For some of us Heavy Metal fans of a certain vintage, there exists a memory most tactile and warm; that of visiting record shops that sold vinyl by the rack load, and bloody cheap too. And one Saturday morning while absconding from Spanish GCSE duties, I stumbled up Running Wild’s Branded and Exiled in Time Records, going for less than the cost of a portion of chips (an additional option that was no doubt taken up later in the day).Continue reading
It’s hard to believe there was a time when Voivod took top billing above the likes of Soundgarden and Faith No More, but in 1990 that’s exactly what happened. The Canadian Thrash Metal pioneers were at the top of their game and seemed almost unstoppable, their lofty position due in no small part to the trifecta of albums which had preceded the release they were touring at the time – 1989’s Nothingface (MCA); an unholy trio of seminal albums that have been lovingly re-mastered and re-released by BMG.Continue reading
Pantera will be releasing The Great Southern Trendkill: 20th Anniversary Edition on October 21st via Rhino, and the official listening party will be happening Friday night at Duff’s Brooklyn. Continue reading
Pantera will be releasing The Great Southern Trendkill: 20th Anniversary Edition on October 21st via Rhino, and we have another early mix of a classic track for your ears today. Continue reading
Before they became the black metal equivalent of marmite, Cradle of Filth, arguably the UK’s most commercially successful and controversial export since Adam Ant, were just like any other bunch of skinny teenagers who made an ungodly racket in their mum’s garage and dreamed of hitting the big time. Unlike most kids their age however, they did actually make it, and the demo in question, 1993’s semi-legendary Total Fucking Darkness not only inspired a host of imitators, but proved it wasn’t just the Norwegians who had the monopoly on corpse-paint and blasting for Satan.
Now re-issued with several bonus tracks and re-recordings, Total Fucking Darkness sounds as different to Cradle’s current polished output as it’s possible to get, and that isn’t just due to the abysmal recording quality. While black metal elitists love to sneer at the sextet and claim that they aren’t grim/trve/kvlt enough, the truth is that in the early 90s, Cradle were embedded deep in the underground, had the approval of Euronymous, and were bashing out brutally heavy compositions with sickening lyrical content, with the feral ‘Spattered in Faeces’ a prime example.
Two early versions of future Principle of Evil Made Flesh classic ‘The Black Goddess Rises’ show just how much the songwriting improved before the recording of that seminal debut while others which didn’t make the cut such as ‘Unbridled at Dusk’ and ‘The Raping of Faith’ show a band hungry to prove their worth as the aggressive riffs and suffocating keyboards pile on the intensity creating a Gothic, slightly depraved and quintessentially English atmosphere. Oh, and for such a small guy, Dani roars and screams with more power and passion than most vocalists you could care to mention.
Not essential by any means, but a worthy reminder of where Cradle came from and how important they are. You could almost say they’re a national treasure…
7/10
JAMES CONWAY