The Independent Voice • 2nd June 2015

Dendera - Pillars Of Creation

1. Claim Out Throne

2. Bloodlust

3. In High Tide

4. Disillusioned

5. The Daylight Ending

6. The Chosen One

7. Unholy

8. Edge Of Tomorrow

Stubbornly refusing to growl, trigger a breakdown or write any songs shorter than four minutes, the spirit of traditional heavy metal is alive in Portsmouth five-piece Dendera. Their first album ‘The Killing Floor’ was eight bruising tracks of driving rhythms, squealing solos and this follow up doesn’t deviate from the formula even slightly. But

The Independent Voice • 27th April 2015

Chaos Echoes - Transient by

1. Senses Of The Nonexistent

2. Interzone IV: Intoxicating Beauty

3. Advent Of My Genesis

4. Interzone V: Advent Of My Bliss

5. Kyorakushugi

6. Interzone VI: Realisation

7. Soul Ruiner

With an almost unreadable spiky band logo and a dried-out corpse on the cover art, it’s a bit surprising when Chaos Echoes don’t turn out to be black metal purists. On this, their debut full length, the French four piece certainly flirt with Scandinavian darkness, but their main source of inspiration

The Independent Voice • 5th April 2015

Evile @ The Underworld, London

Oh thank God Evile are back! Let’s face it, as good as Municipal Waste, Gama Bomb and Warbringer are, no band could lay as convincing a claim to being the leaders of new-school thrash as the Huddersfield four piece.

But ever since they lost founding guitarist Oli Drake in 2013, their momentum has stalled. Hell, the ‘Skull’ album is nearly two years old and they’ve still not been able to tour it properly! No surprise then that after being offline for so long, there’s a palpable air of excitement

The Independent Voice • 20th March 2015

Takedown Festival Review - Southampton, England

7th March 2015

Review by Tim Bolitho-Jones

All Photography courtesy of: Lauren ‘Micky Finn’ Harris, Leigh Drinkwater and Takedown Festival

If there’s one thing we learned at this year’s Takedown Festival, it’s that staying up until two am the previous night to play ‘Alien Isolation’ was a terrible idea. Aside from the fact that all day gigs are gruelling enough without sleep deprivation, there’s lots of industrial fans and air vents dotted around the Southampton University Student Union com

The Independent Voice • 25th February 2015

Frosthelm - Endless Winter

1. Glacial Eon

2. Storm Of Teeth

3. Forlorn Tides

4. Tomb Of Sordid Ruin

5. Beneath Dead Horizons

6. Endless Winter

7. Hell Between Us

8. The Dragon

9. Silent And Dark, The Everlasting

We’ve never been to North Dakota but according to Wikipedia, the winters there are pretty harsh. Apparently they’ve had temperatures recorded as low as -51°C and the snow can be as deep as a metre. In other words, whenever a light dusting of ice falls on Britain and the entire country falls apart,

The Independent Voice • 4th February 2015

Sick Of It All @ The Talking Heads, Southampton

New York legends Sick Of It All have never gone on hiatus. They’ve never staged a high profile comeback tour or spent months squabbling in the press and their line-up has been relatively stable for years.

They’re practically the very definition of a hardworking, salt of the earth band and a cast iron inspiration for every hardcore act out there. But the real reason they’ve endured this long is because they make every gig a party and tonight is no exception.

And a good thing too, because the ta

The Independent Voice • 28th November 2014

At The Gates - At War With Reality

1. El Altar De Dios Desconocido

2. Death And The Labyrinth

3. At War With Reality

4. The Circular Ruins

5. Heroes And Tombs

6. The Conspiracy Of The Blind

7. Order From Chaos

8. The Book Of Sand (The Abomination)

9. The Head Of The Hydra

10. City Of Mirrors

11. Eater Of Gods

12. Upon Pillars Of Dust

13. The Night Eternal

Well, here’s the most obvious contender for 2014’s most highly anticipated album. The last time At The Gates got together in a recording studio, they cr

The Independent Voice • 7th November 2014

Impericon: Never Say Die Tour @ O2 Academy, Islington

Not a fan of hardcore? You are, you just haven’t been to a Terror show yet. One of the most beloved bands in the scene is back in London on a cold November night to headline the Impericon: Never Say Die tour at the O2 Academy. And true to form they put on a frantic, fast paced show to cap off a great night of heavy music. It’s quite a line-up too, the staggering seven band bill meaning the doors open ludicrously early and with a large chunk of ticket buyers still at work, the venue feels very bi

The Independent Voice • 12th October 2014

Fearless Vampire Killers - Unbreakable Hearts by Tim Bolitho-Jones

1. Intermission

2. Say What You Want From Me (The Ghost You Left Behind)

3. Turn Your Heart Into A Tomb

4. Exploding Heart Disorder

5. Edge Of Eternity

6. Taste The Iron On Your Lips

7. Our Nature’s Unnatural

8. Dream Of You

9. Brave The Night

10. In Wondrous Rage

11. Neon In The Dance Halls

12. Batten Down The Hatches

13. Maeby

14. Unbreakable Hearts

15. Remember My Name

16. Lucifer’s Shroud

17. City Falls To Dust

It’s easy to be cynical with a band like Fearles

The Independent Voice • 19th September 2014

Unearth @ The Underworld, London

It shouldn’t have ended like this. A decade ago, Shadows Fall were one of the most celebrated acts of the so-called New Wave Of American Heavy Metal. They regularly appeared on huge tours, attracted near blanket coverage from the press and were going to be superstars at any moment. But fame is a fickle thing and with Anthrax and fatherhood having effectively ended their tenure as a full time band, tonight could be the last chance we get to see the Massachusetts head bangers in a long while.

If

The Independent Voice • 25th May 2014

Trobar - Charivari by Tim Bolitho-Jones

Ah, folk music. Is there any other genre that fits so seamlessly with metal and provokes such incredible fun? For sheer, unabashed joy it’s almost impossible to beat and ‘Charivari,’ the newest release from French-Canadians Trobar is no exception. Sure, it’s not the best example out there and some of it is damn difficult to get into, but for seasoned veterans of manly jigging and wearing kilts to concerts, this will be a welcome addition to the album collection.

The intro track for instance ins

The Independent Voice • 25th April 2014

Toluca - Memoria by Tim Bolitho-Jones

Typical, just when the weather’s warming up, the petrol prices are going down and it’s beginning to look as if the world might be something other than a doomed cesspit of hatred and despair, along come a bunch of broken hearted black metallers to ruin everything like the proverbial wasp at the barbecue. Only this wasp isn’t a wasp at all, but an album that’s so grim it could only be nastier if the cover art was a picture of a naked baby crawling over a pile of used needles.

And true to form, Ru

The Independent Voice • 25th September 2013

Night Verses - Lift Your Existence by Tim Bolitho-Jones

Tracklisting:

1. Introducing: The Rot Under The Sun

2. Rage

3. Time Erases Time (Strung Out)

4. Celestial Fires

5. Antidepressants

6. Parasomnia

7. Pull Back Your Teeth

8. Whatever Makes You Hate Me

9. Blind Lighthouse

10. Yours

11. Cathexis

12. Elucidation

13. Alitmeter

14.I Don’t Want My Loved Ones To Die

15. Phoenix: I. Rising II. Falling

Review:

Epic in scale and bursting at the seams with ambition, ‘Lift Your Existence,’ is a debut album like no other you’re