Category Archives: By: Matthew

Amorphis – ‘Tales From The Thousand Lakes’ (Live At Tavastia) (2024)

Posted on by

Rating: 9/10 Release: 12 July 2024 Label: Reigning Phoenix Music ‘Tales From The Thousand Lakes’ is the second studio album from Amorphis released in 1994.  It is a concept album based on the Finnish epic, Kalevala. The album showcases their signature sound incorporating melodic death metal, with a touch of … Continue reading →

Interview with Leaves’ Eyes

Posted on by

Inspiration, Nature and all things Norse!

March 22, 2024, is the scheduled release for Leaves’ Eyes nineth studio album and this year celebrates 20 years of existence.  The German based band are leaders in the symphonic metal genre and have produced another masterpiece once again merging metal, folk and classical music with ‘Myths of Fate’.
On this release, the listener is thrusted back into songs that deal with old Norse myths, sprinkled with some Slavic lore and a touching a touching elegy written in tribute to Alex Krull’s mother.
Topics from Tyrfing, Iðunn, Rán and the Midgard serpent are just a few of the lyrical themes that are explored.  Overall ‘Myths of Fate’ delivers what we expect from a Leaves’ Eyes release and recently I interviewed Elina Siirala, lead singer of the band to get more insight into what inspires her and the band with their music and production.

Continue reading →

Borknagar – ‘Fall’ (2024)

Posted on by

Rating: 9/10 Release: 23 February 2024 Label: Century Media Records Borknagar is a Norwegian heavy metal band from Bergen, founded in 1995 by Øystein Garnes Brun. The band’s style combines black metal and folk metal with progressive and melodic elements. Borknagar’s lyrics often deal with philosophy, paganism, nature and the cosmos. Fall is the follow up to 2019’s successful True North release and sees the departure of Vintersorg … Continue reading →

Interview with The Privateer

Posted on by

No Rum before playing the Drums

The Privateer was founded by Roman Willaredt and Christian Spöri in 2007. The first name of the band was “Privateer“but it had to change it to “The Privateer” due to a naming conflict with a polish band.
Soon after the first demo-CD “Tavern Tales” which contained two Songs “Stormlashed” and “Basilisk”. After the demo, The Privateer played a lot of concerts in Germany and Switzerland.  Positive feedback on “Tavern Tales” was positive and the band decided to produce the next album “Facing the Tempest” in 2012, released by Trollzorn Records. Just one year later in 2013 the LP “Monolith” was released.

In 2017 the band signed to the Austrian label NoiseArt Records and released the newest album, “The Goldsteen Lay” on 28th of July.
In October, 2017 singer Pablo Heist left the band and was replaced by Jonas Piraterie who left the band in autumn 2020.
Since the end of 2022 The Privateer are complete again with Pascal Streb joining the band.

Continue reading →

Evolving all the Time

Posted on by

Interview with Łysa Góra

In a distant Slavic land, a fire can be seen high upon the mountain.  As one draws closer, the melody of a female angelic voice, a violin and tambourine can be heard faintly in the distance.  You move closer to the sound, it intrigues you, stirs thoughts and emotions within your mind and soul.  As you approach, the band Lysa Gora enchants you with their music and stories.  You sit and talk about their music and other things….

Continue reading →

Månegarm: An Inspiration to Other Bands

Posted on by

Interview with Månegarm

We saw a huge amount of releases in 2022, as bands came out of the isolation of Covid-19 to record together again and show the world that you can’t silence the metal. Månegarm was one of those bands and what a release they gave us. “Ynglingaättens öde” was named Best Album of 2022 on folk-metal.nl and it is a pleasure to interview a band I have followed since 2015. Månegarm’s inception was in 1995, and has provided some awesome metal over the past twenty-eight years.

Continue reading →