Desertfest London kicks off for their eighth edition today, taking place all weekend from 3rd May – 5th May 2019 in Camden, London UK. Tickets are still available at the link below. The fest is headed up by immense talents such as Om, Amenra, Fu Manchu, Electric Citizen, Black Tusk, Mondo Generator, Wovenhand, High Reeper, Kadavar, All Them Witches, The Skull and more! Get ready with our day by day list of must-see bands! Continue reading
Desertfest London is around the corner with just a month to go before the eighth edition. The fest had added the final dozen bands including an entire stage takeover from the incredible Black Deer festival! Their Sunday curation stage welcomes The Devonshire Arms, The Vanguards, The Fargo Railroad Co., The Southern Companion, The Outlaw Orchestra and more have been added such as Whoremoan, Cities of Mars, Orbital Junction, Drore, Årabrot, Vokonis, The Great Machine, and Wren. Desertfest takes over London 3rd May – 5th May 2019 | Camden, London UK. Tickets available at the link below. Continue reading
Psycho Las Vegas rolled out a bunch of new bands today for 2019, via their Instagram account and first reported by The Obelisk. Fu Manchu, Graveyard, Clutch, Amenra, Deafheaven, Old Man Gloom, Powertrip, Bad Religion, and Rotting Christ have all been added to the bill. Psycho Las Vegas take place August 16-18, 2019 at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino for Psycho Las Vegas––featuring four stages, late night parties, and exclusive performances you won’t see anywhere else. Tickets on sale at the link below.Continue reading
One of the most exciting bands of 2018 has been Black Mirrors. Their summer release Look Into The Black Mirrors released via Napalm Records. The band has been kind enough to share their top albums of 2018 with Ghost Cult and our readers. Continue reading
It’s the May Day bank holiday in London, which can only mean one thing; Deserfest! A weekend of avoiding the sun in the darkest and dingiest venues across Camden Town, listening to the darkest and dingiest stoner and doom music. Continue reading
After announcing that they had broken up for all the classic “differences within the band” reasons in 2016, Swedish Retro Rockers Graveyard are back together, armed with a new album, and sounding as raw and melodic as ever. Continue reading
London’s annual three-day festival to tune in, turn on and drop out: Desertfest is back this weekend. Ghost Cult will be on hand once again covering the fest which features headliners High On Fire, Graveyard, Warning, Eyehategod, Napalm Death, Weedeater, The Obsessed, Hawkwind, Church of Misery, Death Alley, Kind and more! We thought we would help all you heshers and hesherettes out with a fest preview of all the must-see bands, all the stage times, and other essential shit, which will give you all more time to find snacks, snake brews and find your missing rolling papers. They are in your hand, dude. Dig? Cool. Continue reading
Long-running metal and rock label Nuclear Blast Records have just released a teaser trailer for all of their upcoming releases on their label and their under label, SharpTone Records. Watch the trailer and hear snippets of new songs from Dimmu Borgir, Amorphis, Sink The Ship, Settle Your Scores, Graveyard, Anthrax, Overkill, and more.Continue reading
As we dash towards the holidays and the end of the year Ghost Cult is feeling good about this season of giving. So we are giving our fans a chance to get to know our partners, peers, and friends from bands in the world of music. They will chime in with some guest blogs, end of year lists, and whatever else is on their minds as we pull the plug on 2015. Today we have Bidi van Drongelen, Dutch booker and manager who has worked with the likes of The Devil’s Blood, Saint Vitus, Ghost, In Solitude and many more. Every year a multitude of his bands get booked at the excellent Roadburn festival, and we have asked him what he feels were the best releases of 2015.
1. Klone – Here Comes The Sun
Great songwriting, amazing vocals, and a crystal clear though heavy production blending prog and post metal.
2. Ghost – Meliora
Ghost has it all to become one of the leading melodic heavy rock bands in the world
3. Bliksem – Gruesome Masterpiece
If you like Metallica’s Master of Puppets of Death Angel’s ACT III….with the a raw female voice like Doro.
4. Royal Thunder – Crooked Doors
Great atmospheric rock album with the amazing voice of Mlny Parsonsz
5. Tribulation – Children of the Night
Melodies of occult rock like The Devil’s Blood drenched with a satanic black voice which reminds of Satyricon.
6. Chelsea Wolfe – Abyss
Refreshing approach of doom & drone. ART with capital A!
7. Paradise Lost – The Plague Within
8. Steak Number Eight – Kosmokoma
9. Melechesh – Enki
10. Enslaved – In Times
11. Clutch – Psychic Warfare
12. Thy Catafalque – Sgurr
13. Amorphis– Under The Red Cloud
14. RAM – Svbversvm
15. BRING ME THE HORIZON– That’s The Spirit
16. Mgła – Excercises In Futility
17. Baroness – Purple
18. Leprous – The Congregation
19. Graveyard – Innocence & Decadence
20. Hangman’s Chair – This Is Not Supposed To Be Positive
Over the course of a few albums (this one being the latest and fourth), Sweden’s Graveyard have both bypassed and embraced the “retro” tagline they have been lumped with from day one. Never proving nor looking to be a musically revolutionary band, they wear their influences firmly on their sleeves with their brand of familiar and instantaneous blues-rock. At the same time they are more than just a nostalgia act as Innocence And Decadence (Nuclear Blast) shows, they have some individuality of their own.
On the face of it this may prove straight- forward blues-rock which sticks to a recognisable formula (in a positive sense), but scratch deeper this proves a moodier and darker effort than in previous. Innocence And Decadence sees further exploration of their psychedelic and stoner influences alongside moments of pure melancholy next to some upbeat moments. Album opener ‘Magnetic Shunk’ begins with a slow, stoner crawl which proves the album’s only lapse before half way it picks up in to a more confident and catchy strut. The likes of ‘Exit 97’ and ‘Too Much Is Not Enough’ are slower numbers which encapsulate the bleaker side of blues, whilst ‘Hard-Headed’ begins with a brief, but destabilising fuzz of feedback which invokes some of their heavier peers.
All the while this sounds instantly recognisable as their own and is very catchy and immediate throughout. A significant improvement on the previous Lights Out (Nuclear Blast). It feels much more confident in exploring their further influences whilst not deviating too far from their sound, and most importantly it never falters in quality throughout (bar from the slight misstep at the off). As much as they are proud of their classic influences, the want to seek new styles sees them as so much more than a retro band.
7.0/10
CHRIS TIPPELL