Back in January, just a few months after the Ex-Stream of Passion vocalist Marcela Bovio released her debut solo album Unprecedented she released a re-recorded version of the album with pianist Erik van Ittersum, trading the string quartet for just her voice … Continue reading
It was a blow hearing that Stream of Passion were splitting up earlier in the year. Not only are they one of the best bands in the symphonic metal scene on album, they’re even better live, one of the most … Continue reading
Here’s the latest Swirls of Noise radio, with music I’ve been listening to recently. Starting with a lovely ambient piece from Christina Vantzou’s third album, she’s followed by Canadians Gris’ neo-classical influenced progressive metal and killer progressive thrash from Americans Vektor. … Continue reading
Dutch singer Anneke Van Giersbergen (Ex-The Gathering, solo, Devin Townsend Project) and Icelandic classical quartet Árstíðir first met back in 2013, when they were both support acts for Pain of Salvation’s European acoustic tour. At those shows Árstíðir joined Anneke on stage to … Continue reading
Raphael Weinroth-Browne is the cellist and one third of classical trio Musk Ox, the group behind one of the year’s best albums in Woodfall. Here’s a solo piece named Shattered Dreams, and it’s rather different from his work with Musk Ox, … Continue reading
Musk Ox are a three piece neo-classical group hailing from Canada, consisting of three musicians on three instruments: classical guitar, cello and violin. A staggeringly talented group, over the course of an hour they play sublime, beautiful music to get … Continue reading
Lots of good stuff featured on Swirls of Noise radio this week. Some fantastic atmospheric black metal from Adabroc and Yarek Ovich, beautiful neo-classical/folk from Musk Ox and great recent symphonic metal from Leaves’ Eyes. Add a dose of ambient, … Continue reading
With six months and half of the year gone, it seems as good a time as any to have a retrospective look at the best releases that the year has seen so far. Unbelievably the year has been so fantastic … Continue reading
Here’s Swirls of Noise radio #3. This week I’ve been exploring the abyssal death metal sound of the last few years, so there’s some really great material from the mighty Bolzer, Malthusian, Antediluvian and Cruciamentum. There’s also a good mix … Continue reading
The Secret of the Sea is the third album by Italian composer Bruno Bavota. This album sees him playing predominantly on the piano, with acoustic guitars backing up the melodies, and also sees some slight experimentation with delay and reverb. … Continue reading
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