The final part of Lord Of The Lost’s trilogy of albums comes with Opvs Noir Vol. 3, following the first two in 2025, in 2026 there’s a sense of finality and they’re definitely looking to go out with a bang. Another 11 tracks of varied, gothic, cinematic and theatrical industrial metal, full of Blood And Glitter as you’d expect from these Germans.
The start is auspicious, cello leads into modern heavy grooves on Kill The Lights, the beginning of the end, the stage set for one last glorious blast through this part of their recording career. It’s also their most diverse in the trio, from anthemic numbers like The Shadows Within, Square One has throbbing electronic pop sensibilities while Your Love Is Colder Than Death dials up the gothic stomps.
As with the two previous parts they have brought in more special guests, with Alea of Saltatio Mortis adding vocals, the Duke Of Spook Wednesday 13 duets with Chris Harms on I Hate People, making it an industrial banger that both artists could easily put into their set tomorrow. Elsewhere they have Hannes Braun of Kissin’ Dynamite on the dramatic La Vie Est Hell, Ambre Vourvahis adding her spectral voice to the ballad When Did The Love Break while the final guest on the album is Damien Edwards of Cats In Space, on a song that is decidedly un-glam.
The start is auspicious, cello leads into modern heavy grooves on Kill The Lights, the beginning of the end, the stage set for one last glorious blast through this part of their recording career. It’s also their most diverse in the trio, from anthemic numbers like The Shadows Within, Square One has throbbing electronic pop sensibilities while Your Love Is Colder Than Death dials up the gothic stomps.
As with the two previous parts they have brought in more special guests, with Alea of Saltatio Mortis adding vocals, the Duke Of Spook Wednesday 13 duets with Chris Harms on I Hate People, making it an industrial banger that both artists could easily put into their set tomorrow. Elsewhere they have Hannes Braun of Kissin’ Dynamite on the dramatic La Vie Est Hell, Ambre Vourvahis adding her spectral voice to the ballad When Did The Love Break while the final guest on the album is Damien Edwards of Cats In Space, on a song that is decidedly un-glam.
Opvs Noir Vol. 3, closes with The Days Of Our Lives, not a Queen cover, though they could pull it off, it’s them laying to rest this trilogy, a eulogy for this black opus. 8/10
Long Distance Calling – The Phantom Void (earMusic)
Long Distance Calling – The Phantom Void (earMusic)
Instrumental rock is an acquired taste though it has a very rabid following, you only have to go to Arctangent or similar to see the countless prog and post bands that perform without vocals and enrapture the audience.
It’s music that doesn’t necessarily have to work harder to win over a crowd but definitely has to have a dynamic quality to counter the lack of voice while having a similar emotional depth. Long Distance Calling have been one of the names press folks like me have been touting as leaders in this scene for a long time now.
The German band have eight records and three EPs behind them and over a 20 year career they have emerged as one of the most impressive bands in the instrumental rock sphere. Their new album The Phantom Void is described by the band as their “the shortest, hardest and strongest” it’s an album where they turned up the dark and created a heavier, moodier atmosphere than on their previous albums.
A narrative thread runs through it, The Phantom Void acting as a soundtrack to stories that relate to unseen, inescapable threats from the subconscious that awaken in dreamstate. This is a soundtrack joined by a visual side that will be played out with their music videos, a full multimedia event to tell this story properly.
The spoken word parts carry the story between the music along but it’s with the music that Long Distance Calling are masters at, dynamic and dark, The Spiral blazing a trail at the beginning, shimmering guitars in perpetual motion.
Meanwhile tracks like A Secret Place are driven by rumbling bass and drums, that dictate the speed as repeating guitar phases move into tremolo flashes. You can definitely hear that the band have tried to cultivate a darker atmosphere with this record.
Much of it is down-tuned features grooves galore as Nocturnal bringing Floydian shimmers over thrashing, while the title track is saturated in synthwave, Long Distance Calling inviting the cinematic in on The Phantom Void, so they can become more experimental than before while wielding a theatrical flair too. 8/10
Hokka – Via Miseria IV (Nuclear Blast Records)
Hokka are Finnish band with a very Japanese aesthetic, but they are still very Finnish so we’ll have no cultural appropriation here.
It’s the story of a warrior and a sensei. The warrior being Joel Hokka who used to front Eurovision metal crew Blind Channe while the Sensei is guitarist/producer Pauli Rantasalmi who was long time guitarist and writer of The Rasmus along with stints in Tarja Turunen, they’re joined by drummer Jimi Aslak and have formed Hokka.
Now if there was any doubt where they hail from, Via Miseria IV is probably the most Finnish record I’ve heard since Dark Light in 2005, it’s pulsating with dark, romantic, goth metal that comes from the songbook of H.I.M (Heart Said No) and The Rasmus (In The Darkness) of course, brought bang up to date with electronically tweaked production.
Setting out their stall early with Death By Cupid’s Arrow, a pumping bass line and guitar riff paired with massive chorus and underlying synths, it’s prime 2000’s Finnish rock explosion, Twenty years later. At the core it’s a blend of rock and pop, full of introspective lyrics and plenty of synthy danceable European beats behind it.
A record of tracks ready to grace and Euro goth disco, but they don’t stick to it rigidly to it as Bon Appetit feels like Muse, Blackbird carries a big riff, while they also a pretty good version of Kiss From A Rose, a song that maybe has always been a goth rock classic.
Hokka revamps a style that has perhaps fallen a little out of favour (it’s still around don’t write letters), but with a new disciple and an old hand, it’s all your Finnish love metal dreams come true. 8/10
Riverflame – Lunar Crusades (Code666/Aural Music)
“Stormkeep meets Blind Guardian” is a pretty epic description for a band and if there’s a one that aptly describes new international project Riverflame it’s definitely that.
Formed by members of Hail Spirit Noir, Ponte Del Diavolo and Owls, they move away from their day jobs to create a record of epic, symphonic, black metal infused with Medieval folk that is ideal for your next D&D game. I mean the first of these five monster tracks begins with a harpsichord so you can’t get much more Medieval than that right? Quickly though the huge synth orchestrations and tremolo guitars from Haris come in and we’re off on this journey into shadowy mountains in the distance.
It’s music that doesn’t necessarily have to work harder to win over a crowd but definitely has to have a dynamic quality to counter the lack of voice while having a similar emotional depth. Long Distance Calling have been one of the names press folks like me have been touting as leaders in this scene for a long time now.
The German band have eight records and three EPs behind them and over a 20 year career they have emerged as one of the most impressive bands in the instrumental rock sphere. Their new album The Phantom Void is described by the band as their “the shortest, hardest and strongest” it’s an album where they turned up the dark and created a heavier, moodier atmosphere than on their previous albums.
A narrative thread runs through it, The Phantom Void acting as a soundtrack to stories that relate to unseen, inescapable threats from the subconscious that awaken in dreamstate. This is a soundtrack joined by a visual side that will be played out with their music videos, a full multimedia event to tell this story properly.
The spoken word parts carry the story between the music along but it’s with the music that Long Distance Calling are masters at, dynamic and dark, The Spiral blazing a trail at the beginning, shimmering guitars in perpetual motion.
Meanwhile tracks like A Secret Place are driven by rumbling bass and drums, that dictate the speed as repeating guitar phases move into tremolo flashes. You can definitely hear that the band have tried to cultivate a darker atmosphere with this record.
Much of it is down-tuned features grooves galore as Nocturnal bringing Floydian shimmers over thrashing, while the title track is saturated in synthwave, Long Distance Calling inviting the cinematic in on The Phantom Void, so they can become more experimental than before while wielding a theatrical flair too. 8/10
Hokka – Via Miseria IV (Nuclear Blast Records)
Hokka are Finnish band with a very Japanese aesthetic, but they are still very Finnish so we’ll have no cultural appropriation here.
It’s the story of a warrior and a sensei. The warrior being Joel Hokka who used to front Eurovision metal crew Blind Channe while the Sensei is guitarist/producer Pauli Rantasalmi who was long time guitarist and writer of The Rasmus along with stints in Tarja Turunen, they’re joined by drummer Jimi Aslak and have formed Hokka.
Now if there was any doubt where they hail from, Via Miseria IV is probably the most Finnish record I’ve heard since Dark Light in 2005, it’s pulsating with dark, romantic, goth metal that comes from the songbook of H.I.M (Heart Said No) and The Rasmus (In The Darkness) of course, brought bang up to date with electronically tweaked production.
Setting out their stall early with Death By Cupid’s Arrow, a pumping bass line and guitar riff paired with massive chorus and underlying synths, it’s prime 2000’s Finnish rock explosion, Twenty years later. At the core it’s a blend of rock and pop, full of introspective lyrics and plenty of synthy danceable European beats behind it.
A record of tracks ready to grace and Euro goth disco, but they don’t stick to it rigidly to it as Bon Appetit feels like Muse, Blackbird carries a big riff, while they also a pretty good version of Kiss From A Rose, a song that maybe has always been a goth rock classic.
Hokka revamps a style that has perhaps fallen a little out of favour (it’s still around don’t write letters), but with a new disciple and an old hand, it’s all your Finnish love metal dreams come true. 8/10
Riverflame – Lunar Crusades (Code666/Aural Music)
“Stormkeep meets Blind Guardian” is a pretty epic description for a band and if there’s a one that aptly describes new international project Riverflame it’s definitely that.
Formed by members of Hail Spirit Noir, Ponte Del Diavolo and Owls, they move away from their day jobs to create a record of epic, symphonic, black metal infused with Medieval folk that is ideal for your next D&D game. I mean the first of these five monster tracks begins with a harpsichord so you can’t get much more Medieval than that right? Quickly though the huge synth orchestrations and tremolo guitars from Haris come in and we’re off on this journey into shadowy mountains in the distance.
Romain Nobileau’s vocals move from menacing whispers to evil snarls, aggressive growls to spoken word, carrying these tales of long forgotten lands and fantasy world like a possessed bard. The pacing of these labyrinthine cuts guided by drummer Hakon Freyr Gustafsson and bassist Abro.
The bottoms end is at its best in Where Dragons Once Ruled, a full on black metal assault, blast beats, trem picking and no quarter given, however we’re back with the familiar as those folk moments return for the title track, the lute and harpsichords evoking those sword and sorcery stories of yore. It acts as a intermission for the power to return on Through Mistlands Of Unearthly Worlds, the intensity of Dimitris Douvras’s (Rotting Christ, Hail Spirit Noir) mix & master felt across these two for sure.
Before The Eternal Night closes Lunar Crusades with the biggest song on the record. Near 10 minutes of brilliance that takes as much from classic metal as it does black metal, melodic leads and solos, shift into galloping power metal rhythms, as the influence of Hansi and co can be felt on this one.
Comprised of some of black metals most inventive players, Riverflame is a cinematic, extreme metal masterclass, gather the horses and prepare for an epic quest. 9/10
The bottoms end is at its best in Where Dragons Once Ruled, a full on black metal assault, blast beats, trem picking and no quarter given, however we’re back with the familiar as those folk moments return for the title track, the lute and harpsichords evoking those sword and sorcery stories of yore. It acts as a intermission for the power to return on Through Mistlands Of Unearthly Worlds, the intensity of Dimitris Douvras’s (Rotting Christ, Hail Spirit Noir) mix & master felt across these two for sure.
Before The Eternal Night closes Lunar Crusades with the biggest song on the record. Near 10 minutes of brilliance that takes as much from classic metal as it does black metal, melodic leads and solos, shift into galloping power metal rhythms, as the influence of Hansi and co can be felt on this one.
Comprised of some of black metals most inventive players, Riverflame is a cinematic, extreme metal masterclass, gather the horses and prepare for an epic quest. 9/10
