Author: Neil Gray
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If A Blaze in the Northern Sky was the moment Darkthrone spat in the face of polished death metal, Under a Funeral Moon is where they locked the door, poured concrete against the frame, and sat in absolute darkness. By mid-1992, the death metal scene was rapidly turning into everything Fenriz and Nocturno Culto couldn’t…
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You know the best way to get my attention? Put a giant bloody snake in your film. There’s an immediate, primal pull to reptile horror, but the subgenre has spent the last twenty years choking on its own self-awareness. The second studios realized they could turn giant monster flicks into cheap, ironic comedies, anyone actually…
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If your playlist is usually flooded with over-produced, squeaky-clean modern metal sounding like it was mixed by an AI algorithm, a band like YHWH is a welcome bit of grit in the gears. The Belgian-Thai black metal project has returned with Übermenschen and Underdogs, the opening salvo from their upcoming EP Baghavat, set to land…
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Normally, if an inbox email doesn’t contain grim Norwegian forests, obscure horror films, or suffocating guitar riffs, it gets bin-bagged without a second thought. But every now and then, a press release lands that catches the eye simply because it deals in the same currency we care about: raw atmosphere, ancestral tradition, and a complete…
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If Darkthrone’s answer to the early nineties was to retreat into a cold, filthy garage and drag Celtic Frost through the mud, Immortal took a completely different look at the Norwegian landscape and decided to turn it into an avalanche. 1993 was the year the second wave truly froze over. While much of the notorious…
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If you want to understand second-wave black metal, you don’t start with the tabloid nonsense, the church burnings, or the murder trials. You start with four blokes in Norway recording an album in 1991 that would help create the most glorious middle-finger U-turn in heavy metal history. To understand why A Blaze in the Northern…
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Lenore did something that no other horror movie has done to me in a long time. It made me jump. Yeah. I was surprised as well. I can’t tell you what happened or where in the film it occurred, because doing that would completely fucking ruin it, but for the first time in a very,…
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Überchriist don’t mess about with trivialities like intro tracks. There is no self-indulgent noodling or atmospheric mood setting at the start of Dæmonic Apotheosis. Überchriist just get straight to the fucking point and start slapping you around like a red-headed stepchild, with the opening track, Anti-Phoenix Descent. It’s refreshing. For far too long, black metal…
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This is either going to be absolutely brilliant or bloody awful, but considering both of those things fall in my wheelhouse, I’m going to have a great time. The trend of turning beloved childhood icons into cheap slasher villains has officially claimed another victim. After Mickey Mouse, Bambi, Pinocchio, and Winnie the Pooh all got…
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Before I get into this review, I want to tell you a story. A couple of months ago I was at the end of it all, from a writing perspective. I wasn’t making any money, I was burnt out, and felt that I was just banging the same drum. Music news. Music reviews. Music news.…