Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Moonlight Sorcery Country: Finland Label: Avantgarde Music Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2022 At some point in the history of Black Metal it was something that was laughed at exclusively: melodic Black Metal, or symphonic Black Metal…
Artist: AngelBlastCountry: SwedenLabel: Edged Circle ProductionsFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 As a two-piece AngelBlast released a 7” in 2019, which marked the start of the band. The three songs on that 7” showcased a band in its early stages, but potential…
Artist: Yoth IriaCountry: GreeceLabel: Pagan RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 Though Yoth Iria introduced themselves with a great EP (released on 10” and 12” vinyl formats, as well as on CD and cassette) and a split 7”…
Artist: Nokturnal Mortum Country: Ukraine Label: Heritage Recordings / Oriana Music Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 One of Ukranian most prolific bands will definitely be Nokturnal Mortum, with their folk-drenched black metal they are a strong influence on many…
Artist: Graveland Country: Poland Label: Forever Plagued Records / Inferna Profundus Records / The Oath / White Wolf Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 Unquestionably one of the most prolific bands in the Polish underground Black Metal scene is…
Artist: Funeral Mist Country: Sweden Label: Norma Evangelium Diaboli Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Like always is the case with Funeral Mist, all of a sudden there is a new album. I was pleasantly surprised by 2018’s ‘Hekatomb’-album, which…
Artist: Faceless BurialCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Descent Records / Desiccated Productions / Me Saco un Ojo RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 With their debut album, ‘Grotesque Miscreation’ from 2017 and its follow-up EP that appeared a year later,…
Artist: Mutilator Country: Brazil Label: Hellven Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 When you talk about classic Brazilian Thrash Metal albums, you automatically end up with Sarcófago’s ‘INRI’, Sepultura’s ‘Morbid Visions’ and Mutilator’s ‘Immortal Force’. Of course, they were…
Artist: Ceremonial OathCountry: SwedenLabel: VIC RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2020 After having paved the way for many bands that would follow and further perfect Ceremonial Oath’s blueprint for the melodic Gothenburg Death Metal sound with their amazing debut album, ‘The Book Of…
Artist: Mortuous Country: USA Label: Carbonized Records / Extremely Rotten Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2021 In a scene that is getting more and more crowded with bands that take their major influence from what we…
Artist: Revenant Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 Between all the violence of the American Death Metal bands of the early 90s, it was difficult to really achieve great (commercial) success, obviously not every band had…
Artist: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2020 When all light is consumed, your soul is putrefying and only ghouls, specters and vampires are left to take over to feast upon your woefully existence, Drowning The Light’s Azgorh is there to compose yet…
Artist: Coffins / DepressionCountry: Japan / GermanyLabel: Hells Headbangers Records / Headsplit RecordsFormats: Split LP / Split cassette tape / Split CDYear: 2020 Two of Death Metal’s most prolific bands teaming up on one split release. What can possibly go…
Artist: Macabre Country: USA Label: Nuclear Blast Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 Macabre has always been a band that is unique in so many ways. Not only because of the obvious, their characteristic sound and lyrical content, but…
Artist: Massacre Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 What we’ve got here is the third EP in the “10 Inches Of Deathcult” series, in which Xtreem Music presents a slap of legendary early recordings from groundbreaking…
Artist: Mortician Country: USA Label: Xtreem Records Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 This 10” EP is the second installment in the “10 Inches Of Deathcult”-series, in which the first one was Sinister’s “Perpetual Damnation”-demo pressed onto 10 inches of wax.…
Artist: Rotting Christ Country: The Netherlands Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 Xtreem Music has launched a new series of old recordings by (semi) legendary Death Metal bands on 10” vinyl records. The list of announced bands to…
Artist: BenedictionCountry: UKLabel: Nuclear BlastFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2020 May 2019 marked the moment that vocalist Dave Hunt left Benediction to concentrate on his PhD studies and his other band Anaal Nathrakh. For many of the dedicated…
Artist: Saturnus Country: Denmark Label: Cyclone Empire Formats: LP / CD Year: 2012 On that typical dooms pace these Danish veterans in melodic doom/death have been working on their fourth album. Over the years they have finally saw the recognition…
Artist: Altar Of Oblivion Country: Denmark Label: Shadow Kingdom Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2012 One of the biggest surprises of 2009 was Denmarks Altar Of Oblivion. From out of the blue there was this really swinging doom/heavy metal…
Artist: Jumalhämärä Country: Finland Label: Ahdistuksen Aihio Productions Formats: CD Year: 2010 ‘Progression’ is a dirty word in combination with black metal. Bands like Satyricon have already struggled (unsuccessfully) with it. The art lies in combining primitive aesthetics and innovative…
Artist: Sacrifice Country: Canada Label: Cyclone Empire / Marquee Records / War On Music Formats: LP / CD Year: 2009 With the unstoppable stream of returning old Thrash Metal legends (as well as some lesser heroes), you would almost think…
Artist: Armour Country: Finland Label: Anger Of Metal / Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 Together with Anger Of Metal the German advocate for real metal Iron Bonehead Productions comes with a very noble looking gatefold 7” EP…
Artist: Pantheon I Country: Norway Label: Candlelight records Formats: CD Year: 2009 Pantheon I was formed around 2002, and features some members of 1349, Den Saakaldte and Sarkom. Their fairly unique mix of Black Metal with cellos and violins caught my eye…
Artist: The Lamp Of Thoth Country: United Kingdom Label: The Miskatonic Foundation Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2009 This is the third release in a short period of time for these British defenders of real doom. Yet, as I can’t get…
Artist: 1349Country: NorwayLabel: Candlelight RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2009 The last few releases of the Norwegians of 1349 have been surrounded by a minor hype, and in particular for their last record ‘Hellfire’ that seemed to be justified. Not resting…
Artist: Motörpenis / Black Torment Country: Portugal / Mexico Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2009 This is the first release for Iron Bonehead Productions in 2009, a split record between Motörpenis from Portugal and Mexican Black Torment.…
Artist: Magnanimus Country: Chile Label: Blood Harvest Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 The metal scene in Chile never fails to amaze, really. There’s some really great band on basically every style of extreme metal. Magnanimus definitely is no exception. Judging…
Artist: Black Pyramid Country: USA Label: Electric Earth Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 Usually I would not feature these kinds of bands, doom bands that lean too much to the stoner-side are usually not my thing and definitely don’t…
Artist: Bombs Of Hades Country: Sweden Label: Blood Harvest Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 I should’ve known better, really. I had this 7” EP here for quite some time before I started listening to it, the cover artwork for this…
Artist: Shackles Country: Australia Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2009 After releasing two demos (one being re-released on CD on Kneel Before The Masters Throne) and a 7” EP these Australians were ready for their first…
Artist: Graveland Country: Poland Label: No Colours Records Formats: 12″ EP Year: 2008 This one-sided 12” on Darkland Records can be seen as some sort of an appetizer of the new full-length, “Spears Of Heaven”, that was released in April…
Artist: Dishammer Country: Spain Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2008 The announcement of this LP was already enough to get me interested: ‘A perverted overdose of raw diabolic metal punk. Sounds like a fistfight between Hellhammer…
Artist: Assaulter Country: Australia Label: High Roller Records / Iron Bonehead Productions / Pulverized Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2008 This first full-length release for this Australian duo is a collaboration between German labels Iron Bonehead Productions and High…
Artist: Axewielder Country: Germany Label: Metal Coven Records Formats: LP Year: 2009 After releasing a split 7” with Heathen Hoof and a picture 10” with the great title “Heavy Metal Law”, Axewielder now returns with their first full-length album. This…
Artist: Realmbuilder Country: USA Label: I Hate Records Formats: LP Year: 2009 While reading through the bands on the inlay that are thanked for their influence expectations run sky-high. A nice blend of all kinds of heroic and epic metal…
Artist: Syphilitic Vaginas Country: Sweden Label: RFL Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 Syphilitic Vaginas have been releasing quite a pile of obscure vinyls and tapes over the last three-or-so years. And though it might come as they are from…
Artist: AutopsyCountry: USALabel: Peaceville RecordsFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2009 These are actually the most critical releases. Bands that always claimed not to go for any reunion and then … out of the blue, come up with new material. Still it is…
Artist: In Solitude Country: Sweden Label: High Roller Records / Pure Steel Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2008 This Swedish band with members from death metal band Katalysator (hailed in the Daniel Ekeroth’s book on Swedish Death Metal) and…
Artist: Sardonis Country: Belgium Label: Electric Earth Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 Sooner or later every review will mention that Sardonis is a two-man band that play instrumental doom/sludge songs – as they say, ‘4 skins and 6 strings’.…
Artist: Kivimetsan Druidi Country: Finland Label: Century Media Formats: CD Year: 2008 In every scene that gets more popular by the day the record labels tend to sign every fart recorded that might sell. We saw that happening over two…
Artist: DoomVSCountry: SwedenLabel: Firedoom MusicFormats: CDYear: 2008 Since 2004 the rather strangely named project Doom:VS is Johan Ericson’s way to keep himself busy. Besides his main band, Draconian, he finds the time to get his solo project going as well. And with “Dead Words…
Artist: TangorodrimCountry: IsraelLabel: Doomentia Records / Southern Lord RecordsFormats: LPYear: 2007 The name of this extreme raw black metal outfit from Israel (though the members are from Russian origin) translates to “Mountains Of Oppression”, taken from JRR Tolkien’s Lord Of…
Artist: In Solitude Country: Sweden Label: Swedish Metal Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 Once in a while there are some new bands that sound so much like those old metal LP’s you might/should have that it is almost hard…
Artist: UngodCountry: GermanyLabel: Kneel Before The Master’s Throne RecordsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2008 Originally released as a mini CD and tape back in 1996 with rather ugly artwork, this EP got its re-release twelve years later on vinyl…
Artist: Nocturnal / Pagan Rites Country: Germany / Sweden Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2008 This is, of course, one of those 7” EP’s that can’t be missed and is a definite must-have for anyone into…
Artist: Godless Country: Chile Label: Blood Harvest Formats: Double 7″ Year: 2008 This band, Godless, is another great addition to the, again, evergrowing amount of bands that try to recreate the vibe of old school, evil sounding, metal. Some people…
Artist: Hooded Menace Country: Finland Label: Doomentia Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 It was about a year ago when I first heard from Hooded Menace through Razorback Records, one of the most important players in the market of filthy…
Artist: Trench HellCountry: AustraliaLabel: Hells Headbangers Records / Home Taping CrueltiesFormats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2008 After the great “Alcoholic Disaster” EP from four years back, these Australians are back with a 12” consisting of six ultra…
Artist: Bestial Summoning / HereticCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Deathstrike RecordsFormats: Split 12″ EP Year: 2008 The Dutch underground black metal scene, as with any other country, has had its ups and downs over the last two decades. Some bands seems to…