RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://enrapture1.bandcamp.com/ The Norwegian progressive post death metal ensemble Enrapture’s third installment, Drønn²⁰²⁴ EP, independently released last April 5th is, to, again (as I’ve used it before) quote Patrick Bateman from “American Psycho” a curious little dish I was surprisingly presented by our dear chief editor, Andrea, quite a while ago,…
Photo galleries from day 2 at Tons of Rock 2025 can be found here Photos by Andrea Chirulescu & Jonathan Mazin Text by Andrea Chirulescu One new item on the agenda – besides the 4th stage – for this year’s Tons of Rock was the organized Black Metal Bus Sightseeing. Certainly borrowed from Inferno festival,…
Full photo galleries can be found at the link below. Photos: Andrea Chirulescu/Jonathan MazinText: Andrea Chirulescu & Jonathan Mazin Having a big, world class festival in your town is something one kinda gets used to by now and I feel like somehow the days and weeks leading up to it have become more exciting with…
Full gallery by Jonathan Mazin here: Text by Andrea C The second edition of Desertfest Oslo took place 9th and 10th of May 2025 and I am happy to have had a chance to attend. For various reasons I have stepped down a bit from the insane amount of concerts and festivals I used to…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://floodgatemoodsproductions.bandcamp.com/album/disquiet-2024-remaster-2 Although laid to rest many years to go, the murky lo-fi ambient entity known as Vornoff has occasionally made its presence felt in the charcoal-stained underground by means of unearthing various previously songs and recordings from the vault – one of which is the bleak twelve-minute musical odyssey through a…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://borknagar.com/ For one of the three major Norwegian black metal institutions, next to Emperor and Enslaved, Borknagar have comparatively only briefly dealt pure genre, from their 1994 inception through the eponymous¹⁹⁹⁴ and, maybe even the now legendary The Olden Domain¹⁹⁹⁷, only to deviate into then unknown and uncharted territory with…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://deceptionnorway.bandcamp.com/ A few reviews back, I had the pleasure to review the latest album from the Norwegian death metal stalwarts Blood Red Throne, Nonagon²⁰²⁴ as well as a chance to give my first 6/6 in a long time. Their new vocalist, Sindre Wathne Johnsen, is the founder of another Norwegian…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://oleteigen.bandcamp.com/album/skjebnev-ven Leave it to Gymnocal Industries (Norway) to release hauntingly evocative records such as this one, which sees the skilled composer Ole Teigen (Superlynx, ex-Den Saakaldte, ex-Dødheimsgard) weaving gentle and reflective piano motifs together to great effect. As with his introspective and somber Aske and Jord LP from 2021, Skjebnevæven is…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/BloodRedThroneOfficial https://bloodredthrone.bandcamp.com/music I’m going to go on the record and say something this review will prove beyond reasonable doubt: if you don’t like Blood Red Throne you don’t like death metal. Blood Red Throne (BRT) is a band whose music I know intimately thanks to their main founder and one…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://invainband.bandcamp.com/ While Nocturnus’ The Key¹⁹⁹⁰ is widely regarded as the first progressive death metal album, it is arguably Death with its third album Spiritual Healing¹⁹⁹⁰ who had paved the way for Edge Of Sanity (whose debut record, Nothing But Death Remains¹⁹⁹¹ was still standard death metal fare) who then helped…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.paradogmata.com/ It’s becoming harder and harder to come up with a clever name as all the Megadeths, Medevils and Cryptopsies and Darkanes have already been taken. Paradogmata, presumably adressing fake dogmata, contradictory dogmata (as we will learn) or dogmata as it were, is an Norwegian progressive melodic heavy death metal…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://edgedcircleproductions.bandcamp.com/album/seven-are-they Yes, this is exactly the kind of thing we all need and what the of the mood of this week calls for – a new output containing exclusive material by what is unarguably one of the very best and most sinister-sounding bands out there, namely Deathcult. With its evocative artwork…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024 BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/nattmannofficial The Norwegian black metal duo Nattmann e-mailed us a digital copy of their latest release, namely the 4-track EP sporting the evocative moniker Et Jordsmonn Av Døde, and let me start out by saying that I am grateful to these skilled dudes for doing so. This is a convincing and…
VENUE: ForumDATE: 16.11.2023 ORGANIZER: Bergen LivePHOTOGRAPHER: C. NepperPhotos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context. American rockers Rival Sons were back at the Forum in Bergen on a dark and cold Thursday night – and what a night it was!…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://fatherrobin.bandcamp.com/album/the-songs-tales-of-airoea-book-1 Sporting a great moniker and an even greater line-up featuring some of Norway’s most awe-inspiring prog rock musicians from acts such as Wobbler, Tusmørke, and Jordsjø, it goes without saying that this album is something that many of have been looking forward to for some time – me included. High…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://bushmansrevenge.bandcamp.com/album/all-the-better-for-seeing-you What a magnificent piece of work this cleverly written opus by jazz rockers Bushman’s Revenge is. Six beguiling compositions that add something fresh and vital to the genre are what lie in store for you, and there is atmosphere and dynamics in spades throughout not to mention that it is…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023BAND URL: https://pixieninja.bandcamp.com/album/hypnagogia Fresh, clever, and inventive are words that immediately spring to mind when trying to sum up this highly engaging offering by instrumental prog rockers Pixie Ninja, and there can be no doubt that these Scandinavians are flying the flag of musical innovation high. Darkly atmospheric yet playful and eclectic, the…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: http://enslaved.no/ Whereas E²⁰¹⁷ was a sore disappointment after the phenomenal In Times²⁰¹⁵, the former seemingly ending the string of top shelf material from Axioma Ethica Odini²⁰¹⁰ and Riitiir²⁰¹², Utgard²⁰²⁰ was a notable, if a partial return to form. I remarked similarly in my review of the album (5/6) where I…
VENUE: BastionenDATE: 17.06.2023 ORGANIZER: Bergen LivePHOTOGRAPHER: J. Nepper.Photos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context. The awesome purveyors of atomic hard rock from California known as Dirty Honey paid the lovely city of Bergen a visit on a hot and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://solstein.bandcamp.com/album/solstein Boasting a stellar lineup consisting of Jacob Holm-Lupo (Donner, White Willow, The Opium Cartel), Keith Carlock (Toto, Steely Dan, Sting), Stian Larsen, Brynjar Dambo (White Willow), and Bill Bressler, it would be fair to say that this exciting new endeavor from the US and Norway does not exactly lack musical…
