Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Alesya Country: Mexico Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2025 Not too long ago I stumbled upon Alesya’s marvellous ‘Hex De Tristesse Et Peste’-demo that was released by Mexico’s underground label Svart Hat Productions. The almost 20-minute demo brought together…
Artist: Eternal Ice Country: Japan Label: Elf Eggs Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2025 Although Eternal Ice already released a demo tape in autumn of last year, the band didn’t caught my attention yet. But even though that demo was only distributed in extremely…
Artist: Wampyric Rites Country: Ecuador Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2025 ‘Night Winds Of The Tempest’ isn’t a new EP in the true sense of the word. It was already recorded back in 2023, in the same session as…
Artist: Vainot Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Honestly, I was planning to review ‘Rituaalikooma’, the first demo the Finnish Black Metal band Vainot. It came out in October last year, but even before I could blink…
Artist: Aspaarn Country: Switzerland Label: Self-Released Formats: LP Year: 2025 ‘Oblation In Atrocity’ is Aspaarn’s fourth album in about as many years, and just like the majority of the band’s earlier work this one too is presented on a self-released…
Artist: Amargura Country: France / Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2025 Some four years ago this rather enigmatic entity called Amargura debuted with their Altare Productions-released ‘L’astre Mort’ demo tape and while for today’s standards…
Artist: Repúdio Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2025 Not too long ago I read a serious piece of writing in which a fairly seasoned Black Metal fan wondered, while writing, what exactly “Raw Black…
Artist: Spell Caster Country: USA Label: Elf Eggs Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 It is fair to say that Blood, the man behind Spell Caster, is quite a busy man. Although ‘The Fourth Pentacle Of Saturn’ is only the first…
Artist: Dryas Country: Portugal Label: Primitive Blood Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Demo #2 for Dryas from a series of three rapidly successive demo releases – not in the “right” sequence, though. The Portuguese Black Metal band, which sometimes operates…
Artist: Dryas Country: Portugal Label: Asylum Tenebris Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 When I reviewed Dryas’ ‘Monumentos à Eternidade’-demo tape a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t know that was actually their third demo. At the time of writing there…
Artist: Drowning The Light / Forbidden Citadel Of Spirits Country: Australia Label: Winterreich Productions Formats: Split LP Year: 2024 Just before the release of the five new Drowning The Light albums, this split LP was released, right at the end of…
Artist: Wiatyk Country: Poland Label: Diabolical Vitriol / Pro Morte Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 This second demo tape from Wiatyk, originally released in 1996, was simultaneously reissued with the band’s first effort. And while ‘Mysticism’, from 1995, showed a band in a blueprint…
Artist: WiatykCountry: PolandLabel: Diabolical Vitriol / Pro MorteFormats: Demo TapeYear: 2024 I won’t pretend I knew Wiatyk before I laid eyes on the recent reissues of the band’s only two demo tapes (by Diabolical Vitriol and Pro Morte). In my defense, the two…
Artist: Vampyreign Country: USA Label: Red River Family Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2024 Although ‘Throne Of Sanguine Eclipse’ is said to be already recorded back in 2019, it only saw the dark of night in the dying days of…
Artist: Atavistic Passage Country: United Kingdom Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Introducing a new band with zero info is not the easiest task. Other than that this anonymous entity hails from somewhere in the North West of England…
Artist: Dryas Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Although Dryad could have several meanings, based on the song titles and mainly the wintry music, it seems to be derived from the term that divides the last…
Artist: Mystic Veil Country: USA Label: Altare Productions Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2024 After the one-track ‘What Misery Thou Art Fallen’-demo from 2022 and a split tape with one of their other bands (Erstwhile) the American duo that together make…
Artist: Throne Of Charlemagne Country: USA Label: Diabolical Vitriol Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Charlemagne’s name obviously resonates through history as one of the most powerful rulers of ancient Europe, the grand emperor of the post-Roman Empire-era. When choosing a…
Artist: Rotten Moon Country: Finland Label: Ancien Culte Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 2022’s ‘The Endless Church’ demo by Finnish one-man Black Metal band intrigued me quite a bit, the Lo-Fi production and the rough-edged guitars matched perfectly with the…
Artist: Templum Supra Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Although ‘Criptam Ostium’ is the debut demo tape from this new Portuguese Black Metal band Templum Supra, there is a bit of a background story to tell.…
Artist: Repúdio Country: Portugal Label: Altare Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 Over the past decade or so the Portuguese Black Metal scene has spawned an incredible amount of quality Black Metal, Raw Black Metal to be exact. Without wanting…
Artist: Valdivian Tower Country: Chile Label: Ars Maligne / Inferna Profundus Records Formats: CD / LP Year: 2024 Everyone remotely following the (underground) Black Metal scene or regularly read our pages knows that Lord Valtgryftåke is one of the most…
Artist: Mánþiel Country: Chile Label: Ars Maligne / Inferna Profundus Records Formats: CD Year: 2024 Dependent on what source you check this latest recording by Chilean Mánþiel is either the second full-length album in the span of only around two…
Artist: Mánþiel Country: Chile Label: Ars Maligne Formats: CD Year: 2024 Although ‘From Lycanthropic Realms Of Sorrow’ was released just a few days before the ‘A Thousand Ornaments Of The Cosmos’-album that I reviewed just before this one, I deliberately…
Artist: Mánþiel Country: Chile Label: Ars Maligne Formats: CD Year: 2024 After the ‘Vestiges Engraved In Frozen Mysticism’-album and the split with Wampyric Rites, both released in January 2023, it got a bit quiet around this project, run by the…
Artist: Vampyric BloodlustCountry: USALabel: WolfKult ReligionFormats: Cassette EPYear: 2024 Mördann is one heck of busy guy. Aurora Mortis, Faded Memories, Moonlight Spirit and Vivvaden are all bands that he formed in 2024 (with the latter two in collaboration with band…
Artist: Geatkihaukr / Veitsi Country: Finland Label: River Valley Cult Formats: Split Tape Year: 2024 This split tape brings together two of Finland’s finest when it comes to crude-sounding Black Metal, both marching under the flag of River Valley Cult.…
Artist: KinahmiCountry: FinlandLabel: Death MonumentFormats: Cassette tape / CD-RYear: 2024 Unpolished, twisted and atonal. Just a few words to describe the music of the Finnish band Kinahmi. The raw Black Metal that is presented on the debut ‘Birth of the…
Artist: Kūkāʻilimoku / Hakkapeliitta Country: USA / Sweden Label: Forbidden Sonority Formats: Cassette split tape Year: 2024 Although the American one-man Black Metal band Kūka’ilimoku has quite an extensive discography for its relatively short existence, the band has been around…
Artist: Åndutsyn Country: USA Label: Nihtstang Productions Formats: Demo tape Year: 2024 The aptly titled ‘Into The Glory Of Violence’ is Åndutsyn’s fourth instalment and follows last year’s great ‘The Epitome Of The End Of The Cavernous Forestry’, which was…
Artist: Chevallier Skrog Country: Czechia Label: Into Endless Chaos Records Formats: LP Year: 2024 In many reviews of MBN’s work I have called him a workaholic or a restless soul, most likely, he’s both. But not infrequently, this does lead…
Artist: Eerified Catacomb Country: Canada Label: Death Hymns Formats: LP Year: 2024 After no less than 2 full-lengths and 18 short players, Canada’s Eerified Catacomb is on its third album. You might wonder where the inspirer behind this band gets…
Artist: Lampir Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Early this same year Perverse Homage, the long-time companions of Lampir, digitally released a second compilation of demo recordings. With the title ‘Demo I – III’ it leaves little…
Artist: Kurjuus Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital EP Year: 2024 With Hämärä’s steady working pace you know you have to be on your qui vive, a new Kurjuus release (or that of a related project) is always lurking. And…
Artist: Ruttokosmos Country: Finland Label: Werewolf Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Ruttokosmos might well be one of the most obscure acts from the deepest forests of the Finnish Black Metal scene. Although never officially disbanded, after only having…
Despite moving to Sweden a few years ago, Volc Vermaledide can still be seen as a Dutch Black Metal band. After all, already formed in 2001, the band has existed on Dutch soil for the most part. Despite now slowly…
Artist: Sanguine Relic Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2024 ‘Within The Fog Of Fragmented Memory’, Sanguine Relic’s seventh full-length album, was already released some months ago, yet so far only on cassette tape. Like many of…
Artist: Kudlaakh Country: USA Label: Perverse Homage Formats: CDr EP Year: 2024 In the great hoopla of Raw and/or Lo-Fi Black Metal bands and releases from around the second half of the 10s, Kudlaakh fell a bit outside the box.…
Artist: Bloodsoaked Visions / Strigoic Curse Country: United Kingdom / Romania Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Split EP Year: 2024 This digitally released split EP combines the music of two one-man bands, both of which have featured on these pages before.…
Artist: Owl Country: The Netherlands Label: Zwaertgevegt Formats: Cassette Tape Year: 2024 Earlier, in spring this year, Jeroen Putman released a new album with Owl. Although I interviewed him for his previous record, the existence of this new work had…
Artist: Cachot d’Effroi / Wolftower Country: France / Finland Label: Narbentage Produktionen Formats: Split Cassette Tape Year: 2024 On this Narbentage Produktionen released split tape two of the most interesting bands out of today’s European Black Metal scene team up…
Artist: Smyrtonos / Skol Country: Bulgaria Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Split Year: 2024 While this split release is Smyrtonos’ fifth release of 2024, the partner on this split is rather new. Skol was founded last year and digitally released its…
Artist: KerkerengelCountry: FinlandLabel: Werewolf RecordsFormats: CDYear: 2024 With Kerkerengel we witness the birth of another band led by Lord Vrăjitor, the mastermind behind the likes of Warmoon Lord, Old Sorcery and Argenthorns. But while epic and symphonic elements form parts…
Artist: CastrivenianCountry: BrazilLabel: Wolfkult ReligionFormats: Cassete tapeYear: 2024 Castrivenian is a relatively new entity from Brazil that was formed earlier in 2024. The band released their first demo ‘S.H.T.I.’ earlier in April, but with fires of creativity burning brightly, immediately…
Artist: Prehistoric War Cult / Dolchstoß Country: Germany Label: AbArt Corruption / Fucking Kill Records Formats: Split 7″ EP / Split Cassette EP Year: 2024 Although the title of this split might suggest that we are having a Manowar tribute…
Artist: Aznaitin Country: Aznaitin Label: Morken Tapes Formats: Demo tape Year: 2024 Aznaitin, an anonymous Spanish entity from the Andalusian region, is a new act entering the Spanish Black Metal firmament. This self-titled demo tape is the band’s first feat,…
Artist: Cloaked Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 With very little info being available of this newly conceived Nashville, Tennessee-based Raw Black Metal band the music on this project’s debut demo should do the majority of the…
Artist: VrkolakCountry: Bosnia and HerzegovinaLabel: Black Gangrene ProductionsFormats: LPYear: 2024 At lot of attention has gone to the Black Metal scene in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and for good reason. Band such as Sulphuric Night and Obskuritatem have garnered wide interest and acclaim and put their…
Artist: Chevallier Skrog Country: Czechia Label: Cosmic Cause Productions Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 With his many bands and projects the ever restless and total workaholic MBN is presenting new music almost every week, and while, of course, not everything…
Artist: Black Fullmoon Country: Puerto Rico Label: Self-Released Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 A haunting and sinister Dungeon Synth-like track sets the mood for the self-titled demo of this new and anonymous Black Metal entity from Puerto Rico. And their…