Darkher

King Woman – Celestial Blues Review

By Cherd on August 3, 2021 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Post-Metal, Sludge, 41 comments

“King Woman hit the metal world in 2017 with debut album Created In the Image of Suffering to relatively high praise, both from metal sites and the Pitchfork/NPR corners of metal coverage. At the time I even saw it on a few of the more mainstream metal site year end lists. Personally, I found it…pretty OK. You all know me to be a shill for sludgy doom who doesn’t mind the stoner/psych side of things, and that was squarely what Created In the Image of Suffering was, albeit with a slightly more indie enchantress spin thanks to principle member Kristina Esfandiari. While the Iranian born, California raised Esfandiari certainly has a distinctly captivating voice, I found the first King Woman album solid, but falling short of the hype.” Hype and high potential.

Empress – Wait ‘Til Night Review

By GardensTale on November 22, 2020 in Reviews, Doom Metal, Post-Metal, 18 comments

“What? Another album by Empress? But it’s only been like 6 weeks since Premonition dropped! Ah, but you see, sometimes names can have two bands. Rather than the frigid wastes of Vancouver, this Empress is from the slightly less frigid wastes of Gold Coast, Australia. Both dabble in various forms of post-metal, too. And if that doesn’t make for enough confusion, my cleverly modified search for “empress australia” revealed Empress Australia already exists as well, except this one is… a shoe brand. No wonder the band’s Bandcamp and Facebook addresses have to repeat their name twice. So the band is a little difficult to DuckDuckGo, but is it worth the effort?” Crowded doom.

Sinistro – Sangue Cássia Review

By Huck N Roll on January 2, 2018 in 2018, Doom Metal, Portuguese Metal, Reviews, Season of Mist, Doom Metal, 49 comments

“Two years ago, both Grymm and myself were fairly impressed by Portuguese doom outfit Sinistro’s sophomore album, Semente. The band laid down an ambient, unobtrusive foundation for Patricia Andrade’s haunting vocals, creating a mesmerizing, promising soundscape. Now here we are in 2018 and the band has taken a monumental step forward.”

Wolves in the Throne Room – Thrice Woven Review

By Lord Lucan on September 21, 2017 in 2017, American Metal, Artemisia Records, Black Metal, Folk Metal, Reviews, Black Metal, Folk Metal, 89 comments

“Whenever I hear a half-decent band describe their upcoming record as ‘experimental,’ I find myself afflicted with a sort of low-level split-personality disorder. Half of me wants to clap them on the back and praise their boldness, while the other 50% wants to give them all a good slap for risking disaster so needlessly.” Claps and slaps for all.

Contrite Metal Guy – Mistakes Were Made

By Grymm on September 7, 2017 in 2017, Blog Posts, Contrite Metal Guy, 107 comments

“The life of the unpaid, overworked metal reviewer is not an easy one. Cascading promos, unreasonable deadlines, draconian editors and the unwashed metal mobs – it makes for a swirling maelstrom of music and madness. In all that tumult, errors are bound to happen and sometimes our initial impression of an album may not be completely accurate. With time and distance comes wisdom, and so we’ve decided to pull back the confessional curtain and reveal our biggest blunders, missteps, oversights and ratings face-plants. Consider this our sincere AMGea culpa. Redemption is retroactive, forgiveness is mandatory.” Grymm tidings.

Eluveitie – Evocation II – Pantheon Review

By Dr. Wvrm on August 17, 2017 in 2017, Folk Metal, Nuclear Blast, Reviews, Swiss Metal, 85 comments

“Were Angry Metal Guy not lashed to the slave stick most days, I’m sure he would make good on his promise to give this a 1.0/5.0 based solely on how much he hated Eluveitie’s last album Origins. To be fair, that verdict may overstate the strain that Origins placed on Eluveitie’s generic melofolk, but not by much.” Stop straining the folk!

The Soundbyte – Solitary IV Review

By GardensTale on July 4, 2017 in 2017, Ambient Metal, Post-Rock, Progressive Rock, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Temple of Torturous Records, Ambient Metal, Progressive Rock, 21 comments

“Norway’s The Soundbyte, a project of The 3rd and the Mortal guitarist Trond Engum, seeks to improve the reputation of scene-setting noisescapes with its 4th experimental platter, Solitary IV. Full disclaimer, it’s only tangentially in the camp of metal, but few experimental albums are and the material on display here is not something we want to keep from you. Let’s get to it.” We’re givers.

NOÊTA – Beyond Life and Death Review

By Akerblogger on February 6, 2017 in 2017, Ambient Metal, Prophecy Productions, Reviews, Swedish Metal, Ambient Metal, 13 comments

“As touched upon by many publications, 2016 was a great year for female-fronted music. Bands like Cult of Luna and Julie Christmas, Darkher, Esben and the Witch, and Oceans of Slumber combined excellent instrumentation with dark and powerful clean vocals that weren’t gimmicky or soulless. The brooding and stark gloominess of these bands have drawn much attention in the metal-verse.” And now it’s becoming a regular thing.

Grymm’s Top Ten(ish) of 2016

By Grymm on December 28, 2016 in 2016, Blog Posts, Lists, 84 comments

“I’ve been hitting the backspace key a lot as I’m writing my Top Ten(ish). Not because of a lack of anything witty to say, or a sheepishness of my selections. No, rather it’s because I’m of two minds as I type this.” Two minds, but only one weighty list!