Diaries of Doom

I’ll level with you here: upon my first listen to this song, I was confused. Anyone would be forgiven for thinking that the first ten seconds of Dead Silence, led by low synths and synthetic vibraphone, would lead into a mumble rap track about drinking too much cough syrup and having colourful hair. Of course, such an indication would cause most rock fans to stop listening almost immediately. Perseverance is rewarded in this case, however, because there are no further hints of mumble rap (thank Christ) for the rest of the single. Much like John Cage’s 4:33 and any Sunn 0))) song, this is a good example of how rewarding it can be to listen to more than the first ten seconds of a song. The rest of this song is a satisfying modern heavy rock stomp, complete with menacing, minor riffage, spooky guitar harmonies and high-flying vocals. Think of Avenged Sevenfold circa 2009, strip away all of the bits you wish they hadn’t put in their songs, then you’re about there with Dead Silen

Last week on Diaries of Doom... We uploaded another documentary at the weekend. Watch our 15-min insight into Independent Music Venues Week, with  Raging Speedhorn ,  Desert Storm  and  Those Snakes , talking about their local music scenes, the importance of small venues, and new music for the latter two bands. In a busy week for underground live music,  Fractura  played their first show under their new line up at Metal 2 The Masses Wolverhampton,  King Corpse  headlined Ye Olde Foundry in Dudley with  Tumanduumband  and  Voidlurker , and  Ashen Crown  opened for Grand Magus and Wolf in Birmingham. Something I forgot to mention last week was that  Insurgent  released a new single, titled 'Colours Bleed'. Unfortunately, with that announcement came the news that they were calling it a day as a band. Gutted isn't the word. Creature dropped a live session for 'Cold Man's World'. They're touring with Graphic Nature and Widows over late March/e

Did you catch Ungraven this week? The industrial blackened sludge duo feature Jon of  Conan  and Tyler of Tuskar.  Voidlurker  and Adder supported them in an incredible night of live music in Coventry. You can read our new  review  of the  Land Captains  EP, written expertly by Ben Price. Thomas V Jäger of  Monolord  announced a solo project. It's a bit softer than the crushing doom he's known for - based on acoustic guitars, synths and vocals. The new Testament song 'Children of the Next Level' crushes. That sums it up nicely. Desert Storm  have released another song. 'The Machine' will be on upcoming album Omens, out on APF.  We've got new videos from  Witch Tripper ,  Conan  and  Memoriam  on the channel - have a watch! Viscera's first album came out this week. Jamie, who used to front Sylosis and Heart of a Coward, is providing vocals. This stuff is heavy as ten thousand bricks...

Rock music in 2020 can sometimes feel like a competition to see who can have the most strings on their guitars, or play in 4/4 for the least amount of time, or have the most contrived fusion with *insert other genre here* in an attempt to stand out, or even be a rock band while sounding as little as possible like one. Armies of snapback-clad, chino-wearing hipsters queue up as far as the eye can see to prattle on until their voices are hoarse about how Led Zeppelin’s music was all stolen and how AC/DC are the most overrated band of all time. The fact that they are clearly incorrect is all well and good; but with the worrying tendency of Classic Rock-inspired bands in the current year to either go down the route of a certain band (who shall remain nameless...but we all know who I’m talking about) and emulate Zeppelin to the point of pastiche, or stick to releasing very safe, very boring plodders, it can be hard at times to avoid slipping into the thinking that maybe they have a p

February. What an absolutely fantastic month. It was much colder than January, and we had wind, snow and heavy rain. The whole Coronavirus thing's wearing a bit thin, and it seems we're all probably going to die. Something like that. For real though, the amount of jokes I've heard from serving bottles of Corona beer in a bar... It could be bearable but it's just the same joke over and over again. For music, it was another good month. We had new singles from the boys in  King Corpse ,  Desert Storm  and  Netherhall , HRH Metal went down, and I got to play my first Metal 2 The Masses with  Slump  (we didn't go through but had an absolute blast). Even Ozzy Osbourne chucked out another album. Good on you, Oz. Here's a few of my favourite releases from February. Kvelertak - Splid (black metal/classic rock/punk) - Rise Records Oh, man, this is just brilliant. An eleven-song party in the form of punky black metal (or however you want to categorise them), I

Those Snakes  released the fantastic 'Widowmaker' on Friday. It's by far one of the strongest albums I've heard this year. We uploaded our interview with them from about a month prior - you can listen to them talk about the album and the true journey it took to get there. They headlined Redrum with Prognosis and  King Corpse  as part of the release. Speaking of interviews, we uploaded our first feature with  Ironvolt ! It's Ben's first interview for Diaries of Doom, and what better place to start? Keep this band on your radar if you like heavy, groovy funky, but more importantly - fun - music. Have a watch of some live  King Corpse . 'Exhumation' live at HRH Metal has gone up to coincide with its single release last week. Have you seen  Pelugion  this week? They've been busy! After supporting Straight for the Sun at Scruffy's (Birmingham) on Friday night, they headlined a charity gig at the Arches (Coventry). Keep an eye ou