Following the chunky ‘Chrome Pineal’ EP, ‘Possessed by the Rise of Magik’ is the latest from Dorset slow-core metallers Ramesses, and should have all of you sludge heads rubbing yer hands with glee. Sounding like it was recorded in the bowels of Satan’s terrace in Wednesbury, this is not a record for people who like their metal clean and technical. Rather ‘Possessed…’ sounds like metal used to sound, like the trio have just come home from a long day at the car factory, hands all bloody and blistered ready for a night of serious jamming. And who can begrudge ‘em that? Proper rock music, and there’s not much left these days.

Review to follow shortly…

Burzum’s return to the black metal fray continues with ‘Umskiptar’, and like its predecessor ‘Fallen’ Varg Vikernes’ vocals are stripped of the distortion and saturation usually associated with them and given a frightening full-focus. Varg has described the record as a return to the roots of black metal, and certainly there is a sense on tracks like ‘Alfadanz’ that he has returned to the formula that made records like ‘Filosofem’ so widely respected. However the new clarity to his vocals makes the record undeniably spine-chilling; without added grit Varg’s voice is even more angry and demonic th… Read more

Jefre Cantu-Ledesma’s explorations into gritty dream pop are turned up to eleven here on this re-issue of the extremely limited EN/OF album ‘Visiting This World’. The gorgeous sun-bleached romanticism that made ‘Love is a Stream’ so darned addictive is still present, but is jammed into a dense haze of brick-wall noise you would probably more readily associate with the Mego label. This works wonders for Jefre’s sound, and proves he is an artist who refuses to stay still for a second – the hints at classic My Bloody Valentine and Ride are hiding somewhere but for those of us… Read more

This Canadian duo of Aidan Baker and Leah Buckareff have concocted a veritable prog-doom epic in the format of a single hour long piece, caked in rasping fuzz and synthesizer atmospherics. Thaumogenesis starts inconspicuously enough, with some drifting synth pads and meandering bass only for all hell to break loose five minutes in, with a huge swell in volume from a monolithic wave of distorted guitar and bass. Over its considerable duration, the dynamics of the piece fluctuate massively, taking in moments of frazzled electronic soundscaping and interspersing them with grinding, glacially slo… Read more

The latest impossibly black-hearted offering from Miasmah is the work of Gareth Davis and Frances-Marie Uitti. It's one of the least obviously electronic releases on the label to date - Uitti and Davis achieve its sublimely haunting, enervating sound largely through the natural power of their chosen instruments - clarinet and cello. But this is no neo-classical driftscape to pass an idle half an hour, it's a work that's angry and alive, possessed of a seductive and nightmarish energy. Davis's low-swooping clarinet tones in particular are capable of dredging up all kinds … Read more

It’s been a long time in the making, but KTL’s fifth slab of blackened wax is finally upon us, and what a treat it is. Peter Rehberg and Stephen O’Malley’s grim collaboration may have begun as an ear-clawing take on the doom metal subgenre, but on ‘V’ the duo strip the metal from their deathly compositions. In fact much of the record was recorded at electronic music Meccas GRM (in Paris) and EMS (in Stockholm), so that should give you some idea of the direction we’re taking here. While hardly a ‘classical’ record, the sounds on ‘V’ are rooted in the European minimalism of Eliane Radigue or even Gyorgy Li… Read more

Justin Broaderick (Jesu, Palesketcher, Techno Animal, Napalm Death) remerges as JK Flesh for one of his heaviest albums in years. Appearing on 3by3, the label who tasked him with those bloodied remixes of Cloaks, he moves away from the shoegaze visions of last year's brilliant Palesketcher album, and the dramas of Jesu to burrow deep into stark, subterranean Dubstep rhythms mixed with rusted guitar noise and guttural howls. Like his buddy The Bug's brutalised dub, or Distance's axe-wielding halfstep, 'Posthuman' is all about visceral distortion and bruising bass weight, from the quaking kicks … Read more

‘Dopesmoker’ is an important record, let’s get that out of the way first. Originally recorded back in 1995, it languished in mostly unreleased form until 2003 when Sleep (the unholy trinity of Al Cisneros, Chris Hakius and Matt Pike) finally started getting the attention they always deserved. Fans of all things Sunn o))) and Earth will probably have heard it before, but let me be the first to say that this brand new remastered edition is the finest iteration of the record I’ve heard. The monolithic hour-long piece now sounds wider, thicker and doomier than ever before and Brad Boatright has give… Read more

Portraits is the product of many brilliant hands and minds converged with a singular purpose. Starring a constellation of North American drone artists - Jefre Cantu-Ledesma (Root Strata, Tarentel), Evan Caminiti & Jon Porras from Barn Owl, Lisa McGee (Higuma), Gregg Kowalsky (Date Palms), Marielle Jakobsons (Date Palms), Maxwell Croy (Root Strata/EN) Steven Dye & Tony Cross (Tarentel alum) and Michel Elrod, who plays tambura with Date Palms, Barn Owl & The Alps among others - Portraits touch upon frequencies and harmonics not typically achievable with smaller ensembles. Their mass is their st… Read more

Review to follow shortly…

"Recorded in the mild winter of 2011/12 and twisted into shape at the mighty Tonmeisterei studio this album marks a new step for Black Shape Of Nexus, postulating a path into their forseeable future. We don’t need to rave about the fact that this is their best recordings to date and we have never heard anything better from them or any other band in the entire known universe, don’t we? You wouldn’t find this band on this label if we wouldn’t be 120% convinced that these guys can save the world. Or tear it down, whatever…"

An incredibly stylish, creepy album of nocturnal, Lynchian jazz and dread-infused electronics from Richmond, VA's Jonathan Lee aka Anduin. Lee has worked with Svarte Greiner and Jasper TX in the past, and certainly this album would sound right at home on the Miasmah label, such is its exquisite moodiness and attention to ambient detail. It's beautifully composed and executed, with deep synth drones underscoring mournful sax lines right out of the Badalamenti/Bohren school of impending doom; there are excursions too into a kind of hollowed-out ambient techno on 'The Transformation Of Substance… Read more