Temple of Snakes has a new podcast online – Both Bjorn and Brandon really know their stuff so I would recommend listening to it!

Download it here.

I will introduce this excellent article by giving one one line from it…

They’re more wallet chains and hoodys to Arxis’ broadswords and big-titted wenches atop dragons.

If that doesn’t make you want to read on, I don’t know what will!

Arxis/Snakebite, The Swan & Mitre (Live Review)

Great riffs and driving rhythms. Think Free, Lord Vicar, Reverend Bizarre and Against Nature. The guitar solos are jaw-droppingly original. The vocals. At their best they are a little like Bobby Liebling, but at their worse they can be a liability. Be warned that the worse vocals are on the 1st track so you may want to start the album on track 2 until you get use to them.   Full review here

Check it out for yourself, it’s available for free download at Blandhand Records here

The aim is to compile a list of great albums for the year so that we’ve all got a list of quality music to track down and check out for ourselves.

1. Vote for as many bands as you feel deserve the accolade Best Gloom or Doom of 2009.
2. Try to remember who you voted for so that you don’t keep voting for the same album.
3. If you think it is Doom (or Gloom) then it is.
4. Keep the standard high, if you’d personally give them them 10/10 or 9/10 or even 8/10 then fine, but avoid anything lower than 8/10 even if you think that’s the best 2009 has to offer.
5. Try not to waste your energies arguing if something is Doom, Gloom or not. I couldn’t give a one-armed retarded monkey of Troo Doom…

Link to the poll here

Great blackened vocals on the opener plus an aggressive edge, but this soon disappears as the vibe returns to that of previous albums. If you need another similar sounding StS album then this is for you, it’s probably their best release to date. Some tracks are new and exciting, others are too generic for me. It’s not a bad album and has some very fine tracks on it. Certainly worth checking out.  Review here