Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Runespell Country: Australia Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 While Runespell started out as a solo band of Nightwolf (mostly known for his work in Eternum), it was expanded to a full-fledged band in 2022. This…
Artist: Coffins / Gravavgrav Country: Japan Label: Lycanthropic Chants Formats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2024 For the revered Japenese Death Metal band Coffins is this split 7” EP the latest chapter in a long tradition of splitting EP’s, this time…
Artist: Front Beast Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 Anyone who has been following the underground Black Metal scene in the last quarter of a century must at least once have stumbled upon Germany’s Front Beast,…
Artist: The True Werwolf / As Sahar Country: Finland / Malaysia Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2024 Finnish Black Metal stalwart The True Werwolf started 2024 with two split 7” EP’s, a tradition that the band holds…
Artist: Iron Firmament Country: USA Label: Wergild Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 ‘Empyrean Blood’ is Iron Firmament’s second offering, after last July’s debut EP ‘Keepeater’. That EP already introduced us to an interesting piece of Raw Black Metal that sounded…
Artist; UhripuuCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2024 For the ancient inhabitants of Western and Eastern Finland, the Uhripuu was a sacrificial tree where they made sacrifices to either their ancestors or the earth elves and gods who maintain the vitality of…
Artist: Drape Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Drape is a new Black Metal band without any other information than it is apparently coming from the USA. But, since we are here for the music and not…
Artist: Ectospire Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 Almost exactly a year ago I came across Ectospire’s debut demo, a tape that stuck with me a for a while because of a vital mix of both European…
Artist: Drekavac / Orgy Of Carrion Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage / Satanik Requiem Formats: Split Cassette / Split LP Year: 2024 After a quick start in their early career, Orgy Of Carrion produced a considerable amount output of a…
Artist: Black Hurst Country: USA Label: Ixiol Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 In my review of the band’s 2023 demo tape I compared Black Hurst mainly with the occult sort of Black Metal of the likes of Varathron and…
Artist: Grave Alter Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Last year I stumbled upon Grave Alter’s self-titled first demo, a 3-tracker that showed a certain appreciation of Mortician-styled gore-drenched Death Metal. Now, exactly one year later, also…
Artist: Midoran Country: French Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Midoran is the brainchild of Athäl’Zäckar, a French multi-instrumentalist who likes to keep a steep and steady working pace; having started in 2022 he already spawned no less than…
Artist: Puteraeon Country: Sweden Label: Emanzipation Records Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Personally I have always categorized Puteraeon as one of the more interesting Swedish Death Metal bands that do no belong to the classics from the early 90’s. Don’t ask…
Artist: Merrimack Country: France Label: Season Of Mist Underground Activists Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Personally I am always fascinated by the difference in appreciation certain bands receive. Sometimes it feels like even the deepest analyses are not able…
Artist: Fessus Country: Austria Label: Self-Released / Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 / 2024 At the beginning of Autumn 2023, the rather fresh Austrian Death Metal outfit Fessus self-released their debut demo tape, ‘Pilgrims…
Artist: Midnight Country: USA Label: Metal Blade Records Formats: LP /Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Over the course of the last, let’s say, ten years Midnight is one of Heavy Metal’s most revered rising stars. Not only has Midnight…
After having missed the fact that the band released a 2-track EP in 2017, I was surprised to see Deviser returning with a new full-length album. Yet, it was not so much the sudden return of the band that really…
Artist: KêresCountry: FinlandLabel: His WoundsFormats: LP / DigitalYear: 2024 Just a few months after the simultaneous release of a new Kêres EP and full-length we find ourselves with yet another album. This time presented under the banner of His Wounds,…
Artist: FaidraCountry: SwedenLabel: Northern Silence ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 It seems that in the past year the number of new Atmospheric Black Metal bands has been through the roof. Or rather, it feels that the term…
Artist: Viharukous Country: Finland Label: Rat Covenant Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 After four demos, recorded in the timeframe between 2018 and 2021, this Finnish duo finally breaks a rather long silence with this latest offering, a 4-track EP (including…
Artist: Loferogh Country: Switzerland Label: Unpure Records Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2023 What better way to end a year than to release a compilation of both previous demos. That is what the Black Metal band Loferogh and Unpure Records must…
Artist: Övervåld Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 I am sure you recognize it. Sometimes it feels inevitable to use Google Translate to clear something, but when you see the outcome, it makes so much sense that you…
Artist: BergsvridenCountry: SwedenLabel: Self-releasedFormat: Digital EPYear: 2023 When Trollmania formed Bergsvriden in 2013, he was soon joined by fellow Midvintersblot members Trollpung and Öltomten. Not entirely abandoning the Folk Metal sound of their other band, with Bergsvriden they aimed for…
Artist: Posthumous Regurgitation Country: USA Label: Headsplit Records Formats: Digital Year: 2024 After two EP’s and a split, released through various labels in the late 2010’s, the Americans of Posthumous Regurgitation finally return with some new material. With these previously…
Artist: Nuclearhammer Country: Canada Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: 12″ EP Year: 2023 Not counting the 90-minute compilation that was released in 2018 (and reissued in 2021 and 2022 on a double cassette release and double CD respectively), ‘Xaos…
Artist: Mortem Agmen Country: Germany Label: Nachzehrer Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 In Spring last year I was surprised by the great demo of a new German Black Metal band called Mortem Agmen, the haunting and sinister…
Artist: White DeathCountry: Finland / UruguayLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2023 When White Death released their eponymous debut album in 2017, the collective consisting of renowned musicians from the Finnish Black Metal scene had already shown to take their time to…
Artist: Vincent Crowley Country: USA Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 It feels rather pointless to write an introduction on the works of Vincent Crowley. Not only has the man a much discussed and rather notorious history…
Artist: Maul Country: USA Label: 20 Buck Spin Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 After having recorded a large amount of demos and (split) EP’s, the success of Maul’s debut album, ‘Seraphic Punishment’, didn’t come quite as a surprise. The bands…
Artist: Pyra Country: Italy Label: Immortal Frost Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 In autumn 2022 the Italian Black Metal band Pyra introduced itself with their self-titled 5-track EP, which positioned the band in that smothering twilight zone between…
Artist: Dripping Decay Country: USA Label: Satanik Royalty Records Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2024 Dripping Decay’s ‘Watching You Rot’-demo from 2021 was received well by fans who like their Death Metal dirty and old school, it had…
Artist: Drowned Country: Germany Label: Sepulchral Voice Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although the band has been formed all the way back in 1993, German Death Metal band Drowned has been different from all of their peers ever…
Artist: ÛngrûnCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: New Era ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 Friesland may be a province situated in the north of the Netherlands, but in a lot of ways it can be seen as a country within…
Artist: Witchcraft Country: Finland Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2023 In the wake of bands like Blasphemy, Beherit, early Impaled Nazarene, Archgoat, Profanatica and the likes came a quite a loyal following of both fans and bands…
Artist: Necrowretch Country: France Label: Season Of Mist Underground Activists Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Necrowretch has been amongst my favourite bands from the Old School Death Metal resurgence from around 2010. Yet, being completely different…
Artist: Departure Chandelier Country: Canada Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although the band already released a demo and a split 7” EP (with the underrated Dutch Black Metal act Blood Tyrant), Departure Chandelier came…
Artist: CommandCountry: SwedenLabel: jawbreaker RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 When in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s the old school Death Metal scene was rejuvenated with fresh blood, bands from Sweden once again played their part. In…
Artist: Cursed Excruciation / Funerealm Gloom Country: Brazil / Finland Label: Unpure Records Formats: Split 10” EP / Split Tape / Split CD Year: 2023 Unpure Records, a label that is always bringing the best of the worst. The label…
Artist: Podridão / Convulsive Country: Brazil Label: Iron Fortress Records / Iron, Blood And Death Corporation Formats: Split Tape / Split CD Year: 2024 ‘Convulsively Rotteness’ brings together two of Brazil’s finest Death Metal bands that operate in the more…
Artist: Lullaby Country: Brazil Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2023 Back in the mid-80’s to the early 90’s the American Wild Rags Records label was one of the leading institutes for extreme metal, especially within the borders…
Artist: Ignis MortisCountry: FinlandLabel: Hammer of Hate RecordsFormats: MCDYear: 2024 The origins of Ignis Mortis lie in Evil Might, a Helsinki based band formed in 2019. While it is unclear what the current status of the band is, the departure…
In the first month of the year the Dark Descent Released ‘Altered Realities’, the debut album of the Norwegian band Sovereign, really knocked me off my feet. Its genuine blend of Death Metal and Thrash Metal, the late 80’s way,…
Artist: Warorath Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 After having been formed in 2019, it took this Finnish Black Metal band a few years to come up with their first recordings. Yet, in 2023 the band came out…
Artist: Burning Winds Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Unpure Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 Originally this compilation LP was released by the Polish label Unpure Records in Spring of 2021, specialised in…
Artist: Squelch Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Squelch, a new Death Metal duo from sunny California, is offering the world their debut demo in the form of ‘Eternal Hiss Of Hatred’. And, with only half an…
Artist: Hulder Country: USA Label: 20 Buck Spin Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 One of Black Metal’s brightest rising stars is without a doubt Hulder. Already with the band’s earliest output Hulder, the only sole behind…
Artist: Nihil Invocation Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 If anything, Nihil Invocation proved to be one of the most intense Black Metal bands out of the Punkish, Folkish, Ildjarnian school. The minimalist, raw and crude way…
Even though new genres are always being invented, there are always plenty of bands who cannot suppress their urge to experiment and hypes follow each other in quick succession, fortunately there are also plenty of bands who want nothing to…