Kalmankantaja – Varjosielu

Artist: KalmankantajaCountry: FinlandLabel: Wolfspell RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 It has taken a couple of months, but with the release of ‘Varjosielu’ the first recording of Kalmankantaja of 2024 is finally here. This time around we aren’t presented with a new album,…

Vuosisata – Kuilu [Demo]

Artist: Vuosista Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo tape Year: 2024 ‘Kuilu’ might seem the first ever release for this Finnish Atmospheric Black Metal band, it is actually its second outing. Before switching to the name of ‘Vuosisasta’ the band…

Immortal Hammer – Kráľovstvo Zimných Démonov

Artist: Immortal Hammer Country: Slovakia Label: Hexencave Productions / Murderous Music Production / Purity Through Fire / Werewolf Promotion Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 / 2024 Somewhere around the early to mid-00’s I developed a bit…

Khold – Du Dømmes Til Død

Artist: Khold Country: Norway Label: Soulseller Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 While I concluded my review for ‘Svartsyn’, Khold’s previous record, as being fodder for those who enjoy some non-adventurous Black Metal, it was also one of the…

Granitader – Der Wald Zwischen Den Welten

Artist: Granitader Country: Germany Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: CD Year: 2024 As an analyst and close follower of the Black Metal scene in the past quarter of a century or so, it pleases me that, in recent years, I…

Amorphous Dominion – A Blaze In The Eastern Sky [EP]

Artist: Amorphous Dominion Country: Thailand Label: Self-released Formats: CD EP Year: 2024 After having released a debut demo tape in 2022, the Thai Black Metal band Amorphous Dominion returns with its follow-up in the form of this self-released EP. That…

Adversaire – Froid [Demo]

Artist: Adversaire Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 This mysterious Canadian Black Metal band crossed my path first with the two Cosmic Cause Productions-released reissues of the band’s first demo and their split with Sensorial Numbness somewhere…

Drakorathos – Ode To The Majesty Of The Nightside [EP]

Artist: Drakorathos Country: Romania Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 The number of Romanian Black Metal bands is rather sparse, although most people don’t get much further than the (magnificent!) Negură Bunget we haven’t had a whole lot more…

Oppressive Descent – Sulfuric Wrath

Artist: Oppressive Descent Country: USA Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP Year: 2024 Although Oppressive Descent was already founded back in 2008, the one-man project my workaholic Matt “Grond Nefarious” Schulte only really got wings during the years around the…

Drape – The Choir Above And The Symphony Below [EP]

Artist: Drape Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Only a couple of days after Drape’s debut demo ‘Under The Majestic Black Mist’ the American one-man act returns with its follow-up; the twenty minute clocking and the evocatively…

Trijumf – Trijumf ili Smrt – Trijumf

Artist: TrijumfCountry: Bosnia and HerzegovinaLabel: Death Prayer RecordsFormats: LPYear: 2024 The latest release to emerge from the Black Metal scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina is the debut album of Trijumf. Whether it is in any way related to the members of the…

Runespell – Wells Of Slidhr [Demo]

Artist: Runespell Country: Australia Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 While Runespell started out as a solo band of Nightwolf (mostly known for his work in Eternum), it was expanded to a full-fledged band in 2022. This…

Front Beast – Passage To The Centuries Of Old [EP]

Artist: Front Beast Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 Anyone who has been following the underground Black Metal scene in the last quarter of a century must at least once have stumbled upon Germany’s Front Beast,…

Iron Firmament – Empyrean Blood [EP]

Artist: Iron Firmament Country: USA Label: Wergild Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 ‘Empyrean Blood’ is Iron Firmament’s second offering, after last July’s debut EP ‘Keepeater’. That EP already introduced us to an interesting piece of Raw Black Metal that sounded…

Uhripuu – J​ä​ä​stä Revitty Maa [Demo]

Artist; UhripuuCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2024 For the ancient inhabitants of Western and Eastern Finland, the Uhripuu was a sacrificial tree where they made sacrifices to either their ancestors or the earth elves and gods who maintain the vitality of…

Drape – Under The Majestic Black Mist [Demo]

Artist: Drape Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Drape is a new Black Metal band without any other information than it is apparently coming from the USA. But, since we are here for the music and not…

Black Hurst – Blinding Pitch Of Victory [EP]

Artist: Black Hurst Country: USA Label: Ixiol Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 In my review of the band’s 2023 demo tape I compared Black Hurst mainly with the occult sort of Black Metal of the likes of Varathron and…

Grave Alter – Demo II [Demo]

Artist: Grave Alter Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Last year I stumbled upon Grave Alter’s self-titled first demo, a 3-tracker that showed a certain appreciation of Mortician-styled gore-drenched Death Metal. Now, exactly one year later, also…

Merrimack – Of Grace And Gravity

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…

Midnight – Hellish Expectations

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…

Kêres – Eidolon Abraxas

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,…

Faidra – Militant : Penitent : Triumphant

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…

Viharukous – Viimeisiä Houreita [EP]

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…

Bergsvriden – Uråldrad [EP]

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…

Nuclearhammer – Xaos Tenawas – Demo MMXXIII [Demo]

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…

Mortem Agmen – The Path To The Abyss Of Evil

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…

White Death – Iconoclasm

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…

Vincent Crowley – Anthology Of Horror

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…

Pyra – Those Who Dwell In The Fire

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…

Ûngrûn – Itjinge Tonei Barre Scil

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…

Witchcraft – Bestial Vociferation [Compilation]

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…

Necrowretch – Swords Of Dajjal

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…

Departure Chandelier – Satan Soldier Of Fortune

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…

Ignis Mortis – Hæresis Maleficarum [EP]

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…

Warorath – Verikirous

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…

Burning Winds – Return To Hell [Compilation]

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…

Hulder – Verses In Oath

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…

Atomic Goatcrime – Atomic Goat Exterminium! [EP]

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…