Monthly Archives: October 2012

Dragged into Sunlight’s brand of misanthropy spreads forth from Liverpool like some dark disease, utterly terrifying and yet dangerously infectious. Widowmaker is Dragged into Sunlight’s first full release since 2009’s incredible Hatred for mankind: Although the band are keen to point out it isn’t a direct successor. 

Indeed It's difficult to relate Widowmaker with the raging slab of misanthropy that was Hatred for Mankind. It's difficult because as soul destroying and intense as HFM was, Widowmaker just towers above it. It's utterly mesmerising, captivating and like nothing else I remember hearing, a master class in suspense, tension that would have Hitchcock applauding and asking them how they managed to do that. 

If Satan himself made music, he’d struggle to create something as truly terrifying as Widowmaker. It really isn't for the faint hearted, I'll be surprised if it doesn't come

American black metal has over the last decade become something of a contested area, a battlefield of buzzwords and controversy in which terminology such as "hipster", "post-black metal" and other such frequently insulting and less frequently endearing descriptions and (sub-sub) genre tags are haphazardly employed, refuted and subsequently discussed. Bands such as Liturgy and Deafheaven and for different reasons artists associated with the Crepusculo Negro & Rhinocervs labels have over and over again been criticised and defended by a multitude of parties and in 2012 the argument has largely become over-burnt, stale and tired with many having quite simply stopped caring. 

A loosely congruent collection of musicians based largely, although surprisingly not entirely, in and around the Pacific Northwest of the USA have too been shown a particular degree of attention in recent years, with bands such as Wolves in the