The Coven (2015)

2020 release, the third album by the Swiss heavy metal band. The album was produced at the Little Creek Studio in Switzerland by V.O. Pulver (Pro-Pain, Destruction, Nervosa, Pänzer) and Destruction frontman Schmier, who helped and advised as a close friend of the band. An all-female Swiss heavy metal ensemble, Burning Witches engage in a punishing blend of old-school power metal and neck-snapping thrash that invokes names like Dio, Judas Priest, and Grave Digger. Founded by guitar player Romana Kalkuhl in 2015 in the town of Brugg, the group coalesced around a lineup that also featured bassist Jeanine Grob, vocalist Seraina Telli, and drummer Lala Frischknecht. The band called on producers V.O. Pulver (Panzer) and Schmier (from Destruction) to help shape their eponymous 2017 debut.

Live Gliss guitar/Theremin gig. This CD of Gliss guitar, Theremin and treated vocals results in a marvellously adventurous cauldron of sounds and spacey textures. Both musicians combine superbly well together with their distinctly odd chosen instruments to create totally unique sonic experience. These CDs are in matt black card covers with silver and white printing. This is the sixth of a 20CD series, each release a limited pressing of 1000 copies only - no more will be pressed.

Released in 2015, Grapefruit’s 3-CD multi-artist British underground folk compilation Dust On The Nettles was widely praised, with a five-star review in The Times hailing it as “a delight from beginning to end”. A long-overdue follow up to that set, Sumer Is Icumen In tightens the mesh by focusing on the point when traditional folksong and the burgeoning late Sixties counterculture collided, largely courtesy of seminal acts like the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Pentangle.

Whether calling himself Shortman or Inspector 22 or collaborating with Edward Madill under the name Loose Medicine, Todd W. Emmert has consistently produced forward-thinking music on the edges of the underground, finds Nick Roseblade.