Venator – Psychodrome

Artist: Venator Country: Austria Label: Dying Victims Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 Although the NWOBHM-movement has never really stopped attracting new listeners over the past two decades or so, its popularity has been coming and…

Gallower – Vengeance & Wrath

Artist: Gallower Country: Poland Label: Dying Victim Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2025 The current stream of bands playing a Punk-ish, Heavy Metal-tinged sort of Black/Thrash Metal seems endless. And in such situations it is rather hard to stand…

Phantom – Tyrants Of Wrath

Artist: Phantom Country: Mexico Label: High Roller Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 Phantom’s debut record, ‘Handed To Execution’, was one of the absolute highlights of 2023 and consequently ended up in my personal top 5…

Whipstriker – Cry Of Extinction

Artist: Whipstriker Country: Brazil Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 Although Whipstriker feels like they are around since forever, ‘Cry Of Extinction’ is only the band’s fifth full-length album. Their tendency to bombard…

Black Fullmoon – Antithesis of the Light [Demo]

Artist: Black Fullmoon Country: Puerto Rico Label: Mamzer Records / Wolfkult Religion Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025   Pure Les Légions Noires worship: the Puerto Rican Black Metal band Black Fullmoon clearly didn’t hide their intentions for their debut demo.…

Priester – Let The Blood Run Red [Demo]

Artist: Priester Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Priester, a new Heavy/Speed Metal band from Finland, was built upon the bits and pieces that were left after Borley Rectory was put on ice – or at least,…

HellAvenger – The Primordial Fire

Artist: HellAvenger Country: Chile Label: Death Division Rituals / Destruktion Records / Dynamite Records / El Abismo / Holycaust Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 ‘The Primordial Fire’, the debut full-length of this Santiago, Chile based…

Moulin Banal – Sainte-Paix

Artist: Moulin BanalCountry: CanadaLabel: WolfKult ReligionFormats: Cassette tapeYear: 2025 Moulin Banal was a Black Metal band that hailed from Montréal in the Canadian province of Quebec. During its 6 -year existence it initially consisted of Carabinier Carignan, and Comte Bergaby (the mind behind acts like…

Sigon – Thunder of Iron

Artist: SigonCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: DigitalYear: 2025 Part two of “Lord Warmoon conquers the world in 2025” is presented in the form of the debut album of Sigon. In this entity, Lord Warmoon, under the pseudonym Magister Salax D’volta in this…

Armoured Angel – Baptism In Blood [Demo / Re-Release]

Artist: Armoured Angel Country: Australia Label: Hell’s Headbangers Records Formats: LP Year: 2024 Before the band would go on and gain some cult status as one of Australia’s first Extreme Metal bands with quite some demos that influenced the first generation of…

Razör Forge – Nightfall Hunter [7″ EP]

Artist: Razör Forge Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 Although this sort of music is not featured on these pages, it doesn’t mean that we are not fond of a good portion of rough Heavy Metal.…

Deceased – Children Of The Morgue

Artist: Deceased Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Some bands still arouse a kind of youthful enthusiasm in me. But, honestly, there are fewer and fewer of them. That may have…

Phantom – Transylvanian Nightmare [EP]

Artist: Phantom Country: Mexico Label: Doomentia Records / Headsplit Records / Inframetal Records Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2024 Although the band had already released a couple of short players, Phantom from Mexicon only came…

Vömitt – Impale The Sultan [EP]

Artist: Vömitt Country: Romania Label: Self-Releasaed Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 Sometimes not much words are needed to get to the core of something. This new EP from Romanian Vömitt for instance, the band name, logo and EP title do…

Sabbat – Sabbaticult

Artist: Sabbat Country: Japan Label: Evil Horn Records / Iron Pegasus Records / Nuclear War Now! Productions / Old Library Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 As one of the stalwarts of the First Wave of…

Markgraf – Hohenbaden

Artist: Markgraf Country: Germany Label: Blutrausch Propaganda / AbArt Corruption Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2024 Although this German band already released a 12” EP back in 2020, with even a demo a year earlier, Markgraf went completely under…

Morgul Blade – Heavy Metal Wraiths

Artist: Morgul Blade Country: USA Label: No Remorse Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After a demo/EP, ‘Harbingers Of Power And The World’s End’ from 2019, that sadly enough went under my radar, the American Heavy Metal band Morgul…

Attic – Return of the Witchfinder

Artist: AtticCountry: GermanyLabel: Ván RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 Attic wasn’t exactly the first band to follow the path of of King Diamond and Mercyful Fate. With the Danes spawning copcycats of varying degrees of quality ever since their pioneering…

Black Hurst – Blinding Pitch Of Victory [EP]

Artist: Black Hurst Country: USA Label: Ixiol Productions Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 In my review of the band’s 2023 demo tape I compared Black Hurst mainly with the occult sort of Black Metal of the likes of Varathron and…

Midnight – Hellish Expectations

Artist: Midnight Country: USA Label: Metal Blade Records Formats: LP /Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 Over the course of the last, let’s say, ten years Midnight is one of Heavy Metal’s most revered rising stars. Not only has Midnight…

Bergsvriden – Uråldrad [EP]

Artist: BergsvridenCountry: SwedenLabel: Self-releasedFormat: Digital EPYear: 2023 When Trollmania formed Bergsvriden in 2013, he was soon joined by fellow Midvintersblot members Trollpung and Öltomten. Not entirely abandoning the Folk Metal sound of their other band, with Bergsvriden they aimed for…

Vincent Crowley – Anthology Of Horror

Artist: Vincent Crowley Country: USA Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 It feels rather pointless to write an introduction on the works of Vincent Crowley. Not only has the man a much discussed and rather notorious history…

Command – Resver

Artist: CommandCountry: SwedenLabel: jawbreaker RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 When in the late 2000’s and early 2010’s the old school Death Metal scene was rejuvenated with fresh blood, bands from Sweden once again played their part. In…

Taranis – Postmortem Spheres

Artist: Taranis Country: Belgium Label: Iron Pegasus Records Formats: CD Year: 2023 Admittedly, I didn’t foresee this second coming of Belgium’s Taranis. Over a decade after having put the band to rest, Taranis-main man Björn Desmet apparently revived the band…

Malokarpatan – Vertumnus Caesar

Artist: MalokarpatanCountry: SlovakiaLabel: Invictus ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 It’s kind of odd to realize that ‘Stridžie dni’ was released as recently as 2015. It certainly feels to me as if Malokarpatan has been around for decades, in terms of…

Kaikkivaltias – Astu [EP]

Artist: KaikkivaltiasCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2023 For those intrigued by the prospect of a mix of Classic/ Progressive Rock, Heavy Metal and Black Metal coming together in a medieval theme, take heed. Kaikkivaltias is the brainchild of the Finn…

Devil Moon – Fucked by the Devil 

Artist: Devil MoonCountry: FinlandLabel: Signal RexFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 A sleazy rocking mix of Heavy Metal and Black Metal is what Devil Moon served us on their eponymous first EP. Now they come back with the…

Black Viper – Volcanic Lightning

Artist: Black ViperCountry: NorwayLabel: Edged Circle ProductionsFormats: 12″ EPYear: 2023 Remember the day when you looked at the band photos on the inner sleeve of an LP, checking the shirts worn by your favourite artists to discover new bands? There’s…

Riutuja – Kuolonkerjuu

Artist: RiutujaCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: DigitalYear: 2023 Full of melody and harmony, ‘Kuolonkerjuu’ is the debut album for Riutuja. Sorrowful Black Metal with Varg-like vocal outcries, intensely varying drums and dominant layers of guitar melodies, even within a realm of music…

Blazon Rite – Wild Rites and Ancient Songs

Artist: Blazon RiteCountry: USALabel: Gates Of Hell RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 When the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal exploded in the 80s and conquered the world, not all bands were recognized equally. One such underrated band was Manilla…

Sacred Outcry – Towers of Gold

Artist: Sacred OutcryCountry: GreeceLabel: No Remorse RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Sometimes you have to trust your gut and you have to give in to that irresistible urge to buy a record just off of some quick listens. Or maybe…

Shadows – Out for Blood

Artist: ShadowsCountry: ChileLabel: Sentient Ruin LaboratoriesFormats: LP / Cassette / CDYear: 2023 Sentient Ruin has struck some pure gold here. Shadows hails from Chile, a country with a small but exceptionally high in quality metal scene. This time it’s not…

Spirit Possession – Of the Sign…

Artist: Spirit Possession Country: USA Label: Profound Lore Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Take Black Metal with a strong Heavy Metal riff base that features a cacophony of sliding and tapping guitar notes best known to Black Metal…

Devil Moon – Devil Moon [EP]

Artist: Devil MoonCountry: FinlandLabel: Signal Rex / Old Forest ProductionFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 A bondage ritual on the front cover, a pentagram in the band logo and a member of Morgal in the line-up: Devil Moon ticks…

Maniak – Speed Metal Terrorist [EP]

Artist: ManiakCountry: SwedenLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2023 Maniak, not to be confused with the Filipino band of the same name (and even a somewhat similar logo), releases their debut EP with ‘Speed Metal Terrorist’, a more than fitting follow-up to…

Sumerlands – Dreamkiller

Artist: SumerlandsCountry: USALabel: Relapse RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CD Year: 2022 I can’t deny a bit of scepticism when I first heard of a new Sumerlands record. Not because the debut was bad. On the contrary, it was…

Deströyer 666 – Never Surrender

Artist: Deströyer 666Country: AustraliaLabel: Season Of MistFormats: LP, Cassette Tape, CDYear: 2022 Good morning, y’all. Am I late to the party? Again. Yes, I suppose I am, this new album for Deströyer 666 has been out since early December last…

Keep Of Kalessin – Katharsis

Artist: Keep Of KalessinCountry: NorwayLabel: Back On BlackFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 Keep Of Kalessin caused a bit of a stir with the release of their 2006 album ‘Armada’. Even though their origins dated back to 1993…

Norrhem – Elonkehrä

Artist: NorrhemCountry: FinlandLabel: Spread Evil ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2022 Formed in 2017 in Turku, Finland, the then two-piece of Valthor and MA started their journey which led to their first demo. When T also joined the band, Norrhem swiftly finished their…

Panychida – Říruřec / Dreisessel [EP]

Artist: PanychidaCountry: Czech RepublicLabel: Folter RecordsFormats: CD EPYear: 2022 The release of the ‘Gabreta Aeterna’ album in 2020 marked the fifth full-length in the history of the Czech band Panychida. Having taken three to four years between each album so…

Panychida – Gabreta Aeterna

Artist: PanychidaCountry: Czech RepublicLabel: Evil Horn Records / Folter Records / Nasphyr RecordsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2020 Ever since 2004, the Czech band Panychida have been spreading their Pagan Metal to the world. The creative core of…

Veljessurma – Noidansolmu [EP]

Artist: VeljessurmaCountry: FinlandLabel: Naturmacht ProductionsFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Veljessurma hails from the Finnish capital of Helsinki, and their first EP follows the 2020-released demo ‘Ritual of Cain’. On ‘Noidansolmu’ Veljessurma blends a raw Black Metal rhythm guitar…