Review: Released almost 40 years ago, No Presents For Christmas was the ultimate anti-Christmas song from metal provocateur extraordinaires King Diamond. Originally landing in time for Chrimbo 1985, this latest 12" reissue immortalises the bizarre piece of metallic eccentricity for new generations to come, and even boasts 'Charon'; a deep cut from the band's seminal debut album Fatal Portrait, on the b-side. Elaborating on the new gaudy cover and reasoning behind the repress, the King himself has decreed: "Livia worked on the glass mansion on the cover - it's a mansion she designed that I just loved and said we must use this for something! The cover came out exactly how we wanted it to, and it looks like something you would find in the Christmas albums aisle alongside Frank Sinatra. It has the Christmas feeling, but with something dark and sinister when you examine it more closely. I look like a ghost - the ghost of trying to destroy Christmas!"
Review: With the latest release of 2024's triumphant Les Chants de l'Aurore, label Nuclear Blast have opted to reissue the 2019 predecessor project from French post-black metal/blackgaze pioneers Alcest. Spiritual Instinct initially marked only the second time the band's live bassist Indria Saray had performed on record following on from his in-studio inclusion on 2016's Kodama, while musically, the material is noted for continuing to restore some of the previously eschewed metallic malevolence absent from their previous efforts. This restoration reembraces cataclysmic blastbeats and despair-laden vocal shrieks yet reliably subdued, compressed and drowned under swathes of shoegaze haze and bombastic yet lilting crescendos. In short, no one makes black metal sound as pretty as the French.
Review: Reissued by The Flenser, known for their penchant for avantgarde "weirdo" metal acts such as Chat Pile, Mamaleek and Have A Nice Life, this 2011 demo from "funeral doom" post-metal duo Bell Witch would serve as the clarion call for their burgeoning future as standouts in the US doom scene. Clocking in at a beastly 37 minutes spread out over just four tracks, with two ('Beneath The Mask', 'I Wait') re-appearing as cuts on their 2012 debut full-length Longing, the pair's mercurial, slow-paced, depressively trudging drone metal approach was already on such potent display from the outset that it almost seems disingenuous or indicative of their humble nature to refer to this project as merely a demo. Presented with an updated layout, the release still bears the original artwork designed by founding drummer Adrian Guerra who tragically passed away in 2015 following the release of their sophomore effort Four Phantoms.
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