Tag Archives: black metal

Antestor – Omen

After numerous YouTube teasers and a 7 year wait since their last album “The Forsaken”, Norwegian “unblack” metal band Antestor release their fourth album “Omen”.  Black metal has never been my cup of tea but over the past couple of years I have grown a soft spot for Antestor and …

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Ruins – ‘Place Of No Pity’

The name of Tasmanian devils (sic) Ruins may be unfamiliar to many people outside the southern hemisphere, but that should be about to change soon, thanks to the international release of this, their fourth full length studio album. And a bloody fine slice of blackened metal it is – melodic …

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Dead Aeon – Interview

When ‘Apotheosis’, the debut EP from Monaghan’s Dead Aeon, found its way onto the stereo at PM’s recently established Ireland HQ, we found ourselves suitably impressed by what we referred to as their “brutally effective brand of blackened death metal”, and praised it as one of the best new death …

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The Everdawn – Poems – Burn The Past

There’s a lot to be said about the musical elitism that follows extreme metal around like a third wheel, but damn it if it isn’t sometimes completely justified. If not for elitism, Deicide would still be taken seriously, Cradle Of Filth would be seen as the epitome of black metal …

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Decline Of The I – ‘Inhibition’

Over the past decade or so, black metal – particularly of the northern European variety – has become much more about the feel of the music rather than the subject matter, as bands have progressed from satanic shock tactics to more natural, ethereal explorations of the environments which originally inspired …

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Eternal Helcaraxe – ‘Against All Odds’

When this black metal crew issued their sophomore EP, ‘To Whatever End’, in 2009, it was hailed as one of the best examples of the genre to emerge from the island of Ireland at the time. It was praise which was well-deserved, as it was an excellent slab of Celtic-tinged …

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Merrimack – ‘The Acausal Mass’

Over the past 18 years – and certainly in the decade since the release of their brutal debut album, ‘Ashes of Purification’ – Merrimack have been slowly building a reputation as one of the forerunners of the French black metal movement and have drawn comparison, not unfairly, with the likes …

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Homoferus – ‘Herocly’

Fronted by Russian-born guitarist/vocalist Nil Dilian, this Bergen-based quartet have self-released an eight-track debut album that is fairly standard second wave of Norwegian black metal fare, made up of crunchy groove-laden riffs over mixture of clean and deathbeat drumming. Opener ‘Delirium’ is nothing special – the sort of thing the …

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Winterburst – ‘The Mind Cave’

The first thing that strikes you about this self-released debut full-length offering from this French five piece is it’s lavish packaging – stunning artwork on a highly professionally produced gatefold sleeve, and a well-designed lyric booklet. They’ve obviously put a lot of work into it. But, that’s entirely understandable, given …

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