Lantern Release New Single “Strange Nebula”

by Nicholas Vahdias on June 3, 2020

Currently overhyped and soon to be flavour of the month Finnish band Lantern release an insipid seven minute song titled “Strange Nebula”. Atmospheric hipster Black segments meet stolen riffs from Purtenance in a musically cohesive but thematically disparate mess that is held together due to the harmonic poverty found here. Vocals attempt the Finnish bellow but end up sounding like NYHC pseudo-rapping. The formula has now fully shifted to a combination of lazy atmospheric passages mixed with stolen riffs from a forgotten “gem” which is in reality any middling band from the 90s.

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Catacomb Release New Single “The Great Dreamer” after Two Decade Hiatus

by Nicholas Vahdias on May 29, 2020

French Death metal stalwarts Catacomb return with an underwhelming single after a twenty year break. Hoping to capitalize on the fading “OSDM revival” trend but only managing to catch it during its dying days. “The Great Dreamer” features obvious riffs taken from more recent bands, simple cyclic arrangements and a weird synth lead break.

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Mercyless – The Mother of All Plagues (2020)

by Nicholas Vahdias on May 22, 2020

The big three of French Death metal were Massacra, Agressor and Loudblast. Behind them and unfairly discarded were Mercyless. The band’s early output featured Death metal of a spontaneous nature that took the high octane elements of Pestilence and Morbid Angel and pushed them against dissonant chords that culminated into soaring melodies. Their late 90s material saw the band experiment with various sounds in a confused Post rock derived mess. The band has somehow managed to return to form and continues to release a slow stream of enjoyable yet confused albums.

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K.K. Null – Fertile (2008)

by Brett Stevens on May 21, 2020

Musicians in the 1960s thought a lot about getting beyond scales, chords, and key, and making pure music, but the results usually ended in chaos because they were still thinking about music. K.K. Null creates dynamic sonic textures that convey a poetic sense of contrast and evolution, and uses that to create beauty from ugliness.

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Triptykon featuring The Metropole Orkest – Requiem (Live At Roadburn 2019) (2020)

by Brett Stevens on May 18, 2020

This album will make waves because it is going to divide audiences based on who will give it a chance and who will categorically ignore it; this, like trolling, is the pure provocation that forms a necessary part of Art as opposed to Entertainment. The album possesses a fatal flaw, but makes up for it with some of the more interesting experiments within the notion of doom — dark, melancholic, sentimental, but not self-pitying — sounds, going beyond metal and rock in composition.

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