Tag Archives: Blackened

Glassing – Spotted Horse 

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A thunderous crack of guitars explode outwards above a deluge of dextrous percussion. It all swirls around the listener before reaching a fever pitch and bursting into its main atonal, bending riff. This is just the mere beginning of ‘When You Stare’ from Blackened post-Hardcore outfit, Glassing, a band clearly out to not just pique interest, but demand attention. The vocals have an ominous amount of reverb to them, giving the same halfway-down-a-corridor feel of the likes of early Emperor or any Black Metal luminaries for that matter. The actual screaming itself, however, has far more in common with contemporaries like Tripsitter and We Never Learned To Live, with its strained and passionate delivery evoking repressed tender emotions rather than scathing the eardrums with rhapsodies of hellfire.Continue reading →


Dreadnought – Emergence

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When allied to a sonic experience the term ‘Dreadnought‘ usually alludes to a bruising encounter with little imagination or subtlety. Not so the Denver quartet bearing that name, whose brand of Prog Metal is an eclectic mix of the weird, heavy and profoundly charming, and which spans many genres of music.Continue reading →


Inter Arma – Sulphur English

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Despite third album Paradise Gallows (Relapse Records) establishing Virginian quintet Inter Arma as one of the World’s premier exponents of Harsh Progressive Metal, it’s nevertheless arguable as to whether or not the band remains in the shadow of 2014’s staggering opus The Cavern (Relapse Records). Fourth full-length Sulphur English (also Relapse), surely their most brutal yet, will lay such doubts to rest.Continue reading →


Sataray – Nocturnum

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One-person Seattle outfit Sataray is the brainchild of Katarina E. and purports to be a dark, ritualistic experience. Ploughing a live furrow over the last few years with her Performance Art-style shows, Nocturnum (Scry Recordings) is the first long-player from this enigmatic artist.Continue reading →


Asthma Castle – Mount Crushmore

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Given the name, you’d expect Baltimore quintet Asthma Castle to deliver a wheezy form of Stoner/Sludge derived from the likes of Hollow Leg. Debut album Mount Crushmore (Hellmistress Records), the band’s first release for nine years, shows considerably more bounce and fun than any such misplaced assumptions, but flattens it all with unfathomable, cosmic weight.Continue reading →


Redwolves – Future Becomes Past

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It’s been seven years in the making, but one can excuse a big chunk of the wait for Copenhagen Rock collective Redwolves’ debut album Future Becomes Past (Argonauta Records). Just over two years ago frontman Rasmus Cundell was the subject of a brutal assault, yet despite the evidence of his scars being littered throughout the album, there’s a paradoxical lightness shining through.Continue reading →


My Diligence – Sun Rose

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I love a good ‘first person possessive adjective’ band name. My Chemical Romance, My Vitriol, My Dying Bride…it suggests a dark drama within. My Diligence doesn’t get the juices flowing in quite the same fashion, but the rampant category-defying experience this Brussels collective provides is anything but weary drudge.Continue reading →


Conan – Conjurer – Ba’al: Live at Rebellion, Manchester (UK)

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“It’s Pink Floyd turned up to fifty”, my mate said. I’d never heard Waters or Gilmour roar with the same ferocity as Steff, lead vocalist of Sheffield quartet Ba’al, but the band do display a level of progression and turn of pace that would fit in with the Prog legends’ template. The phenomenal power and blackened hostility of the music, however, leaves any such comparisons in the shade.Continue reading →