Mercyless – Those Who Reign Below

Artist: Mercyless Country: France Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / Cassett Tape / CD Year: 2024 With the publication of ‘Those Who Reign Below’, Mercyless has now released exactly the same number of records after reuniting as they did when they…

Vitriolic – Black Steel Vengeance

Artist: Vitriolic Country: Finland Label: Dying Victims Productions / Headsplit Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Never judge a book by its cover. This wise statement is always good to keep in mind when browsing through the…

Cryptic Brood – Necrotic Flesh Bacteria

Artist: Cryptic Brood Country: Germany Label: Lycanthropic Chants / Rotted Life Records / War Anthem Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 When I ordered the band’s ‘Morbid Rite’ demo tape in 2013, I though the Cryptic…

Geatkihaukr / Veitsi – Split Tape

Artist: Geatkihaukr / Veitsi Country: Finland Label: River Valley Cult Formats: Split Tape Year: 2024 This split tape brings together two of Finland’s finest when it comes to crude-sounding Black Metal, both marching under the flag of River Valley Cult.…

Tyranni – Dränkt Av Livets Sekret

Artist: Tyranni Country: Sweden Label: New Era Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Tyranni came to my attention somewhere during the summer of 2019 with the 3-track ‘Baron Av Avoghetens Smärta’-promo tape, which ultimately led to the debut full-length…

Förgjord – Tie, Totuus & Kuolema [Demo / Re-release]

Artist: FörgjordCountry: FinlandLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 At the same time as the new album, ‘Perkeleen Weri’, we are served with a piece of Förgjord’s more distant past. Formed in 1995, the band existed under the monikers Brightness of Darkness,…

Förgjord – Perkeleen Weri

Artist: FörgjordCountry: FinlandLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 After a relatively slow start to their career, at least release wise, Förgjord really picked up the pace around 2017. With their 5th full-length in around 7 years, the band definitely is on a…

Ritus De Cruor – Vainajain Kammarissa [EP]

Artist: Ritus De CruorCountry: FinlandLabel: Altare ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2024 With the release of ‘Vainajain Kammarissa’ we have arrived at the fourth release of Ritus De Cruor, following a demo, an EP and a split with Käärmekristus. On this latest…

Necroferum – Visions From The Necrorealm [EP]

Artist: Necroferum Country: Costa Rica Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2024 While Nuclear Winter Records always stood for impeccable releases of outstanding Death Metal bands, the Greek label particularly seemed to…

Funerealm Gloom – Catachthonium Mysteriis

Artist: Funerealm Gloom Country: Finland Label: Down With The Most High / Medieval Prophecy Records / Unpure Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 After the great and compelling ‘Serpentcraft’ demo tape from 2020, the duo of…

Pamorak – Pamorak [Demo]

Artist: Pamorak Country: Belarus Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Many bands that have emerged from the soil roughly east of the Polish border have a rather unique and elusive sound. Something in those bands binds them,…

Rotpit – Long Live The Rot

Artist: Rotpit Country: Germany / Sweden Label: War Anthem Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 ‘Long Live The Rot’ is Rotpit’s second full-length album and with a few short-players under their belts they can easily be considered a prolific…

Tenebro / Mortuary Ghoul – Dellamorte [Split]

Artist: Tenebro / Mortuary Ghoul Country: Italy / USA Label: Dismal Fate Records Formats: Split Cassette EP Year: 2024 This is one of those splits that you knew that was eventually going to happen. It is no surprise that Tenebro-chief…

Dungeon Keeper – Chaos Sorcery Strike At Midnight

Artist: Dungeon Keeper Country: Germany Label: Fucking Kill Records / Iconoclasm Conquest / Lower Class Kids Records Formats: Demo tape Year: 2024 Germany’s Dungeon Keeper took me by surprise with their debut demo ‘Fortress Of Evil’, released last year through Kellerrassel Records. Their blend…

Morbid Rituals / Dungeon Keeper – Demos [Split LP]

Artist: Morbid Rituals / Dungeon Keeper Country: Germany Label: Fucking Kill Records Formats: Split LP Year: 2024 Probably prompted by the idea that it would be a shame for the demos of both Dungeon Keeper and Morbid Rituals to be limited to the…

Doedsmaghird – Omniverse Consciousness

Artist: DoedsmaghirdCountry: NorwayLabel: Peaceville RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 Pushing boundaries. It was that attitude that drove the second wave of Black Metal in Norway, pushing the genre into new extremities. Dødheimsgard is synonym with this future-minded way of thinking, never comfortable with the familiar…

Stenched – Purulence Gushing From The Coffin

Artist: Stenched Country: Mexico Label: Extremely Rotten Productions / Me Saco Un Ojo Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 As a sign that something good was going on, ‘Gorging On Mephitic Rot’, Stenched’s demo from last…

Törnen – Under Korpens Visdom

Artist: Törnen Country: Sweden Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although prior the release of ‘Under Korpens Visdom’ there was rumour that Swartadauþuz was a part of Törnen, it eventually turned out he was not. Yet,…

Kinahmi – Birth of the Nine Diseases

Artist: KinahmiCountry: FinlandLabel: Death MonumentFormats: Cassette tape / CD-RYear: 2024 Unpolished, twisted and atonal. Just a few words to describe the music of the Finnish band Kinahmi. The raw Black Metal that is presented on the debut ‘Birth of the…

Forgotten Tomb – Nightfloating

Artist: Forgotten Tomb Country: Italy Label: Agonia Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Okay, let’s throw the cat among the pigeons. Forgotten Tomb is, hands down, the best Italian metal band. That indeed includes the respected…

Strychnos – Armageddon Patronage

Artist: Strychnos Country: Denmark Label: Dark Descent Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Denmark’s thriving Death Metal scene has spawned many a great band, the majority of them following a rather similar path of (sometimes Grindcore-fuelled)…

Vengeance Horde – Surging Vengeance

Artist: Vengeance Horde Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Stygian Black Hand / Deathrash Armageddon Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 After the short but convincing and self-titled debut EP, released on cassette tape and…

Warslaughter – Exacerbación [EP]

Artist: Warslaughter Country: Spain Label: Profaner Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2024 On the band’s previously released two demos and full-length albums Warslaughter already showed what they were made of. The Spaniards follow much of the country’s tradition in unrelenting…

Valonkantaja – Valonkantaja [EP]

Artist: ValkonkantajaCountry: FinlandLabel: Signal Rex / Self-releasedFormats: Cassette EP / CD-R EPYear: 2024 In less than 12 minutes Valonkantaja introduces themselves to the world in the shape of their very first release. On this EP, released on CD-R by the…

Chaos Invocation – Wherever We Roam…

Artist: Chaos InvocationCountry: GermanyLabel: AOP RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 I’ll admit it, I didn’t see it coming that the newest Chaos Invocation record would be released by any other label than W.T.C. Productions. After four albums and a split, the…

Bastard Priest – Doomed To Decay [EP]

Artist: Bastard Priest Country: Sweden Label: D-Takt & Råpunk Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 During the resurgence of Old School-styled Death Metal in the late 00’s, Bastard Priest was a breath of fresh air. Most bands based their sound…

Phlegethon’s Majesty – Bygone Atonements

Artist: Phlegethon’s Majesty Country: Belgium Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 This first full-length album of Phlegethon’s Majesty is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated Black Metal records out of the amazingly fertile Belgian soil. Through…

Parasitario – Rehearsal Demo 2024

Artist: Parasitario Country: Japan Label: Self-Released Formats: CD Year: 2024 After the well-received F.D.A. Records and Obliteration Records released ‘Everything Belongs To Death’ debut album, the Japanese Death Metal trio returns with a new demo. It is scheduled for a…

Givre – Le Cloître

Artist: Givre Country: Canada Label: Eisenwald Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Black metal is a primarily male-dominated sport where female interference is not always welcomed with open arms. Although there are ladies like Onielar from Darkened Nocturn Slaughtercult or…

True Black Dawn – Of Thick-Circling Shadows

Artist: True Black Dawn Country: Finland Label: W.T.C. Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Taking a look at the current, former and live musicians who are or have been involved with True Black Dawn actually reads like a kind…

Morbific – Promethean Mutilation [EP]

Artist: Morbific Country: Finland Label: Extremely Rotten Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 After ‘Squirm Beyond The Mortal Realm’ an album that seems to share a similar fate as Immolation’s ‘Failures For Gods’, Finland’s Morbific seems to be right back…

Chaotian / Deiquisitor – Split

Artist: Chaotian / Deiquisitor Country: Denmark Label: Extremely Rotten Productions / Night Shroud Formats: Split LP / Split Tape / Split CD Year: 2024 Anyone who has been keeping an eye on the ever-thriving and ever-lively Danish Death Metal scene…

Nubivagant – The Blame Dagger

Artist: Nubivagant Country: Italy Label: Amor Fati Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 With three records in exactly four years, you might wonder how much time goes into a 24-hour period for Gionata ‘Omega’ Potenti. Because besides Nubivagant, the…

Feeble Deity – Unholy Dissonance [Demo]

Artist: Feeble Deity Country: USA Label: Keepers Of The Flame Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Last year’s ‘Compendium Opus’ was Feeble Deity’s first release that was spread slightly wider than the previously released limited cassette tapes. That compilation, released on…

Åndutsyn – Into The Glory Of Violence [Demo]

Artist: Åndutsyn Country: USA Label: Nihtstang Productions Formats: Demo tape Year: 2024 The aptly titled ‘Into The Glory Of Violence’ is Åndutsyn’s fourth instalment and follows last year’s great ‘The Epitome Of The End Of The Cavernous Forestry’, which was…

Bortglömd – Haunting Calls [Demo]

Artist: Bortglömd Country: Sweden Label: Heidens Hart Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 ‘Haunting Calls’ is the debut demo of a new Swedish duo with Dutch connections, yet with this 3-track demo tape the band is distinctly sounding more Northern…

Ars Veneficium -The Lurking Shadow of Death

Artist: Ars VeneficiumCountry: BelgiumLabel: Immortal Frost ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 2024 sees the return of Ars Veneficium after a four years absence since their last album, ‘Usurpation of the Seven’ was released. Now S. and Ronarg return, accompanied by…

Endless Loss – Traversing The Mephitic Artery

Artist: Endless Loss Country: Australia Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 After a demo, a digitally available live set and an EP, the Australian Black/Death Metal band Endless Loss felt it was time to unleash…

Satanicristo – Bastardizing The Holiness [EP]

Artist: Satanicristo Country: Brazil Label: Sex Desire Records Formats: CD EP Year: 2024 It’s not exactly every day you see a new release from a new band featuring ex-members of acts like Sarcófago, Mutilator and Holocausto drop by. But that…

Stutyr – Palavan Maailman Liekeistä [EP]

Artist: StutyrCountry: Finland
Label: Wolfspell Records
Formats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2024 Stutyr’s previous EP ‘Missä Yö Teidät Kohtaa’ was an interesting slab of music, blending the melody of the Swedish Black Metal scene from the 90’s with a whiff of…

Excarnated Entity – Descended Immortality – Promo 2024

Artist: Excarnated Entity Country: USA Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2024 With ‘Descended Immortality – Promo 2024’ the Portland, Oregon based Death Metal band Excarnated Entity is giving us a 2-track sneak peak into what they have…

Chevallier Skrog – Betrayal In Realm Of Two Pillars

Artist: Chevallier Skrog Country: Czechia Label: Into Endless Chaos Records Formats: LP Year: 2024 In many reviews of MBN’s work I have called him a workaholic or a restless soul, most likely, he’s both. But not infrequently, this does lead…

Arkona – Stella Pandora

Artist: Arkona Country: Poland Label: Debemur Morti Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although I have heard Arkona a few times prior to the release of the band’s 2016 ‘Lunaris’-album, they were never much more than a solid band…