1. // Alien: Romulus Alien: Romulus was undoubtedly one of the most anticipated films of the summer, for both Horror fans as well as the wider popcorn consuming movie goer. Director Fède Álvarez (Evil Dead) went someway to whetting our appetites as he promised a return to the tone and visual style of the first…

For many in the Horror literature community, Paul Tremblay is considered to be one of the finest writers of contemporary genre fiction. And he is perhaps best widely known for his 2018 story The Cabin at the End of the World, which won the 2019 Bram Stoker Award for best novel – and was adapted…

Released on July 27th 1984 – Ride The Lightning was the second album from Heavy Metal titans Metallica. A band who are now the most recognisable and financially successful Heavy Metal band of all time, but back then were still finding themselves as song-writers looking to capitalise on the early buzz of their debut Kill…

1. // The Terminator In 1984 James Cameron was a little known director whose only output to date was the monster B-Movie sequel Piranha Part Two: The Spawning (1982). But his next move would be to create The Terminator, the beginning of one of the all time great Sci-Fi movie sagas – while kick-starting his…

“You like it darker? Fine, so do I.” – Stephen King Twelve new fables from the Master of Horror, who has been tantalising our imaginations for half a century – establishing himself as the god of modern Horror literature in the process. King is of course known for his epic novels over the years. The…

1. // Sumac – The Healer (Thrill Jockey) On paper, Sumac are the ultimate Post-Metal supergroup. Formed by Aaron Turner (Old Man Gloom) following the demise of his pioneering band in the genre Isis, Sumac was created as an outlet for the new heavy and experimental music he was writing. On the recommendation of Converge…

Metallica landed in Copenhagen for their M72 world tour – No Repeat Weekend, and there seemed to be a real buzz around the capitol with Metallica T-Shirts everywhere you looked from Thursday onwards. With Denmark of course being the home country of Lars Ulrich, playing the capital always feels like a homecoming for both the…

1. // Abigail Abigail is the latest movie from Radio Silence Productions, the team behind Ready Or Not (2019) and the recent two reboot / sequels in the Scream franchise. Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett, the film unashamedly pays homage to a number of classic Vampire-flicks from the 80s and 90s, most notably…

There was a collective air of excitement buzzing around the O2 in anticipation of seeing Tool back in London on the UK leg of their current European tour. It had been two years since the legendary Progressive / Alternative Metal band graced the city, and the buzz to once again hear them play a mixture…

1. // Pantera – Far Beyond Driven (Elektra Records) By 1994, Texan heavyweights Pantera had firmly established themselves as the world’s premier Heavy Metal band. With their album Cowboys From Hell (1990). Pantera would implement a new style – transcending from their Hard Rock roots, a change fuelled by listening to the likes of Metallica…

Experimental Doom-Gazers BIG|BRAVE have been on the road in Europe since the beginning of May, in support of their new album A Chaos of Flowers (Thrill Jockey Records). And the final leg for the Canadian four-piece has landed in the UK, with a return to Brighton on the south-coast following a performance last year in…

1. // Alien (1979) At the end of the 1970s, thanks to the success of George Lucas’s Star Wars – space was very much in vogue in Hollywood. Director Ridley Scott was chosen to bring to life a script written by Dan O’Bannon (The Return of the Living Dead) – who had previously worked in…

April 19th saw the release of new albums from two very different bands, who both share a time and space in music history – despite their careers having played out on very different trajectories. They are both survivors of the Grunge scene that was born in Seattle in the late 80s, and took over the…

1990 : // Misery By the time the 90s arrived Stephen King was absolutely huge in both the literary and movie worlds, with his books selling by the millions, and film adaptations throughout the 80s such as The Shining (1980) Christine (1982) The Dead Zone (1982) and Stand By Me (1986) – all proving hits…

1. // Dödsrit – Nocturnal Will (Wolves of Hades) Nocturnal Will is the fourth release from the masters of melodic Black-Metal. Originally a purely studio based solo project from ex Totem Skin multi-instrumentalist Christopher Oster, the Swedish musician created two fine releases – Dödsrit (2017) and Spirit Crusher (2018) – which were both superbly crafted…

New Orleans Sludge Metal merchants Crowbar hit the Uk for their first significant headline tour on these shores since the release of their twelve studio record Zero and Below (MNRK Heavy – 2022). And their first shows in the Uk since hitting the road with Sepultura and Sacred Reich also back in 2022 Joining Crowbar…

On March 8th 1994, singer and multi-instrumentalist Trent Reznor would release the defining record of his legendary career. An album so unique, that to this day it’s individuality still stands out as being a thoroughly timeless piece of music, blurring the genres of Industrial Metal, Alternative Rock and Electronica like no other. The Downward Spiral…

1. // Dune: Part Two When Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) directed Dune : Part One (2021) he created an epic modern Sci-Fi saga, that masterfully retold the tale of Frank Herbert’s vintage 1965 novel. With a style and tone that suited the Dune vision perfectly, one that was vastly different from David Lynch’s 1984…

1. // Soundgarden – Superunknown By the time the Seattle Grunge scene hit the mainstream in 1991 with the release of Pearl Jam’s debut Ten, and the juggernaut of Nevermind from Nirvana, Soundgarden were veterans of the scene and already releasing their third LP Badmotorfinger. The record featured key songs in their catalogue such as…

“What’s it going to be then, eh?” Stanley Kubrick’s controversial movie based on Anthony Burgess’ 1962 novel of the same name, depicts an alternate dystopia in which gang violence is rife across a near future Britain. The film became infamous due to its graphic content, which is said to have inspired real life acts of…

1980 : // The Shining A stunning Stephen King adaptation by legendary auteur Stanley Kubrick (A Clockwork Orange), The Shining is the ultimate in eerie slow-burn story telling. Setting the tone from the very beginning as the classic ominous score plays over Kubrick’s sumptuous birds-eye shot of the doomed Jack Torrance (Jack Nicholson – One…

2000 : // Deftones – White Pony (Maverick Records) Deftones had made their mark in the bustling Post-Grunge Californian scene of the mid 90s with the release of their debut record Adrenaline (1995). Alongside contemporaries such as Korn and Coalchamber, the band were lumped into the ‘Nu-Metal’ category by the press as they combined the…

Rebel Moon is the long awaited Sci-Fi saga from Zack Snyder (Justice League / Man of Steel) which has been in development for years, eventually being given the go ahead with a reported budget in the region of $166 million dollars by Netflix. The streaming giant had previously worked with Snyder on his post-apocalyptic zombie…

First UK headline tour for Urne, a London trio of fine Heavy Metal musicians who burst onto the scene with their incredibly well received debut album Serpent & Spirit in 2021. A record which perfectly blended a thoroughly old-school Thrash Metal vibe with riffs that wouldn’t have sounded out of place on an 80s Metallica…

1. // Blackbraid II (Independent) Blackbraid is the project of Native American musician Jon Krieger aka Sgah’gahsowáh (a Mohawk name meaning ‘The Witch Hawk’) and Blackbraid II is the follow up to his debut release from 2022, itself a highly well received slice of Black Metal created with inspiration from his indigenous background. The music…

1. // Gozer – The Path Always Leads To The End (Self Released) A new EP from the Sheffield based Post-Metal outfit, The Path Always Leads To The End provides four tracks and follows on from the quite frankly superb An Endless Static (2022). Opening with ‘The Beginning’ Gozer provide an atmospherical soundscape to set…

John Carpenter’s Halloween (1978) is one of the most successful Horror films of all time, and a timeless movie which spearheaded the slasher sub-genre which would become wildly popular in the following decades. Films such as Friday the 13th (1980) A Nightmare On Elm Street (1984) and Scream (1996) all owe a little of their…

John Carpenter one of cinemas true Masters of Horror came to prominence with his second movie Assault on Precinct 13 in 1976, but it would be his next cinematic release Halloween two years later that will forever be associated as being the key movie from his early career. And for good reason, as Halloween is…

French Post-Metal royalty Alcest are often credited with being one of pioneers of the Blackgaze sound, the fusion of melodic atmospheric Shoegaze with blasts of phrenetic Black Metal. In 2010 they released their second album Ėcailles de Lune which is widely considered as a landmark release in the sub-genre, and now thirteen years later Alcest…

September 2023 marked 30 years since the release of Nirvana’s third and final studio album In Utero. For many this record is the masterpiece of their career, the dirtier record that Kurt Cobain wanted to make following the commercial success of their polished major label debut Nevermind (1991 – DGC Records) and an album that…

Often hailed as one of the scariest movies of all time, the impact that The Exorcist had on cinema when released in 1973 is undeniable. Delivered in a golden age of gritty, realistic and terrifying psychological Horror, The Exorcist alongside contemporaries of the time such as Don’t Look Now (1973) and The Omen (1976) would…

1990 : Megadeth – Rust In Peace By 1990 Dave Mustaine and Megadeth were involved in a bitter rivalry for supremacy in the American Thrash-Metal scene with his former bandmates in Metallica, and although the commercial battle between the two giants of Metal would be left in no doubt the following year, Megadeth did manage…

Royal Blood landed in their home town as part of a run of smaller intimate shows to celebrate the release of their fourth album Back To The Water Below which landed on Warner Records at the beginning of the month. The last time the popular Rock duo played Brighton it was back in July in…

Rivers of Heresy is the album that no-one anticipated, from a band that no-one saw coming. Empire State Bastard are the project that have brought together A-List Rock star Simon Neil of Biffy Clyro, Mike Vennart (ex-Oceansize / Biffy touring guitarist) and a legend of Metal in ex-Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo. Quite the combination you…

“A great civilisation is not conquered from without, until it has destroyed itself from within” W. Durant A polarising presence in Hollywood, Mel Gibson’s incredible journey in movies began as he broke through as a star in the Australian post-apocalyptic action thrill ride Mad Max (1979), before turns in sequels Mad Max 2 (1981) and…

1. // Burner – It All Returns To Nothing (Church Road Records) Burner are a band who have been bubbling away nicely since signing with Church Road Records, drip feeding a number of singles into the ears of of those in the know since the end of 2021. It’s fair to say that the aggressive…

1. // Talk to Me Talk To Me is the debut film from Australian brothers Michael & Danny Philippou, which landed in cinemas this summer with the reputation of being the big indie Horror flick of the year so far … and it absolutely lives up to the hype! For a first picture it is…

In 1984 brothers Max & Igor Cavalera formed Sepultura (Portuguese for ‘Grave’) in their native Brazil, and quickly established themselves as one of the country’s leading Metal bands. In their early days, fuelled on a diet of American and European Heavy Metal and Hardcore, Sepultura were extreme in every sense of the word, merging Proto-Black…

T.H.E.M have dropped their latest single ‘THE GREAT MOTHER (Aeon Of Horus),’ lifted from the forthcoming Adrogare Divinitas E.P which lands on independent release in August 2023. The intoxicating video is shot by long time collaborator Rick Alvarez, and features the percussive wizardry of Gaerea drummer Diogo Mota. The Californian based masked Black Metal project…

One of the greatest things a horror movie can do is to be a whole lot weirder than first expected, which is always helped when the marketing does not give away too much plot. If the trailer says too much it can spoil the enjoyment of that first-time watch, but it can be difficult for…

Earache Records the Uk label established in 1985 by Digby Pearson, were a true underground force in every sense of the phrase, who played an integral part in helping establish Extreme-Heavy Metal, as a commercial entity over the following decade. With their third release in 1987 they lay the foundations for the Grind-Core sub genre,…

A truly psychedelic experience, and a visual phenomenon of a film from controversial Argentinian director Gasper Noé (Irreversible / Climax), Enter the Void plays with the mind of the viewer from the very opening credits, as neon flash imagery and a Techno soundtrack lay the foundations for what is to come. Shot from the POV…

Ninth album from the Uk pioneers of Industrialised Post-Metal, and their third full length record since reforming with the release of their LP A World Lit Only by Fire, and accompanying EP Decline & Fall (both released in 2014). The concept of Purge (released June 9th via Avalanche Records) was for Justin Broadrick (Vocals /…

1. // Evil Dead Rise The latest instalment in the Evil Dead franchise arrives ten years after Fede Alvarez’s 2013 reboot of Sam Raimi’s Horror classic. And Raimi along with the star of his first three movies Bruce Campbell, has once again produced Evil Dead Rise, with Lee Cronin (The Hole In The Ground) this…

1. Pupil Slicer : Blossom (Prosthetic Records) London based Pupil Slicer have had a whirlwind of a career since dropping their debut album Mirrors in 2021. Plenty of plaudits arrived for the raw and abrasive debut which was heavy as hell, and full of mind bending intricate arrangements of innovative Math-Core and Death-Metal, which saw…

Stephen King the master of horror, has written a plethora of our favourite darkest stories, which have been adapted into some of the most iconic genre movies of all time, starting with Brian De Palma’s Carrie in 1976, through to the modern day with recent glossy movies including It in 2017. In the nineties his…

Think of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare On Elm Street, and it’s impossible not to picture Freddy Krueger, one of if not the iconic Horror villains of the 1980s, and still one of the most recognisable and lauded serial killers ever created on film. The little known at the time New Line Cinema production company, struck…

Creepshow (1982) is the darkly comic Cult-Horror anthology film, that brought together a number of macabre tales dragged from the deepest depths of master author Stephen King’s imagination. The movie marked King’s debut foray into screen writing, and was directed by legendary zombie-genre filmmaker George A. Romero (Night Of The Living Dead / Dawn Of…

Edinburgh’s Codespeaker and Glasgow’s Void Of Light are two bands in the Scottish underground Metal scene that have made some waves over the last twelve months, both putting themselves on the map as far as the wider UK scene is concerned. And especially within the niche Post-Metal sub-genres, with both bands grabbing the attention from…