Photo credit: Jillian Grace Benham (@celesticos on instagram) Rick Martel and Lauren Crosser are Chainlacing. A Duo that has created a sound that is a fuzz infused Synaesthesia of emotion, depth and an almost kinaesthetic wonder. After teasing several singles, the debut album Messuage is finally available, and it is a revelation of sound that has roots in urban shoegaze but is blessed with a dreamy ethereal wonder that surprises with every listen. It is an intelligent organ

Finsterforst- Still 9/10 For those uninitiated, the sixth full length album by Germanys Finsterforst is a celebration of their black forest metal and the crossing of genre boundaries. Dynamic and steeped in tradition, the result is an album that celebrates life and exemplary musicianship. From some simply beautifully clean guitar sections to the simply huge riff that is ‘Obduktion’’, the pacing is tempered and sparse to allow everything to fully overwhelm the senses with a s

Valfurlogi – Gneisti af eldi Guðs 8.5/10 Gneisti af eldi Guðs (A spark of God's fire) is the second album from Iceland’s Valfurlogi. It is a masterclass in modern melodic black metal that is as experimental as it is uncompromising and extreme. Gneisti af eldi Guðs reeks of a maturity that comes for compositions created over a twenty-year period. For all the chaos of the title track there is a methodical almost mathematical urgency to the riff that threatens to spin out of c

Duir- Catarsi 7.5 /10 The Second album from the faceless collective that is Italy’s Duir, Catarsi is an ambitious WWI concept record exploring the psychological despair of a soldier, the result is desolate and haunting expressed through raw folk infused black metal. From the opener of Manifesto and its grim settings the hurdy gurdy and guitar stand at equal footing, and the result is a sound that is recognizable yet also unique, it is a vast cinematic infused style that capt

Fyrnask – Íosir 9/10 For their fifth album the collective of Fyrnask from Lübeck, Eitorf (Germany) have embraced the rage and the terror of inevitability that is the conceptual “’Iosir”. Described as a ‘’album that follows a single consciousness through the realm of the dead — across burning gates, wrathful and luminous forces, and a final dissolution.” It is an all-encompassing plunge into the depths of the utterly uncompromising black metal. Fyrnask has created an alum tha