There was a time when Belgium’s Shiver Records/The LSP Company were prolific as heck churning out record after record of home grown talent, unusually favoring the chunky, recognizable Belgian sound such as Battalion, Insanity Reigns Supreme, Warbeast Remains, Welkin, Moker, Ordeal, The Seventh and even the odd classic release such as Axamenta’s Ever-Arch-I Tech-Ture. But I had not […]

For the last entry in my 2011 Shiver Records catch-up run we have the debut release of Belgium’s Marche Funèbre, a swampy ooze of melancholy death-doom. One thing I need to just get out of the way is that I simply despise the clean singing on this disc. It’s a warbly, pseudo-operatic, sadghost voice that […]

If Satyricon weren’t boring they’d be Panchrysia. I hadn’t heard of these Belgian black metallers until recently so I had a peek through their back catalog. I was surprised to find how familiar the riffs were. After two releases with an oppressive, Zyklon-esque production, 2008’s Deathcult Salvation adopted more of the cold, clinical style of […]

Bands like to create albums that feel like a cohesive experience with a beginning, middle, and end, sort of like a good story, whether or not they’re telling one. And as such you’ll find a ridiculous number of albums with intro tracks that are sometimes really cool but are generally disposable. Warbeast MMVIII (since renamed […]

This is the debut from these Dutch folk/Viking metallers, and it’s a lively collection of good-natured anthems. The cover notes recommends it for fans of Heidevolk, Manegarm and Eluvetie. I’m not really big into this particular sub-genre, as my Viking/folk knowledge goes about as far as Moonsorrow, but this is tightly played and seems authentic […]

Where as most deathcore in 2008 was content to prolapse your bowels with breakdowns and little else, the full length debut from Belgium’s Days of Betrayal is actually one of the more complete deathcore albums I’ve heard, with an actual focus on songs and riffs and opposed to endless open note beat downs. Released in […]

Delivering the same intense yet singularly paced style of mechanically precise black/death metal akin to Krisiun, Zyklon or even Crionics and The Amenta (without the cyber elements), Belgium’s The Reckoning (formerly known as Infernal Legion) have delivered a solid second album, that won’t change the genre, but it’s a pummeling, relentless listen. Truthfully, I really […]

Wow. The last time I heard this Belgian band on 2001’s Codex Barathri, they were playing a solid but unspectacular form of fantasy tinged pagan/folk black metal. Well, apparently starting with 2004’s genre shifting EP Incognition and after some substantial line-up changes, the band decided to play a form of progressive, technical melodic death metal. […]