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Gothic, metal, doom: that sums up End Of Green’s canon to date. Void Estate follows a different path with a softer sound that’s more AOR. And it falls flat. Their cover of Crossroads is the perfect example. Originally a melancholic album track by blues musician Calvin Russell, it could have been transformed into a song worthy of Abattoir Blues-era Nick Cave. Instead it makes the dark rockers sound like Chris Rea. Opener Send In The Clowns plods along like a weary goth, and Darkside Of The Sun – on which Michelle Darkness revisits his ‘Undead Elvis’ vocals – lacks the charisma of the band’s earlier material. There are glimmers of darkness on the atmospheric Head Down and the passionate Mollodrome, but ultimately, without their doomy edge, EOG sound unremarkable and a bit dull.

Contributing to Prog since the very first issue, writer and broadcaster Natasha Scharf was the magazine’s News Editor before she took up her current role of Deputy Editor, and has interviewed some of the best-known acts in the progressive music world from ELP, Yes and Marillion to Nightwish, Dream Theater and TesseracT. Starting young, she set up her first music fanzine in the late 80s and became a regular contributor to local newspapers and magazines over the next decade. The 00s would see her running the dark music magazine, Meltdown, as well as contributing to Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Terrorizer and Artrocker. Author of music subculture books The Art Of Gothic and Worldwide Gothic, she’s since written album sleeve notes for Cherry Red, and also co-wrote Tarja Turunen’s memoirs, Singing In My Blood. Beyond the written word, Natasha has spent several decades as a club DJ, spinning tunes at aftershow parties for Metallica, Motörhead and Nine Inch Nails. She’s currently the only member of the Prog team to have appeared on the magazine’s cover.

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