NEW MUSIC FRIDAY: New Rock and Metal Releases for 9-13-24


What new Rock and Metal releases are you picking up and spinning this week?

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ALBUM REVIEW: Trelldom – …by the shadows…


On …by the shadows… (Prophecy Productions), Norway’s Trelldom shows how Satan can find subtle ways to drag the listener into hellContinue reading


PREVIEW: New Music Friday – Rock and Metal Releases Preview for 9-13-24


What new Rock and Metal releases are you picking up and spinning this week?

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FESTIVAL REVIEW: Beyond the Gates Review 2024 Part 2 Live at Grieghallen 


With Thursday being the longest day on the festival’s docket for musical performances, Friday, August 2nd marked Day 3 and the second longest day. Day Shift sets started as early as 13:30 back at Kulturehuset with ferocious screams of Fir, SYN and Owls Woods Graves to ramp us up for the day. I didn’t end up shooting any of these sets, but I popped my head in to check out the sounds until it occurred to me I could listen from the tables of the building’s accompanying cafe where I stationed myself for some photo editing.Continue reading


FESTIVAL REVIEW: Beyond the Gates Review 2024 Part 1 Live at USF Verftet


 

Iconic. Explosive. Diabolical. The 2024 rendition of Beyond the Gates Festival in Bergen, Norway delivered.

The festival started Wednesday, July 31st. Opening day crowds arrived into the fjordland town of Bergen amped and ready for a weekend of black metal in one of the birthplaces for the genre. In this regard, the festival is unique in its own right, but Beyond the Gates offers a few other unique features such as providing festivalgoers with a variety of indoor concert spaces differing in size, sound and style giving attendees a change of atmosphere throughout the weekend and a listening experience in year-round concert halls and club stages as opposed to temporarily constructed platforms of your typical music festival. Continue reading


Beyond The Gates Festival 2024 Completes its Line-up with Mayhem, Enslaved, Death SS, Black Anvil, and More!


Following a slew of newly announced special sets and tribute events, Beyond the Gates 2024 has completed its lineup with nine final bands and more exclusive performances. The festival has added Mayhem – set to perform their 40th anniversary set, icons Enslaved performing all of Frost in full, Death SS, Black Anvil, Owls Woods Graves, Attic, Syn and others. The full line-up and tickets links can be found below. The fest has also revealed its daily lineups.  

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Hellsinki Metal Festival Has Booked Avantasia, Hammerfall, Kreator, Satyricon, Insomnium, Doro, Blackbraid and More for 2024


Hellsinki Metal Festival has announced their first bands for the 2024 event! The fest takes place on August 9th & 10th in Helsinki@! The first announcement includes Avantasia, Hammerfall, Kreator, Satyricon, Insomnium, Doro, Blackbraid and many more! Hellsinki Metal Festival, organized for the first time this year, found its own place on the Finnish festival grounds on the second weekend of August in 2023. More than 11,000 visitors were able to enjoy a bold and versatile lineup of performers, which also included several bands that rarely visit Finland. The official aftermovie of this year’s event can be viewed here.

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ALBUM REVIEW: Gaahls Wyrd – The Humming Mountain


Having been involved in making underground music for nigh on thirty years, vocalist Gaahl has amassed a body of work ranging from high voltage Black Metal with Gorgoroth and the less polished Trelldom, to the traditional folk stylings of Wardruna, ramping up his progressive blackened leanings with God Seed, before releasing GastiR – Ghosts Invited (Indie Recordings), the debut offering of current vehicle Gaahls Wyrd, in 2019.

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Gahhls Wyrd – Gastir – Ghosts Invited


The realm of Black Metal is often noted for it’s colourful, yet usually monochrome, characters, and definitely one of the most infamous is the iconoclastic and enigmatic Gaahl, former frontman of Gorogorth, Trelldom, Godseed. An obvious showcase for Gaahls considerable vocal talents Gaahls Wyrd Debut, Gastir – Ghosts Invited (Season of Mist) is an extremely potent album and well worth a listen. Continue reading


Beyond The Gates 2016: Live At The Garage Bergen NO


Beyond the Gates poster 2016 ghostcultmag

So, we’re the Ghost Cult, and they’re a cvlt festival in Bergen ‘The Cradle Of Black Metal’, Norway. It’s a match made in heaven. It’s a solid swipe to the right, and it brings the promise of a romantic walk down that left hand path. OK, enough now. I mean, according to a pilot study conducted by famous Vilayanur Ramachandran there’s potential readers out there suffering from what is known as ‘metaphor blindness’. Keeping it simple: we found ourselves at one of Norway’s hottest underground metal festivals at the very last weekend of August, for four days of a full à la carte metal menu.

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