Coven 2020

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.

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.

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.

World Serpent is the fourth album from London producer and composer Misha Hering, under the Memnon Sa banner, and the debut release on Hering’s own Holy Mountain imprint, a new label dedicated to very special productions from Misha’s now reputable studio of the same name in East London. It is released in partnership with specialist Metal record shop and label Crypt Of The Wizard.
World Serpent is an album in the classic sense of the word, a 40 minute, psychedelic document of deep exploration, high drama and gleaming production…

Mysticism, magic, occult arts and rituals, all of which are driving factors behind ACHERONTAS, are also the most adequate words that can be used to describe the band's image, sound and lyrics. The band is considered as one of the leading representatives of the New Wave of Greek Black Metal, heavily influenced by the original Hellenic metal scene, retro rock (especially the 70's rock) and eastern philosophy. "Psychic Death - The Shattering Of Perceptions" was recorded in Grecce, Germany and UK, at the band's own studios (the "Coven’s Corridors of Wilderness"). The album was produced, mixed and mastered at Pentagram Studio by George Emmanuel (Lucifer's Child, ex-Rotting Christ). Cover artwork was prepared by Chris Undirheimar of Blood and Fire Ritual Art studio.

Pure witchery: barely twelve full moons after the release of their third opus, Dance With The Devil, Burning Witches return steeled and superior with The Witch Of The North, their most fiery and thunderous work to date. An album equipped to become a modern metal classic, a work of reference for honest, true steel. It’s obvious: anyone who manages to deliver such a Witch Hammer after just one year has to have the magic touch. Black magic that is! But that’s exactly what this band have always possessed. For five years the Swiss witches have been putting their occult mark on the international metal world. Not only holding their ground in a male-dominated field, they are also initiating a desperately needed change of power. The triptych consisting of Burning Witches (2017), Hexenhammer (2018) and Dance With The Devil (2020) instantly brought them to festivals like Wacken Open Air, Summer Breeze and Rock Harz Open Air, and the battle cries of these three records are still ringing.