Everyone knows the old adage of not judging a book by its cover, but you can certainly infer a lot about an album by its cover art. Before I’d even listened to a note of Mental Fracture’s debut album, Disaccord,…
View More Mental Fracture – DisaccordAuthor: Nick Hudson
Ufomammut – Fenice
This is a review of Ufomammut’s latest album, Fenice, but I’m going to begin by writing about an earlier one. That might seem a strange thing to do, but it feels right for me. My descent into the dark and…
View More Ufomammut – FeniceEcho Rhythm – The Program
I am not a fan of pigeonholing a band by genre, not least because there is often very little definition, distinction or border between them. Genre labels can give the appearance that it is as clear-cut as black and white,…
View More Echo Rhythm – The ProgramOU – One
Imagine a collaboration between Enya and Enigma, and Leprous and Liquid Tension Experiment. Now don’t, because that still won’t work as those bands all have quite Western sounds. So imagine that collaboration by similar artists with a more Eastern sound.…
View More OU – OneKalandra – Kingdom Two Crowns: Norse Lands Soundtrack (Extended)
Kingdom Two Crowns is in some ways quite a surprising sophomore album from Norwegian “pop” band Kalandra – and in others not surprising at all. I said of the opening track to their debut, The Line, that Borders was “an…
View More Kalandra – Kingdom Two Crowns: Norse Lands Soundtrack (Extended)Fromuz – The Asymmetric Rules
Just over a decade ago I discovered a band called From.uz who, perhaps unsurprisingly given their name, hail from Uzbekistan. They had just released an album called Quartus Artifactus, which I imagine is probably Latin for fourth artefact. Regardless, this…
View More Fromuz – The Asymmetric RulesGhost Toast – Shade Without Color
“This is the way the world ends Not with a bang but a whimper.” Quite possibly the most famous and most quoted words from T S Eliot, ending his poem The Hollow Men. Hungary’s Ghost Toast, however, have chosen to…
View More Ghost Toast – Shade Without ColorVarious Artists – Hauntology in UK
While I have had the Eighth Tower compilation Hauntology in UK since the beginning of the year, it took the recent death of Philip Jeck (on 25th March 2022) to kickstart my writing this review. Jeck was a celebrated and…
View More Various Artists – Hauntology in UKRiverwood – Shadows and Flames
Riverwood is a progressive metal band from Egypt, and without writing a further word, I imagine for a lot of people they are already imagining comparisons to bands like Tunisia’s Myrath, or Israel’s Orphaned Land. Given that Egypt is the…
View More Riverwood – Shadows and FlamesThe D/A Method – Sanctuary
I first came across Pakistan’s The D/A Method, as I suspect did many, via Bruce Soord on Facebook: he co-produced their second album, The Desert Road, as well as contributing additional vocals and guitars. I guess this was realistically their…
View More The D/A Method – Sanctuary