The terminus Pagan Metal is like a floating entity with so many facets that it’s nearly impossible to summarize it with only a few words. Everything started 15 years ago with a handful of northern Black Metal acts which extended the standard musical cosmos by adding more traditional instruments supported by (in these dark days) […]
I already hate CHILDREN OF BODOM. I can’t see any use in playing dull melodies on two guitars accompanied with a third dull keyboard-melody, with fast drums and a vocalist that is aggressively screaming because he cannot sing. And finally those fucking dumb guitar-solos all over the sudden. I don’t doubt that these guys can […]
The more I listen to this album, the more I love it. NO RETURN previous effort (“Self Mutilation”) marked a sort of resurrection, thanks to a revamped line-up perfectly balancing maturity and youthful rage to overcome. “Self Mutilation” was and still is a very strong album, but nothing really compared to “Machinery”. This chrome-plated Thrash […]
When it comes to extreme forms of Metal, France not necessarily is the country that I immediately have in mind… And apart from the godly MUTILATED / ABYSSALS (whatever happened to them?!), AGGRESSOR, LOUDBLAST and MASSACRA there’s hardly been any bands that I really considered worth a mention (ok, I might have forgotten one or […]
In music as in history everything is coming back and sometimes you are more less annoyed when bands are taking their inspiration from old gods without adding really something unique but there are also releases when a big smile is coming over your face and you think about the good old times. NORDAFROST and their […]
Frosty Black / Death Metal from Germany offers this young band on its debut full-length after releasing only one demo, the already very promising and professional produced MCD “Dominus Frigoris” in 2003. Grim vocals comparable to later IMMORTAL, cold and melancholic moods Swedish Black / Death spawned in the 90s, aggressive fast drumming and a […]
You like polish Black Metal? You like ROOT, old BATHORY and MASTER’S HAMMER and the grim primitivity of bands like DARKTHRONE and KHOLD? That all mixed with some (!) Slavic-folk instruments and drum rhythms? You like Satan and all of his friends? Then keep on reading. NON OPUS DEI from Poland may be the right […]
When I read the description that NONEXISTENCE’s sound is close to KATATONIA and SHINING I was tempted to find out more. In that context, I was somehow let down since NONEXISTENCE do not sound like either of the aforementioned bands although they have some elements that bring them to mind. Let’s not fool ourselves, almost […]
The first thought that came to my mind when I got NONEXIST’s debut “Deus Deceptor” into my hands was: “What a shitty cover!! Is this some fucking Gothic band or what???” But fortunately it is not. NONEXIST is Johan Liiva’s (Ex-CARNAGE, Ex-FURBOWL, Ex-ARCH ENEMY) new band and the line-up also consists of Johan Reinholdz (guitars, […]
The debut album for this German band, where we can find no less than 3 DARK FORTRESS members, has finally been released. It seems this has been delayed from 2006 until now. Was it worth? Well, not so much I am afraid. No matter that most of the members are in the melodic Black Metal […]