Studio-based duo Where The Skeletons Play claim to have utilised, among other things, an amp from a Motorhead tour, drum mics from Beatles sessions and a sound desk that appeared in a Bond film. This alone intrigued Dani enough to give their ‘Generation Wars’ EP a spin…
Doom and indie rock aren’t the world’s most obvious bedfellows, but Aberdeen doom trio Winters have managed to breed the two and produce a most intriguing offspring. Is it the runt of the litter, however, or will it be the one that everybody will want?
Doom scamps Lazarus Blackstar have just released their long-awaited third album, the first with new vocalist Mikhell. Dani wipes the excited grin off her face and prepares to get bleak.
Horror metal. Ever heard of it? Neither had Dani, until she got hold of self-confessed ‘extreme horror’ metallers Cadaveria’s latest slab of darkness. Should we judge a band by its cover art? Read on…
Having made a new fan in Dani last January, Atlanta’s Sons of Tonatiuh return with a second offering for fans of crusty sludge metal. Will she still follow the Sons after this, or will she be sorry she ever listened?
Dani Hawkins settles down in a dark room with a comfort blanket and a bottle of Prozac to deal with ‘Omens’, the latest from French doom/drone scamps Monarch.
OneMetal.com’s Dani Hawkins continues her journey into the unfamiliar with Oregon doom duo Megaton Leviathan, and discovers how a band can be dark and psychedelic at the same time.
Could Polish stoners Satellite Beaver become the best band you’ve never heard of? Four teaser tracks and a very impressed Dani say they could be.
Ever questing for something different, Dani checks out Argentinian stoner rock outfit Banda de la Muerte. Do they justify the waves they’re currently making in Europe and South America?
What exactly does ‘Modern Hard Rock’ entail these days? Dani takes a rest from the extreme noise and takes a curious peek at Thessaloniki four-piece Lucky Thir13n’s latest to find out…
After being thoroughly impressed by Essex boys Sanctorum on My Ruin’s recent tour, Dani blagged a copy of their latest album ‘Semper Fidelis’. What happens when a writer more au fait with drone and doom listens to an album full of songs with three-digit BPM? Read on…
OneMetal’s Dani Hawkins takes in two dates of fearsome metallers My Ruin’s 2012 UK tour and reports on how the band and their support acts tore up the London Scala and the Plymouth White Rabbit.
A simpler mind would define them as ‘punk’, but Oakland bunch Alaric are actually a much more special type of genre-blender. Pour yourself a snakebite and black and discover what happens when you put members of Noothgrush and UK Subs in the same band…
After disbanding in 2001, Californian sludge act Noothgrush are making a comeback and Southern Lord have just released a compilation of two radio sessions from the 90’s. It doesn’t feature their corking rendition of Star Wars’ ‘Imperial March’ (shame!), but read on to find out what Dani made of it anyway…
Not content with just reviewing My Ruin’s ferocious newbie ‘A Southern Revelation’, Dani also got to pop her interview cherry by asking Mick and Tairrie Murphy a few questions prior to their upcoming UK tour. Read on for tales of their love for the UK, the truth about how far women in metal have come, and their triumph over Tiefdruck…
Dani puts on her ‘avant-garde’ hat and racks her brains over multi-instrumentalist, voice actor and alternative music demi-god Mike Patton’s soundtrack to Italian indie flick ‘The Solitude Of Prime Numbers’.
Drone and post-rock aren’t the most obvious bedfellows but, as Dani discovered, they can produce some very interesting offspring. Follow her into strange territory to see if it’s the favourite son or the black sheep…
My Ruin bring Christmas to their fans a little early this year with a free download of seventh full-length ‘A Southern Revelation’, available from their website in early December. Dani was fortunate enough to get an advance listen and discovered that the best things in life are indeed free…
Paul Catten fangirl Dani was uncontrollably excited about the the famously prolific vocalist and noisemaker’s new solo album so, if you think you’re into extreme music, bung in a pair of earphones, follow her over and see what she made of it.
How do you make a OneMetal writer cry? Baltimore hardcore mob Pulling Teeth experienced a great deal of personal loss during the writing of this album, and have condensed every emotion into an extremely honest album that managed to do just that.
Dani was raised on a diet of classic rock and very dodgy 80’s pop but fortunately, common sense and her mother’s influence prevailed and a lifelong love of heavy music blossomed.
She wrote her first reviews purely for fun and would go on to use her new-found fondness for analysing music at every opportunity, writing more school and uni essays than necessary about metal.
While at uni, she wrote for a local venue’s website until the venue closed and she concentrated on performing. These days she makes unholy noises in Ishmael but writing about music is her true love and she’ll happily waffle on forever if she thinks you ought to know (or for the price of a bottle of Newcastle Brown Ale).Joined: December 14th, 2010