Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: WitchcraftCountry: FinlandLabel: Down With The Most HighFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 Originally released in only a handful of copies and spread early on in 2022, this rehearsal demo is the first of three of such demos that were reissued by…
Artist: AbradedCountry: USALabel: Aggressively Uninterested Formats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 American Death Metal/Grindcore combo Abraded returns with a new full-length album, after their eponymous debut from 2021. A debut that to me was a very welcome and refreshing listen,…
Artist: GalvanizerCountry: FinlandLabel: Everlasting Spew Records / Extremely Rotten Productions / Headsplit Records / Me Saco un Ojo RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 Oh dear, this album has been gathering dust in our promo closet for far…
Artist: Fleshrot Country: USA Label: Desert Wastelands Productions / Me Saco Un Ojo Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 After the band’s eponymous 2020 demo, the Texas Death Metal band Fleshrot returns for their debut album. Those…
Artist: Harvest Gulgaltha Country: USA Label: Godz Ov War Productions Formats: Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 The anonymous American trio that is Harvest Gulgaltha returns with their sophomore effort, five years after their debut. The enigmatic Black/Death Metal combo…
Artist: CryptopsyCountry: CanadaLabel: Xtreem RecordsFormats: 10″ EP / CD EPYear: 2021 ‘Ungentle Exhumation’ is undoubtedly one of the most important demos from the Canadian metal scene. It marked the start not only of Cryptopsy, but actually of a whole tradition…
Artist: Fleshcrawl Country: Germany Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP / CD EP Year: 2021 Before the band would become known as Fleshcrawl, one of Germany’s best and longest-running Death Metal bands, they were known as Morgöth and subsequently Suffocation.…
Artist: AutopsyCountry: USALabel: Peaceville RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Introducing Autopsy to a VM-Underground reader is like explaining Star Wars to a sci-fi enthusiast. Useless, then, so we won’t do that. There is, however, no denying of…
Artist: AutophagyCountry: USALabel: Necrolatry Records / Pulverised RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 In 2018 the American Death Metal band Autophagy delivered a nice demo that our chief editor Ricardo here at VM-Underground described as a good blend…
Artist: Carnal RuinCountry: USALabel: Redefining Darkness RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 The nowadays Death Metal scene is getting gradually more bland and actually starts to feel a little jaded. The trends of today tend to flatten out the entire scene, with one part dealing with…
Artist: Putrevore Country: Spain / Sweden Label: Xtreem Music Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2021 Putrevore is the collaboration of two of Death Metal’s most prolific veterans, Rogga Johansson (Paganizer, Ribspreader, Revolting among many others) and Dave…
Artist: Saram Country: Peru Label: Werewolf Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 Despite being officially formed in 1998 in Lima, Peru, Saram’s history goes back many more years. In 1991, the band Neuroparalya was formed which eventually turned into Saram Scivit…
Artist: Furnace Country: Sweden Label: MDD Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 With Furnace the multi-instrumentalist with too much time Rogga Johansson and Peter Svensson (Void Moon) went for a more melodic sound with their first two albums, ‘Black Stone Church’…
Artist: Manticore Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 One of Hells Headbangers earliest releases was Manticore’s debut album, ‘Bowels Of The Holy Anoint Us In Evil’. Together with a few other of those…
When one of the earliest Danish Death Metal bands, formed by two Invocator members, recently reformed and even put out a brand new album, the long-awaited follow-up to 1992’s ‘A Serenade Of Agony’, an album regarded by some as a…
Artist: Purgatory Country: Germany Label: War Anthem Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Nossen, Germany-based Death Metal band Purgatory celebrates its 30th anniversary this year, making it one of the country’s longest-running extreme metal bands. While…
Artist: Lie In Ruins / Graveyard Country: Finland / Spain Label: War Anthem Records Formats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2022 The German label War Anthem Records has spawned a considerable amount of nice Old School Death Metal split 7” EP’s…
Artist: Eggs Of GomorrhCountry: SwitzerlandLabel: Godz Ov War ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Of all the bands that uphold the Ross Bay Cult tradition, I have never found Swiss Eggs Of Gomorrh very convincing. Throughout their career,…
Artist: Maceration Country: Denmark Label: Emanzipation Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Maceration’s sole album ‘A Serenade Of Agony’ is an album that divides Death Metal fans: considered as a true yet forgotten classic of Old School Death Metal…
Artist: CruzCountry: SpainLabel: Nuclear Winter RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Spain has proven to be a good purveyor of Death Metal over the past decade-plus. Whereas at first the scene was a bit limited to Avulsed and…
Artist: Atomic AggressorCountry: ChileLabel: Xtreem MusicFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2021 Long before the Chilean extreme metal scene would really explode into hundreds of more than interesting Black Metal, Death Metal and Thrash Metal bands, there were a few individuals paving the way for what would…
Artist: Thorn / Body Asphyxiation ScienceCountry: USA / United KingdomLabel: Gurgling GoreFormats: Split cassette tapeYear: 2022 Gurgling Gore, with their 50th release, brings you a short playing split tape between Thorn and Body Asphyxiation Science, that kicks right off after a…
Artist: Leper Colony Country: Germany / Sweden Label: Transcending Obscurity Records Formats: CD Year: 2023 While this is the band’s first release and Leper Colony is a new band on the Death Metal front, the musicians are far from rookies.…
Artist: Fleshgrind Country: USA Label: Burning Dogma Records / Corpse Gristle Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2022 After the release of the demos compilation CD and cassette tape, both Burning Dogma Records and Corpse Gristle Records teamed up…
Artist: Fleshgrind Country: USA Label: Burning Dogma Records / Corpse Gristle Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2021 Before Fleshgrind became an established name in the Death Metal/Grindcore scene, the band released two demo tapes, ‘Holy Pedophile’ (1993) and…
Artist: Macabre End Country: Sweden Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2021 The only Macabre End recordings are the three tracks from the 1990 ‘Consumed By Darkness’ demo tape, released a year later by Corpse Grinder Records on a…
Artist: Necrophile Country: Japan Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2021 The Japanese extreme metal scene has always been rather limited in the amount of bands, but they always tended to bring something different to the table. The Japanese…
Artist: Roots Of The Old Oak Country: United Kingdom Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 Roots Of The Old Oak is a Doom/Death Metal trio from the UK, that released their first four-track demo tape last summer through…
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: OcculsedCountry: USALabel: Everlasting Spew RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Following the band’s simply amazing debut album, ‘Crepitation Of Phlegethon’, their label, Everlasting Spew Records from Italy, now brings you the bands two previously recorded demo tapes on one CD. And as…
Artist: Impetigo Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP / CD EP Year: 2021 ‘Giallo’ is basically where it all started. Although ‘Giallo’ is not the first Impetigo recording, it was preceded by the 1987 release ‘All We Need…
Artist: Necrovation Country: Sweden Label: Blood Harvest Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2023 Somewhere in the mid-00’s, there suddenly was Necrovation, one of the very best new Death Metal bands that would become a true cult act. With their first minor…
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: Obituary Country: USA Label: Relapse Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Though a new Obituary record is commonly regarded as a moment of joy to all Old School Death Metal aficionados, I kind of lost…
Artist: EncabulosCountry: AustraliaLabel: Nuclear Winter RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Under the fitting title of ‘Exhumed Abominations’ Nuclear Winter Records unearthed an almost forgotten piece of underground Death Metal history: Encabulos. They were a Death Metal band from Australia that released six…
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…
While the real boom of Old School Death Metal bands has passed and, with the knowledge of today, the peak of that revival does seem to have been in the years 2010-2013, all that remains now are bands that are…
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: Carnal SavageryCountry: SwedenLabel: Moribund RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 With only six months between this new album and the previous one, ‘Scent Of Flesh’, Carnal Savagery’s Swedes have the momentum going well. The only question is whether it might not be a bit…
Artist: Carnal SavageryCountry: SwedenLabel: Huangquan Records / Moribund RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 The Swedish Death Metallers of Carnal Savagery are returning to their one-album-each-year formula with their third album, ‘Scent Of Death’. Although, an album a year? I guess the COVID-19 pandemic was…
Artist: Dead SunCountry: SwedenLabel: MDD RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2021 This awkward release of Dead Sun, one of the many Rogga Johansson featured bands, is actually a re-release of a compilation tape which originally was some sort of collection of four different…
Artist: Soul Grinder Country: Germany Label: Kernkraftritter Records / MDD Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 While we were thrown an EP in the form of ‘Lifeless Obsession’, German Death Metal band Soul Grinder returns with a full-length album two years…
Artist: Severance Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP / Year: 2021 Xtreem Music offers another dive into the deepest underground Death Metal of the early 90’s with the reissue of Severance’s ‘Afterbirth Of Infamy’ demo from 1991. It…
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: Obituary Country: USA Label: Relapse Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Anyone who has ever seen an Obituary live show will agree that these veterans of American Death Metal sure know how to put on…
Artist: Obituary Country: USA Label: Relapse Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Like the simultaneously released ‘Slowly We Rot – Live & Rotting’ live record, this ‘Cause Of Death – Live Infection’ is also a recorded…
Artist: Pharmacist Country: Japan Label: Bizarre Leprous Production / Hells Headbangers Records / Sevared Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Formed in 2020, these Japanese Carcass-worshippers have been really prolific, with this second album, ‘Flourishing Extremities…
Artist: Pharmacist Country: Japan Label: Bizarre Leprous Production / Black Hole Productions / Grindfather Productions / Gurgling Gore / Sevared Records Formats: 10″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 Over the past two plus decades I have…
Artist: Vital RemainsCountry: USALabel: Xtreem MusicFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2021 One of the most underrated American Death Metal bands might be Vital Remains. Sure, they have a loyal fan base, but I’ve always felt that the band never reached their full…