Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Misþyrming Country: Iceland Label: Non Serviam Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 When the Icelandic Black Metal band Misþyrming first hit the Black Metal scene in 2015, their name was incredibly hyped through the now…
Artist: Pestilent HexCountry: FinlandLabel: Debemur Morti ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 The debut album of Finland’s Pestilent Hex has been in the works for some years. In 2017, Convocation, Desolate Shrine and Ordinance multi-instrumentalist L.L. and Corpsessed, Profetus and Tyranny…
Artist: Macabre End Country: Sweden Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2021 The only Macabre End recordings are the three tracks from the 1990 ‘Consumed By Darkness’ demo tape, released a year later by Corpse Grinder Records on a…
Artist: Veter DemonazCountry: RussiaLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Sometimes, as a metal fan, it is a bit difficult to keep track of everything properly. The releases come by at a breakneck pace and then it ends up being…
Artist: AegrusCountry: FinlandLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: 10″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 It’s not an uncommon thing for Finnish bands. They start off, release a slew of demos, but the fans have to patiently wait for that debut…
Artist: BezweringCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Ván RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 I have regarded Bezwering’s debut album, ‘Aan De Wormen Overgeleverd’, as one of the better Dutch Black Metal albums of recent years and a more than worthy successor to Wederganger, on which…
Artist: VeljessurmaCountry: FinlandLabel: Naturmacht ProductionsFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Veljessurma hails from the Finnish capital of Helsinki, and their first EP follows the 2020-released demo ‘Ritual of Cain’. On ‘Noidansolmu’ Veljessurma blends a raw Black Metal rhythm guitar…
Artist: Necrophile Country: Japan Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2021 The Japanese extreme metal scene has always been rather limited in the amount of bands, but they always tended to bring something different to the table. The Japanese…
Artist: Roots Of The Old Oak Country: United Kingdom Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 Roots Of The Old Oak is a Doom/Death Metal trio from the UK, that released their first four-track demo tape last summer through…
Artist: Aeon FurnaceCountry: FinlandLabel: Ancien CulteFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 Out of nowhere comes Aeon Furnace, a Finnish four-piece that features members with illustrous pseudonyms like K.V.U. Mycophagous on bass, That Which Dwells in the Pit on guitars, drummer and vocalist…
Artist: Thy Darkened ShadeCountry: GreeceLabel: W.T.C. ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Despite a history that goes back as far as 1999, Greece’s Thy Darkened Shade didn’t really hit their stride until 2012 with the release of their debut album. But…
Artist: OcculsedCountry: USALabel: Everlasting Spew RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Following the band’s simply amazing debut album, ‘Crepitation Of Phlegethon’, their label, Everlasting Spew Records from Italy, now brings you the bands two previously recorded demo tapes on one CD. And as…
Artist: RiivausCountry: FinlandLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 Riivaus is the solo project of Hoath Daemnator, who under a few different pseudonyms is also active in a number of other bands of which Sacrificium Carmen is probably the…
Artist: Rotten Moon Country: Finland Label: Ancien Culte Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 The uncontrollable work ethos and creativity of Heinous Soul in mainly channelled through his musical main vessel of Circle Of Ouroboros where he is responsible for all…
Artist: Impetigo Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP / CD EP Year: 2021 ‘Giallo’ is basically where it all started. Although ‘Giallo’ is not the first Impetigo recording, it was preceded by the 1987 release ‘All We Need…
Artist: Necrovation Country: Sweden Label: Blood Harvest Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2023 Somewhere in the mid-00’s, there suddenly was Necrovation, one of the very best new Death Metal bands that would become a true cult act. With their first minor…
Artist: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 In a span of a few days (8th, 10th and 13th of January), Azgorh and his Drowning The Light brought us no less than three new releases. A full-length album and two EPs, of which…
Artist: Hate Propaganda Country: Italy Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2022 An anonymous band from Portugal delivering some relentless raging Black/Thrash Metal with a sharp grinding edge, that’s what Hate Propaganda is all about. Back in 2019…
Artist: Mystic Circle Country: Germany Label: Atomic Fire Formats: LP Year: 2023 Time is a wonderful thing, it tends to heal wounds and make one think more mildly of things that happened in the past. When we listen to today’s…
Artist: LamashtuCountry: PolandLabel: Goatowarex / Malignant VoicesFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 In Mesopotamian mythology, Lamashtu was a female demon who menaced women during childbirth and kidnapped their children when they were breastfeeding. Lamashtu is also a Polish band, whose origins…
Artist: HaborymCountry: MexicoLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: LPYear: 2020 Werewolf Records is beyond doubt one of the most interesting labels when it comes to releasing high quality Finnish Black Metal. But every now and then the label looks beyond the borders of…
Artist: LaereCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-releasedFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 Laere’s first EP ‘Solve’ was a great entry into the musical world of the German band, presenting a well-performed rendition of Icelandic Black Metal. I would have expected that the band would be…
Artist: LaereCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-releasedFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2020 The band name Laere represents a combination of the German word for empty, leer, and the Norwegian word Laere, which means to teach or learn. Empty learning: the unison of two meanings of…
Artist: Khazad-Dûm Country: United Kingdom Label: Avantgarde Music Formats: LP Year: 2022 Deep down under the Misty Mountains lies an ancient kingdom of the dwarfs of Durin’s Folk, that kingdom is also known as Moria or Khazad-Dûm. That hidden and…
Artist: Sacrifice Country: Canada Label: High Roller Records / Shadow Kingdom Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 After a raw and musically slightly naïve start with ‘Torment In Fire’ (1986), which basically featured all of those…
Artist: Sacrifice Country: Canada Label: Daymare Recordings Formats: CD Year: 2022 Halfway through the first half of the 90s can be seen as the time when the Death Metal genre was already on its way out and Thrash Metal with…
That a demo tape does not always have to be spectacular in the sense of originality or extremely good musicianship, German Black Metal band Totholz proved with their only demo tape from 2021. I reviewed that demo tape earlier last…
Artist: Irae Country: Portugal Label: Signal Rex Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the Portuguese Black Metal act Irae, the brainchild of its sole member, Vulturius. In those two decades he has been really…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Shortly before the release of the sophomore album of the Swedish Lifvsleda, a small teaser was released premiering the track ‘Lifvspänn’. On this, the band continued the path set out…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 After the release of their debut album ‘Det Besegrade Lifvet’, Lifvsleda didn’t rest on their laurels and started working on the follow-up record. With that came a move to a new…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Shadow RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2020 Lifvsleda was formed in 2019, but apart from the fact that the two members were veterans of the Swedish Black Metal scene, not much was known. Later, it…
Artist: Nihil Invocation / Irae Country: USA / Portugal Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2023 ‘Evil Storm Of Haunting Recollections’ is a collaboration of two individuals who have drilled down the Black Metal genre to its very primal essentials. Both…
Artist: CutCountry: ChinaLabel: Gespenst RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 That disgusting and totally depraved Black/Death Metal is no longer limited to a few of those early bands like Blasphemy, Naked Whipper and Archgoat is not quite a secret, yet…
Artist: Obituary Country: USA Label: Relapse Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Though a new Obituary record is commonly regarded as a moment of joy to all Old School Death Metal aficionados, I kind of lost…
Artist: SelvhatCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LPYear: 2022 Before releasing his sole album, ‘Gjennom Mørket Famlende’ in 2008 and the ‘Einsam In Ewigkeit’ 7” EP from 2007, Steingrim Torson recorded a bunch of demos and rehearsal tapes, of which only a…
Artist: SelvhatCountry: NorwayLabel: Nordkult Rituals / Terratur PossessionsFormats: LPYear: 2022 On a tragic April night in 2009, Steingrim Torson left this mortal coil. The highly talented Norwegian musician had made his mark in several bands from the Trondheim scene, including…
Artist: EvilspellCountry: ItalyLabel: Blasphemous RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2021 Seven years after their last sign of life, the Italian Black/Thrash Metal band Evilspell returned to the front in 2021, with their third full-length ‘Padre Vostro’, which, if Google Translate is not fooling…
Artist: Sigh Country: Japan Label: Deathheadz Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 From such a populous country as Japan, there are remarkably few extreme metal bands. Yet a lively metal scene has existed there since the 1980s, at least, it seems.…
Artist: EncabulosCountry: AustraliaLabel: Nuclear Winter RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Under the fitting title of ‘Exhumed Abominations’ Nuclear Winter Records unearthed an almost forgotten piece of underground Death Metal history: Encabulos. They were a Death Metal band from Australia that released six…
Artist: DevilpriestCountry: PolandLabel: Odium Records / Spreading The Pest ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2022 ‘In Repugnant Adoration’ is the sophomoric album of the Polish Black Metal band Devilpriest, a band formed back in 2015 by Tom Hermies (also known for his work…
Artist: PiołunCountry: PolandLabel: Malignant VoicesFormats: CDYear: 2022 The band Piołun from Lublin, Poland was created in 2019 by Sorh of Blaze of Perdition and Oremus on guitar and vocals, and shortly after was joined by Vitor on drums. Sorh envisioned…
Artist: Hellfire Deathcult Country: USA Label: Helter Skelter Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 My VM-Underground colleague already commented quite aptly on these American’s debut album that the music of Hellfire Deathcult would appeal to fans of Teitanblood, Adversarial…
While the real boom of Old School Death Metal bands has passed and, with the knowledge of today, the peak of that revival does seem to have been in the years 2010-2013, all that remains now are bands that are…
Artist: Haunter Country: USA Label: Profound Lore Records Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 Though Haunter has been around for about a decade now, they have remained under my radar up to this last album, ‘Discarnate Ails’.…
Artist: The Antichrist ImperiumCountry: United KingdomLabel: Apocalyptic Witchcraft RecordingsFormats: Cassette / CDYear: 2022 When I first heard Akercocke it was with their ‘Choronzon’ album, back in 2003, it left me amazed, baffled and intrigued. The band blended so many ideas…
Artist: Flames Country: Greece Label: No Remorse Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 When it comes to the Greek metal scene, one of the earliest and most important bands that helped shape the lively scene that we know today,…
Artist: Flames Country: Greece Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 Hot on the heals of their first album in over a quarter of a century, the Greek Thrash Metallers of Flames self-released this 2-track rehearsal EP. So, people who…
Artist: Carnal SavageryCountry: SwedenLabel: Moribund RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 With only six months between this new album and the previous one, ‘Scent Of Flesh’, Carnal Savagery’s Swedes have the momentum going well. The only question is whether it might not be a bit…
Artist: Carnal SavageryCountry: SwedenLabel: Huangquan Records / Moribund RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 The Swedish Death Metallers of Carnal Savagery are returning to their one-album-each-year formula with their third album, ‘Scent Of Death’. Although, an album a year? I guess the COVID-19 pandemic was…
Artist: Dead SunCountry: SwedenLabel: MDD RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2021 This awkward release of Dead Sun, one of the many Rogga Johansson featured bands, is actually a re-release of a compilation tape which originally was some sort of collection of four different…