Altar Of Belial – Altar Of Belial [Demo]

Artist: Altar Of Belial Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Some time ago I ran into this rather mysterious one-man band. There’s very little information available, other than this is a solo-project that operates out of the…

Bentala – Anantabhoga [Demo]

Artist: Bentala Country: Indonesia Label: WolfKult Religion Format: Demo tape Year: 2025 It’s not every day that you come across a Black Metal band from Indonesia, but here we are. Bentala, nice to meet you! While it’s not entirely clear…

Deathhammer – Crimson Dawn

Artist: Deathhammer Country: Norway Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 When Deathhammer started to emerge from the underground, right after the release of the demos and with the first EP, ‘Forever Ripping Fast’…

Winterstorm – Australes Bosques Misantropicos [EP]

Artist: Winterstorm Country: Ecuador Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2025 With ‘Australes Bosques Misantropicos’ Winterstorm presents a new EP or single, with two new tracks that are set to whet our appetites. This is not a real EP that…

Occult Mountain – Wolven Dawn [Demo]

Artist: Occult Mountain Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 ‘Wolven Dawn’ is the third demo from this American one-man band in only a matter of weeks, in three months, to be exact. With the previous two demos,…

Guntmold – Sanctuary of Torn Flesh

Artist: Guntmold Country: Canada Label: Self-released Formats: Digital Year: 2025 It was just how it went in the 80’s. Thrash Metal was becoming the dominant force. Too popular and not heavy enough for some, with it came a boundless search…

Venus Star – Smokeless Fire

Artist: Venus Star Country: Finland Label: Terratur Possessions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 Earlier this year Terratur Possessions released ‘Smokeless Fire’, Venus Star’s sixth album, presented in an attractively designed cover. An album that ends a five-year silence of…

Ancient Death – Ego Dissolution

Artist: Ancient Death Country: USA Label: Profound Lore Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 After the release of ‘Sacred Vessel’, Ancient Death’s debut EP, there were lots of plans. This rather young American Death Metal band had its hopes…

Midnight – Steel, Rust And Disgust

Artist: Midnight Country: USA Label: Metal Blade Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 Although Midnight’s best days are pretty much over, coinciding with their move from Hells Headbangers Records to Metal Blade Records, Athenar still manages to release solid…

Gates Of Dawn – III Promo 2025

Artist: Gates Of Dawn Country: USA Label: Death Hymns Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 More or less simultaneously with the release of the split 7” EP with Sanguine Relic, this enigmatic American Black Metal act also released this 2-track promo…

Gjendød – Svekkelse

Artist: Gjendød Country: Norway Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 With a pace as menacing and relentless as their Black Metal, Gjendød returns with their latest full-length ‘Svekkelse’. Once again, the Norwegian three-headed serpent presents their sixth…

Nargothrond – Im Schatten Der Festung [Demo / Re-Release]

Artist: Nargothrond Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: LP Year: 2025 Although the extensive back catalog of Germany’s Narbentage Produktionen has repeatedly delved into the country’s history to unearth some forgotten gems, the label now seems to have turned it…

Nuctemeron – Rape From The Grave [7″ EP]

Artist: Nuctemeron Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2025 In recent years, German Black/Speed Metal band Nuctemeron has worked hard to build a solid reputation, and it’s almost impossible not to have come across their name somewhere…

Hyperdontia – Dormant Scourge [7″ EP]

Artist: Hyperdontia Country: Denmark Label: Desiccated Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2025 Although I followed the Danish Death Metal scene rather religiously when things started booming there around the 2010’s, over the years it brought us an…

Unleashed – Fire Upon Your Lands

Artist: Unleashed Country: Sweden Label: Century Media Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 In some of my previous reviews I already touched upon it, the way how you perceive an album (or a band as a whole) has not only…

Blight Psalm – Veneration Of Filthbone Grace [EP]

Artist: Blight Psalm Country: Spain Label: Profaner Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2025 Blight Psalm seems to be the result of the involved musicians’ desire to do something different from Death Metal-oriented music. These Spaniards are also active in bands…

Sempervirens – Sword Ferns [Demo]

Artist: Sempervirens Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Sempervirens, which loosely translates to “Evergreen”, was founded a few years ago as a duo with a seemingly aim to create some Black Metal that’s both raw and atmospheric.…

Gam – Valravnen [EP]

Artist: Gam Country: Denmark Label: Résilience Formats: CD EP Year: 2025 After Gam’s amazing 2022 ‘Hvisken Fra Skyggernes Vrå’-demo and the following full-length album, ‘Alt Hans Væsen’, from 2023, that for me came out of left field, I was eagerly awaiting some new sign of…

Cerebral Curse – Promo ’25

Artist: Cerebral Curse Country: Spain Label: Rotted Life Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 ‘Promo ‘25’ is the first feat of this Spanish duo, who have already been featured on these pages before in their other bands like Rotten Cavern, Siegehammer and Blight Psalm.…

Chalice Of Eden – Invoking The Spirit of Death [Demo]

Artist: Chalice Of Eden Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Only a mere three weeks after the release of ‘The Black Serpents Lament’, Chalice Of Eden already returns with a second demo. Maybe we shouldn’t be that surprised, as the main composed…

Temora – Temora [Demo]

Artist: Temora Country: Czechia Label: Filth Junkies Records Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 With this self-titled debut demo, this young Czech band presents itself to the world. Although the Filth Junkies Records label is involved, a physical release seems not…

Nidernes – The Abyss Beckons [Compilation]

Artist: Nidernes Country: Portugal Label: Dark Adversary Productions Formats: CD Year: 2025 Whether desired or not, Nidernes was part of the exploding (Raw) Black Metal scene of the late 2010s, in which his home country Portugal proved to be an…

Fields Of Agony – Rehearsal Promo

Artist: Fields Of Agony Country: United Kingdom Label: Hettend Tapes Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Although I had never heard of Hettend Tapes before recently, this collective/label has a number of interesting bands under its wing. For me, it was…

Kasturn – Rehearsal II [Demo]

Artist: Kasturn Country: United Kingdom Label: Hettend Tapes Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 After an exceptionally good sophomore record, the 2024-released ‘The Torchbearer Fades’, the trio that is Kasturn returns with a new rehearsal tape. With another round of tracks…

Zkywbrezdreb – Remnants Of Human Ash [Demo]

Artist: Zkywbrezdreb Country: USA Label: Elf Eggs Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 With seemingly little effort, the anonymous figure behind projects such as Red Right Hand Of Plague, Kos, Thirsting Ampoule, Vëřťžîmbrÿġțžûmşțřě and Great Tribulation, as well as the Elf Eggs…

Grieving Mirror – Opulence And Grandeur [Demo]

Artist: Grieving Mirror Country: USA Label: Neuro Plastic Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Either scavenging around on Bandcamp, YouTube, Spotify, digging around through distro lists and webshops or following the much appreciated tips and hints from people whose nose for…

Sarastus – Agony Eternal

Artist: Sarastus Country: Finland Label: Dominance of Darkness Records Format: LP / CD Year: 2025 Five years have passed since the last release by Finland’s Sarastus, even six if you count the time since the last full-length. Time that did…

Mystic Blood – Mystic Blood [EP]

Artist: Mystic Blood Country: Finland Label: Out Of The Dungeon Formats: CD EP Year: 2025 Dark Divinator and Haarniska seem overflowing with ideas. Mystic Blood is their latest cooperation, after also featuring together in the excellent Kerzenlicht alongside their other…

Abominablood – Subterranean Prophecy [EP]

Artist: Abominablood Country: Argentina Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2025 With quite an extensive discography, existing out of several demos, EP’s, split releases and three full-length albums, Argentinian Abominablood has increasingly perfected its take on the Black/Death Metal genre.…

Serpent Gate – Serpent Gate [Demo]

Artist: Serpent Gate Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 It is true that the things you grow up with always keep a certain charm, no matter your current age. Things tend to make more impact and help…

Hibernal Abyss – Demo MMXXV

Artist: Hibernal Abyss Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 ‘Demo MMXXV’ is the first demo of Hibernal Abyss, a new Raw Black Metal band from the United Kingdom that is apparently led by multi-instrumentalist Atavistic Passage,…

Efermus – Reino De Todos Os Monstros [EP]

Artist: Efermus Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Format: CDR EP Year: 2025 With a considerable output over the past four-and-a-bit years, it might not be surprising that Portuguese Efermus was featured on these pages before. In fact, the last year,…

Satans Blade – Satanic Sacrifice [Demo]

Artist: Satans Blade Country: Canada Label: Defiled Altar Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 In times when we have become accustomed and spoiled, consciously or not, to the convenience of having all music at our fingertips and receiving our promos digitally,…

Wisteria – Haunted By Memories [Demo]

Artist: Wisteria Country: USA Label: Lampshade Tapes Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Wisteria, a one-man Black Metal band from Cleveland, Ohio, came to life early 2024 with a debut full-length called ‘Nightfall’. With its serene cover art and expressive title,…

Witchmoon – Eternal Winds Of Death

Artist: Witchmoon Country: USA Label: Death Hymns / Lampshade Tapes Formats: LP Year: 2025 Personally I ran into Witchmoon with the split LP’s with Lampir and Hand Of Glory from 2018 and 2019 respectively. Basically the peak of the madness surrounding the Raw/Lo-Fi…

Burning Winds – Hell And Damnation

Artist: Burning Winds Country: USA Label: Werewolf Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2025 In these times when everything is readily available and bands release one album after another, when transience and superficiality reign supreme, when attention spans seem to last no longer than…

Luminous Transfixion – Before The Invocation Of Straahl

Artist:Luminous Transfixion Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: CDR Year: 2025 Well over four years after the debut album of the somewhat mysterious project of Luminous Transfixion, we are, more or less out of the blue, treated with its successor. Even if you have…

Mooncitadel – Stardawn Usurper

Artist: Mooncitadel Country: Finland Label: Out Of The Dungeon Formats: CD Year: 2025 Finland’s Mooncitadel has continued to impress me, from their earliest beginnings as Watcher’s Abyss and Empire of Tharaphita to their first recordings with Mooncitadel, and their most…

Grand Bewitchment – Sigils Of Steel [EP]

Artist: Grand Bewitchment Country: USA Label: Damnation’s Edge Productions Formats: 7″ EP / CD EP Year: 2025 After having put out a demo tape and a split tape in 2021 and 2023 respectively, both released through the band’s own Damnation’s…

…and Oceans – The Regeneration Itinerary

Artist: …and Oceans Country: Finland Label: Season of Mist Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 When I first ran into …and Oceans, sometime around the turn of the millennium, I was completely blown away with the band’s debut album, ‘Dynamic…