Remarkably, the little but loud country I call home is still attached to the rest of the UK both politically and geographically. Yes, I know. No one has taken the impetus to physically remove us from our ties with England yet. I’ve been to the Borders before, we wouldn’t be…
The Load-In Good lord, it’s been a big month. It’s not necessarily been a high-volume month in terms of the quantity of shows, but the quality has been incredibly high. Some special, one-off sets and a pair of outstanding album release shows mean that I have a lot to say.…
It’s that time again where Heavy Blog sets up the soapbox and lets me shout to the heavens about the best record label around – Holy Roar. Always ambitious and never ceasing to help shine a spotlight on brilliant underground music, I’ve almost been neglecting them in 2019. That’s my…
This post has been a long time coming. We’ve been dropping hints here and there for years now about the growing underground scene in Israel, a scene which I, as a native of Tel Aviv, am well poised to explore. Interestingly enough, this has become less and less obvious as…
Perhaps it is just the linguistic tin ear awarded to native English speakers influencing me, but French seems to me to be a language much more effective at conjuring a mysterious, enigmatic atmosphere than our mother tongue. It seems to naturally evoke a vision of a world-weary storyteller sat in a…
Sometimes while you’re waiting over two years for a band to release some new music, they come along and release it with another band who you’ve also been waiting for music from, but for five whole years. What do you do with this new material? You listen to it a bunch…
Stop paying attention for a minute and a slew of underground acts with immense talent will pass by. There’s just a lot of music out there. Obviously. When Basick Records pulled the pin on Askesis, the label debut of multi-nation marauding powerhouse Calligram, they dug deep into the ground, wrenching…
During the mid-2000s, the UK hardcore and metal scene underwent a re-energisation of sorts due to the emergence of several bands who have since spearheaded the genres to modern popularity. Bands like Enter Shikari and Bring Me the Horizon resonated with mainstream crowds since their inceptions and have since established themselves as global institutions. On the other hand, Architects instantly occupied the forefront of an underground charge and, over the years, have also crossed over into popular realms. However, bubbling underneath the surface was (and still is) a whole scene of innovative, vital artists whose records define the country’s musical output at its finest, with albums that will undoubtedly stand the test of time among aficionados of heavy music. One such act is Devil Sold His Soul who, in this writer’s humble opinion, are one of the best bands the UK has ever birthed.
For those who missed our last installment, We post biweekly updates covering what the staff at Heavy Blog have been spinning. Given the amount of time we spend on the site telling you about music that does not fall neatly into the confines of conventional “metal,” it should come as no surprise that many of us on staff have pretty eclectic tastes that range far outside of metal and heavy things. We can’t post about all of them at length here, but we can at least let you know what we’re actually listening to. For those that would like to participate as well (and please do) can drop a 3X3 in the comments, which can be made with tapmusic.net through your last.fm account, or create it manually with topsters.net. Also, consider these posts open threads to talk about pretty much anything music-related. We love hearing all of your thoughts on this stuff and love being able to nerd out along with all of you.
It’s been a hot minute since we heard anything from Devil Sold His Soul, the UK’s master of popping out of nowhere with music and then disappearing again. Personally, the last few releases didn’t float my boat or tickle my whistle. They lacked the bite of A Fragile Hope and…
