From it’s birth in the coldest extremes of Scandinavia, black metal slowly spread across Europe like a harsh plague, invading territories with a barrage of riffs, twig shaped logos, minimalist artwork and sounds often characterised by especially harsh, thin vocals. Over the years, the style has become more refined, mixing the purer elements with death metal depths and complexities. In allowing itself to be more inclusive of a few other extreme metal styles, it seemed to become even more influential – a huge surprise for a metal subgenre born within such extremities. In short, it’s all come a very long way from it’s roots; it’s no longer about painting your face white and considering burning a church during your spare time.
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“We Are All Going To Die”: Spielbergs unveil optimistic new music
Fusing elements of shoegaze and the more accessible bits of a post rock sound, Norwegian trio Spielbergs make a big impression on their new single.
‘We Are All Going To Die’ harks back to the 90s whilst keeping one foot firmly in the present. Their wall of sound approach can be emotionally draining, yet at the same time, their new music has an intensely rousing quality that fans of shoegaze and associated subgenres shouldn’t miss.
You can listen in full below.
Take a trip to ‘Hawaii’ with Clilean shoegazers MAFF
They’ve been away for a while, but Chilean shoegaze sensations MAFF are back with a new EP ‘Melañiña’, which releases in April.
Before the full release, you can check out two of the new songs on Soundcloud, including the new digital single ‘Hawaii’, which absolutely destroys by a way of a heavy and pulsing bass, before the whole track explodes into a world of 90s distortion culling the very best from Catherine Wheel and My Bloody Valentine.
ESPIONAGE – Wings Of Thunder EP
Melbourne’s Espionage don’t just fly the flag for old style heavy metal, they positively scream its praises from the Victoria rooftops with a shameless pride, not only as if the 90s never changed perspectives, but also as if Slayer had never actually existed. Hearing their second EP ‘Wings of Thunder’ for the first time, the traditional metal sounds are so rooted in the past, it’s even hard to tell whether it was recorded in 1984 (as is its core sound) or 2016 (as claimed in the sleeve notes). This, of course, isn’t necessarily a bad thing – especially considering that, even at such an early stage in their career, the Aussie rockers sound like masters of their craft.
K7s – Take 1
What would happen if you took a member of the Bullet Proof Lovers, a member of Spanish punkers Los Reactivos and a member of the Spanish band Airbag and set them to work in the recording studio? You’d end up with K7s, one of the finest pop punk outfits to release an album since the genre’s glory days of the 1990s. Yes, the K7s’ debut is that good…and in in almost every way. It’s hugely indebted to days gone by when pop punk meant pop punk and not whiny music with an overdriven guitar riff, but that’s every reason why it’s great. Continue reading