black n roll

Album Review: Bewitcher — “Cursed Be Thy Kingdom”

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“The Devil is always ready to make the deal…” says Bewitcher frontman M. Von Bewitcher.  Just as Ralph Macchio before them, the band made a pact with Satan a long time ago, ostensibly trading their souls in for killer old school thrash meets classic heavy metal riffs and a successful career that seems only to climb higher as time goes on.  Still, it’s been a long strange road that’s brought the band to their Century Media debut Cursed Be Thy Kingdom, and it hasn’t been without struggle, but this offering sees them put out their tightest and most expansive release yet.

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Reinventing Black Metal Part II: SRD

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Photo: Simon Pelko

In the first part of this series I implied black metal is overrun with Satanic imagery and it just isn’t interesting anymore. However, we also focused on the unique situation of Al Namrood and their struggles. Today, we’re taking a look at Srd, a band which will unfortunately be much less known to most readers. Slovenia isn’t traditionally a country that produces a lot of amazing metal and I’m sure the large majority would struggle to name a single band coming out of it. However, as a Slovenian myself, I’ve been lucky to have seen Srd live quite a few times by now, even though the band is rather young and has only been founded in 2016. Now, you might think I’m biased because everyone tends to like supporting their local scene. And you might have a bit of a point there, which brings me to my next pretentiously philosophical idea. Black metal’s relation to ethnic culture.

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Nine* Circles ov…What “Didn’t” Make My 2018 End of Year List (But Could Have)

Chris6 Comments

EOY 2018 Header 9C

* SPOILERS: it’s gonna be 20 albums…buckle your seat belts.

I told myself this year I was going to take it easy – do the Honorable Mentions, get the final list out, and put 2018 to rest.  On a global, national, and personal front the year’s been pretty much a disaster from the start, and the quicker I can put it in my rearview mirror the better.  But the more I tweaked and played with my end of year selections (thank you Trello for making that shit so easy) the more I realized that – like always – music was the thing that propped me up and made every setback if not better, at least tolerable.  And when the dust cleared from all the list building I found a huge excess of albums that didn’t make my lists but easily could have on another day.  Everything is interchangeable; we are not the people we were even a moment ago, and those experiences constantly inform our perspective on the world, metal albums included. Continue reading →

Second Circle: Slegest and Ævangelist

Josh2 Comments

Second Circle

Life is all about contrasts. Some big, some small, some noticeable and some not so much. But in the end, without them, this would be a boring and laborious life. With that said, for this edition of Second Circle I’m taking a look at two albums that are sharp and stark in their contrasts but both have made an indelible impact on my listening habits as of late and both stood out instantly as albums I’d be engrossed in for different reasons and for some time to come. These albums are Slegest‘s Introvert and Ævangelist‘s Matricide In the Temple of Omega. Continue reading →

Profile: Michel Regueiro of The Evil Dead

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Evil Dead new
The Evil Dead

Argentina’s The Evil Dead play an eclectic and extremely addicting mix of classic heavy metal, modern day speed metal and black n roll. The band started in 2006 and have one demo, one EP and, as of this past January, their second full length Earth Inferno was released. This album finds the band with even more beautifully executed NWOBHM harmonies and structures, a tighter grip on the speed metal resurgence and a larger focus on black metal this time out with an exceptional vocal performance that would make Jon Nodtveidt proud. All of which make for an outstanding sophomore effort that while it may remind you of the glory days in metal it is by no means a carbon copy, instead the band takes all of their influences and comes away with something that will find an audience with metal fans from all across the spectrum. We recently had the opportunity to ask Michel Regueiro (guitarist) our set of Profile questions so read on to see what he had to say.

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