Velvet Sorrow – Demo I

Artist: Velvet Sorrow Country: USA Label: Luciferous Cruor Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 In recent years the little niche of raw yet atmospheric Black Metal has spawned a lot of bands, but amongst them are a lot bands that using…

Kirous – VII [Demo]

Artist: Kirous Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2023 Literally on the very edge of 2023, on December 30th, hard working Finnish one-man force Kirous releases yet another short but sweet digital demo. Like the title already suggests,…

Moonlight Sword – Imperial Dragoon Kommando [Demo]

Artist: Moonlight Sword Country: USA Label: Oakheart Production Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 In 2022 the one-woman band Moonlight Sword released two fine digital demos, that both also appeared on cassette tape by the Belgian Rabauw label. Carmilla II Dracul,…

Haan Valar – Devotion To Xemzara [Demo]

Artist: Haan Valar Country: USA Label: Mamzer Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Apart from the big commercial success of Rotting Christ, that mythical sound of Greek Black Metal has always been loved, it was mostly appreciated by a small…

Nekromanteion – The Sinister Flame [Demo / Re-Release]

Artist: Nekromanteion Country: Bolivia Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2024 Nekromanteion from Bolivia came to my path with their split 7” EP with Nebiros (2014) and the following ‘Cosmic Horrors’ 7” EP from 2015, both released by…

Gouffre – Demo III

Artist: Gouffre Country: Belgium Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 After two great demo tapes released in 2019 and 2021 and the 2022-released split 7” EP with their compatriots of Phlegethon’s Majesty the band returned to the…

Iätön – Loitsutulet [Demo]

Artist: IätönCountry: FinlandLabel: Altare ProductionsFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2023 Iätön is the brainchild of musicians Woewrb and Penetreichtus I. Formed in 2022, the band hailing from Oulu, Finland, recently released their very first demo courtesy of the mighty Altare Productions. Those…

Satans Mördör – Into The Cold Eternity… [Demo]

Artist: Satans Mördör Country: Unknown Label: Mamzer Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 ‘Into The Cold Eternity…’ was initially a digital self-released demo that appeared in December 2023, but since its impeccable quality it really needed a physical release as well. The…

Cursed Penetrator – Satanic Slaughter [Demo]

Artist: Cursed Penetrator Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Behind this new Finnish act are two anonymous individuals going under the names of “Desecrator Of Holy Cunt” and “Priest Of Angel Sodomy”, but at least one of them is…

Astral Crypt Of Moloch – Impurity [Demo]

Artist: Astral Crypt Of Moloch Country: USA Label: Death Hymns Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 In 2019 the elusive and mysterious one-man act Astral Crypt Of Moloch released one demo tape which served the listener some of the better Raw and Lo-Fi…

Lagnia – Sigil [Demo]

Artist: Lagnia Country: Germany Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 With little to no information about this new German Black Metal band, I took a deep dive into their first recording. Just like the band name the title of…

Veret – Demons Rise, Demons Ride! [Demo]

Artist: VeretCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 Freshly conceived in 2023 and consisting of colorful pseudonyms like Vitriolic Voidseeker, Sepulcher Violator, Morbid Skullfukker and Perverse Korpse comes Veret. On their very first demo the Finnish four-piece takes the fierceness of…

Wolves Of Desor – Lost Kingdom Of The Giants [Demo]

Artist: Wolves Of Desor Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Although ‘Lost Kingdom Of The Giants’ is the first brain child of Wraithlord, the youthful mind behind Wolves Of Desor, under this moniker, he has been spawning…

Annihilation Cult – Demonstration MMXXIII [Demo]

Artist: Annihilation Cult Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Although ‘Demonstration MMXXIII’ is the first offering of this new American outfit, it does not consist out of newbees. On the contrary, the trio are also active in…

Grïixis – Srenvëlet Falëndalët [Demo]

Artist: Grïixis Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Without the need of having to give any specific examples, some countries are special when it comes to their local (extreme) metal scenes. The beauty of Black Metal is…

Kratti – Demo 2023

Artist: KrattiCountry: FinlandLabel: Escafismo Records / TÄH! RecordsFormats: Demo tape / Demo CDYear: 2023 Anleifr strikes again. Having previously impressed with Xavarthan, Stutyr and Herugrim, the multi-instrumentalist returns with Kratti in which he’s joined by Elliot and Sami. Black Metal is…

Fertilizer – The World Continues To Turn [Demo]

Artist: Fertilizer Country: Canada Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Last year around the same time I reviewed the first demo, simply called ‘Demo’, of Canadian one-man act Fertilizer and was quite enamored by the mix of styles that…

Gotthammer – Godslaying Sonic Barbarism [Demo]

Artist: Gotthammer Country: Canada Label: Forbidden Sonority Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 As of late it seems that there is an increasing amount of bands that do seem to worship the sound of the old Black/Death/Grind-sound that was originally brought…

Luciferian Annihilation Cult – Hail To The Whore [Demo]

Artist: Luciferian Annihilation Cult Country: Germany Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Black and white cover? Check. Red logo? Check. Satanic imagery? Check. Barbarian sounding band name and release title? Check! Even without listening to a single chord of…

Miserable Creature – 3 [Demo]

Artist: Miserable Creature Country: Australia Label: Transylvanian Recordings Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 Miserable Creature, a duo from Melbourne, Australia is presenting their third mutual effort under the rather uninspired title ‘3’. Just like with the previous two demos, released…

Necrogore – Digging From Below [EP]

Artist: Necrogore Country: Italy Label: Wrong Disk Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 Necrogore from Italy is a new band on the block of its country’s Death Metal scene, but while the band might be a new acquisition to the…

Vomit Messiah – Demo

Artist: Vomit Messiah Country: Spain Label: In Pulverem Mortis Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 Just as the band needed remarkably few words to title this debut demo, it can sometimes be as easy to write a review. This brand-new…

Protrusion – Demo 2023

Artist: Protrusion Country: USA Label: Unholy Domain Records / Sevared Records / A Sangre Fría Records Formats: Demo Tape / Demo CD Year: 2023 Although Protrusion is a new band at the front, three of its four members have a…

Triclavian – Pierced By The Spear [EP]

Artist: Triclavian Country: Canada Label: Serpents Head Reprisal Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 While this trio from Canada may be a somewhat arcane entity, with all three members appearing only by their initials, the fact that this demo (or EP,…

Victimarum – Demo 2023

Artist: VictimarumCountry: Finland:Label: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 One look at the corpsepaint pictures in snowclad landscapes might narrow down the options, but all it really takes is just pressing play on the digital ‘Demo 2023’ to realize that Victimarum is…

Chevallier Skrog – Brethren Relegatus [Demo]

Artist: Chevallier Skrog Country: Sweden Label: Legion Blotan / Pant Y Meddygon Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 The ever-productive MBN is not always making life easy for us; while it is of course pleasing not to have to wait long…

Casket Flesh – Soundscapes Of Horror [Demo]

Artist: Casket Fesh Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 Whether there will ever be a shortage of gory and zombie-inspired Death Metal is of course only questionable, but if it is up to Casket Flesh that moment…

Stenched – Gorging On Mephitic Rot [Demo]

Artist: Stenched Country: Mexico Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 There was a time when all muddy Death Metal would be gobbled up like sweet pie by me, around the transition from the 00’s to the 10’s, all over…

Nights Horn – Blood Soul [Demo]

Artist: Nights Horn Country: France Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo tape Year: 2023 Of course, it is nonsensical to write an essay on Dissection’s far-reaching influence on today’s extreme metal scene. Almost weekly, we are treated to bands that (sometimes more…

Ritual Hammer – Demo 2023

Artist: Ritual Hammer Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 There is little background information to give you any guidance before you turn on ‘Demo 2023’ by Ritual Hammer. But this demo, so far only available as a…

Verhinderer – Groschenroman [Demo]

Artist: Verhinderer Country: Germany Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2023 With ‘Groschenroman’, we already have Verhinderer’s third demo/EP in our hands, and that in less than a few months, as the band was only started in 2023. This one-man…

Noirceur – In The Cold Winter [Demo]

Artist: NoirceurCountry: FranceLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 Anyone with any interest in the underground Black Metal of the 1990’s must undoubtedly have stumbled across one of the bands from the illustrious Les Legions Noires at least once. This collective comprised…

Burning Winds – Black Satanic Mass [Demo]

Artist: Burning WindsCountry: USALabel: Heidens HartFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2023 Aside from a sporadic release as a demo CDR, a split LP, a compilation LP and a split 7″, Burning Winds’ entire (impressive) output has been released on cassette tape, so…

Oerheks – Landschapsanachronismen [Demo]

Artist: OerheksCountry: BelgiumLabel: Amor Fati Productions / Babylon Doom Cult RecordsFormats: 12″ Demo / Demo tapeYear: 2023 In the region of Cagghenvinna (currently known as Kaggevinne) in Belgium, a forest called the Prinsenbos once stood proud. Victim to the greed…

Verhinderer – Angstwelt / Wunschwelt [Demo]

Artist: VerhindererCountry: GermanyLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 Very hot on the heels, only three weeks after the release of the band’s debut EP ‘Ruhepol’, Verhinderer already presents its second feat with this new digital demo. ‘Ruhepol’ appealed to me not…

Knüth – Demo VIII (MMXXIII)

Artist: Knüth Country: Russia Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2023 After quite a steady and impressive working pace, the duo that makes up this Russian Black Metal band fell kind of silent by late 2021. In November of that…

Nightside – Lions [Demo]

Artist: NightsideCountry: FinlandLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: Demo CDYear: 2023 When Nightside was formed in Turku, Finland in 1996, there wasn’t so much of a Finnish Black Metal scene as we know it today. Sure, bands like Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Archgoat…

Sokeus – Immortal Wisdom [Demo]

Artist: SokeusCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2023 With ‘Immortal Wisdom’ the Finnish duo behind black metal band Sokeus shove their second demo under our collective noses. The first, ‘Forever Cursed’ saw the light of day last summer and already gave…

Yellow Obelisk – Demo

Artist: Yellow ObeliskCountry: United KingdomLabel: Negate EverythingFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 Hardly anything is known about this act, of which I presume is from the UK, so instead we go and dive directly into their brand of Raw Black Metal. The…

Psoglav – Cyrkovni Urodi [Demo]

Artist: Psoglav Country: Bulgaria Label: Diabolic Hate Propaganda Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 With new works by Todorac, the inspirer behind this new project, it is always worth taking a moment to delve into the background and meaning of…

Feeding – Promo 2023

Artist: FeedingCountry: CanadaLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2023 Although this Canadian Death Metal band already released a couple of demos over the past few years, they are relatively unknown, even to such an extent that they haven’t been included on Metal-Archives…

Opaque Blue – Ocean’s Exquisite Mist [Demo]

Artist: Opaque Blue Country: Bosnia And Herzegovina Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2023 This new Raw Black Metal band was born as a side-project of Black Stem Rust, an interesting but quirky Black Metal act from Bosnia And Herzegovina.…

CEP – First Tape [Demo]

Artist: CEPCountry: SwedenLabel: Pant Y MeddygonFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2023 It might not come as a total surprise, but ‘First Tape’ is actually this band’s first release. But while this might be the first offering of the band, at least one…

Kasturn – Rehearsal Promo 23 [Demo]

Artist: Kasturn Country: United Kingdom Label: Death Hymns Formats: Demo tape Year: 2023 Although it is not 1997 anymore, but I could’ve picked any other random bygone year, sometimes a good cover still does the trick. On my daily foray…

Arzhaabat – Forest Tribes Triumphant [Demo]

Artist: ArzhaabatCountry: SwedenLabel: Pant Y MeddygonFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2023 Arzhaabat is a new musical vehicle of the ever-prolific MBN (Chevallier Skrog among other and the person behind the Pant Y Meddygon label). This time, he is once again all alone at the helm, bringing us…