Sonny's Reviews

Finnish doomsters Fimir formed from the ashes of Church of Void after the latter split-up in 2018, with four of CoV's five members (excepting drummer Johannes Lahti who went on to form his own project Byron) joining the new band. I had championed Church of Void since their debut Winter is Coming ep back in 2012 so was fairly disappointed when hearing of their split. All seems to have turned out well though, as this debut album from Fimir seems to attest and I would venture that, even though it isn't a massive departure, it is even better than either of the original band's full-lengths.

Tomb of God consists of six tracks of impressive Scandinavian traditional doom metal, very much in the vein of Count Raven and Lord Vicar. Well actually there are technically only four tracks because the second half of the album consists of the three-part title track, although each part plays as a distinct track and work equally well in isolation. It is not an album that is out to push the envelope or even to try much new, but it is very well executed doom metal with some pretty memorable riffs and excellent lead work. I love the guitar tone, especially during the solos which are possibly the highlight of the album. The bass too has a terrific sound and is allowed to shine through on several occasions, most notably during the first part of Tomb of God, the gothic-inflected Obsidian Giant where it is featured as the lead instrument. Vocally Fimir obviously sound like Church of Void as vocal duties are still performed by Markus Pirkkalainen (aka Magus Corvus) but this time on several occasions he has double-tracked some harsher vocals alongside the clean. It's no death metal growl or blackened shriek, but still has a harshness to it that CoV didn't utilise and works quite well. The only real criticism is that the drums are very ordinary and don't really shine through, although as drummer H. Wizzard is the new guy in town, maybe he didn't feel confident enough to exert himself in the studio just yet and possibly that will change with time as he settles into the band.

All in all a very competent and enjoyable slab of traditional doom metal that I will be quite happy to return to often.

I have been a big fan of Monolord since 2015's Vaenir, which is still the summit of the band's output for me, but their previous album No Comfort, despite still being a decent album, felt a little lacking to me and, ironically, a little too comfortable. Your Time to Shine however, sees the band getting somewhat back on track for their debut Relapse Records release, albeit still falling a bit short when compared to Vaenir.

YTtS has big doomy riffs and the band's now familiar washed-out vocal style mixed with the occasional psychedelic part that is pretty much par for the course in quite a lot of modern traditional doom metal. The songwriting is great and the album pacing is superb as it builds from the opening track The Weary, it gains in momentum like a tidal wave so that by the time we get to the title track we are washed away by it's melancholy power. This is also an album of contrasting themes and atmospheres, from light and airy psychedelic moments to heart-crushingly melancholic doom riffs which reaches it's culmination on the epic closer, The Siren of Yersinia.

So with Your Time to Shine Monolord have developed their sound a little further, without abandoning what makes for great traditional doom and in so doing have got themselves back on track after a somewhat lacklustre previous effort.

To be honest upon first listen I wasn't especially impressed with Skullreader. However, each time I've returned to it it has dug its claws deeper into me and now I think it has finally "clicked". To be sure it isn't an "immediate" listen and it certainly doesn't grab you like Zhaaral's Darkspace bandmate, Wintherr's Paysage d'Hiver work does (and in truth it isn't really on the same level as Paysage d'Hiver, but then again, not a lot is).

Anyway, back to the release on hand and what Zhaaral has served up is a hybrid of melodic and atmospheric black metal with some occasional and brief post-metal passages. There is a fair predominance of keyboards present, but they aren't at all overbearing or cloying and are very tastefully incorporated into the overall sound. I have seen the album compared to Blut Aus Nord and that is a fitting comparison I feel, especially when compared to the Memoria Vetusta series (although, again, it isn't on the same level of accomplishment). The layers of guitar and synth build an all-enveloping ambience that does allow for some nice mental pictures to flow. Lord of Mind, for example, with its slower pacing feels like a journey through a huge abandoned alien city and the remainder of the album conjuring images of cosmic magnificence.

I initialy disliked the fact that the vocals are buried in the mix, but have actually grown to enjoy that aspect, as the fact that you have to strain a little to hear them properly makes it feel like a voice is reaching out between dimensions or across the veil between life and death to impart some profound insight. However, this is not merely an album built on atmosphere, it also has some quite cool riffs. "Fire and Thirst", for example, which also has some nice Middle-Eastern influenced guitar work and "Vanitas" with its imperious main riff.

Overall a very good album, albeit one that takes a bit to get into, but one that is worth persevering with. May not ultimately stack up against his more celebrated colleague's back catalogue, or his original band's output, but I would have welcomed hearing further releases from this project to see where they may have led. As it stands however, Sun of the Blind is a one-shot deal so presumably Zharaal has scratched whatever creative itch he may have been feeling within Darkspace, for now at least.

Metal Inquisition is one of the most egregious cash-in records ever released into the metalverse. The album was written by and all the instruments (including programmed drums) were played by Leslie Howe who was one half of synthpop duo One 2 One and was put out by Canadian label Cobra, purely with the intention of exploiting the explosion in metal's popularity of the early 80s and making some quick cash. The vocals were handled by the cover's cartoonish, masked maniac Mr. Piledriver (Gordon Kirchin). Now I know the late seventies and early eighties were the heyday of things like exploitation cinema, but this is taking that ethos a step too far for me (and I was ever the biggest fan of that style of movie-making anyway).

This type of blatant cash-grab is complete anathema to me and is reason enough for me to take against it by itself, but the lyrics of this album have got to be some of the most crass garbage it has ever been my misfortune to hear. And no, I don't need to lighten up as this goes beyond mere cheese (where would metal be without it) into the realm of infantile and, frankly, insulting to the intelligence of metalheads everywhere. The only reason I haven't furnished this with a very rare half-star rating is because Howe actually can play a pretty mean guitar and the sound is excellent. But aside from that I resent everything else about this album, even feeling a little conflicted about reviewing it and focussing even the slightest bit of attention on it. Shameful and embarrasing.

The only band whose first six albums I have listened to more than Iron Maiden is Black Sabbath and then only just, so that probably tells you exactly how much I enjoy this album already. Although Maiden had dabbled in the epic previously, Number of the Beast's "Hallowed Be Thy Name" for example, this is the album where Maiden became E.P.I.C.

Kicking off with the tribute to the few in number but ridiculously brave RAF pilots of The Battle of Britain, Aces High, Powerslave shifts immediately into top gear and fair hurtles along, the track's pace encapsulating the velocity and dynamism of the dogfighting Spitfires in their dance of death with the Luftwaffe aces as they join in battle above England's south coast. Following this with the album's first big single release, 2 Minutes to Midnight, Maiden are truly revealed as a heavy metal band operating at the height of their powers, from the scintillating twin leads of Smith and Murray to the soaring vocals of the "Air Raid Siren" sounding better than he ever did either before or since. Following the galloping instrumental Losfer Words (Big 'Orra) come a couple of my favourite less-lauded Maiden tracks, Flash of the Blade and The Duellists, both of which are terrific, but Flash of the Blade especially is an awesome slice of hi-octane heavy metal. Back in the Village is another speed-driven number which is very much in the vein of the opener Aces High and in truth tends to get a bit ovelooked due to it's proximity to the album's towering epics.

And so to the main event: Powerslave and the thirteen-minute Rime of the Ancient Mariner pretty much defined epic heavy metal in the early eighties and perfectly illustrate just how supremely confident Maiden had become at this point. Powerslave's tale of a death bed Egyptian pharoah finally having to face his own mortality is as suitably bombastic and towering as the subject matter would dictate. Fittingly for a track about an all-powerful monarch, Powerslave sound absolutely imperious. The main riff has a glorious Middle Eastern vibe and Steve Harris' bass sounds better than ever before, particularly during the solos of the second half of the track. Now this would be epic enough for most metal bands at this point in the genre's development but Maiden then up the ante even higher. Rime of the Ancient Mariner takes heavy metal and marries it with prog rock sensibilities in a way pretty much unheard of in 1984. Harris and co at this point were riding on such a wave I think they believed that now was the time to do exactly what they really wanted to do as they had accumulated enough kudos to take the fans along with them and a thirteen minute progressive track based on classical literature, although on paper a tough sell (we were only half a decade on from the punks burning prog rock to the ground remember) launched them even further into the stratospere. What can you really say about Rime of the Ancient Mariner? This is an incredible track and one of metal's great narrative experiences. If you want to point at one particular song and say when were Maiden at their peak then this track would be my answer and it may even be the single most awesome heavy metal track ever committed to wax.

I have a fair number of albums that I have rated as five-star releases, but this is mainly based on my enjoyment of them rather than the fact I consider them perfect. Powerslave is one of only a fistful of albums I would give that accolade to (Paranoid, Reign in Blood and Watching FromA Distance being the others). Despite this it still isn't my favourite Maiden album as I have a deeper and more personal connection to the Paul Di'Anno-fronted Killers, but that's just me and Powerslave deserves all the plaudits it has ever received several times over.

Upon my return to metaldom in the late 90s / early 2000s, I thought a safe bet would be one of my old favourites, Iron Maiden, so I purchased their (then) new album Brave New World from my local recorded music emporium. The last "Irons" album I had listened to at this time was Seventh Son, a decent album but one I have always believed is a little overrated, that however is a story for another day. Like someone who's been in a coma for a decade and wakes up expecting everything and everybody to be the same as before, I was extremely disappointed with Brave New World. This was no Powerslave, this was no Piece of Mind or Number of the Beast so what the fuck went wrong with Iron Maiden I asked myself as I threw the CD to the back of the cupboard and acted like it never existed.

Anyway, after 20+ years and the release of possibly Maiden's final album Senjutsu, I decided to revisit this much-maligned (by me) album. I have more perspective on Brave New World now that I am aware of how disastrous the Blaze years were for Maiden and, indeed, how below-par Bruce's previously final album Fear of the Dark was. So with fresh ears and a greater appreciation of where Maiden were as a band at the time (or more accurately where they had been) I have given Brave New World a reappraisal.

Firstly the facts: Bruce's replacement, Blaze Bayley, was out and Bruce was back in. Adrian Smith also returned to the line-up for the first time since 1988's Seventh Son, but Janick Gers (who's addition is the one decent thing to come out of the Blaze era) stayed on making Maiden a triple guitar, six-headed beast of a band. 

Well, in truth I really must have been in a foul mood when I first listened to this because I can't now for the life of me see why I was so pissed off with it at the time. It's not perfect for sure and there are a couple of tracks that I find a bit irritating, Blood Brothers especially has a terrible chorus and if it and The Fallen Angel had been exorcised to produce a more concise runtime I think the album would have been all the better for it. But there is some great stuff here too. Wicker Man is a decent opener and I love the longer tracks, Dream of Mirrors, The Nomad and Ghost of the Navigator, all of which are suitably epic in execution. There's some good 'bangers too - Brave New World, Out of the Silent Planet and the title track to name but three. All in all I would now have to renounce my former idiocy and revise my opinion to a considered and conditional thumbs up for Brave New World. It is a worthy successor to Maiden's eighties' output, whilst not quite achieving the same level of metal heaven due to the lack of any earth-shatteringly killer tracks like Hallowed Be Thy Name, The Trooper or Rime of the Ancient Mariner. But it most certainly is not the abject failure I originally had it pegged for.

Hour of 13 are the brainchild of North Carolina's multi-instrumentalist Chad Davis and have had a turbulent history with almost constant line-up changes that have inviolved them going from a duo to a quartet and back again. Erstwhile vocalist, veteran of many doom outfits, Phil Swanson has been in and out of the band, but like clockwork, has always been present when the previous three albums have been cut. Black Magick Rites was released for only 24 hours on the band's website back on 1st November 2020 and was then taken down. It has now been re-released by Shadow Kingdom Records in physical format.

Black Magick Rites is basically a Chad Davis solo album released under the Hour of 13 name and is the first to feature Davis himself on vocals, Swanson not being in the picture for whatever reason this time around. Unfortunately for Chad this is the most glaring difference between the latest and the previous trio of albums. Davis is not a terrible vocalist, I have heard far worse in doom circles, but he is no Phil Swanson either. Swanson has a very distinctive voice that is perfectly pitched for traditional doom metal and has a lot of recorded doom under his belt, whereas Davis' vocals sound a little washed out and are not at all remarkable. Some vocalists can raise the quality of a release by the strength of their performance alone (think Mercy with and without Messiah Marcolin) and Swanson is one of those, sadly Davis isn't. 

Musically, if you are familiar with Hour of 13's previous releases then there won't be any great surprises here for you. Davis writes convincing, Sabbathian riffs and (ofttimes hokey) lyrics of the occult with decent skill and is obviously well-steeped in traditional doom metal and understands what it's adherents look for in the genre. But I just can't help but ponder what might have been if Davis and Swanson could have resolved whatever differences lay between them for this release and I keep coming to the conclusion that we would have been listening to a better album as a result.

Since previous release, Gloomlord, the Floridian death doom duo have expanded into a trio by adding guitarist Nihilistic Manifesto to the lineup and beefing up their already impressively heavy ranks. For the recording of Foreverglade, they also brought in session drummer L. Dusk. Both new additions have had a positive effect on the band, the rhythm section feels more solid and has a greater depth to their foundations with L. Dusk's addition and NM certainly makes his presence known, especially with some atypical death doom soloing (check out the solo on Subaqueous Funeral) and a bit more of a gothic feel to the guitar sound.

The production sounds much better on this compared to Gloomlord too and I think the album benefits from a clearer sound without losing any of the filthiness that we have come to expect from the band. The riffs are super-downtuned, throbbing death doom chugs in the main that any fan of old-school death doom acts like Autopsy should be right at home with and the vocals have a bit of variety, utilising not only the usual deep growls derived from death metal, but also black metal shrieks which harks back to the band's earliest days when mainman Fantomslaughter ran the band as a black metal solo project.

The band have also developed their songwriting somewhat, with the centrepiece track being the eleven-minute epic Cloaked in Nightwinds which has several tonal shifts during it's runtime for a bit more of a progressive feel (it is still insanely heavy though) and Empire of the Necromancers strays into melodic black metal territory more than once and has a more airy atmosphere to it than the previous tracks, allowing a ray of light into this filth-strewn, foetid swamp. Closer, Centuries of Ooze, somehow combines ultra-heavy death doom with what sounds at times suspiciously like Wall of Voodoo's Mexican Radio for a strange but incredibly effective atmosphere.

So, on the evidence of this, Worm seem to have come on leaps and bounds in the twenty months since Gloomlord's release and if they continue to develop at this rate we will have a serious contender on our hands before long.

There are some very accomplished solo black metal artists out there currently, with projects like Paysage d'Hiver, Panopticon and Saor putting out album after album of superb atmospheric black metal. Another who deserves to be in the conversation is Jacob Buczarski, aka Mare Cognitum, who also has a very strong discography including last year's Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine, a really well received collaboration with Greek black metaller Spectral Lore. Anyway, a year on from that critical success and Mare Cognitum has released his latest solo effort, Solar Paroxysm.

Mare Cognitum's MO is atmospheric black metal with a cosmic theme, although his music tends not to be overtly cosmic in an atmospheric sense. Rather, his take on the genre involves quite aggressive atmo-black which he suffuses with some very accomplished melodies that act as a counterpoint to the blasting and so makes for a nicely layered and balanced style. Atmospherically, Solar Paroxysm feels more negative sounding than usual with plenty of heavy riffing, blastbeats and vocal savagery with very little by way of cosmic aesthetics, although he does maintain his knack for gorgeous melodies.

The album's theme relates to stellar mortality and cosmic death, it's lyrical content proclaiming the dying of stars and, in particular on Terra Requiem, the passing of the Earth and all life within. This track is probably the most evocative on the album with a dirge-like quality that intones what must inevitably come to pass. I wonder if the album's death obsession and overall negative vibe is Jacob Buczarski's personal reaction to the pandemic which he's managed to channel, via his musical alter-ego, into a cathartic primal scream. Either way it's a fine piece of work and I enjoyed it's darker tone as befits the times we are living through.

Witchrot are a four-piece stoner doom band from Toronto. They released a four-track, self-titled ep back in 2018 then underwent a bit of an upheavel, bassist Peter Turik moved to guitar and he and vocalist Lea Alyssandra Reto were joined by new bassist Cam Alford and drummer Nick Kervin. This lineup are responsible for the band's first full-length, Hollow. The album is a much more focussed affair than the psychedelia-laced ep and is much better for it in my opinion, the former sounding at times more like an extended jam session.

The album kicks of with my favourite track, Million Shattered Swords - the gentle intro with Lea crooning softly soon erupts into a mighty doom riff and we are off on a crushing journey of psychedelic heaviness as the band maximise both volume and distortion to debillitating effect, the vocals soaring majestically over all this sonic devastation. They take the (increasing jaded-sounding) female-fronted stoner doom template and feed it steroids, bringing in some real sludgy heaviness to add to the groove-laden stoner riffage. Lea Alyssandra Reto's vocals are especially powerful, reminding quite a bit of one of my favourite female vocalists, Mia Zapata of punk band The Gits. The engine room of the rhythm section is strong, especially the bass which often has a driving, kinetic quality. The drums, sadly, could be a little better produced, they sound a bit muted and muddy to me and often struggle to make an impression. Still, this is a pretty impressive debut effort from a band who are trying to put a bit more oomph into the stoner doom scene and to which end they have been quite successful.

Well, it's taken 28 years for me to finally get round to Earth's legendary debut. The reason for this tardiness on my part is that my introduction to the band was via 2008's The Bees Made Honey in the Lion's Skull, an album which I found so extremely boring and tedious that the very name Earth became anathema to me. So here we are in 2021 and buried within September's Fallen playlist was the opening track of Earth 2, Seven Angels, which when I heard it for the first time made me realise that I had made a terrible misjudgement of the band, a mistake which I would have to rectify in very short order.

Earth 2 is an album that is virtually impossible to review without resort to metaphor and hyperbole. As these are my preferred modes of expression usually, I don't intend to depart from this norm. This is an album that is as much a tactile experience as an auditory one. I imagine the absolute best way to experience it is through a huge Marshall stack at bowel-voiding volume. I can't escape the feeling that there is more going on than you can actually hear, in the same way as the majority of what's happening in the universe is undetectable to the human eye: gamma radiation, x-rays, infra-red light and dark matter all being invisible to us humans, I suspect that there are sonic waves produced by this that are too low a frequency to be heard and instead are felt, just like when the hairs on the back of your neck inexplicably stand up due to some undetected and unsuspected stimulus. It's almost like the album is a black hole's event horizon that once breached, inescapably draws you further into itself, crushing with unimaginably immense gravitational force for the heaviest experience in the universe.

It is ironic that a band called Earth produce music that, better than anything else I have heard, replicates how I imagine the majority of the cosmos would sound if it wasn't in vacuum. Within it's grooves I hear the death of stars and the demolition of galaxies, for what I can only describe as a transcendental and meditative experience. I'm not sure that any other album has ever launched my imagination onto a more vivid journey than Earth 2. I am fortunate that I live on a north-west facing hillside and get to see some fantastic sunsets. I am already anticipating sitting in a garden chair playing Like Gold and Faceted as the sun begins it's descent below the horizon, and letting the track become the soundtrack to the dying of the day.

Drone metal is absolutely not for everyone and neither is Earth 2. This is atmospheric music that truly is as much sensation as sound. It is very simple and repetitive, but is particularly affecting to those who "get it". Are there any riffs? Not really - well there are, but they are so slowly realised that they appear only as single chords sustained and built upon to amass into nothing less than a natural force. I'm sure there are plenty of people, including fans of doom metal, who find drone in general and Earth2 in particular boring, but for me this album is one of the most profound musical experiences I have ever had. I'm just cursing myself that it took me so long to submit to it's gravity, but I suppose it's better late than never.

In the ninth circle of doom metal hell, where no light penetrates, only the most desperate and forsaken of doom metal releases reside. If you were to venture there, like some latterday Dante Alighieri, then you would find within it the likes of Burning Witch's Crippled Lucifer and Hell's III. These abyssal depths now have a new resident and that is Body Void's Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth.

This is an album of doom metal at it's absolute bleakest, shriven of any hope or even a ray of positivity. The riffs are tortuously slow, heart-bursting chords piled one upon another into a soul-crushing mountain of volume and feedback that makes every breath an effort and renders all other external stimuli mute, scattered sparingly with outbreaks of higher tempo violence. Willow's vocals have the tortured soul quality of only the most desperate-sounding doom metal vocalists with lyrics that berate the world's politicians for their self-serving betrayal of the remainder of mankind. Whether or not you subscribe to a similar view, this admonishment certainly feels heartfelt and Willow's frustration with the status quo is palpable. Edward Holgerson commits acts of intense battery upon his drum kit, sounding occasionally like he may be attacking it with actual severed human limbs and additional chaos is provided by Entresol who's electronics add another layer of noise to the already powerfully alienating nature of this sonic tsunami.

Bury Me Beneath This Rotting Earth seems to be very heavily influenced by Stephen O'Malley's previously mentioned Burning Witch project and if you are familiar with Crippled Lucifer then you will have a good idea what to expect here. This is true doom metal for the serial cynic and disillusioned soul who sees no reason to hope or believe and if this is you, then you are in for a treat.

Even prior to the release of So Long Suckers, Reverend Bizarre had announced their intention to split, so it seems that they decided to go out with an album that could be viewed as the last word in traditional doom metal. Everything about the album is exaggerated and drawn out to a point (or more accurately beyond a point) at the edge of comfort. Intro riffs are played over and over way beyond where you would expect the vocals to kick in (They Used Dark Forces), chords are held for an interminable amount of time (Sorrow) and there are passages of bass-led noodling that act as more of a buffer than an intro or outro that seem at odds with the track they are attached to (Anywhere Out of This World). Then of course there is the extended track lengths. For trad doom some of these tracks are historically long, three of the seven tracks are over 25 minutes long and the album as a whole weighs in at a hefty 130 minutes.

And you know what, I love every minute of it. Reverend Bizarre are one of my absolute favourite traditional doom acts and, for me, very few can hold a candle to the Finnish trio. So Long Suckers isn't a perfect album by any means, look to the debut In the Rectory of the Bizarre Reverend for that level of doom metal nirvana, but it is a great example of an album pushing a genre to the absolute limits of extremity whilst remaining wholly within it's confines, so no harsh vocals, blastbeats or synths are to be found within this two hours plus of no frills, fuck-you-if -you-don't-like-it doom metal.

The riffs are memorable and gargantuan, courtesy of Lord Peter Vicar (Kimi Kärki), subsequent founder of the excellent Lord Vicar and the drumming of Earl of Void (Jari Pohjonen) is on point and, despite the extended repetition of the tracks, he does plenty to keep it interesting. For me though, despite his vocal shortcomings, the bass playing of Albert Witchfinder is fantastic and the instrument's presence is stamped all over So Long Suckers in a way that is reminiscent of how Lemmy's bass would often dominate Motörhead's sound (and even more so, Hawkwind's), adding a real depth and heft to the material that takes it to a different level of doom-laden substance.

This really isn't an album for the doom metal newbie and deliberately so I guess. Reverend Bizarre have wilfully gone about testing the limits of Traditional Doom and the mettle of it's adherents with their swansong, in an attempt to go out with the last word in the genre. To this end, I would suggest, they have been singularly successful and have produced an album that may alienate some but will heavily reward those willing to go along with it.

Aussie funeral doom merchants The Slow Death have finally returned with their first album in six years. To my ears this is an improvement on 2015's Ark, it's four heaving slabs of funereal death doom being just what the doctor ordered (well he didn't, but he damn well should have!) Weighing in at over an hour this is no album for the impatient metal fan, but being funeral doom you knew that already, right? It's an hour of massive riffs, clean female and gravel-throated growling male vocals heaved along by a great, solid rhythm section with well-placed keyboards and piano to add layers to the atmosphere and is one of the better doom releases this year. It's not always super-slow, but it IS always heavy as hell, so give it a listen if deathly funeral doom is something you're even remotely interested in.

Skepticism's fifth album has been some time in the making - it has been thirteen years since the release of Alloy and there has been a lot of water under the bridge in the metal world since then (and also in the real world for that matter). It seems that Skepticism too have been changed by the past decade or so as Companion is a more multi-faceted release than we have come to expect from most funeral doom acts in general and Skepticism specifically. There is quite a variation in pacing, from the lethargic and seismic slowness of true funeral doom, through quicker, but still fairly slow death doom, to the medium-paced almost-death metal of Passage. It doesn't sound like much to the uninitiated, but it's a spectrum shift for a band whose previous work has focussed very much on glacial pacing. Each of the album's six tracks has a unique atmosphere and character like never before heard on a Skepticism album.

The keyboards and especially organ, in typical Skepticism fashion, play a key role in generating the album's atmosphere. It's there, full-on in your face straight out of the gate with opener Calla where it weaves an atmosphere that I would weirdly have to compare to a Saor track in it's sweepingly panoramic scope. The track sounds initially like it should accompany open-skied vistas of the Old West or the Caledonian Highlands - how un-funeral doom can you get? This is a great intro to the album however and gives a nice taster of the band's current direction. Second track, The Intertwined, has a gothic death doom feel to it that is quite reminiscent of classic era My Dying Bride and although I sometimes have my issues with gothic elements they aren't laid on with a trowel here and are subtlely enough applied to enhance the track rather than detract from it. The album's longest track, the ten minutes of The March of the Four, is probably the nearest to a traditional Skepticism track, but even this is delivered with a bit more "bite" than we have come to expect. The organ on this one, particularly during the intro, really does sound as if it was recorded as the mourners file into an actual funeral.

At the mid-point of the album Skepticism change up a gear to a previously unimagined tempo with Passage, a track that feels like it wants to explode into full-on death doom territory in the style of Winter or Autopsy. It also contains a breakdown with a swirling organ sound that feels like it should be the soundtrack to a descent into a psychotic episode from an Alfred Hitchcock movie like Vertigo. The Inevitable, like The March of the Four is more akin to previous Skepticism work and is, for me, the least remarkable track here. The Swan and the Raven however, begins in menacing fashion with a string intro that says "something evil this way comes" and once more has a kind of cimematic feel to it, which seems to be a recurring theme. This closer may actually be my favourite track - it is definitely the one where the guitar work shines through best and the synths feel alternately menacing and expansive.

Overall this is a terrific album that cements Skepticism's reputation as one of the premier funeral doom outfits who have decided to strike out in a new direction, not with a quantum leap but with an incremental change that shouldn't alienate their fan base.

Vouna is the funeral doom alter-ego of Yianna Bekris, guitarist of atmospheric black metallers Eigenlicht. Atropos is the follow-up to her 2018 self-titled debut and is a much more substantial affair with it's four tracks (and short interlude) clocking in at almost an hour. The debut, whilst showing promise, felt underdeveloped for a funeral doom release. I feel funeral doom is a genre that needs to be luxuriated in, where the music allows the listener to be overwhelmed and smothered and duration does play a part in that experience, so the debut's half an hour featuring five tracks, whilst presenting some nice ideas, didn't allow them the development they deserved.

However, Atropos is by no means your stereotypical funeral doom release, it's generally a little bit pacier than normally expected and Vouna does a nice job of incorporating several different elements into the mixture. It's apparent from early on that she has a background in atmospheric black metal as it's influence features prominently at various points, particularly during the fifteen minutes of the album's best track Vanish where she even at one point resorts to a harsh black metal vocal and once more illustrates my view that there is much common ground between funeral doom and atmospheric black metal. The connection to atmospheric black metal is further strengthened by the addition of guest vocals by Wolves in the Throne Room's Nathan Weaver.

There is an emphasis on synths and piano within the album's doom context along with guest contributions on violin and harp that add layering to the tracks and introduces a pronounced darkwave influence, as if Vouna has taken the doom aspect of Chelsea Wolfe's Hiss Spun album to it's logical conclusion. By weaving in elements of atmospheric black metal, darkwave, dark ambient and gothic metal she has produced an album that feels mournful and yet warm, as if the artist provides solace to the listener through the shared experience of the music, the ethereal and soaring vocals in particular lending a calmness to the recording, despite it's melancholy nature, as if to say "we are all one and everything will be OK in the end". I say this despite even a cursory glance at the lyrics revealing a deeply sorrowful and painful undercurrent to the album. "Existence is anguish, Suffering and torment, How will I go on with the pain of what now is" from What Once Was doesn't exactly convey a hopeful message, but I still feel a sense of comfort is to be gleaned from the music itself and that ultimately there is a ray of light shining into proceedings, even if that is only provided by the release of death itself.

No matter what, I will always have time for monolithic and unrelentingly bleak funeral doom, but the variation in Atropos' tracks and the incorporation of other genres, in much the same way as Skepticism's new album Companion, seem to be helping to take funeral doom in a new and less predictable direction.

So, a new Iron Maiden album. Every new Maiden album now feels as though it may be the last so is met with a certain sadness as well as anticipation (unless you are one of those cynics who believe Maiden haven't produced anything of worth since the 1980s). Now at this stage it's unrealistic to expect another Killers, Powerslave, Number of the Beast or Seventh Son (depending on whichever Maiden's classic is your personal favourite) so it's important to keep an open mind and not just shit on it because it isn't one of those. It's equally important too however, to not get all dewey-eyed and laud it as the next coming just because it's a Steve Harris & co production. So attempting to keep perspective as a massive fan of the band since that marvellous debut way back in 1980 here's some thoughts on Senjutsu:

Well, the opening title track is just about one of the flattest openers Maiden have come up with to my ears - Aces High or Prowler this ain't, in fact it's not even Different World. The production is horrible and the track as a whole is uninspiringly bland. Oh dear, not a good start at all. Second track Stratego, however is a much more inspired affair with a bit more of a spark and therein lies the problem for me with Senjutsu - the songs just feel so inconsistent. Just as you think it's coming together and the band are getting into their stride, such as during The Writing on the Wall, they follow it with another flat-sounding track, in this case Lost in a Lost World. Don't misunderstand, Senjutsu isn't awful by any stretch and is probably better than an album by a hugely successful band who are into their fifth decade has any right to be, but as there is the very real possibility that this may be the last Maiden release I so badly wanted them to ignite that spark that I remember with such fondness. In truth, the songs may have had to be tailored to suit Bruce's declining vocal powers, although the band have handled that aspect admirably and Bruce has still come out with his reputation intact. That said, a massive plus and one aspect I really did enjoy was the soloing which was both vibrant and exhilharating and much praise must go to the guitarists, but especially Janick Gers whose contribution is outstanding and goes a long way to raising the kudos of the album.

A large number of fans seem to be shitting on the Steve Harris-penned epics of disc two, but for me it is a couple of these that truly save the album from relative mediocrity (we are STILL talking Iron Maiden here after all). I have always been a huge fan of Maiden's epics from Hallowed Be Thy Name and Rime of the Ancient Mariner to Alexander the Great and Paschendale and Death of the Celts and especially The Parchment lend Senjutsu that defining sense of true epicness that manages to raise the whole album above the so-so and make it a worthwhile listen. I purchased the really nice digibook double disc version but, in all honesty, it is probably only disc two and it's four epic tracks that will get much airtime in my house.

If this sounds like a bit of a schizophrenic review, it is because if it was a terrible album or if I didn't care about the band it would be easy to hold a strong view on it, but it is far from terrible, although equally it is no classic, so consequently my opinion is a bit ambivalent. There are aspects of it that I really enjoyed and there were also parts that I felt were a little lacking and I apologise for not being able to sound more damning or enthusiastic (delete as you prefer) but I really can't be any more partisan with my review than this - it's a credible release that, despite the odd stumble, plays to it's strengths and if you accept it for no more than that then you'll get along with it fine.

Old Forest have been increasingly suffusing their black metal with doom for a more melodic and, to me at least, a more satisfying result since 2016's Dagian album. Mournfall is their best album to date and their most fruitful attempt yet at alloying doom and black metal into a coherent whole. Black metal is still the more dominant partner, but alongside the shrieks and blastbeats, their doom riffs are convincing and carry enough weight to satisfy even the most hesitant doomhead. The increased use of clean vocals and simple, but effective, keyboards has added further layers to the imperious, doom-ridden atmosphere they are able to create - check out Despair is my Name for a superb example of what I'm getting at.

This is becoming a good period for fans of blackened doom metal and Old Forest are one of an increasing number of reasons why.

Fuck grindcore, deathgrind and brutal death metal. Playing with dismembered body parts and brutalising women, what the fuck's that all about?! No, when real men want to get extreme, then they go to WAR!!

But seriously folks, I don't generally care for super-extreme death metal. Apart from the music not greatly appealing to me, I sometimes find the whole aesthetic around extreme death metal and grind problematic. Of course, I completely understand that it's depictions of gore and sexualised violence are not to be taken seriously but they just don't appeal to me at all. War Metal, however, is just so fucking insane it's impossible (for me) not to get sucked into it's madness. Being derived from Black Metal rather than Death metal (although it certainly has Death Metal influences) makes it more palatable to me as well, as I am much more inclined to BM than it's deathly cousin. I also find the predominantly black, white and red aesthetic of the hand-drawn artwork much more appealing than the graphic nature of a lot of the more gory death metal covers. Naturally, as with any extreme genre, it isn't for everyone (or even most people) but there is something about the cacophonous nature of war metal that I really love.

Now I'm not trying to come across like some trve kvltist - I am mostly only familiar with the more established War Metal acts like Blasphemy, Beherit, Archgoat and more recently Crurifragium and Antichrist Siege Machine, but I had really enjoyed Bestial Warlust's debut, Vengeance War 'Till Death when I heard it a few years back. However, it is only now, more than twenty-five years after it's release, that I have got round to the Aussie warmongers' follow-up, Blood & Valour which has acquired the distinction of being my first five-star-rated War Metal album.

The Spanish film Intacto (great movie) has an opening scene where several people are running full pelt through a forest blindfolded. When I first heard Blood & Valour I had a sensation akin to how I think those people must have been feeling, of hurtling headlong at breakneck speed just waiting to be smacked in the face by a fucking huge piece of wood! Indeed on the first couple of listens it does sound a bit like uncontrolled chaos, but when you start to really listen to it properly then BW are revealed to be a really tight outfit and this is one hell of an accomplished album of sonic brutality. There are some fantastic, exhilarating riffs that remain defined and varied and are not just bludgeoning rehashes of the same idea over and over. The vocals are suitable demonic with shrieks and growls that come from the charnel pits of hell, but the drumming of Marcus Hellcunt (not his real surname I think) are what keep drawing me back, his assault and battery as blastbeat follows blastbeat is a thing of wonder to behold.

This is one of the most savage and visceral of black metal releases, at times it sounds like someone took a vinyl copy of Reign in Blood and played it at 45 rpm, complete with Jeff Hannemann-like squealing guitar solos, with songs slashing by like flailing sabre cuts. Possibly one of the most enervating albums it has ever been my good fortune to hear. If you love extreme black metal then you really need to listen to Blood & Valour.

Monolithe's sound has progressed over the years from their early 2000's monolithic (pun intended) funeral doom, through a more death doom-orientated middle period to their current progressive doom phase. As time has passed it has found the Frenchmen becoming more adventurous and slowly developing their sound which has inadvertently (or maybe not) made them relatively more accessible.

Anyway to this month's feature which is most definitely in the "early funeral doom" phase of the band's evolutionary journey. Monolithe II takes the form of a single fifty-minute track, in common with each of the band's first four albums and, the funeral doom newcomer be warned, it relies heavily upon repetition, particular of the opening theme, for the layering and build-up of it's pervading atmosphere. If you are an impatient type of metal head then you are probably best leaving it at that and going back to something more likely to get your blood pumping because this is not an adrenaline rush of an album. Rather, this is a carefully constructed release that cradles and envelops the listener in a sonic womb of slow, thick riffs run through with veins of atmospheric instrumentation that utilises keyboards, gorgeous guitar refrains and even, in a nod to their homeland's folk music, an accordion (provided by guest Manuel Mechling) which, surprisingly, sounds fantastic and fits in perfectly with the vibe the band are attempting to convey. Meanwhile, whilst the music cocoons the unwary listener, vocalist Richard Loudin croons into the ear with his deathly growl like some Babylonian god of dreams, one moment comforting, the next discomfitting. This really is the kind of album that you have to let wash over you and consume you, allowing it to enter into both your conscious and subconscious mind and the most rewarding listens are when you are able to give yourself up to it completely, let go and see where it takes you. For me this is genuinely relaxing and soul-cleansing music, in the same way as with certain ambient pieces, this is the kind of album who's atmosphere takes you out of the everyday and transports you to a less mundane place, opening up the imagination as it does so.

However, it must be said that there is very little variation in pacing throughout the entire runtime, nor is this the glacial crawl of real extreme funeral doom, sitting comfortably in a medium-paced range. Neither does it convey a cloying atmosphere of melancholy that is typical of the genre, often feeling quite uplifting, so again this may annoy some funeral doom purists for not being sufficiently funereal. Yet it does posses a few moments where the tone changes and becomes more discordant and when this does happen it can sound quite menacing. Overall I would say this is a beautifully put together album of extreme doom metal that rewards the listener the more they are prepared to invest into it. An immediate release this isn't and I can understand why some wouldn't care fot it, but as far as I am concerned this is doom metal heaven.

Khandra are a Belarussian black metal four-piece who are now releasing their debut full-length on Season of Mist after a couple of well-received eps and, I've got to say, it's a decent slab of orthodox black metal mayhem. There's some variety to the pacing with some decent riffs and some slower sections but where it impresses most is when the blastbeats kick in and all unholy fucking hell breaks loose. In fact, not just with the blastbeats but in general, Pavel V's drumming is a powerful weapon and propels the tracks along effectively. Another impressive contribution is Vladimir Borodulin's vocals which have a vicious power to them that isn't always present in black metal vocalists (he was singer with brutal death metal outfit Relics of Humanity for four years, so it's not so surprising). The guitars have a searing edge to them that teases and torments the nerve ends although, in what is my only real gripe, they sometimes end up becoming buried in the mix when things get hectic.

This isn't really an album that is riff-focussed, it feels more atmospheric than that, but when the riffs are presented they are sufficiently effective and fairly memorable, as in my personal favourite In Harvest Against the Sun. There's an energy to All Occupied by Sole Death that makes it hurtle along and a savage atmosphere pervades the whole album that hints at a dark heart at it's centre.

There are a good number of black metal bands of varying quality coming out of Belarus currently and Khandra should really be right up in the vanguard with their aggression, savagery and atmosphere leaving a large number of their compatriots wanting.

Ungfell is a Swiss black metal project comprising multi-instrumentalist Menetekel and drummer Vâlant with occasional guest performers providing additional vocals or strings. Es Grauet is their third full-length and my favourite to date. It's melodic black metal is quite complex as Menetekel piles on the riffs then let's them go and intercedes with some excellent folk-laden passages, such as D Schwarzamslä (Wie us däne Goofe Pfaffä wärdet), that really add some, often quite gorgeous, atmosphere to proceedings. Don't fear, however, if the folkier parts aren't your bag brecause another frantic riff-fest is never too far away.

The album has an overarching narrative about a grisly murder in some old-time rural village (I'm thinking of the type of German village depicted in many 1960's Hammer horror movies) and it's corrosive effect on the inhabitants. Like most native English-speaking black metal fans I guess, I don't understand the lyrics so the concept is largely lost on me, but even so the structure of the album is still obviously conceptual. The band do a great job of selling the concept and are extremely succesful at conjuring up images of a rural backwater that is living under a dark cloud. Atmospherically I think the darkness is almost tangible, even though, weirdly, this is more explicitly felt during the folk-driven passages than during the metal ones. The riffs may possibly be a little too melodic to adequately convey the necessary level of disquiet, but let's be clear, they are great from a purely metal point of view. If you just want to hear some solid black metal riffing then when Ungfell let rip they certainly hit the spot.

I can see (or more accurately, hear) that there are those who may well take against this. It's constant transitions from riffing to gentler folkiness may cause some to baulk. Others may feel that the riffs themselves aren't evil enough and err too much on the melodic side. Me, I could care less, I still think this is a really enjoyable release and one I will definitely return to. I've also got to say, I love that crazy cover. I'm not sure how it relates to the album's tale but it is certainly fun and interesting.

WWI-obsessed Finnish duo Somme follow up last year's eponymous EP with another that very much ploughs the same furrow as it's predecessor. Raw and harsh-sounding black metal designed to flay the skin from unguarded body parts is the staple of this release as it was the former (obvious really as they are on UK label Death Kvlt). That said, my favourite track The August Sun is surprisingly melodic despite retaining that raw edge. Prussian Blood feels more accomplished than Somme and definitely marks an upward trajectory for the duo. I'm not sure how a full-length would be received at this point, their rabid and savage black metal may be better served in smaller chunks so, consequently, the EP format suits them perfectly.

I've got to admit to not being the biggest fan of folk metal, outside of the odd Finntroll or Moonsorrow album. I feel it's too often the black metal world's answer to European power metal and has, correspondingly a far too excessive cheese factor for my personal taste. In a perfect world any pre-existing personal bias shouldn't make any difference and each release would be judged objectively but, sadly, I am not that person and it explains my initial reticence as far as Vredens Tid goes, the upshot of which is that I wasn't especially engaged with it over the span of an initial listen. However, my disposition to Månegarm's fourth full-length improved over the course of subsequent listens and by the third or fourth spins I was genuinely beginning to enjoy aspects of it.

I think the primary reason for that is that the actual black metal side of Månegarm's folk metal equation, despite sitting quite firmly on the melodic side of the scale, is really well done and is pretty visceral. I don't think that the black metal savagery hits hard enough first time around, especially for someone like myself who doesn't listen to a whole lot of folk metal, but following subsequent listens when the folky trappings can be mentally stripped away it is apparent that a true black metal heart beats under the surface. This is most obvious in Erik Grawsiö's vocals as he delivers them with real blood-red aggression.

That said, there were aspects of the folkier side of things that I still struggled with. The album started quite strongly and the first two tracks proper after the intro are probably my favourites (although the eight-minute Hemfärd does come close). The violin work on opener Sigrblot in particular grabbed my attention and is the best iteration of the folk metal vibe on the record. On the downside the female vocals provided by Umer Mossige-Norheim didn't really do it for me and I found them a little bland to be honest, in fact they completely ruined the title track which is, in all other respects, a belter. The tendency for most of the tracks to end up sounding like a jig I also found grating after a while. Another annoying tendency in the small number of folk metal albums I've listened to is the "sound affects" tracks (Moonsorrow can be a little annoying in this respect), Preludium in Vredens Tid's case, which just adds nothing in my opinion and merely pads out the run time.

So a bit of a mixed bag for me, aspects both ridiculous and sublime feature during the album's eleven tracks. On the positive side, as far as folk metal is concerned it is one of the better albums I have heard and although I'm not likely to return to it much, tracks like Sigrblot, Vredens tid and Hemfärd may get an independent spin on Spotify as the mood strikes.

I enjoy the sound and melody of Middle Eastern music but when heard in the context of metal it takes on a whole different level of intrigue, sounding darker and more exotic, at least to this jaded westerner's ears anyway. Crescent are an Egyptian band who take the history and folklore of their much historied homeland and present it through a blackened death metal prism. The result is a fairly brutal-sounding assault that still manages to summon up a nice level of melody and, with it's assimilation of elements of egyptian folk music, brings a nice contrast to the more usual and numerous instances of european folk-influenced black metal. Yes, they are kind of treading a similar path to Nile, but are much rawer than the US tech-death merchants and other than thematically they actually have little in common.

Personally I think Crescent deserve a bit more exposure and are certainly no gimmick, their Middle Eastern-flavoured metal is the real deal and anyone looking for a well-written and produced album of blackened death with a different slant should at least give Carving the Fires of Akhet a listen.

And so it came to pass that, after their Tenth Anniversary World Tour, Black Sabbath and their charismatic frontman John "Ozzy" Osbourne parted ways. Although it was a huge disappointment at the time, in hindsight it was the only real way forward for all parties involved. I had seen Sabbath on that tour and if I was being brutally honest I would have to say that Ozzy was fucked-up big time. He was obviously shit-faced on stage and at times not far from incoherent. To make matters worse the band were supported by an up-and-coming US outfit called Van Halen who had an energy and vitality that the Sabs sadly seemed to have lost. So in a way, it was obvious even then that time was running out for the original lineup.

Anyway, 1980 saw the release of albums from both the revamped Sabbath, who had recruited diminutive ex-Rainbow singer Ronnie James Dio, and Ozzy's new band who were going by the name Blizzard of Ozz. Sabbath dropped their new album, Heaven and Hell, in April to much acclaim from fans and critics alike so the pressure was on for the Oz to produce. Ozzy had also procured the help of an ex-Rainbow alumni in bassist Bob Daisley and veteran Uriah Heep drummer Lee Kerslake completed the solid rhythm section of Ozzy's new crew. However it was in the recruiting of electrifying and hugely talented guitarist Randy Rhoads from Quiet Riot that Ozzy revealed his masterstroke. Rhoads was a classically trained guitarist who's technical ability allowed him to push the limits of what metal guitarists were doing at that time - he is often cited as one of the leading influences of neoclassical metal guitar playing - and his energy seemed to have revitalised Ozzy and given him back his edge.

September of 1980 saw the release of the Blizzard of Ozz album and a new dawn called for the former Sabbath singer. The album featured eight tracks and a short instrumental, ran for almost forty minutes, had a nice variety of pacing and some killer hooks. I Don't Know is a solid opener and is a bit more uptempo than we are used to hearing from the Ozz. Randy Rhoads' more flamboyant style contrasts really well with the solidity of the rhythm section and pushes Ozzy himself to a new level. With the now overfamiliar yell of "All aboard" the band launch into the riff that launched a thousand sporting events and a song that may be even more famous than Paranoid - Crazy Train. It's an energetic celebration of a track that is very difficult to listen to objectively any more due to overexposure, but at first it sounded awesome. Next up is the balladic Goodbye to Romance which really should be a bit too cheesy and overly sentimental for my usual taste but, mainly because of Ozzy's charismatic vocals, I really like it. Dee is a short instrumental piece where RR gets to show off some of his classical training and leads us into one of my album highlights, Suicide Solution, a real belter of an early eighties' metal track and the closer of side one.

The second side begins with Mr. Crowley which both tonally and thematically is the most Sabbath-like track on the album. This is followed by most people's least favourite, No Bone Movies, which is no classic, but doesn't, in my opinion, stick out like a sore thumb as being especially terrible either. Then we come to my favourite part of the album. For me, the last two tracks are where it's at with this album. Revelation is a classic Ozzy track and is the most heartfelt song on the album with a brilliant build and a triumphant ending that leads straight into the sledgehammer riff of Steal Away (the Night) which brings proceedings to a close in thunderous style.

The album isn't perfect, some of the lyrics are a bit painful, but there are some brilliant songs on here, Ozzy sounds rejuvenated and Randy Rhoads' riffing and solos are worth the entry fee alone. I don't know if this is a controversial opinion, but I prefer this to Sabbath's Heaven and Hell album (although it's not quite as good as Mob Rules). Personally I feel this was the last great album Ozzy was involved in - Diary of a Madman is good, but inferior to this and anything after that is forgettable at best, utter shite at worst.

I am a massive fan of Queensrÿche's classic 1988 Operation: Mindcrime album, it is one of my top-rated heavy metal albums, yet inexplicably I have never bothered with any of their other releases. So I am only now getting acquainted with their 1984 debut for the very first time.

The Warning grabbed me from the off with it's strikingly melodic, yet powerfully delivered opening track, following it up with a Maiden-esque gallop through En Force and that opening one-two had me hooked and eager for more. If En Force was heavily derived from Iron Maiden's Steve Harris, bass-fuelled galloping style, then next track Deliverance is just as obviously influenced by Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny. With No Sanctuary Geoff Tate introduces more progressive elements and variations in pacing. It is also at this point that I became aware that the album is presenting a coherent theme, the lyrics all relating to the search for freedom and the attempts by the strong and powerful to deny it, the speedy N M 156 attributing that oppression to the very machines we create to free ourselves from mundane labour.

Take Hold of the Flame seems to be everyone's favourite track (if RYM's track ratings are anything to go by) but personally it's the track I like least, sounding a little too AOR-oriented for my taste and possibly written with radio airplay in mind. Before the Storm is a decent track, but doesn't really grab hold of me like those on side one. Child of Fire once more heavily invokes Judas Priest, at least initially before it heads off in a more restrained and emotional-sounding direction, returning after a nice solo to the Dissident Aggressor-like riff of the earlier section.

And so to closing track, the almost ten-minute Roads to Madness, where Queensrÿche begin to properly explore a more progressive metal direction and in so doing turn in the album's best track. Geoff Tate's vocals on this track are fantastic and sound genuinely filled with emotion. This is the real precursor to where Queensrÿche were heading, I feel and is a great closer for an impressive, if not completely flawless, debut. Despite showing it's influences, Geoff Tate and co stamped more than enough of their own character onto the tracks and displayed enough songwriting chops and technical virtuosity to make The Warning a standout album in the early days of the US power metal movement.

I really loved last year's collaboration between Spectral Lore and Mare Cognitum. Happily both bands have gone on to issue terrific albums in their own right this year. Spectral Lore, though, have gone for a bit of a change in atmosphere and the expansive, cosmic nature of their work on Wanderers: Astrology of the Nine has given way to a much more aggressive set of tracks that don't skimp on the blasting and pummel away on your eardrums with a palpable viciousness which feels more closely related to Castles Conquered and Reclaimed, the album he also released last year as Mystras. This is still essentially an atmospheric black metal release and despite the blasting, frantic tremolo picking and ragged shrieking of more orthodox black metal it has some nice exotic-sounding melodies underneath that may or may not derive from the folk music of Nihilus' native Greece. The album closer, Terean, is a nineteen minute curveball, being an ambient track that acts as a kind of comedown from the intensity of the previous hour's black metal assault, allowing the listener some time to breathe and re-adjust as he or she transitions back from Nihilus' world of densely layered and dark, atmospheric savagery back into the familiar normality of the real world

At 76 minutes it's a bit of a beast, but I never found myself getting bored and remained engaged with the music and the atmosphere it created for it's entire runtime.

Angel Witch were one of the bands, along with Saxon and Girlschool (among others), who were championed by Lemmy and I first became aware of all of them after seeing them live as support acts for Motörhead on tours during '78 and '79. The trio of Heybourne, Riddles and Hogg were my favourites though and had a fantastic energy in a live setting. Their debut also proves that they had the songs too.

The album dropped at the end of 1980 with the NWOBHM in full gear and was the equal of anything the scene had so far delivered, including Iron Maiden's debut or Saxon's Strong Arm of the Law. Heybourne had a tremendous knack for combining killer riffs with anthemic, sing-along choruses to consistently produce some of the most memorable tunes of the early Eighties' UK metal scene. I truly love every track on this record and don't believe there is a weak one among them, but particular praise must go to the epic storytelling of personal favourite White Witch and the monstrous riff of Angel of Death, a riff so good that Manilla Road "borrowed" it for Dreams of Eschaton on Crystal Logic. The title track is as recognisable to any old English metal head as Paranoid, Ace of Spades or The Number of the Beast are.

If there is any bone of contention around the album, then it is probably down to Heybourne's vocals. Kev certainly isn't going to rival Rob Halford or Bruce Dickinson vocally, but I personally think his singing is fine and help define Angel Witch's identity. Lyrically Angel Witch plunder the fantasy occult treasure chest of wizards, witches and mythical beasts for most of their themes, a source which has served metal well over the years and won't give you any life-changing insight, but is damn entertaining as recompense. The rhythm section of Riddles and Hogg provided a solid foundation over which Kevin Heybourne was able to weave his magic of awesome riffs and red-hot solos that were disciplined and focussed, never becoming self-indulgent.

Unfortunately for the band and for us fans trouble was never too far away and inter-band strife meant that the trio had split barely before the record hit the shelves. They seemed to be unable to maintain a stable lineup so by the time the follow-up Screamin' N' Bleedin' came out in 1985 the metal world was in the grip of thrash fever and Angel Witch had lost momentum, becaming an also-ran in the metal world. The 2010's have been a lot kinder and the band have released a couple of decent albums in '12 and '19 so maybe they are now getting a little of the success that this legendary debut should have assured them.

What little I have heard of Manilla Road, which amounts to their 1986 album The Deluge, never really filled me with much of an urge to check them out further. As a consequence Crystal Logic is the first album of theirs that I have spent any meaningful amount of time with. Early on in it became apparent to me why I have failed to engage with MR and that reason is Mark Shelton's vocals. His nasal delivery I found whiny-sounding and, frankly, unbearable. On the odd occasion when he adds a bit of a gruff edge to his singing it sounds a bit like Bon Scott and is much more acceptable, but generally I found it hugely distracting, hitting absolute rock bottom on the title track - and this is from someone who enjoys Cirith Ungol's Tim Baker's vocals!

Vocal misgivings aside though, musically I quite enjoyed Crystal Logic, Shelton's guitar playing being far superior to his singing. His speedy NWOBHM-inspired proto-power metal riffing and soloing are pretty good and even manage to shine through a less than stellar production job. Judging by the track ratings on RYM most listeners seem to enjoy the first couple of tracks after the intro best, Necropolis and the title track, but I feel that the album's best tracks begin after the execrable Feeling Free Again, a song that would be awful even with decent vocals. The Veils of Negative Existence is probably my favourite track, it has a Pentagram-like main riff and it's slower pace means that it could even be classed as trad doom, which is no bad thing in my book. The closing track, the twelve-minute Dreams of Eschaton / Epilogue starts with a rather limp balladic intro but soon explodes into a great main riff that I especially loved the first time I heard it on Angel Witch's Angel of Death back in 1980, the track proper ending with an extended solo that sounds like the concluding solos to Lynyrd Skynyrd's Freebird or Blackfoot's Highway Song.

To be honest, I really can't see why this is held in such high esteem other than for it's historical value. It is a part of metal history for sure, being a stepping stone in the development of US power metal, but that's not enough for me I'm afraid.

I was originally attracted to Cirith Ungol's 1984 release by the random coincidence that the cover art was the same Michael Whelan painting as that of a paperback issue of Michael Moorcock's Elric novel The Bane of the Black Sword, a fantasy series of which I was a huge fan at the time (and must admit, still am to this day). Initially, I confess, I wasn't exactly sold on the Californians' brand of epic heavy metal, but as the years have passed they are a band I have become increasingly fond of, whose new releases I greet with some anticipation and whose earlier discography I have positively re-evaluated.

The reason for my original reticence, I'm sure you have guessed, was Tim Baker's high-pitched vocal delivery. In much the same way as King Diamond, Baker's vocals are a bit divisive. His pitch isn't as falsetto as King's as he does mitigate it by having a rough, rasping edge to his voice which is more obvious the lower he sings, but it is still a style that doesn't hold universal appeal. However, I have now become used to his vocal eccentricities and actually I appreciate the fact that they differentiate the band from the pack.

Anyway, Cirith Ungol play epic heavy metal that has it's roots in classic Sabbath and the NWOBHM. For some reason they are often associated with the traditional doom metal scene and while some of their tracks are kind of slow and the guitars are downtuned, I don't think that association really holds up to close scrutiny as this is most definitely first and foremost heavy metal. King of the Dead is the follow-up to 1981's Frost and Fire, itself only being released after the band had been in existence for a decade, and sounds very much like a band who know what they are about and are happy with their own identity. King of the Dead exudes confidence and a "this is us, fuck you if you don't like it" attitude that I wholeheartedly applaud. Although album opener Atom Smasher isn't the greatest introduction to the album, being one of the weaker tracks, there are some absolute killers on here that any fan of 1980's heavy metal should lap up - Master of the Pit, Cirith Ungol, the speedy Death of the Sun and best of the lot the title track, King of the Dead.

The riffs are titanic and the late Jerry Fogle cranks out some great solos. The rhythm section drives the tracks along and feature quite prominently, particularly Flint's bass which takes a lot of influence from the great Geezer Butler. The production is fine, although I certainly wouldn't call it pristine, it does add a certain character to the album. The only real bummer for me was the misguided inclusion of a metal interpretation of J.S. Bach's Toccata in Dm which sounds incredibly self-indulgent. Luckily they don't close the album on that note, but follow it with the mighty Cirith Ungol, an epic closing track that does the whole album preceding it justice.

Whilst not exactly an underground band, I feel Cirith Ungol don't always get the respect they deserve as part of the 1980's metal scene and King of the Dead should be required listening for anyone purporting to be a real fan of heavy metal.

Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny was the second most important record after Sabbath's Paranoid in my personal journey through the metal universe. After hearing a schoolfriend's copy of Stained Class I went out and bought Sad Wings (we traded taped copies afterwards) and then I absolutely played it to death. My view back then was that a day without Sad Wings was a day without sunshine! Nowadays I prevaricate between those two albums as to which I think is the better, but both are classics and this in particular is chock-full of metal anthems - Victim of Changes, The Ripper, Tyrant and Genocide are all instantly recognised by most metalheads.

Interestingly, the released tracklisting is not what the band originally intended. Somewhere the sides were mixed up for the original release and they have stuck with it ever since, but the album was intended to start with Prelude and end with the Dreamer Deceiver / Deceiver couplet. When listened to in that order, the tracklisting does make more sense and flows better, I think most people would agree.

At this point, SWoD being Priest's second album, the band had not yet been transformed into the metal gods they would later become (that came with the release of 1979's Killing Machine) and they still retained a little of the rock ethic from their debut, although at a reduced level. That isn't meant in any way detrimentally as I think it gave the album a greater variety than an all-out metal assault would have done. That said, the metal is the real draw here, but I think it is at it's best when accentuated by a bit of a build up, such as when Prelude builds it's pomp and circumstance into the release of the killer opening riff of Tyrant or when the balladic Dreamer Deceiver builds during it's own runtime and then bursts out into the riff of Deceiver.The twin guitar attack was fairly unusual at the time and Glenn and KK's fretwork really set Priest apart and was the big revolution in metal music that had enormous influence on future metal heroes from Iron Maiden to Metallica and Slayer. Of course there was also Rob Halford's incredible vocal range which few have ever been able to match and was the other defining element of Priest's sound which set them apart from and above their peers.

Priest were well and truly on the rise at this point, which coincided with Sabbath's descent from the metal mountain peak and were really the only game in town, true heavy metal-wise, Motörhead's debut still being over a year in the future. This metal vacuum certainly did Priest no harm as it enabled them, over the course of this and the succeeding three albums, to pretty much define the heavy metal archetype. I know many, particularly those not around during the Seventies, cite Painkiller or even Defenders of the Faith as Priest's peak and those are indeed fine albums, but for me the run of albums from this to Killing Machine were their pinnacle and Sad Wings is a hell of a way to kick off such a run of releases. Not for nothing does the triplet of tracks from this, Victim of Changes, Genocide and Tyrant climax the 1980 live album - it is because they are absolute killer metal anthems and live they will rip your fucking head off!

OK, so Omen are another band who have passed me by until now, although in their case it's not so surprising due to their power metal credentials. But this, their debut album released in 1984, is actually pretty damn good. I listened to it blind, in that I didn't know anything about it or the band going in and if you had told me they were from Croyden or Coventry I would have believed it, so pronounced is the NWOBHM influence on the sound of the album. But, guess what, they're not from London, but from Los Angeles, better known at the time for being the ground zero of the glam or hair metal scene and home to outfits like Mötley Crüe, Dokken and Quiet Riot, a scene to which I have a particular aversion.

Omen managed to rise beyond LA's neon and leather decadent superficiality and took the energy of the NWOBHM and in particular Iron Maiden's early releases and super-charged it by infusing it with speed metal's searing attacks and as such, it is to my mind at least, a solid early example of what would later become known as US power metal. The album is chock full of remarkably infectious and memorable riffs, Kenny Powell's solos tend to be short and to the point, eschewing egotistical exhibitionism and J.D. Kimball's vocals aren't at all histrionic like a lot of other PM singers of the time, but have a gruff, cigarettes and whiskey edge, kind of like Joey Belladonna crosed with Bon Scott.The lyrics and aesthetics are based around fantasy literature and movies and whilst they aren't as cheesy as some, they do occasionally cause the odd grimace, the track Be My Wench for example is particularly risible - although it's speed metal riffing is actually pretty damn good let us just say it's lyrics haven't aged well.

Battle Cry isn't anything near as OTT as I would have expected from an early USPM release, but is  solidly put together, the power behind the music being well controlled. In much the same way as obvious influence Iron Maiden, they resist the urge to overdo everything and show a little restraint, to the obvious benefit of the music. On the downside I would have to say that both sides of the album do peter out a little with each of the last two tracks on each side being somewhat less impressive than their predecessors. So despite three and a half decades of ignorance, I'm stoked that I've finally heard this as it is a great introduction to US power metal, a genre I fully intend to explore further.

Lightning to the Nations is a classic of British heavy metal and one of the best albums born of the NWOBHM. Unfortunately, for whatever reasons, despite the album's legendary status Diamond Head were never really able to build upon it and make the leap to the majors like some of their (arguably less talented) contemporaries. The album's stock rose even further after being cited by Metallica as one of their main influences and the inclusion of four covers of tracks from it on the thrash giant's 1998 Garage Inc. album.

For me, this may actually be one of the most influential UK metal albums ever. What it does better than virtually any other is bridge the gap between the seventies rock giants like Deep Purple and Led Zeppelin and the young, energetic metal bands fighting their ways out of the various UK council estates they were founded on and in the process laying the groundwork for the future path of metal, be it thrash or power metal.

Every track on this album is a classic (OK, I'll concede that Sweet and Innocent ain't that great) the riffs are exceedingly memorable and infectious and in Sean Harris they had a fantastic vocalist whose reedy, yet quite soulful delivery is right up my street. His vocals on Sucking My Love add a fantastic Zeppelin-esque angle to a great metal track with his Robert Plant-like yeah, yeahs and Brian Tatler's soloing has more than a passing resemblance to Jimmy Page on this track. Elsewhere Tatler exhibits a great affinity for Ritchie Blackmore-style riffing, such as on It's Electric and The Prince kicks off like a track from Purple's legendary Made in Japan live set, something like Highway Star I'm thinking.

And well, I can't ignore it any longer, the absolute beast of a track that is Am I Evil? has got to be one of metal's greatest ever songs and here in 1980 you can already hear the blueprint for thrash metal some two or three years later being set down by these lads from Stourbridge. Although Metallica have almost made the track their own, the impact of the track on offer on Lightning to the Nations cannot be understated back in 1980.

The sheer confidence and competence exhibited on LttN, the marriage of youthful energy and consumate professionalism made for an album that stands proud in the annals of metal history. For my money, literally one of the most important albums in metal.

If the debut established Sabbath as the most historically important act in metal, then follow-up Paranoid cemented their position as one of the Metal Gods. Every single metal album you have listened to owes a debt of gratitude to this classic, an album that defines exactly what metal means. The pacing is perfect, the songs are anthemic and the musicianship, though some may say it is neanderthal, is flawless as the albums eight tracks pretty much carve in stone the Metal Commandments.

Tony Iommi was always an absolute riff machine - he could no doubt write riffs in his sleep while lesser mortals are only able to dream of such an ability - and here on display are some of the most memorable riffs ever written. Coupled with those riffs is one of the most recognizable voices in metal, Ozzy commanding his space with a presence and confidence very few have ever matched. Geezer's busy and irreplaceable bass playing underpins the whole and Bill Ward's jazz-influenced kitwork is not mere piledriver pummelling but is loaded with fills and never misses a beat. This is the sound of a young band riding high, with their creativity and energy being chanelled in a unified direction and defining a sound for generations of as yet undreamed of metal hordes. War Pigs, Iron Man, Electric Funeral and Hand of Doom - which self-respecting metalhead doesn't know these tracks not as mere songs, but as if they were irreplaceably part of him- or herself?

On a personal note, this is the album that got me into metal in the first place. As a kid and young teenager I had graduated from The Beatles to Bowie, T-Rex and Queen then had become exposed to Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon which was a real mind-fuck. But then along came Paranoid and something just clicked - I knew I had found a lifelong soulmate and metal seeped into my blood and has resided there ever since.

I had avoided Negură Bunget and their best known album, OM because, for some reason, I got it into my head that it would be one-dimensional and dull, probably because the name is like a tantric chant or some such shit! In actuality it is a million miles from one-dimensional, it is more like a sonic tapestry woven from threads of many hues, some dark and thick, others scintillating and light, but all woven with exquisite artistry into a gorgeous and breathtaking whole.

The base canvas the Romanians use is atmospheric black metal, but it is then layered with a variety of textures and hues to create a sweeping and impressive vista that puts a lot of progressive metal acts to shame. The album's eleven tracks don't feel so much like individual songs, but rather like different movements of a single overarching narrative. There are a number of influences at play, not all of which are black metal-related, there is Burzum-esque tremelo strumming, soaring keyboards, dissonant passages in the vein of some of the modern Icelandic bands, ambient interludes, melodic riffs, tribal drumming and, of course, the influence of the Romanians' traditional folk music. Vocals range from harsh screams, to chants, whispers and quite calming cleans. In other words there are a LOT of musical styles on display here. The skill has been in forging those styles together into a texturally rich, but unified vision rather than a sprawling morass of divergent styles forced together just for the sake of a producing an eclectic release.

I guess a band like Deathspell Omega is one that comes to mind when considering similar releases, especially when searching for comparisons for tracks like the ascerbic Inarborat or Dedesuptul, but Negură Bunget are not as wilfully disonnant as the Frenchmen and, in fact, are quite capable of enchanting sonic beauty at times. They manage exceedingly well to impart a flavour of their Eastern European heritage within the music and it is quite easy to envision the forests and mountains of their native land and also get a feel for the darkness of some of their folklore - the tribalistic interlude Norilor is a track that is particularly foreboding. There are times, of course, when they really let rip with some old-fashioned black metal blasting, such as during Cel din urmă vis or De Piatra, but they also know when to exercise restraint - their handling of the keyboards being a particularly pleasing example, allowing the keys to enhance the sound and not swamp it with inherent cheesiness as others are wont to do.

This is one of those black metal albums that does genuinely attempt to do something different within the genre's confines, similar to Oranssi Pazuzu's last couple or Batushka's debut. I've got to admit that it doesn't exactly hit all my sweet spots, but there is more than enough to admire here and it is clear that this is a quality black metal release that has attempted to push the genre forward into less predictable territiory and as such Om deserves massive respect. It is also an album that is more than likely to appeal to progressive metal fans who are not scared of the more extreme fringes of the genre.

Earthshine consists of Aussie brothers, Sam and Connor Dwyer and My Bones Shall Rest upon the Mountain is their second album, released after a six year gap from the debut. They play a version of doom metal that is heavily soaked in atmospheric black metal. "Ho-hum", I hear you say, "not another one". But this time around they have spiked their sound with musical acid so to speak and have infused it with a neo-psychedelic aura, reminiscent of a number of 1990's English bands. Although the songs are pretty good, they have been very poorly served by the production which, to not put too fine a point on it, is fucking terrible and has completely ruined what could have been a terrific album.

What I find when listening to a new Darkthrone album is that on the first couple of spins I'm listening for the album I expected them to make. Only on subsequent plays do I finally hear the album that they intended me to hear (not me specifically, but you know what I mean). Consequently, despite being a huge Darkthrone fan, I was initially a little underwhelmed by the irrepressible duo's nineteenth studio album, Eternal Hails. However, subsequent listens have brought me round to their way of thinking. The album takes heavy metal and doom riffs and runs them through a black metal filter which strips them back to their very core and renders them in glorious lo-fi mode which, when coupled with Nocturno Culto's croaking vocal delivery, propels the listener back to the days of black metal's first wave, when BM was a genre still finding it's metal feet. There is a particular affinity here with 1980s Celtic Frost and very early Bathory which is not mere plagiarism, but an homage that is paid with affection and given the Darkthrone treatment it seems to invest the eighties sound with a more foetid atmosphere than any amount of corpsepaint could ever achieve. There seems to be a surfeit of naysayers listening to this album, but I personally think there are some cool riffs, I love Nocturno Culto's vocals and Fenriz still knocks the living shit out of his drumkit. Tracks like His Masters Voice and Voyage to a Northpole Adrift may take a bit more patience than usual to get into, but they are worth it.

Look this isn't classic-era Darkthrone - those days were great while they lasted and where would we be without A Blaze in the Northern Sky, Under a Funeral Moon, Transilvanian Hunger and Panzerfaust? But those were albums penned by young bloods riding the crest of an exciting and irrepressible new wave of metal. Times and people change and that was then, this is now and Nocturno Culto and Fenriz get their kicks by re-interpreting, in their own inimitable style, metal from days of yore that inspired them originally. Personally, I love the fact that Darkthrone exist and are able to tap into a vein of metal that reaches back across the decades. Maybe latter day Darkthrone doesn't do it for everyone, especially the younger metalheads, but it feels good to know they are still out there doing their thing and kinda growing old with their fanbase. A Blaze... was almost thirty years ago now, get over it.

Pan-Amerikan Native Front is a solo project of Kurator of War (Alan Avitia), formed to tell the history of the indiginous nations of the Americas. Little Turtle's War is a concept album based around The Battle of the Wabash, and the defeat of the American army by the Western Confederacy of Native Americans on 4th November 1791, a battle that would prove to be the Native Americans greatest ever victory.
The album takes the form of searing and devastating black metal that, despite the intense blasting of tracks like Power of the Calumet Dance and Battle of the Wabash, still manages to convey some of the rhythms long associated with more traditional Native American music, albeit not overtly or directly. The tracks are exhilharating and fresh-sounding and the concept is intriguing, urging me to find out more about the battle and it import. A really impressive slab of war-themed black metal that successfully conveys the savagery and brutality of 18th century hand-to-hand conflict, whilst still allowing for contrasting moments of beauty such as The Whispering Oak interlude.

Nekromantheon are a Norwegian three-piece who play aggressive thrash metal. Two of the three are also members of death metal outfit Obliteration and their death metal experience certainly adds bite to their thrashing. The production of Visions of Trismegistos is such that there is an emphasis on the top end at the expense of the bass which makes for a black metal-ish sound. Don't misunderstand, this is absolutely out and out thrash metal, but it is informed by other forms of extreme metal which adds to the savagery of their aural assault. Lyrically the band are all about the fertile territory of greek mythology and it's striking imagery which takes life in the form of rampant riffing, crashing cymbals and searing guitar soloing. Vocals are of the Tom Araya / Mille Petrozza raggedly savage style that the most aggressive thrashers (rightfully) love to employ.
Visions of Trismegistos, in cohort with Steel Bearing Hand's Slay in Hell, have managed to convince me that it's now a good time to talk about thrash metal again. Maybe a post-pandemic world needs a proper thrash revival and if these two albums are anything to go by maybe it's time has come at last.