Artist: Nathrath / CelticHammer
Country: Spain
Label: Bundushathûr Records
Formats: Split Tape
Year: 2026
‘Décadas De Represión’ is a short split tape that brings together Nathrath and CelticHammer, two bands from the Gallaecia Kommando, a circle of bands from the Galicia region in Spain. All bands involved (Belcebú Pace, Saviour Death, Samhain and Velkth Arkan) seem to be inspired by the same things, which possibly brought them together in the first place. Most notably, of course, is their love for Black Metal. Although not all bands necessarily sound the same, but they do take their inspirations from raw and harsh sounding Black Metal with a slight punkish vibe to it. And secondly, their regional nationalism, Galician pride and folklore.
Nathrath’s side of the spit is a song that largely follows up the demo tapes that were released earlier this year and were given their individual reviews on these pages as well. As a whole, this one track, entitled ‘E a Traxedia Repetirase…’, again harks back to the Black Metal days of yore. With the nice croaking vocals and the melancholic riffs, this fits well in the underground scene of some three decades ago. I personally really love the production on this one track as well, not too crude, but still raw enough to give the song a very icy atmosphere. In a way, this brings back memories of the 00’s roster of Christhunt Records.
The other track, which is slightly longer, is delivered by CelticHammer, a band that I honestly never listened to before. If the information I found on the internet served me well, this solo-project by Falkur (also in the aforementioned Belcebú Pace and Samhain) started earlier this year. That, however, didn’t stop the sole musician behind CelticHammer from getting off to a flying start. In only a couple of months’ time he managed to record and release three demos, two EP’s, two singles a full-length album and this split tape with Nathrath. Compared to Nathrath, CelticHammer sounds much harsher. With a heavily distorted sound, the kind of Black Metal served here is pretty noisy and needs a couple of extra spins to let it fully sink in. The rugged sound reminds most of the early works produced by the bands from the Portuguese Raw Black Metal scene as well as some of their American counterparts that were released by labels such as Lampshade and Perverse Homage. Not exactly for the faint of heart, but definitely a great listen if you’re into the more deranged and inaccessible kind of Black Metal.
This spit tape reminds me of a label like Discipline from Portugal, active at the end of the 00s and early 10s and brought us bands like Mons Veneris, Black Cilice, Ostots, Satanize, Ruach Raah, Vetala, Cripta Oculta and Dolentia. Their releases were designed and packaged in a minimal fashion and released in very small numbers. And, most importantly, most of it was in the musical style presented by both Nathrath and CelticHammer. Just like the Cripta Ocult/Dolentia split 7” EP from 2010, ‘Décadas De Represión’ would make a great split 7” EP as well, with plain white labels and a piece of printed paper folded around as a cover: befitting the minimal musical style.
Regardless, this split tape (limited to 25 hand-numbered copies) is a great celebration of underground Black Metal. It still exists, you just need to look for it. Diggers will be rewarded!
