Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Mortem Agmen Country: Germany Label: Nachzehrer Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 In Spring last year I was surprised by the great demo of a new German Black Metal band called Mortem Agmen, the haunting and sinister…
Artist: White DeathCountry: Finland / UruguayLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2023 When White Death released their eponymous debut album in 2017, the collective consisting of renowned musicians from the Finnish Black Metal scene had already shown to take their time to…
Artist: Vincent Crowley Country: USA Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 It feels rather pointless to write an introduction on the works of Vincent Crowley. Not only has the man a much discussed and rather notorious history…
Artist: Maul Country: USA Label: 20 Buck Spin Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 After having recorded a large amount of demos and (split) EP’s, the success of Maul’s debut album, ‘Seraphic Punishment’, didn’t come quite as a surprise. The bands…
Artist: Pyra Country: Italy Label: Immortal Frost Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 In autumn 2022 the Italian Black Metal band Pyra introduced itself with their self-titled 5-track EP, which positioned the band in that smothering twilight zone between…
Artist: Dripping Decay Country: USA Label: Satanik Royalty Records Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2024 Dripping Decay’s ‘Watching You Rot’-demo from 2021 was received well by fans who like their Death Metal dirty and old school, it had…
Artist: Drowned Country: Germany Label: Sepulchral Voice Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although the band has been formed all the way back in 1993, German Death Metal band Drowned has been different from all of their peers ever…
Artist: ÛngrûnCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: New Era ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 Friesland may be a province situated in the north of the Netherlands, but in a lot of ways it can be seen as a country within…
Artist: Witchcraft Country: Finland Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2023 In the wake of bands like Blasphemy, Beherit, early Impaled Nazarene, Archgoat, Profanatica and the likes came a quite a loyal following of both fans and bands…
Artist: Necrowretch Country: France Label: Season Of Mist Underground Activists Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Necrowretch has been amongst my favourite bands from the Old School Death Metal resurgence from around 2010. Yet, being completely different…
Artist: Departure Chandelier Country: Canada Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although the band already released a demo and a split 7” EP (with the underrated Dutch Black Metal act Blood Tyrant), Departure Chandelier came…
Artist: CommandCountry: SwedenLabel: jawbreaker RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 When in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s the old school Death Metal scene was rejuvenated with fresh blood, bands from Sweden once again played their part. In…
Artist: Cursed Excruciation / Funerealm Gloom Country: Brazil / Finland Label: Unpure Records Formats: Split 10” EP / Split Tape / Split CD Year: 2023 Unpure Records, a label that is always bringing the best of the worst. The label…
Artist: Podridão / Convulsive Country: Brazil Label: Iron Fortress Records / Iron, Blood And Death Corporation Formats: Split Tape / Split CD Year: 2024 ‘Convulsively Rotteness’ brings together two of Brazil’s finest Death Metal bands that operate in the more…
Artist: Lullaby Country: Brazil Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2023 Back in the mid-80’s to the early 90’s the American Wild Rags Records label was one of the leading institutes for extreme metal, especially within the borders…
Artist: Ignis MortisCountry: FinlandLabel: Hammer of Hate RecordsFormats: MCDYear: 2024 The origins of Ignis Mortis lie in Evil Might, a Helsinki based band formed in 2019. While it is unclear what the current status of the band is, the departure…
In the first month of the year the Dark Descent Released ‘Altered Realities’, the debut album of the Norwegian band Sovereign, really knocked me off my feet. Its genuine blend of Death Metal and Thrash Metal, the late 80’s way,…
Artist: Warorath Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 After having been formed in 2019, it took this Finnish Black Metal band a few years to come up with their first recordings. Yet, in 2023 the band came out…
Artist: Burning Winds Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Unpure Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 Originally this compilation LP was released by the Polish label Unpure Records in Spring of 2021, specialised in…
Artist: Squelch Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Squelch, a new Death Metal duo from sunny California, is offering the world their debut demo in the form of ‘Eternal Hiss Of Hatred’. And, with only half an…
Artist: Hulder Country: USA Label: 20 Buck Spin Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 One of Black Metal’s brightest rising stars is without a doubt Hulder. Already with the band’s earliest output Hulder, the only sole behind…
Artist: Nihil Invocation Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 If anything, Nihil Invocation proved to be one of the most intense Black Metal bands out of the Punkish, Folkish, Ildjarnian school. The minimalist, raw and crude way…
Even though new genres are always being invented, there are always plenty of bands who cannot suppress their urge to experiment and hypes follow each other in quick succession, fortunately there are also plenty of bands who want nothing to…
Artist: Doomscroller Country: Germany Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 This new Death Metal band from Germany is presenting their very first effort with ‘Obsessed By Sickness’, a 5-track demo that shows the band’s potential over its full 20…
Artist: Dead Head Country: The Netherlands Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2024 If Dead Head has proven anything over their extensive career it definitely is that keeping your musical course straight can be very much…
Artist: Atomic Goatcrime Country: Ecuador Label: Anti-Human Productions Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 Atomic Goatcrime is a new one-man band from Ecuador, it presents its first effort, ‘Atomic Goat Exterminium!’ through Canadian label of all things perverted, Anti-Human Productions. Four…
Artist: Tírad Dûr Country: USA Label: Sekf-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 As a follow-up to 2022’s ‘Fell Light In Windy Cloud’ arrived to us by the end of 2023, it marks the second release of Kūwāha’ilo’s second offering with…
Artist: Infernal Angels Country: Italy Label: Immortal Frost Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Infernal Angels is such a band that I have heard of before, but only by name. Despite the fact that the band is presenting their…
With the self-titled album in 2007 and its follow-up from a year late, ‘Flandriae’, the Belgian band Taranis surprised with its authentic blend of Black Metal, Thrash Metal and Heavy Metal. For sure it didn’t bring anything new to the…
Artist: Taranis Country: Belgium Label: Iron Pegasus Records Formats: CD Year: 2023 Admittedly, I didn’t foresee this second coming of Belgium’s Taranis. Over a decade after having put the band to rest, Taranis-main man Björn Desmet apparently revived the band…
Artist: Unaussprechlichen Kulten Country: Chile Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Chile’s Unaussprechlichen Kulten has been formed all the way back into the late 90’s and have been releasing music with great regularity. That they have…
Artist: Keys To The Astral Gates And Mystic Doors Country: USA Label: Empty Pit Recordings Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Obviously, ‘II is the second recording of the illustrious duo that makes up this rather new American Black Metal act.…
Artist: Sovereign Country: Norway Label: Dark Descent Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Apart from a few old-school bands like Cadaver, Mortem and later on, for instance, Zyklon and Blood Red Throne, Norway is not exactly…
Artist: Death Possession Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo CD Year: 2024 Fresh to the putrid sounding Death Metal front: Death Possession, from Denver, Colorado. With this debut demo they do present the world that there certainly still is some…
The reason for this Q&A was the release of Reflet Crépusculaire’s first full-length album that saw the darkness of night last month. Previously, the one-man band released several EPs, all of which intrigued me to such an extent that I…
Artist: Velvet Sorrow Country: USA Label: Luciferous Cruor Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 In recent years the little niche of raw yet atmospheric Black Metal has spawned a lot of bands, but amongst them are a lot bands that using…
Artist: Bergrizen Country: Ukraine Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Ukrainian Bergrizen has released no less than two albums in 2023. ‘Orathania’ from September last year almost entirely comprised of Ambient/Dark Folk-music with which it is…
Artist: Orgy Of Carrion Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 Commonly regarded as being one of the flag bearers of the resurgence of the Raw Black Metal scene from the second half of the 10’s, Orgy…
Artist: Kasturn Country: United Kingdom Label: Unmatched Dominance Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Early last year, spring 2023, Kasturn’s ‘Rehearsal Promo 23’ popped up at my radars and knew to impress me, even with only 15 minutes of rawly recorded music.…
Artist: Diabolic NightCountry: GermanyLabel: High Roller Records / Mortal Rite RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 The impact of the wave of Teutonic Metal bands from the 80’s can still vividly be felt in today’s metal scene. Not…
Artist: Inquisition Country: Colombia / USA Label: Agonia Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Inquisition has always been a band that was full of exceptionalities and controversy. The international metal press has written relentlessly about the…
Artist: Lore Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released / Inferna Profundus Records Formats: Cassette Tape / 12″ EP Year: 2023 Of course, a cover with a winter scene of trees on a mountain is not very unique; ever since Ulver’s debut…
Artist: Reflet Crépusculaire Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Out of the deepest and darkest corners of the French underground Black Metal scene comes Reflet Crépusculaire, one of the acts that has been intriguing me ever since I first…
Artist: Carnal Savagery Country: Sweden Label: Moribund Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After having released two full-length albums in 2022, the duo that together make for the Swedish Death Metal band Carnal Savagery, more or less took a bit of a…
Artist: Funeral Winds Country: The Netherlands Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although Funeral Winds never officially stopped it went on some sort of hibernation after the ‘Nexion Xul – The Cursed Bloodline’-album from 2007. Hellchrist Xul…
Artist: Nocturnal Terror Country: Brazil Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 After a couple demos Brazilian Black Metal band Nocturnal Terror self-released their debut album in October of 2023 and for those who heard these first recordings know that…
Artist: Sanctum Sathanas Country: Chile Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 In recent years, an increasing proportion of today’s Black Metal scene has come from South American countries, with Chile being the main purveyor. From that country comes…
Artist: Scab Hag Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: CD EP Year: 2023 Although Scab Hag’s self-released debut EP from 2021 was reissued on cassette tape by two different labels in the months following up to its original CD release (Cemetery…
Artist: Genocidal Rites Country: USA Label: 18 Is 9 Records And Tapes Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 Last year I reviewed ‘Exsanguination Of The Gods’, a tape-only release by Genocidal Rites. It was a short but sweet EP, presented by…
Artist: Malicious Country: Finland Label: Invictus Productions Formats: 12″ EP Year: 2023 Invictus Productions always had a nose for some top notch bands operating on that wavery tipping point between Black Metal and Death Metal. In the past they have…