Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: FertilizerCountry: CanadaLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 As of late Canadian Black Metal is best known for the somewhat more refined and at the same time furious Black Metal scene, bands like Sorcier Des Glaces, Forteresse, Cantique Lepreux, Monarque and…
Artist: Rotpit Country: Germany / Sweden Label: Selfmadegod Records / Seven Inches Of Metal Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2021 Rotpit is one of the many projects led by Jonny Pettersson, best known for his work in…
Artist: VampirblutCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demo, SingleYear: 2022 American one-man Black Metal act Vampirblut releases one demo and single/EP after another with dizzying speed. So many that even Metal-Archives is struggling to give a complete picture, various demos are circulating…
Artist: Dracul’s GraspCountry: CanadaLabel: Extinctionist RecordsFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 Dracul’s Grasp is one of the latest outings of the illustrious figure of Darghul, who also goes under the name of Extinctionist and runs the Extinctionist Records label and has well over 20 active bands…
Artist: Infester Country: USA Label: Nuclear Winter Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Infester is one of the ‘hidden gems’ from the underground American Death Metal scene. They achieved a certain cult status with relatively little materialised legacy. 1992’s…
Artist: CalufraxCountry: CanadaLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 Calufrax is quite a mysterious Black Metal act from Toronto, Canada. It is led by someone who goes under the name of Peon and released some demos and one full-length in the past,…
Artist: Sexmag Country: Poland Label: Dying Victims Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 After their “tasteful” debut EP ‘Sex Metal’ from 2021, these Poles returned last summer with this new demo tape, which, like the EP, was also released by…
Artist: Torturer’s LobbyCountry: USALabel: PromulgatorFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 Death Metal has a rich history when it comes to themes and musically elaborated concepts. The most well-trodden paths are death and destruction on one side and the anti-Christian on the other.…
Artist: Corpse DesecrationCountry: USALabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Demo CDYear: 2022 Corpse Desecration is a Cleveland, Ohio based Death Metal crew and released their first demo only a couple of days ago. Apart from their origin, no further information about the band is…
Artist: Self Execration Country: USA Label: War Ritual Records Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2022 What we have here is yet another one-man Black Metal act from America. Self Execration is the brainchild of the somewhat misogynistic character of Slutslaughterer who…
Artist: Putrescine Country: Germany Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2021 From Berlin, Germany comes this three-piece Death Metal band. In 2020 they released their first demo tape ‘Putrescent Utterance’ through the Italian Unholy Domain label – with an extra…
Artist: Tírad Dûr Country: USA Label: Night Of The Palemoon Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 After reviewing some of Kūka’ilimoku’s releases, a look at its spiritual father’s other projects was, of course, inevitable. Although Kūka’ilimoku is Kūwāha’ilo’s main musical vehicle,…
Artist: Moonlight Sword Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2022 From Greensboro, North Carolina, comes Moonlight Sword, a one-man Black Metal act. Or rather, a one-woman Black Metal act. The lady in question, who calls herself Carmilla II…
Artist: Moonlight Sword Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2022 With ‘Elven Blood’ Carmilla II Dracul returns with a follow-up to her ‘Elvenwinter’-demo, released earlier this year. The demo gave a nice first taste of the music of…
Artist: Repulsive Mass Country: Sweden Label: Brutal Cave Productions / Noise Horde Productions Formats: Demo Tape / Demo CD Year: 2021 Patrik Tegnander, the man behind this one-man Death Metal act we have featured on the pages of VM-Underground before…
Artist: Blessing LycanthropyCountry: SlovakiaLabel: Keepers Of The Flame / Pant Y MeddygonFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 From one of the oldest cities of Slovakia comes this new Black Metal act, Blessing Lycanthropy. The exact age of the city of Nitra is…
Artist: EntrenchedCountry: PolandLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Demo CDYear: 2022 At the end of last year, our VM-Underground chief-editor Ricardo was very enthusiastic about the first demo of this Polish one-man Death Metal act. I know he loves that specific Boss HM-2 sound,…
Artist: Imperishable Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2021 Recently, I reviewed a compilation by a forgotten band from the Swedish Death Metal scene. In doing so, I argued that we still reap all the tasty fruits of…
Artist: Nachtheir Country: USA Label: Banner of Blood / Gleaming Ash Collective / TormentRex Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 I first heard of Nachtheir through the three-way split tape with Hekseblad and Vér (2022, Wilt-Shine). The song that this American…
Artist: Haradrim Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2022 For the non-Lord of the Rings aficionado among us: The Haradrim were the race of Men from Harad in the region of Middle-Earth, directly south of Gondor. These people…
Info Artist: Vel’HarCountry: GermanyLabel: Sentient Ruin LaboratoriesFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2022 Although the band denies it, Vel’Hal was part of Chile’s Black Metal underground elitist circle that goes under the name of ‘Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague’. Whether that is…
Artist: Amorphous DominionCountry: ThailandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 This Bangkok, Thailand based Black Metal band Amorphous Dominion started in 2018 from the spirited soul of ‘Sunrize Eclipse’, who after some time realised that he could only realise his black visions…
Artist: Worm Altar Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2022 When I think of the state of Maine (USA), which I have never visited, my thoughts mainly consist of the imaginary and gloomy images I have acquired while…
Artist: ExhumationCountry: SpainLabel: Pesta Negra RecordsFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 For many listening to a Funeral Doom Metal record is, and fair enough, a gruelling ride; it may even seem a form of self-flagellation. To fully grasp the painfully slow music,…
Artist: Hekseblad Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2021 This is the first 1-track demo of this American Black Metal duo, consisting out of Frosk who is responsible for all instrumentation and Bruxa who contributes the vocals. When…
Artist: Klaaromstesterven Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2019 The Bandcamp-page of this one-man act says that it is from the UK, something I do not dispute, but judging from the Dutch band name it is a…
Artist: Anal VomitCountry: PeruLabel: Black Legion RecordsFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 It was about 17 years ago when I reviewed Anal Vomit’s ‘Demonic Flagellations’ (From Beyond Productions) for VM-Underground’s predecessor and also conducted an interview with the band about these early…
Artist: KastijderCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Dark Adversary Productions / New Era ProductionsFormats: 12″ Demo / Demo tape / Demo CDYear: 2021 The Dutch Black Metal scene is buzzing. After years where it was only a few bands like Countess, Funeral Winds,…
Artist: AargønCountry: USALabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 This is another Black Metal project led by one individual and this one hails from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada and released a two-track demo simply called ‘Demo No. 1’. It was Spotify that drew…
Artist: OerheksCountry: BelgiumLabel: Amor Fati Productions / Babylon Doom Cult RecordsFormats: 12″ Demo / Demo tapeYear: 2022 This Belgian Black Metal act Oerheks is the brainchild of H (Hans Cools) who we also know from bands such as Hypothermia, Silver…
Artist: Frozen Blood Country: Chile Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital single Year: 2022 Frozen Blood is a new Old School Death Metal duo from Chile who will be releasing their debut demo tape by the end of this year through Diabolical…
Artist: Opus Magorum Country: Greece Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP Year: 2022 This Greek Black Metal band Opus Magorum has been around for over 20 years with its formation in 2001. But don’t feel embarrassed if you haven’t heard…
Artist: Merciless Savagery Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2022 In a male-dominated world it is always great to encounter an all-female metal band, especially when they sound as crude and savage as Merciless Savagery – a very…
Artist: DisfallenCountry: NorwayLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 The genre of Doom/Death Metal has always been a bit of a niche in both the Death Metal and Doom Metal genres. It is not a genre that is played by many bands,…
Artist: Spectral Knight Country: Poland Label: Darkness Resurrection Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 ‘Awakening Of Barbarism’ is the third release of this Polish one-man Black Metal act. All three are (rehearsal) demos, which means this one is also in…
Artist: Silenced Voice Country: Cyprus Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Tape Year: 2022 My guess is that Cyprus might not be the first place to think of when it comes to Black Metal. Yet that is the home of this new…
Artist: VesthangarthCountry: ChileLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 That Chilean metal is on the rise is something we have known for years. After an impressive rise of Chilean Death Metal, in recent years the Black Metal scene has also been flooded…
Artist: XegrenCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Demo tapeYear: 2022 This one-woman Black Metal act from Portland, Oregon recorded quite an impressive output with her other solo-project Mortal. If I counted well, Mortal’s back-catalogue consists out of no less than 34 titles, all…
Artist: XegrenCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 The advantage of making and releasing music on your own is that you are not tied to others for the times when you want to or can work on the music. This also…
Artist: XegrenCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 A mere three weeks after Xegren’s first and self-titled demo tape Mila returns with a digital new (rather short) 1-track demo. The new track that just runs over 2 minutes and is not…
Artist: Mezexis Country: Chile Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 After the Big Wave Of Chilean Death Metal that started about 15 years ago, it now seems there’s coming more and more Black Metal from this South American hotspot…
Artist: Funeralizer Country: Japan Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital demo Year: 2022 We’ve known for years that Swedish Death Metal doesn’t necessarily have to be Swedish. In the meantime, some pretty good clones have come out of all parts of the…
Artist: Lord Valtgryftåke Country: Chile Label: Mahamvantara Arts Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2022 Under various different names the music of Lord Valtgryftåke could have already reached you, as he has been a very active figure in the Chilean underground Black…
Artist: Malevolent Creation Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2021 Ever since Death Metal band Malevolent Creation formed in 1986 and despite the many ups and downs in their three-and-a-half decade career, the band has always been…
Artist: Vampiric SolitudeCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 Vampiric themes have been all the rage in recent years, indeed, within underground Black Metal it is currently the most popular subject. The times that only Black Funeral was involved in this…
Artist: Caustic PhlegmCountry: United KingdomLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital DemoYear: 2022 These days gnarly and cavernous Death Metal seems to be incredibly popular. Labels like Me Saco Un Ojo and Dark Descent Records seem to be caught up in a kind of race in which…
Artist: BogatyrCountry: RussiaLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 Black Metal is pre-eminently the genre for one-man bands and projects. I can’t even count how many of those I’ve come across over the years. But it is something that very often seems…
Artist: Destruction RitualCountry: France / USALabel: End All Life Productions / Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: LP / Cassette tape Year: 2021 The last time we heard any new material featuring French Black Metal vocalist MkM was the release of Antaeus’ relentless…
Artist: I, Of The Trees And Wind Country: Sweden / United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2022 This oddly named new band is a collaboration of Swedish and British musicians, who put together this 2-track demo of cold…
Artist: Sammorra Shadow Country: Ukraine Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2022 Ukraine has been a country that has delivered many a great Black Metal band, most of these bands have a rather distinctive and recognizable sound. This Sammorra Shadow…