Faidra – Militant: Penitent : Triumphant
By Jools Green
Release Date: 3rd November 2023 (Northern Silence Productions)
Tag: Black Metal
Grave Pilgrim – The Bigotry of Purpose
Oregon’s duo of chivalric violence and hideous cruelty Grave Pilgrim return with their second full length The Bigotry of Purpose
Isataii – In Vein of the Ancestors
As I sit in my cavernous subterranean dwelling, the candles flicker and cool air starts to fill the space. Slowly the heating dissipates and it’s getting much easier to breathe and cope. I sit at my slope, with my new fan-dangled tablet looking through the history and the source of black metal. As I light up a cigarette and scratch my dry and dusty skull, I wonder if ever there was a gimmick that kickstarted all of this and can we link it to the genre at all if in any way.
Fortress Festival announce first bands for 2024
Scarborough will once again hold the second Fortress Festival with today seeing the wave of bands announced as well as the sale of early bird tickets
Scáth na Déithe – Virulent Providence
Lone Irish black/death creator Scáth na Déithe returns with third album Virulent Providence
Constructed of two tracks – coming in at just over 40 minutes the album explores the countless manifestations of collective suffering which have been passed down in folk memory since the Great Hunger of the 1840s and explores these horrific and harrowing representations of torment, the spectral figures now eternal keepers of the true trauma and anguish of a people long gone.
Musically the album has sweeping atmosphere, surging darkness which weave well into the black metal elements that are rife throughout and the visceral nature of the vocals add to emotion of the albums subject matter, so much so that after purchasing the album, I too purchased the book The Great Hunger by Cecil Woodham-Smith.
Virulent Providence is out now
Scáth na Déithe: facebook | bandcamp
Thundering Hooves – Radiance
Black Heavy Metal of Death duo Thundering Hooves return with their second full length album “Radiance”
I’ve kept close tabs on Thundering Hooves ever since their debut “Vestiges” so when this duo creep back in with a folk horror-looking cover from the talented Katie Vicary then, of course, it’s going to pique my interest.
Opening track ‘Embers’ slow and foreboding start whilst maintaining a blackened death is embedded with doom elements that interweave effortlessly which spill over into a track loosely based on the 1796 novel “The Monk” by Matthew George Lewis “A Howl From the Cloister” features additional vocals from Jo Chen as does the following title track “Radiance”.
As the album continues into the macabre tracks such as “The True Death” and my highlight track of the album “Danse Macabre” swirl in like a creeping mist the latter track alluding to Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic movie “The Seventh Seal” which after playing this album I reacquainted myself with.
There is one final offering, coming in at nearly seven and a half minutes “The Key” perfectly encapsulates the aesthetic of the album tremendously, I had doom-laden undertones, mixed in with maniacal fury embedded with good old-fashioned heavy metal riffs.
Still conjuring images of half-forgotten rituals.
Rick Eaglestone
Radiance is available now via Mercenary Press