Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
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…
Artist: Nunslaughter / Fluids Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: Split 7″ EP / Split Tape EP Year: 2022 A split 7″ EP/cassette tape between two bands to who the concept of sharing a release is not exactly strange:…
Artist: MegaslaughterCountry: SwedenLabel: To The Death RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 In the midst of the booming Swedish Death Metal scene, legends were born that colored the early days of the much beloved buzz-saw sound. With one release after another, bands sprouted…
Artist: MegaslaughterCountry: SwedenLabel: To The Death RecordsFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 To this day, albums and demos from the early 90’s are still re-released or unearthed from moldy cassette graveyards. Releases of bands that were forgotten, or never quite…
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: Morbid Stench Country: Costa Rica / El Salvador Label: Alkolik Holocaust Records / El Conjuro Records / Nuclear Winter Records / Putrid Cult Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 Morbid Stench is a collaboration of musicians…
Artist: Morbid Stench Country: Costa Rica / El Salvador Label: Ablaze Productions Formats: CD Year: 2022 Just behind the release of Morbid Stench’s second full-length album, the band also comes out with this collector which features all the material they…
Artist: ToughnessCountry: SwedenLabel: Godz Ov War ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 ‘The Prophetic Dawn’ is the first album of a new band from Poland, founded in 2020 by a group of young musicians who were eager to play some Old School…
Artist: Necrogod Country: Costa Rica / Sweden Label: Transcending Obscurity Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 A few years ago Swedish jack-of-all-trades Rogga Johansson and Costa Rican Ronald Jimenez (also known as ‘The Master Butcher’) of bands like Morbid…
Artist: CatacombsCountry: ColombiaLabel: War March RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2022 After a promo CDR that the band spread around at the very end of 2021, the Colombian Death Metal band Catacombs were able to strike a deal with War March Records for a release of…
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: 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…
Artist: Abysmal LordCountry: USALabel: Hells Headbangers RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 Do you remember those years when it was your birthday and that you sneaked down the stairs very early to see the decorated living room and,…
Artist: Heads For The Dead Country: International Label: Transcending Obscurity Records Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 For those who missed the previous two full-length albums (and EP) of Heads For The Dead, it is yet another…
Artist: AssumptionCountry: ItalyLabel: Everlasting Spew RecordsFormats: LP, CDYear: 2022 The 2018 released album ‘Absconditus’ from the Italian Doom/Death Metal band Assumption was described by a VM-Underground colleague as Doom/Death effort that has a lot to offer and compared it to bands like diSEMBOWELMENT, Winter and…
Artist: Gorgasm Country: USA Label: Brutal Mind Formats: CD Year: 2022 When it comes to the more brutal sort of Death Metal with a distinct technical slant, there are very few bands that come close to the ingenuity of Gorgasm…
Artist: SubOrbital Country: Germany Label: War Anthem Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 Besides those classic gory and anti-religious themes, there’s more and more bands choosing a different path. Cosmic-themed Death Metal is no longer something that can be considered a…
Artist: Graveater Country: Estonia Label: Filth Junkies Records / Headsplit Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 Graveater is a new band from Estonia consisting of two members that gained their experience in bands such as Sküllfükk SS, Degeneratör and Ziegenhorn.…
Artist: Sepulchral Rites Country: Chile Label: Dunkelheit Produktionen Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2022 Last year the Chilean, all-female Sepulchral Rites released their debut EP ‘Death And Bloody Ritual’ through Germany’s Dunkelheit Produktionen, and with their regressive sort…
Artist: UnleashedCountry: SwedenLabel: Napalm RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2021 By the end of last year, one of the most renowned Swedish Death Metal bands released their fourteenth album, proving once again that Unleashed definitely belong to The Immortals. While a…
Artist: Ablaze My SorrowCountry: SwedenLabel: Black Lion RecordsFormats: 12″ EP, CD EPYear: 2023 To my mind, Ablaze My Sorrow has always been one of those bands that missed the boat. Deeply rooted in the melodic Swedish Death Metal scene, the…
Artist: Protector Country: Germany Label: High Roller Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 The history of Protector is a rather messy one, with lots of band members getting in and out of the band and also…
Artist: Graceless Country: The Netherlands Label: Into It Records / Raw Skull Records Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 Dutch Death Metal outfit Graceless have been a band that has received quite some exposure over the recent…
Artist: Nightfall Country: Greece Label: Season Of Mist Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 Last summer the Greek Melodic Black/Death Metal band released this digital 2-track EP which they recorded live at the Gagarin Club in Athens in November 2021. Both…
Artist: Nightfall Country: Greece Label: Season Of Mist Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 Within the enigmatic Greek Black Metal scene Nightfall has always been a little of an outcast, both in terms of personnel as in the way they…
Artist: Grave Infestation Country: Canada Label: Invictus Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Old School, rotten, infectious Death Metal from the grave, that’s what this four-piece Canadian band is offering you. And if you have been reading VM-Underground for…
Artist: Grave Infestation Country: Canada Label: Invictus Productions Formats: LP Year: 2022 To commemorate the release of Grave Infestation’s first full-length album, Invictus Productions also released this compilation LP (so far only released on vinyl) of the Canadian’s first two…
Artist: Blood / IncantationCountry: Germany / USALabel: Hells Headbangers RecordsFormats: Split 7″ EPYear: 2022 This is the sort of split EP that you knew was coming, I can imagine the chuckle the label and bands had when working out the…
Artist: Eye Of Purgatory Country: Sweden Label: Transcending Obscurity Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2021 Just when I thought I had reviewed enough of Rogga Johansson’s releases this year, having spent quite some words on a fair share of…
Artist: CatacombCountry: FranceLabel: XenoKorpFormats: 12″ EP / Cassette tape EP / CD EPYear: 2022 One of my favourite early 90’s 7” EP’s is ‘In The Maze Of Kadath’ of the French Death Metal band Catacomb. Their doom-laden, almost hallucinating kind of Death Metal…
Artist: Lucifericon Country: The Netherlands Label: Invictus Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 After releasing three EP’s and one full-length album, the Dutch Black/Death Metal combo Lucifericon is ready to strike again with a new full-length…
Artist: Disgusting PerversionCountry: GermanyLabel: Black SunsetFormats: CDYear: 2022 Judging by the album title you’d almost expect an album in some mid 90’s Doom or Gothic Metal style, but you couldn’t be more wrong. Disgusting Perversion brings you unadulterated Old School…
Artist: Tchornobog / AbyssalCountry: USA / United KingdomLabel: Lupus Lounge / Vigor DeconstructFormats: Split LP / Split tape / Split CDYear: 2022 Lupus Lounge is presenting a very interesting split LP (also released on CD and on cassette tape by…
Artist: AbradedCountry: USALabel: Aggressively Uninterested / Maggot StompFormats: Cassette tape / CDYear: 2021 Although this album was released by the very end of last year (on both cassette tape and CD by Maggot Stomp), it seems to be getting some…
Artist: ChasmdwellerCountry: CanadaLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Canadian Chasmdweller again only needed a few months to come up with new music already. This time it’s a 25-minute EP, ‘Festering In Aural Trauma’, that we get to dwell…
Artist: CryptivoreCountry: AustraliaLabel: Awakening Records / Bitter Loss RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 The first demo of Australian one-man band Cryptivore was already received with great enthusiasm on our pages. My colleague was shocked by the quality the band had…