Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Orlok’s Plague Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2026 Maybe it’s because I’m an old fart, but even without having listened to a single track, I’ve got a fair bit of respect for a band like this that does things…
Artist: Cadaveric Incubator / Cardiac Arrest Country: Finland / USA Label: Extremely Rotten Productions Formats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2026 To mark their joint European tour, Extremely Rotten Productions is releasing this split 7″ EP on which both bands perform two songs each, which, to…
Artist: Blood Spirit Country: Australia Label: Into The Pentagram Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 It’s a bit hard to imagine, but despite Drowning The Light’s ever-intense release schedule, mastermind Azgorh has also found time to join a new band called…
Artist: Desert Fox Country: Poland Label: Gates Of Hell Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 From ever fertile Silesian grounds comes yet another old school Speed Metal band, and like most of their contemporaries, they too have a good few…
Artist: Bloodsoaked Necrovoid Country: Costa Rica Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2026 With a considerable discography under their belts, with which they collaborated with labels such as Caligari Records, Blood Harvest and Iron Bonehead Productions, Bloodsoaked Necrovoid…
Artist: Baphomancia Country: USA Label: Nihilistic Mortality Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 Although the ancient and occult Black Metal movement is primarily a European and South American phenomenon, there are a few American bands that have made their mark. One…
Artist: Goatspear Country: Canada Label: Pain Chain Productions Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 Goatspear is a relatively new one-man project by the multi-instrumentalist who is also a member of Nefarious Scorn and Pillagery, and performs here under the name The…
Artist: Triumph Country: USA Label: Black Plague Records / Pagan Fury Records Format: CD Year: 2026 Slowly but surely Evan “Immolator” Richardson is building quite a name for himself in the realm of Bestial Black/Death Metal. While not being specifically…
Artist: Vomit Mass Country: Greece Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Anyone who has read some of my reviews before may have noticed that I can be quite critical when it comes to Death Metal. I’m tired of mid-tempo, boring Death Metal, and passion…
Artist: Putridarium Country: Germany Label: Night Terrors Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2026 After a series of demos, a compilation of demos, two split releases and a full-length album, Germany’s Putridarium returns with a new EP called ‘Natvm Ad Mortem’. Honestly, the demos were…
Although the band has been active for over a quarter of a century, Anael is not exactly a hot topic. That was somewhat the case in their early years, when new material appeared regularly, but since the release of the…
Artist: Cryptworm Country: United Kingdom Label: Extremely Rotten Records / Me Saco Un Ojo Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 At the very tail-end of 2023 marked the return of one of the UK’s most celebrated…
Artist: Hammerthrone Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Hammerthrone is a new band that emerged from the ideas of a few like-minded musicians from Austin, Texas, USA, who are also active in other bands playing different musical…
Artist: Cadaverno Country: Chile Label: Cadaverismo Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2025 It’s probably not quite a good sign when you’re starting to have conversations about how good the times were when you were young. Most likely it means that you’re…
Artist: Funeral Vultures Country: Brazil Label: Moon Rites Productions / Reliquaire Hérétique Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 ‘Dread Cenotaph’ is the first release for this one-man Black Metal from Brazil, but while it was first distributed digitally through Moon Rites…
Artist: Podridão Country: Brazil Label: Iron Fortress Records / Kill Again Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 ‘Coffin Of The Corrupted Dead’ is this band’s fourth album, but even with the rather impressive back catalogue of Podridão, most…
Artist: Ald Weald Country: Unknown Label: Forlorn Majesty Records Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 This is yet another Black Metal band that is trying hard to be as obscure as possible. Although I do acknowledge that a bit of anonymity…
Artist: Omegavortex Country: Germany Label: Third Eye Temple Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 Although I knew there was a new Omegavortex album in the works, I only learned that it was released in December 2025 because…
Artist: Blood Rites Country: Chile Label: Life Eternal Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 After two demo tapes, from 2018 and 2020 respectively, and a 7” EP in 2021 via Zzooouhh Records, Blood Rites’ career came to a complete standstill. It was…
Artist: Noctis Bellum Country: USA Label: Torture Palace Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was Vargrav and Evilfeast who, with their respective ‘Netherstorm’ (2018) and ‘Elegies Of The Stellar Wind’ (2017) single-handedly put…
Artist: Fulminate Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Fulminate, a one-man project from the US that combines Goregrind and Death Metal in a thoroughly old school way, was founded in 2022 and has since built up a…
Artist: Aerdryk / Oerheks Country: Belgium Label: Amor Fati Productions Formats: Split LP Year: 2026 Despite them both taking their own paths, Aerdryk and Oerheks have been linked since the very beginning. They represented the 199th and 200th release by…
Artist: Szmrdt Country: Czechia Label: Filth Junkies Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 It will come as no surprise that, even more than the artwork and the logo, it was the title of this debut demo tape that caught my…
Artist: Abhorvm Country: Scotland Label: Death Revelations Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2026 Abhorvm is the newest addition to the ranks of Death Revelations, a label that has been churning out stellar underground releases lately by Triumphal Vengeance, Hæksenhamer and Sacris…
Artist: Gaalvan Country: Germany Label: Crimson Reign Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Gaalvan is a rather new one-man Black Metal project from Germany, solely helmed by Dark Tormentor (also in Asmodeum). As is more often the case with one-man…
Artist: Sammas’ Equinox Country: Finland Label: Breath of Pestilence Formats: CD Year: 2025 ‘Pohjanheimo’ is the second album by Sammas’ Equinox, a band from Finland that amongst others harbours members of Blood Red Fog, Moon Oracle, Caestus and Nécropole (live).…
Artist: Aürc Country: Spain Label: Diabolical Vitriol Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 One-man Black Metal project Aürc, hailing from Catalonia, Spain, debuted with a digital demo called ‘Autumn Fires’ by the end of 2021, yet it remained largely unnoticed. Yours…
Artist: Black Hurst Country: USA Label: Ixiol Productions / Nuclear War Now! Productions / Signal Rex Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 Black Hurst made their debut with a demo tape in 2023, if we don’t count…
Artist: Mughtasib Country: Spain Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 This second demo tape by Mexican one-man band Mughtasib, which translates to “Violator”, is simply called ‘Invictus’ and continues the path chosen about two years ago when…
Artist: Harvest Of Grief Country: Spain Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Medieval Prophecy Records, home to Forbidden Temple, one of my favourite bands in the ancient rotting Black Metal genre, was once a label where you…
Artist: Diavol Country: Romania Label: Self-Releasaed Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Diavol is a relatively new band, hailing from the seemingly fertile Heavy Metal grounds in Bucharest, Romania. It is a duo consisting of Mike Witchspit on drums and on…
Artist: Vömitt Country: Romania Label: Self-Releasaed Formats: Digital EP Year: 2026 In the summer of 2024 I first heard from Vömitt, a bunch of motörized scallywags from Romania. Although these lads already released an EP a year prior, I only…
Artist: Grieving Mirror Country: USA Label: Neuro Plastic Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 In summer last year, Grieving Mirror debuted with ‘Opulence And Grandeur’, a very interesting demo tape that showed the multifaceted character of this one-man project, led by…
Artist: Crévüre Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Whether Sanglant is also involved with other bands or projects, I do not know, but either way, ‘En Rase Campagne’ is the debut demo tape of Crévüre. As one might expect, judging by…
Artist: Blood Ecstacy Country: Spain Label: Diabolical Vitriol Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Although Spain’s Extreme Metal scene is one of the smallest in Europe relative to the country’s population, there’s always something great to experience. It may be a sad thought that the…
Some bands seem to achieve success and widespread acclaim almost effortlessly, while others are less fortunate. To be fair, most successful bands—and how you define success is, of course, open to interpretation—have worked hard to get where they are. However,…
Artist: Monstrosity Country: USA Label: Metal Blade Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 Monstrosity’s career got off to a promising start with an excellent 7″ single on Relapse Records in 1991 and, a year later, an even better debut album on Nuclear Blast Records—the…
Artist: Possession Country: Belgium Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 Some ten years ago, Possession was the top focus of the Belgian extreme Metal world. Obviously, the country has produced some fine Black Metal over the…
Artist: Ejecutor Country: Chile Label: Chaos Records Formats: CD Year: 2026 Although Ejecutor was already founded back in 1999 and seen their name pop up every now and then, I honestly never really paid any real attention to them. And…
Artist: Nachtgnawer Country: Finland Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: CD EP Year: 2026 Nachtgnawer managed to heavily impress me so far, both with their ‘Eternal Curse of the Blood’ Demo and ‘Unholy Vampyric Supremacy’ collaboration EP with Wulfseer. There are…
Artist: FesterDecay Country: Japan Label: Relapse Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 I can’t remember the last time I reviewed two good albums from Relapse Records in such a short space of time as the latest…
Artist: Bloodaxe Holocaust Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Bloodaxe Holocaust is the brainchild of Jake Davids and is at the helm all by himself. Whether this means the end of Sorrow’s Maw, that debuted with…
Artist: Fegefeuer Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: LP Year: 2026 Narbentage Produktionen, the label behind this vinyl reissue of the only recording Fegefeuer ever made, is based in the village of Ralingen, a town situated right on the Luxembourg…
Artist: Artavoz Country: Georgia Label: Narbentage Produktionen Format: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 Although this Black Metal duo, hailing from unknown origins, made their debut back in 2023 with a digital and instrumental single, you’d be forgiven if it slipped your attention. It did mine,…
Artist: Nathrath Country: Spain Label: Narbentage Produktionen Format: Demo Tape Year: 2026 For an old soul like me, it’s still nice to actually hear a demo on cassette tape, especially a first one. In fact, I have nothing against demos being made available digitally,…
Artist: Wanterkraaft Country: Luxembourg Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: LP Year: 2026 Given that Luxembourg has a population of less than 700,000, it is hardly surprising that it is not a major supplier of Extreme Metal. However, when I think of…
Artist: Mortal Dread Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2026 Of course, there is every reason for a label to provide a release with some words of praise as part of its promotional work. Often, however,…
Artist: Pus Excretor Country: Mexico Label: Extremely Rotten Productions / Me Saco Un Ojo / Templum Obscenum Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2025 Pus Excretor is a Mexican one-man Death Metal/Grindcore band that released…