Cheryl Carter

Seminal Quebec black metallers Forteresse instigate another uprising with new album

More molten emotion from Eleanora – Belgium’s sonic cauldron

Sumptuous Swedes Cult Of Luna take the high road, supported by Bossk

Influential post-black metallers Gern deepen their gloom with new album

Ethereal and acerbic ecstasy from Norway’s black metal enchantress

Impressive oppression from Germany’s avant doom absurdists

Sludgy Swiss doom crew unleash some royal thunder

Arizona’s expansive sludge crew still seeking a new direction

Emotionally potent pilgrimages to the heart of winter

Doom/sludge soliloquies from the Iberian hinterlands

Resurrected cult label unearths another black metal gem

Post-metal voyagers learn to spread their wings

Avant-black French duo err on the side of incoherence

Austrian hedonists try to get their bearings

Sydney’s mortality-obsessed post-rockers ravish the senses

Bleak rapture from the new face of BM

Adventurous Swedes push the post-metal envelope

Searching soul-devastation from the Dutch provinces

Black metal pioneer brings the warmth

Industrial/operatic black metal from the pits of Northampton

Phoenix’s US symphonic black metallers pull their finger out

Doleful deliberations from Europe’s centre ground

Charting a route from Hungary to black metal’s outer rim

Gorgeous goddess worship from Czech ritualists

‘Super-technically proficient Norwegian black metal’ is an exciting prospect