Archive for April, 2025

Dead Space Chamber Music / The Silver Reserve / Hanging Freud / Futures We Lost – The Cemetery Chapel, York, 19 April 2025

Posted: 20 April 2025 in Live, Reviews
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Christopher Nosnibor

As a venue for a live music event, The Cemetery Chapel in York is an inspired one. It’s not only a remarkable building and a perfect space for music – its high ceiling and being a perfect rectangle mean the acoustics are superb – but it is a functioning chapel in the middle of a massive graveyard. Again hosted by The Velvet Sheep, it’s a very different affair from the ‘Gothic Moth’ event held in this same space last September, but still feels entirely fitting to be here.

I arrive a few minutes before doors, and spend the time indulging in one of my favourite graveyard games, of ‘find the oldest headstone’ but soon find myself distracted by the ages of many of those who died in the mid-1800s: there were many children, some only months old, and many adults between the age of thirty-five and fifty, which made the ones who made it into their eighties and nineties something of a surprise. And this would not be the only surprise of the night after purchasing a glass of Shiraz and finding a seat close to the front.

Futures We Lost presented a pleasant surprise by way of a start to the evening. The solo project of Doug Gordon, the set offers up expansive, haunting synths, occasionally brooding and dark, propelled by reverby, hypnotic programmed drums. For large passages, it’s beat-free, and dense, sonorous drones, distorted, ominous samples, discordant chimes, and occasional blasts of abrasive noise echo around the high-ceilinged chapel. Cracking hums and fizzing static swell into thick layers which hang like mist in the candlelit space.

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Futures We Lost

Following immediately, Hanging Freud – a band I’ve raved about in the recorded format for quite some time now – bring the temperature down a few degrees: icy synths, thick with gearing textures grind against dolorous drums. Paula sings with her eyes cast upwards to the ceiling, or the heavens, her vocal between Siouxsie and an almost choral croon, rich and often reminiscent of Zola Jesus. Musically, they offer strong hints of Movement era New Order. The songs are concise and compelling and pack in a palpable density of atmosphere into their brief spaces. It’s growing dark outside now, and against the candlelight the duo are barely visible apart from Paula’s platinum hair and pale forearms, but the mood is even darker inside as the songs bring an ever-increasing emotional weight. The songs are all driven by bold beats, with crisp and heavy snares cutting through the thick swathes of synth. They don’t talk, they just play, never breaking the wall or the spell, ending with a simple ‘Thank you’ before slipping away and cueing the arrival of the interlude.

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Hanging Freud

Raising the curtain on Act II, The Silver Reserve – another solo project – bring a significant stylistic shift with a set of introspective post-rock / slowcore, with soft-focus solo acoustic guitar and vocals with additional loops and lots of reverb. A couple of the songs felt a bit disjointed, and sat at odds with the gentle flow of the emotive, reflective ballads, which draw heavily and with sincerity and honesty, on personal experience. The perhaps less-than-obvious comparison which came to mind as I was listening was later Her Name is Calla, although their work was in turn drawing on Radiohead. In between the tuning and returning and chat, the songs are pleasant, but the set as a whole, though well-received, wasn’t entirely gripping, and while contrast is key to keeping an evening moving, this set seemed to stall the flow a little.

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The Silver Reserve

Dead Space Chamber Music are something else altogether, and you would never know by sound alone that there are only three of them. The set begins by stealth, a sparse introduction with percussion like soft waves on sand, folk vocals seem to emanate from the back of the room before ringing glasses create a haunting wail. Then things begin to get really interesting, and their innovative approach to the creation of sound is something to behold. Drummer Ekaterina Samarkina is particularly impressive in her work and provides a real sonic focal point, first applying a bow to the edges of the cymbals, while singer Ellen Southern occupies herself for large parts by creating remarkable sounds in unconventional ways: the rustle of a foil sheet being unfolded slowly is just a start, and abstraction gives way to thunderous drums and slow, deliberate guitar. This is dramatic, and this is exciting, unexpectedly so. They incorporate a wide array of instruments, from bells and whistles to horse’s skull – although in truth there are no whistles, but pretty much anything else you could name is in the mix their sound and performance is bold and theatrical.

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Dead Space Chamber Music

I tend to wear earplugs when in the presence of live music, but didn’t for this: it wasn’t loud, until it was: from seemingly out of nowhere, the volume had crept up to a pulverising roar, evolving towards a Swans-like climax consisting of a brutal percussive barrage and squalling guitar and vocal ululations. The blistering wall of sound attained the force of a tsunami for a sustained crescendo, during which time stood still, and while some members of the audience swayed and nodded in their seats, I found myself practically paralysed by the sheer sonic intensity. The focus of the three musicians was absolute, and while Southern went through a number of changes to her visual presentation, Samarkina and guitarist Tom Bush, who really cut loose with some monumentally treble-heavy distortion during the second half of the set, lurk in the long shadows of the flickering candles as they grow ever shorter and the venue grows ever darker. The effect is nothing short of stunning, making for an almost overwhelming finale to a night of the most remarkable music.

Listen: ‘Hard Times’ by Ledfoot

Posted: 20 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Plain Simple Honesty is the eighth solo album by Gothic Blues exponent Ledfoot (aka Tim Scott McConnell) and is exactly what its title suggests: a collection of brutally honest songs straight from the heart. They tell small yet powerful stories, guiding listeners through the darker corners of the human psyche where setbacks are constant, yet his characters endure despite it all.

The themes explored on the album feel especially relevant in the unpredictable and often dark present, with the title track and songs such as new single ‘Hard Times’ painting an unsettlingly accurate picture of everyday life for many in 2025. “About forty years ago, I wrote a song called ‘High Hopes’ about being working class and trying to stay optimistic despite hard times,” says Ledfoot. “The hard times haven’t diminished….but maybe some of the optimism has.”

‘High Hopes’ has a famous back story, first released on the Tim Scott McConnell solo album High Lonesome Sound (1987), and then again on the 1990 debut album by his band The Havalinas, before Bruce Springsteen later released several versions of it, most notably as the title track of a solo album issued in 2014.

Listen to ‘Hard Times’ here:

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Watch: ‘No Arrow’ by Lux Interna

Posted: 19 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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LUX INTERNA reveal the music video for the lush and warm track ‘No Arrow’ as the final advance single taken from the American dark folk innovators’ forthcoming new album New Wilderness Gospel, which is chalked up for release on May 2, 2025.

LUX INTERNA comment: “In ‘No Arrow’, a tangle of voices and moments meet, intertwine, and transform each other”, guitarist and singer Joshua Levi Ian explains on behalf of the band. “Here, it’s always 4:00 am. You’re stepping out of the roadside bar as the desert winds gently stipple flickering red neon with grains of sand, while the lights from the town in the valley shimmer below like ghosts in the darkness. Or perhaps you’re waking up in the Mojave heat and lighting a cigarette in the motel bed as you watch your sleeping lover bathed in shadows and the shards of electric light that creep in through the holes in the curtains. Or maybe you’re still driving, tired but full of flame, as the car’s headlights are continuously humbled by the vastness of a great nocturnal kingdom. Either way, you feel a mix of calm resolve and wildlife surging up inside you. Your body is awake, a beautiful animal of flesh and fire. It feels like everything that came before has intentionally led you to this moment. But you know that he’s out there, waiting and watching. And there’s a cold and calculating malice in his eyes. This thought used to terrify you. You would have done anything to shake him off your trail. But not anymore. Now you’re ready. You welcome the encounter. Now he’s the one that best beware.”

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Desiccated Corpse – Desiccated Corpse

Posted: 19 April 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Dret Skivor – 4th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

This latest release on Swedish microlabel devoted to the most underground of underground music, Dret Skivor, may be form an act we’ve not heard of before, but something about it has all the hallmarks of the eternally prolific Dave Procter all over it. The man behind Legion of Swine (noisy) and Fibonacci Drone Organ (droney) and myriad other projects and collaborations – some occasional, some one-off – has a distinctive North of England drollness and a penchant for pissing about making noise of all shades, after all.

Released on CD in a hand-painted edition of just two, the notes on the Bandcamp page for the release are typically minimal: ‘Is it dungeon synth? Is it just spooky music? Is there torture afoot?’ I would say I will be the judge of that, but dungeon synth is a genre I’m yet to fully get to grips with, although it does for all the world seem as if it’s a genre distinction that’s come to be applied to spooky music, and seems to have grown in both popularity and usage comparatively recently, despite its roots going back rather further.

The cover art doesn’t give much – anything away, and in fact, I might have hoped for something more… graphic. But perhaps less is more here. However, the titles of the two tracks –‘the shithouses’ shithouse’ and ‘the festering flesh of the neoliberal’ are classic Procter and could as easily be titles for poems by Dale Prudent, another of his alter-egos.

The first begins with a swelling thrum of what sounds like a chorus of voices, possibly some monastic indentation, layered and looped and multitracked to create a torturous cacophony. For the first twenty, thirty, forty seconds, you wait for a change to come, for something to happen. After a minute that expectation is diminishing, and by the three-minute mark it’s impossible to be certain if there really are keyboard stabs swirling in the mix in the midst of it all, or if your ears and mind are deceiving you and you’re losing the plot. For some reason, I’m reminded of the Paris catacombs – not because it’s actually creepy, but because, just as seeing rows and rows of bones stacked up for quite literally miles becomes both overwhelming and desensitising after a time, so hearing the same sound bubbling away for ten minutes is pretty much guaranteed to fuck with your head. Near the eight-minute mark, there are most definitely additional layers of buzzing drone and there are some tonal slips and slows, like listening to a tape that’s become stretched or is slipping on its spool, but by this time your brain’s already half-melted, and I find myself contemplating the fact that while visiting the catacombs on a sixth-form art trip, one of my fellow students accepted the challenge to lick a skull for eight Francs – which was about a quid at the time. I was less appalled by the fact it was a human skull than the fact the bones looked dusty and mossy, and had probably been touched by even more unwashed hands than the handle of the gents lavs at a busy gig venue.

And so we arrive at the twenty-two-minute ‘the festering flesh of the neoliberal’. It begins with a distant clattering percussion – like someone bashing a car bonnet with a broken fence post heard from a quarter of a mile away, but with a gauze of reverb, as if echoing from the other side of a valley – or, put another way, like listening to early Test Dept through your neighbour’s wall – while a pulsing, pulsating electronic beat, like a palpating heartbeat, thuds erratically beneath it. And that’s pretty much it. But there are leaps and lurches in volume, and the cumulative effect of this monotonous loop is brain-bending. There are gradual shifts, and seemingly from nowhere rises a will of croaks and groans which grow in intensity, and it may well be an auditory confusion, but regardless, the experience is unsettling. Twenty-two minutes is a long time to listen to a continuous rumbling babble that sounds like droning ululations and a barrage of didgeridoos all sustaining a note, simultaneously, for all time.

Is it dungeon synth? Probably not. Is it spooky? Not really. It is torturous? Without doubt. This is a tough listen, with dark babbling repetitions rendered more challenging by the cruelly long track durations. The torture afoot is right here.

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DAVAAR – State of Feeling (EP)

Posted: 18 April 2025 in Reviews, Singles and EPs
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11th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

It’s still early days for London alternative / progressive metal quartet DAVAAR, formed in the summer of 2024 and with just five shows behind them, but they’ve wasted no time in venturing beyond London in their quest to build a fan-base, or in committing a chunk of their repertoire to tape (so to speak) for the release of this, their debut EP.

Although State of Feeling features four tracks, the title track is an instrumental introduction which is barely a minute long. This is a practice within metal circles that’s become so common as to be predictable and formulaic. It seemed to rise to prominence with the explosion of metalcore’s popularity in the 2010s, and often seemed to be an attempt to cover all bases for the purpose of a wider audience, as if to say ‘listen, we can play, we can do atmospheric and moody and gentle as well as WAAAAUUUGHHHHHH!’. But in doing so, it would often undermine the power of the attacking rage parts.

In fairness, it’s a little different in context of this EP, in that as much as DAVAAR trade in big riffs, their sound is cinematic, melodic, expansive, with clean vocals all the way. And so it is that this opening cut is softly atmospheric, bordering on ambient. A distant beat echoes through the drifting sonic mist. ‘Impulse’ arrives, not on a tidal wave of slugging riffery, but a ripple of picked, reverby guitar, and it’s only after some carefully-crafted build-up does the distortion kick in and the first of the big riffs hits. Even then, everything stays balanced, and the melody remains the focal point, and it’s easy to observe the parallels in their sound with those of their influences and acts they suggest sharing common ground with, including Sleep Token, Tesseract, Leprous, and Deftones.

There’s a lot of attention to detail in the song structures and the overall composition, with high levels of technical adeptness on display. There’s also a lot of polish here, with the end result being that State of Feeling feels fully formed, and DAVAAR’s potential to attain a substantial following is clear.

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RAMM – Bound To Never Rest

Posted: 18 April 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Eiga – 11th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Bound To Never Rest follows 2022’s The Fall of Europe and for this, their second release as RAMM (formerly know as Il Radioamatore), core member Valerio Camporini F. and Roberta D’Angelohe are joined by Filippo De Laura who brings percussion and cello, and Caroline Enghoff, who provides voice and lyrics on ‘Hanging Rock’

Here, they promise to takes us ‘to a very contemporary feeling scape – of being constantly on the verge of seeing your world collapse – but it does so through very a unfamiliar sonic landscape, so different that we struggle to put a label on it… The core of this work is to represent this ‘permanent state of flux’, a paradoxical condition we’re all experiencing now, when being unsettled is the constant in our lives.’

They go on to explain that ‘To achieve this purpose RAMM started with a scribbled set of compositional rules, with the idea of building a living organism, in constant evolution, some rules were abandoned along the way, some were retained.What comes through at the end is the sensation of being swept away by meandering, random, river. Trying to hold on to something, only to have to adjust to a new setting. It’s a compass with its needle forever trying to find its north.’

This, it seems, is like life itself. Even periods of apparent monotony, where it seems that life has been consumed by the treadmill of working, eating, and sleeping, and running just to stay still, the likelihood is that it’s your ability to see beyond the blinkers that’s been stolen rather than it being the case that there’s nothing else happening. In fact, the world about us is an eternal maelstrom. However, the last few years have witnessed the turbulence increase to a roar that’s beyond deafening, and it’s little wonder that there’s a mental health crisis assailing western society, and people are immersing themselves in more or less anything mindless in order to avoid news.

The title ‘Disturbed Tea Time’ somehow captures the way we often crave normality and routine in our lives as a means of having a sense of grounding, a sense of control over our lives. But when those familiar routines are disturbed, it can often feel catastrophic. And the more precariously balanced our safety is, the harder it becomes to deal with those disruptions calmly and objectively. Many of us experienced the destabilising effect of a rapidly-changing situation and contradictory guidance and (mis)information during the pandemic, and the ’shock and awe’ strategy being employed by the Trump administration right now is a perfect – and terrifying – example. People become more fragile, more sensitive, more susceptible, more fearful and less able to cope even with small changes when the entire world around them ceases to provide the comfort of familiarity. Sonically, this first track it’s a deft, almost soothing, minimal electronic composition at first, before doomy, overloading guitars rupture the tranquillity. And so it continues, smooth, airy vistas of serenity float in an easy, linear fashion, unexpectedly dashed and smashed by roiling distortion. The metaphor may be fairly straightforward in terms of concept, but it’s executed in such a way that when the blasts of noise to explode, you feel the tension through your whole body.

‘Permanent State Of Flux’ washes in on delicate strings, subsequently joined by piano, and a persistent pulsation, and as the piece progresses, the layers, textures – and moments of dissonance – build, while ‘Good Morning Ansa’ takes the form of a more darkwave synth piece with a flickering beat in the background. But this, too, changes midway through, with both the instrumentation and mood making a shift.

The only piece with lyrics and vocals, ‘Hanging Rock’ is tense, dark, and discordant. But none of the works are any one thing for their duration, and in this way, the structure of not only the individual pieces and the album as a whole come to represent the overarching theme.

There is a perfect restlessness about this album, and while for the most part volume, harsher textures, and discord are used only sparingly, rendering it a comparatively subtle work, the fact that any emerging flows are swiftly disrupted make it something that holds the focus and keeps the listener alert and just that bit on edge for its duration.

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Watch: ‘At The End Of Our Reign’ by Deserted Fear

Posted: 18 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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DESERTED FEAR unleash the music video ‘At the End of Our Reign’ as the final advance single taken from their forthcoming new full-length Veins of Fire. The sixth studio album of Germany’s leading death metal act has been chalked up for release on April 25, 2025.

DESERTED FEAR comment: “The song ‘At the End of Our Reign’ describes a world that has reached the end of its existence through the failure of civilization”, guitarist Fabian Hildebrandt explains on behalf of the band. “It’s a final glance back before everything collapses and we are crushed by our own history – and we are all a part of this! We should ask ourselves, what do we want to leave behind?”

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KLAMP – TOTAL TECHNITECH

Posted: 17 April 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Human Worth – 18th April 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

Given the event it supposedly commemorates, Good Friday has always seemed like a rather strange choice of name to give to the day – although I suppose for Christians it’s good because without it the religion probably wouldn’t exist. But this year, Good Friday actually lives up to its name, with the ever-dependable Human Worth dropping its second new release in a fortnight, this time in the form of TOTAAL TECHNIEK by KLAMP.

KLAMP first emerged in 2020, with the upfront Hate You, and since then, they’ve evolved considerably. Less a band and more of a fluid and ever-expanding collective, the original trio consisting of Jason Stoll (Sex Swing / Mugstar / JAAW), Lee Vincent (Pulled Apart by Horses) and Greg Wynne (Manatees) has now swelled to a lineup of seven performers, with Adam Devonshire (IDLES), Matthew Parker (Tall Ships), Rachael Morrison and Wayne Adams (Petbrick / Big Lad) having joined their ranks, along with a host of others who have contributed to this second album while passing through.

When approached in the right way – that is to say, with an open mind – collaboration can yield not only works which are greater than the sum of the parts, but unexpected results, as fresh input and different perspectives can throw wide open the doors to new ideas and possibilities. The converse of this is when a collaboration finds those involved arriving with egos fully inflated and preconceived ideas, and they simply stifle one another into playing to form. It’s abundantly clear that KLAAMP foster a spirit of experimentalism, a willingness to try things out, and see what transpires. The list of genres and influences, direct or implicit, noted in the liner notes is immense, and a reminder of why genres are not really the friend of artists who go with the flow of whatever happens creatively. But rather that dwell on that excessively, I’m simply going to replicate the ‘FFO’ list which accompanies the release, because it not only illustrates the stylistic range TOTAAL TECHNIEK offers, but also sets the scene in terms of expectation: ‘Swans / Sonic Youth / Black Sabbath / Godspeed You Black Emperor / Mark Lanegan / Einstürzende Neubauten / The Fall / Sunn O))) / Wire / Aphex Twin / Portishead / Godflesh / Earth / My Bloody Valentine / Gnod / Anna Von Hausswolf / The Bug and more… ‘ In other words, while there’s a lot of heavy and noisy stuff happening, there’s a whole lot more besides.

This means that the appropriately-titled ‘The First Song’ commences the set not with skull-crushing heavyweight riffery, but a subtle sense of ambience. Drones hover ominously, while chittering extranea evoke almost jungle-like sounds while distant beats flicker and echo like a collapsed synapse before they strickle into a drifting, psychedelic indie dream. There may be hints of later Earth about it, but ultimately it’s mellow and shoegazy, and while the pedals kick in just shy of the five minute mark, it’s steering hard in the vein of desert rock with an easy-going vibe, even with the raging vocals which are practically submerged in the mix. As it carries you along on its warm currents, there’s no frustration that this isn’t the heavy shit they’d promised. It’s simply good music, and has atmosphere and texture.

‘Zpine’ brings motorik drumming, a hint of Pavement crossed with Stereolab, with some noisy guitars slashing and splashing cross the solid, sequenced groove, while the vocals are harsh and ragged. The mid-section goes full Hawkwind, and the weirder and more wide-ranging it gets, the better it gets, too.

The album’s shortest song, ‘Wet Leather’ is a bass-led Krautrock-influenced psych-hued droner that bounces along nicely, and while it does kick off heavy a minute or so in, it mostly kinda comes on like The Fall circa Code: Selfish but with guitars from early Ride swirling all over.

‘Leprozenkapel’, the fourth track – which marks the end of side one – brings the rage and the noise and the throbbing noise, and it’s dark and heavy, and in some respects calls to mind late 80s Ministry as it pounds and snarls. Those drums, totally overloading with distortion and a metallic crunch… this is mean and brutal, while the eight-and-a-half-minute ‘The Crying Towel’ is different again, and altogether kinder. This is good: we need more kindness right now. And at some point a couple of minutes in, the ball-busting, super-weighty riff comes in, and there it is. But there are layers, texture, elements of shoegaze and more atop the lumbering rockout riffery. There is a lot happening here, and KLAAMP balance e it all perfectly.

Things shift towards menacing, doomy black metal on ‘Evil Pipe’, but the album ends – with another epic track in the form of the seven-and-a-half-minute title track, that comes on like a meshing of Joy Division or early New Order – particularly with the drumming – and Doves, before going full Melvins. And it somehow works. Of course, Human Worth would never release a crap album, but TOTAL TECHNITECH is truly outstanding. It’s not just the concept,  but in the delivery, and it’s all killer.

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Watch: ‘Candling’ by Loscil

Posted: 17 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Today, celebrated electronic composer Loscil shares the video for ‘Candling’, taken from his forthcoming album release, Lake Fire (kranky, 2nd May).

‘Candling’ is one of Lake Fire‘s nine tracks offering ash-laden sonics that mine the tension within the cycle of destruction and rejuvenation.

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Loscil will perform the following live dates:

May 1, 2025, SFU – Vancouver, CA  SOLD OUT
Sep 4, 2025, Extreme Chill – Reykjavik, IS
Sep 8, 2025, Silent Green, Berlin, DE  tickets
Sep 10, 2025, Botanique, Brussels, BE 
Sep 12, 2025, Casa Montjuic, Barcelona, ES  tickets
Sep 16, 2025, Rich Mix, London, UK  tickets
Sep 18, 2025, Ostre, Bergen, NO  tickets
Sep 20, 2025, OSA Festival, Gdansk, PL

Lake Fire is the result of a disjointed creative process. Originally conceived as a suite for electronics and ensemble, most of the original compositions were deserted, save for Ash Clouds, featuring James Meager on double bass. The remaining tracks were reshaped and remixed, built anew out of the remnants of the abandoned work. The result is a phoenix, an album burnt to the ground only to be reassembled out of its cinders. Fragments of the original lurk beneath a densely overpainted canvas of sound.

Infused into the resulting rearrangements are impressions from a road trip into the mountains marking a personal half-century milestone, surrounded by the ominous proximity of wildfires and dense smoke; celebrating life while the world burns. The album’s title comes from the striking irony that forest fires are often named after regional lakes – perhaps subconsciously referencing ancient lore. The cover photos were taken from this same trip, while sitting in a rowboat staring into the grey abyss of an opposing mountainside outside of Revelstoke, BC, obfuscated by smoke from a nearby lake fire.

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Listen: ‘Beat on the Brat’ by Daníel Hjálmtýsson & Mortiis

Posted: 16 April 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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The second advance single taken from the forthcoming MER Redux Series release Marc Urselli’s Ramones Redux features a stylish collaboration with a creeping groove of Icelandic artist Daníel Hjálmtýsson and Norwegian dungeon synth pioneer Mortiis. These Nordic musicians have taken on the track ‘Beat on the Brat’ and truly made it their own, with the punk-worshipping new Redux Series installment scheduled for release on June 6, 2025.

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Daníel Hjálmtýsson comments: “Ramones made me love making music the way I wanted to make music", the Icelander writes. "No excuses. No rules. Taking chances and learning to love the imperfections. Just straight up. Fearless. With this track being a personal favorite, I really wanted to do a kind of 180 spin on it and take a lot of chances. The theme of the song is very dark and hits home for me in many ways, and I wanted to explore the disturbing themes in a darker, moodier way. I’m so grateful to be a part of Marc Urselli’s group of incredible artists on this one!”

Mortiis states: “Needless to say, when you’re asked to work on something as legendary as a Ramones song, even if it’s just a cover, it can be pretty nerve-wracking stuff", the Norwegian muses. “I just rolled with what came natural to me, and hopefully I won’t be lynched by the masses. Marc has always been awesome to work with, and so far he hasn’t tried to kill me, which I think is a good sign.”

It has been said about Icelandic artist Daníel Hjálmtýsson that he “embodies a sonic fusion reminiscent of the likes of Nick Cave, Mark Lanegan, and Depeche Mode, set against a Leonard Cohen afterworld”. With his debut single ‘Birds’, Daníel introduced his dark, neo-goth and atmospheric approach to alternative rock music in early 2020. The late Mark Lanegan wrote: “Daníel makes icy neo-goth music that brings to mind the forbidden landscapes of his native Iceland”, the legendary US-musician stated. “One can envision him on a stage of a church-turned-dungeon, somewhere in the Reykjavik underbelly.”

Iconic Norwegian musician Mortiis has just signed a deal with Magnetic Eye sister label Prophecy Productions. After parting ways with the Norwegian black metal pioneers EMPEROR, Mortiis embarked on a solo career, the so called ‘Era I’, that lasted from 1993 until 1999. In this highly creative period, the Norwegian released six full-length albums (including the “The Song of a Long Forgotten Ghost” demo and “Crypt of the Wizard"). His music during this phase was entirely composed on synthesizers. In the next decade, Mortiis evolved into a band that marked the beginning of the short-lived ‘Era II’, which only consists of the rather electropop oriented 2001-album "The Smell of Rain”. When ‘The Grudge’ came out in 2004, the album had a hard impact of the scene and started ‘Era III’. The Norwegian and his band had turned to heavy industrial rock and as a result made many new friends. This was followed by a factual hiatus between 2011 and 2015, although it was never officially announced. In 2016, the next full-length "The Great Deceiver" surprised global followers of the band that had long hoped for a new release. Although the style of the previous phase is largely continued, it is named ‘Era 0’. On the gargantuan remix album The Great Corrupter, Mortiis again teamed up with a host of exciting artists including musicians from GODFLESH, FRONTLINE ASSEMBLY, DIE KRUPPS, MERZBOW, and APOPTYGMA BERZERK among a multitude of others. Currently, the Norwegian is preparing to release a new album.

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