Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
When we talk about French Black Metal, we quickly end up discussing bands such as Mütiilation, Deathspell Omega, and Antaeus, for example, but in a previous interview, I already mentioned that excellent bands such as Merrimack and Hell Militia sometimes…
Artist: Devourment Country: USA Label: Relapse Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2026 Brutal Death Metal doesn’t feature on these pages all that often, but that doesn’t mean we’re not up for it. Certainly not when it comes to Devourment. Like…
Artist: Thy Killing Hand Country: Poland Label: End All Life Productions / Norma Evangelium Diaboli Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 Thy Killing Hand is a relatively new Polish band that after two demos now releases their debut full-length album…
Artist: Inferno Country: Czechia Label: Debemur Morti Productions Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2026 For a discography marked by radical change, one that transitioned from crude Black Metal to a sophisticated and enveloping listening experience over the…
Artist: Witchcraft / BlackStream Country: Finland / Italy Label: WolfKult Religion Formats: Split 12” LP Year: 2026 Capping off a set of Witchcraft releases on WolfKult Religion is ‘House of Sacrilege’, a split release that was already launched in January…
Artist: Morgarath Country: Poland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 As previously noted and reported, the Silesia region of Poland is a hotbed of uncompromising Extreme Metal. In recent months, a great many bands from the area have managed…
Artist: Drudkh Country: Ukraine Label: Season of Mist Underground Activists Formats: 12” EP / CD EP Year: 2026 With thirteen full-lengths albums under their belts and an immensely recognizable sound, Drudkh has no doubt become of the most iconic Black…
Artist: Twilight Stronghold Country: France Label: The Weeping Kingdom Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2026 Although Twilight Stronghold released their first demo back in 2021, followed by three split releases and a compilation featuring those tracks, I can imagine that for…
Artist: Riena Country: Finland Label: Signal Rex Formats: Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2026 ‘Miekka Ja Varjo’ is the first sign of battle of Finland’s Riena. The band harbors the talents of Draghn and Woewerb, the latter who you…
Artist: Piołun Country: Poland Label: Malignant Voices Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 ‘Exolvuntur’ represents the second chapter in the discography of the Polish Black Metal band Piołun. That journey started in 2019 and led in 2022 to the debut…
Artist: Horns Of Abomination Country: USA Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 The cover art of this debut demo of Horns Of Abomination might not necessarily look evil, but musically this new band definitely has something to offer for those…
Artist: Hermetic Subjugator Country: Spain Label: Profaner Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Hermetic Subjugator might be a new band, but the duo behind it are by no means rookies. Both gents have earned their stripes in the Spanish underground scene with such acts…
Artist: Vastago Country: Spain Label: Profaner Records Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 After two EP’s, also compiled on a CDr released by an Argentinean label specialised in the format, the Spanish Vastago felt ready for the next step and serves us with their very…
Artist: Haavrun Country: Bulgaria Label: Caligo Arcanum Productions / Hellvetic Carnage Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 With ‘Total Demolition Of Feeble Souls’, the Bulgarian band Haavrun have now released their third demo tape. It’s always an exciting moment, because…
Artist: Warning Country: United Kingdom Label: Relapse Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 Let’s go back to late 2006/ early 2007. The British band Warning released their sophomore record titled ‘Watching from a Distance’. An album…
Artist: Necro Blade Country: USA Label: Goat Throne Records Formats: Demo CD Year: 2026 Admittedly, I missed this band’s debut demo from 2024, also released by Goat Throne Records, but I ran into this one and the combination of the…
Artist: Kerkerengel Country: Finland Label: Wizard’s Hat Publications Formats: Cassette tape Year: 2026 It’s been a year since the latest Warmoon Lord record surfaced, but main man Lord Vrăjitor did not waste time since to revisit one of his more…
Artist: Arckanum Country: Sweden Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2026 Johan S. Lahger began his career in metal in 1988, taking his place behind the drum kit in a band formed with three childhood friends, which they called Grotesque. Although…
Artist: Kalmankantaja Country: Finland Label: Wolfspell Records Formats: CD Year: 2026 Recent years have marked a rather diverse soundscape for Kalmankantaja, continuously enriching their atmospheric Black Metal discography with ever-expanding escapades towards Doom Metal territories. But while that always felt…
Artist: Speedslut Country: Denmark Label: Listenable Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 When I first heard Speedslut, through their ‘Ferocity Of Steel’ EP that was released in Spring of last year, I was quite charmed by this Danish band’s blend of…
Artist: Mayhem Country: Norway Label: Century Media / Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 More than any other Black Metal scene, the Norwegians have shown that it not only comprises a large group…
Artist: Caedes Cruenta Country: Greece Label: Zombi Danz Records Formats: CD Year: 2026 Although having been a fan of Caedes Cruenta for a long time, I looked at this album with a bit of mixed feelings. Obviously I was very…
Artist: Asphyxiater Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2026 After having spent some time operating under the moniker of Suicidal Preacher, this band changed their name to Asphyxiater in 2025 and then quickly released a digital 3-track demo. All…
Artist: Bestial Catacombs Country: Thailand Label: Self-Released Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2026 If the word ‘bestial’ features in both your band name and the title of your debut EP, it’s not particularly difficult to guess what musical direction this Thai…
Artist: Gouge Country: Norway Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2026 Although Gouge did play at the renowned Danish Death Metal festival Killtown Deathfest in 2014, I’ve always felt that they entered…
Artist: Spiritual Healing Country: Japan Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 As a Death Metal band, calling yourselves ‘Spiritual Healing’ is a bit of a tricky business. Being compared to one of Death’s finest albums is, of course, inevitable,…
Artist: Kos Country: USA Label: Elf Eggs Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Kos, one of the many projects by E., might be one of his most enigmatic musical endeavours so far. The two previously released demos sound quite different from…
Artist: Sol Sistere Country: Chile Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2026 Personally I ran into Sol Sistere when I randomly picked up the first two albums from one of the many Hammerheart Records sales, together I didn’t pay more…
Artist: Tulus Country: Norway Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 Oh dear, a new Tulus album. ‘Morbid Desires’ is the Norwegian’s eighth instalment and, frankly, it is quite hard to pinpoint the…
Artist: Mesnada Country: Spain Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2026 Admittedly, I had missed Mesnada’s untitled debut demo that was released earlier this year, as well as the two short releases that were put out in 2025 under the…
Artist: Immolation Country: USA Label: Nuclear Blast Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 You could spend hours discussing Immolation. There are Death Metal fans who aren’t particularly keen on them, and there are people who have been devoted fans since the…
Artist: Fleshcrawl Country: Germany Label: Reigning Phoenix Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 From the very first moment I heard Fleshcrawl, which was in 2000, with the band’s ‘As Blood Rains From The Sky… We Walk The Path Of Endless…
Artist: Last Rites Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 Depending on how you look at this release, you could call it either a compilation tape or a re-release of a demo. But regardless of how you choose…
Artist: Venomous Invokation Country: USA Label: Crow’s Nest Records / Funeral Moon Records Formats: Demo Tape / Demo CD Year: 2026 Although Venomous Invokation already released three short players (and a compilation CD with those earlier tracks), this Knoxville, Tennessee (USA)…
Artist: Babylonian War Chant Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2026 This monochromatic cover with the large logo is quite a departure from Babylonian War Chant’s earlier output. All previous releases featured a cover depicting Assyrian, Mesopotamian or Babylonian engravings or scenes,…
Artist: Clementis / Eternal Ice Country: France / Japan Label: A Clockwork Apple Production Formats: Split CD Year: 2026 The ever-prolific Japanese Black Metal duo known as Eternal Ice is back with a new split. This time on CD through…
Artist: Teñvalded Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Teñvalded debuted last April with a self-titled demo tape that contains a mix of both Dark Ambient and Dungeon Synth. Although it leaned more towards the latter and therefore…
Artist: Grave Ceremony Country: Spain Label: Dying Sun Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 ‘Night Of Sepulchral Profanation’ is the debut demo tape of this new Spanish band consisting out of a couple of scene veterans from the Spanish Extreme…
Admittedly, the fact that I already had some warm contacts with the musicians who form the circle around Living Evil certainly helped me listen to the first demo of this relatively new band. With my preference for 80’s metal in…
Artist: Primordial Gate Country: Finland Label: Forest Gloom Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Primordial Gate is a new solo-project by Yöpyöveli, who has gained a bit of traction in the underground Black Metal scene with his other project Bronze Hall, but is also active…
Artist: Talvi Country: Finland Label: Forest Gloom Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 From Finnish, “Talvi” translates to “Winter”, a very befitting name for a band from Finland, a country known for its harsh winter. Therefore it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there’s two bands…
Artist: Nathrath / CelticHammer Country: Spain Label: Bundushathûr Records Formats: Split Tape Year: 2026 ‘Décadas De Represión’ is a short split tape that brings together Nathrath and CelticHammer, two bands from the Gallaecia Kommando, a circle of bands from the Galicia region in…
Artist: Goatkraft Country: Norway Label: Deathrune Records Formats: CD EP Year: 2026 I said it before, not everything from Norway sounds like Borknagar, Arcturus or Ulver. Not quite. With ‘Barbed Wire Doctrine’, Goatkraft’s latest offering and follow-up to 2023’s ‘Prophet…
Let’s keep this brief: Cult Of Daath is among the most underrated American Extreme Metal bands. When one of the two brothers comes up with something new fifteen years after the last Cult Of Daath demo, I naturally jump at…
Artist: Crévüre Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 With ‘Le Dernier Messie’, the French one-man band Crévüre has already released its third demo tape within the relatively short span of four months. Whilst Crévüre’s Raw Black Metal may not be of the…
Artist: Amputorium Country: Belgium Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Although nothing official has yet been announced about Amputorium, you don’t need to be a genius to piece things together regarding this new band. Not only…
Artist: Kūkāʻilimoku Country: USA Label: Goatowarex / Nithstang Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2026 Over the past years, basically since this solo-project’s inception in 2019, Kūka’ilimoku has been attracting attention from underground Black Metal fans from various directions.…
Artist: Black Cilice Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions / Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 When Black Cilice hit the underground scene with their first two albums in the first half of the 10s,…