Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Luring Country: USA Label: Iron Bonehead Productions / Nithstang Productions Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2023 ‘Triumphant Fall Of The Malignant Christ’ is Luring’s second full-length effort, but other than the band’s debut, which was only…
Artist: Obsidian Grave Country: USA Label: Dark Adversary Productions Formats: CD Year: 2023 Over the roughly half decade of their existence, American Obsidian Grave have released their music through labels such as Atrocity Altar, Hatework, Perverse Homage and Death Hymns,…
Artist: Feeble Deity Country: USA Label: Dark Adversary Productions / Forbidden Sonority Formats: CD / Cassette tape Year: 2023 That the Dark Adversary Productions label not only releases the own material of label-owner Azgorh (Drowning The Light, among others) is…
Artist: Drowning The Light Country: Australia Label: Dark Adversary Productions Formats: CD EP Year: 2023 Hot on the heels on the in August released two EP’s, Australia’s most prolific Black Metal band, Drowning The Light, returns with a yet another…
Artist: ValravnCountry: FinlandLabel: Primitive ReactionFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 According to Danish folkore the valravn, or raven of the slain, is a supernatural raven that consumed either the hearts of kings or children, to do great evil or to seek…
Artist: HagatizCountry: GermanyLabel: Amor Fati ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Hagatiz is a new name to the Black Metal block and ‘Cursed to the Night’ is their very first record. But this fresh entry to the scene can appear deceptive,…
When you are caught off guard by a new album from a band that has more or less fallen off the radar since 2006, it is not only enough for a set of puzzled eyes, but more importantly for sparking…
Artist: Vesthangarth Country: Chile Label: Consumed By The Flames Productions Formats: Digital Year: 2023 In the summer of 2022 I reviewed Vesthangarth’s demo, which was a surprisingly great affair of Scandinavian sounding Black Metal and I concluded that this band…
Artist: Runespell Country: Australia Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Formed in 2017, Australian outfit Runespell has impressed not only with its hefty work rate, which in those seven years has yielded no fewer than five…
Artist: AtonementCountry: SwedenLabel: Dying Victims ProductionsFormat: LP / CDYear: 2023 With an album cover like that of ‘Sadistic Invaders’ you sort of know what you’re going to get. Well at least, a band like Deathhammer pops into my mind, and…
Artist: Wolves In The Throne Room Country: USA Label: Relapse Records / Century Media Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2023 As with many bands that are dealt with a certain hype in their careers this phenomenon comes with…
From the deepest bowels of Dutch Black Metal recently awoke the dreaded beast: Botulistum. Out of nowhere, the vicious outfit came out with their self-titled debut album. That album, which you thought would never come, still manages to surprise even…
Artist: Baxaxaxa Country: Germany Label: The Sinister Flame Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2023 German Black Metal has always been something that has had difficulties to get recognition from other parts of the world. Whether it were…
Artist: ÜbelkeitCountry: ChileLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2023 A German word for a band name that translates to Nausea: you are forgiven if you didn’t guess that the entity behind the name Übelkeit hails from Chile and plays dissonant Black Metal. …
Artist: OerheksCountry: BelgiumLabel: Amor Fati Productions / Babylon Doom Cult RecordsFormats: 12″ Demo / Demo tapeYear: 2023 Soaring, high above the tree lines, carried by the thermals, observing all that transpires far beneath. With ‘Valkengebed’, Oerheks takes us once more to…
Artist: Rapid Country: Finland Label: Dying Victims Productions Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2023 Finnish Speed Metal combo Rapid came to my attention through their 2017 released 7” single (Svart Records) that my partner in…
Chaos; complete disorder, utter confusion, the property of a complex system whose behaviour is so unpredictable, it appears random. It will cause people to stop and look in fascination or run away in fear. There are those that are terrified…
Apparently out of nothing, at least to me, came Zwart. A new band that hails from the furtile (yet pitch black) breeding grounds of Tilburg, The Netherlands. The band might be new but consists out of a number of experienced…
Artist: Moonlight Sorcery Country: Finland Label: Avantgarde Music Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2023 Admittedly, after the amazing ‘Piercing Through The Frozen Eternity’ EP from early 2022 my expectation were extremely high on any material that would serve…
Artist: Drowning The Light Country: Australia Label: Dark Adversary Productions Formats: CD EP Year: 2023 Both this new EP and the ‘Violet Mercury & Moonlit Sorcery’ EP were released at the very same time, clock in around 20 minutes each…
Artist: Drowning The Light Country: Australia Label: Dark Adversary Productions Formats: CD EP Year: 2023 The Australian band never lets its loyal following wait long for a sign of life, earlier this year Azgorh already brought us two EP’s, a…
Artist: Hail Conjurer Country: Finland Label: Bestial Burst Formats: CD Year: 2023 The multi-talented Harri Kuokkanen is a restless person with a clear excess of creativity, if he’s not busy with some of his other bands, he seems to dedicate…
Artist: Mystic Circle Country: Germany Label: Fireflash Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 Alright, here it is. Already. In my review of the remastered reissue of ‘Drachenblut’ earlier this year I predicted that this album would see a remastered version of…
Artist: SieliunvihollinenCountry: FinlandLabel: Hammer of Hate RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Leading melodies aren’t exactly a stranger to a large part of Finnish Black Metal bands. Often inspired by the pioneering works of Satanic Warmaster, Horna and Sargeist, that sense…
Artist: Infernal Curse Country: Argentina Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP Year: 2023 It has been about ten years ago since Infernal Curse first crossed my path, back then it was the also Iron Bonehead Productions released ‘The End Upon…
Artist: Profanatica Country: USA Label: Season Of Mist Underground Activists Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Ever since the band’s resurrection in 2001 and especially after their first full-length album ever, 2007’s ‘Profanatitas de Domonatia’, the nefarious Black Metal entity…
Artist: WaldgeflüsterCountry: GermanyLabel: AOP RecordsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2023 Autumn equinox is here, and to celebrate the beauty of the leaves turning shades of red, green and bronze, Germany’s Waldgeflüster offers us with their latest EP, ‘Unter Bronzenen…
Artist: Bloody Run Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: CD EP Year: 2023 Earlier this year the trio that is Bloody Run, hailing from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA, presented their third release. ‘The Revenge’ is an (extremely) short affair, clocking in at…
Artist: AegrusCountry: FinlandLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 With the release of ‘Invoking the Abysmal Night’, Aegrus follows up their excellent ‘The Carnal Temples’ EP with seven new songs. And with it, it also follows the…
Artist: Nachtgnawer feat. WulfseerCountry: FinlandLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 Nachtgnawer’s ‘Eternal Curse of the Blood’ still stands as one of my favorite demos of last year. Taking a familiar Finnish formula of earlier Satanic Warmaster but by adding…
In the Owl interview I recently published, I mentioned that there are more than just a handful of real gems to be unearthed in the deeper, mouldy and shadowy layers of the Dutch Black Metal scene. Duindwaler, also a one-man…
Artist: Death Worship Country: Canada Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: 12″ EP / CD Year: 2023 Not including a demo and a promotional tape, this is EP number three from Canada’s Death Worship (which seems to be headquartered in…
One of the longest running Dutch Black Metal bands is Sammath, who, in the form of ‘Grebbeberg’, recently unleashed their seventh onslaught upon mankind. The album, which in my humble opinion is their strongest to date, again has the war…
Artist: ManiiCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 When Manes’ debut album ‘Under ein Blodraud Maane’ came out in 1999, most of the groundbreaking Norwegian Black Metal records of the second wave had already been released.…
Artist: Abysmal Spite Country: USA Label: Narbentage Produktinen Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 Last year the American Black Metal duo of Abysmal Spite presented a short but fine demo tape under the name of ‘Demo MMXXII’, of which I concluded…
Artist: Salacious Gods Country: The Netherlands Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: Vinyl / CD Year: 2023 It is remarkable to realise that the time that was between the first and last time I heard from Salacious Gods is many times shorter…
Artist: Vomit Messiah Country: Spain Label: In Pulverem Mortis Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 Just as the band needed remarkably few words to title this debut demo, it can sometimes be as easy to write a review. This brand-new…
Artist: Wooden ThroneCountry: FinlandLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: CDYear: 2023 Mikko Lehto isn’t exactly a stranger to atmospheric Black Metal. Since the inception in 2001, he has released six full-length albums with October Falls, initially as a solo project but since…
Artist: NoitilaCountry: FinlandLabel: Nordvis ProduktionFormats: CDYear: 2023 Noitilahti is a bay on the Lahnaselkä lake in Kuusamo, a municipal located in the Northern Ostrobothnia region in North-eastern Finland. Translating to Witches’ Bay, the scenery of dense pine forests and vast…
Artist: WitchfukkerCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Destruktion RecordsFormats: Demo TapeYear: 2022 With a band name like Witchfukker, nothing less than extremely non-subtle music will do. And the Dutch duo do not disappoint. Reeking of a primitive scent of Extreme Metal that walks…
Anyone who delves a little into the caverns of extreme metal knows that beneath the surface of the more well-known bands you can often find the roughest diamonds. If you have ever really put your shovel deep into the Dutch…
Artist: EndstilleCountry: GermanyLabel: Ván RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 You cannot deny a band that released several songs with the title ‘Monotonus’ some sense of self-reflection, and for that matter, consistency. Monotonous isn’t a bad quality anyway, and in case…
Artist: MardukCountry: SwedenLabel: Century Media RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Five years. There hasn’t been this much time between two Marduk studio albums in the 33 years of their existence. Not that the best rested idly in the intermediate period.…
Artist: Ancestors Blood / Heimdalls Wacht Country: Finland / Germany Label: Heidens Hart Records Formats: Split LP / Split CD Year: 2023 On the verge of the end of winter and the beginning of spring this year, Heidens Hart Records…
Artist: DHG/DødheimsgardCountry: NorwayLabel: Peaceville RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 That Dødheimsgard has been pushing the boundaries of Black Metal has been clear from the earliest works. Perhaps that’s why the influence of their classic albums ‘Kronet Til Konge’ and ‘Monumental…
Artist: Owl Country: The Netherlands Label: Zwaertgevegt Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2023 Although The Netherlands is a small country, it still hosts an interesting Black Metal scene that manifests itself in the most unexpected places. Take for instance the very…
Artist: Urfaust Country: The Netherlands Label: Ván Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Ever since their inception in 2003, Urfaust has been the most unique entity within the Dutch Black Metal scene – which, on its own, can already…
Artist: RiutujaCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: DigitalYear: 2023 Full of melody and harmony, ‘Kuolonkerjuu’ is the debut album for Riutuja. Sorrowful Black Metal with Varg-like vocal outcries, intensely varying drums and dominant layers of guitar melodies, even within a realm of music…
Artist: NidvinterCountry: NorwayLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2023 ‘Winter Wars’ is the first EP of the band Nidvinter, an Oslo-based band that arose from the ashes of Hexenkeit in early 2023. It follows an earlier released demo on which the band…
A little over a decade since their previous album, Cruel Force comes back to bring the power back into the Metal. With their latest scorching album ‘Dawn of the Axe’ the band once again professes their adoration for the glory…