Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Drevorod Country: Russia Label: Heidens Hart Records Formats: CD Year: 2024 Over the last twenty or so years, the Eastern regions of Europe and Russia have increasingly developed itself as a true hotbed for Pagan Black Metal. Maybe not…
Artist: Funeral Storm Country: Greece Label: Hells Headbangers Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Although the band already released two splits and a compilation that brought those tracks together, I only ran into Funeral Storm with their…
Artist: Arbor Country: USA Label: Blood And Crescent Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 One of those alluring new names of contemporary Black Metal is the much praised Arbor from the USA. With a handful of great demos and the 2023-released debut…
Artist: Black Lycanthropy Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 In the past two years the American one-man Black Metal band Black Lycanthropy has already delivered two EP’s and a demo of which especially the last two releases…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 In 2022 we were forewarned that a new Lifvsleda album was incoming with the release of the 7” EP ‘Lifvspänn’, a prelude to the band’s second album ‘Sepulkral Dedikation’. This…
Overall, when you talk about Finnish Black Metal, you are always in for a surprise. It can be as regressive as Azazel or Barathrum, but also as progressive as …And Oceans or genre-defining as Beherit or Horna. But then you…
One of the longest-running and most consistent French Black Metal bands is undoubtedly Merrimack. The band’s founding dates back as far as 1994, so guitarist Perversifier has seen all the trends and hypes come and go but has always stayed…
Artist: Morgul Blade Country: USA Label: No Remorse Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After a demo/EP, ‘Harbingers Of Power And The World’s End’ from 2019, that sadly enough went under my radar, the American Heavy Metal band Morgul…
Artist: Draugnim Country: Finland Label: Naturmacht Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 It was a long wait. Draugnim needed no less than eight years to come up with this fourth full-length album and follow-up of the…
Artist: Last Retch Country: Canada Label: CDN Records Formats: CD EP Year: 2024 After having released an outstanding demo and an equally great debut album in 2021 and 2022 respectively, the Canadian Death Metal band Last Retch treats us with…
For almost a quarter of a century, Nikolaos ‘Wrath’ Spanakis has been hammering away at his creation, Dødsferd. Although he has obviously become a much better musician and grown as a person in that time span and his early works…
Artist: Dødsferd Country: Greece Label: Fucking Your Creation Records / Hypnotic Dirge Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 In the almost quarter of a century of existence the Greek Black Metal band Dødsferd has spawned nothing…
Artist: Nights Horn Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Nights Horn is the brainchild of Thomas Lhairaud, a French multi-instrumentalist and ‘Divina Obscura’ is the work that follows up on the ‘Blood Soul’-demo tape that was released last…
Artist: Anatomia / Eternal Rot Country: Japan / Germany/United Kingdom Label: Behind The Mountain / Gurgling Gore Formats: Split LP / Split Cassette / Split CD Year: 2024 While Anatomia might forever be regarded as Coffins’ little brother, they have…
Artist: Xulux / Kurjuus Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Split Cassette Tape / Split CD Year: 2024 Not only do both bands on this split hail from the same Finnish town of Jyväskylä, they are also both one-man bands venturing…
Artist: My Dying BrideCountry: United KingdomLabel: Nuclear BlastFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 My Dying Bride is a band with a special place in my heart. I remember first learning of the band during high school when a classmate was wearing…
While nobody would really claim that Brazilian Death Metal band Infamous Glory will be the next big thing, with ‘Algor Mortis’ they have definitely delivered a worthy piece of massive and heavy Death Metal. The album has a distinct echo…
Artist: Infamous Glory Country: Brazil Label: Black Hole Productions Formats: CD Year: 2024 Although Infamous Glory has been around already for quite a few years, in fact they are celebrating their 25th anniversary this year, I wouldn’t be surprised if…
Artist: Baphorator Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2024 After a self-released demo tape in 2023 this American duo returns with a half-hour debut LP through none other than Nuclear War Now! Productions. The label ever…
Artist: Regere Sinister Country: Finland Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2024 Regere Sinister, a band comprised of a duo who are also together in Ride For Revenge and Horse Latitudes and further have experience in such bands…
At the tail end of 2023 Iron Bonehead Productions served us with a nice little gem: Black Edifice’s first demo tape. It has been released in quite a small run of only 100 copies, so it might just be that…
Artist: BythosCountry: FinlandLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 The debut album of Bythos stood out for several reasons. For one, the seasoned veterans from the Finnish Black Metal scene that comprise the act had chosen a sound far away…
Artist: Hekseblad Country: USA Label: Hypnotic Dirge Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After a considerable amount of demo’s and EP’s that were released in the last couple of years, the American duo that together form Hekseblad thought it…
Artist: KrattiCountry: FinlandLabel: Signal RexFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 After releasing one of the best demos of 2023, the Finns in Kratti will return with their first full-length of the band’s carreer. To be released by Signal…
Artist: AtticCountry: GermanyLabel: Ván RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 Attic wasn’t exactly the first band to follow the path of of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. With the Danes spawning copcycats of varying degrees of quality ever since their pioneering…
Artist: Uttertomb Country: Chile Label: Pulverised Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After being around for well over a decade and with several EP’s and splits under their belts it was about time these Chileans Death Metallers came up…
Artist: Aberration Country: USA Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Aberration debuted in 2021 with a self-titled EP after which it remained quiet for a long time, not counting the Beherit cover that…
Artist: Ondfødt Country: Finland Label: Black Lion Records Formats: Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2024 With all due respect to both band and label, sometimes the logic eludes me a bit of what gets thrown on the market. One…
Artist: Candelabrum Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: LP Year: 2024 Two years after the release of ‘Nocturnal Trance’ through Hells Headbangers, the Portuguese flagship of Lo-Fi Black Metal returns with their fourth full-length album. Before we dive into a deeper analysis of the…
Artist: Necrophobic Country: Sweden Label: Century Media Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After the release of the ‘Death To All’-album in 2009 the future for Necrophobic never seemed brighter: a killer new record, a flawless back catalogue and a…
Artist: Arzhaabat Country: Czechia Label: Cosmic Cause Productions Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 After a demo tape, a single released on cassette and a full-length album, the prolific MBN returns with another Arzhaabat recording. This time an almost 24-minute EP that fits, at…
Artist: Order Of Nosferat Country: Finland / Germany Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 As enchanting and confusing the shapeshifting entity of a vampire can be, the same can be said about this…
Artist: Diabolic Oath Country: USA Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 The trio that together makes up Diabolic Oath has just delivered us something new to chew on, not all too long after…
Artist: Kalmankantaja / Somber WindsCountry: FinlandLabel: Misantropia RecordsFormats: Split CDYear: 2024 Shortly after the release of reimagined tracks from the 2014-2016 period, Kalmankantaja returns to the release front with the first new material of 2024 (although technically it was already…
Artist: Korpituli Country: Finland Label: Korpituli Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 ‘Pohjola’ is the third full-length album for the Finnish Black Metal band Korpituli, but honestly, if you have heard the bands previously released material,…
Artist: Conifère Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 After having released a demo and a split in 2020, Conifère went silent for a good couple of years. While many bands do release one album or EP after another,…
Artist: Therianthropophagus Country: Canada Label: Serpents Head Reprisal Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2024 This new Black/Death Metal band from Canada debuts with an EP that clocks just under 20 minutes, but musically leaves very little to the imagination. In the right Canadian…
Artist: Adversaire Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 This new 20-minute EP follows quickly after the release of this Canadian’s previous ‘Froid’-EP. With less than two weeks between them, I assume that all tracks on both releases were written and recorded…
Artist: Daedric Chamber Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 Daedric Chamber’s ‘Black Marsh Eternal’, the band’s fourth full-length album, felt like a prime example of the ‘new generation’ of contemporary (American) Black Metal. It portrayed the band,…
Although more or less recent bands like Tomb Mold, VoidCeremony, Miscreance and Sovereign are keeping the Death Metal scene of today a bit interesting, adventurous and overall volatile. It is mainly in those more outward-thinking niches that the best bands…
Artist: KalmankantajaCountry: FinlandLabel: Wolfspell RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 It has taken a couple of months, but with the release of ‘Varjosielu’ the first recording of Kalmankantaja of 2024 is finally here. This time around we aren’t presented with a new album,…
Artist: Vuosista Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo tape Year: 2024 ‘Kuilu’ might seem the first ever release for this Finnish Atmospheric Black Metal band, it is actually its second outing. Before switching to the name of ‘Vuosisasta’ the band…
That I have a knack for some nice and swampy Death Metal might not be a secret, but reality is that in the Death Metal scene of today there is not so much going on that really triggers me enough…
Artist: Immortal Hammer Country: Slovakia Label: Hexencave Productions / Murderous Music Production / Purity Through Fire / Werewolf Promotion Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 / 2024 Somewhere around the early to mid-00’s I developed a bit…
Artist: Khold Country: Norway Label: Soulseller Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 While I concluded my review for ‘Svartsyn’, Khold’s previous record, as being fodder for those who enjoy some non-adventurous Black Metal, it was also one of the…
Artist: Granitader Country: Germany Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: CD Year: 2024 As an analyst and close follower of the Black Metal scene in the past quarter of a century or so, it pleases me that, in recent years, I…
Artist: Bloodsoaked Visions Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Bloodsoaked Visions is a new musical entity of Vithnagh, who is also behind Blót and in Bartzabel. Apparently Vithnagh was not able to express all his musical…
Artist: Corpus Offal Country: USA Label: 20 Buck Spin Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Corpus Offal might be a new band at the Death Metal firmament, but its bandmembers for sure are no stranger to Extreme Metal in general and…