Forlet Sires – Journey Towards Ruin (Review)

Forlet SiresForlet Sires are a Swiss post-black metal band. This is their debut album.

Using black metal as a base for their dark explorations, Forlet Sires create heavy and atmospheric music that contains aspects of post-hardcore and doom in their sound.

Forlet Sires deal in raw blackened atmosphere. Continue reading “Forlet Sires – Journey Towards Ruin (Review)”

Minenwerfer/1914 – Ich hatt einen Kameraden – Split (Review)

Minenwerfer 1914This is a split between black metallers Minenwerfer from the US and Ukrainian blackened death/doom band 1914.

First up we have Minenwerfer, with 21 minutes of fast and barbaric black metal.

Their side of the split contains four tracks; 3 originals and a re-recording of a song off their debut demo. Continue reading “Minenwerfer/1914 – Ich hatt einen Kameraden – Split (Review)”

Hryre – From Mortality to Infinity (Review)

HryreHyrye play atmospheric black metal and come from the UK. This is their debut album.

Featuring harsh black metal that’s born out of the early atmospheric style, it also has some progressive and folk influences that it welcomes into its wind-swept embrace.

Over 66 minutes the band paint dark pictures through extremity Continue reading “Hryre – From Mortality to Infinity (Review)”

Damnatus – Io Odio la Vita (Review)

DamnatusDamnatus is a one-man Italian black metal band and this is his debut EP.

This debut release offers us 36 minutes of raw black metal in the depressive style, full of woe and lonesome sorrow. There’s a barbed edge to the delivery though, making for songs that play depressive black metal with a bit of bite to the attack. Continue reading “Damnatus – Io Odio la Vita (Review)”

Tortorum – Rotten. Dead. Forgotten. (Review)

TortorumThis is the latest EP from Norwegian black metal band Tortorum.

This EP is on the longer side for such things, giving us 30 minutes of dark, occult black metal.

The songs are largely, (but not completely), slow-to-mid-paced, building on the band’s ability to create malevolent atmosphere and grim mood. Even when blast beats do appear though, the sense of atmosphere is retained. Continue reading “Tortorum – Rotten. Dead. Forgotten. (Review)”

Interview with Agatus

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The Eternalist by Agatus is a very distinctive album. In today’s over-saturated musical climate, that description alone should hopefully be enough to pique your interest. It’s a very more-ish album too; once you’ve devoured its contents once, you want to do so again. The songs are positively infectious, and the way it switches from black metal to classic rock to heavy metal without skipping a beat…well, it’s a joyous thing to hear.

So without further preamble, let’s dive into this interview and find out why Agatus are such an individual creation…

Introduce us to Agatus!

The band was formed in Athens, Greece during the early 90s and we made our first introduction to the scene with our demo A Night of the Dark Ages (1993) a release well received and leading to the recording of our debut album ‘The Dawn of Martyrdom (1996) that was recorded the in 1994, the same year the band moved to Australia. Continue reading “Interview with Agatus”

Interview with Pénitence Onirique

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V.I.T.R.I.O.L. by Pénitence Onirique is 47 minutes of scathing black metal, forged from darkness and unleashed with the precision assault of a targeted viral plague. Emotive melodies and blackened riffs create an atmosphere of lethal moods, making it an album that’s easy to like for black metal affectionados.

Bellovesos (B) & Diviciacos (D) conspired to answer a few questions as to the nature of the band…

Introduce us to Pénitence Onirique!

P.O is a duo consisting of Bellovesos behind all instruments and composition and Diviciacos for lyrics and vocals. The idea is to create an atmospheric and complex music with lyrics that gives way to a relatively individual interpretation according to what the listener feels. Continue reading “Interview with Pénitence Onirique”

Interview with In Cauda Venenum

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The self-titled debut album by In Cauda Venenum is now over a year old and about to get a vinyl re-release. If you haven’t yet heard it then I highly suggest you do. Containing only two tracks, yet running for 42 minutes, the music is epic, top-of-the-line atmospheric black metal, full of texture and darkness.

Ictus, (guitars, bass and vocals), brought me up to speed with all you need to know about this talented band…

For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!

We are two guys playing Black Metal songs. We like making it epic, progressive and atmospheric. If you enjoy long tracks, you should give a chance to IN CAUDA VENENUM.

Give us a bit of background to In Cauda Venenum

I wrote 4 first ICV songs during 2009 and 2010. When N.K.L.S. joined me as a drummer in 2011, we decided to bring them to another level and started a rewriting process. After several years working on these 4 tracks, we finally decided to focus on 2 tracks to prepare our first release. We made this choice because our tracks were quite long (more than 20 min each), and the job was to huge. Continue reading “Interview with In Cauda Venenum”

Throneum – Morbid Death Tales (Review)

ThroneumThis is the seventh album from Throneum, a Polish death metal band.

This is ugly, raw death metal, produced by a band that have amassed a huge back catalog. Although quantity does not necessarily equate to quality, at this stage Throneum have been doing this long enough to know their way around the crypt they inhabit. Continue reading “Throneum – Morbid Death Tales (Review)”

Cara Neir/Wildspeaker – Guilt and His Reflection (Review)

Cara Neir WildspeakerCara Neir are a black metal/crust/grind/whatever band from the US. They have teamed up with Wildspeaker, a blackened sludge/crust band, also from the US.

I’m a big fan of Cara Neir, so as far as I’m concerned any release of theirs is well worth giving a listen to. On this split they contribute seven songs spread over 21 minutes.

You never quite know what you’re going to be getting with Continue reading “Cara Neir/Wildspeaker – Guilt and His Reflection (Review)”