Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 After the break-up of Proclamation, the band members formed a new band, Sacrificio, that leans a bit more towards Black Metal…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 While bands like Blasphemy, Beherit and in a lesser extent Sarfcófago defined a viciously suffocating brutal sound in the late 80’s…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 Whether it is due to the limitations of the Blasphemy-based Black/Death Metal or simply to the unbridled commitment of these Spaniards,…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 As a reviewer, you are happy if you can write something about a good band or a nice release. People who…
Artist: Proscriptor McGovern’s Apsû Country: USA Label: Agonia Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2021 One of America’s most iconic Black Metal bands is undoubtedly Absu. The multi-headed monster that originally emerged from several previous incarnations and…
Artist: Dead HeadCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Considering this album was released by the end of April this year, I am a little late to the party with this review. Dead Head has never really changed…
Artist: Sagenland Country: The Netherlands Label: Heidens Hart Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2021 Despite the fact that Sagenland has been around since the early 00’s, 2021’s ‘Oale Groond’ is only their first album. Earlier, in…
Artist: Nachtheir Country: USA Label: Banner of Blood / Gleaming Ash Collective / TormentRex Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 I first heard of Nachtheir through the three-way split tape with Hekseblad and Vér (2022, Wilt-Shine). The song that this American…
Artist: Rottrevore Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 Originally self-released by the band as a digital EP and later as a limited CDR in 2012 (released as ‘Blind Sided Attack’)…
Artist: Funeral WindsCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Necromanteion / New Era RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 Sometime after the release of 2007’s ‘Nexion Xul – The Cursed Bloodline’, Hellchrist Xul brought Funeral Winds back to what can be considered…
Artist: Golod Country: Canada Label: Ván Records Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2021 ‘…To Be Lost And Forgotten, In Solitude’ is the debut EP by this Canadian one-man act that was released upon mankind by Ván Records. And…
Artist: Isengard Country: Norway Label: Peaceville Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 That Fenriz is a slightly odd duck is, of course, an understatement. And, anno 2022, we also know that musically he is basically all over the place.…
Artist: Gorgon Country: France Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 Even if you think you are fairly well versed in the (Black) Metal scene yourself, it sometimes happens to you that you overlook something. For instance, I…
Artist: Mortuary Country: Serbia Label: Darzamadicus Records / Grom Records / Necrovoid Records Formats: CD Year: 2021 Extreme underground metal has been forged in the most unlikely places of earth, even in the early days of the genre. Yet, many…
Artist: AbythicCountry: GermanyLabel: Iron Bonehead ProductionsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EP / Cassette EPYear: 2022 Abythic’s three albums have all been released by a different label, and certainly not the least. In chronological order, Blood Harvest Records, Xtreem Music and…
Artist: MorgalCountry: FinlandLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 One of the interesting aspects of reviewing albums is diving into the musical history of a band, going back to the earliest material, and comparing how a band…
Artist: Larvae Country: Romania Label: Dawnbreed Records / Sacred Tomb Records / Unholy Domain Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2022 For me, this ‘Acid Horror Cult’-EP was my first introduction to the Romanian/Italian Larvae, but I wouldn’t…
Artist: Outre-Tombe Country: Canada Label: Temple of Mystery Records / Timeworn Records / Triumph ov Death Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 I think every Death Metal fan has imagined a ‘what if’ situation surrounding Chuck Schuldiner’s stay in Canada…
Artist: AlgaionCountry: SwedenLabel: Shadow RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 For the development of the American (Black) Metal scene, the Full Moon Productions-label was of great influence and importance. Not only did it help American bands like Acheron and Black Funeral…
Artist: AngmodnesCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Black Lion RecordsFormats: CD EPYear: 2022 Sometimes there’s just too much Doom Metal in you. This is the case for Y.S and M.V, two members of the Dutch Doom Metal band Apotelesma, who needed a vessel…
Artist: Scorching Tomb Country: Canada Label: Dismal Fate Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 Canadian Death Metal will mainly evoke associations with the mainly technical flank of the genre, bands like Cryptopsy, Gorguts, the more modern Archspire or maybe even…
Artist: Затемно (Zatemno)Country: RussiaLabel: Heidens HartFormats: CDYear: 2022 After its debut EP via Russian Death Knell Records, this avant-garde ensemble found shelter with the never-conventional Aesthetic Death on which the first full-length album, ‘В петле’ (‘In The Noose’), was released…
Artist: CentinexCountry: SwedenLabel: Agonia RecordsFormats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 You can accuse the Swedes of Centinex of anything, except a lack of underground aesthetics. Despite taking a few years off (from 2006 to 2014), they have been tenacious…
Artist: AzazelCountry: FinlandLabel: Primitive ReactionFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 When you list the originators of the Finnish Black Metal scene, names like Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Archgoat and Barathrum are inevitable. You would almost forget Azazel was right…
Artist: Lunar Spells Country: Greece Label: Northern Silence Productions Formats: CD Year: 2022 Anyone who follows the Black Metal scene a bit will have noticed that Melodic or Symphonic Black Metal is on the rise and is being widely embraced…
Artist: Liminal Shroud Country: Canada Label: Willowtip Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 ‘All Virtues Ablaze’ is the second album by Canadian Black Metal band Liminal Shroud, the first album, ‘Through The False Narrows’ (2020, Hypnotic Dirge), had escaped my attention,…
Artist: AnathemaCountry: UKLabel: Peaceville RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 When Anathema embarked on their 1996 tour supporting their then new ‘The Silent Enigma’ record they were captured live in Krakow, Poland. That footage ended up at the VHS which was…
Artist: Haradrim Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2022 For the non-Lord of the Rings aficionado among us: The Haradrim were the race of Men from Harad in the region of Middle-Earth, directly south of Gondor. These people…
Artist: AncientCountry: NorwayLabel: Soulseller RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Earlier this summer, Dutch label Soulseller Records released a collection of old recordings by Ancient. A band that was hardly taken seriously in the past, at least, after their debut album.…
Artist: Severe Torture Country: The Netherlands Label: Season Of Mist Formats: CD EP Year: 2022 Dutch Death Metal is mainly linked to the more classic bands from around the 90’s. Of course, bands like Pestilence, Sinister and Gorefest have been…
Artist: Myrsky Country: Finland Label: Nocturnal Mourning Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 From the always musically fertile Finland comes this new Black Metal act Myrsky. At the time of writing, very little is known about the band’s…
Artist: Olio Tähtien TakanaCountry: FinlandLabel: Avantgarde MusicFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 The first band that people are most likely to recognize from the list of acts that v-KhaoZ features in is Vargrav, whose stellar debut `Netherstorm’ caused quite a stir upon release (not in the…
Artist: Niden Div. 187Country: SwedenLabel: Dawnbreed Records / De:Nihil RecordsFormats: Vinyl BoxsetYear: 2021 While both the Black and Death Metal genres were producing one groundbreaking record after another in the early nineties, the scenes exploded in volumes in the second…
Artist: VermisstCountry: PolandLabel: Esfinge de la CalaveraFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Polish Black Metal band Vermisst has been around for a while and already has quite a discography, a handful of demos and (split) EPs via various underground labels,…
Artist: Fall Of SeraphsCountry: FranceLabel: Memento MoriFormats: CDYear: 2022 The first thing I thought of when I saw the band name was the Mayhem song from their 1997 ‘Wolf’s Lair Abyss’ mini LP, but clear enough, this French Death Metal…
Info Artist: Vel’HarCountry: GermanyLabel: Sentient Ruin LaboratoriesFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2022 Although the band denies it, Vel’Hal was part of Chile’s Black Metal underground elitist circle that goes under the name of ‘Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague’. Whether that is…
Artist: BelphegorCountry: AustriaLabel: Nuclear BlastFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Admittedly, I had lost sight of Belphegor for a while. After the 2000 release of ‘Necrodaemon Terrorsathan’, I somewhat lost interest in the band. I did hear some…
Artist: Amorphous DominionCountry: ThailandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 This Bangkok, Thailand based Black Metal band Amorphous Dominion started in 2018 from the spirited soul of ‘Sunrize Eclipse’, who after some time realised that he could only realise his black visions…
Artist: Hulder Country: USA Label: 20 Buck Spin Formats: 12″ LP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 EP’s are often used by bands as a taster for a new album, a sort of sop, but it also happens…
Artist: Worm Altar Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2022 When I think of the state of Maine (USA), which I have never visited, my thoughts mainly consist of the imaginary and gloomy images I have acquired while…
Artist: KvadCountry: NorwayLabel: Forbidden Keep Records / TormentRexFormats: Cassette / CDYear: 2022 This Norwegian act has chosen a cover for its debut-album that is very much in the same vein as many of their fellow countrymen, it depicts a cold…
Artist: KvadCountry: NorwayLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2022 The debut album ‘Cold & Dark, As Life’, released on cassette via Forbidden Keep Records, was my first introduction to the Norwegian Black Metal band Kvad. The album brought an interesting mix of…
Artist: Funeral Country: Chile Label: Burning Coffin Records Formats: Cassette Year: 2022 Although I don’t know exactly how old this Chilean Black Metal band is, I always wonder how it is possible that the creative minds of musicians can’t come…
Artist: Norfulthing Country: Finland Label: Frozen Screams Imprint Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 Helsinki based Death Metal band Norfulthing released two digital single tracks before this same-titled full demo, of which the revenues are donated to a charity that focusses…
Artist: ExhumationCountry: SpainLabel: Pesta Negra RecordsFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 For many listening to a Funeral Doom Metal record is, and fair enough, a gruelling ride; it may even seem a form of self-flagellation. To fully grasp the painfully slow music,…
Artist: IssoleiCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 Unconventional was the term used earlier to describe pretty much everything about Issolei. Fascinating would be another. While the `Devouring Current’ EP’s spent a lot of time disorienting the listener, only…
Artist: IssoleiCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2021 Considering that the intention of Issolei once was to create a singular `Devouring Current’ album, it may not come as a shock that `Devouring Current, Pt. 2: Treacherous Ascent’…
Artist: IssoleiCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2021 Releasing not one, not two, but three releases simultaneously is not something we often see, especially when a band has no previous releases whatsoever and the members or composition…
Artist: Hekseblad / Vér / Nachtheir Country: USA / USA/ Canada Label: Wilt-Shine Formats: Split Cassette Year: 2022 Last year the American underground label Wilt-Shine released a three-way split tape with the name ‘Abattoir Dust Vol. 1’ and had Oppressive…
Artist: Hekseblad Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 With the Woods Of Ypres-tribute EP as some sort of an interlude, the American Black Metal duo continues with this 1-track EP/single where they left off: the musical narration…