Even though there’s already been countless of releases by Polish bands, the country rarely gave birth to any groundbreaking innovators, that were able to set new standards in the underground. The hordes of often very skilled musicians mainly followed already established paths, but at least tend to do that in a very impressive manner. In […]
I came across the existence of this boxset when I was trying to find out whether or not VENOM’s ‘Senile Decay’ was ever issued on a CD… I mean, there’s so many compilations of these guys around that I was sure some would finally have it, be it an official or bootleg one. But it […]
Countless times I’ve heard certain groups of people (mostly power-flower fans!!!) complaining about every new VENOM masterpiece released for us not-worthy mortals. So, for those who dislike the masters of christraping art there you go with another 60min to make your lives miserable once more! Mantas departure was one of the biggest concerns of the […]
Don’t let yourselves fool by the gory artwork used for this release – Arizona’s VEHEMENCE are definitely not your ordinary CANNIBAL CORPSE type act. These guys started out back in 1995 and developed a brutal, yet very atmospheric and melodic style throughout the years. Their ten track Metal Blade debut "God Was Created" already sounds […]
This young Death Metal band from Poland comes up with surprisingly good songs: rather old school but pretty fast and brutal – typically Polish, I’d say. A good amount of – sometimes traditionally melodic, sometimes weird – harmonies (check out the traditional solo part in ‘Self-Created Martyr’) so it doesn’t ask too much of a […]
Probably you know the little ritual, thinking about the most impressive record of a gone by year. Of course I did so on December, 31st, too. For the year 2007 it was quite easy even though the last year offered a lot of brilliant records. My personal favourite is the debut (!!!) album of VALKYRJA, […]
A rather unique phenomena in the underground is to have a band with such impeccable set of killer releases one after the other. Still, VADER became stagnant on "The Beast" album two years ago and anybody could have heralded their imminent demise after such bad move. Surprisingly enough they returned late 2005 with a taster […]
“Unlock The Shrine” is the debut album of one of Germany’s finest and best Black Metal projects / bands. Project, because the only man behind this is Alexander v. Meilenwald, probably known from NAGELFAR. But THE RUINS OF BEVERAST is something really different, it is much more oppressive and by far blacker. “Unlock The Shrine” […]
THE RECKONING from Belgium were active in the underground since 1993 under their former name INFERNAL LEGIONS. Their influences are bands like BEHEMOTH, SLAYER and MARDUK. That’s what I figured out while reading their biography and while listening to their debut CD “Deathlike Millennia” I can only confirm: yes, they sound like MARDUK, hehe. This […]
Conventional – so what! Bay Area Power Metal veterans RUFFIANS have returned with new material – finally! They’re obviously not trying to re-invent the steel but they play their music with passion and I love the singer’s voice: not too high but powerfully rough. Typical powerful 80s US Metal. Some of the songs seem a […]