1997’s ‘Magic’ is the sixth studio album by German guitarist Axel Rudi Pell. Closely following the same formula as its predecessor, 1996’s ‘Black Moon Pyramid’, it’s a fine slab of European hard rock, similar in sound and style to artists like Yngwie Malmsteen, Rainbow and Journey.

Admittedly, this has been on my playlist for well over a year, and I’ve struggled to really think of what to say about it. I’m pretty sure this happened with the aforementioned predecessor too, because Rudi Pell albums can tend to be quite repetitive and follow the same formula. That’s not to say they’re bad though, as they are of a consistently high standard, just that some are more memorable than others.

It’s worth noting that this is the last release to feature American powerhouse vocalist Jeff Scott Soto, due to conflicting schedules and overall burnout. Perhaps this was a move that would ignite a new spark of inspiration for the band with their next release, because follow-up album, 1998’s ‘Oceans of Time’ is probably one of my favourite releases from the German guitarist.

Still, there’s some great tracks here, including ‘Playing With Fire’, ‘The Clown is Dead’, ‘Turned to Stone’, ‘Magic’, ‘Nightmare’ and closing track ‘The Eyes of the Lost’. Overall though, if you’re new to the music of Axel Rudi Pell, I think there are certainly better albums to check out, and if you’re already a fan, you’ll know exactly what to expect, and I don’t think ‘Magic’ disappoints.

Flame, Dear Flame get advertised as “epic doom”, going as far as to describe themselves on their Bandcamp page as “monumental, crushing epic doom”. I don’t agree, for the record, but that is not me dismissing FDF as not being a good band. Their repertoire is varied enough to make Aegis interesting and at times unexpectedly gentle in fact. This gentleness is not just by virtue of the classical female vocals alone. Aegis is a very well-tempered musical experience. I will go as far as to say that whilst I acknowledge the impact of the vocals, I could cope without there being as much of them as there is. Their central position in the proceedings is certainly a solid enough anchor to weight your focus from, yet the guitars and percussion are subtly nuanced with heavy metal, traditional doom and an almost black metal shroud on at least one occasion.

It is clear to see why FDF have toured with the likes of Smoulder. However, I feel FDF are niche in terms of those vocals, which I am sure would have provided a great contrast to the more aggressive style of Sarah in the live setting. However, I am more a fan of the energy behind the vocals of say Sara Bianchin of Messa, a woman who has range and variety alongside an obvious yet never imposing presence. Like Messa, the guitar work in FDF is worth writing home about. David Kuri embraces the doom aesthetic probably best out of the band, stirring genuine melancholy in his melodies whilst equally able to assert weight in his riffs. Drummer, Jan Franzen puts in one of those performances whereby you do not necessarily notice him all the time, yet his spacing in the instrumentation is always perfect. Again, referring to the band’s bio on BC, they describe the drumming as “restrained” which is a great description.

Overall, for me at least, Aegis just potters around in the same space for too much of the album. Not that I want it in bucket loads, but there is no sense of dynamics. Just as my ears get pricked up by a suitably heavy riff, the album drifts away to a far too clean and eventually ordinary sounding place. I can’t deny the beauty of Maren Lemke’s voice but I just feel that it guides the direction of the album into an altogether too soft a space.

About a month ago, I reviewed the newest record from Finnish melodic black metal band, Gaerea, called Loss and I spent more than a little bit of time going over how Century Media Records took a promising little progressive black metal project and sucked the life out of it. In that review I also referred to the band Non Est Deus and how they were also signed to Century Media Records. So given how the Gaerea album review went, I was certainly not looking forward to this.

Upon further research, it tuns out that not only is Non Est Deus still technically signed to Noisebringer Records (which acts as more of a subdivision of Century Media), but I completely forgot to mention one other black metal who is tied to this record label: Kanonenfieber. This makes a lot of sense when you consider that Non Est Deus is one of the projects of the German multi-instrumentalist/producer, Noise. This is all to say that I have been enjoying revisiting some of the older records of Kanonenfieber before their transition to Century Media Records and I was hoping that Non Est Deus would do the same.

And the result was fairly enjoyable, if a little repetitive. The opening of this record with "Show Mercy" into "Forgive Me" is a nice little introduction to the whole "Blessings" and "Curses" that the album is highlighting. The first is fairly calm, almost tranquil in structure, and then "Forgive Me" revs up the intensity with blast beats and tremolo guitars. The rhythmic drive on these more aggressive songs is really intoxicating and leaves me excited to hear what will happen next.

On the downside however, this record seems to lose a lot of steam during its second half. A few tracks following "Prayer II" have the uncanny effect of sounding eerily similar to other tracks on the same album. While the albums closer causes me to lose interest in record time as both "The Sacrifice" and "The Indulgence" share not only the same tonal center's but also the same tempos and dynamic shifts. As a result, a record that begins incredibly well, falls off pretty hard at its conclusion.

And this is not helped that much at all by the lyrical content. Like with Kanonenfieber, Non Est Deus is a conceptual project that, while remaining pretty vague, is meant to be an anti-religious project. With Kanonenfieber I can tolerate it since it's carried by themes that are not a common stereotype in this genre. Part of the reason I enjoyed Aara's 2024 album Eiger was because of the uncommonly found concept. Blessings and Curses carries a lot in common with De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas and as a result, loses some of its charm.

That being said, I still do enjoy enough of Blessings and Curses to give it a fair shake. As a Century Media Records project, this is solid enough black metal to give it a tentative recommendation. I am willing to forgive the momentum loss during the second half and very played out concept because I know that Noise knows what they are doing; they are too talented as a composer/songwriter and as a producer. And it's still played so well that it doesn't bother me the same as it might on other projects. It is better than 2023's Legacy so that's a bonus.

Best Songs: Forgive Me, The Forsaken, Transgression, Kora

For Fans Of: Kononenfieber, Winterfylleth, Yoth Iria

This latest release from the ukrainian atmospheric black metallers is a three-track, twenty-minute EP and it exudes an air of melancholic reflectiveness that is reminiscent of the opening instrumental from previous album, 2025's "Shadow Play". This may well be all-new material, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if it turned out to be leftover tracks from that album because it fits in so well as a companion piece. This turn in tone from Drudkh is unsurprising given the situation in Ukraine over the last four years, particularly around the band's hometown of Kharkiv which has seen some of the war's most intense fighting. Who wouldn't become pensive in such a situation? Although they don't address the war directly in their lyrics I think lines like "Only their silhouettes, Touched once by an indifferent hand, Take up faded places, In memory" (from "Memory") are fairly unambiguous in their sentiment.

The opener is indeed a reflective piece that, whilst still sitting comfortably under atmospheric black metal has such a melancholy air to it, emphasised beautifully by some subtly applied keys, that it also feels like it has one foot in the post-metal camp. The second track, "Somewhere, Sometime" is an instrumental that possibly feels even more wistful than the opener with its main melodic theme having a reflective, folky air, as if looking back fondly on simpler times now lost. Add in some picked guitar lines and, again, those subtle, melancholy-sounding synths and you have a fairly simple, melodic and exceedingly effective instrumental break at the heart of the EP.

The closer, "A Moment in Eternity" is probably the track most recognisable to long-standing Drudkh fans, being a more conventional slice of atmospheric black metal. Even here, though, the vicious bite that used to hone the edge of Drudkh's sound feels muted, as if the sorrow being felt by the musicians is so great as to infuse their very being and leave them changed as a result. Once more, even though the track is of a higher tempo and has a traditional black metal structure, the air of wistful reflection still permeates it and rather than being a celebration of ukrainian culture and history as a lot of Drudkh's past work seemed to be, this is more like a eulogy to something that has been lost, possibly for ever.

I understand if some long-time fans were to be unsure of this direction the band have taken as it is quite different to their best-loved releases but, as someone who is often drawn to the more downbeat and melancholy in metal, I have to say that I actually really like this, even though, unfortunately, its sentiments may well be rooted in real world tragedy which i am sure we all wish had never happened.

Varg Vikernes' eight (second recorded after his release from prison) studio album was a major disappointment for me at the time but it's been a good decade & a half since we last crossed paths now so I thought I'd give it another chance to capture me this week. Unfortunately, despite not being quite as bad as I first thought, "Fallen" is still a fairly underwhelming experience with pretty much every element being less effective than they've been during Varg's incredible creative peak of the mid-1990's. The overall sound is thrashier than he'd offered up before & spends time in both the conventional & atmospheric black metal space. There's a noticeable lack of synthesizers here though which is regrettable when you consider how wonderfully Varg's utilized them in the past. Vikernes' harsh vocals are totally different too & sound like he's really struggling to reproduce them in his old age while his incorporation of clean vocals is misguided, even bordering on being cringe-worthy. In saying all of that, there are some great black metal riffs here at times which leads to a good half of the record being pretty enjoyable (see "Jeg faller", "Vanvidd" & my personal favourite "Enhver til sitt"). Sadly though, the other half is pretty lacklustre with the tracklisting petering out badly at the end & collapsing completely with the God-awful neo-pagan folk closer "Til Hel og tilbake igjen". Look... you can obviously tell from my rating that "Fallen" isn't a complete disaster but it simply isn't up the task of maintaining Burzum's legacy. In fact, it's hard to deny that it does its best to tarnish it. I think "Fallen" was comfortably the weakest Burzum album to the time.

For fans of Drudkh, Forgotten Woods & Judas Iscariot.