Tag Neofolk
Fittingly, given the weird and wonderful musical year I’ve had since I started writing for Ave Noctum, my last review of 2023 is as beautiful, weird and gloriously mad as they come. I try to come to new music with… Continue Reading →
Unless you are completely new to Nordic Folk, you will know that the genre’s best times are behind it. It reached its climax a few years ago and it stopped being nouvelle and wondrous before that. Today, even its best-known… Continue Reading →
I’m sure most of us reading Ave Noctum spend a lot of our time listening to some of the most brutal and extreme music out there, but if we are honest, we will also listen to something a little different… Continue Reading →
While the bulk of the releases covered by Ave Noctum fall into the extreme category in one way or another, we are also partial to an occasional more atmospheric release. While not extreme in terms of brutality, let’s be clear… Continue Reading →
In recent years there has seemingly been a healthy surge in acoustic neofolk outfits and although at face value this style may be a world apart from most metal outfits, the genre has been adopted by large swathes of the… Continue Reading →
This album arrived and immediately induced a sense of slight shame that I didn’t know the name Lisa Cuthbert, as she has worked with an extraordinarily wide range of bands from Marillion through The Sisters Of Mercy to Draconian and… Continue Reading →
Yet another of Steven Von Till’s side projects, Harvestman releases its fourth full length in the form of ‘Music for Megaliths’. Harvestman acts as a midway point between the crushing heaviness of Neurosis and the gentle sombreness of Von Till’s… Continue Reading →
This is my third encounter with Erik E and his dark, mournful neo-folk project Weh. The sound as ever is simple and beautifully plain, mostly the deep almost Cohen-esque tones of Erik E and his strummed acoustic guitar, with the… Continue Reading →
It’s a bit of a cop out on my part maybe, but the description that accompanies this eleven track journey captures the experience. “Dream Awakening” is presented as a “diverse and imaginative music landscape with contrasting emotions musical symbolism, blending… Continue Reading →
Ulver’s 1996 album ‘Kveldsanger’ has a lot to answer for if you ask me. By the mid-nineties, the concept of black metal bands adding delicate acoustic interludes or introductions to their albums was nothing new, artists quickly cottoning onto the… Continue Reading →
It’s interesting how far metal has come since the days of beer, long hair and jeans. I mean, most metal fans have had their guilty pleasures (I’ll resist the urge to list mine here) but in the old days your… Continue Reading →
If back in the early days as a fledging reviewer, when I was casting judgment on a very vicious disc of Swedish black metal by Armagedda ‘The Final War Approaching’ I had been told I would be covering one of… Continue Reading →