Black Cilice – Atavistic Possessions [EP]

Artist: Black Cilice Country: Portugal Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: 12″ EP / CD EP Year: 2024 Founded back somewhere at the end of the 00’s, Black Cilice’s rise to fame (for Black Metal standard at least) came after the…

Xulux / Kurjuus – Split

Artist: Xulux / Kurjuus Country: Finland Label: Self-Released Formats: Split Cassette Tape / Split CD Year: 2024 Not only do both bands on this split hail from the same Finnish town of Jyväskylä, they are also both one-man bands venturing…

Kratti – Matka Kohti Kosmista

Artist: KrattiCountry: FinlandLabel: Signal RexFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2024 After releasing one of the best demos of 2023, the Finns in Kratti will return with their first full-length of the band’s carreer. To be released by Signal…

Order Of Nosferat – The Absence Of Grace

Artist: Order Of Nosferat Country: Finland / Germany Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 As enchanting and confusing the shapeshifting entity of a vampire can be, the same can be said about this…

Drape – The Choir Above And The Symphony Below [EP]

Artist: Drape Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Only a couple of days after Drape’s debut demo ‘Under The Majestic Black Mist’ the American one-man act returns with its follow-up; the twenty minute clocking and the evocatively…

Iron Firmament – Empyrean Blood [EP]

Artist: Iron Firmament Country: USA Label: Wergild Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 ‘Empyrean Blood’ is Iron Firmament’s second offering, after last July’s debut EP ‘Keepeater’. That EP already introduced us to an interesting piece of Raw Black Metal that sounded…

Drape – Under The Majestic Black Mist [Demo]

Artist: Drape Country: USA Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Demo Year: 2024 Drape is a new Black Metal band without any other information than it is apparently coming from the USA. But, since we are here for the music and not…

Viharukous – Viimeisiä Houreita [EP]

Artist: Viharukous Country: Finland Label: Rat Covenant Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2023 After four demos, recorded in the timeframe between 2018 and 2021, this Finnish duo finally breaks a rather long silence with this latest offering, a 4-track EP (including…

Funeral Winds – 333

Artist: Funeral Winds Country: The Netherlands Label: Osmose Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although Funeral Winds never officially stopped it went on some sort of hibernation after the ‘Nexion Xul – The Cursed Bloodline’-album from 2007. Hellchrist Xul…

Mithrandir – Valapatto [EP]

Artist: MithrandirCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2023 Mithrandir’s debut ‘Towards the Spires of Dol Guldur’ was quite a striking debut. Expertly combining their Finnish Black Metal roots of the likes of Satanic Warmaster and Sargeist with touches of Burzum, Darkthrone…

Obsidian Grave – Blood Of The Night

Artist: Obsidian Grave Country: USA Label: Dark Adversary Productions Formats: CD Year: 2023 Over the roughly half decade of their existence, American Obsidian Grave have released their music through labels such as Atrocity Altar, Hatework, Perverse Homage and Death Hymns,…

Chamber of Mirrors – Moonlight Decay

Artist: Chamber of MirrorsCountry: USALabel: Drakkar ProductionsFormats: LP / Tape / CDYear: 2023 On their second album, US-based Chamber of Mirrors presents a well-crafted mix between raw and symphonic Black Metal. Consisting of the sole member Mortem, ‘Moonlight Decay’ follows…

Noenum – Fiery Path [EP]

Artist: NoenumCountry: FinlandLabel: Northern Heritage RecordsFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2023 In late 2022 came the unexpected return of the Finnish duo of Noenum after an absence that lasted well over a decade. However, upon the release of their debut full-length album…

Burgonet – Demo One

Artist: BurgonetCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 Hailing from Finland, Burgonet does not hide their love of the Norwegian Black Metal scene at all. On their first demo simply titled ‘Demo One’, the band professes their adoration for the earliest…

Skuggeheim – Samlede Verker [Compilation]

Artist: SkuggeheimCountry: NorwayLabel: Terratur PossessionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 After the explosive 90’s of Norwegian Black Metal, not much of that bustling prolific and high-quality scene was still intact by the mid 2000’s. Sure, bands like Mayhem, Darkthrone, Satyricon and…

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…

Niteris / Крюкокрест – Split

Artist: Niteris / КрюкокрестCountry: Bosnia and Herzegovina / RussiaLabel: New Era Productions / Horrible RoomFormats: Split LP / Split cassette tape / Split CDYear: 2022 The Black Plague Circle versus the Pleskau Brethren, or more precisely, Niteris from Bosnia and…

Grot – Beneath the Waves of Eternity

Artist: GrotCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: CDYear: 2023 Seemingly inspired by forest, woodlands, and nature as a whole, US Black Metal band Grot gained quite some positive feedback for their 2021 released ‘Hymns of the Woodland’ EP. And for a good reason.…

Ziminiar – The Dwellers in Eternal Shadow

Artist: ZiminiarCountry: UnknownLabel: Azermedoth Records / Bitter Misery Records / Victims Of FateFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 When literally nothing is known about a band and their origins it all comes down to the bare musical essence.…

Ohyda – Psalmy śmierci [EP]

Artist: OhydaCountry: PolandLabel: Wolfspell RecordsFormats: CD EPYear: 2023 Following two praiseworthy EPs released in 2022, this year brings us the third EP in the discography of Poland’s Ohyda. After guitar, bass and keyboard player Bloodwhip had graced the cover of…

Darkness Domain – The Judgement Bells

Artist: Darkness DomainCountry: FinlandLabel: Darker Than Black Records / Old Forest ProductionFormats: Digital / LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 A mysterious entity that hails somewhere from within the borders of Finland, Darkness Domain released their first recording upon…

Mithrandir – Towards the Spires of Dol Guldur

Artist: MithrandirCountry: FinlandLabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: DigitalYear: 2023 The connection between Lord of the Rings and Metal is one that has lasted almost as long as the music genre has been around. Legions of bands including Cirith Ungol, Gorgoroth and Burzum owe…

Blood Magic – Mystic Warpath Conjuring [EP]

Artist: Blood MagicCountry: USALabel: Black Gangrene ProductionsFormats: 7″ EPYear: 2023 After two demos, with the first one released in 2020 and the second in 2022, the US-based Black Metal band Blood Magic comes up with a brand new 7” EP…

Entrancement – Of Passion’s Cruelty

Artist: EntrancementCountry: USALabel: Altare Productions / Perverse HomageFormats: Cassette Tape, CDYear: 2023 After two demos, which also appeared together on a compilation LP by Goatowarex, and a split with the (dreadful) Midnight Betrothed, American Entrancement comes out with the much…

Order Of Nosferat – Vampiric Wrath Unleashed

Artist: Order Of NosferatCountry: Finland / GermanyLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: LP, CDYear: 2022 The previous album by this international Black Metal band was a good and organic album in which the loneliness of existence as a vampire clearly shone through.…

Order Of Nosferat – Nachtmusik

Artist: Order Of NosferatCountry: Finland / GermanyLabel: Purity Through FireFormats: LP, CDYear: 2022 When a band chooses a name that leaves so little to the imagination, it can only do its best to fully and completely live up to the…

Black Lycanthropy – For Satan’s Eternal Glory [Demo]

Artist: Black LycanthropyCountry: USALabel: Self-ReleasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2023 After the great self-released digital ‘Through Strength And Victory’ EP from spring last year, Infernal Werewolf, the only soul behind this American Black Metal act, returns with yet another offering of his…

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…

Deathcircle – Feast Upon the World of Illusions

Artist: DeathcircleCountry: Bosnia and HerzegovinaLabel: Esfinge de la Calavera / Goatowarex / Sinister ShadowFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2022 One of the very first bands to arise from the Black Plague Circle was Deathcircle, which was formed in…

Azaxul – Echoes Of Dreariness

Artist: AzaxulCountry: GermanyLabel: Misanthrophia DiscosFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 Despite both bands having also existed simultaneously and side-by-side for a brief moment, Azaxul only really came to life when Moonblood was carried to its grave in 1999. Only then Azaxul…

Wolvëin – Blasphemous Werewolf [Demo]

Artist: WolvëinCountry: USALabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital demoYear: 2022 Observing the red/black aesthetic of the cover and adding the Dungeon Synth intro, there is really nothing else to expect but Raw Black Metal in the late 90s tradition with a penchant for…

Spectral Whisper – Enchantress of Black Curses

Artist: Spectral WhisperCountry: GermanyLabel: Astral Nightmare ProductionsFormats: CDYear: 2023 Spectral Whisper was a band from Germany that was formed in 2017 and featured at least one member in the shape of Frater Noxathra. In 2020 the band name was changed…

Uønsket – Forlatt [EP]

Artist: UønsketCountry: USALabel: Jems LabelFormats: Cassette EP / CD EPYear: 2022 Depending on which picture you see of Richard Fuller, the young man behind Uønsket, he is adorned in a dark cape, wearing warpaint and spikes (sometimes of impressive size)…

Mánþiel – Vestiges Engraved In Frozen Mysticism

Artist: Mánþiel Country: Chile / Germany Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 This new Mánþiel (or Mantiel, if you prefer an easier version of their band name) album is one that will only have a vinyl release, done…

Vonülfsrëich – Miasmal Winds

Artist: VonülfsrëichCountry: FinlandLabel: Fallen TempleFormats: DigitalYear: 2022 That the music of Vonülfsrëich has been changing from one release to the other was clear from their slew of EPs released since the band was born. This was possibly in part due…