Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: AmpitationCountry: NorwayLabel: Nuclear War Now! ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2020 The origins of all the well-known and genre-defining Norwegian Black Metal bands can be traced back to a small amount of extreme metal bands. Like basically…
Artist: Written In BloodCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Trollzorn RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Written In Blood is a new Dutch Death Metal band featuring ex-Vortex and ex-Mandator drummer Jos Eggens and, most prominently, ex-God Dethroned bassist Bert ‘Beef’ Hoving. When I first got…
Artist: Jade Country: Germany / Spain Label: Pulverised Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 The German/Spanish Melodic Death Metal band released a demo in 2018 but went silent afterwards, it wasn’t until the very end of 2022 that the…
Artist: Hormagaunt Country: Australia Label: Bitter Loss Records / Frozen Screams Imprint Formats: Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 After an untitled demo from 2021, the Australian Death Metal combo Hormagaunt now returns with a full-length album. ‘In The Flesh’…
Artist: Static Abyss Country: USA Label: Filth Junkies Records / Peaceville Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Autopsy has always been a band that spawned many a side-project, of which The Ravenous and Abscess might be…
Artist: DeiquisitorCountry: DenmarkLabel: Extrmely Rotten ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette / CDYear: 2023 Time flies, when you’re having fun. Right? ‘Apotheosis’ is already the fourth full-length album for Deiquisitor, one the flagships of the Danish thriving Death Metal scene. 2023 marks…
Artist: Skeletal Earth Country: USA Label: VIC Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 The Madison, Alabama, USA based Death/Thrash Metal band were not quite top of their league back in the early 90’s. They were best known in their own local…
Artist: Skeletal Earth Country: USA Label: VIC Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2022 Together with the reissue of the band’s two full-length albums, VIC Records also reissued Skeletal Earth’s 7” EP from 1993. The rather corny title, ‘Dreighphuck’, is quite…
Artist: Skeletal Earth Country: USA Label: VIC Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 In 1994 Skeletal Earth returned once again with a full-length album, which turned out to be their last one as they threw in the towel shortly…
Artist: VeneficesCountry: PolandLabel: Nuclear War Now! ProductionsFormats: Vinyl EP / Cassette EPYear: 2023 The Polish war machine of Venefices was formed in 2019 by Desolator (member of Medico Peste and ex-Bestial Raids) on drums and Sadist (currently in Doombringer and…
Artist: BonesCountry: BelgiumLabel: Invictus ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Although the band has been around since 2010 and has already released several demos and EPs, Bones took plenty of time to come up with their debut album. Late last year…
Artist: WitchcraftCountry: FinlandLabel: Down With The Most HighFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 ‘Sodomythic Temple’ marks the third and last chapter of a series of demo/rehearsal tapes that Witchcraft released independently somewhere halfway last year and which were reissued by Down With…
Artist: BloodCountry: GermanyLabel: Diablos RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 With a discography as extensive as the one of Germany’s Death Metal/Grindcore veterans, it makes perfect sense to see a compilation album like this one surface. In fact, it surprised me quite a…
Artist: WitchcraftCountry: FinlandLabel: Down With The Most HighFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 Out of a series of three reissues demo/rehearsal tapes of one of Finland’s best kept secrets, Witchcraft, comes this second tape: ‘Ghastly Demonolatria’. Which was, just like the other…
Artist: Strychnos Country: Denmark Label: Dark Descent Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Honestly, Danish Black/Death Metal band Strychnos never really did much to me with the bands’ early (and sparse) releases over the course of…
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…