RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://gjenferdbergen.bandcamp.com/album/gjenferd This stunning and ridiculously well-written not to mention infectiously catchy debut effort by the Norwegian outfit named Gjenferd is one of the best things that has happened to me this year. By Odin, this is so fucking awesome and inspired that I lack words, and that rarely happens, mind you.…
RELEASE YEAR: 2024BAND URL: https://vestindien.bandcamp.com/album/verdande In all honesty, I did not think it possible for the uniquely gifted masterminds behind Vestindien to top or better their flawless debut offering entitled NULL, but by some perverted and wonderful miracle these six twisted souls have conjured up a new work of radiant brilliance that transcends barriers and…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://omnibuspress.com/collections/frontpage/products/heady-daze-the-mission-years-1985-1990-published-on-25th-august-2022 This scribe was madly in love with the inimitable Wayne Hussey’s previous autobiography (or rather the first part of what is presumably a trilogy), namely the brilliant and ridiculously entertaining Salad Daze from 2019. His latest literary output, Heady Daze, picks up where its predecessor ended, and as its title…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://facebook.com/omniumgatherumband While most bands either break or make it by their third album, few drop a debut near masterpiece (Spirits And August Light²⁰⁰³), remain puzzingly average and underdeveloped for the next three albums (Years In Waste²⁰⁰⁴, Stuck Here On Snakes Way²⁰⁰⁷, The Red Shift²⁰⁰⁸)and just when you’re about to give…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://www.tribulation.se/ I remember once listening to The Formulas Of Death²⁰¹³ and later The Children Of The Night²⁰¹⁵ (which came out after The Horror²⁰⁰⁹, the debut after 5 years from Tribulation’s conception) and praising the melodic death metal the founders Johannes Andersson (bass, vocals) and Paul Adam “Zaars” Zars (guitars) then…
RELEASE YEAR: 2023 BAND URL: https://20buckspin.bandcamp.com/album/vast-reaches-unclaimed Finally, an album I can honestly give a top score in a good while, “Vast Reaches Unclaimed” from the Minnesotan melodic death metal trio Majesties is very aptly named and a debut at that. In fact, I should call this old school melodic death metal as, if In Flames’…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022 BAND URL: https://omnibuspress.com/ Following the publication of last year’s “Bowie Odyssey 71”, yours truly had been eagerly awaiting its follow-up, and what a treat it now is to be able to tell you that we are dealing with a sparkling new literary gem here. Simon Goddard’s story is an engrossing account of Bowie’s…
RELEASE YEAR: 2022BAND URL: https://www.facebook.com/infanteriasa Volcanic and propulsive, Infanteria lay siege to all and sundry with their latest album, the explosive ‘Patriarch’. The title alone speaks of an aversion to the current social climate, a climate steeped in a belligerent form of liberal fascism that stifles self-expression and freedom of speech beneath the guise of…
It was a bit of a surprise to head that Live Nation is organizing a concert with Alice Cooper at Spektrum, which is a venue with very high capacity and not that the might Aice Cooper doesn’t deserve a sold out stadium, but it feels like there’s not enough people willing to attend the nightmareish…
VENUE: Sentrum Scene DATE: 05.06.2022 ORGANIZER: Rockefeller PHOTOGRAPHER: C. Nepper Photos copyrights belong to the photographer. No unauthorized usage allowed. Please contact photographer if you wish to reuse images in any context. The legendary thrash metal pioneers that are Megadeth paid Norway’s capital city a visit on a warm and sunny Sunday night in…
The Australian progressive neofolk black/death metal one man act Aquilus (meaning something male dark-colored and swarthy) has just (December 3rd) released its second full-length, "Bellum I", which comes ten years after the also fantastic if slightly inferior debut, "Griseus"²⁰¹¹. The level of musical genius which had gone into the making of this new masterpiece is…
Renowned artist Barry Adamson’s recently published autography is nothing short of a literary revelation. Many fine and hugely memorable memoirs and music-related books have seen the light of day this year, but the evocatively titled "Up Above the City, Down Beneath the Stars" undoubtedly sits at the very top of that list and is simply…
How do you define a perfect thrash metal album in the XXI-st century? Firstly, it helps a lot if your roots go all the way back to the roots of the genre (1985) even if you disappear for 5 and then for 14 years and your first life didn’t result so much as in a…
The follow-up to the widely acclaimed "Bowie Odyssey 70" by author Simon Goddard was something that yours truly had been looking forward to for quite some time and I am thrilled to report that what we have here is nothing short of a flawless masterpiece. In short, Goddard’s latest excursion into David Bowie’s early years,…
The sinister British ensemble known as Five the Hierophant is something out of the ordinary and this brand-new opus of theirs is a seriously accomplished one and a monument of emotion and atmosphere. What exactly is "Through Aureate Void"? Imagine if renowned composer Angelo Badalamenti decided to join a blackened doom metal outfit and score…
Many marvelous books by or on musicians as well as those chronicling whole movements and styles and whatnot have seen the light of day these past many years, but once in a while you come across something that touches you profoundly; something that moves and inspires you beyond what the written word on the page…
As of 2022, Germany’s Sodom will officially be 40 years old, with legendary frontman Tom Angelripper a year shy of his 60th birthday. This information, whilst a testament to the band’s longevity, is also mind-boggling when listening to their new album, the absolutely devastating ‘Genesis XIX’, because it has the energy of a band 30…
AC/DC sitt 17 album Power Up svikter ikke! Men vi får en vri, en positiv sådan. Det er lett å trekke tråder bakover i tid, og det er det jo. Angus har tatt frem den ene skuffen med gamle ting det ikke ble noe av og jeg elsker det. Jeg er jo kanskje litt inhabil…
If there’s one band in the world of extreme metal that needs absolutely no introduction, it is Napalm Death. A band that has, in their 39 years of existence (a phenomenal feat in itself for a band of this level of extremity), both started and stretched the limits of sonic excess, they have found success…
Few people who have watched The Shire as depicted in Peter Jackson’s "The Lord Of The Rings" Trilogy motion picture would associate those green picturesque pastures with bleak depressing death metal, yet it is here, in Auckland, New Zealand, that Ulcerate, one of my favorite death metal bands, was born as Bloodwreath in 2000 and…
