If you were familiar with Lamp of Murmuur’s previous output, it fell squarely into that lo-fi black metal category we’ve all come to know and love. I’ve listened to a lot of it over the years. Some bands do it to mask that they can’t write good songs. Other bands have the aesthetic and do […]

When listening to the latest full-length from Sermon, I am reminded of a few bands. Namely Tool, Enslaved, and Soen. I used to be a huge Tool fan, but now just feel like they believe their shit doesn’t stink. I am still an Enslaved fan, but Soen doesn’t do it for me. Sermon does. This […]

If you like the Panopticon sound, but don’t like Austin’s Progressive politics, you’re a dumb shit, but you should also stay clear of Dawn Ray’d and all of their material, including their new one, To Know the Light. Like Fletcher’s genitals in “Liar Liar,” I lean always to the left, so this is no problem […]

My first introduction to Symphonic Black Metal was Cradle of Filth’s Total Fucking Darkness, sent to me by a friend in England who happened to be Dani Filth’s roommate at the time. Small fucking world, right? Anyhoo, when the intro for “The Black Goddess Rises” started I couldn’t believe what I was hearing, mind you, […]

I cannot even begin to tell you how many false starts I’ve had with this review due to my ongoing writer’s block. However, when there’s something released that I believe in and know would have an impact if the right ears took a listen, I must push through it. If you didn’t know by now, […]

War is hell. It has the power to change borders and boundaries, tear nations apart and displace millions at a time. What India’s  Sarcoptes has done with Prayers to Oblivion, is break down five aspects of war to create fifty minutes of thrashing, blackened military insanity. It’s an album that seems daunting at first, the […]

World War One was, without a doubt, the most brutal war in Military History. In terms of lives lost and concerning the horror of trench warfare, was the battle of the Somme. It’s in those blood-soaked forests and fields that form the setting for Feuerwalze and those trenches where thousands lost their lives. What better […]

Funeral Winds has been around for a long fucking time. This makes it a bit daunting to cover a band with a massive discography as theirs (his), whatever. Funeral Winds has been the work of Hellchrist Xul, since 1992. An incredibly talented psychopath, whose heart beats with the elemental rage of 90s Black Metal; his […]

The first time I heard The Ukraine’s Hate Forest was back in the early 2000s. I had found a Russian MP3 site that had Arkona, Nokturnal Mortum, Lucifugum, Astrofaes, and hundreds of other European bands I had never heard of; Hate Forest is one of those bands that I latched onto because with a name […]

The forests of Eastern Europe hold secrets, the landscape wears the scars of battle like badges of honor; trenches and bunkers dot the countryside where years of war have done their worst. This region has contributed numerous bands to the Pagan Black Metal scene over the years, they stand out for their use of traditional […]

Bizarrekult hail from Norway, but originally was from Russia-go figure?  Starting out in the mid ‘00’s the band went on hiatus a few times and really got their basic start in 2019 with the first EP, but it was in 2021 they released their debut album – Vi overlevde.  I became an instant fan, especially […]

Okay, first and foremost, hats off to Mr. Teeth of the Divine himself, Erik Thomas, for sending me Shroud of Despondency‘s latest album, Air of Abrasion for review. Having no experience with the band I wasn’t sure what to expect. I damn sure wasn’t expecting from Air of Abrasion to turn out to be one […]

A few years ago I discovered the folk metal genre.  A variety of bands ranging from death to black to cultural and traditional metal were using these influences.  I got hooked, whether bands were using the influence sparingly or full-fledged the variety of sounds became addictive to me and most of all these bands put […]

Formed in 2004 Aldaaron are legends of the French Black Metal scene. In fact, it’s hard for me to talk about the likes of Deathspell Omega, Anorexia Nervosa or Ad Hominem without mentioning these Grenoble, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes based titans. With their initial full-length Nous Reviendrons Immortels (2010) and follow up Suprême Silence (2012) then nothing for […]

Canadian record label – Profound Lore Records really likes to have Canadian bands on their label.  I think it’s pretty cool and the label roster is pretty staggering, in terms of the quality of their bands-truly excellent.  Canada’s black metal act Gevurah have been slinging their brutal take on the genre for a little over […]

Hilning is the solo project of former Afgrund vocalist/guitarist, Aldriendir (aka Andreas Baier), and as if you could not tell from the cover art, it’s a radical departure from Afgrund’s savage, Nasum-styled grindcore. Unfortunately, where Afgrund kicked out some pretty goddamn solid material in their 3 album existence from 2007-2012, I’m not sure Aldriendir’s foray […]

The 2020 solo debut, Verisaarna, from Hex Inferi ( ex Horna), was a blistering, icy cold blast of classic black metal in the Marduk-ian realm of relentlessness, with some innate Finnish nastiness thrown in. And while Kataklysmi is not quite as palpably frosty, it delivers much of the same frozen swathes of black metal, maybe […]

Heading into 2022, I had no idea that this was going to wind up being my most heavily anticipated album of the year. Granted, I’d have to have been some kind of all-seeing mage or wizard or whatever, because, until the first day of this year, nobody knew Blackbraid even existed (ok, before someone writes […]

France has a dark history. Uprisings, wars, and more wars; have left the countryside pockmarked with craters, and flowers grow in the places where blood had been spilled. It makes sense that France has a solid Black Metal history steeped in that revolutionary blood. Deathspell Omega, Mutiilation, Aldaaron, and the infamous Black Legions; forged a […]

I grabbed this promo to review as I dug the 2020 debut from Germany’s Eisenkult, …gedenken wir der finsternis back in 2020 ( though I somehow completely missed last year’s Von Himmel, Hoch Herab) as it was a super melodic, medieval black metal release, and I love that shit. So it appears somewhere between the […]

I’m always on the lookout for heraldic, medieval black metal in the vein of Véhémence, Eisenkult, Sühnopfer, Abduction, Ungfell, Hanternoz, Passéisme, Heltekvad  and such. And here we have the debut EP from one-man band, Frenchman Alexis Chiambretto, and this 4 song 22-ish-minute debut is a must-have if you enjoy any of the above bands. You […]

What do you call Witchery at this point in their career? A super group? A collective, ever-evolving side project (aside from guitarists Patrick Jensen and Rickard Rimfalt, the last two remaining original members)? What was once basically a catch-all side gig for former members of Seance along with legendary bassist Sharlee D’Angelo (Mercyful Fate, Arch […]

One-man bands are sometimes a hit-or-miss affair. I often picture one dude frantically recording everything at the same time, which I know isn’t true (looking at Burzum). Turm is a singular affair conceived by Tyrst and I have got to say it’s not disappointing at all. This has a classic Black Metal feel, and from […]

When I saw that these two bands were doing this 2 song split, my ears perked up. The early nineties are considered the golden years of Black Metal with so many bands emerging from the pits of hell to either reign or fall. nd these 2 bands don’t need an introduction because they are titans […]

Not even a year after releasing the solid Verses of Regicide album, Aussie musician, ‘Nightwolf’ and his prolific project Runespell is back with a fine EP. Sentinels of Time is with a 4 song, half-hour or so of 90s second wave-inspired black metal that continues the influences that range from Abigor, Satyricon, Immortal, and such […]