Opening with minimalist bass and guitar and tom driven percussion that builds to bursting point is a smart way to kick off a release, and such is the beginning of the new Pleiades album. It sets the mood by sonically establishing the variety of heaviness set to unfold, in this case a face melting composite…
A much heralded event awaits as American noise rock masters Daughters arrived at Brudnell Social Club for the Leeds stop on their current UK tour. Jessica93 (7) is a Parisian solo artist who pulls from myriad influences to create his eclectic sound. Whether it’s the programmed drum beats that hark back to the glory days…
As the sound of waves raging against rocks echoes out into the void, Funeral March For Modern Man, the introductory song for Cirith Gorgor’s latest album, Sovereign, begins. It is a melancholic and elegiac, stunted piece that is somewhat hopeful in its harmonies and stringed accompaniment. It is the inly moment of optimism in the…
Opening with the curiously titled, Bumgardener, Inter Arma’s new album Sulphur English starts out brooding and intense. The first track proper, A Waxen Sea arrives as a doomy, crushing beast with surprisingly catchy refrains comprising its middle section. The vocals are reminiscent of the very heaviest that doom metal has to offer, bordering on death…
One of the world’s more looked down upon subgenres is stoner rock. Often perceived as the slacker cousin of Doom, the genre sometimes is unfairly maligned and pigeonholed as simplistic and unengaging for those not committed to hailing the leaf. This couldn’t be further from the truth: Stoner music has a breadth of musicality and…
Some people write off post-music as egregiously onanistic or pretentious. These people are of course fools who have never heard, for example, Through Silver In Blood, Kodama or Sunbather. In the world of post- music exists a rainbow of talented artists creating works of wonder with the tools handed down by previous generations of musicians….
Plenty of bands can be labelled as influential. Iron Maiden helped birth the NWOBHM sound, the Big 4 made thrash a global phenomenon, Meshuggah accidentally created Djent. The list is long and varied, each prospective pioneer deserving of a different accolade. But it’s not just in genre or subgenre creation that a band becomes influential:…
Metalcore is a very different beast to its original guise. Compared the heady days of the pioneering work of Vision of Disorder and Integrity, the subgenre bears little resemblance to its former form. There’s a very valid point to be argued that this is a regression. The distinction often has to be made for the…
Heavy metal was birthed in ashes. In the bombed ruins of post-war Aston, heavy music was formed. It was in this desolate, industrial landscape that four men found themselves creating something hitherto unheard. Mill and factory work has always inspired the most bleak realms of the artistic world, whether it’s the arable nature of John…
By now you should be familiar with Holy Roar Records. If not; you need to sort that out immediately. Purveyors if all things interesting in the world of heavy music, their output is always soulful, emotionally wrought and more often than not spine snappingly heavy. Be it the barren, contemplative bearing of the soul of…