Norden is a one man black/Viking metal band from Poland and this is his second album.
This is a Bathory-influenced Viking metal album, (complete with Bathory cover song), that combines this with elements of black and pagan metal to produce a blackened, yet still authentic, take on the Bathory style of Viking metal. Continue reading
Blyh are a German black metal band and this is their second album.
Awake to Emptiness is 45 minutes of raw, melodic black metal, spread out over five lengthy tracks. Continue reading
This is the debut album from Experior Obscura, a one man, (and session drummer), Italian black metal act.
Apparently this is a reworked, remastered, and generally revisited and updated version of a 2015 demo. I haven’t heard the original to comment on the differences, but this version of Iter in Nebula sounds good, both musically and production-wise. Continue reading
Heaume Mortal’s debut album Solstices is a monolithic slab of blackened doom, one which unveils more and more dark delights as you listen to it. Getting to know this sterling piece of work is a pleasure, and I heartily recommend taking the time to explore it.
The main artist behind this project is Guillaume Morlat, so let’s find out a bit more about what makes him and Heaume Mortal tick… Continue reading
Dead to a Dying World are a blackened doom band from the US and this is their third album.
2015’s Litany was a sprawling, ambitious album. It was also very good, although this new release is something quite new and special in some ways. The band have returned with the even more expansive and developed Elegy. Showing greater focus of delivery, (49 minutes vs Litany’s 73), Elegy is also wider ranging and boasts Continue reading
This is the fourth album from Swedish black metallers Mephorash.
Even after enjoying 2015’s 1557 – Rites of Nullification and getting a taste of the band’s new material on last year’s The Third Woe, I still wasn’t really prepared for this. Shem Ha Mephorash might surprise you by just how good it is, as it did me. Mephorash may not be a well-worn Continue reading
This is the second album from Spanish doom/heavy metallers Totengott.
This immense album is a hard one to describe with genre tags. It’s a mix of doom and thrash/heavy metal, but with elements of black, death, and progressive metal added in too, (as well as forays into dark ambient waters). The promo blurb mentions Continue reading
This is the debut album from Aethyrick, a Finnish black metal band.
Praxis features 39 minutes of occult black metal, and I have to say this is quite a captivating underground gem of an album. Continue reading
Hath are a progressive blackened death metal band from the US, (with members of Cognitive and Dystrophy), and this is their debut album.
Of Rot and Ruin combines a base of death metal aggression with black metal’s dark emotive qualities to produce and album that hits hard and memorably, and easily draws you back for more and more. Continue reading
Waldgeflüster are a German black metal band and this is their fifth album.
2016’s Ruinen was a notable and very enjoyable record, one which I’ve returned to many times over the years. Mondscheinsonaten is their much-anticipated new album, one that takes the core of Ruinen and builds it up to even greater heights. Continue reading
