Reviews written by: Dave Wolff
Reviews
G.L. Giles - V4: Water Vamps (book)
As a longtime reviewer and correspondent of G.L. Giles’ I have grown familiar with her writings, especially her Vampire Vignettes series. Since my first review of her vampire/vampire saga I always appreciated that she brought something original and inventive to the mythos as opposed to remaining within the expected boundaries of good and evil. As I...
30/12/2010
G.L. Giles - Days And Nights In Summerville (book)
“Words…/Please be/My skates/Cutting/Gliding across the ice,” Vampire Vignettes author G.L. Giles opens a poem from her new publication Days And Nights In Summerville, entitled “Mount Olympus.” A fitting way to open a poem if there ever was one. These brief lines succinctly describe G.L’s approach to using the written word to tear down the religious...
14/10/2009
Wolfgate - Howling Lament
<div>While most people normally don’t associate L.A. with extreme, atmospheric black metal, here is a band that could help to broaden perceptions, so to speak. The Los Angeles black metallers Wolfgate formed in 2005 when its founding members grew fed up with channeling their effort into other bands and decided to create an entity they could develop...
29/09/2009
Deviant Messiah - Demo 2008
The French death-thrashers Deviant Messiah started in 2007, formed by ex-members of the goth metal band In Memorian who wanted to go in a more aggressive direction. Two former members of In Memoriam who founded the band, guitarist Tonio and drummer Jr, departed in November 2008, leaving guitarist Benj as the sole founding member. The band, which in...
21/09/2009
XXX Maniak - Harvesting The Cunt Nectar
The "pornogoredeathgrind" band XXX Maniak consists of a pair of sick, twisted fucks who would've been successful in the splatter/horror industry. Before starting the band in 2004 Michael Yale and Anthony West produced porn movies, owned strip clubs, gambled professionally and ran labels. Originally, Harvesting The Cunt Nectar was the band's debut d...
22/08/2009
Conspiracy - Reincarnated
Conspiracy is a melodic black metal band currently based in the Netherlands. Beginning in its first incarnation in 1988, the band was forced to halt its activities since they were based in the Ukraine in the era of the former Soviet Union. The band's evolution was slowed down for various reasons since then, during which time they recorded material...
26/02/2009
Nominon - Remnants Of A Diabolical History
Nominon is a Swedish death metal band formed in 1993. They released five demos before releasing their debut CD in 1999. A handful of MCDs and CD EPs followed until they began recording full-lengths on a regular basis. Their current full-length is a gritty mixture of low tuned death metal and extreme black metal. On a few occasions I was reminded of...
26/02/2009
Toxic Bonkers - Progress
Progress is the fourth CD from this Polish band. As it's my first impression of Toxic Bonkers I'm jumping into the current chapter of an evolution that started with their debut If The Dead Could Talk. I picked up something brutal and monstrous about the band's fusion of hardcore, grindcore and death metal, as if Napalm Death and Vader formed a band...
26/02/2009
Drugs Of Faith - Drugs Of Faith
Virginia's Drugs Of Faith began as a punk band in 2002; though they progressed to grindcore in the years that followed the grittiness of their punk days has survived the change. Recorded and mixed at Maryland's Oblivion Studios with Mike Bossier, the band's self-titled debut contains apocalyptic dissonance, frenetic percussion and tortured vocals t...
26/02/2009
Daymares - Can't Get Us All
Can't Get Us All is Daymares' debut recording, which Selfmadegod states will attract fans of Integrity and Entombed into their fanbase. The first track "Get Us All" resonates with the energy of early hardcore with a noticeable trace of death n' roll added. This album has lots of grimy guitar riffs and us-against-them singalong choruses within tradi...
26/02/2009
G.L. Giles - Days And Nights In Summerville (book)
“Words…/Please be/My skates/Cutting/Gliding across the ice,” Vampire Vignettes author G.L. Giles opens a poem from her new publication Days And Nights In Summerville, entitled “Mount Olympus.” A fitting way to open a poem if there ever was one. These brief lines succinctly describe G.L’s approach to using the written word to tear down the religious...
26/02/2009
Deadlock - Wolves
The intro "World Domination" was the first thing holding my interest in this German band's full-length. The atmosphere it resonated with made it fit the soundtrack to a horror film. The tracks following the introduction were equally impressive, being a slightly more accessible approach to melodic death with occasional blast beats, guttural lead voc...
26/02/2009