Hierophant Nox

PHOBOS (GRAVDAL, AETERNUS, BETATT, MALSAIN, GALAR) To coincide with Hierophant’s re-launch, I’m very pleased to present an interview that we conducted in November, back before the technical work started, and hope that its subject will forgive me for sitting on it for so long… Having long taken an interest in the activities of the bands [...]

COLD EMPIRE : FROM THE ASHES OF THE EMPIRE Naturmacht Cold Empire is the work of two almightily ferocious Italians, Valker and Misanthrone, and has been in snarling, sardonic existence since 2006. “From The Ashes Of The Empire” has been a difficult debut release, witnessing the to and fro of a variety of bandmates, and [...]

EPISODE 13 : DEATH RECLAIMS THE EARTH Misantrof AntiRecords I think music reviewing might be a little bit like farming, minus the mud and the hard work. It’s a particularly poor shout to give the musicians names and grow attached to them… you might want to send them to the critical abattoir later. I’m ever [...]

LITTLE CAESAR : REDEMPTION Rock Candy Records Arguably the album all of us wanted but none dared to hope for… 18 years after the raucous “Under The Influence” and 21 years after their wondrous, eponymously titled debut, “Redemption” might as easily have been titled “Unfinished Business”… and damn boys… what a mofo of a comeback! [...]

THERION : SITRA AHRA Nuclear Blast What in the deities names is Christofer Johnsson on? And can i have some please? “Sitra Ahra” is (I believe) the closing of a quadrilogy that began with “Deggial”. And ran through “Sirius-B”, “Lemuria” and concludes here. This album has been surrounded by news about one particular member…the strange [...]

STAR ONE : VICTIMS OF THE MODERN AGE InsideOut Music Arjen Lucassen … love him or hate him… you can’t ignore him! I liked the Star One debut, despite it being (a) a tad ‘ploughmans’ (cheesy), and also rather more lightweight than i might have expected. I suspect in retrospect, that Mr Lucassen himself must [...]

SWAMPDAWAMP : ROCK THIS COUNTRY Big Penny Entertainment Just occasionally a new band comes along and gives the Suvvern Rawk scene a bloody good kick up the backside, I had thought it would be The Regulators, then The Sulentic Brothers Band… this is the third time lucky… and i firmly believe that Swampdawamp are THAT [...]

DARKTHRONE : CIRCLE THE WAGONS Peaceville I can’t say why it’s taken me this long to get round to throwing a few words at Darkthrone’s fifteenth full-length – certainly there are acts with greater need of the coverage. Maybe, too, I’m a little fatigued by Fenrizphilia; yeah, it’s justified, yeah, he’s awesome, but it must [...]

SARGEIST : LET THE DEVIL IN Moribund Cult Half a decade has passed since the continuingly anonymous and mysterious Sargeist unleashed a full length album on the unsuspecting world (“Disciple Of The Heinous Path”), and in that time, yet again, the Black Metal scene has mutated and evolved… yet Sargeist remain unchanging, unbending and unbroken [...]

HAIL OF BULLETS : ON DIVINE WINDS Metal Blade Seeing as how I am, ninety-nine percent of the time, the paragon image of professionalism, please allow me a little slip-up here when I tell you that Martin van Drunen makes my knees go super-weak. I’m not alone, and seeing as how the majority of my [...]