Rebel Extravaganza

Heavy Metal And Other Occasional Musics And Cultures

vesperian

Album Review: Stormkeep – The Nocturnes Of Iswylm

While there is a Denver sound – make no mistake about it; from the twang ‘n’ travail of early 16 HORSEPOWER to the tent revival atmosphere of SLIM CESSNA’S AUTO CLUB, to the prairie-wide expansiveness of those first several ACROSS TUNDRAS albums to the Western noir of WAYFARER – the “sound” has always been more beholden to an ancient land, olden times, a sense of exploration of the soul and world itself that is truly of its surroundings than to genre convention. In this realm, the symphonic black metal of STORMKEEP may seem out of place, at least on the […]

Album Review: FORSMÁN – Brenndar rústir & fuƌrandi fjörur

Ice is beautiful; from icebergs the size of small islands drifting on the world’s seas, to the peaks of the highest mountains, to the frozen lakes of the North. Ice is deadly; from the countless shipwrecks caused by icebergs, to the frozen carcasses on Everest, to the skater or fisherman falling through the not-so-frozen surface of a lake thought to be solid. The same can be said of FORSMÁN’s debut full length, Brenndar rústir & fuƌrandi fjörur (rough translation: Burnt ruins & flowing shores), released via Vesperian. The album begins, ‘Drottinn fyrirgefur allt’ rumbling and roiling, lava boiling and rising […]