Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: DragonCountry: PolandLabel: Metal Mind ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2023 It must have been in the early 00’s that I snatched a batch of vinyl records of eBay (or something similar) and I also grabbed a copy of Dragon’s ‘Horda Goga’. I had never heard of…
Artist: AstriferousCountry: Costa RicaLabel: Me Saco un Ojo Records / Pulverised Records / Seed of DoomFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 This is the fourth review to appear for Astriferous on our VM-Underground pages, not counting the interview, but for me personally, admittedly,…
Artist: CatacombCountry: FranceLabel: Xtreem MusicFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 When the French cult band Catacomb announced their return, I couldn’t help but being both enthusiastic and sceptic at the same time. Of course, it is great to have a band…
Artist: Venereal BaptismCountry: USALabel: Ascension RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2023 It has been about four years since this Laredo, Texas, USA based Blackened Death Metal band has released anything. The previous two albums already showed what this duo had in mind when…
Artist: Critical ExtravasationCountry: RussiaLabel: Redefining Darkness RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 On the band’s previous EP, ‘Morbid Existence’, this Russian Death Metal band Critical Extravasation already introduced us to their brand of Technical Death Metal. Our own chief editor of…
Artist: VrenthCountry: USALabel: Rotted Life RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 On the band’s previous release, the split LP with Depraver, Vrenth surprised me with their take on Death Metal that both had a distinct oppressive sound as…
Artist: AtomwinterCountry: GermanyLabel: Trollzorn RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Ever since the band’s inception, the warmachine that is Atomwinter rolls on, now, in 2023, arriving at their fourth full-length album, ‘Sakrileg’. And just with every diesel-fuelled heavy piece of artillery, it starts slow but…
Artist: WolflustCountry: BrazilLabel: Hammer Of DamnationFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 The Brazilians of Wolflust have come out with their second EP, ‘Endless War’, which, with some 16 minutes of material, presents us with a modest bite of unbridled…
Artist: Necrotombs Country: Italy Label: Dark United Media Formats: Digital Year: 2022 With ‘Collectible Human Bodies’, Italian one-man band Necrotombs is already on its fourth full-length album. Musically, it brings little that is exciting, fairly standard and mid-tempo Old School…
Artist: ExpungedCountry: CanadaLabel: CDN RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 The ex-Hells Headbangers Records recording artists Expunged, hailing out of Ottawa, Canada, returns with a new album. This time released by their compatriots from CDN Records, who also released the split cassette tape/CD…
Artist: Death ReichCountry: SwedenLabel: Non Serviam RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 After a few demos/singles and two EP’s this Swedish Death Metal band, comprised out of past and current members of bands like Grief Of Emerald, Runemagick and Sacramentum, felt…
Artist: An Abstract IllusionCountry: SwedenLabel: Willowtip RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Although ‘Woe’ is not the first album for these Swedes, it was only since this album that I really got hooked by them. Not that the debut album, or…
Artist: Vitriolic GloomCountry: UkraineLabel: Deepswarming BloodmagikFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 The aptly titled ‘Transcending The Suffocative Light’-demo is the first offering from this one-man act from Kremenchuk, Ukraine. On this (so far) digital only demo Yehor “Gnom” Mutylin serves us with…
Artist: Putrifier Country: Chile Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 This EP, that clocks just under the 18 minute mark, is the debut for Chilean Black/Death Metal band Putrifier. The first thing I thought of when I…
Artist: WiltCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-releasedFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Just like the band’s 2018’s debut album ‘Faces Of The Grave’, Wilt took things in their own hands. That means that this sophomore album, ‘Into Nothingness’, is again a self-released product, available…
Artist: ConcilivmCountry: ChileLabel: Iron Bonehead ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 With their ‘The Veiled Enigma’ EP, the duo that together form the Death Metal band Concilivm came up with their first achievement after their formation in 2017. However, it took…
Artist: Mortify Country: Japan Label: Obliteration Records Formats: CD EP Year: 2022 The year 2022 saw Mortify’s ‘Grotesque Buzzsaw Defilement’ EP being reissued on various formats, but it was also the year that this (very) short new EP saw the…
Artist: Metuzalem Country: Croatia Label: Tanatofobia Productions Formats: CD Year: 2023 From Croatia comes this new Death Metal band that released their debut album at the beginning of this month. ‘Infra’ might be the first album for these five musicians…
Artist: Furnace Country: Sweden Label: Obelisk Polaris Productions Formats: CD Year: 2023 Out of the many Rogga Johansson bands, which are frankly quite a bit too many, I think that Furnace is one of the least impressive ones. Not only…
Artist: FaithxtractorCountry: USALabel: Redefining Darkness RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 With ‘Contempt For A Failed Dimension’ American Death Metal combo Faithxtractor have already arrived at their fourth album. Although each album saw the light of day via a different label…
Artist: Mortify Country: Japan Label: Headsplit Records / Horror Pain Gore Death Productions / Obliteration Records / Psychocontrol Records / Red Truth Production / Septic Aroma Of Reeking Stench Formats: CD EP Year: 2022 Mortify’s ‘Grotesque Buzzsaw Defilement’, originally released…
Artist: BurialkultCountry: CanadaLabel: Drakkar ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 It has been over a decade since I first and last heard of the Canadian Black/Death Metal band Burialkult. The band released an EP and full-length album in 2012 and 2013…
Artist: Slugathor Country: Finland Label: Drakkar Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Slugathor’s latest offering, ‘Crypt Of The Ancient Fire’ was already unleashed just before summer last year, but its vinyl issue only saw the light of day a…
Artist: Desolate GraveCountry: SwedenLabel: Grind To Death RecordsFormats: Digital EPYear: 2022 Desolate Grave is the name of this solo-project by David “Pos” Mauritzon, who has also been in a few other bands, of which the oddly named Belarus Beaver, despite…
Artist: Defy The CurseCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 This Dutch band, Defy The Curse, is a new collective formed by a couple of scene veterans. With ‘Horrors Of Human Sacrifice’, released on all…
Artist: Re-Buried Country: USA Label: Translation Loss Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 With artwork as beautiful as it is gruesome, attention is drawn to this latest work from Seattle, USA-based Death Metal quintet Re-Buried. After…
Artist: Sonic Poison Country: Finland Label: Caligari Records / Me Saco un Ojo Records / Pulverised Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 When can argue that life is a bitch, life can be difficult, a struggle…
Artist: Sigils Of Ruin Country: Indonesia Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 This four-piece Death Metal band from Indonesia offers their first demo tape, aptly titled ‘Demo I’ at the very start of February of this year. Yet, while…
Artist: Bastard GraveCountry: SwedenLabel: Pulverised RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 With ‘Vortex Of Disgust’ the Old School Swedish Death Metal combo of Bastard Grave delivers their third album. And anyone who has heard some of the band’s…
Artist: Stench Collector / Seep Country: USA Label: Gurgling Gore Formats: Split Cassette Year: 2023 This very short split EP, released on cassette tape, is the latest offering of both Stench Collector and Seep. Two bands haunting the gurgling and…
Artist: Genocidal Rites Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 With one demo and one EP, both originally only released digitally by the band themselves and the latter one also been issued on cassette tape by…
Artist: DeiphageCountry: USALabel: Propagator PropagandaFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2023 When I first encountered this band I though, for a very brief moment, that the band name was spelled wrong and that this was new material of the Hells…
Artist: Scourge LairCountry: FinlandLabel: Nuclear War Now! ProductionsFormats: LPYear: 2022 Scourge Lair caught the attention of the esteemed Nuclear War Now! Productions with the release of their 2019 demo ‘One Hundred Eyes One Hundred Arms’. That demo was the second…
Artist: Seven Doors Country: United Kingdom Label: Redefining Darkness Records, Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 After an EP, a digital split and a few singles, Ryan Wills felt he was ready recording and releasing his first full-length album with…
Artist: CentinexCountry: SwedenLabel: Diabolical Summoning RecordsFormats: Cassette tapeYear: 2022 Centinex has never been a band that made it big in the Swedish Death Metal scene. Instead they always kind of got stuck behind the biggest bands or even the ones that followed, making…
Artist: ChroniclesCountry: BangladeshLabel: Hellprod RecordsFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 From Bangladesh comes this five piece Death Metal band Chronicles. With ‘Chaos Cosmogony’ they present their second demo and third release in total (their first offering being an EP), it was released…
Artist: Putridarium Country: Germany Label: Headsplit Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 At the very edge of 2022 the German Death Metal band Putridarium unleashed their third demo tape through their partners in crime since their very inception, Headsplit Records.…
Artist: Phlegmesis Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Second demo for this one-man Death Metal act that has little to do with sophisticated soundscapes or technical wizardry. Instead, Phlegmesis goes deep into the most rancid sewers of…
Artist: DegravedCountry: USALabel: Gurgling GoreFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2023 Degraved’s demo from last year, ‘Exhumed Remnants’ was reviewed on these VM-Underground pages and was concluded to be a “not a bad little demo” to which my colleague added…
Artist: Lividity Country: USA Label: Grinder Cirujano Records / Sindrome Productions Formats: Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 ‘Rejoice In Morbidity’ was Lividity’s first EP, originally released on cassette tape back in 1996 on the short-lived Immortal Records (which,…
Artist: Nethingness Country: USA Label: Everlasting Spew Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 In the review for Nothingness’ first self-released album, ‘The Hollow Gaze Of Death’, from 2019, my colleague was already positive about this USA…
Artist: WormfaceCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 What does a reviewer have to add when pretty much all the grass has already been cut from under his feet by the band themselves? With a band name like this and a…
Artist: Inanna Country: Chile Label: Floga Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 While Inanna is far from a new band, being formed back in the year 2000, they never really had a lot going. At least in terms of popularity beyond…
Artist: GoatScrote Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 Besides one full-length album the Canadian pervs of GoatScrote have released a handful of demos and EP’s as well, this new one, ‘Humanity Must Be Destroyed’, being their fifth.…
Artist: Pestis Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 With a title like this, it is not hard to guess that we are dealing here with a first demo by a new band. Indeed, the Canadian Death Metal…
Artist: Eternal DarknessCountry: SwedenLabel: Xtreem MusicFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2021 Some of the Swedish Death Metal bands from the early 90’s gained huge amounts of fame, some of which still live on, and others just had too little to offer (or…
Artist: FesterdecayCountry: JapanLabel: Everlasting Spew RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 The infamous ‘Gods Of Grind’ tour in 1992, featuring Confessor, Cathedral, Entombed and Carcass, turned out to be an event of great prophetic value. Not so much…
Artist: Autopsia PrematuraCountry: PeruLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 The Peruvian Death Metal band Autopsia Prematura did release a demo and a 4-way split CD prior this new demo, ‘Crónicas De Un Feto Moribundo’. The music the duo presents on this…
Artist: Lunatic Devote Country: Greece Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 This Chicago, Illinois, USA based Death Metal outfit Lunatic Devote is presenting its first digital demo in the form of ‘Demonstration Of Lunatic Rituals’. Though it is very…
Artist: AgönphetishCountry: TurkeyLabel: Demo tapeYear: 2023 ‘Promo ‘23’ is the first offering of Agönphetish, a new band from Turkey of which its band member or members is (yet) unknown. Yet, this four-track demo tape, including an intro, gives quite a…