’ in Mastodon. And… hello, Canada! It’s been too long, we know! We’ll soon dust off the ole guitars etc. and […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Mystic Circle – Mystic Circle

MYSTIC CIRCLE has been plying their trade in the black/death market since the mid-‘90s, releasing a half-dozen albums in the decade between ’96-’06, but has as yet failed to make a noticeable impression of any sort, just always being “there”, one could say. Others have their thoughts, I’m sure, but I believe releasing three albums in as many years burnt whatever creativity the band had to cinders, resulting in the lackluster Bloody Path Of God in 2006, followed by the 15-year recording hiatus that ended with last year’s Letters From The Devil EP. And now, a mere four months later, […]

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Swedish Folk Metal Mainstays MÅNEGARM to Release New Album,Ynglingaättens Öde, on April 15, 2022

MÅNEGARM keep the heathen fire alive with vibrant folk and Viking spirit! Swedish folk metal pillars MÅNEGARM have made a name for themselves in the international scene by releasing nine full-length records since their debut, Nordstjärnans tidsålder, back in 1998. Now, the Scandinavian crew takes another stroll through ancient sagas and myths of long forgotten times on the successor of 2019’s chart-topping Fornaldarsagor with their upcoming 10th studio album, Ynglingaättens Öde (EN: the fate of the Ynglinga kin), out April 15, 2022 via Napalm Records. In their multifaceted world of sound, MÅNEGARM incorporate Pagan inspired lyricism based on the old […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Black Altar / Vulture Lord – Deathiah Manifesto

Given my current renaissance of affection for split releases over the past few months or so, Deathiah Manifesto looked interesting at the start, being a melding of Polish (now UK) blackguards BLACK ALTAR and Norway’s equally profane VULTURE LORD. The styles of blackness from both countries are identifiable almost at first listen, yet I’ve found them often in at least aesthetic camaraderie, giving me hope that the few moments to come won’t be wasted. With its last full-length arriving in 2008 and only three other splits and an EP to show for the past decade, BLACK ALTAR has more to […]

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NWOBHM cult band TYSONDOG release new album in April

Roughly four years after Cry Havoc, the first album in almost three decades from TYSONDOG, the cult NWOBHM band has a new set of songs on their sleeves. Midnight is the title of the record, which carries all the elements that made Tysondog such an interesting offer for all those who wanted to dig deeper than the obvious NWOBHM bands back in the day – and find gold. As the late legend Malcolm Dome (Classic Rock) put it, “This is a band who represent the true spirit and ethos of NWOBHM – and many years on from this particular movement, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Cynic – Ascension Codes

Conceived as a mind-journey – as, if we’re being honest, most CYNIC has been – pollen blown from Olias Of Sunhillow / Song Of Seven JON ANDERSON is evident from ‘Mu-54*’ and ‘The Winged Ones’, which is much pleasing to these ears, oft’ jaded and haggard from guitars with gain cranked to 11 and tempos that have more in common with arcane ritual than art given time to let the music breathe. ‘Elements And Their Inhabitants’ is positively otherworldly, and it’s here that newfound drummer Matt Lynch first slips into his role, as comfortable as an ivory finger into a […]

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CANDLEMASS TO RELEASE LIMITED EDITION 35-YEAR ANNIVERSARY 3LP DELUXE SET, EPICUS DOOMICUS METALLICUS, ON JUNE 3RD VIA PEACEVILLE

Watch the trailer for the Epicus Doomicus Metallicus 3LP set at THIS LOCATION Pre-orders available now exclusively from the Peaceville label store HERE CANDLEMASS was formed by bassist and songwriter Leif Edling in Stockholm, Sweden in 1984, and is well known for its epic doom metal, having a great influence over a generation of the genre’s subsequent greats – CANDLEMASS themselves taking a large influence from Black Sabbath. Epicus Doomicus Metallicus is a true genre classic, with every track a monument of timeless and finely crafted Doom. This is one of the quintessential, definitive Doom Metal releases, immortalizing the band […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Sataray – Blood Trine Moon [EP]

Though active and releasing music under SATARAY for a bit over 10 years, this is my first listen to she of Olympia, Washington, lately also of funerary doom outfit VOUNA, a recent and impressive addition to whatever “Cascadian metal” is identifying itself as these days. At any rate, barring a single and a split release with Zania Morgan, the Blood Trine Moon EP is the one-woman project’s first output since the 2019 Nocturnum debut full-length. And thus… ‘Astara’ flows gentle at its start and keeps interest even though a good bit of this ambient sort of work reveals itself to […]

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Video for Title Track from ERIC WAGNER Solo Album Premiering on Keep It True Festival TV Special

The video for ‘In The Lonely Light Of Mourning’, the title track from former TROUBLE singer Eric Wagner’s posthumous solo album, is receiving its exclusive preview via the Keep It True Festival 2-day TV special onFebruary 6. The song features a guest solo from PLACE OF SKULLS/ex-PENTAGRAM guitarist Victor Griffin. “The title track is lyrically foreboding musically, vocally raw and emotional,” says Dave Snyder, who co-wrote the entire album with Wagner. “It’s intentionally spacious. We talked about the ‘less is more approach,’ leaving space to breathe. When we were putting this one together, Eric said once the chorus kicks in, […]

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