Latest Reviews
There are way too many records released every week - which one should you listen to? We want to help you by reviewing lots of records every week and you can also check out a little teaser before reading the whole thing. And if you want to, you can also browse through our archive and have a look at the amazing records you might have missed out on.
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OvO - Ignoto
29 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Ambient, Industrial, Black MetalWell, longtracks divided into parts so that they essentially become quasi-classical suites – isn’t that something we rather expect from prog rock than from noise rock? Well, when looking at the idea behind OvO’s new record Ignoto one might think differently – and even more important: it works!
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Karin Park - Private Collection
28 Sep 2022 - Stephan
Dark PopBaby steps. If ever a label has introduced an artist coming from a different background than the majority of its roster in a careful, gradual way, then it has to be Pelagic Records with Swedish pop singer/songwriter Karin Park. First her being part of Årabrot (here our interview with them) alongside her husband Kjetil Nernes (our review of their last record Norwegian Gothic); second her mystical side on the collaboration with Lustmord and third the reissue of her latest album Church of Imagination. But now it’s finally time to present her on an actually new solo album with completely fresh and unheard materi… oh, wait.
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La Chiesa Dei Fiori - Amorevolezza
26 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Folk-Pop, Dream-PopThe new EP from the Founding our own Glorious Chapels-collective based in Nancy, France, caught my attention, because I was looking for something to soothe “my jangled nerves” (which Simpsons-character uses that expression, huh?) in the middle of all the troubles around us. Amorevolezza was the perfect choice, for its 11:11 minutes are a wonderful way to catch breath!
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KEN Mode - NULL⠀
25 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Blackened Noise-RockLet’s imagine the following scenario: Band, founded the other side of the millennium; darlings of a small global niche scene; highly influenced by early hardcore and the Melvins, sounding like a crossover between Today is The Day and Converge – and then they finally, officially add a new member and hence change their Venn’s diagram completely. Might go wrong but for KEN Mode it definitely pays off!
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Tension Span - The Future Died Yesterday
24 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Post-Punk, Noise-RockA short attention span is a characteristic for any new generation it seems. At least that’s what every older generation says about the younger ones, that’s been the case for decades now. Maybe the older ones are just not fast enough? When listening to Tension Span’s full-length debut The Future Died Yesterday one might get an ambivalent impression as it seems as if the band has been lost in the 80’s for good. Their record plays with all the great genres that characterized that decade and as if the 30+ years since are not worth mentioning. Have they lost all their attention after ‘89?
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Electric Moon / Kungens Män / ElonMusk / Kanaan - International Space Station (Vol. 1)
23 Sep 2022 - Stephan
Psychedelic Rock, Space RockThe year is 2022 and headlines read like they’ve been in cryogenic sleep for a century. Instead of battling the existential crisis of global species extinction, pollution and climate change together, humanity just keeps repeating all the old bullshit which makes matters even worse. And so Central Europe slides into a dramatic recession and prepares for a cold winter with harsh winds from the East. But with our self-induced dependency on authoritarian dictatorship energy we here are still very much the lucky ones, as we watch in apalling apathy how Europe’s biggest area state is overrun with the barbarity of war. This is not the opening paragraph for an album review.
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Nero Kane - Of Knowledge And Revelation
22 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Psych Rock, Dark FolkFacts are facts and beliefs are beliefs. Both form a quasi-indestructible pair of opposites because in a world pre-Trump anything was basically one or the other but never anything in between. So when Italian dark folk/neo-psych artist Nero Kane gives us his new record Of Knowledge and Revelation the title implies a record full of contradictions. Nevertheless, it has a phenomenal flow.
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Cold Gwad - God Get Me The Fuck Out Of Here
21 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Shoegaze, Noise-RockThe Pixies. Nirvana. My Bloody Valentine. Sonic Youth. Cornerstones for a record that will probably convince you from the first track onward: Cold Gawd and their new record God Get Me Fuck Out Of Here is highly convincing and even has an agenda – change the Shoegaze scene in terms of showing that it should open up to minorities and not remain a white boys’ club. The band around mastermind and main songwriter Matt Wainwright does so by bringing something new to the table: R’n’B. Mind blown!
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Dreadnought - The Endless
19 Sep 2022 - Simon
Doom, Death, Progressive, Post-MetalGenre alchemists Dreadnought return with a truly epic album that provides a great gateway into this exemplary band!
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Sonic Flower - Me And My Bellbottom Blues
18 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Heavy Rock, Stoner Rock, DoomSouthern Rock or Southern Metal to me are always difficult genres because, let’s be honest, there are quite some idiots with the wrong sociopolitical mindset out there doing that music. Nevertheless, the appeal of a well-played Southern Rock guitar is appealing because that little extra-twang on the six-string, that slightly muddy sound and the bits of blues and classic rock in there are something else, if done well. It can be heavy without being too machismo and soulful without being too diva-like. Sonic Flower, whose roots are in the Japanese heavy rock scene, now have a record lined up for us that fits that idea to the t. Me And My Bellbottom Blues, y’all!
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Otus - Torch
17 Sep 2022 - Knut
Atmospheric Sludge Metal, Post MetalAfter twenty-odd years can we just call a band´s music classic Atmospheric Sludge Metal and stop the name dropping of the bands whose shoulders they stand on? We all know who those bands are, therefore I think we can. One of the frontrunners of this metal genre once answered when he was asked if it was a good tag for a metal genre, ”At least we know what we are talking about”. So let´s talk about this magnificent and diverse new release in this genre by the Italians Otus.
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Excurse - Sitra Ahra
17 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Experimental DoomIs it okay to call something “a long time in the making” if the recordings are five or six years old? Maybe not if it’s doom metal, maybe it’s kinda the character of the music and the mindset. It’s probably more important if the music is good or not, because who would want a Fear Incontinentum for the experimental doom genre?! With Excurse’s latest record Sitra Ahra the first one is true, the recordings are several years old, but fortunately the second one is nothing like that meager thing the Binford Tools-quartet released some years back. Sitra Ahra is highly convincing experimental doom metal to keep SunnO))) fans busy until the masters release their next milestone!
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Noise Raid - Cosmic Radiation
16 Sep 2022 - Knut
Instrumental Metal/Post Sludge Metal/Sludge MetalThe guitars riff, the guitars fuzz, they pluck and go high-pitched while a low-end bass sometimes takes over the riffing and pushes the distorted guitars aside along with the energetic drumming. These German musicians are really generous with their musical outpour as this debut release clocks in on 78 minutes including three remixes. You may ask, but no - never a dull moment and also always has something new to uncover in the intricate, often dense sonics.
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Hegemone - Voyance
15 Sep 2022 - Knut
Atmospheric Sludge Metal/Post Metal/Dark WaveA roar of anger lifts the new album from Poznan´s Hegemone off the ground and thus might be a comment when we watch the world slipping sideways these days. Although this might be an exaggerational over-interpretation as the album has a lot more to say, both with the ideas behind it and not at least because of the monumental and inventive music that surges from it.
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Vulnificus - Invocation
13 Sep 2022
Brutal Death MetalArtistic labor is labor. That’s an idea that came up around the impromptu craft circle of friends, family, and womxn expressing their creative talent my partner convened on Friday. If you haven’t been exposed to this idea before or enough—first, that’s on purpose! Myths about the “purity” of art rarely serve the interests of artists or the people. Second, there are many great resources available on the Web to learn more. But today I want to talk to you about artistic labor in the form of the EP, and recommend a recent brutal death metal stunner, Invocation by Vulnificus, the infectious new bacteria all the kids are contracting — or should be.
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Salt Pig - The Chalk Circle
12 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Post-Rock, Experimental, Free JazzOver the last few years, I was surprised at many people not seeing the importance of Tortoise for the development of post-rock. The candor and plain openness towards vast influences from Jazz, to Fusion, from Prog-Rock and Blues. John McEntire and his fellows opened many doors, with many bands following them through – like Salt Pig from Sheffield. Their new release shows that – and so much more.
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Titan To Tachyons - Vonals
11 Sep 2022
Jazz-Metal, Experimental, FusionFusion, like any generic label, has had its many inflections; and, like any musical innovation, it has suffered from its share of commodification. Before attaining critical bugbear status, however, fusion encapsulated an important advance in the syncretist history of modern music—call it “jazz,” “world,” or just plain “people music.” Infused with the countercultural electricity of the late 1960s and 70s, fusion loudly demolished cultural barriers, further widening the scope of musical collaboration and improvisation in the process. Such generative spirit still thrives in jazz-metal enclave Titan to Tachyons, whose sophomore LP Vonals is an audacious experiment in participatory sound.
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An Abstract Illusion - Woe
10 Sep 2022 - Knut
Atmospheric Progressive Melodic Death Metal/…and moreWhat can be described as a splendid grandeur beauty? This release can. This long musical work of art is such, even if it unveils violence, abuse, despair and rage, although combined with revenge and a glimmer of hope and resilience. The trio follows up their two previous magnificent releases and, unbelievably, exceeds them with a release six years in the making. The haunting cover and title of the record give a hint to the multi-faceted music that unfolds.
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Sunflo'er - All These Darlings and Now Me
09 Sep 2022 - Dan D.
MathcoreSunflo’er sure can make a racket. And I mean that as a compliment of course. These Potsdam, New York-natives effortlessly combine elements of ‘The Wave’ bands such as Touche Amore and La Dispute as well as Converge and, at points, the sorely missed The Chariot to create a heady cocktail of ‘core’ goodness. I’m not a drinker but one whiff of what the band has blended on All These Darlings And Now Me I know that the mix sure is potent enough to get the party started!
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The Sombre - Monuments of Grief
08 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Doom MetalOkay I admit defeat. Maurice de Jong, you are a master of not only one craft but of many. Each genre known to metal fans has now been done to perfection by the Dutch jack-of-all-trades. Following his sheer endless releases is like trying to count the bees around the freshest, strongest-smelling flowers in the middle of summer. And he has done it again – now in one of the genres he grew up with: The Sombre gives us some of the most wonderfully arranged and structured Death-Doom this side of the millennium.
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Stray From The Path - Euthanasia
07 Sep 2022 - Sebastian
HardcoreAre you in or in the way? This urgent question is basically the whole idea behind Stray From The Path, one of modern hardcore’s most outspoken bands and that is something to behold in such a politically charged genre of music.
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Asunojokei - Island
06 Sep 2022 - Brayden
Blackgaze, Post-Hardcore, ScreamoBlackgaze has always been a genre I’m not too fond of – I still harbor rigorous criticism against the sub-sub genre. Asunojokei have always proved themselves the exception to me: most other blackgaze artists are repetitive and melodramatic. Then there are the ones like Alcest, an overflowing well of unique ideas sewn together to craft something blissful counterpointed by metal’s endless ferocity; and then there is Asunojokei, who sits comfortably between these archetypes. Their debut album Awakening left a massive legacy that Island does its best to live up to.
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Mo'ynoq - A Place For Ash
05 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
(Atmospheric) Black MetalThere surely has been no shortage of good American black metal bands but come on, one can never have too many good Black Metal bands, right? And if they show some Death Metal influences on their sleeves? Even better. Mo‘ynoq from Raleigh, North Carolina check these boxes and also offer some Pacific Northwestern tinges and even some Classic Rock sounds on their new album A Place for Ash.
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Tuhaf - Mere Guld
04 Sep 2022 - Thorsten
Folklore, Psychedelic RockFirst of: I speak neither Turkish nor Danish, so this review is based solely on the music and the vocal expression! Nevertheless, this record surely hits a lot of sweet spots with me which have nothing to do with any understanding of lyrics! Tuhaf perform this kind of soulful, folklore-laden psychedelia which can be understood in Laurel Canyon or in Berlin as well as in Istanbul or Copenhagen!
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Nitelight - Oblivion
03 Sep 2022 - Stephan
SynthwaveBased on the sub cultural demographic of its musicians, labels and fans it doesn’t feel far-fetched to say that that there’s at least a certain brand of synthwave music which you could rightfully call the only worthwhile subgenre of metal that isn’t actually metal at all. Or at least for a while it has been that way. Not only with Carpenter Brut’s guitar shredding or Gost going full extreme metal the lines have already been blurred. Enter Nitelight, who have developed their related, but still distinct idea of merging the worlds while staying true to their fully electronic instrumentation.
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