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One of British metal’s best releases in recent years was The King Is Blind’s debut album, Our Father – an ugly, monstrous slab of state-of-the-art heaviness. Their second effort is even more ambitious, both in terms of its elaborate narrative and vicious, misanthropic vortex that nevertheless wields clinical hooks in the blackened swing of GodFrost and Idolatry Of Self’s crusty d-beat. Stephen John Tovey’s serrated snarl is the perfect vehicle for the malevolent lyrics as the maelstrom of black metal, doom and grind swirl around, with each track quickly establishing its own identity. Like Gods Departed and The Sky Is A Mirror sacrifice wrath for doomy Celtic Frost crunch and imperious stomp, while the ominous The Burden Of Their Scars builds through suffocating atmosphere to a climax of gripping metallic craft.

Rugby, Sean Bean and power ballad superfan Adam has been writing for Hammer since 2007, and has a bad habit of constructing sentences longer than most Dream Theater songs. Can usually be found cowering at the back of gigs in Bristol and Cardiff. Bruce Dickinson once called him a 'sad bastard'.