The Heretic started as a solo project of Stephan Larsen (who’s responsible for all the guitars, bass, vocal, drum programming) in 2020. However the idea for this project has been in the making for years ..read more

This particular Split, by its very nature, consists of two halves, and hence will be divided into its constituent parts as part of this scribble. The first half I will be delving into will be that of Ikana’s Froid by merit of being the first part of the album new listeners will be spinning (the A-side, if you will), which consists of three tracks from the relatively new French Atmospheric Black Metal/Dungeon Synth from the one-man act.  Musically, all three tracks are significantly more Dungeon Synth than Black Metal, relying heavily upon the use of a synthetic organ all throughout, using ..read more

Cachot d’Effroi (French for Dread Dungeon) is a Raw Black Metal solo act, one that I am having quite a bit of trouble finding any information regarding. What I have been able to dig up (aside from what little is already mentioned) is the fact that the band seems to have been formed sometime during or immediately prior to 2023 with this ten-track demo serving as their debut.  After using Google Translate to help me understand the name of the band, the overall sound and presence of the entire record makes a lot of sense – Something that I am always admirable of. Which in this case means tha ..read more

Ergot De Seigle, aside from being a type of fungus, apparently one that can create entire forests of itself is, as of 2022, also a Raw Black Metal solo-project hailing from my beloved France. So far they have released a grand total of two Demos (both of whom were later re-released as a compilation album as well as a Full-length album, all in a span of two years – One, if you consider that the Compilation was released a year later than the original three, and consider it to provide very little new to the table. But I digress, especially since I am not aware of whether or not this is even the ca ..read more

Demonist is a French old-school Death Metal trio who, by their own admission, strive to keep alive the standard set by mid-era Morbid Angel. This has so far been done through a Single that earlier this year evolved into a four-piece self-titled EP. And true to form, the record was released on cassette, something antiquated me enjoyed both as a nice final touch as well as amusing since physical copies delivered to my boss has to be on CD – So they ripped and burned it for me, adding the cassette sleeve instead of creating a jewelcase cover just for the review versions. I love the dedication of ..read more

The commercial heyday for Sinner and L.A. Guns may have been in the 80’s, but their respective members Michael Sweet and Tracii Guns, have been rather prolific with several projects during a course of past decade or so. Their own collaboration debut Evil and Divine came out three years ago and it was a rather strong album packed with fired up riffs and good melodies. The follow up Light Up the Sky picks up where the debut left off, meaning that this is another classic Heavy Metal record, with just enough Hard Rock in there to make it relatable to the kind of music both men are mostly associate ..read more

Tool press photo: Travis-Shinn (Photographers were banned from Tool’s Copenhell show) The progressive royalties are still out there supporting their latest album Fear Inoculum, which came out almost five years ago. Perhaps the fact that the album was met by commercial and critical acclaim is one of the reasons why Tool are still touring it, and another one is the fact that it was their first album in 13 years. And it’s not like the band has toured it non-stop, because band members were in the meantime also busy with other projects, especially band’s singer Maynard James Keenan, who’s also jugg ..read more

Photo: Goran www.urbanmescalero.com Previous day at Copenhell we got to see Biohazard and then we were treated by another New York City Hard Core band, Madball. Heaving its roots in late 80’s the band was formed as by Agnostic Front vocalist Roger Miret on bass, and Vinnie Stigma on guitar, as a way for Miret’s 12-year ol half-brother Freddy Cricien to get his own band. These days Cricien is the only original member and after parting ways with long-time member Jorge “Hoya Roc” Guerra, the longest serving member in the band besides Cricien is drummer Mike Justian who has been with the band sinc ..read more

Photo: Zoran www.sonic-shot.com 15 years have passed since pivotal release Wide Awake from Australian progressive metal band Karnivool and more than ten years have passed since the release of their latest album. But it’s not like the band was inactive and di premiere some new music. Nevertheless it seems that some new music (preferably an album) is long overdue.  Last year the band played their first concert in Copenhagen in ten years and it was one of the best sounding shows, yours truly, has ever witnessed. Their 2:45 PM show at Copenhell also started of sounding rather good and couple ..read more

Photo: Goran www.urbanmescalero.com Some decade ago Robb Flynn decided that Machine Head will not be playing festivals anymore because he didn’t really like them. But then something happened, and Machine Head recently started playing festivals again. Is it the fact that festivals have become big portion of many artist’s income or did Flynn simply wanted to give it another go? Who can tell? The fact is that machine Head were booked as one of four headliners at this year’s Copenhell, which seems odd. The band has never really been a massive festival headliner so it was going to be interesting if ..read more