Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Faerie Magic Country: USA/Australia Label: Black Omen Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 What we have here is a new band making its debut with ‘Upon The Black Soil’. But while Faerie Magic is a new band, the three musicians…
Artist: Spellblade Country: Unknown Label: Crucifixion Wounds Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Without any information to go on, we’ll have to rely primarily on the music itself when discussing ‘Citadel’, Spellblade’s debut demo. Just as there is no information available…
Artist: Tol-In-Gaurhoth Country: Bulgaria Label: Blasphemous Rumours Promotion Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2026 For those thoroughly versed in the world of J.R.R. Tolkien, the name Tol-In-Gaurhoth might ring a bell. That wasn’t the case for me, and I had to…
Artist: Vhünkhobeltràkh Country: Chile Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Lately, it seems like choosing the strangest and most unpronounceable band names has become a way to score points for being obscure. I get that a lot of names…
Artist: Entrancement Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: Digital Year: 2026 Sometimes a title says more than you can explain in a few words, but as you might have guessed, this is indeed a compilation of Entrancement’s first two demos.…
Artist: Blood Spirit Country: Australia Label: Into The Pentagram Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 It’s a bit hard to imagine, but despite Drowning The Light’s ever-intense release schedule, mastermind Azgorh has also found time to join a new band called…
Artist: Desert Fox Country: Poland Label: Gates Of Hell Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 From ever fertile Silesian grounds comes yet another old school Speed Metal band, and like most of their contemporaries, they too have a good few…
Artist: Vomit Mass Country: Greece Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Anyone who has read some of my reviews before may have noticed that I can be quite critical when it comes to Death Metal. I’m tired of mid-tempo, boring Death Metal, and passion…
Artist: Hammerthrone Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Hammerthrone is a new band that emerged from the ideas of a few like-minded musicians from Austin, Texas, USA, who are also active in other bands playing different musical…
Artist: Funeral Vultures Country: Brazil Label: Moon Rites Productions / Reliquaire Hérétique Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 ‘Dread Cenotaph’ is the first release for this one-man Black Metal from Brazil, but while it was first distributed digitally through Moon Rites…
Artist: Noctis Bellum Country: USA Label: Torture Palace Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 I wouldn’t go so far as to say that it was Vargrav and Evilfeast who, with their respective ‘Netherstorm’ (2018) and ‘Elegies Of The Stellar Wind’ (2017) single-handedly put…
Artist: Fulminate Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Fulminate, a one-man project from the US that combines Goregrind and Death Metal in a thoroughly old school way, was founded in 2022 and has since built up a…
Artist: Szmrdt Country: Czechia Label: Filth Junkies Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 It will come as no surprise that, even more than the artwork and the logo, it was the title of this debut demo tape that caught my…
Artist: Gaalvan Country: Germany Label: Crimson Reign Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Gaalvan is a rather new one-man Black Metal project from Germany, solely helmed by Dark Tormentor (also in Asmodeum). As is more often the case with one-man…
Artist: Aürc Country: Spain Label: Diabolical Vitriol Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 One-man Black Metal project Aürc, hailing from Catalonia, Spain, debuted with a digital demo called ‘Autumn Fires’ by the end of 2021, yet it remained largely unnoticed. Yours…
Artist: Mughtasib Country: Spain Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 This second demo tape by Mexican one-man band Mughtasib, which translates to “Violator”, is simply called ‘Invictus’ and continues the path chosen about two years ago when…
Artist: Harvest Of Grief Country: Spain Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Medieval Prophecy Records, home to Forbidden Temple, one of my favourite bands in the ancient rotting Black Metal genre, was once a label where you…
Artist: Diavol Country: Romania Label: Self-Releasaed Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Diavol is a relatively new band, hailing from the seemingly fertile Heavy Metal grounds in Bucharest, Romania. It is a duo consisting of Mike Witchspit on drums and on…
Artist: Grieving Mirror Country: USA Label: Neuro Plastic Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 In summer last year, Grieving Mirror debuted with ‘Opulence And Grandeur’, a very interesting demo tape that showed the multifaceted character of this one-man project, led by…
Artist: Crévüre Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Whether Sanglant is also involved with other bands or projects, I do not know, but either way, ‘En Rase Campagne’ is the debut demo tape of Crévüre. As one might expect, judging by…
Artist: Blood Ecstacy Country: Spain Label: Diabolical Vitriol Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Although Spain’s Extreme Metal scene is one of the smallest in Europe relative to the country’s population, there’s always something great to experience. It may be a sad thought that the…
Artist: Bloodaxe Holocaust Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Bloodaxe Holocaust is the brainchild of Jake Davids and is at the helm all by himself. Whether this means the end of Sorrow’s Maw, that debuted with…
Artist: Fegefeuer Country: Germany Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: LP Year: 2026 Narbentage Produktionen, the label behind this vinyl reissue of the only recording Fegefeuer ever made, is based in the village of Ralingen, a town situated right on the Luxembourg…
Artist: Nathrath Country: Spain Label: Narbentage Produktionen Format: Demo Tape Year: 2026 For an old soul like me, it’s still nice to actually hear a demo on cassette tape, especially a first one. In fact, I have nothing against demos being made available digitally,…
Artist: Mortal Dread Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2026 Of course, there is every reason for a label to provide a release with some words of praise as part of its promotional work. Often, however,…
Artist: Pus Excretor Country: Mexico Label: Extremely Rotten Productions / Me Saco Un Ojo / Templum Obscenum Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2025 Pus Excretor is a Mexican one-man Death Metal/Grindcore band that released…
Artist: Astral Bewitchment Country: USA Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Although this demo was already released in digital form in October 2025 through the artist’s Bandcamp page and a few months later also through the…
Artist: Dødmoon Country: Finland Label: Signal Rex Formats: Demo tape / Demo CD Year: 2026 With pulsating pace and rasping vocals Dødmoon kicks off its first release ‘Demø MMXXV’. These Finns mean business with Black Metal in the Scandinavian style.…
Artist: Lokabrenna Country: Iceland Label: Sect Entropy Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 After the release of ‘Flesh Cathedral’ in 2012, a real underground hype arose around Svartidauði, which marked the start of the Icelandic Black Metal “boom” and the hipsster…
Artist: Chalice Of Eden Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Fallen Warrior is not a musician who likes to take it easy. With his projects Chalice Of Eden and Occult Mountain, he fired a veritable barrage of…
Artist: Akhoth Country: Australia Label: Sorcery Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 ‘Storm Of Pagan Fury’, the latest demo from Australian band Akhoth, sounds as if time has stood still. In fact, everything here exudes nostalgia. Not just the music,…
Artist: Ancient Necromancy Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: Demo CDr Year: 2026 Eldrinacht, the sole force behind this project, is involved in a number of bands and projects, including Cult of Thaumiel, Gharmelicht, and the formidable Moonlight’s Empathy, and…
Artist: Void Meditation Cult Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: 12″ EP Year: 2026 When I got my hands on Sperm Of Antichrist’s ‘Blight And Darkness’ demo in 2009, I was truly blown away. Although it was clearly based…
Artist: Abysmal Decay Country: United Kingdom Label: Goreture Rex / Old Skull Productions Formats: 7″ / Demo tape Year: 2025 After the solid self-titled demo tape that was issued earlier in 2025, UK Death Metal band Abysmal Decay released a…
Artist: Funeral Fire Country: Japan Label: Rat Covenant Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 In the summer of last year, Funeral Fire’s debut demo was reissued through the German label Menscheinfeind Propaganda and in the waning moments of 2025 the same honour befell the band’s last…
Artist: Terrorshroud Country: Greece Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Terrorshroud is a new Black/Death Metal band rising from the ever-fertile Greek underground scene. But while the individual band members only go by their initials and with blurred-out photos, it is at least known…
Artist: Forbidden Temple Country: Belgium Label: Gramschap Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Just as I was late reviewing ‘In The Rotting Grave’, I am also a little late covering this rehearsal tape that followed it. But although I would prefer…
Artist: Verwándlung Country: Australia Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2025 Although a physical cassette tape version has been announced, this debut demo by Australian band Verwándlung, recorded in separate sessions between 2024 and mid-2025, is only available digitally via…
Artist: Warfare Noise Country: Paraguay Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Even though Warfare Noise has been around for almost fifteen years already and has a considerable discography, they never landed on these pages before. Not even with the…
Artist: Lugubrious Garment Country: Italy Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: Demo Tape / CD Demo Year: 2025 Honestly, if this demo tape wasn’t released on Nuclear Winter Records, I am pretty sure I would’ve never heard it. Maybe it’s short-sighted…
Artist: Flesh Hierarchy Country: USA Label: Grotesque Devotion Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Flesh Hierarchy is the brainchild of a person named JN, and if we were to believe the internet sources, this one-man project is the first step into…
Artist: Abhorration Country: Norway Label: Invictus Productions Formats: LP Year: 2025 With the release of ‘Demonolatry’ at the end of 2024, Abhorration’s name buzzed through the underground. And not without reason: the album was a highlight in Extreme Metal in…
Artist: Final Ritual Country: Chile Label: Oratorivm Records Format: Demo Tape Year: 2026 ‘Ulterior Spiritual Resonances’ is the debut demo of a new band from Chile, and although that is basically it as far as the available information goes, that…
Artist: Lecherous Country: USA Label: Self-Released Format: Digital Demo Year: 2025 After a digital demo and two rather low-profile split releases (of which one was also only released digitally), the USA-based Bestial Black/Death Metal band Lecherous published another digital demo…
Artist: Dark Fog Eruption Country: Japan Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Dark Fog Eruption started sometime in the late 2010s and has been around for a while now, yet I haven’t really paid much attention to them. And…
Artist: Sepulchral Witchcraft Country: Russia Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2026 Although Sepulchral Witchcraft is a (new) band from Russia, there’s musically nothing that seems to tie the band to their native scene – or at least what we usually associate with Russian Black…
Artist: Sulphuric Deity Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2026 Although this demo seems to have been in the works for quite some time, this is still a new band for most people. Only those who regularly visit Reddit or Instagram may…
Artist: Caprice Steel Country: Chile Label: Eseocho Label Formats: Demo CD Year: 2025 When we talk about Chile as a country that provides metal enthusiasts with new music, we are almost always referring to Death Metal or Black Metal, and…
Artist: Genocidal Sodomy Country: Thailand Label: Unpure Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Thai Bestial Black/Death Metal band Genocidal Sodomy first came to my radar with the split 7” EP with Savage Necromancy that was released in 2020, but even…
Artist: Bestial Warlust Country: Australia Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: 12″ / Cassette / CD Year: 2026 Although bands like Impaled Nazarene, Blasphemy and Beherit were already blending the ferocity and darkness of Black Metal with the blunt brutality of…