Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: AegrusCountry: FinlandLabel: Osmose ProductionsFormats: 10″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 It’s not an uncommon thing for Finnish bands. They start off, release a slew of demos, but the fans have to patiently wait for that debut…
Artist: BezweringCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Ván RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 I have regarded Bezwering’s debut album, ‘Aan De Wormen Overgeleverd’, as one of the better Dutch Black Metal albums of recent years and a more than worthy successor to Wederganger, on which…
Artist: VeljessurmaCountry: FinlandLabel: Naturmacht ProductionsFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Veljessurma hails from the Finnish capital of Helsinki, and their first EP follows the 2020-released demo ‘Ritual of Cain’. On ‘Noidansolmu’ Veljessurma blends a raw Black Metal rhythm guitar…
Artist: Aeon FurnaceCountry: FinlandLabel: Ancien CulteFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 Out of nowhere comes Aeon Furnace, a Finnish four-piece that features members with illustrous pseudonyms like K.V.U. Mycophagous on bass, That Which Dwells in the Pit on guitars, drummer and vocalist…
Artist: Thy Darkened ShadeCountry: GreeceLabel: W.T.C. ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Despite a history that goes back as far as 1999, Greece’s Thy Darkened Shade didn’t really hit their stride until 2012 with the release of their debut album. But…
Artist: RiivausCountry: FinlandLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 Riivaus is the solo project of Hoath Daemnator, who under a few different pseudonyms is also active in a number of other bands of which Sacrificium Carmen is probably the…
Artist: Rotten Moon Country: Finland Label: Ancien Culte Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 The uncontrollable work ethos and creativity of Heinous Soul in mainly channelled through his musical main vessel of Circle Of Ouroboros where he is responsible for all…
Artist: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 In a span of a few days (8th, 10th and 13th of January), Azgorh and his Drowning The Light brought us no less than three new releases. A full-length album and two EPs, of which…
Artist: Hate Propaganda Country: Italy Label: Sentient Ruin Laboratories Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2022 An anonymous band from Portugal delivering some relentless raging Black/Thrash Metal with a sharp grinding edge, that’s what Hate Propaganda is all about. Back in 2019…
Artist: Mystic Circle Country: Germany Label: Atomic Fire Formats: LP Year: 2023 Time is a wonderful thing, it tends to heal wounds and make one think more mildly of things that happened in the past. When we listen to today’s…
Artist: LamashtuCountry: PolandLabel: Goatowarex / Malignant VoicesFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 In Mesopotamian mythology, Lamashtu was a female demon who menaced women during childbirth and kidnapped their children when they were breastfeeding. Lamashtu is also a Polish band, whose origins…
Artist: HaborymCountry: MexicoLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: LPYear: 2020 Werewolf Records is beyond doubt one of the most interesting labels when it comes to releasing high quality Finnish Black Metal. But every now and then the label looks beyond the borders of…
Artist: LaereCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-releasedFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 Laere’s first EP ‘Solve’ was a great entry into the musical world of the German band, presenting a well-performed rendition of Icelandic Black Metal. I would have expected that the band would be…
Artist: LaereCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-releasedFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2020 The band name Laere represents a combination of the German word for empty, leer, and the Norwegian word Laere, which means to teach or learn. Empty learning: the unison of two meanings of…
That a demo tape does not always have to be spectacular in the sense of originality or extremely good musicianship, German Black Metal band Totholz proved with their only demo tape from 2021. I reviewed that demo tape earlier last…
Artist: Irae Country: Portugal Label: Signal Rex Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Last year marked the 20th anniversary of the Portuguese Black Metal act Irae, the brainchild of its sole member, Vulturius. In those two decades he has been really…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Shortly before the release of the sophomore album of the Swedish Lifvsleda, a small teaser was released premiering the track ‘Lifvspänn’. On this, the band continued the path set out…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 After the release of their debut album ‘Det Besegrade Lifvet’, Lifvsleda didn’t rest on their laurels and started working on the follow-up record. With that came a move to a new…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Shadow RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2020 Lifvsleda was formed in 2019, but apart from the fact that the two members were veterans of the Swedish Black Metal scene, not much was known. Later, it…
Artist: Nihil Invocation / Irae Country: USA / Portugal Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2023 ‘Evil Storm Of Haunting Recollections’ is a collaboration of two individuals who have drilled down the Black Metal genre to its very primal essentials. Both…
Artist: CutCountry: ChinaLabel: Gespenst RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 That disgusting and totally depraved Black/Death Metal is no longer limited to a few of those early bands like Blasphemy, Naked Whipper and Archgoat is not quite a secret, yet…
Artist: SelvhatCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LPYear: 2022 Before releasing his sole album, ‘Gjennom Mørket Famlende’ in 2008 and the ‘Einsam In Ewigkeit’ 7” EP from 2007, Steingrim Torson recorded a bunch of demos and rehearsal tapes, of which only a…
Artist: SelvhatCountry: NorwayLabel: Nordkult Rituals / Terratur PossessionsFormats: LPYear: 2022 On a tragic April night in 2009, Steingrim Torson left this mortal coil. The highly talented Norwegian musician had made his mark in several bands from the Trondheim scene, including…
Artist: EvilspellCountry: ItalyLabel: Blasphemous RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2021 Seven years after their last sign of life, the Italian Black/Thrash Metal band Evilspell returned to the front in 2021, with their third full-length ‘Padre Vostro’, which, if Google Translate is not fooling…
Artist: Sigh Country: Japan Label: Deathheadz Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 From such a populous country as Japan, there are remarkably few extreme metal bands. Yet a lively metal scene has existed there since the 1980s, at least, it seems.…
Artist: DevilpriestCountry: PolandLabel: Odium Records / Spreading The Pest ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2022 ‘In Repugnant Adoration’ is the sophomoric album of the Polish Black Metal band Devilpriest, a band formed back in 2015 by Tom Hermies (also known for his work…
Artist: PiołunCountry: PolandLabel: Malignant VoicesFormats: CDYear: 2022 The band Piołun from Lublin, Poland was created in 2019 by Sorh of Blaze of Perdition and Oremus on guitar and vocals, and shortly after was joined by Vitor on drums. Sorh envisioned…
Artist: Hellfire Deathcult Country: USA Label: Helter Skelter Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 My VM-Underground colleague already commented quite aptly on these American’s debut album that the music of Hellfire Deathcult would appeal to fans of Teitanblood, Adversarial…
Artist: Haunter Country: USA Label: Profound Lore Records Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 Though Haunter has been around for about a decade now, they have remained under my radar up to this last album, ‘Discarnate Ails’.…
Artist: The Antichrist ImperiumCountry: United KingdomLabel: Apocalyptic Witchcraft RecordingsFormats: Cassette / CDYear: 2022 When I first heard Akercocke it was with their ‘Choronzon’ album, back in 2003, it left me amazed, baffled and intrigued. The band blended so many ideas…
Artist: AshesCountry: PolandLabel: Malignant VoicesFormats: CDYear: 2022 The tremendous level of musicianship and creativity within the Polish Black Metal scene has been highlighted several times already. This obviously hasn’t gone unnoticed, with foreign labels such as Terratur Possessions, Northern Heritage…
Artist: Sarcasm Country: Sweden Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Uppsala, Sweden based Sarcasm is a band with a story. When they started out in 1990 they were basically a rather standard Death Metal band, which, like…
Artist: Forgotten SwordCountry: USALabel: Elderblood ProductionsFormats: Digital DemoYear: 2022 Forgotten Sword is a Dungeon Synth artist from Russia, having released quite a number of releases in that style since 2020. But the ties between Dungeon Synth and Black Metal are…
Artist: Ravenoir Country: Czechia Label: Gothoom Productions Formats: CD Year: 2022 Ravenoir from the Czech Republic was founded in 2020 by two members who were then still part of the legendary Root. Their new band was supposed to fill the…
Artist: Bekëth NexëhmüCountry: SwedenLabel: Amor Fati ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 About a year ago the multi-talented and multi-instrumentalist Swartadauþuz presented a new album with Bekëth Nexëhmü, one of his most prolific projects. And if he does something, he does…
Artist: Bekëth NexëhmüCountry: SwedenLabel: Amor Fati ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 With this third chapter in the (closing?) book of Bekëth Nexëhmü, mastermind Swartadauþuz again serves us with an overly long record. This time with a playing time of well…
Artist: WanklankCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Heidens Hart RecordsFormats: LPYear: 2021 Put in a plain sleeve, black with only the somewhat scratchy logo on it very large, with no info or extras, this vinyl-only album by the obscure Black Metal band, Wanklank…
Artist: ApogeionCountry: FinlandLabel: Northern Heritage RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 It’s hard to imagine Finnish Black Metal as we know it without Beherit. But while the pioneering band inspired countless of musicians during the early wave of Black Metal, bands that closely…
Artist: Ruttokosmos Country: Finland Label: Werewolf Records Formats: CD Year: 2021 Finnish Black Metal bands, more often than not, tend to have miraculous sort of stories to tell. Sometimes they were very short lived but with a remarkably big influence…
Artist: Inferno Requiem Country: Taiwan Label: Elder Blood Productions Formats: CD Year: 2021 Taiwan’s Inferno Requiem began forging a tetralogy with 2019’s ‘Wolf From Onon’ Realm’ EP and finished it with 2021’s ‘Vultures’ EP, now Elderblood Productions scraped all of…
Artist: Inferno Requiem Country: Taiwan Label: Death Kvlt Productions / Death Prayer Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2021 Maybe origin plays a role, Taiwanese Black Metal is not something that will be on everyone’s lips right now. But whatever the…
Artist: Niaisny Country: Belarus Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 The Belarussian band Niaisny released their first demo tape in 2021, just like this second one also through Medieval Prophecy Records. On that first offering they presented…
Artist: Vulture LordCountry: NorwayLabel: Bylec-Tum Productions / Odium RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 Even though the band formed in the mid 90’s, Vulture Lord’s career hasn’t been all too prolific. In fact, apart from a debut album…
Artist: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 Very hot on the heels of Drowning The Light’s latest offering, Azgorh’s seventeenth full-length album with Drowning The Light ‘Haunter Of The Deep’, he returns with the already announced first of a…
Artist: CoscradhCountry: IrelandLabel: Invictus ProductionsFormats: LPYear: 2022 Earlier in 2022, the Dublin-based Coscradh released their debut album ‘Nahanagan Stadial’ on Invictus Productions. That debut followed closely on the 2021 released 7″ EP ‘Mesradh Machae’. Before that, the Irish had released…
Artist: Chaos InvocationCountry: GermanyLabel: W.T.C. ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 My first introduction to the music of the German band Chaos Invocation was their 2017 split with fellow W.T.C. Productions label mates Thy Darkened Shade. I remember seeing the excellent…
Artist: FelvumCountry: UkraineLabel: Out Of SeasonFormats: Cassette EPYear: 2022 Founded at the very beginning of 2022, the Ukranian Black Metal band Felvum was already able to spawn its first EP, ‘Fullmoon Mysticism’, in early April. The current status of the…
Artist: Muert Country: Spain Label: Immortal Frost Productions Formats: CD Year: 2022 Though most people know the Spanish Canary Islands only from their nice sunny holidays, the islands too have a very dark side. Its unpredictable and evil, volcanic character…
Artist: HouleCountry: FranceLabel: Les Acteurs de l’Ombre ProductionsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2022 From Paris, France hails the five-piece Black Metal band Houle. Formed in 2021, the band soon found their debut EP ‘Houle’ released on the esteemed label…
Artist: Aurora BorealisCountry: USALabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Some bands just tend to never get going. I am sure everyone reading this have some of those in their collections. Bands that, despite their musical efforts being decent enough to at least attract…