Hierophant Nox

Beltane are a New Zealand-based black metal act with a unique way of doing thing, often resulting in very original-sounding releases which ably channel the passion and creativity of the band into recorded art. Outdoor recordings, improvisational song-writing techniques and a deep and genuine interest in the seasons and personal spirituality all fuel a very [...]

HUB & HEUY METALFEST VI De Azijnfabriek, Roermond – 13/04/09 – 14/04/09 Despite it not being best practice, according to superstitious types, to travel on Friday the 13th, the Hierophant Nox Crew had the most uneventful of journeys to the Netherlands, and found ourselves in the sunny streets of the small town of Roermond scant [...]

WITCHMASTER : TRUCIZNA Agonia Records Poland’s Witchmaster have been on a five-year hiatus while they mused over ideas for a full-length and sorted out line-up issues. They’ve returned with the corrosively nasty “Trucizna”, a full-throttle blackened thrash abortion of a record which promotes volume, spite and old-school attitude over niceties of style and technical advances. [...]

RAAKSHA : SIDHAPATHINI Unsigned Having begun our adventure into the Sri Lankan metal scene over the past couple of issues with our friends Plecto Aliquem Capite, it’s time to delve deeper, this time with ‘hela metal’ proponents Raaksha (the phrase refers to the ancient language of Singhela, of which Raaksha and a number of other [...]

IZEGRIM : POINT OF NO RETURN Rusty Cage Records Death-thrashers Izegrim hail from the Netherlands, and have released “Point of No Return” as a forceful, relentless taster of their current direction, redefined after some line-up changes and a period of musical introspection since the release of “Tribute to Totalitarianism” in March 2008. Their sound, at [...]

TOMBS : WINTERHOURS Relapse Records Formed by guitarist/vocalist Mike Hill formerly of Boston/New York hardcore act Anodnyne, power trio Tombs have rose from relative obscurity to one of the most talked about extreme metal bands in 2009 with their second full-length “Winterhours”. Unleashing a volatile maelstrom of blackened sludge/doom/post-rock, this album proves to be a [...]

TROLLFEST : VILLANDEN Twilight One of my favourite things about TrollfesT (and I do have a list) is how easily they upset fans of other ‘trolls’ such as, er, Finntroll. They’re like the bigger, badder, uglier trolls who came rampaging through the trendy, major-label humppa party and put a boot through the accordion before punching [...]

SOLSTAFIR : KOLD Spikefarm Records Take the massive icy expanse of Primordial’s last few releases and couple it with a spattering of post “In the Heart of the Ages“-era In The Woods… and what you have is a pretty volatile concoction of musical delight from Icelandic act Solstafir’s latest and greatest release “Köld”. Having now [...]

IZEGRIM Dutch death-thrashers Izegrim have existed for a number of years, but have recently gone through something of a crisis and renaissance. Having lost their drummer and singer in 2008, they quickly regrouped, and are back with a new EP, “Point of No Return”, which gives a real taste of what they can do. Bass [...]

BATILLUS : BATILLUS Unsigned Taking their name from a class of fucking huge super tankers, it doesn’t really take a genius to figure out that what you’re about to hear is going to be pretty fucking heavy. On their self-released, self-titled debut EP, Brooklyn-based trio Batillus unleash a megalithic beast that literally explodes through the [...]