Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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…
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: 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…
Artist: Atomic Goatcrime Country: Ecuador Label: Anti-Human Productions Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 Atomic Goatcrime is a new one-man band from Ecuador, it presents its first effort, ‘Atomic Goat Exterminium!’ through Canadian label of all things perverted, Anti-Human Productions. Four…
Artist: Tírad Dûr Country: USA Label: Sekf-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 As a follow-up to 2022’s ‘Fell Light In Windy Cloud’ arrived to us by the end of 2023, it marks the second release of Kūwāha’ilo’s second offering with…
Artist: Infernal Angels Country: Italy Label: Immortal Frost Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Infernal Angels is such a band that I have heard of before, but only by name. Despite the fact that the band is presenting their…
With the self-titled album in 2007 and its follow-up from a year late, ‘Flandriae’, the Belgian band Taranis surprised with its authentic blend of Black Metal, Thrash Metal and Heavy Metal. For sure it didn’t bring anything new to the…
Artist: Taranis Country: Belgium Label: Iron Pegasus Records Formats: CD Year: 2023 Admittedly, I didn’t foresee this second coming of Belgium’s Taranis. Over a decade after having put the band to rest, Taranis-main man Björn Desmet apparently revived the band…
Artist: Keys To The Astral Gates And Mystic Doors Country: USA Label: Empty Pit Recordings Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Obviously, ‘II is the second recording of the illustrious duo that makes up this rather new American Black Metal act.…
The reason for this Q&A was the release of Reflet Crépusculaire’s first full-length album that saw the darkness of night last month. Previously, the one-man band released several EPs, all of which intrigued me to such an extent that I…
Artist: Velvet Sorrow Country: USA Label: Luciferous Cruor Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 In recent years the little niche of raw yet atmospheric Black Metal has spawned a lot of bands, but amongst them are a lot bands that using…
Artist: Bergrizen Country: Ukraine Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Ukrainian Bergrizen has released no less than two albums in 2023. ‘Orathania’ from September last year almost entirely comprised of Ambient/Dark Folk-music with which it is…
Artist: Orgy Of Carrion Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 Commonly regarded as being one of the flag bearers of the resurgence of the Raw Black Metal scene from the second half of the 10’s, Orgy…
Artist: Kasturn Country: United Kingdom Label: Unmatched Dominance Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Early last year, spring 2023, Kasturn’s ‘Rehearsal Promo 23’ popped up at my radars and knew to impress me, even with only 15 minutes of rawly recorded music.…
Artist: Diabolic NightCountry: GermanyLabel: High Roller Records / Mortal Rite RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 The impact of the wave of Teutonic Metal bands from the 80’s can still vividly be felt in today’s metal scene. Not…
Artist: Inquisition Country: Colombia / USA Label: Agonia Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Inquisition has always been a band that was full of exceptionalities and controversy. The international metal press has written relentlessly about the…
Artist: Lore Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released / Inferna Profundus Records Formats: Cassette Tape / 12″ EP Year: 2023 Of course, a cover with a winter scene of trees on a mountain is not very unique; ever since Ulver’s debut…
Artist: Reflet Crépusculaire Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Out of the deepest and darkest corners of the French underground Black Metal scene comes Reflet Crépusculaire, one of the acts that has been intriguing me ever since I first…
Artist: Funeral Winds Country: The Netherlands Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although Funeral Winds never officially stopped it went on some sort of hibernation after the ‘Nexion Xul – The Cursed Bloodline’-album from 2007. Hellchrist Xul…
Artist: Nocturnal Terror Country: Brazil Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 After a couple demos Brazilian Black Metal band Nocturnal Terror self-released their debut album in October of 2023 and for those who heard these first recordings know that…
Artist: Sanctum Sathanas Country: Chile Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 In recent years, an increasing proportion of today’s Black Metal scene has come from South American countries, with Chile being the main purveyor. From that country comes…
Artist: Genocidal Rites Country: USA Label: 18 Is 9 Records And Tapes Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 Last year I reviewed ‘Exsanguination Of The Gods’, a tape-only release by Genocidal Rites. It was a short but sweet EP, presented by…
Artist: Kirous Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2023 Literally on the very edge of 2023, on December 30th, hard working Finnish one-man force Kirous releases yet another short but sweet digital demo. Like the title already suggests,…
Artist: Wolftower Country: Finland Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2023 In the very waning weeks of 2023 Finland’s Wolftower treats us with yet another new release, the twelfth in total but after a lot of…
Artist: Moonlight Sword Country: USA Label: Oakheart Production Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 In 2022 the one-woman band Moonlight Sword released two fine digital demos, that both also appeared on cassette tape by the Belgian Rabauw label. Carmilla II Dracul,…
Artist: Arzhaabat Country: Czechia Label: Cosmic Cause Productions Formats: Cassette tape Year: 2023 After a demo and a single, both released on cassette tape in early 2023, the prolific MBN (or Vaérmiyr), who is also known for Blau Blut, Svor, CEP and the…
Artist: Black Lycanthropy Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 For those who have delved a little deeper into Black Metal than the interchangeable artists on the Nuclear Blast, Metal Blade, Century Media or even Season Of Mist…
Artist: Hail Conjurer Country: Finland Label: Bestial Burst Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 One of the most intriguing Finnish Black Metal bands definitely is Hail Conjurer, the band’s otherworldly take on Black Metal has already resulted in a…