17 Jul 2024 - Thorsten

Man, what a revival Noise-Rock is having in 2024! Or wait – it‘s not a revival, as that implies a kind of “death” beforehand and as genres cannot really die (here that’s a great thing unlike with political ideologies). However, the genre hast definitely seen a huge rise lately and this year it seems to be running onto center-stages front and center. Cold Wives will surely be seen on festivals all around the world and they surely deserve a great spot on the line-ups; after listening to their self-titled debut record.

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05 Jul 2024 - Knut
Post-Rock

A cascading cinematic concept album by one of Britain´s finest Post-Rock groups that has emerged in the last years. It takes inspiration from Scott´s ill-fated South Pole expedition in 1912 and the famous last words from one of the expedition´s members.

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21 Jun 2024 - Knut
Ambient

Nearly two hours of captivating Ambient music somewhere in the wake of Brian Eno´s genre-defining album 46 years ago where he coined the idea Ambient.

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18 Jun 2024 - Thorsten
Avantgarde MetalKrautrock

Dreams can come true. Should they? Different question. Sometimes are dreams that haunt you or the wet dreams of music nerds like us. However, instrumental music can become the soundtrack of our dreams – and when you listen to Traum‘s self-titled debut, it combines many of these ideas. It also unites a huge musical scope under its dreamy elegant feathers, from Post-Metal to Krautrock.

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17 Jun 2024 - Stephan
Death MetalProgressive Metal

Confuse your readers! Or make at least one or two of them scratch their heads for a second. That’s good enough for me. Not long ago Veil of Sound was hosting the record premiere of Vorare & Earthflesh. I only noticed that after I had just finally ordered the new album of Syk. And as far as I know there’s no connection other than coincidence between the Harsh Noise artist Earthflesh and this album of the same name. But I took it as a cosmic sign to write this review anyway.

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14 Jun 2024 - Hunter
Sludge

What would your younger self think of who you have become? Such an introspective notion may have entered your mind before and it is certainly an important question to ponder when thinking of our trajectory as an individual. To better understand who we are, we need to reminisce on who we have been. For Thou, Umbilical is the product of a years-long meditation on this sentiment. The result is a time capsule containing a masterful collection of riff-laden and vitriolic diatribes addressed to the band from their former selves.

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13 Jun 2024 - Simon
Progressive Metal

Urzah have exploded onto the scene recently, and this, their brilliant debut album will only see the clamour for them intensify

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07 Jun 2024 - Gene

Pushing Heavy Forward

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05 Jun 2024 - Thorsten
Noise-RockPost-Hardcore

Exile on Mainstream Records has always been (and probably always will be) a label for music between several chairs from the 80s and 90s. Its roster features a certain sound without catering to a certain genre. One of the bands who exemplify that very nicely are the Antikaroshi from Potsdam, who have just today, May 31, released L‘inertie polaire, their sixth full-length, all of them on Exile on Mainstream, hence the trio is a perfect basis for the following line of argumentation!

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02 Jun 2024 - PBV
Progressive Metal

Like a vessel climbing the divine dominion, Coffin of Conviction glides through a sea of tranquility and turmoil.

The title track shoots off like a portal into Human’s Morrisound with a chorused undercurrent electricity of the fortress of Holdsworth. The track feels like acid raindrops cutting through the chrome windshield of a high speeding Stingray driven by R. Jarzombek. The string layers slide off like flakes of ice splitting against the zooming car. The rhythm drifts into a jagged wraparound shot of a bridge crumbling in the precipitation with the automobile being submerged by the elements.

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26 May 2024 - Gökhan
Hardcore

We always hear about bands making claims of having written their “heaviest” record during pre-release periods, either to reclaim their days of glory (especially if the band is older) or in order to push their boundaries in extremity. I personally think the word “heavy” is quite a vague and worn-out term that gets thrown around a lot. What kind of music does come to mind when one thinks of the word of “heavy”? Primitive Man? Conan? Meshuggah? Black Sabbath? Perhaps, the more important question is “How authentically heavy is the music?”

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25 May 2024 - Thorsten
KrautrockPsychedelic

Why should anyone listen to a German version of well-out of time Psychedelic Rock which could originate from either end of the Pacific Ocean, either in the San Diego Jam Rock scene or the Japanese Kraut-regions? Well, simply put – because Goblyns and their second full-length record within the span of 13 months (!) is just really good. Enjoy Hunki Bobo in all its dimensions!

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24 May 2024 - Thorsten
Progressive MetalPost-Metal

DVNE have released their next opus magnum and it deserves one high comparison that I would not give if I didn‘t believe the guys would take it as such: Voidkind is their TOOL-record. As such, I believe the guys are gonna go far and even more important – deservedly so! Enjoy the next big thing in Progressive Metal!

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20 May 2024 - Lucia
Blackened Death MetalDeath-Doom

Have you ever wondered what the perfect soundtrack for battle is? Look no further, as Tzompantli’s Beating the Drums of Ancestral Force is full of skull crushing drums and heavy riffs that will make the enemy run for their lives. This album combines powerful Death Doom mixed with Native/Indigenous traditional instruments that make Tzompantli’s music unique. It achieves an element that almost sounds like what you might hear whilst ascending the steps of an Aztec temple, on your way to becoming a sacrificial offering to the gods and knowing that your head will be next one to be added to the rack.

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20 May 2024 - PBV
Black MetalPost-Black Metal

The stamp that adorns the visage of the front cover of Living Is Easy recalls a joyous dance akin to the vibrating figures of a Keith Haring mural during the most violent years of Alphabet City.

When folks speak of the golden pastures of “The Flenser Sound” there are plenty of visuals that evoke out of the darkness—perhaps the hard edge of frame of an expressionist painting, or a major chord coloring a void into infinity. The sensibility may feel “West Coast” with a sunny beam traveling up a side of City Hall or tracing the curves of the Capitol building, but the geography of these two EPs are much more nuanced. The first nuance is the dissonant entity of Brandeis and Ehnahre—the academy and brutality in collision. The second nuance is the seemingly literal but not so literal ode to horticulture, which recalls lush open fields, hummingbirds drinking from the stream and blood red tomatoes.

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17 May 2024 - Daria
Post-PunkNoise-Rock

Even though I’m based geographically near Switzerland, there are few acts from there that reached my music bubble beyond the Alps. One of those is for sure Peter Kernel, and if you’re into fresh new Art-Rockish acts you have to check them out for sure. This link is useful for me to introduce my newest discovery from Switzerland (apart from the recent Eurovision winner, but that’s another story), since this band I’m going to talk about shared the stage with Peter Kernel in the past: SOOMA.

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17 May 2024 - Knut
Atmospheric SludgePost-Metal

A twenty-minute masterpiece of Post-Metal with stunning ambiance from probably one of the most overlooked bands on the scene although, arguably one of the most excellent and interesting .

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10 May 2024 - Simon
Sludge Metal

Dopethrone come out swinging on their latest monolithically heavy album, are you ready?.

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05 May 2024 - Thorsten
Post-Rock

Goodbye Meteor is one of these bands that should be huge among genre-fans. Whoever loves well-made Post-Rock will probably already have fallen in love with the band from the north of France, close to the Belgian border, thus also close to the Europesan epicenter of Post-Rock called dunk!Records. The wonderful people there also released We Could Have Been Radiant and even though the first press is sold out, I still want to try and convince more people into listening to this record. Why? Because it shines.

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03 May 2024 - Thorsten
Blackened Sludge Metal

Inter Arma from Richmond, Virginia, have always been a sensational band – but with their new release New Heaven they definitely did not take a small step but a giant leap (for all of metal mankind). This record combines all their quality elements known before and adds some new parts that make it stand out even more. Huge record! One of the best of 2024!

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02 May 2024 - Knut
Atmospheric Sludge MetalPost Metal

The Sheffielders Ba’al are back four years after their triumphant Ellipsism with a bolder, more visionary musical scope taking their music further into Atmospheric Sludge Metal sonics.

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30 Apr 2024 - Lucia
Post-MetalSludge

Kollapse’s AR is to me like a scar that seems healed on the surface, but below the tissue, there’s still something deep in that wound that is infected. They manage to pour in all of the visceral emotion that makes this album an intense listen: threatening, but at the same time inviting the listener to share this experience with them. To face the ugly and the grime, while at the same time digging deep and enjoying their unique and abrasive sound.

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26 Apr 2024 - Stephan
SoulAlternative Rock

Feeling tired of soulful female Pop stars in skimpy outfits almost exclusively singing about relationships and break-ups? Rejoice as I give you a Swedish Pop singer, clad in black lingerie and high-heel boots, and her long-awaited new album, on which she’s downright obsessed with love, hurt, heartbreak and heal… Ok, I confess that sometimes I just make a lousy salesman.

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24 Apr 2024 - Knut
Post RockPost Metal

The Swiss quintet has released a cinematic album dedicated to the ocean in all its unpredictable majestic splendor mixing the tenderness of Post-Rock and the dense heaviness of Post-Metal.

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17 Apr 2024 - Knut
DoomgazeDarkwaveIndustrial

A brave genre-bending album soaked in the heaviest and slowest Doom with delightful dissonant parts reeking of grinding Industrial Metal seeped with gloomy Darkwave synth sampling.

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