As LBGQT rights remain in the forefront of today’s political climate, so it creeps furthermore into extreme music. Mina Caputo of Life of Agony and Kat Shevil (Winds of Genocide) have been out front of the movement in metal for a while now, but it appears to be picking up. Just this month I received […]

Musician, artist and writer Alex CF has provided some of my favorite, emotional moments in music over the last few years. From Fall of Efrafa‘s Warren of Snares trilogy, to the incomplete Light Bearer saga, to the more recent Anopheli and Archivist releases, his deep concepts and various takes on crust/d-beat and post rock have been, […]

Though not normally recognized for its black metal scene outside of Cradle of Filth and maybe Wodensthrone and  Winterfylleth, there’s is something foul afoot in the English  black metal underground. Cacophonous has exposed gems like Necronautical, Old Corpse Road and The Infernal Sea. And now Halo of Flies has chipped in with the vinyl release of the stunning […]

I’ve been a huge fan of Swedish sludge butchers Pyramido since their debut full-length Sand came out on Totalrust Music in 2009.  The follow-up Salt was even heavier and saw the band stretching their songs, riffs and viciousness into a technologically advanced weapons platform that was far deeper and more desiccated than any number of […]

“Somnambulant” is the song on this album that captures most what I feel Anopheli was trying to convey, musically, on this album. A lone bass plucks away a somber melody that wants nothing to do with the light of day. An accompanying drum rhythm kicks in with some cello harmony following suit; this introduction of […]

And so Wisconsin’s own Protestant have once again subtly morphed styles  a shade, once being a pretty standard hardcore band, going a bit more crusty and sludgy , then getting intensely and darkly melodic.  Now, the band is embracing the current blackened hardcore trend, except they are taking the black metal side much more seriously, to the point […]

“The demon Abalam is a King of Hell and an assistant to Paimon. He takes possession of a human’s body to encourage the human to commit lust, he would defile humans during the possession and the only way they could escape was death.” Hailing from the Denmark, Hexis (a term related to or meaning ‘possession’ ) […]

From the always reliable purveyors of fine vinyl, Halo of Flies, comes a repress of the second album from Germany’s Deathrite. It strays a little away from the label’s norm delivering less hardcore and a more crust/d-beat/grind/death metal assault that will appeal to fans of Trap Them, Enabler, Nails, Dead in the Dirt and Black Breath, […]

I started this review with the feeling that after about seven listens I had grasped what was being conveyed and therefore I would be able judge and critique. The more I kept on listening, though, the more this album seemed to present itself; as if it were a shy child (who had tendencies of acting […]

Hailing from Texas, Cara Neir is one of those bands that will drive grizzled old school black metal fans crazy but fans of  envy, Hiretsukan,  Quantice Never Crashed as well as label mates The Makai and black metal upstarts Deafheaven and So Hideous should check these guys out. Playing  a punked out form of  hardcore and  screamo tinged black metal, […]

My dealing with Wisconsin’s Halo of Flies records have mostly been Lightbearer/Fall of Efrafa or Protestant related with a few other crust /hardcore releases scattered in there. However, here is something a little off the beaten path but still is a perfect fit for the label- a female fronted, black-ish post rock/post hardcore band from […]

Featuring members of hardcore act Momentum and of course former Fall of Efrafa frontman Alex Bradshaw, the UK’s Light Bearer have quickly established themselves as one of atmospheric sludge/post rock’s most amazing bands, or one of the best metal bands of any genre for that matter with their stunning 2011 debut LP Lapsus and subsequent […]

“We continue to storm forward with no real sense of direction or purpose. We repeat ourselves, retell the same lies and never change. We all have become stagnant and entitled.. We know better, but we do it anyway. We are greedy, lazy and tired. We are destroying everything we’ve worked to preserve and shitting in […]

Here’s a vinyl split LP with some amazing potential. Light Bearer‘s first LP, 2011’s Lapsus was one of the very best releases of last year while Wisconsin’s Northless have steadily improved over the two releases I have heard in 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged and last year’s Clandestine Abuse LP. I’m not going to […]

Once again, Halo of Flies Records ensures that I keep a record player in my possession by releasing an impressive 2 track split 12″ from California sludge doom act Amarok and Polish doom band Enth. Both bands are new to me, but I’ll be certainly looking out for releases from both in the future. I’ll […]

I’ve been sitting on my review of this simply stunning double LP for a while now for a couple of reasons. First, it’s such a monolithic, emotionally draining and fantastic album that putting it into words is nigh impossible. Second, I just want to listen to and absorb this record over and over again and […]

Halo of Flies is having a pretty awesome run of LP releases over the last few months. Going back to last year’s The Makai and Protestant LPs, this year they’ve released the sublime debut of Light Bearer (ex Fall of Efrafa) and Northless’ follow up to 2010’s No Quarter for the Damaged CD/EP. As with […]

While labels like Deathwish Inc, Bridge 9, Epitaph and Victory are often considered the preeminent contemporary hardcore labels, the fact remains that Halo of Flies actually has one of hardcore’s very best bands tucked away on their label;  Milwaukee’s DIY act, Protestant. Having released numerous vinyl, splits and 7” records I was happy to see […]

I’ll get right to it, after one full-length (2007’s The End of All You Know) and a couple of splits, California’s The Makai have somehow rendered one of the most brilliant pieces of music I’ve heard with Embracing the Shroud of a Blackened Sky. Now I know most regular readers of this site know that […]

After the killer little Nails release, the second best recent offering of D-beat hardcore is the debut from Cleveland’s Masakari who have given the genre some needed melody and thoughtfulness within their crusty, feral antics. Utilizing an obvious Discharge-backbone, Masakari have an undeniable, palpable rage within their rumbling power chords and gruff screams, but their […]

First off, the packaging from this EP is pretty unique, though its bound to drive storage-o-phobes nuts: the CDEP comes in a LP sized sleeve, with the CD resting in the middle on a spinner and the inlay is an LP sized folding poster. I just wish the music was as adventurous and creative as […]

And so, The Warren of Snares trilogy is complete and the UKs sadly short lived and now defunct (at least according to a farewell show back in October) Fall of Efrafa have a trilogy to their legacy that can be called truly special. Starting with 2006s more crusty, D beat based Owsla (‘Warrior’), then the […]

Halo of Flies Records are not particularly productive when it comes to releases, but when they do release something it usually gets my attention-for example Fall of Efrafa, Protestant and now Wisconsin’s Malachi and this release which consists of the bands previous two 2008 vinyl only releases (Malachi and Wither to Cover the Tread) on […]

As I first heard Milwaukee’s Protestant on their As Dead As We Look release and now their  latest full length, I’m more confident in anointing this group as the heir to the mantle left by Cursed; crumbling, antagonistic and sludgy but intelligent hardcore with a few segments of well placed and thoughtful ambience, all wrapped […]

As a child, one of the movies that left an indelible imprint on my psyche was 1978’s Watership Down. As a five year old I was too young to grasp the political, religious, social and possibly misogynistic undercurrent of the movie based on Richard Adam’s deeply engrossing literary works-I was too busy being horrified by […]