On Troll (By Norse Music) Drott draws from Scandinavian folklore to create a soundtrack for the listener to inhabit a dank, murky forest, with the eponymous troll close enough that you can smell it, delivered via dark, slightly campy electronic rock soundscapes that would feel totally in place in a (not too scary) fantasy/ horror movie. Continue reading
Canadian post-black metallers Panzerfaust return with their sixth album, and the third in The Suns Of Perdition series. Sharing their name with a German World War II anti-tank missile, and the classic 1995 lo-fi album from Norwegian second wavers Darkthrone, Panzerfaust having been carving away a niche following with their distinct sound and conceptual albums since 2005, this time styling the lyrical theme of III: The Astral Drain (Eisenwald) on mankind’s collective descent into madness. Continue reading
Bhleg are an enigmatic and mysterious Swedish group who meld a kind of progressive black metal with traditional European folk music. Fäghring (Nordvis) is their fourth full-length offering and completes a “tetralogy” of records which began with Draumr Ast in 2014. The band consists of three members known only by single letters — S (who primarily plays guitar and bass as well as some vocals, but also adds traditional and unorthodox instruments including lyre, hurdy-gurdy, mouth harp, keyboards, bullroarer, birch trumpet, frame drums, birch sticks, and stones), L (lead vocals) and H (drums). Their promo photos and album cover show the members amongst woodland, hidden beneath cloaks and flowery headdresses, holding traditional instruments and strange blood-soaked wooden dolls. Continue reading