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Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

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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, […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Julie Christmas – Ridiculous And Full Of Blood

Fourteen years after the laudable debut from JULIE CHRISTMAS, The Bad Wife, she of the many projects and of the many voices returns with Ridiculous And Full Of Blood. With a backing band is composed of members from CULT OF LUNA, CANDIRIA and KENMODE (as well as others), ‘Not Enough’ begins, tribal, percussive and ritual, a “calling up” of spirits before drifting into trip-hop/electro momentarily, more reminiscent of the singer’s past than much found here. Tom Tierney’s ever-present keys take the lead for much of ‘Supernatural’ cementing, as they will come to throughout Ridiculous And Full Of Blood, how much […]

Music News

ARMORED SAINT Releases Rendition Of ‘One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison)’; Video/Single Now Playing

ARMORED SAINT, leaders and stalwarts of the American heavy metal scene since the early 1980s, are back with a brilliant rendition of ‘One Chain (Don’t Make No Prison)’. The classic track was originally written by Dennis Lambert and Brian Potter and was first released by People in 1970. Additional covers include The Four Tops (1974), Santana (1978), and The Doobie Brothers (1989). Comments vocalist John Bush, “[Bassist] Joey [Vera] came up with the idea of doing the song. We’ve always been huge fans of old school soul and R&B music so it was a no brainer. It’s got a great […]

Album Reviews

Album Review: Saltpig – Saltpig

‘Satan’s War’ is lo-fi ‘70s CROW and ICECROSS worship, yet that’s not to say the sound is thin or otherwise deficient; rather, the rough ‘n’ ragged mix adds to the draw in this age of even “occult” bands sounding fresh off the factory floor at Baphomet-Mart. When the song builds and builds…and builds to a rousing climax, you know the duo are both worshippers and students of the craft. A boogie-type riff and blues rhythm form the backbone of ‘Demon’ Fabio Allesandrini destroying preconceptions and displaying himself as not only a competent but sonically interesting drummer out from behind the […]

Music News

MOLDER announce US tour dates

Chicago, IL fetid death metal band MOLDER has announced US tour dates this summer, with Goetia and Dripping Decay. The Disgusting Decay tour promises pure death metal madness, with new music from MOLDER to be shared in the coming months – more details of which will be revealed soon. Full dates for The Disgusting Decay tour are detailed below. Speaking on the tour announcement, MOLDER comments: “We’ll be skulking our way through the US this August… Hope to see you freaks at one of these dates!” MOLDER Online:Facebook

Album Reviews

Album Review: The Antikaroshi – L’inertie Polaire

“Those” labels are few and far between; the ones where – even if you don’t vibe completely with everything about a band or album – you can, at the very least, respect the artistic endeavor, the honesty of the work itself. Germany’s Exile On Mainstream has long been one of those, which makes me even more reluctant to admit that L’nertie Polaire will be my introduction into THE ANTIKAROSHI, six albums into its discography. Truth, though. That’s what ya get here. Inspired by/interlaced with concepts described in the Paul Virilio tome sharing this title, L’inertie Polaire opens, moving forward with […]

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