Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
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,…
Artist: Consecration Country: United Kingdom Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 In their 15+ year career this British Death/Doom Metal band has amassed a respectable discography. Besides a couple of short players, this…
Artist: Whitemoon Country: Poland Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2026 With Whitemoon, we have yet another impressively good band from the equally impressive Polish Black Metal scene. Although it is not entirely clear to…
Artist: Godless Country: Chile Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 I have said before and I will say it again, and probably will repeat myself another countless after this one: there must be…
Artist: Mangled Recrement Country: Poland Label: Caligari Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Although this band consists of a trio of musicians who have already gained some experience in bands such as Toughness and Leucotome, Mangled Recremant has only been…
Artist: Rotten Tomb Country: Chile Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 Although it’s been the case ever since the early days of Extreme Metal, in recent years you can certainly count on the…
Artist: Occult Mountain Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Fallen Warrior, the only musician behind Occult Mountain, is one of such people who seem to have more hours in a day and more days in a week…
Artist: Beast Majesty Country: Peru Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2026 Beast Majesty might be a new band in the Extreme Metal scene, but the only person behind it is far from a newcomer. The wild child helming this…
Artist: Ancient Entity Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 With Ancient Entity, Oskar Brahn his fifth band, but this time he’s doing it all by himself. But although all those other bands also fall within the Death…
Artist: Bewitched Country: Sweden Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2026 In the mid-90s, Osmose Productions was arguably the leading force when it came to offering quality releases and setting trends within the realm of…
Good things tend to take time. I wouldn’t necessarily compare Abominator to an exquisite wine or anything of that nature, but apparently it’s quite common for the finer wines to be left to age for ten years. That’s exactly how…
Artist: Baphomet’s Blood Country: Italy Label: Dying Victims Productions Format: LP / CD Year: 2026 After two records (and two demos) in the mid 00’s, that were as ramshackle as they were charming, the Italian Heavy-/Speed Metal band Baphomet’s Blood arrived at their third instalment…
Artist: Blood Serpent Country: Vietnam Label: House Of Ygra Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 After a good debut album back in 2023 and an enjoyable split CD with Iron Bludgeon in 2025, both released by the enigmatic House Of Ygra label, the Vietnamese noise mongers…
Artist: Division 52 Country: Germany Label: Rat Covenant / Southern Soundclash Formats: Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2026 This is an EP I’ve been looking forward to for a while. ‘Total War’ is the debut release from the German duo who perform…
Artist: Black Rock Country: Finland Label: Planet Of Judgement Records Formats: CD Year: 2026 Behind this band, with the rather uninspiring name Black Rock, lies a duo who, in this line-up, have been regularly unleashing their primitive-style Black Metal upon the world since 2012. Although…
Artist: Ashes Country: Poland Label: Malignant Voices Formats: CD Year: 2026 Earlier in the year, Ashes presented their third album. Titled ‘Into the Woodlands’, it marked yet again a change in vocalist. After Vann sang on the eponymous debut album…
Artist: Enevelde / Gjendød Country: Norway Label: Terratur Possessions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 Some years ago, Terratur Possessions used to frequently release splits. But since the last one (between Whoredom Rife and Taake) dated from 2020 it seemed…
Artist: AntiHuman Industries Country: Finland Label: W.T.C. Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2026 Behind the moniker of AntiHuman Industries is a line-up that would make the average adorer of the Finnish Black Metal scene salivate. On vocals we find…