Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Mortem Country: Russia Label: Coyote Records Formats: Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2023 In the wake of the re-release of Mortem’s first album, ‘Amputator’ (originally released in 1993), Coyote Records continues on its path, now also re-releasing 2000’s ‘Filicide’.…
Artist: Skeletal Earth Country: USA Label: VIC Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 The Madison, Alabama, USA based Death/Thrash Metal band were not quite top of their league back in the early 90’s. They were best known in their own local…
Artist: Skeletal Earth Country: USA Label: VIC Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2022 Together with the reissue of the band’s two full-length albums, VIC Records also reissued Skeletal Earth’s 7” EP from 1993. The rather corny title, ‘Dreighphuck’, is quite…
Artist: Skeletal Earth Country: USA Label: VIC Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 In 1994 Skeletal Earth returned once again with a full-length album, which turned out to be their last one as they threw in the towel shortly…
Artist: Nächtlich Country: Canada Label: Inferna Profundus Records Formats: CD EP Year: 2022 Canadian Nächtlich was one of the bands that helped shape the current revival of the (ultimate) Raw or even Lo-Fi Black Metal movement. The band that already…
Artist: Odal Country: Germany Label: Eisenwald Formats: LP Year: 2022 At the tail end of 2022 the German quality label Eisenwald reissued Odal’s debut album ‘Sturmes Brut’ on vinyl. Originally released in 2002 through the Christhunt Productions label, it hasn’t…
Artist: Saram Country: Peru Label: Werewolf Records Formats: LP Year: 2023 Despite being officially formed in 1998 in Lima, Peru, Saram’s history goes back many more years. In 1991, the band Neuroparalya was formed which eventually turned into Saram Scivit…
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: Mystic Circle Country: Germany Label: Atomic Fire Formats: LP Year: 2023 Time is a wonderful thing, it tends to heal wounds and make one think more mildly of things that happened in the past. When we listen to today’s…
Artist: Sacrifice Country: Canada Label: High Roller Records / Shadow Kingdom Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 After a raw and musically slightly naïve start with ‘Torment In Fire’ (1986), which basically featured all of those…
Artist: Sacrifice Country: Canada Label: Daymare Recordings Formats: CD Year: 2022 Halfway through the first half of the 90s can be seen as the time when the Death Metal genre was already on its way out and Thrash Metal with…
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: Sax Country: Czechia Label: I Hate Records Formats: CD Year: 2022 Those who dig deeper and look beyond the usual names from the glossy metal magazines will know that in the mid- to late 80’s and early 90’s there…
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: Sacrifice Country: Canada Label: High Roller Records, Shadow Kingdom Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2022 A much heard criticism upon the release of Canadian Thrash Metal band Sacrifice’s debut album, ‘Torment In Fire’ (1986), was…
Artist: Phlebotomized Country: The Netherlands Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape Year: 2022 One of the most original bands that helped shape the ‘famous’ Dutch Death/Doom Metal scene was certainly Phlebotomized. With their 1992 ‘Devoted To God’-demo tape…
Artist: TeitanbloodCountry: SpainLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: LPYear: 2022 Originally released in 2011 as a single-sided 12” EP, ‘Purging Tongues’ recently got a reissue in a new cover and with the etched B-side being replaced for a different take of the…
Artist: Mangled Torsos Country: Germany Label: Morbid Classics Formats: LP Year: 2021 Though I was not exactly there at that exact time, because of my age, I always loved the atmosphere and feeling of those early 90’s demo tapes and…
Artist: Nile Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2022 Although ‘Festivals Of Atonement’ was actually Nile’s second release, originally unleashed in 1995, and came before the ‘Ramses Bringer Of War’-demo from 1996, Hells…
Artist: Nile Country: USA Label: Hells Headbangers Records Formats: 7″ EP / Cassette EP Year: 2022 Before Nile took the Death Metal scene by storm with its debut album ‘Amongst The Catacombs Of Nephren-Ka’ in 1998 and their sophomore album…
Artist: Sépulcre Country: France Label: Invictus Productions Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2020 French Death Metal band Sépulcre, which began as Demonic Oath and already released the excellent split LP with Cadaveric Fumes under that…
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: Oxalate Country: USA Label: Dawnbeed Records Formats: Cassette EP Year: 2022 Originally released in 2019, American Oxalate’s ‘Infatuating Sickness’ EP now sees a re-release on cassette tape via Dutch label Dawnbreed Records. Previously, it had been released digitally by…
Artist: Necromantical Invocation Country: United Kingdom Label: Helter Skelter Productions / Medieval Prophecy Records / Regain Records / Zombi Danz Records Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2021 Despite the fact that Necromantical Invocation saw the light of…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 After the break-up of Proclamation, the band members formed a new band, Sacrificio, that leans a bit more towards Black Metal…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 While bands like Blasphemy, Beherit and in a lesser extent Sarfcófago defined a viciously suffocating brutal sound in the late 80’s…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 Whether it is due to the limitations of the Blasphemy-based Black/Death Metal or simply to the unbridled commitment of these Spaniards,…
Artist: Proclamation Country: Spain Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions / Ross Bay Cult Formats: LP / CD Year: 2020 As a reviewer, you are happy if you can write something about a good band or a nice release. People who…
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: Rottrevore Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 12″ EP / Cassette EP / CD EP Year: 2022 Originally self-released by the band as a digital EP and later as a limited CDR in 2012 (released as ‘Blind Sided Attack’)…
Artist: Orewoet Country: The Netherlands Label: Amor Fati Productions / Heidens Hart Records Formats: LP Year: 2021 Originally released in 2016, it took the band and labels up to 2021 to get this album out on vinyl as well. But…
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: 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: Graveland Country: Poland Label: New Era Productions Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2021 Originally released on a 7″ EP in 2002 on Vinland Winds Records, which was run by Grimnir Wotansvolk (Grand Belial’s Key), ‘Blood Of Heroes’ has seen a…
Artist: Naked Whipper Country: Germany Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Once in a while Iron Bonehead Productions digs up something from the German underground, earlier we saw for example Ungod, Baxaxaxa, Moonblood and Fulgor. With…
Artist: Naked Whipper Country: Germany Label: Iron Bonehead Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2022 Together with the re-issue of the bands’ first and only album, ‘Painstreaks’, Iron Bonehead Productions releases this compilation of both the ‘Moloch-Acid Orgy’ 12″ (1995,…
Artist: Grond Country: Germany Label: Rotting Misery Formats: LP Year: 2021 Originally released on CD in 2000 through Folter Records, this is the long overdue vinyl reissue of a German Black Metal album that can easily be considered overlooked and/or…
Artist: TherionCountry: SwedenLabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 The second part of Hammerheart Records’ Therion reissues, after the great ‘Time Shall Tell’ 12” EP, is the bands’ second album ‘Beyond Sanctorum’. Indeed, skipping their great debut LP ‘Of Darkness…’…
Artist: TherionCountry: SwedenLabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 The musical voyage of Therion, that led them from a pure, but atypical Death Metal band to a multi-layered and creative musical chameleon has been spread over four albums, with each…
Artist: TherionCountry: SwedenLabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2022 With the bands’ 1992 album, ‘Beyond Sanctorum’, Therion proved not quite to be a band to play Death Metal-by-numbers. On the contrary. They already pushed the boundaries of the genre and…
Artist: TherionCountry: SwedenLabel: Hammerheart RecordsFormats: 12″ EPYear: 2022 Introducing a band like Therion seems a little pointless as they are among the most successful bands on the Nuclear Blast roster – for a quarter of a century now. Much of…
Artist: Incantation Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 What can be said about Incantation’s debut demo from 1990 that hasn’t been said before? It has not only been tape traded a zillion times back in the…
Artist: ThanatosCountry: The NetherlandsLabel: Xtreem MusicFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2020 A series that is called ’10 Inches Of Deathcult’ would not be complete without Hollands’ self-proclaimed initiators of Dutch Death Metal. Though the band was already founded as early as 1984…
Artist: TerrorizerCountry: USALabel: Xtreem MusicFormats: 10″ EPYear: 2020 During the second half of the 80’s Terrorizer, along with peers like Repulsion, Carcass and Napalm Death propelled extreme music into whole new levels extremity by pushing the boundaries that were thought…
Artist: Pyrexia Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 Around the 90’s American Death Metal bands had a real special thing going on. Other than their European counterparts they were much more vile and brutal. Especially New…
Artist: Revenant Country: USA Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 Between all the violence of the American Death Metal bands of the early 90s, it was difficult to really achieve great (commercial) success, obviously not every band had…
Artist: Rotting Christ Country: The Netherlands Label: Xtreem Music Formats: 10″ EP Year: 2020 Xtreem Music has launched a new series of old recordings by (semi) legendary Death Metal bands on 10” vinyl records. The list of announced bands to…
Artist: Monumentum Country: Italy Label: Displeased Records Formats: CD Year: 2009 It remains a mystery to me why Monumentum never gained a wider following. This is their 1995 debut, which was originally intended for release on Euronymous’ (Mayhem) cult label…
Artist: Magnanimus Country: Chile Label: Blood Harvest Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2008 The metal scene in Chile never fails to amaze, really. There’s some really great band on basically every style of extreme metal. Magnanimus definitely is no exception. Judging…
Artist: Magnus Country: Poland Label: Blood Harvest Formats: LP Year: 2007 Sometimes you walk into something that you never heard of and surprises you in a pleasant way. This was the case when I got a package through the post…