Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
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: Outlaw Country: Brazil Label: Drakkar Productions – South American Division Formats: CD EP Year: 2021 Outlaw is an international band made up of band members from at least Brazil and Finland who, despite this EP being my first introduction…
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: 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: Sex Messiah Country: Japan Label: Austral Holocaust Records / Nuclear War Now! Productions / Sex Desire Records Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 I once read an article that Japanese would be the most…
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: 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: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 In a span of a few days (8th, 10th and 13th of January), Azgorh and his Drowning The Light brought us no less than three new releases. A full-length album and two EPs, of which…
Artist: Sigh Country: Japan Label: Deathheadz Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 From such a populous country as Japan, there are remarkably few extreme metal bands. Yet a lively metal scene has existed there since the 1980s, at least, it seems.…
Artist: Flames Country: Greece Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 Hot on the heals of their first album in over a quarter of a century, the Greek Thrash Metallers of Flames self-released this 2-track rehearsal EP. So, people who…
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: 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: 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: Inferno Requiem Country: Taiwan Label: Death Kvlt Productions / Death Prayer Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2021 Maybe origin plays a role, Taiwanese Black Metal is not something that will be on everyone’s lips right now. But whatever the…
Artist: Drowning The LightCountry: AustraliaLabel: Dark Adversary ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 Very hot on the heels of Drowning The Light’s latest offering, Azgorh’s seventeenth full-length album with Drowning The Light ‘Haunter Of The Deep’, he returns with the already announced first of a…
Artist: FelvumCountry: UkraineLabel: Out Of SeasonFormats: Cassette EPYear: 2022 Founded at the very beginning of 2022, the Ukranian Black Metal band Felvum was already able to spawn its first EP, ‘Fullmoon Mysticism’, in early April. The current status of the…
Artist: BlodtårCountry: SwedenLabel: Nordvis ProduktionFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2021 Around the turn of the year, the Swedish Black Metal band Blodtår released their self-titled debut EP, with the CD version by the very end of last year and…
Artist: AlburnumCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Babylon Doom Cult RecordsFormats: Cassette CD / CD EPYear: 2022 The Dutch band Alburnum is a relatively new act from the ever-fertile Black Metal scene of the city of Utrecht. Like many (very) local scenes, 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Shrieking Demons Country: Italy Label: Caligari Records Formats: Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2021 Formed in 2021 in Italy, Death Metal band Shrieking Demons needed very little time to record their first EP, ‘Diabolical Regurgitations’, which was released…
Artist: Ancient DeathCountry: USALabel: Rotter RecordsFormats: CD EPYear: 2022 This relatively new Walpole, Massachusetts, USA based Death Metal band released their debut EP last summer. ‘Sacred Vessel’ is a 26 minute clocking slab of modern sounding Old School Death Metal…
Artist: Body Asphyxiation ScienceCountry: United KingdomLabel: Gurgling GoreFormats: Cassette EPYear: 2022 Early this year UK Cosmic Death Metal duo Body Asphyxiation Science released a pretty good split tape with Trench Foot, but also this ‘Gravitational Blood Art’ cassette tape EP.…
Artist: Moonlight Sorcery Country: Finland Label: Avantgarde Music Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 At the beginning of this year I was completely blown away by the debut EP from Finnish newcomers Moonlight Sorcery. Just…
Artist: ZemialCountry: GreeceLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2022 Archon Vorskaath has led his brainchild Zemial through many years of musical transitions and past many great releases. On many occasions, the enigmatic act has managed to surprise fans and critics alike. Looking…
Artist: Phlebotomized Country: The Netherlands Label: Hammerheart Records / Petrichor Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2021 Being one of the bands that helped shape the Dutch underground metal scene, many eyes were on Phlebotomized after it was announced…
Artist: Katavasia Country: Greece Label: Iron Bonehead Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2022 Katavasia was formed in 2014 by Varathron mastermind Stefanos ‘Necroabyssious’ Karasavvas, undoubtedly one of the founding fathers of the famous Hellenic Black Metal sound. And although not…
Artist: Bastard Grave / Graveyard GhoulCountry: Sweden / GermanyLabel: Lycanthropic ChantsFormats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2021 On this split 7”, released by Germany’s great underground label Lycanthropic Chants, Swedish Bastard Grave and Graveyard Ghoul from Germany team up for some…
Artist: Cantique LépreuxCountry: CanadaLabel: EisenwaldFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Our loyal readers have already seen many a Canadian Black Metal release pass by, it is a scene that is developing rapidly and producing a good number of, often exceptionally good, acts. In particular,…
Artist: Departure ChandelierCountry: CanadaLabel: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Obliteration RecordsFormats: 10″ EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Originally an independently released demo, ‘Dripping Papal Blood’ got a proper CD release earlier this year through USA’s top purveyors of all things…
Artist: Abysmal LordCountry: USALabel: Blackseed Productions / Serpents Head ReprisalFormats: 7″ EP, Cassette EPYear: 2020 In 2019 we at VM-Underground reviewed Abysmal Lord’s second album, ‘Exaltation Of The Infernal Cabal’ and claimed that the band was able to stand shoulder…
Artist: Hellish Country: Chile Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 As an appetizer for their upcoming album, ‘The Dance of the Four Elemental Serpents’ which is set for a release on December 16th of this year through Dying Victims Records,…
Artist: Deus MortemCountry: PolandLabel: Malignant Voices / Terratur PossessionsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2020 Although both Malignant Voices and Terratur Possessions usually are pretty much the epitome of quality Black Metal, the Polish Deus Mortem had not quite fully…
Artist: ConvulsiveCountry: BrazilLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2022 The Brazilian four-piece of Convulsive released a pretty convincing Death Metal album at the very start of this year, but already returns this fall with a self-released digital demo. If I am correctly…
Artist: Tenebro Country: Italy Label: Xtreem Music Formats: Digital EP Year: 2022 About six months after this Italian horror-drenched Death Metal combo released their debut full-length, they return with a new digital EP. While I did like that first album…
Artist: Sépulcre Country: France Label: Invictus Productions Formats: CD EP Year: 2022 Not long after having their name changed from Demonic Oath to Sépulcre, this four-piece came out with their first demo, ‘Ascent Through Morbid Transcendence’, which grabbed the attention…
Artist: AdaestuoCountry: USALabel: W.T.C. ProductionsFormats: CD EPYear: 2022 Formed in 2014, this three-piece band with bandmembers living on different places on earth (Finland, Poland and the USA), surprised with their first EP in 2016 through W.T.C. Productions, which they followed…
Artist: ChasmdwellerCountry: CanadaLabel: Life After DeathFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Having started out as Doom/Death Metal band, Chasmdweller developed into a full-on, hard hitting yet quite raw Death Metal of the filthiest kind. The band consists out of…
Artist: Cryptic BroodCountry: GermanyLabel: Bitter Loss Records / Burning Coffin Records / Lycanthropic Chants / Necrolatry Records / Rotted Life RecordsFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2022 While Cryptic Brood by no means is the crème de la crème of todays Death Metal…
Artist: Ruach Raah Country: Portugal Label: Signal Rex Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 Ruach Raah, which translates to something ‘Spirit Of Evil’ from Hebrew, has been around for about a decade now and continues to release their stripped down Black…
Artist: DismaCountry: USALabel: Seed Of DoomFormats: Cassette EPYear: 2022 Apart from a few purists who continue to swear by the first demo tape, ‘Towards The Megalith’ is commonly regarded as Disma’s best effort. Some go even as far as calling…
Artist: Hellish Country: Chile Label: Dissonant Death Records / Unspeakable Axe Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2021 It was early in the year 2015 when I first heard of this Chilean Thrash Metal band called Hellish, through…
Artist: BenothingCountry: FinlandLabel: Everlasting Spew RecordsFormats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2021 Originally released at the end of last year on both cassette tape and CD formats, this EP from Finnish Death Metal band Benothing finally found…
Artist: Angra MainyuCountry: SwedenLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2022 The story of the Black Metal band Angra Mainyu from Sweden goes way back to the early 90’s, when they were around under the name of Ahriman. Ahriman was an ancient Persian…
Artist: Pyra Country: Italy Label: Immortal Frost Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Founded in 2020, this Italian Black/Death Metal three-piece released a couple of digital singles in prelude to the official release of their self-titled debut EP through…