BERGRIZEN set release date for new PURITY THROUGH FIRE album, reveal first track – features members of KRODA+++

Today, Purity Through Fire announces September 22nd as the international release date for a special album from Bergrizen, Orathania, on digipack CD format.

For 15 years now, Bergrizen have been standard-bearers for the new wave of Ukrainian black metal which honors the old. The work of one Myrd’raal, Bergrizen have released five studio albums and even a live album, nearly all of which have been released in some manner by Purity Through Fire.

Now, some six years since that last studio album, Bergrizen prepare a unique full-length as a precursor to their next album. Titled Orathania, the record marks a new approach to creation for the band. Otherworldly to the max, Bergrizen‘s approach here is largely based on alternately stirring/soothing ambient with a touch of dark folk and fierce-yet-fleeting moments of black metal. Almost entirely instrumental with some blackened ululations, Orathania inhabits its own world and wholly transports the listener into this magical realm; it will take you on a journey through picturesque landscapes and ancient spirits, as every song represents the ethnocultural regions of Ukraine – the album title itself, actually, means the poetic name of Ukraine. The music was composed by the band’s drummer, except for some of the tracks that were taken from the archive of traditional Ukrainian music; Myrd’raal together with the guest musicians Olgerd (Kroda) and Ogrim (ex-Bergrizen guitarist, Wolftomb) also contributed to the album’s creation. 

While we wait for the next regular Bergrizen album to be released by Purity Through Fire, it should be noted that Orathania is more than just a stopgap recording: it is dedicated to their motherland Ukraine and the whole Ukrainian nation, which is unprecedently fighting for freedom.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Tavria Grace + River Ros’ Rocks” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Bergrizen’s Orathania
1. To the Coasts of Bessarabia
2. River Ros Rocks
3.1. Bukovina Landscapes
3.2. Carpathian Shield of Galicia
3.3. On the Way to Khust
4. Tavria Grace
5. Siveria Magic
6. The Winds of the Mines
7. Khortytsia the Heart of Power
8. Spring in Podil
9. Sloboda Ukraine in Winter
10.Polissya Forests and Volhynia Swamps


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/true.bergrizen

MALOKARPATAN set release date for new INVICTUS / AJNA album, reveal first track

On October 27th, Invictus Productions and The Ajna Offensive will release Malokarpatan‘s highly anticipated fourth album, Vertumnus Caesar. Invictus will handle the album’s release for Europe while Ajna will handle its release for North America. To coincide with the release of Vertumnus Caesar, Malokarpatan‘s first three albums will be reissued on vinyl.

Formed in Bratislava, Slovakia anno 2014, Malokarpatan builds upon local traditions equally in the musical and thematical field. Continuing where legendary ex-Iron Curtain bands like Master’s Hammer, Tormentor, or Kat have left off and taking influence from macabre cultural history of the Carpathian region, the group has developed its own recognizable sound in a span of three albums released within five years. Live shows across Europe and North America have solidified their underground fanbase, and after a period of line-up changes, they are back, this time in a purely studio form with an ambitious conceptual work titled Vertumnus Caesar. Staying true to their fascination with local heritage, this album expands into the band’s Central European identity. Mapping the mysterious life of Emperor Rudolf II, infamous for his involvement in the esoteric arts, the album is an adventurous ride through the days of late renaissance hermeticism, an occult rock opera dimming the lines between first-wave black metal, classic heavy metal, and progressive rock. 

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Koár postupuje temnomodrými dálavami na juhozápad” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Malokarpatan’s Vertumnus Caesar

1. Na okraji priepaste otevíra sa hviezdny zámek
(On the Side of the Abyss, the Starry Castle Opens)
2. Kočár postupuje temnomodrými dálavami na juhozápad
(The Carriage Moves Southwest Through the Dark-Blue Distances)
3. Vertumnus Caesar
4. Vovnútri chlácholivého útočišta kunstkamru
(Withinside the Kunstkammer’s Soothing Solace)
5. Panstvo salamandrov jest v kavernách zeme
(The Mansion of Dragons Is in Caverns of the Earth)
6. Maharal a Golem
(The Maharal and the Golem)
7. Mnohoraké útrapy milostpána Kelleyho
(The Manifold Sufferances of Sir Kelley)
8. I hle, tak zachádza imperiálna hviezda
(And Lo, Thus the Imperial Star Descends)

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/malokarpatan

www.invictusproductions.net

www.facebook.com/invictusproductions

www.theajnaoffensive.com

Swedish black metal band MARDUK release Video For “Shovel Beats Sceptre”, Highly Anticipated Album Memento Mori Out September 1st. 

The renowned Swedish black metal band MARDUK is back with a new release entitled Memento Mori. Today, MARDUK release the video for their latest single “Shovel Beats Sceptre”. Watch it here:

As anticipation continues to build for Memento Mori, the PRE-ORDER has begun and the LP is available in the following formats:

  • Ltd. Deluxe Gatefold Ultra Clear-Black Splatter Vinyl With Alternative Cover Artwork (Incl. LP-Booklet, Art-Print & Poster) (Limited to 2,000 copies / All Outlets)
  • Red Gatefold Vinyl (Limited to 300 copies / Available at Century Media Shop)
  • White Gatefold Vinyl (Limited to 500 copies / Available via Century Media Shop)
  • Golden Gatefold Vinyl
    (Limited to 500 copies / Available at Levykauppa ÄX, Bengans, Supreme Chaos)
  • Silver Gatefold Vinyl (Limited to 500 copies / Available at EMP & Nuclear Blast)
  • Black Gatefold Vinyl (All Outlets)
  • CD Mediabook (All Outlets)

Commenting on the album, MARDUK frontman Daniel Rostén shares:
“Memento Mori is, all at once, a bold leap forward, a calculated sidestep, and a wistful backward glance. Meaning, we have broken new ground without forgetting our legacy or the journey that brought us to this point.” 

Since their inception in the early ’90s, MARDUK has become one of the most influential and revered bands in the black metal genre. With a discography that spans over three decades, the band has consistently delivered uncompromising and aggressive music that resonates with metal fans worldwide. Memento Mori promises to be another groundbreaking chapter in their storied career, cementing their status as true legends of the genre.
 
MARDUK is:
Daniel Rostén (Vocals) 
Morgan Hakansson (Guitar) 
Devo Andersson (Bass) 
Simon Schilling (Drums) 

MARDUK online:
www.MARDUK.nu 
www.instagram.com/MARDUKofficial 
www.facebook.com/MARDUKofficial

HAGATIZ set release date for AMOR FATI debut, reveal first track – features members of DAUÞUZ, HÄXENZIJRKELL, ABYTHIC, HAIMAD+++

Today, Amor Fati Productions announces October 11th as the international release date for Hagatiz‘s striking debut album, Cursed to the Night, on CD and vinyl LP ​formats.

Hailing from Germany, Hagatiz are a new formation of old souls: Dauþuz‘s Semgoroth, Häxenzijrkell‘s MK, and the ever-profilic Odium Aeternum (Abythic, Haimad, Lunar Chalice, Mysteria Mystica Aeterna et. al.). Together, these scene veterans reveal Cursed to the Night, Hagatiz‘s first public recording. 

Fully formed, as to be expected from such a stellar lineup, Hagatiz‘s debut album comprises pure, uncompromising BLACK METAL steeped in the ancients: no more, but definitely no less. The point is not to “be” anything other than authentically old-school black metal in the best ’90s tradition, from Scandinavia and across to Germania and even on to the Eastern Bloc. Raw without being ineffectual, dark and haunting yet brimming with just enough melody, Cursed to the Night is a work of total passion and spirit; that Hagatiz make it seem so effortless is perhaps unsurprising, but it’s remarkable nevertheless. There is no “thinking” involved in this experience, only feeling – and such was the way it was as the ’90s drew to a close and pure hearts heeded the call to head deeper underground. It’s not inaccurate to say that Hagatiz could’ve been released ​on such era-embodying vanguards as Sombre, Drakkar, or Solistitium, so authentic is this essence and atmosphere…but again, ​only FEELING Cursed to the Night is real.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Demimonde” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Hagatiz’s Cursed to the Night
1. The Gathering
2. Demimonde
3. Echoes from the Afterlife
4. Everlast in darkest Night
5. Scourge beneath the Skin
6. Drown in Darkness
7. Necrovoid

www.amor-fati-productions.de 
www.amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com

HJEMSØKT set release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut mini-album, reveal first track – features SOLUS GRIEF, KVAD, UNHOLY CRAFT members+++

Today, Purity Through Fire announces September 22nd as the international release date for Hjemsøkt‘s striking debut mini-album, Mystikk & Mørke, on CD format. The 12″ vinyl LP will follow on October 27th.

Yet another creation of restless madman Peregrinus – lately, under the banner of Purity Through Fire, releasing records from his bands Solus Grief, Unholy Craft, and Kvad, but joined here by vocalist/lyricist Letaliis – Hjemsøkt is unapologetically the duo’s homage to early Nordic black metal, particularly the pagan-oriented iteration of it. From the earliest (and iciest) blasts from the likes of Enslaved, Ulver, Hades, Perished, Helheim, Taake, and even Satyricon, these descendants of Odin railed against modernity and, instead of waging war for Satan, sought to revive ancient energies through a solemnly melodic & mesmerizing style of black metal. The second wave still courses through the veins of Peregrinus and Letaliis, same as it always has since their introduction in the very early ’90s, and suitably with lyrics in their native tongue, Hjemsøkt slot authentically alongside the aforementioned cults, making Mystikk & Mørke not so much a nostalgic spin as a reinvigoration of an aura & atmosphere too long dormant. This is exclusively Æterisk Misantropisk Sort Metal! 

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Dans i den visnende skogen” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Hjemsøkt’s Mystikk & Mørke
1. Steinens Mørke Søvn
2. Dans i den visnende skogen
3. Sorgens hymne
4. Kongen Begravd i Fjellet
5. Jord røtter blod
6. Nattestormer

More info Click Here

TSJUDER releases track ‘Helvegr’ with music video!

Black Metal legends TSJUDER are favouring us with something special today. The band is releasing a music video for their track ‘Helvegr’, a song taken from their newest full length “Helvegr”, which was released worldwide on June 23, 2023 via Season of Mist.

The recording of this video took place in Hallingdal (NO) on January 2021, during the full moon and it gives a fitting representation of the darkest nights of hellish Norway. The meaning of Helvegr is often depicted as a journey or a road that the souls of the deceased would take after death.

Shop for “Helvegr” are available HERE, while the album can be downloaded HERE. (Some vinyl’s are already sold out)

The cover artwork for “Helvegr” can be viewed together with the track-list and further album details below.

Artwork: Jonas Svensson and Laura Nardelli
Track-list:
1. Iron Beast (3:37) [WATCH HERE]
2. Prestehammeren (4:01) [WATCH HERE]
3. Surtr (6:59)
4. Gamle-Erik (3:46)
5. Chaos Fiend (4:02)
6. Gods of Black Blood (5:19) [WATCH HERE]
7. Helvegr (7:36) [WATCH HERE]
8. Faenskap og Død (3:08)
9. Hvit Død (2:52)

Since their inception in 1993, Oslo’s TSJUDER have been responsible for some of the most hate-filled ferocity perpetrated under the banner of TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL.
 
The band’s unholy fire was initially lit when founding members NAG (vocals/bass), BERSERK (guitar) and DRAUGLUIN (guitar) grew weary of playing death metal and sought out engorged levels of extremity to sate their increasingly profane ambitions. The time was ripe to inaugurate a ceaseless campaign committed to an uncompromising strain of brutally raw black metal, influenced by the primal thrash blasts of Sodom, Kreator, Destruction, Sarcófago and early Sepultura; black metal first wave trailblazers such as Bathory and Hellhammer; and, most vitally, Mayhem’s seminal Deathcrush, and Darkthrone’s game-changer, A Blaze in the Northern Sky.

Assuming the TSJUDER name, a moniker plundered from a mythical, murderous Northern tribe, various embryonic line-ups gathered around the all-conquering core of Nag and Draugluin, laying the fearsome foundations for what was to follow with two demos – Ved Ferdens Ende and Possessed – recorded between 1995-96. But it was with 1997’s EP, Throne of the Goat, that the black metal underground really began to sit up and take notice, the release establishing TSJUDER’s reputation as a blasphemous bulldozer hellbent on crushing the insipid and nostalgic in relentless blizzards of sub-zero riffage, punitive blast beats and blood-curdling screams.

Recordings for an inaugural full-length in 1999 were lost to a computer virus, but from the scavenged remnants of these sessions would emerge the Atum Nocturnem demo, an obnoxious foretaste of the group’s debut album, Kill For Satan, an international breakthrough slathered in slime-encrusted sacrilege. That damnable release saw the aptly-named ANTI-CHRISTIAN open his TSJUDER account, the drummer blasting a succession of gateways though the underworld, pulverising a punitive march to the band’s malevolent maelstroms

Demonic Possession (2002) and Desert Northern Hell (2004) sustained the band’s focus on death, devils and destruction, while ratcheting up the production levels on a barbaric brace of flesh-strippers conjuring a landscape of frost-bitten wastes and foul abyssal realms. With the music press busy dishing out plaudits, the band’s burgeoning confederacy of fanatics were becoming desperate for some TSJUDER live action. Heeding the clarion, the band embarked on a full European tour with fellow countrymen Carpathian Forest. They also recorded a pair of gloriously powerful live performances in 2005, in Norway, which would subsequently be documented on the group’s Norwegian Apocalypse DVD.

TSJUDER would take a deserved hiatus in 2006, with members finding other musical outlets for their creativity; Nag launching heretical black metal outfit KRYPT; Draugluin and Anti-Christian doing time with the thrashier TYRANN

But it wouldn’t be long before the irresistible call of TSJUDER would exert itself once more. The band reconvened, reenergised and eager to make up for lost time, returning to live performances in 2010 before finally unleashing the mighty Legion Helvete (2011), a typically uncompromising comeback interspersed with pronounced Motörhead influences on punkish hyper-blasters such as ‘Slakt’.
It would be another four years before TSJUDER issued the merciless Antiliv (2015), a snarling lycanthropic howl of a record, heavy-loaded with vindictive black’n’roll swagger and lashings of buzzsaw guitar.   
 
TSJUDER quickly set about creating the follow-up to Antiliv, but musical differences and protracted disputes led to a parting of the ways, with Anti-Christian bowing out after an impressive 20-year tenure with the group. Undaunted, Nag and Draughluin enlisted doyen tub-thumper JON RICE to provide the requisite drum artillery and continued to work on new recordings – fine-tuning guitar tones and sharpening mixes.

Then COVID-19 struck, the pandemic further stymieing the album’s release as the world tumbled from its fragile axis. But humanity is now benignly settling into its most chronic phase of perpetual abnormality and TSJUDER are steeled again to hoist their inverted cross above the barricades of conciliation. Their latest opus, Helvegr, is a devastatingly savage offering, one which fully adheres to the band’s eternal credo of “NO FUCKING COMPROMISE”.     
Recording Line-up:
Nag – Bass & Vocals
Draugluin – Guitars & Vocals
Jon Rice – Drums

Guest musicians:
Guitar solo on ‘Gamle Erik’ by Pål Emanuelsen
Guest vocals on ‘Gods of Black Blood’ by Seidemann (1349)

After the departure of Anti-Christian, Jon Rice and Eivin Brye has shared the drum duties on TSJUDER ‘s live performances.

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/tsjuderofficial
https://www.instagram.com/officialtsjuder

Mixing + Mastering: North Waves Studios by Pål Emanuelsen
Artwork: Jonas Svensson and Laura Nardelli

TSJUDER live
19 Aug 2023 Midgardsblot (NO) 2023

Shop:https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/Tsjuder-HEL
Pre-save: https://shop.season-of-mist.com/list/tsjuder-helvegr

SOLUS GRIEF set release date for new PURITY THROUGH FIRE album, reveal first track – features KVAD, UNHOLY CRAFT members+++

Today, Purity Through Fire announces September 22nd as the international release date for Solus Grief‘s highly anticipated second album, What If This Was Everything, on CD format. The vinyl LP version will follow on October 27.

It was late last year when Norwegian newcomer Solus Grief burst from the void with their debut album, With a Last Exhale. Originally released digitally, by February of this year did Purity Through Fire spread the infection in physical form, seeing as the label has taken under its banner the myriad other bands of mainman Peregrinus – among them, Unholy Craft and KvadWith a Last Exhale, on paper, might’ve seemed like just another one-man DSBM release, but that couldn’t have been further from the truth: with robust songwriting and tangible physicality, Solus Grief‘s first album equally nodded to ’90s melodic death metal, ’80s doom metal, and even proper heavy metal itself, making for a unique expression stemming from the Norwegian black metal tradition.

Bucking expectations once again, Solus Grief returns quickly with their second album, What If This Was Everything, and just as quickly show newer sides to that expression. Immediately, it becomes clear that this sophomore full-length is a rawer and wilder one – denser and more desperate, restless and relentless, the very sound of a man painfully wearing his heart on his sleeve and then just obliterating it. Suitably recorded during the winter by Peregrinus, What If This Was Everything utilizes the same epic four-song structure as its predecessor, but with 47 minutes this time instead of 41, those labyrinths become longer and more treacherous, betraying an expanded palette and frenzied brushwork. It’s not that huge changes in style occur here – the foundation, for the most part, is nearly the same – but the songwriting undeniably becomes more winding, the melodicism more surprising, and the black metal underbelly fully felt. Still, it’s the utter anguish in Peregrinus’ voice which puts this record into rarefied territory, as well as the equally anguished manner in which he plays all the instruments: you truly BELIEVE IT. Compounding this frayed-ends-of-sanity approach is the aforementioned production, which is more caustic than its stoic predecessor, but perhaps this is simply down to Peregrinus punishing said instruments…What If This Was Everything indeed.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Upon the Winds, My Breath Left” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Solus Grief’s What If This Was Everything
1. Upon the Winds, My Breath Left [9:25]
2. Within the Fires [12:21]
3. What If This Was Everything [13:43]
4. Of the Earth Cold [10:42]

MORE INFO:
www.solusgrief.bandcamp.com

THE RITE stream new IRON BONEHEAD album – features members of DENIAL OF GOD, BLACK OATH+++

Today, morbid metallers The Rite stream the entirety of their highly anticipated second album, The Astral Gloom. Set for international release on August 11th via Iron Bonehead Productions, hear The Rite‘s
The Astral Gloom in its entirety here:

The Rite was formed in autumn 2017 when A.th (Black Oath) and Ustumallagam (Denial of God) joined forces to create a band that exclusively plays morbid black metal, praising complete and utmost darkness. Their influences range from iconic bands such as Mercyful Fate, Death SS, Celtic Frost, Samael, Goatlord, Ripper, and others, as well as occult literature. The music walks a fine line between slow and dreary parts and fast and merciless attacks, but by and large, it falls into the black/doom 
category. 

The recording of The Rite‘s five-track mini-album, The Brocken Fires, was finished in August 2018 and originally released on tape by Unholy Domain Records in October 2018. In August 2019, the mini-album was then released on CD and 12″ vinyl formats by Iron Bonehead and successively received a great response from the underground scene. 

In July 2019, The Rite performed their debut show at Denmark’s Metal Magic Festival. In the autumn of that year, the band performed their second show, this time in Italy. Around the same time, The Rite entered the studio again to record their debut album, Liturgy of the Black, which contained 10 tracks of morbid black metal, including a cover of Ripper. The album was released in June 2020 by Iron Bonehead, showing The Rite creating an atmosphere of darkness and the occult rather than focusing on speed or technicality. The music, written by A.th, this time incorporated both guitar solos and keyboards while staying true to The Rite‘s original path of mainly slow and heavy black metal. The lyrics, penned by Ustumallagam, covered various intriguing subjects such as pure devil worship, devotion to the dark, strange rituals, and the afterlife, and the man’s characteristically creepy annunciation brought those subjects to undead life with drama and intensity.

Around the turn of 2020 to 2021, The Rite returned to the studio to record new tracks for two upcoming releases. Some of the tracks were included on a split CD with Coven of Impurity, released by Cursed Recordings (A.th’s label), and one track was featured on a split 7″ EP with Bezwering, released on Headkick Music (Ustumallagam’s label) in May 2022, after facing cursed delays. The split CD with Coven of Impurity sold out quickly, and most of the copies of the split 7″ with Bezwering were sold within a few days. 

In 2022, The Rite‘s lineup underwent some changes. The original drummer, P. Guts, was replaced by someone else who the band parted ways with just days before their third show at Winter Metal Magic in Denmark. War D. (Morbus Grave) stepped in at the last moment and saved the day, and has been with the band ever since. A second guitar player was found in M. Desecrator (VomitVulva, Funest), making The Rite a five-piece band, even stronger in their live performances. 

Despite being busy with both Denial of God and Black Oath, The Rite began working intensely on the follow-up to Liturgy of the Black. After some initial rehearsals, their second album was recorded in December 2022. Titled The Astral Gloom, The Rite‘s new album contains another 10 tracks, proving as dark and dynamic as ever, with creepier excursions into quieter territory and an even more heightened atmospheric element without losing any heaviness – thus, the title The Astral Gloom is more than fitting. That heaviness is provocatively played to the hilt with this two-guitar lineup, and the lead parts evoke a macabre majesty only hinted at before. Once again, The Rite choose a unique cover – this time, the Lollipops’ “Naked When You Come,” an eerie psychedelic pop song from 1966 – and they truly make it their own.

With this new lineup bolstered and better than ever, The Rite seek to take their morbid metal to the stage more often and promote The Astral Gloom as fully as possible. The black bells toll more ominously than ever, the veil between worlds begins to open…step forth into The Astral Gloom!

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for The Rite’s The Astral Gloom
1. Intro – The Evocation
2. The Spirit of Mendes
3. The Fathomless Dark
4. Under A Lunar Spell
5. Walpurgis Night
6. The Astral Gloom
7. Nosophoros
8. Naked When You Come
9. The Valley of Megiddo
10. Outro – Sheol

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/The-Rite-band-page-219647875291113

ABIGAIL and NEKROFILTH reveal first tracks from upcoming split album on HELLS HEADBANGERS

Today, Japan’s prolific Abigail reveal the new track “Black Funeral War” alongside America’s equally prolific Nekrofilth revealing the new track “Fuck in Hell.” Both tracks are the first to be revealed from their forthcoming split album together, Fuck in Hell’s Evil Bitches, to be released on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats later this year by Hells Headbangers. Hear Abigail‘s “Black Funeral War” here:

as well as Nekrofilth‘s “Fuck in Hell” here:

Two of the most prolific forces in the filthy metal underground, Japan’s Abigail and America’s Nekrofilth team up for the first time ever on Fuck in Hell’s Evil Bitches. Featuring nine new and exclusive tracks, this split album is a swift-yet-salacious display of both bands’ characteristic nastiness. Abigail are first up with four tracks of their now-legendary street metal. Even after 30 years now, Yasuyuki and crew continue to push their perverted agenda and create an immediately-identifiable blend of black metal, thrash, and hardcore punk; these four tracks are arguably some of Abigail‘s noisiest-yet-addicting work yet. Not to be outdone, Nekrofilth hit HARD with five tracks of their own. While it’s been some time since 2018’s celebrated Worm Ritual full-length, Nekrofilth got back into action at the beginning of 2023 and are proving that their gutted grime – equal parts early grindcore, primitive death metal, and crusty punk – is eternal no matter what year of release. Naturally, it’s inspiring to see the band active again and not losing one step, and especially more so with their cover of the Germs’ “Forming” here. Together, in any language, the message is clear: Fuck in Hell’s Evil Bitches!

Release date, cover art, tracklisting, and preorder info to be announced shortly. For more info, consult the links further below.

www.hellsheadbangers.com

THIRD STORM set release date for new CHAOS RECORDS album, reveal first track – features members of GOLD SPIRE, ANGUISH, SARCASM, SENTINEL SIRENS+++

Today, Chaos Records announces October 6th as the international release date for Third Storm‘s highly anticipated second album, The Locust Mantra, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Third Storm was formed in 1986 in Uppsala, Sweden by four people who shared the same passion for the underground extreme music and at that time was very much influenced by acts like Bathory, Venom, Hellhammer etc. The music scene in Sweden back then was very glam oriented – more so than most European countries – and extreme metal bands were seen as talentless bums. The band didn’t care and tried their best to be the most extreme; the members were just kids in the 14-16 age range when they started, and how well you played didn’t matter as long you could make noise with your instrument. 

Third Storm performed about a dozen shows at that time. The overall crazy performance and the Satanic image were very over the top and therefore not taken seriously, so the band was laughed at for two years until they finally split up in 1988. But the past decade or so, people have seriously taken interest in the past and found about this obscure, strange band who is more known for their name than their music. 

The stuff Third Storm recorded in the ’80s is rare as hell: a couple of recordings were made just for the band themselves, and very few copies were spread back in the old days of tape-trading. The music back then was very primitive and raw, like other black metal bands at that time; the music was also thrash-influenced, but with a very noisy touch. The band used blastbeats in ’86, and not many could grasp that kind of noise back then. The vocals were insane screams, and lyrics were written in a way the South American bands did back in the ’80s. They didn’t even take any band photos and didn’t think or care in the terms of promotion, photos, flyers, studios, etc – they just wanted to bang their heads and make noise. In 2015, Dark Descent Records released Third Storm‘s “comeback” record, the two-song Tarîtîya Me EP. 

The spirit of Third Storm today is the same as in 1986, but the musical direction is breaking new ground and new sinister elements are added. The band released their first full-length, The Grand Manifestation, in 2018. That album is also their first of a trilogy the band is working on.
 
In 2022, Third Storm finally entered the studio to record their second full-length, The Locust Mantra, now aligned with Chaos Records. Continuing the momentum set forth on The Grand Manifestation, Third Storm‘s second album is a tour de force of quintessentially Swedish blackened death metal: classic yet current, “retro” 1990s but plausibly modern. Totaling 41 minutes, the nine songs comprising The Locust Mantra are more dynamic and epic than before, but there’s still an intensity and heaviness that harkens to those primordial days of ’80s proto-black, particularly from South America. Slashing and searing but gleaming with a classiness and clarity, the production across the album highlights the outstanding technical skills of Third Storm‘s bolstered new lineup. The new rhythm section of bassist Daniel Håkansson and drummer Jesper Ojala make their presence felt with power and passion, while the core members of vocalist Heval Bozarslan and guitarists Hasse Hansson and David Eriksson sound fired up and feed off that new black blood in the band.

Timeless and untrendy, Third Storm prove with The Locust Mantra that Swedish blackened death metal is far from fading away. 

Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “World Infernal”  here:

Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover artwork, courtesy of Raul Gonzales, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Third Storm’s The Locust Mantra
1. The Clandestine Gospel
2. Mater Pest
3. Demigod Doctrine
4. World Infernal
5. When Noble Hearts Failed
6. Inescapable Echoes of War
7. Alter Omega
8. In the Garden of Crystallized Souls
9. Dawn of the Fearmongers

MORE INFO:
www.thirdstorm.nu 
www.facebook.com/thirdstorm 

www.chaos-records.com
www.facebook.com/chaosrecords