Tales From The Underground
Tales From The Underground
Artist: Consumption Country: Sweden Label: Dusktone Formats: CD Year: 2025 After two full-length records for Hammerheart Records in 2020 and 2022, the Swedes of Consumption went for the Como, Italy based Dusktone for their third album. Without knowing any details,…
Artist: Death Pulsation Country: Sweden Label: Caligari Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2025 Although Death Pulsation is a new band, debuting with this 3-track demo, in its ranks we do recognize musicians who has earned their stripes in the underground…
Artist: HersirCountry: SwedenLabel: Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2025 In my review of the 2023 demo ‘Hateful Draugar’ by Hersir, I lauded the heavy pummeling sound, and drew paralels with Behexen mixed with Mayhem, Emperor…
Artist: FaidraCountry: SwedenLabel: Northern Silence ProductionsFormats: 12″ EP / CD EPYear: 2025 ‘Militant : Penitent : Triumphant’ was a rather impressive record, released by the Swedish one-man act Faidra in late 2023. Basing its atmospheric Black Metal on a straightforward but…
Artist: Abruptum Country: Sweden Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP Year: 2025 Obviously, Abruptum is mostly known for its early work and their affiliation to Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions. The band’s first two records and specially the ‘Obscuritatem Advoco…
Artist: Merciless Country: Sweden Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2025 Obviously, Merciless is mainly known for their downright cult debut album. Not only for the musical content and its wide influence on…
Artist: Vider Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2025 On a miserable, rainy, grey and stormy January day, nothing really fits better than an all-consuming darkness in musical form. For that joyous occasion today, I threw in the debut…
Artist: Mörkvind & Tårfödd Country: Italy & Germany / Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2025 Despite Tårfödd’s impressive output, having released three albums and two EP’s in 2024 alone, the band never crossed my path before. Mörkvind, on the…
Artist: Gnipahålan Country: Sweden Label: Purity Through Fire Formats: CD Year: 2024 At the very frayed ends of 2024 the overly-prolific Swartadauþuz comes with yet another record. I haven’t really counted his work this year, but at the beginning of…
Artist: Necrosorcery Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 As a jaded old fart, you rarely get truly impressed by new music (that’s different from enjoying good stuff!), so it’s extra pleasing to come across something that really opens…
Artist: Desultory Country: Sweden Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: LP / Cassette Tape / CD Year: 2024 In a longer series of unearthed demos presented by Darkness Shall Rise Productions from Germany, this summer it was Desultory’s turn for…
Artist: Carnal Savagery Country: Sweden Label: Moribund Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Album #2 for Carnal Savage this year. A trick they have pulled before, as although 2023 passed without any new recordings, the band had also released their first two albums…
Artist: Tyranni Country: Sweden Label: New Era Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Tyranni came to my attention somewhere during the summer of 2019 with the 3-track ‘Baron Av Avoghetens Smärta’-promo tape, which ultimately led to the debut full-length…
Artist: Rotpit Country: Germany / Sweden Label: War Anthem Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 ‘Long Live The Rot’ is Rotpit’s second full-length album and with a few short-players under their belts they can easily be considered a prolific…
Artist: Törnen Country: Sweden Label: Medieval Prophecy Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Although prior the release of ‘Under Korpens Visdom’ there was rumour that Swartadauþuz was a part of Törnen, it eventually turned out he was not. Yet,…
Artist: Bastard Priest Country: Sweden Label: D-Takt & Råpunk Records Formats: 7″ EP Year: 2024 During the resurgence of Old School-styled Death Metal in the late 00’s, Bastard Priest was a breath of fresh air. Most bands based their sound…
Artist: Bortglömd Country: Sweden Label: Heidens Hart Records Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2024 ‘Haunting Calls’ is the debut demo of a new Swedish duo with Dutch connections, yet with this 3-track demo tape the band is distinctly sounding more Northern…
Released via Sweden’s I Hate Records this summer, Abysmal Winds’ debut album, ‘Magna Pestiencia’ followed up the ‘Doom Prayer’-demo tape from two years earlier. Those who had the band on their radar back then may have already realised that we…
Artist: Wirdha / NachtheemCountry: Sweden / The NetherlandsLabel: Tour de GardeFormats: Split TapeYear: 2024 On this Tour de Garde released Split Tape, Wirdha and Nachtheem found each other. Wirdha is a new entity with anonymous Black Metal veterans from Sweden.…
Artist: In Aphelion Country: The Netherlands / Sweden Label: Century Media Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 With ‘Reaperdawn’ the Swedish/Dutch alliance of In Aphelion delivers their second full-length album, and while the band is regarded as a new band…
Artist: Deteriorot / Rotpit Country: USA / Germany/Sweden Label: Seven Inches Of Metal Records Formats: Split 7″ EP Year: 2024 With the aptly titled ‘We Rot’ Seven Metal Inches Records presents a new 7” that brings together the long-running Deteriorot…
Artist: Abysmal Winds Country: Sweden Label: I Hate Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 At the risk of sounding like a grumpy old man: the problem with much of today’s Death Metal is that it suffers from having too…
Artist: Hellbutcher Country: Sweden Label: Metal Blade Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 While Nifelheim’s official status is unclear, it is most likely that the band died a slow death in the past decade. With only the occasional sign…
Artist: Yxxan Country: Sweden Label: Nuclear War Now! Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 In 2019 and 2020 the world was treated to two demos of an obscure one-woman act from Sweden. Yxxan presented itself in a total savage…
Artist: Sarcasm Country: Sweden Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 While the musical transition from a more or less standard Swedish Death Metal in the band’s embryonical stages to the more Black Metal-infused sound after Sarcasm’s 2015…
Artist: Unleashed Country: Sweden Label: Darkness Shall Rise Productions Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 Without going too much into the in itself somewhat sad history of Johnny Hedlund’s rather disgraceful tricking out of Nihilist by disbanding the band and…
Artist: LifvsledaCountry: SwedenLabel: Norma Evangelium DiaboliFormats: LP / CDYear: 2024 In 2022 we were forewarned that a new Lifvsleda album was incoming with the release of the 7” EP ‘Lifvspänn’, a prelude to the band’s second album ‘Sepulkral Dedikation’. This…
Artist: Necrophobic Country: Sweden Label: Century Media Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After the release of the ‘Death To All’-album in 2009 the future for Necrophobic never seemed brighter: a killer new record, a flawless back catalogue and a…
Artist: Puteraeon Country: Sweden Label: Emanzipation Records Formats: Digital Year: 2024 Personally I have always categorized Puteraeon as one of the more interesting Swedish Death Metal bands that do no belong to the classics from the early 90’s. Don’t ask…
Artist: FaidraCountry: SwedenLabel: Northern Silence ProductionsFormats: LP / Cassette tape / CDYear: 2023 It seems that in the past year the number of new Atmospheric Black Metal bands has been through the roof. Or rather, it feels that the term…
Artist: Övervåld Country: Sweden Label: Self-Released Formats: Digital Year: 2024 I am sure you recognize it. Sometimes it feels inevitable to use Google Translate to clear something, but when you see the outcome, it makes so much sense that you…
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…
Artist: Carnal Savagery Country: Sweden Label: Moribund Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2024 After having released two full-length albums in 2022, the duo that together make for the Swedish Death Metal band Carnal Savagery, more or less took a bit of a…
Artist: Ribspreader Country: Sweden Label: Xtreem Music Formats: CD Year: 2024 Although having come across the name before, I first really heard about Ribspreader with their 2007 ‘The Monolith’ 7” EP by Blood Harvest, a label that I religiously followed…
Artist: UrväsenCountry: SwedenLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Cassette EPYear: 2023 While Urväsen appears to hail from Sweden, the music on the debut EP ‘Fåror’ sounds far from the typical Swedish Black Metal style. Instead, the music on the five tracks has more in…
Artist: SvartkonstCountry: SwedenLabel: Trust No One RecordingsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Somehow I’ve never come across the work of Rickard Törnqvist’s solo brainchild Svartkonst before, despite the band being active for a little over a decade. But when I came…
Artist: AtonementCountry: SwedenLabel: Dying Victims ProductionsFormat: LP / CDYear: 2023 With an album cover like that of ‘Sadistic Invaders’ you sort of know what you’re going to get. Well at least, a band like Deathhammer pops into my mind, and…
Artist: SpeederCountry: England / SwedenLabel: Self-releasedFormats: Digital EPYear: 2023 “A bunch of scruffy adolescent Hardrockers that claim they are bringing back the old school metal and killing any posers”. Speeder takes the words right out of your mouth in the…
Without any doubt, one of the albums that struck me most in 2022 was the debut album of Sweden’s Sordid Blade. Not only did ‘Every Battle Has Its Glory’ sound really authentic and straight in line with so many other…
Artist: MardukCountry: SwedenLabel: Century Media RecordsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Five years. There hasn’t been this much time between two Marduk studio albums in the 33 years of their existence. Not that the best rested idly in the intermediate period.…
If you are looking for complete objective reporting, in this case, you better look elsewhere. For me, music in general and metal in particular is not only an art form that is the vital lifeline in my existence, it is…
Artist: Chevallier Skrog Country: Sweden Label: Legion Blotan / Pant Y Meddygon Formats: Demo Tape Year: 2023 The ever-productive MBN is not always making life easy for us; while it is of course pleasing not to have to wait long…
Artist: Imperishable Country: Sweden Label: Hammerheart Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 When I stumbled upon Imperishable’s ‘Deathspawn’ demo I was really very much intrigued by the fact that it had been able to get under my radar for…
Artist: Vomitory Country: Sweden Label: Metal Blade Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 Vomitory is such a band that is hard to dislike if you are into extreme metal in general or Death Metal in particular. Although it might…
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…
Artist: ArzhaabatCountry: SwedenLabel: Cosmic Cause ProductionsFormats: Cassette single / Demo tapeYear: 2023 Taking the inhumane working pace of multi-instrumentalist and overall musical wizard MBN in consideration, it might not surprise that he already returns with a follow-up to Arzhaabat’s great ‘Forest Tribes Triumphant’ demo tape,…
One of Sweden’s longest running Black Metal bands suddenly reappeared (again) in 2020 and last year we could finally and definitely welcome Lord Belial back with a new album. On ‘Rapture’, the band’s ninth album and the first for the…
Artist: BlodtårCountry: SwedenLabel: Nordvis ProduktionFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Off the back of their impressive self-titled EP that my colleague FelixS lauded for its blistering Black Metal onslaught with an almost Pagan-like melodicism comes the debut album of the Swedish…
Artist: Rotpit Country: Germany / Sweden Label: War Anthem Records Formats: LP / CD Year: 2023 After a demo tape and single-track promo, of which a review can be found elsewhere on our VM-Underground pages, the trio that is Rotpit…
Artist: UnpureCountry: SwedenLabel: Invictus ProductionsFormats: LP / CDYear: 2023 Sweden’s Unpure have already well reached their 30th anniversary, the band, formed in 1991, has been around for a while but spent their years somewhat in the dank underground. Although the…