Tag Archives: folk

Artist: Belore Album Title: Eastern Tales Label: Northern Silence Productions Date of Release: 5 April 2024 I think it’s obvious by now, if it wasn’t already, that atmospheric black metal is a weakness of mine. When done well, it can provide some of the most glorious music within the metal sphere, full of melody and  Continue Reading »

Artist: Iterum Nata Album Title: From The Infinite Light Label: Nordvis Produktion Date of Release: 15 March 2024 Another late-night trawl through my promo offerings led me to this release, and I was immediately intrigued. The accompanying press release described the music on this album as: “Fusing the brooding narratives of Nick Cave, the avant-garde creativity  Continue Reading »

Artist: Hamferð Album Title: Men Guðs hond er sterk Label: Metal Blade Records Date of Release: 22 March 2024 I’ve had my eye on this release for quite some time and I’m delighted that it is finally here. I’m even more delighted with the final product, as it is just about everything I had hoped  Continue Reading »

Artist: Esa Holopainen Album Title: Silver Lake By Esa Holopainen Label: Nuclear Blast Date of Release: 28 May 2021 I don’t mind admitting that I’m a huge fan of Amorphis, and have been since before the Millennium, thanks to the amazing ‘Tuonela’ album. It still remains a personal favourite of mine, not just within the  Continue Reading »

Artist: Empyrium Album Title: Über den Sternen Label: Prophecy Productions Date of Release: 26 February 2021 I have a soft spot for Empyrium, so much so that I splurged a great deal of money on the box set ‘A Retrospective…’ a few years ago. Starting out as more of a melodic black metal band, the  Continue Reading »

Artist: Atavistia Album Title: The Winter Way Label: Independent Release Date of Release: 29 May 2020 I have ‘Time I’ in my collection as any self-respecting fan of heavy metal should, but to be perfectly honest, theirs is not the brand of heavy metal that I tend to get carried away with. I love melodic  Continue Reading »

Artist: Kvaen Album Title: The Funeral Pyre Label: Black Lion Records Date of Release: 28 February 2020 The black metal scene is littered, arguably more than any other, with one-man bands and projects. Many of them are absolute rubbish, the kind that only their mothers will like, or that can’t really be heard because they  Continue Reading »

Artist: Mariana Semkina Album Title: Sleepwalking Label: Kscope Date of Release: 14 February 2020 You may recognise the name, for Mariana Semkina (who has tweaked her real name, Marjana for this release) is one half of the duo that, alongside Gleb Kolyadin has created the rather intriguing and beautiful Iamthemorning, who have rightfully gained in  Continue Reading »

Welcome to the ninth chapter of 2018’s ‘Album of the Year’ series. Not even a third of the way through my list and already I have received some really heartening comments about the choices and the fact that some of you have discovered something that you originally missed out on earlier in the year for  Continue Reading »

Welcome to day three of my half-year round-up of the best music released during the first six months of 2018. If you missed the previous parts of this mini-series, you can read them here: The best of 2018 so far – Part 1 The best of 2018 so far – Part 2 However, essentially, this  Continue Reading »