Devil's Horns Zine

Interview with Lord Ahriman of Dark Funeral. Who doesn't love a chat to a Black Metal legend and Lord Ahriman was no exception. He was really humble, which was really refreshing and to hear the pure dedication the man has to his craft was great. 
Dark Funeral has been tearing your souls apart since 1993 and their releases have been highly rated for a reason. This writer's personal fave was their spine-chilling and head-crushing album Where Shadows Forever Reign which is one of modern black metal's absolute classics. Give it a listen if you haven't, it is so unhinged, yet so aggressively focused. Plus it has the classic Nail Them to the Cross which is nasty and essential.
Here's my chat with all-round great guy Lord Ahriman; he talked about the hectic tour schedule, his journey into the metal club and the passion he has for music as a creative force. Enjoy!

And don't you fucking dare miss their tour with the mighty Immolation who we recently interviewed, as wel…

Blackhelm Interview and review of Dark Clouds of the Inferno album by Mark Jenkins.  Not only has this year been a cracker of a year for solid releases, but Australian albums are really shining through in an aggressive and dominating way. Blackhelm are very accomplished and striking, they have the perfect mix between dark drama and sheer brutality. Regardless of your tastes, be it in a live setting and with this killer album, you will be hooked on this nastiness.
Here's a cracking interview we did with the band's guitarist, Cam.

1-Tell me how it feels to drop the epic and amazingly heavy album that is “Dark Clouds of the Inferno”? I mean it is a pretty overwhelming album and it caught me off-guard in the best fucking way, Kudos on this incredible album. Not many bands can drop something so prolific as this release!

It feels pretty good man! We’ve all been living with this record for quite a while now and it's an amazing feeling to finally have it out there, we are all ver…

In the Burial-Lamentations: Of Deceit & Redemption album review. Symphonic metal is a genre often taken the piss out of or crucified by fans and writers alike. This is 9/10 justified as the dramatic effects added to often lame musical compositions make you cringe heavily. But in the defense box and winning the case for is In the Burial with this majestically wicked release.
This is the band's second album, although this South Australia tour de force has been around since 2007 and with the current lineup and this release, they have really focused their collective strengths to produce something incredible.
This writer is not a big fan of the genre as often any additional of keys/synth just adds to the usual poor overall standard. Not here at all. This is well thought out songs with so much emotive tone it literally smothers you. What we have is fantastic extreme metal with equal touches of death and black metal. And the symphonic brushstrokes add to it like the beautifully grim…

Freedom of Fear-Nocturnal Gates album reviewOnly a few albums so far in 2019 have really blown me away by either sheer aggression or the unexpected joy of frankly being shocked at the surprising greatness. This can be a band dropping a great release after a few mediocre ones or a new band that drops a release so epic, you hit the floor with the shock.  Freedom of Fear, I lay at your feet.
This five piece metal tour de force hails from the city of churches, Adelaide. Not that any of their unholy hymns sound remotely peaceful or as a pathway to religious glory. For a reasonably young band who have only been around for four years, the future looks incredible. EVP recordings built the hype on this band, but this is completely warranted. This is peak extreme metal with pretty much the best-written songs this writer has heard in like 10 years.
It is actually amazingly hard to pinpoint the exact separate parts that make this easily one of the albums of the year. One massive standout is the s…

Immolation interview with Ross Dolan by Mark Jenkins. This killer Death Metal institution has been kicking for over 30 years and 2017's Atonement in this writers opinion was their finest work. It really floored many punters and long term fans to actually believe that one of the masters could still produce such crushing classics in this day and age( although the two albums prior to this were still incredible).
In a months time, Australia is honored to have this awesome band back here for the Direct Underground Fest and we had the righteous chance to chat to this legendary vocalist (and bassist) of the band. To be honest it was one of my favorite interviews. Ross was very chill, super articulate and up for a chat about the band, how he got into metal, old times vs current times and it was highly entertaining. Have a listen, it's sheer gold; he is a top guy who knows his stuff and is passionate as all hell.

And don't be absolute nutjob and miss next's months Direct Under…