Category Archives: Reviews

Gold Key – Hello Phantom

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Gold Key is an interesting prospect both in terms of concept and delivery. Formed in Watford, England with former and current members of bands such as Sikth, Gallows and Spycatcher they are now ready to unleash their début album Hello Phantom (Venn) on a world that will probably have already decided on what they think this band will sound like, but right off the bat, the sheer myriad of influences becomes apparent, and it really does take a few listens to appreciate the talent on show, sounding nothing like you’d expect.Continue reading →


Reviews Roundup: Week 42: VUUR, We Came As Romans, Veil of Maya, Then Comes Silence and more

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Ghost Cult rounds up those albums which didn’t receive the full review treatment, for your vulgar delectation…Continue reading →


Skyclad – Classic Albums Reissued

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“The second mouse gets the cheese” is a maxim which pretty much sums up the career of UK Folk Metal innovators Skyclad in a depressingly pithy nutshell. The first band to be labeled with the now commonly used Folk Metal tag, their pagan image, costumes, and use of fiddles seemed to constantly draw nothing but unwarranted mockery from certain quarters.Continue reading →


Slipknot – Day Of The Gusano (DVD)

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It seems most bizarre to think that a beast as all-conquering of the metal world as Slipknot had yet to take their larger-than-life stage show into Mexico City at any point in their twenty-year existence. Yet, until December 2015, and the .5 – The Grey Chapter’s incarnation of Knotfest, that particular duck had yet to broken. Continue reading →


Trivium – The Sin And The Sentence

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Eight albums into their illustrious career, Trivium have this veteran band stuff down pat. With almost 20 years in as a band, and over 15 with recorded output, long in the rear-view is the time when they were the very young upstarts in the jaded metal world. Trivium are not trying to reinvent the wheel, unveil a jarring new genre influence, or convert fans from the latest fad of the month at Hot Topic. Nope. Trivium keeps on chugging album after album, with their blend of neo-thrash love, metalcore breakdowns, shreddy solos, and their NWOBHM-inspired catchiness. Their new album The Sin And the Sentence (Roadrunner) has all those things in place. Continue reading →


Iron Monkey – 9-13

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Iron Monkey, it’s fair to say never got the respect or adulation that should rightly have been theirs. Exploding from Nottingham, England in the mid-90’s with their self-titled E.P. and the classic Our Problem (Earache), the band was on a trajectory straight to the top of the filth-smeared grime pile that they were climbing. Exuding a sound reminiscent of Black Sabbath thrown into a swamp with Eyehategod, this was music so hate-filled and nasty it demanded your attention before the band split in 1999. Original vocalist tragically Johnny Morrow passed away in 2002, but fifteen years on guitarist Jim Rushby has resurrected the Monkey as a three-piece ready to unleash new album 9-13 (Relapse).Continue reading →


Godsticks – Faced With Rage

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Whilst perhaps not the most obvious sounding progressive band, Wales’ Godsticks are one that have undergone some significant transformation over their course. 2015’s Emergence (self-released) particularly showed a grittier edge with a heavier, near metallic sound and feel throughout. In this time, mainman Darran Charles has had an influential stint with proggers The Pineapple Thief during a very successful time for them, whilst Godsticks themselves have signed to Kscope (also home to The Pineapple Thief). Perhaps as a result of Charles’ time with PT, latest album Faced With Rage is the band’s most rounded album and feels like a pinnacle of their career to date.Continue reading →


Bell Witch – Mirror Reaper

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One track spanning a massive 83 minutes is going to be an intimidating listen no matter which artist spawned it, but when that track is as grief-stricken, slow-building, and earth-shatteringly heavy as Bell Witch’s Mirror Reaper (Profound Lore), it’s going to take more time and patience than some people can muster. Given the deserved attention, however, Mirror Reaper is easily one of the most breath-taking releases of the year. This is a tribute to a departed friend, burdened by bereavement but tragically beautiful, and is not for the faint of heart.Continue reading →


Album Reviews Round-Up Week 41: Stick To Your Guns, Fozzy, The Walking Dead Orchestra, Samael And More

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In the first of a new feature, Ghost Cult rounds up recent albums that didn’t receive the full review treatment, for your vulgar delectation…Continue reading →


ALBYM REVIEW: Sons of Apollo – Psychotic Symphony

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Psychotic Symphony is the long-awaited, highly anticipated release from what most people are calling the next new super group known as Sons of Apollo. I think the more fitting term is something more than human. For context Apollo (son of Zeus) was recognized as a god of music, truth, poetry, healing, the sun and the light so it would only be befitting to call these “Sons” the demigods of music; if that seems to be overboard for us mere mortals. Then there is this all-star cast of musicians just being super in what they do. Continue reading →