RETURN OF THE METAL HORDES

Every so often I just lapse back into metal, I don't mean to it just happens, like returning to the womb, minus the warmth, comfort and safety etc. Resistance is by and large futile.

To be fair I'm not just listening to any old metal here, Great White this is not - we're talking Finnish mytho-folk metallers Amorphis, who blew me away with their 2nd and 3rd albums back in the 90s and who return to fiddle-dee-dee form with their latest release Eclipse. The singer occasionally goes a little bit Nickleback (urgh) but by and large this is equal parts epic, dark and earthy. Check Brother Moon

DarkThrone give us the good old old skool biscuit barrel style and manage to produce the catchiest black metal album since Under the Sign of the Black Mark, The Cult is Alive, indeed it is. Check Shut Up AND The Cult of Goliath

You would be right to say 'what the hell have The Gathering got to do with metal hordes?' and you'd be right, but they used to be metal (remember that?) so they're staying here, plus every female fronted symphonic-goth-orchestral-medieval dress-wearing female fronted band has ripped Anneke van Giersbergen's vocal style off ever since. The new album, Home, is pretty melancholic, but in a nice light way that doesn't make you want to kill yourself, just weep into your pillow 'til sunrise. Check In Between

Finally those lords of Viking Metal, you guessed it Enslaved have come back with yet another classic premium cut of epic-prog-black-edda-inspired metal with Ruun. Perhaps not for Sunday afternoon lisening with your girlfriend, but a killer all the same. Check Fusion of Sense and Earth

Also check out Ian Miller - easily the best artist ever at doing evil twisted stuff. Warhammer 4 eva.