Mar 272024
 

(Andy Synn reminds you all that it’s mother’s day this Friday)

As has been pretty well documented, I’m somewhat of a sceptic/cynic when it comes to “one man bands”.

The reason for this is that – in my estimation, at least – the lack of that collaborative creative push-and-pull which you get in a full band situation all too often results in a rather myopic view of things from the singular solo-artist, who may well have something they want to say (I’m not denying that) but doesn’t realise that it’s already been said, in much the same way, many times before.

There are, however, obvious exceptions to this “rule”… certain artists who don’t just possess the necessary vision, and the voice with which to express it, but are also self-aware enough to know that a big part of getting your message across is not only what you say, but how you say it.

And one of those artists is Erik Bleijenberg, aka Verwoed.

Continue reading »

Feb 092024
 

We’ve been following the progress of the Dutch black metal band Verwoed (the solo project of Erik Bleijenberg), and becoming increasingly intrigued and viscerally moved by each successive release. And so it was exciting news to learn that Wolves of Hades and Argento Records will be releasing a new Verwoed album named The Mother on March 29th. Getting the chance to premiere a song from it was another thrill.

The song is called “The Madman’s Dance“, and madness does burn within the music, with such intensity and such wholly enveloping power that it’s easy to feel consumed by it, witnessing not merely derangement but bloody splendor. Continue reading »

Apr 212019
 

 

As you can see, the game plan for this Sunday is to throw more than one installment of this column at you. I’m sticking my neck out because I haven’t started writing Part 2, and will be racing to get it done before I run out of time. In my head, I actually have a line-up for a Part 3 because I’ve found so much black metal over the last week or two that I’d like to recommend, but the odds of getting that done are really intimidating.

For Part 1 I picked advance tracks from forthcoming albums, and one single that will surprise you. For Part 2 I picked some recent full releases.

GARDSGHASTR

We begin with music by a new group composed of known names — Swedish veteran Swartadaupuz of Bekëth Nexëhmü plus Chaos Moon members Alex Poole and Jack and Steven Blackburn, joined by vocalist Glömd. A song from their debut album named “Of Crimson Eyes” debuted in February, and the album’s title track — “Slit Throat Requiem” — surfaced more recently. Continue reading »

Jun 082016
 

Nightbringer art

 

This is the second part of a collection I began yesterday, recommending new song streams and recent album releases from the hallowed realms of black metal. I’ve had a lot of catching up to do after spending most of the last two weeks devoting time to other pursuits, and although I still won’t succeed, I’ve decided to prepare a third installment of this post, collecting a handful of additional song streams and releases. That will probably happen tomorrow, but perhaps today if I have more time than I think I’ll have.

NIGHTBRINGER

As many of you already know, four tremendously good black metal bands — Thy Darkened Shade, Abigor, Mortuus, and Nightbringer — have joined forces to create an album-length split recording that has been one of my most highly anticipated releases of the year. We began hinting at this release back in January when we premiered an excerpt from Thy Darkened Shade’s offering for the split. Since then, excerpts from each of the other band’s tracks have gradually been revealed. The last one came yesterday when Nightbringer previewed its track, which is named “Tunnels”. Continue reading »