Author: Alexander Hay

Alexander Hay is a writer and polemicist based online and in print.

Theresa May Brexits English to Death

Theresa May's Brexit speech was delusional, vapid and debased the English language. Didn't she do well?...

Read More

Totally Clucked: The 2018 KFC Famine

As KFC is forced to close scores of branches, what does this reveal about our ever-so-slightly dysfunctional society?...

Read More

Boris Johnson – the blonde bomb site returns

It's perhaps too easy to mock Boris Johnson. And yet he remains an ominous symptom of a society in decline....

Read More

Web Porn: The War on W*nk

Plans to restrict Web Porn is more informed by humbug than serious debates, and reflects a deeper social dysfunction....

Read More

SOTU 2018: Donald Trump Colonises America

Donald Trump's State of the Union speech last week revealed many things and (surprise) more than a few echoes of colonialism....

Read More

Blackmail, Sexism, Bias: RIP BBC News

It is time for BBC News to die. It is in a dreadful state, like a horse in the Grand National that's about to be shot....

Read More

Carillion’s fall – privatisation and magical thinking

In the aftermath of Carillion's collapse, and its winning of government contracts despite clear profit warnings, where does this leave privatisation?...

Read More

Year Zero – Brexit and Nihilism

Sometimes we just have to state the obvious. Brexit is a bad idea. It has already split the country and gave voice to all manner of nasty beliefs once thought dead and buried....

Read More

Sacrilege! Profanity! Err, Isn’t That the Point of Black Metal? Myrkur

Myrkur proves, by dint of sheer talent, that magnificent Black Metal can be made by those there lady women people....

Read More

The Many Uses of Dead Baby Whales

Blue Planet II's weekly reminder that you are a sh*t...

Read More

Gloomy Doomy Scandi Metal Mashup (Monolord, Enisferum, Cardinals Folly)

Guts and Gusto win out whilst Grammar Gets Gutted. ...

Read More

Mindkult, No Funeral and Livid (Reviews)

Morbid, Miserable and Doomy as a 1990s first-person Shoot 'em Up. ...

Read More

Death, Thrash, Horror. No Garlic: With Primeval Force (Vampire)

Vampire's second album, With Primeval Force, has all the fangs it needs...

Read More

Oozy Bluesy Doom: Sacred (The Obsessed)

Doom metal with passion and refinement - The Obsessed are back after a brief 23-year break...

Read More

Democratic Stitch Ups and the Untouchable Will of the People

Autocracies fail in the long run because the people much prefer to oppress themselves than be oppressed...

Read More

Kings Of The Ballot Box – What Democracies & Monarchies Have In Common

2016 was not a good year for democracy. This year could be worse. ...

Read More

The End of Electricity (Domkraft)

Simultaneously doomy and a little dotty, Domkraft freshen the formula with The End of Electricity...

Read More

Clever, Inventive, Versatile… and Dull: Vozrozhdeniye (Arkona)

Accomplished and precise, Arkona's rework of Vozrozhdeniye nevertheless fails to ignite...

Read More

Death (and Rebirth) Metal: Enemy of Duality (Rudra)

Avoiding kitsch and staying extreme, Rudra integrate south Asian influences into metal mayhem...

Read More

Mirroring the Zeitgeist with Doom, Death and Gothic Gloom

Convenience death metal, giant wicker cocks. If politics has gone weird, why shouldn't music? Review of Gatecreeper and Abysmal Grief albums...

Read More

Swedish Heavy Metal Monday Mashup

HammerFall and Civil War prove there's more sludgy grind to Sweden than Ikea's meatballs...

Read More

Kargeras Returns From The Land of the Almost Ignored (Root)

Czech dark metal act Root are a band you haven’t heard of, but should have...

Read More

Brudging the Issue With the EU Referendum

We keep getting what we deserve and we never ask why. ...

Read More

Summer Dies Slowly: August Metal Meltdown

A summer of death, filth, junkie Olympians and the Zika virus needs an appropriate soundtrack. Metal meltdown ahoy....

Read More

April Metal (Grimner, Miasmal, The Wolves of Avalon)

The nightmare of history menaces the month's metal releases...

Read More

Dark, Relentless Glory: Monthly Metal Medley

In the midst of death... Heavy Metal, that most persistent and insidious weed, offers up new releases from Witchcraft, Ghost Witch, Gomorrah and Conan. We review....

Read More

Only Death is Real! Indiscriminate Biochemical Dispersion Merry Christmas Panama Deathgrind (Abatuar)

Interview with Panamanian deathgrind's prime mover - Cadaver, the singer/drummer of Abatuar, opines....

Read More

Strive to Shirk, Why Hard Work Doesn’t Work

No wonder governments like to advocate 'hard work'. The last thing they want is people with minds and lives of their own. Overworked people know their place. ...

Read More

‘The sea is its own vast universe’ (AHAB talk about The Boats of the Glen Carrig )

We play the music for ourselves and if people like it, that’s OK - Daniel Droste, AHAB...

Read More

TV at its most cynical. The Magician’s Apprentice (Doctor Who)

Audience figures for Saturday night’s mess are the lowest ever for a Who series opener. You’d think they would have got the hint....

Read More

Our weekly newsletter

Sign up to get updates on articles, interviews and events.