Back in the early 2000s as I was still learning about Eastern European extreme metal I discovered a number of bands that may or may not have sketchy politics. Dub Buk, Nokturnal Mortum (their early days), Graveland and this Arkona from Poland. I was already familiar with the Russian folk band Arkona and wanted to […]

Some black metal bands just get it!!!  One such band, who were one of the best at this, but sadly no longer around, was Aosoth, from France.  When listening to Akhlys, one would not necessarily think this was an American band.  However, over the last number of years, the States have been experiencing a swell […]

From the 2007 tech death debut, Of Fracture and Failure, New Zealand’s Ulcerate has been one of the death metal’s most consistently elite bands with 5 albums since. The band has evolved from the pure tech death of the debut into a murky, dissonant, almost black death band (they are on Debemor Morti – a […]

I didn’t discover this French one-man (Ardraos) melodic black metal project until the third album in 2019, Hic Regnant Borbonii Manes. However, I really enjoyed it (honestly, I’m not sure how it didn’t end up on my 2019 year-end list) and I have been eagerly awaiting its follow-up. The mix of completely over-the-top, busy, shredding, […]

Switzerland is known for many things.. Celtic Frost, Coroner, Swiss Cheese, Algebra, beautiful Alps and add Aara to the list as they are one of the best atmospheric black metal bands around today. Triade III: Nyx is their fifth album and in their short existence since 2018 they have also released 2 ep’s along with […]

Like The Mist From the Mountains and I Am The Night from earlier this year,  Pestilent Hex is a Finnish symphonic black metal supergroup  of sorts. However, this particular project is from a duo  (L.L and M.M) who also perform in Desolate Shrine, Ordinance, Convocation and Corpsessed. And whereas the the two projects above have […]

As I peruse through albums I might consider year end candidates I see a lot of black metal; …And Oceans, Abduction, Kryptamok, Aara, Afsky, Eisenkult, Glaciation, Marrasmieli  to name a few. But there is very little truly special  death metal.Sure there’s some good stuff like the always reliable Abysmal Dawn,  The Project Hate‘s Purgatory or […]

When I heard a few months back that Ulcerate was working on a new album, I couldn’t have been more excited.  I own their entire LP catalog, and after seeing them live in San Antonio 4-5 years ago, I was floored at the atmosphere they create and the fact that they were able to produce […]

En Ergô Einai is the second album from this atmospheric black metal duo from Switzerland consisting of Berg (All instruments) and Fluss (vocals, lyrics) and boy is it good, I mean really fucking good. Of course, you will only enjoy this as much as me if you really like the shriller melodic black metal stylings […]

Shortly after its inception in 1995, France’s Blut Aus Nord started traveling two separate, but parallel paths. The first two albums Ultima Thulee and Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Ages fell right in with the other second wave black metal of the time: lo-fi, buzzy, fast, and melodic. Then the band split off […]

Sühnopfer (German for ‘Atonement’) is a French, one man black metal project featuring Ardraos, who has been around a while and has surfaced in a number of well known and lesser known French bands like Peste Noire, Aorlhac, Veratyr, Endymion, Antrum Mortis and others. This project, while productive with 2 full lengths and various demos […]

Hot damn! I like surprises (at least good ones) just as much as the next guy or gal, but I have to say that some of my most favorite surprises are when I find out a band I really like has released a new album right under my nose without me knowing anything about it. […]

During past Halloweens, I’ve set the mood for trick-or-treaters by playing horror movie music – The Exorcist, Halloween, Poltergeist – and baroque Cradle of Filth instrumentals out of the windows. If I really wanted to terrify our visitors this year though, I could switch it up for the new Blut Aus Nord. Then again, it might […]

With this, the latest album from Finnish black metal band Behexen,  they bring us their next offering of 2nd wave orthodox tinged blackness. Those that know, they have been around for quite a while and are a staple in the black Finnish metal scene. They began in a much more raw and chaotic vein with […]

There are some United States Underground acts that can construct rituals of dark atmosphere. Look no further than Naas Alcameth founder of the void inducing beast that is Nightbringer who has created yet another side project of meticulous malebolgias of hellish landscapes which are presented for on the 2015 effort ,The Dreaming I. Naas Alcameth […]

We had to wait 13 years between Memoria Vetusta I: Fathers of the Icy Age and its second chapter, Dialogue with the Stars – which has since become one of my favorite metal albums of all time. Now Vindsval has only taken 5 years to deliver Saturnian Poetry. Don’t hold it against him; in the meantime, he’s started and completed the 777 trilogy, […]

Theoretically speaking, if one end of a wormhole could be held by a vessel travelling at near light speed into the future while the other remained stationary, information could pass through it into the past. Floridian technomancers, Ævangelist, seem to have discovered the means to do this, and have captured what came through. The recording […]

Outsiders often refer to our beloved genre as “scary music” or just “noise.” This jaded, 20+ year fan of extreme metal got a sense of how they feel the first time I listened to Omen Ex Simulacra, Ævangelist’s second full-length and first on Debemur Morti Productions (the most appropriate label for this band). Last year’s […]

Year of No Light have been around for a while now. When I listened to 2006’s Nord, I thought it was a competent but unremarkable sludge album. Ausserwelt came out four years later, and their sound had evolved to more than make up for the time elapsed. While that album wasn’t perfect, it contained moments […]

If this scribe were heading up promo for October Falls’ new The Plague of a Coming Age, all of the album’s selling points should be preceded by “With guest vocals from Amorphis’ Tomi Joutsen!” Like, ad infinitum on that one. Not only is Joutsen one of European metal’s best singers (perhaps we should extend that […]

In last year’s review of 777: The Desantification, I noted the evolution of transcendental melody and ethereal majesty from the uglier, first part of the trilogy to the second chapter, and wondered if that arc would continue into 777: Cosmosophy. Over the past year, Blut Aus Nord (just Vindsval now) has continued to develop and […]

Blut Aus Nord’s Memoria Vetusta II is one of my favorite black metal albums of all time – an odyssey both terrifying and graceful, with masterful compositions that flow as much as they rage. So when I heard that Blut Aus Nord’s next releases would be an epic trilogy, I was naturally very excited to […]

Black metal is a curious beast; it can be a very conservative sub-genre and at the same time, one of the most diverse types of music to be composed. Bands like Enslaved, Dimmu Borgir and Deathspell Omega have shed most of their black metal roots in favor of something different. Whereas, Darkthrone, Dark Funeral and […]

I really hope you readers appreciate what I do for this site, because I’m pretty sure that listening to Blut Aus Nord‘s latest effort and De Magia Veterum‘s latest album in close succession for review purposes, I’ve exposed myself to irreparable mental and psychological damage. Damage, that may require long term treatment and anti-psychotic drugs. […]

As you’d expect from a band with the word Militia in their name (guys c’mon, Hell’s Militia would have sounded much better), this French outfit belongs to the conservative party of black metal. Conservative as in discordant, primitive, mostly amelodic – and to these ears, totally fucking boring. Too bad, considering the pedigree: members of […]