Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: BloodthornCountry: NorwayLabel: GoatowaRexFormats: 12” DemoYear: 2024 While the current Black Metal scene from Trondheim is still drawing firm attention, the Norwegian city has an equally interesting and to some extent influential past. To commemorate that contribution to second wave…
Artist: Sex Blasphemy Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2025 You don’t necessarily need to be a seasoned metal veteran or completed your metal studies at the Miskatonic University to make an educated guess of where this is going, musically…
Artist: Armoured Angel Country: Australia Label: Hell’s Headbangers Records Formats: LP Year: 2024 Before the band would go on and gain some cult status as one of Australia’s first Extreme Metal bands with quite some demos that influenced the first generation of…
Artist: Rotting Country: Canada Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 While Hells Headbangers is primarily known for its releases out of the Black/Death/Thrash Metal pond (preferably a mixture of all that), the people behind the label do have…
A year ago I was blown away by the first demo of the then totally unknown to me Haan Valar. Not because of its brutality, heaviness or speed, but because of the authenticity that ‘Devotion To Xemzara’ exhibited. Much closer…
Artist: Wiatyk Country: Poland Label: Diabolical Vitriol / Pro Morte Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 This second demo tape from Wiatyk, originally released in 1996, was simultaneously reissued with the band’s first effort. And while ‘Mysticism’, from 1995, showed a band in a blueprint…
Artist: WiatykCountry: PolandLabel: Diabolical Vitriol / Pro MorteFormats: Demo TapeYear: 2024 I won’t pretend I knew Wiatyk before I laid eyes on the recent reissues of the band’s only two demo tapes (by Diabolical Vitriol and Pro Morte). In my defense, the two…
Artist: Mortem Agmen Country: Germany Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2025 From the band’s very first step, the ‘Where Life Ends Forever’-demo from April 2023 the German Black Metal band Mortem Agmen has been able to capture my attention.…
Over 20 years ago I spoke with Acheron’s Vincent Crowley for Vampire-Magazine. Back then it was mainly in connection with the then just released ‘Tribute To The Devil’s Music’-album consisting solely of covers of bands like Kiss, Iron Maiden, Mercyful…
Artist: Cultus / Pest Country: The Netherlands / Germany Label: Heidens Hart Records / Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: Split LP Year: 2024 With strong ties between bands and labels, with multi-instrumentalist Arjan being found in Cultus as well as Pest and…
Artist: Sanctvs / Sotherion Country: Canada / France Label: Sepulchral Productions Formats: Split CD Year: 2025 Not all too long after Sotherion’s debut full-length, released last year by W.T.C. Productions, the French one-man band seemed to have started working on new material…
Artist: Kiloton Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Almost simultaneously with the ‘Swine Slice’-EP Kiloton also assumed we, poor humans, were ready for even a full-length release of this rotten and totally degenerated Black Noise. Even if ‘Ruine…
Artist: Kiloton Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 Before briefly calling it a day, the enigmatic Kiloton released this 20-minute EP, quickly followed by the project’s first and so far only full-length album. While Kiloton has proved…
Artist: Degraved Country: USA Label: Grip Of Darkness Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Admittedly, I wasn’t overly impressed with Degraved’s first two outings, the ‘Exhumed Remnants’-demo from 2020 and the ‘Whispered Morbidity’ EP from 2023. Although both saw releases through…
Artist: Veitsi Country: Finland Label: River Valley Cult Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Veitsi, one of the bands from the River Valley Cult collective, is going through a development quite contrary to what is commonly seen within metal’s confinements. If…
Artist: Unblessing Country: USA Label: Hooded Demon Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 With three demos under its belt from 2017, 2020 and 2022, of which all three saw a reissue via Poland’s Unpure Records, it took Unblessing a few…
Artist: Vampyreign Country: USA Label: Red River Family Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2024 Although ‘Throne Of Sanguine Eclipse’ is said to be already recorded back in 2019, it only saw the dark of night in the dying days of…
Artist: Shadowdances Country: Lithuania Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP Year: 2025 Life can hit you right in the face in the most wonderful ways at unexpected moments. For me, in these times of war and general polarization, or just…
It may not be the most accessible Black Metal niche genre, nor is much of it really worthwhile, but occasionally something pops up that sparks my fascination with the more electronically-inclined Black Metal. Although Blackstream was formed back in 2005,…
Artist: Crucifixation Country: USA Label: Down With The Most High Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2024 The mind of the ever-prolific Tom, who goes under various pseudonyms, spawned this old style Black/Death Metal project called Crucifixation that debuted with…
Artist: Falsum Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 If I am well informed, this new one-man band is helmed by the drummer of Black Hurst, a band that I have been following because of their original and…
Artist: Atavistic Passage Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Introducing a new band with zero info is not the easiest task. Other than that this anonymous entity hails from somewhere in the North West of England…
Obviously, it is no longer the case that for good Black Metal you necessarily have to go to Norway. Over the past few years, Chile, for example, has claimed an increasingly prominent place in the international Black Metal scene. One…
Artist: Nocturnal Deviancy Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Just before the band’s split with Drowning The Light, Nocturnal Deviancy released this little demo, made available as a digital stream only (at least so far). With the…
Artist: Annihilation Cult Country: USA Label: Profaner Records / Unpure Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 At the end of 2023 Annihilation Cult came up with a digital demo of just over 15 minutes of merciless Black/Death Metal…
Artist: Gnipahålan Country: Sweden Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: CD Year: 2024 At the very frayed ends of 2024 the overly-prolific Swartadauþuz comes with yet another record. I haven’t really counted his work this year, but at the beginning of…
Artist: Ancient Torment Country: USA Label: Old Pain Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2025 Although this freshly released new EP was preceded by an EP, a demo, a split cassette and a compilation tape, the band never really caught enough attention…
Artist: Dryas Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Although Dryad could have several meanings, based on the song titles and mainly the wintry music, it seems to be derived from the term that divides the last…
Some things are worth waiting for. You can use some clichés here about cheese and wine that get better if you leave them for a while, but we are talking about Australian Black/Death Metal with a touch of Thrash: Destruktor.…
Artist: Mystic Veil Country: USA Label: Altare Productions Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2024 After the one-track ‘What Misery Thou Art Fallen’-demo from 2022 and a split tape with one of their other bands (Erstwhile) the American duo that together make…
Artist: Necrosorcery Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 As a jaded old fart, you rarely get truly impressed by new music (that’s different from enjoying good stuff!), so it’s extra pleasing to come across something that really opens…
Artist: Throne Of Charlemagne Country: USA Label: Diabolical Vitriol Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Charlemagne’s name obviously resonates through history as one of the most powerful rulers of ancient Europe, the grand emperor of the post-Roman Empire-era. When choosing a…
Artist: Evokthum Country: Brazil Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Someone even half-versed in the wonderful world of the Bestial Black/Death Metal scene will have no difficulty in already getting some idea of where this is going to, simply…
Artist: A Dead PoemCountry: BrazilLabel: Personal RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 You can’t accuse the Brazillian band A Dead Poem of hiding their inspirations. And indeed, it was Marlon Combat’s aim all along when he formed the band in 2023 to create…
Artist: Barathrum Country: Finland Label: Hammer Of Hate Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 There was a time in history where Barathrum was a band that was only looked down upon. Its primitive and unpolished character was something that…
Artist: Satanic WarmasterCountry: FinlandLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 No announcements, no preview tracks, nothing: like a bolt from the blue, Werwolf just dropped the newest Satanic Warmaster full-length. Created in total isolation, ‘Exultation of Cruelty’ is meant as a return…
Artist: Evil Deceiver Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Released in just 15 copies and only distributed to people within the close circles around the band… You can definitely say that this self-titled debut demo of Evil…
Artist: Rotten Moon Country: Finland Label: Ancien Culte Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 2022’s ‘The Endless Church’ demo by Finnish one-man Black Metal band intrigued me quite a bit, the Lo-Fi production and the rough-edged guitars matched perfectly with the…
Artist: Cursed Penetrator Country: Finland Label: Unpure Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Early this year I reviewed Cursed Penetrator’s first digital demo, a solid and entertaining exercise of primal and rotten First Wave Black Metal, pretty much in the vein of early…
Artist: Order Of Nosferat Country: Finland / Germany Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 In good Order Of Nosferat tradition, 2024 also brings us two full-length albums, albeit narrowly. ‘The Absence Of Grace’…
Artist: DjevelCountry: NorwayLabel: Aftermath MusicFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 Ever since their beginning, Djevel has brought an ode to the Norwegian Black Metal of the 90’s, and in particular the more atmospheric likes of Gehenna, Ulver, Borknagar…
Artist: Salacious GodsCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Wolfkult ReligionFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 Thirty years of Salacious Gods. In that time, the band brought us four full-length albums, most of which were released in the late 90’s and early 00’s before…
Artist: Efermus Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Format: Demo tape Year: 2024 Just a few months after the release of the band’s first full-length album, ‘A Ira Do Tempo’ (Altare Productions), Efermus returns with something new. This time it is…
Artist: GrafjammerCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Zwaertgevegt / Black Tapes / Folter RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2025 Necrorock returns! The Dutch perverts of Grafjammer are back in early 2025 with full-length number four, ‘De Tyfus, de Teerling’. It took…
Artist: Ancient North Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 With ‘Winter Holocaust’ the prolific Ancient North arrives at its 5th full-length album and second one in 2024. That in itself is not even that unique these days, but…
About two years ago I accidentally stumbled upon the Mexican band Necrohammer, because I have a deeply rooted adoration for old and ramshackle 80’s metal, from Venom and Hellhammer to Living Death and Sodom, it was love at first sight.…
Artist: Itxinako Atxak Country: Spain Label: Altare Productions Format: Demo tape Year: 2024 From the ever-elusive stables of Altare Productions comes this new Spanish acts Itxinako Atxak. Although I believe they prefer to be seen as Basques, an issue that…
Artist: Levifer Country: Peru Label: Werewolf Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 That Werewolf Records is no longer looking within its own Finnish borders seems more and more a fact, in recent years we have already…