Author: acertaintaste

In my teenage years I hit on an idea that changed my whole life and outlook on the world. Our desire for safety and comfort has led us to delegate more and more reaponsibility to a central body who promise to look after us and keep the wolves from the door. What resulted was the creation of human zoos.

The societies we have created are wholly unnatural environments. We created these live within in order to protect ourselves from the harsh, violent, unpredictable natural world. In doing so we believe we have bettered nature and have somehow surpassed it. (more…)

No longer lurking in the shadows for Peasant are back following on 2020’s MMXIX demo and the band take a darker stance with latest EP The Lonewolf.

The sinisterly vulgar artwork is very much my mind’s eye as the EP begins with title track “The Lonewolf” it’s impact is immediate, the battle worthy screech at its inception makes way for quite simply a boiling pot of the rawest black metal.  (more…)

Emerging through the shadows with a sense of foreboding Australia’s Malignant Aura introduce their gloomy and tenebrous death-doom sound with latest release – Abysmal Misfortune Is Draped Upon Me.

Opening track “Malignant Aura” serves a great introduction as to the journey the listener can expect to go on – one of caution & apprehension – the track is slow and ominous in its delivery for the majority so when the solo laden into and slow drums of “In A Timeless Place Beneath The Earth” begin to enter the speakers it’s almost a relief. Two tracks in and fifteen minutes gone, more of this please. (more…)

The old “black metal should be extreme” line is almost always trotted out by fascist sympathisers or apologists who are totally fine giving their money to horrible bigots. The thing is, I actually agree with them. Not on the subject of financially supporting literal neo-nazis, but in that black metal should be extreme. It is a genre that should constantly push new ground in order to remain unacceptable.

This is where we find Sacred Son. You may recognise them as the band who used album covers that truly shocked the black metal world for being completely unlike any other black metal cover art. With The Foul Deth of Engelond, the band have opted for cover art that is going to appease black metal purists, and a theme that will piss them off. Apparently it’s perfectly fine to write music about hating Jews or immigrants but when someone writes music from a radical left point of view we should “keep politics out of music”. Ok, cowards. (more…)

The weight of the USA’s influence on everything in the UK from politics to sweet treats to new slang is hard to ignore sometimes. When it comes to music, especially metalcore, the influence of American bands is virtually unavoidable.

Lift up this veneer, however, and you’ll find a near-inexhaustible source of UK bands writing furious and pissed off music that simply couldn’t come from outside this small, bigoted island. One band who thoroughly deserves to be spoken of in the same breath as the likes of now major label darlings Mastiff and Venom Prison is Casket Feeder.

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Some musicians (and fans) are comfortable with their music existing comfortably inside an easy to define (and defend) sound. There’s nothing wrong with this. You like what you like. Some people prefer to know exactly what they are getting and for each album by each band they like to be more or less consistent with the sound they know they already love.

Others see genres as a set of toolboxes from which to construct their own sound. The epic, progressive black metal of Tómarúm sits in this camp. Liberally borrowing from different genres can be hit or miss. Often the key is to not be greedy. Following on from their ambitious debut EP, Wounds Ever Expanding, my main thought was how Tómarúm balanced this. (more…)

Following on from 2019’s long sold-out demo Blood Countess return with a blood-soaked debut album Occulta Tenebris

The album makes an immediate impact with the thunderous Storms Over Carpathia – this was the track that Blood Countess selected as a premiere before the album’s release, so it’s fitting that it should be the first of the album. This is followed by hands down my highlight track of the album Ad Altare Sanginem – for me, it’s the most menacing and visceral of the debut and every single element weave in effortlessly and those drums are phenomenal. (more…)

So here it goes – to say I was excited about this show would be an understatement, from its initial announcement to the furious pacing on the day the tickets went on sale to the feeling like Charlie Bucket knowing that I had a ticket and clearly, I wasn’t the only one as it seemed the show sold out incredibly fast.

So why all the giddiness I hear you ask?  quite simply the UK Exclusive show of the enigma that is Lamp of Murmurr also, the show was put on by a label I have been fond of for a long time and have made frequent purchases from Death Prayer Records.

The show had 5 bands in total: (more…)

Music, dance, and other forms of physical art are excellent ways to keep in touch with an ancestral culture that imperialism, colonialism and whitewashing all do their best to stamp out and replace with a monoculture. The trouble is often finding and accessing authentic examples from which to learn. Indigenous cultures, especially those of long-gone civilisations are typically reduced to stereotyped caricatures that “other” any non-white culture to the point they feel alien even to descendants of that culture. Thankfully there are bands who revel in exploring their heritage as well as their love for heavy music.

It’s not quite true to say that Mayan death-doom is new to me because I was a big fan of the initial Tzompantli EP, Tlamanalli, from 2019. If you never caught that before now, it’s very likely this will be your introduction to Mayan death-doom. Xibalba guitarist Brian Ortiz (known here at “Big o)))”) has filled out the line-up since that initial EP to turn this formerly solo side-project into a band proper and has unleased debut album Tlazcaltiliztli upon the world. (more…)

Ante-Inferno’s previous release Fane was a collection of bleakness and widely received upon its release, two years on the band return with new album Antediluvian Dreamscapes – luring the listener into an underworld of nightmares – don’t believe me? just look at the album art. (more…)