Today, Eternal Death sets February 12th, 2021 as the international release date for a split tape between Torresian Call and Welldweller. This split features the debut material from two one-man underground black metal projects.
Hailng from Australia and having released material in several other projects – Blödskog, Meaningless, Tarmblod, and under his own nom-de-guerre – Againwalker has a new solo-project, Torresian Call, making its debut release as Side A of this split. With an atmosphere similar to the early material from America’s well-known one-man black metal project Leviathan, these songs from Torresian Call also have a quirkiness (for lack of a better word) reminiscent of Judas Iscariot’s early material. Traditional black metal with a strong underground feel.
Hailing from the United States, Welldweller is the newest project from Vu, also of solo-project Vampyric. With his side consisting of one 10-minute-plus song, the Welldweller material has a similarity to the prolific underground black metal project Bekëth Nexhëmü. This is music for nightmares of cosmic chaos.
Together, this split tape shows startingly accomplished first attacks from Torresian Call and Welldweller: fathomless darkness and obscurity from the depths of the underground. The dungeons are calling!
Heed the call with two new tracks, Torresian Call‘s “II” and Welldweller‘s “Witch,” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Torresian Call / Welldweller split tape
1. Torresian Call – I 2. Torresian Call – II 3. Torresian Call – III 4. Torresian Call – IV 5. Torresian Call – V 6. Welldweller – Witch
Today, Eisenwald announces March 26th, 2021 as the international release date for a special live album from Solbrud, Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn.
Since their formation in 2009, Danish black metal act Solbrud have forged melodic and evocative compositions in raw, storm-like, and atmospheric soundscapes. Their self-titled debut album was released in 2012, and in 2014, the infernal Jærtegn followed, displaying a natural sense for complex songwriting that was further cultivated on Vemod in 2017. All three albums and the quartet’s intense live performances have consolidated Solbrud as a band with a special, artistic vision unfolding in uncompromising and boundary-pushing black metal. Besides their sonic output, the band have remained an insider tip but collected awards and praise from Danish/Scandinavian press all along the way (Gaffa Music Awards, Newspapers, Steppeulven: Danish Critics Award) and played renowned festivals (Roskilde, Inferno, Copenhell).
Solbrud are also known for performing at unique locations, with special care for lights and props, which now results in Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn, a carefully curated live double-album and video. All tracks were recorded inside Brønshøj Water Tower in Copenhagen at two totally sold-out nights. The tower is known for its brutalist architecture and unique acoustics – 15 seconds of natural reverb, which creates a fitting atmospheric backdrop for the monumental sound of the band. On top of that, the tower was freezing cold, amplifying the nature of the music.
Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn consists of eight tracks, including songs from all three previous Solbrud studio albums. Some songs have been rearranged and woven together, taking the special acoustics into account, while others blast through in their original form. In addition to their set, the new song “Sjæleskrig” was added to their setlist, which resonates hauntingly in the great tower’s reverberance.
Along with the audio part, the entire concert was also captured on film – and the video footage is included as a DVD on both the vinyl and CD releases of Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn. Apart from the impressive cover shots, the release also includes a booklet with photographs from the concert inside the tower.
Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn was recorded on November 23rd and 24th, 2019. Mixing was handled by Marcus Ferreira Larsen (vocalist, Demon Head) and mastered by Flemming Rasmussen (Metallica, Morbid Angel, Rainbow, etc.) at Sweet Silence Studios.
The live album is set for release on March 26th, 2021 on Eisenwald, with the first single / video to air in early January.
In other Solbrud news, while the band was supposed to go on a European tour with UADA in April 2020 and March 2021, both of which were cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic, they are currently working on their fourth studio album, which is planned for release in 2022.
Preorder info for Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn to be announced shortly. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Solbrud’s Levende I Brønshøj Vandtårn 1. Øde Lagt [11:28] 2. Skygge [2:25] 3. Menneske [2:19] 4. Sortedøden [11:48] 5. Klippemennesket [13:05] 6. Bortgang [11:56] 7. Sjæleskrig [8:07] (new song!) 8. Besat af Mørke [8:22]
On December 30th, Hells Headbangers will release a special split album between Japan’s Coffins and Germany’s Depression on CD and vinyl LP formats. Hear Coffins & Depression‘s brand-new split album in its entirety here:
This split album brings together two long-running and extremely prolific death metal cults, featuring all-new & exclusive materials. Of course, Coffins are one of Japan’s most renowned exports, brandishing an immediately identifiable style of sewer-drenched doom-death since 1996. Here with their three tracks, Coffins largely forego the doom part of that equation and kick into high(er) gear with gross gallops of prime, classic DEATH METAL bubbling up from ancient times – and fittingly, capped off by a cover of Grave’s “Morbid Way to Die.” Germany’s Depression have been active even longer, since 1989, and their tried ‘n’ true style of old-school death reflects that. Cleaner in production than their split-mates but no less gross in texture, Depression kick out six swift stabs of alternately headbanging/grinding gore, fittingly including a cover of Coffins‘ “Altars in Gore.”
Capped off by Chris Moyen’s characteristically morbid cover artwork, Coffins and Depression take you into a tomb of darkness, death, gore, and grime with this crucial new split album!
. Preorder info can be found HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ Bandcamp. Aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Coffins (Japan) and Depression (Germany)’s split album 1. Coffins – Things Infestation 2. Coffins – Born From Fear 3. Coffins – Morbid Way to Die [Grave cover] 4. Depression – The Neutron Hammer 5. Depression – One Last Smile 6. Depression – Mass Extinction of the Parasite Race 7. Depression – The 2nd Messiah 8. Depression – Altars in Gore [Coffins cover] 9. Depression – Zerfall
oday, Purity ThroughFire sets February 28th, 2021 as the international release date for Meuchelmord‘s highly anticipated seventh album, Mordmelodien, on CD A5 digipack formats. The vinyl LP and cassette tape versions shall follow later in the spring.
For a decade now, Meuchelmord have been holding high the banner of traditional German black metal. The sole work of one Cernunnos AKA Kriegstreiber, the band have quietly built a body of work that is deeply reverent of black metal’s ancient ways but is by no means totally tethered to the past. In fact, one can find a refreshing sense of modernity to Meuchelmord‘s creations, which in turns renders his expression timeless – and terrifying.
Hot on the heels of last year’s Schwarzmetall aus Niedersachsen (a re-recording of 2018’s Niedersachsen Schwarzmetall) comes arguably Meuchelmord‘s most poignant gem yet, Mordmelodien. Translated into English as “Melodies of Murder,” indeed is Mordmelodien a melodic work – one that’s darkly and deathly so, and proudly still upholding that aforementioned banner. It was 2018’s all-new Waffenträger which distilled all that terrifying power to a fiercely focused degree, but whereas that album thematically focused on World War II, Mordmelodien casts its gaze back to far-older, more medieval times, and suitably does the album musically evoke an alternately aristocratic/rural headspace. The march is equally proud but also more melancholic, the cruelly blasting violence of the past dialed back in favor of an often-hypnotizing and always-dazzling melodicism that sacrifices not one ounce of Meuchelmord‘s inherent power. Similarly, the production is clear and cutting, and while that would spell “sellout” (or at least neutering) in other bands’ hands, in those of Kriegstreiber does it simply highlight the band’s increasingly martial aspect. Which is all to say nothing of the track “Alter Geist,” which features guest vocals from ex-Endstille frontman Iblis, altogether making Mordmelodien a grand statement of Teutonic black metal.
As the modern Black Plague threatens to drag civilization back to those dark medieval times, Meuchelmord strides forward with a befitting soundtrack: Mordmelodien!
Begin the march with the brand-new track “Schwarzes Ehrenfeld” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Meuchelmord’s Mordmelodien 1. Der Tod naht 2. Waffenweihe 3. Schwarzes Ehrenfeld 4. Treibjagd 5. In Ketten 6. Dem Ross zur Wehr 7. Alter Geist (feat. Iblis ex-Endstille) 8. Monument 9. Totenkult [Ad Mortem cover]
Today, Putrid Cult sets February 19th, 2021 as the international release date for Szary Wilk‘s striking debut album, Wrath.
A mysterious quartet hailing from Poland, Szary Wilk released their first demo, Wrota chaosu, in 2018 via Putrid Cult. Despite being a brand-new entity and their first recording arriving in 2018, more accurately could Szary Wilk have come from mid-’90s Poland, so authentic is their ancient pagan black metal.
But now, they trump that accomplishment with their debut full-length, Wrath. Aptly titled, Wrath is literally a timewarp to colder/grimmer/truer days of all-caps BLACK METAL. No “post,” no “friends,” no contact, no LIFE: simply, Szary Wilk solely focus on the majestic, mystical essence of ancient-days/ways songwriting and conjure a cruel-yet-comforting atmosphere for those following the voice of blood. And at five songs in a compact 33 minutes, the trio waste no time on pleasantries or flights of fancy – and yet, the all-engrossing experience of Wrath feels far vaster than that runtime suggests. Szary Wilk are straight from the source, and it shows ad infinitum.
For those whose hearts beat true for early Behemoth, Graveland, Veles, Infernum, and Sacrilegium, return to the pagan vastlands with Szary Wilk‘s Wrath!
Begin returning with the brand-new track “Mortuos Voco” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Szary Wilk’s Wrath 1. Mortal 2. Behind the Curtain of Death 3. Mortuos Voco 4. Wilczy Taniec 5. Wrath
Today, Putrid Cult sets February 19th, 2021 as the international release date for Upon the Altar‘s striking debut album, Absid Ab Ordine Luminis.
There is no crystalline sound, no polished, touching solos, no virtuosity – there is METAL. That and only that, in its purest form, with inspiration from the early ’90s and the cult of DEATH. The destruction of civilization as you know it will be done in the light of nuclear explosions and in the accompaniment of the apocalyptic hymns composed by Upon The Altar.
The sense of aesthetics of its creators for many will be a degeneration and provocation. Absid Ab Ordine Luminis is a trip to the dangerous areas of cemeteries, where ritual mutilations go hand in hand with bodily pleasures… It’s a piece of rusting, blood-dripping metal for maniacs of Teitanblood, Vassafor, Temple Nightside, and Morbosidad. Simply, it is Upon the Altar, and it’s likely NOT for you.
Find out for yourself with the brand-new track “Crown of Weakness” here:
. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Upon the Altar’s Absid Ab Ordine Luminis 1. Crown of Weakness 2. Wolfs of Napalm 3. Expire 4. Mortuus Est Rex 5. Blasphemare Absens Fides 6. Absit Ab Ordine Luminis 7. Hapax Legamenon
UPON THE ALTAR lineup Void – vox, bass Thisworld Outof – drums bTo – guitar
Today, Blood Harvest Records sets January 29th, 2021 as the international release date for a highly anticipated new EP from Astral Tomb, Degradation of Human Consciousness, on cassette tape format.
As presaged by their track to the Chasm of Aeons four-way split shared with Cryptic Shift, Replicant, and Inoculation which Blood Harvest released this past autumn, Astral Tomb are all-too-perfectly monikered. Theirs is gross ‘n’ gooey dredge of deranged death metal that slices and sluices in obscene ways – all at the listener’s discomfort, most of all, challenging even the most diehard death metaller. Their first longer-formed recording since their celebrated Subterranean Forms debut demo in 2019, Degradation of Human Consciousness is likewise perfectly titled, for its blown-out yet clanging soundworld consumes the listener’s sanity first and then the body whole, spitting it back out – slowly, weirdly, wonderfully – in a manner that recalls both the most clandestine secrets of turn-of-the-’90s tape-trading and a future far off and none so vile.
Astral Tomb have already written your epitaph with Degradation of Human Consciousness – and they’re only just begun!
Begin reading that epitaph with the brand-new track “Transcendental Visions” here:
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Astral Tomb’s Degradation of Human Consciousness 1. Devouring Sorrow 2. Transcendental Visions 3. Orbiting Fractals
Today, militant Portuguese black metallers Satanize premiere the new track “Luciferian Thrones of Devastation” . The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated sixth album, Baphomet Altar Worship, set for international release on January 20th, 2021 via Helter Skelter Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records). Hear Satanize‘s “Luciferian Thrones of Devastation” in its entirety here:
Since 2001, Portugal’s Satanize have been prolifically pursuing their own vision of all-caps BLACK METAL. Of that prolific canon, they’ve released five full-lengths and more than twice as many EPs and splits. During that time, the longstanding duo of Reverend of Diabolical Services and Sinister Sorcery (barbaric skullhammers & poisonous hate commands) and Reverend of the Hell Legions and Macabre Tyranny (bestial strings of holocaust & low pulse desecration) have not so much “evolved” as literally devolved, locating and then desecrating the most primal expression of blackest metal they can.
To that, whereas so many of their Portuguese contemporaries live or die on withering rawness, the contemporary Satanize terrorize the underground with a righteously barbaric assault on the senses. Witness their latest Baphomet Altar Worship. Truly titled, Baphomet Altar Worship is an iron-fisted, close-minded, and unapologetically ignorant display of feral ‘n’ fiery bestiality. Pounding and pulsing, overwhelming in their gibbering intensity, Satanize utterly PUNISH the listener with one mesmerizing-yet-malicious hymn after another; sonic slaughter abounds at every seemingly chaotic, careening turn. And yet, note the word “seemingly,” for however jagged and jarring their bestial blackgrind may be, Satanize wield their physicality with an almost martial strictness – one could even liken it “Zen” – and a strangely tuneful “catchiness” arises. But, escape never an option: only submission. And, before you know it, the 29 minutes of Baphomet Altar Worship are over and you’re begging the duo for more, more, MORE. Truly, Satanize are the ultimate in paradigmatic bestial black metal.
Fittingly completed by cover artwork courtesy of longtime comrade Sickness666, Satanize herald the impending Apocalypse with Baphomet Altar Worship!
. The first sign of that Apocalypse can be found with the previously revealed lyric video for the title track “Baphomet Altar Worship” HERE at Regain Records‘ official YouTube channel.
Preorder info can be found HERE at Regain‘s Bandcamp.
Aforementioned cover artwork and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Satanize’s Baphomet Altar Worship 1. Baphomet Altar Worship 2. Council of Nuclear Holocaust 3. Conjuration of Southern Elitism 4. Chariots of Nocturnal Wrath 5. Shrine of Antichrist 6. Merciless Profanation 7. Barbarity Enthroned 8. Luciferian Thrones of Devastation 9. Cavernous Onslaught
After 16 years of deathlike slumber, Hate Forest is back with a new album called Hour of the Centaur, created and recorded in few days of April 2020. You will not find anything trendy or new here – the band’s same impenetrable dark wall of sound and bottomless maelstrom exclusively.
Hate Forest‘s Hour of the Centaur will be released on December 25th via Osmose Productions on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats. This is laconic and honest black metal crafted on Old Europe’s eastern frontier, full of disgust to modern pseudo-intellectual, selfie/Instagram “black metal.”
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “No Stronghold Can Withstand This Malice” here:
. Cover and tracklisting are as follows
Tracklisting for Hate Forest’s Hour of the Centaur 1. Occidental, Beware the Steppe (intro) [0:27] 2. Those Who Worship the Sun Bring the Night [7:20] 3. No Stronghold Can Withstand this Malice [5:40] 4. To the North of Pontos Axeinos [4:43] 5. Anxiously They Sleep In Tumuli [9:20] 6. Melanchlaeni [6:26] 7. Shadowed By a Veil Of Scythian Arrows [4:08]
Today, Purity ThroughFire sets February 28th, 2021 as the international release date for Order of Nosferat‘s striking debut album, Necuratul, on CD, vinyl LP, and limited A5 digipack formats.
Although a brand-new entity by name, the individual behind Order of Nosferat is a well-known German multi-talent, here going by the nom de plume Count Revenant. While he handles strings, voice, and keys, Count Revenant is joined in Order of Nosferat by Anzillu on percussion. And while this name may be brand-new, the sound across their Necuratul debut is most definitely OLD…in every sense of the word.
Recorded during October/November 2020, Order of Nosferat‘s Necuratul harkens back to the mid ’90s and specifically the early days of vampiric black metal. Names invoked include America’s Black Funeral as well as France’s Vlad Tepes, Mütiilation, Funeral, Blessed in Sin, or any number of bands orbiting the Black Legions or Concilium collectives. Which is all to say: fuck-off RAW yet melancholically melodic, harsh and harrowing yet paradoxically aristocratic, feverish and ghoulish in intensity but also frequently exploring dungeon synth textures. Order of Nosferat feels familiar and nostalgic, and indeed is that the point; black metal doesn’t “need” to be anything else but what it already is…or already was, more accurately. And the same can be said for the “vampiric” appellation, before it was ruined by circus clowns and freaks on a leash as the once-glorious ’90s came to a close. Thus, Necuratul is less a subgenre exercise as it is a reinvigoration of too-long-dormant energies.
More to the point, let the words of Count Revenant stir your passions – or keep you at bay, depending: “Hailed be all those who maintain what stands regal in black metal! Those who imbibe the spirit as it should be! Fuck all those who lack the courage in their convictions, thus corrupting a genre built on strength! Infiltrators of a different walk who are destined to be ousted… Smite those not of Vampiric ilk… Tolerate nothing!”
Enter Order of Nosferat‘s bloodcitadel with the brand-new track “Servant of Orlok” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Order of Nosferat’s Necuratul 1. Awaiting his Arrival 2. Rats And Pestilence Shall Conquer 3. Empusas Deadly Freight 4. Servant of Orlok 5. Behold the Pale Lord 6. The Bloodcitadel 7. Carrying Coffins In Endless Processions 8. Necuratul 9. At Dawn [Альянс cover] 10. As Light Withered My Skin 11. Ending
