On Raw Blood Singing (Debemur Morti Productions), Insect Ark returns with an otherworldly and compelling sci-fi landscape of noir, subtle menace and mystery. Continue reading
Tag Archives: avant-garde metal album reviews
ALBUM REVIEW: Oxbow – Love’s Holiday
When the David Lynch-directed movie The Straight Story was released in 1999 it was a surprising departure for anyone familiar with the creator of Twin Peaks and Blue Velvet. The surprise wasn’t floating aliens, ladies in radiators or ears in paper bags. Quite the opposite. Lynch had already exposed audiences to the dark and bizarre in many forms; it was the absence of surrealistic shock that made the poignancy of one man’s single-minded road trip to reconnect with his ill brother so strange. This was not what was expected. This was not the formula that audiences were starting to think they’d figured out.
ALBUM REVIEW: Dødheimsgard – Black Medium Current
With the first release in eight years, Norway’s Dødheimsgard return armed with a reputation for the abstract and the almost absurd. Formerly a more pure Black Metal act, 1999’s seminal 666 International saw the band broaden their sonic palette to incorporate a widening range of styles within their sound, often incorporated in sudden ways as opposed to fluidly throughout, with 2015’s return, A Umbra Omega, receiving plaudits and adding to their cult following.