DARKEND GRAND GUIGNOL – BOOK I self-released (2012) When you hear of DARKEND, the first thing that comes to mind is perhaps the chorus to ‘The Thorns, The Pain, The Horror’ or the grim oration in ‘Mater Terribilis’ and with this, inevitably, the entire on-stage arsenal of the self-proclaimed ‘Theatre of Horror’: candlelit pentagram, bloodstained [...]

RIUL DOAMNEI FATIMA (Axiis Music) 2011 In modern times of velocity and shallowness, when ancient legends and beliefs seem to crumble into oblivion, it is always invigorating to see that not all hope is lost: RIUL DOAMNEI (“The Lady’s River” in Romanian) is an Italian black metal band that has been around since 1999, evoking [...]

Eclipse Eternal The Essence of Hopelessness (Archaic North Entertainment) The diversity of black metal is what has kept the genre alive and intriguing. If you like your metal aggressive, bleak, melodic and nasty, you’re in for quite the treat. It’s been four years since Ubermensch: Evolution Beyond the Species, and Canadian black metallers Eclipse Eternal [...]

PTAHIL FOR HIS SATANIC MAJESTY’s GLORY (Wraith Productions) 2012 In the black metal world, many listeners, even artists themselves, proclaim to not listen to metal anymore due to the lack of creativity and inspiration of current songwriting. Of course, I am one who believes that most music is recycled, only to be copied and pasted [...]

San Antonio – The old saying goes that “Everything is Bigger in Texas.” I’m still not sure what “they” mean by that but when it comes to metal, we gather the hordes and back it up tenfold. The sight on a dreary Saturday night- February 26, 2011 was mindboggling, as black metal fans old and [...]

The Jagermeister Music Tour ripped through San Antonio (Saturday September 25th) taking no prisoners! Everything from the classic thrash metal era you’d expect was there. From headbangers to old-school patch-clad denim jackets were abound. People wearing t-shirts from Venom to Metallica; the thrash metal genre is far from dead and thanks to thrash metal legends, [...]