Reviewed: June 2020 Released: 2020, Rockshots Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Beandog 15 years in the making, Sinisthra’s follow-up to their 2005 debut, Last Of The Stories Of Long Past Glories, has taken a lengthy and arduous route from conception to realisation. Significantly, The Broad And Beaten Way is a reference to…
New music
Bonfire – Fistful Of Fire
Reviewed: May, 2020 Released: 2020, AFM Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog There’s an infectious sense of momentum in the Bonfire ranks at the moment. This is no small feat when you consider thirty four years, twenty band members and several full length albums that have passed since the band’s debut…
Lordi – Killection
Reviewed: March 2020 Released: 2019, AFM Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Lee Carter You know LORDI, right? Finland’s monstrous masked metallers and winners of Eurovision in 2006? The band may not quite have the collective mainstream’s consciousness to the extent that it did back when they shocked Europe’s annual musical cheese-fest,…
Strykjärn – En Jävla Massa Lidande
Reviewed: January 2020 Released: November 2019, Big Balls Productions Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog Twelve years into their career, and this five piece from Sweden are keen to emphasise the potency of their newest release. To be honest, you can probably draw your own conclusions from the 23 minute running time…
Cell – Ancient Incantations Of Xarbos
Reviewed: January 2020 Released: October 2019, Independent Release Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Beandog Winnipeg is located in Canada, underneath a cold air mass, near the fast flowing polar jet streams of the Northern Hemisphere. It’s placement on the flats of the prairie make it susceptible to harsh conditions and brutally cold…
Diabolical Mental State – Diabolical World
Reviewed: October 2019 Released: 2019 – Self Released Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Beandog Formed in 2012, Diabolical Mental State’s debut album has been a long time coming. That’s not to suggest the band haven’t been busy. By all accounts there is a healthy underground metal scene in Lisbon which the band…
Stortregn – Evocation Of Light
Reviewed: October 2019 Released: 2019, Non Serviam Records Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Beandog It’s been almost ten years since Stortregn released their debut album, Devoured By Oblivion. In the years that followed, the Swiss black metal band have maintained a steady course of live shows and regular album releases – one…
MNRVA – Black Sky
Reviewed: October 2019 Released: 2019 – Self Released Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Beandog Black Sky is a tricky record to review. If you’re into the sort of sludge encrusted doom that owes its weight to the likes of Electric Wizard, then there is actually very little to dislike about MNVRA‘s debut.…
Sempiternal Dusk – Cenotaph of Defectuous Creation
Reviewed: September 2019 Released: 2019, Dark Descent Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog If you didn’t already know – Osmium and Iridium are the densest metals known to man. Alternatively, if you wanted to consider things in terms of relative atomic mass, then you would be looking at both Plutonium and…
Obsidian Tongue – Volume III
Reviewed: August 2019 Released: 2019 Bindrune Recordings Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog By Obsidian Tongue’s own account, six years is a long time in the world of metal and music. This is how long it’s been since the band last put out a collection of songs. They acknowledge, with no shortage…
SiXforNinE – Parallel Universe
Reviewed: August 2019 Released: 2019 – Eclipse Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog Those coming to SiXforNinE via the news that they are fronted by the former sticksman of Greek gothic metal band Septicflesh should adjust their expectations accordingly. For this release, Fotis Benardo has stepped out from behind the drum…
Lacrimas Profundere – Bleeding the Stars
Reviewed: July 2019 Released: 2019, Napalm Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis It is a double-edged sword when a band say they have, ‘evolved’. Either they have changed direction from their early work for the best, or they have found a new route which makes you wonder, ‘what the hell…
Tronos – Celestial Mechanics
Reviewed: May 2019 Released: 2019, Century Media Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog “For years, whenever we were together on the road, or in the studio, we often had late night conversations about making music that was dark and apocalyptic but also contrastingly fragile and ambient, encompassing the different moods of…
West Of Hell – Blood of the Infidel
Reviewed: May, 2019 Released: 2019, self-released Rating: 4.5/5 Reviewer: Courtney Solloway This album is different and beautiful in oh-so-many ways. Firstly there is the combination of death metal, power metal and thrash metal, all in their traditional senses but with a new twist. Then there are songs like Dying Tomorrow…
Blodskam – Là-Bas
Reviewed: March 2019 Released: 2019, Suicide Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Beandog Brothers Aghora and Dödfödd consider themselves to be bonded by more than just blood. Sharing a mutual interest in the dark workings of the human mind, they have described Là-Bas as “a desperate cry from the subconscious.” It is…