Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2023 As a fan of Australian Black Metal act Drowning The Light, it is not hard to get spoilt, in fact, you only have to blink a few times or Azgorh already has something…
Artist: MalignamentCountry: FinlandLabel: Primitive ReactionFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 Formed in 2019 by Grond of White Death and P.J. of Morgal and ex-Armour, Finland’s Malignament released their first demo in the same year. Most reviews, including the one on this…
Artist: AssumptionCountry: ItalyLabel: Everlasting Spew RecordsFormats: LP, CDYear: 2022 The 2018 released album ‘Absconditus’ from the Italian Doom/Death Metal band Assumption was described by a VM-Underground colleague as Doom/Death effort that has a lot to offer and compared it to bands like diSEMBOWELMENT, Winter and…
Artist: XeperCountry: ItalyLabel: Soulseller RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 Xeper, now operating out of Stavanger, Norway, but originally founded in Italy, released their fourth album last year through Dutch Soulseller Records. Though ‘Ad Numen Satanae’ is indeed the band’s fourth…
Artist: Gorgasm Country: USA Label: Brutal Mind Formats: CD Year: 2022 When it comes to the more brutal sort of Death Metal with a distinct technical slant, there are very few bands that come close to the ingenuity of Gorgasm…
Artist: SubOrbital Country: Germany Label: War Anthem Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 Besides those classic gory and anti-religious themes, there’s more and more bands choosing a different path. Cosmic-themed Death Metal is no longer something that can be considered a…
Artist: Graveater Country: Estonia Label: Filth Junkies Records / Headsplit Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 Graveater is a new band from Estonia consisting of two members that gained their experience in bands such as Sküllfükk SS, Degeneratör and Ziegenhorn.…
Artist: Nazghor Country: Sweden Label: The Wild Hunt Formats: CD Year: 2022 Swedish Black Metal band Nazghor was founded in 2012 and have been releasing six albums from 2013 to 2017, which made them one of the most prolific Swedish…
Artist: PureCountry: SwitzerlandLabel: Obscure Abhorrence Productions / Onism Productions / Satanath RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 Despite a fairly lengthy history that started in 2013 and brought forth four full-length albums, the Swiss one-man band Pure mostly spent the early years of its existence…
Artist: OrderCountry: NorwayLabel: Listenable RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 A superficial glance at the band Order shows an entity that was founded in Norway in 2013. It also reveals that their 2021 album ‘The Gospel’ is their second album, following a 2016…
Artist: AskeregnCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Some years ago, it felt like a true achievement to obtain Terratur Possessions releases. Not because they were limited in quantities or because they lacked distribution. Simply because…
Artist: MimoriumCountry: FinlandLabel: Korpituli Productions / Spread Evil ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 In 2022, the Finnish band Mimorium was ready to unleash it’s third opus unto the world. The second album, ‘Blood of Qayin’, received quite…
Artist: BlodtårCountry: SwedenLabel: Nordvis ProduktionFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2021 Around the turn of the year, the Swedish Black Metal band Blodtår released their self-titled debut EP, with the CD version by the very end of last year and…
Artist: Sepulchral Rites Country: Chile Label: Dunkelheit Produktionen Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2022 Last year the Chilean, all-female Sepulchral Rites released their debut EP ‘Death And Bloody Ritual’ through Germany’s Dunkelheit Produktionen, and with their regressive sort…
Artist: Hellish Country: Chile Label: Dying Victims Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Earlier this year the Chilean Thrash Metal band Hellish already released a sneak preview to their new album in the form of a digital 2-track EP.…
Artist: AlburnumCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Babylon Doom Cult RecordsFormats: Cassette CD / CD EPYear: 2022 The Dutch band Alburnum is a relatively new act from the ever-fertile Black Metal scene of the city of Utrecht. Like many (very) local scenes, a…
Artist: Godkiller Country: Monaco Label: Debemur Morti Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 With its first two demo tapes the one-man act Godkiller from Monaco caused quite a stir in the Black Metal underground. Not only did it leave…
Artist: Nocturnis Country: Greece Label: Black Sunset Formats: CD Year: 2022 After an independently released EP in 2020, the young German band Nocturnis returns with a full-length album released through Black Sunset, a division of the German MDD Records label.…
Artist: Skepticism Country: Finland Label: Svart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 One of the longest running extreme Doom Metal bands definitely is Skepticism. Together with their Finnish compatriots and peers of Thergothon, Skepticism singlehandedly helped shape the Funeral…
Artist: OrphiqueCountry: CanadaLabel: Sepulchral ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2022 The Black Metal scene in Québec, Canada, has grown out to be one of the most respected, high quality scenes to spawn across the globe. Owing its name to a Forteresse album, the…
Artist: UnleashedCountry: SwedenLabel: Napalm RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 By the end of last year, one of the most renowned Swedish Death Metal bands released their fourteenth album, proving once again that Unleashed definitely belong to The Immortals. While a…
Artist: Caedes CruentaCountry: GreeceLabel: Helter Skelter RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 The Greek Black Metal scene has never been as flooded by bands and releases as the Norwegian or Swedish scenes. Those Scandinavian scenes had so many…
Artist: Blut Aus NordCountry: FranceLabel: Debemur Morti ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 One of the longest running French Black Metal bands definitely is Blut Aus Nord. Having its roots way back in 1993, then initially formed as Vlad and released two really…
Artist: Owls Woods GravesCountry: PolandLabel: Malignant VoicesFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 The Polish band Owls Woods Graves was established in 2015 by E.V.T. and The Fall. At that time, both members were part of Medico Peste, but anno 2022 both…
Artist: OrlokCountry: FinlandLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2021 Werewolf Records presents the second album of the band Orlok entitled ‘The Dark Knell’. Formed in Lappeenranta, Finland in 2008, the band is a solo-project by none other than Grav Werwolf. You may…
Artist: Ablaze My SorrowCountry: SwedenLabel: Black Lion RecordsFormats: 12″ EP, CD EPYear: 2023 To my mind, Ablaze My Sorrow has always been one of those bands that missed the boat. Deeply rooted in the melodic Swedish Death Metal scene, the…
Artist: Protector Country: Germany Label: High Roller Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 The history of Protector is a rather messy one, with lots of band members getting in and out of the band and also…
Artist: KrolokCountry: SlovakiaLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 I remember the artwork for ‘Flying Above Ancient Ruins’ catching my eye in one of the distros that I regularly check. As if that wasn’t enough, finding out that the band…
Artist: KrolokCountry: SlovakiaLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 With the signing of the Slovakian band Krolok to Osmose Productions for their new album ‘Funeral Winds & Crimson Sky’, both parties also decided to re-release a large part of the…
Artist: Graceless Country: The Netherlands Label: Into It Records / Raw Skull Records Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 Dutch Death Metal outfit Graceless have been a band that has received quite some exposure over the recent…
Artist: Imha TarikatCountry: GermanyLabel: Lupus LoungeFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 In the review for ‘Sternenberster’, the previous Imha Tarikat album, from 2020 I already explained that I had the feeling the band never really got the attention the band deserves.…
Artist: Nightfall Country: Greece Label: Season Of Mist Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 Last summer the Greek Melodic Black/Death Metal band released this digital 2-track EP which they recorded live at the Gagarin Club in Athens in November 2021. Both…
Artist: Nightfall Country: Greece Label: Season Of Mist Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 Within the enigmatic Greek Black Metal scene Nightfall has always been a little of an outcast, both in terms of personnel as in the way they…
Artist: Grave Infestation Country: Canada Label: Invictus Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Old School, rotten, infectious Death Metal from the grave, that’s what this four-piece Canadian band is offering you. And if you have been reading VM-Underground for…
Artist: Grave Infestation Country: Canada Label: Invictus Productions Formats: LP Year: 2022 To commemorate the release of Grave Infestation’s first full-length album, Invictus Productions also released this compilation LP (so far only released on vinyl) of the Canadian’s first two…
Artist: Hate ForestCountry: UkraineLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Out of nowhere, Hate Forest returned from the dead in 2020 with ‘Hour of the Centaur’, another showcase of the typical untamed Black Metal aggression bottled up…
Artist: Blood / IncantationCountry: Germany / USALabel: Hells Headbangers RecordsFormats: Split 7″ EPYear: 2022 This is the sort of split EP that you knew was coming, I can imagine the chuckle the label and bands had when working out the…
Artist: WitchmasterCountry: PolandLabel: Agonia RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 It was during the early 00’s that I first ran into the Polish Black/Thrash Metal band Witchmaster. I am not entirely sure, but at one time I got…
Artist: AgathodaimonCountry: GermanyLabel: Napalm RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 From the mid 90’s to the first few years of the new millennium, the German Melodic (or Symphonic, if you prefer) Black Metal band released some decent albums, of which especially…
Artist: Eye Of Purgatory Country: Sweden Label: Transcending Obscurity Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 Just when I thought I had reviewed enough of Rogga Johansson’s releases this year, having spent quite some words on a fair share of…
Artist: GrafjammerCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Black Tapes / Folter Records / RabauwFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2020 Sometimes things get lost. But some things that are too old and too cold should not be forgotten… no, I’m not talking…
Artist: Stormruler Country: USA Label: Napalm Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 While I will forever respect Napalm Records for their amazing pioneering work for the development of (extreme) metal, I also regularly scratch the back of my head…
Artist: Grymmstalt Country: Chile / Ecuador Label: Mahamvantara Arts Formats: Demo tape Year: 2022 Grymmstalt is yet another band of the ever-prolific Lord Valtgryftåke. This time the Chilean multi-instrumentalist teamed up with Ecuadorian vocalist Wampyric Strigoi, who also tends to…
Artist: Grymmstalt Country: Chile / Ecuador Label: Signal Rex Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 Not too longer after the release of the band’s single demo tape, they are presenting their first full-length album through Signal Rex.…
Artist: GeistlichtCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-releasedFormats: DigitalYear: 2022 In September of 2022, Geistlicht’s debut release ‘Hidden in the Mists’ pleasantly surprised me with beautiful artwork but most of all, a great album filled with atmospheric Black Metal. Possibly equally surprising, the band…
Artist: Hell Militia Country: France Label: Season Of Mist Underground Activists Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 No less than ten years have passed since Hell Militia’s last album, the rather underappreciated and often misunderstood ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ from 2012. As…
Artist: DawnCountry: SwedenLabel: Cosmic Key CreationsFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2022 The creation of the Swedish band Dawn dates back to 1986, when guitar player Fredrik Söderberg formed the band as a solo project. When he moved to another city and recruited…
Artist: TheudhoCountry: BelgiumLabel: Heidens Hart RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Founded as early as 2002, Theudho is currently one of the longest running Belgian Black Metal bands, and with its rather impressive output, the (now) one-man project left quite a mark on…