Messages

Last six:
Swans (US) – The Seer (2012); To Be Kind (2014) The Glowing Man (2016) [every so often, I put the three of these on in one go, as they go really well together as a trilogy; it might be blasphemy, but this is the best phase by far of the project]
Sigh (Japan) – Hail Horror Hail (1997)
Callous Master (Éire) – Callous Master (2026) [fuckin class, like a mixture of Mortuary Drape, Master's Hammer, etc.]
Paradise Lost (England) – Ascension (2025) [gave this another go, even more atrocious than I remembered, a nothing album full of plodding rubbish]

Harps is certainly their best one. But I will be calling it Hapes from now on.

Enslaved - Eld

Pantheon of metal level stuff, yet I've definitely not spent nearly the time with it down the years, compared to Anthems, De Mysteriis, etc., that it deserves.

Mad to think that it and Anthems (and Enthrone Darkness Trumphant) came out within a few weeks of each other. Eld is probably my third favourite Enslaved album (rather than EP) after the first one and Below the Lights. Not so fond of the newer stuff, but I have always been impressed that they kept trying new things (bar the harsh vocals, almost no change in those bar Hordanes Land).

Last four:
Fleurity (Norge, 1995) – Min Tid skall komme [one of the best ever, an excellent oddball of an album with enough ideas to fill ten albums]
Rivers Like Veins (Poland, 2019) – Z iskier srebrnych orszaków [really like this one, even if it doesn't do anything all that different, solid black metal with an good atmosphere]
Trist (Bayern, 2007) – Hin/Fort [the Hin part of this is one of the best hours of music ever, I reckon, ambient spacey blackish metal, really takes you somewhere else]
Trist (Bayern, 2007) – Willenskraft [can't play one without playing the other, overall a better album if one has the patience for it]

Just to chime in on Tiamat, I lost interest with A Deeper Kind of Slumber, but I love Wildhoney in all its low-key glory. I really should try some of the later stuff at some point.

Last six metal albums for me:
Nocternity (Greece, 2015) – Harps of the Ancient Temples [total plodfest, but has its charms]
Fauna (USA, 2025) – Ochre & Ash [one of the best albums from last year]
The Ruins of Beverast (Germany, 2009) – Unlock the Shrine [easily their best, and the last excellent one up until the new one]
Xasthur (USA, 2026) – Open to Misinterpretation [I don't know what I was fucking thinking listening to this, semi-acoustic reworks of his greatest hits, pointless]
Drenskapur (Germany, 2020) – Was der Morast verschlang [getting lots of spins the past month or so, Moorwanderer is a class track]
Nachtymistium (USA, 2024) – Blight Privilege [nice to come back to this after playing it a bit too much when it came out]

....and recording what could/would have been my songs for what could have been the follow up to Battlechants and should have at least been the second Meiche release that I put on ice when I rejoined Belinus in 2005.

hit me up babe, its only 20-odd years in the making 

Haha, will do, once I sort out my timing...

I assume you're writing on archaeology books and articles? Fair play to you, man. That's some undertaking.

I am indeed, a mixture of archaeology stuff and history stuff. Thanks! It keeps me busy, and then some.

Would be cool to see that album finished, but it's also good to hear you've got your own stuff in the works too.

The last thing I did was an industrial album- Candens Malum. It's up on bandcamp.

I am currently planning my next inconsequential masterpiece, but my wife is busy studying two courses at once (while working!), and has the laptop tied up. Gives me time to mull over ideas and figure out some sort of plan, even though it will surely change into something else as soon as I begin.

Ara, that stuff has been in the works a long time – a major regret over the years. I've three (!) books underway at the moment and a ball of articles, so there is little time for anything, even though I have one more year without teaching to go.

Great to read that you are still bashing stuff out, I will check out Candens Malum today, and I look forward to hearing what comes out of your return to the laptop. Best of luck to your wife with the courses!

When comes new Belinus??

It would be great to see something. That unfinished album from 20 years ago was a real missed opportunity, Ronan had written some fantastic songs for it for myself, James and Jer, and the studio sessions went very well, but life got in the way of finishing it.

I've not been playing much due to work, living in two countries at once, arthritis, baby, etc., but I've slowly been trying to get into shape for playing stuff and recording what could/would have been my songs for what could have been the follow up to Battlechants and should have at least been the second Meiche release that I put on ice when I rejoined Belinus in 2005.

Are you playing much yourself these days?

Forgot to add Sodb and Sol Axis to the above list.

Abigor- Leytmotif Luzifer. This is without a doubt the most modern an complex sounding album I've bought in a long time. It's really good for what it is, and the overall packaging is superb and very complimentary. That said, I much prefer the older stuff. Supreme Immortal Art is just feckin.... SUPREME.

Supreme Immortal Art really brings back the memories! I used to stick it on to a room full of people on yokes in the summer of 1998 and sit back and watch the carnage.

Last six metal albums for me:
Drengskapur (Germany) – Was der Morast verschlang (2022).
One of Nine (USA) – Eternal Sorcery (2023).
Earth and Pillars (Italy) – Earth, Vol. 2 (2019).
Warmoon Lord (Finland) – Battlespells (2021).
Csejthe (Quebec) – La mort du Prince Noir (2009).
Invunche (Chile) – Atavismo (2024).

The ones I spin the most regularly still are (off the top of my head):

Primordial – Immraṁa; Journey's End; Storm Before Calm.
Altar of Plagues – the two demos; Sol; White Tomb.
Arcane Sun – Arcane Sun.
Prophecy – Pythia.
Abbadon Incarnate – Nadir.
Renewal – Old World Order.
Geasa – Starside.
Lunar Gate – all of them.
Carnún – Malkuth.
Mabus – Sick Sick Sex.
For Ruin – Obsidian.
Mourning Beloveth – A Murderous Circus.

In Flames- Lunar Strain. Thanks to Taranis for putting this into my mind. I bought the reissue in 99 and loved Behind Space, which I think I had recorded from the Metal Show. The album never clicked with me back then, but I'm surprised at how much of it still sounds familiar. I am really enjoying it now. I don't remeber it being SO folky, which is a nice surprise. I never bothered with anything else by them so maybe I should check out their other 90s albums, from before they turned to the modern groove style.

Subterranean on in the car on the way home. Sounds great as well. Delighted to have revisited this.

Each one gets less like the first one as the albums fly by. Whoracle the last good one IMO, but some like the next couple too. Awful altogether after that, though.

Always great revisiting a band or album previously written off and finding that your opinion has changed. Desaster, Godkiller, Scorpions are among the many for me like that.

Forgot to mention the listener-voted Top 100 metal songs (in association with Hot Press?), I think it was in the later part of the first or early part of the second year of the show. It was the first time I ever heard Bathory's Call from the Grave, which was a fairly life-altering few minutes.

It would be class to see that list now.

Subterranean is also class, but I must say, I really do love the next two albums, The Jester Race and Whoracle, too. They lost me then, though.

I tend to listen to Lunar Strain less out of laziness, as I have it on vinyl and the others on CD, but it is probably the pick of the bunch.

Last five:
Bolt Thrower (England) – The Fourth Crusade (1992, needs no introduction, certainly my favourite album of theirs).

Forefather (England) – The Fighting Man (2000, bought after rave reviews in Metalworks, pagan metal, great opening track and a couple of other great tracks, but some that have always bugged the shit out of me too).

Gràb (Bayern) – Kremiss (2025, really good black metal with a bit of an atmosphere, certainly in my top ten from last year, played it a bit too much for a chunk of last year, but good to come back to it).

Rivers Like Veins (Poland) – Z iskier srebrnych orszaków (2019, more black metal with a bit of an atmosphere, this one has really grown on me over the past year or so, having not thought much of it before that).

In Flames (Sweden) – Lunar Strain (1994, one of the original and best NWSMDM albums, still class).

As already said, it was mad that Beherit, Sentenced, Darkthrone, Emperor, Enslaved, etc., got airplay on Sunday evening on a national radio station in my last year of primary school and first year of secondary. It was mental to hear stuff on the radio you were reading about in the likes of Ultrakill and Terrorizer, and it was only because of the Metal Show that I wasn't completely lost when I picked up those magazines for the first time.

I remember being delighted when it was mentioned on the Beat Box that there was finally going to be a Metal Show on 2FM, starting that night, even if it took until the second week to tune in (I remember him playing Body Parts by Sodom in the first hour a couple of songs in and As the World Burns by Bolt Thrower in the second). It was always great when John Kenny filled in for Dave Fanning before that, as he would play a few metal songs. I taped Ministry's Just One Fix and two Richard III songs in August 1992 when he filled in for him, and I suppose positive feedback to that led to the show starting in September or October.

It really should have started earlier, as 1992 was when loads of lads were getting into rave and yokes, which decimated the potential listenership.

I have a few tapes from the early years still. Lost the best one in 1994, alas.

Was it perfect? Of course not, there was no way he could keep everybody happy, and while he was not really into the extreme stuff, he was certainly into many of the metal bands he played. Several of my tapes have him saying things like "I like that album, I must say" (e.g. Always).

I also had the feeling the poor chap was rarely given press-releases or any other info to go with some of the albums and had to wing it and try to figure out what the logos said. To this day, I've not been able to figure out what he meant by the name one of the Irish demos he played in 1994 or 1995.

It did get a bit worse as time went on, but that was as much due to the way metal was moving as to the show itself. There was rarely anything in the first hour worth taping after 1996 or so, but it was still essential listening to hear about gigs, etc., as for the likes of myself in Ennis, it was the only way of hearing about anything (and even then, it was only a fraction of what was going on, at times), especially before the great leap forward in the Irish scene in 1998.

Fear Factory: Demanufacture

Wearing the T-shirt, first listen in a while. Still class.

Great album, probably the best album of its type (industrial-tinged death metal? it is a hard one to categorise). Still remember being absolutely blown away by the first track after putting the record on the turntable when it came out. I will stick it on right away, it has been years at this stage!