Tag Archives: Gothic

On Thorns I Lay – Aegean Sorrow

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Over the course of their history, Greek metallers On Thorns I Lay have undergone some significant shifts in sound and hit across waves they haven’t always been capable of riding. After name several name changes and a more death metal style, their first outing under the On Thorns I Lay moniker saw a Gothic/Doom/Death sound creep in; culminating in 2003’s messy attempt at an alternative progressive rock sound akin to Radiohead or Porcupine Tree which ultimately saw them split up soon after, due to losing sight of their musical identity according to the band themselves. Continue reading →


Tribulation – Down Below

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2015 was a big year for Tribulation, and The Children of the Night (Century Media) quickly garnered them a lot of media attention for delicately weaving together Classic Rock, Prog and psychedelia, to create a haunting, depraved tale that was as much in common with Hawkwind as it did Mercyful Fate. They elevated their musical ambitions from 2013’s The Formulas of Death (Invictus), with its suffocating combination of Death and Black metal, and produced a record that not only exposed them to a much broader audience but set expectations at an all-time high. Three years later Tribulation has brought us Down Below (Century Media), continuing their evolution from morbid death-rattlers to fully fledged Occult Rock-stars.Continue reading →


Paradise Lost – Pallbearer: Live at Electric Ballroom, London

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How to best celebrate that Friday feeling? With a night of slow and Gothic Doom of course. The Electric Ballroom in Camden, London, is full to the brim, and it seems the crowd is somehow wearing even more black than usual to celebrate the morbid tones of the UK’s very own Paradise Lost.Continue reading →


Grave Pleasures – Motherblood

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One short drumfill. That’s all it takes to bring you back into the Death Rocking world of Mat McNerney (aka Khvost) before Motherblood (Century Media) launches into an uptempo angular, jangly Joy Division-inspired shuffle, and the smile spreads across the lips.Continue reading →


Myrkur – Mareridt

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In three short years, Danish singer-songwriter Amelie Bruun has already achieved what many fail to do across a lengthy career, and that is to create art that is interesting and distinctive. With Mareridt (Relapse Records), under the banner of her Myrkur project, she is releasing an album where there is genuine curiosity as to both how it will sound, but also whether she will be able to stride further into a more “mainstream” conscience (the use of the term mainstream being applied quite liberally here… this is unusual and uncompromising music, lest we forget). Continue reading →


Bloody Hammers – The Horrific Case of Bloody Hammers EP

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Following on from the wonderfully sinister, synth-laden Gothic overtures of last year’s Lovely Sort of Death, husband and wife outfit from North Carolina Bloody Hammers are back with The Horrific Case of Bloody Hammers (both Napalm) – a six-track EP with a delightfully kitsch 70’s B-list horror film-inspired artwork.Continue reading →


Hear Zeal And Ardor Perform On BBC Radio 1‘s Rock Show

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Perturbator, by Susanne A. Maathuis Photography

New York’s experimental artists Zeal And Ardor recorded an in-studio session at Maida Vale for BBC Radio 1‘s Rock Show With Daniel P Carter. The performance aired yesterday July 9th. You can check it out below.Continue reading →


Danzig – Black Laden Crown

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The number seven has long been a recurring theme with Glenn Danzig. ‘777’, ‘7th House’, seven albums with numbered prefixes, and now in 2017 – seven years on from his last studio album to feature original material, and at the age of 61 (six plus one…? Okay, maybe that’s pushing things a little too far) it’s finally time for Black Laden Crown (AFM Records), the latest chapter in the Danzig story.Continue reading →


Earth Electric – Vol 1 : Solar

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The latest project of former Mayhem guitarist Rune “Blasphemer” Eriksen, Earth Electric finds the Norwegian musician in typically progressive and diverse form. Forming the band in 2014, and working alongside soprano vocalist Carmen Susana Simões, from Eriksen’s Gothic/Doom act Ava Inferi, the pair hired DragonForce drummer Luigi “Gee” Anzalone, and Doro‘s Luca Princiotta, and recorded a three track demo entitled 2014 the same year.Continue reading →


Zeal & Ardor – Devil is Fine

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How open-minded are you? I mean, really properly open-minded, not just trying to be too-cool-for-school open-minded? I ask the question because this beguiling, genre twisting and highly evocative second album from Zeal & Ardor will certainly put you through your paces.Continue reading →