Steve Bruder Des Lichts

Satanism, crimes, violence, and suicides: a new book tells the untold story of Finnish black metal

The Devil’s Cradle: The Story of Finnish Black Metal is the definitive history of one of the most uncompromising music scenes in the world: Finnish black metal. Based on over 50 interviews conducted by Helsinki-based journalist Tero Ikäheimonen between 2014 and 2017, the book unravels the story of Finnish black metal from the late 1980s to modern times.

“Countless of books have been written about black metal over the years, but every time, the Finnish scene has remained merely a side note,” says Ikäheimonen. “It’s an atrocity, since Finland has created some of the world’s most renown underground black metal since the beginning; I wanted to fix that. This book is made for the maniacs all over the world.”

To be released by Svart Publishing on November 1st, The Devil’s Cradle features such bands as Beherit, Impaled Nazarene, Barathrum, Archgoat, Azazel, Diaboli, Darkwoods My Betrothed, Horna, Vornat, Thy Serpent, Wanderer, Urn, Black Dawn, …And Oceans, Musta Surma, Alghazanth, Azaghal, Warloghe, Behexen, Clandestine Blaze, Satanic Warmaster, Ride for Revenge, Goatmoon, IC Rex, Charnel Winds, Cosmic Church, Saturnian Mist, Rienaus, and Abyssion among others.

“It was important for me to base the book on the experiences of true underground spirits – black metal musicians, zine authors, and tape traders,” Ikäheimonen says. “Many stories are told for the first time. I wanted to focus on the music, but not forget the darker side of black metal – all the violence, death, and destruction that have ravaged the Finnish scene. It was crucial to include the spiritual and psychological side of black metal, too. Satanism with all its different notions and the occult are present throughout the book.”

The Devil’s Cradle was first published in Finnish in September 2016 by Svart Publishing (titled Pirunkehto). The English translation features all the original content and two additional chapters. This edition will encompass 500+ pages and be presented in a hard cover. Chapter excerpts will be periodically revealed HERE.

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/The-Devils-Cradle-406077333070793

CRYPTIC FOG set release date for their debut album “Staring Through the Veil” and reveal first track

Blood Harvest Records sets October 27th as the international release date for Cryptic Fog’s highly anticipated debut album, Staring Through the Veil, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Hailing from the American Midwest, Cryptic Fog are one of the death metal underground’s true, as-yet-discovered gems. To date, the band have only a demo to their name, from their very beginnings in 2009, but they’ve been patient and plying away at their trade to craft to twisted majesty of Staring Through the Veil. Based around the songwriting duo of guitarist/bassist Dave Bennett and drummer Dan Klein, with Klein handling all vocals, together they have delivered a work that ably balances aggression and atmosphere, performance and production.

While grounded firmly in the long-running traditions of death metal on both sides of the Atlantic – thus, Tampa as much as Stockholm – Cryptic Fog aren’t afraid to blacken to a crisp their percolating compositions, which explode and retract and then twist further, only to explode into another angle, always offering the listener some new diabolical construct to warp the mind. And yet, for however serpentine the five songs comprising Staring Through the Veil may be (read: THEY’RE EPIC), the band manage to skillfully revisit and reiterate motifs, making the 46-minute album truly a journey but, above all, a highly memorable one. And that’s to say nothing of the gleaming-yet-grimy production – as clear and precise as the playing, but maintaining the same gnarliness that underpins the album’s lyrical themes.

While they seek to eventually have a working live lineup, Cryptic Fog have at least managed to deliver a work that’ll stand the test of time, as a monument to the boundless power and imagination as the death metal artform. Begin Staring Through the Veil and take your first steps toward an unforgettable journey!

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Cryptic Fog’s Staring Through the Veil
1. The Grand Berator Walks Amongst the Hall of Misery
2. Cast Into the Ghastly Pits of Execration
3. Cursed Oil Upon the Abhorrent Idols of Man
4. Eternal Internment of the Prolific Paradigm; Staring Through the Veil of Aberration
5. Cleansed by the Black Flame of Absolution

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/crypticfog

PILE OF EXCREMENTS set release date for their debut album, reveal first track

In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that perpetuate the odor of vintage death metal, on October 23rd, Memento Mori is proud to present Pile of Excrements’ highly anticipated debut album, Escatology. Hailing from Athens, Greece, Pile of Excrements was crapped into existence when drummer Shit Eater (Necrovorous, Embrace of Thorns, Chainsaw) joined forces with guitar/bass-player and vocalist Necropervert (Nightbreed, Chainsaw) with the vile intention of delighting the listener with the aural equivalent of the nauseating stench of one hundred drains clogged with foul-smelling turds and urine. And as the title of their debut album promises, Escatology is exactly that!

Pile of Excrements began clogging sewers last year with the Demo 2016 tape. In no uncertain terms, the duo laid bare their divinely depraved musical influences – Autopsy/Abscess, Pungent Stench, Master, Impetigo, Blood, Necrophagia, Mantas/Death, Cianide, Massacre, and Hellhammer – and completed it with a compulsive obsession with slasher/gore B-movies, shit of all kinds, and high-cholesterol food. But, that demo was but a mere appetizer for the filthy feast to follow in Escatology!

From the very first second “Bowel Rampage” shits itself into existence, it’s crystal-clear these refined and suave Greek gentlemen are all about the FILTH in capital – and gushing – letters. From there, the foulness just starts flowing, one rough ‘n’ rancorous rush after another. Indeed, Pile of Excrements pile high the punk rockin’ hooks so crucial to early death metal – that is, the original template laid out by the aforementioned masters – and keep the crush coming. It’s 15 almost-anthems in a tight ‘n’ taut 40 minutes, but it’s not all short/sharp/shocked: on the six-minute “Cult of the Unibrow,” the duo go relatively epic whilst keeping the emphasis on the filth…where it should be! Featuring fittingly filthy cover art by Raul Fuentes and mastering by Cruciamentum’s Dan Lowndes, Pile of Excrements make Escatology a masterclass in musical depravity!

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Pile of Excrements’ Escatology
1. Bowel Rampage
2. Miasma Cuming Embalming Fluids
3. Made in Chernobyl
4. Hooker with a Hook
5. Graveyard Delicatessen
6. Leper Orgy
7. Escatology
8. Silent but Deadly
9. Yellow Front, Brown Back
10. Minestrone
11. Cult of the Unibrow
12. Skourkos the Polluter
13. Buttfucked by Giant Cockroach
14. Human Compost
15. Tourette Aggressor

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/pileofexcrements

Spanish black/death cult Krossfyre premiere the new track “Burning Torches”

Today, Spanish black/death cult Krossfyre premiere the new track “Burning Torches” The track hails from the band’s highly anticipated debut EP, Burning Torches, set for international release on September 15th via Hells Headbangers.

One of the most exciting newcomers Hells Headbangers has come across lately, Krossfyre formed only last year, but set to work on writing and recording Burning Torches, completing the six-song/20-minute EP last September at Moontower Studios. Although an otherwise brand-new name, Krossfyre include among their ranks members who do or have done time in such bands as Sheidim, Spain’s Graveyard, Körgull the Exterminator, Insulters, Morbid Flesh, and Suspiral. Nevertheless, the creation of Burning Torches itself bespeaks a whole new era of domination.

Right from its very beginning, Burning Torches explodes with an excitement and electricity that are uniquely Krossfyre’s, passion and poison mixed into one. Pounding metal, diabolic force, total power from Hell: this Spanish quintet whip forth a fury that’s strangely familiar yet simultaneously refreshingly unique; it’s a sound that’s been brewing in cast-iron cauldrons for time eternal, but now bubbling over with a youthful joie de vivre. References to be made include classic Nifelheim and Vomitor, but also early Tribulation, later Desaster, Gospel of the Horns, Bestial Mockery, and Nocturnal Graves among others. But the sheer charisma and cantankerous esprit Krossfyre exude – not to mention infectious, gloriously METAL songwriting – puts the band squarely amongst those hallowed ranks. Early days still, to be sure, but on evidence of the forthcoming Burning Torches, the name Krossfyre will soon be upon the tongues of diehards worldwide soon enough. Take these Burning Torches and feel the fire!

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Krossfyre’s Burning Torches
1. Krossfyre (intro)
2. Fire Solution
3. Burning Torches
4. Tabellae Defixionum
5. Black Jaws of Evil
6. The Great Masturbator

KROSSFYRE is:
A.K. – vocals (Sheidim)
C.S. – guitars (Sheidim, Graveyard)
J.B. – guitars (Graveyard, Körgull the Exterminator)
A.T. – bass (Sheidim, Suspiral)
J.G. – drums (Graveyard, Morbid Flesh, Insulters)

MORE INFO:
www.krossfyre.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/krossfyre666

MIDNIGHT reveal first track from their new album

Today, Midnight reveals the first track from their highly anticipated third album, Sweet Death and Ecstasy. The album will be released later this year on 2CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats via Hells Headbangers. The track is titled “Penetratal Ecstasy,”

By now, Midnight need no introduction. Guided by the twisted muse of mainman Athenar since 2003, this Cleveland cult have been slaying the metal/punk underground with their own, highly addictive brand of lust, filth, and sleaze, subsequently building up a sizable catalog and garnering a rabid fanbase. While there’s certainly fanatics for the band’s early EP work, it was Midnight’s debut album, Satanic Royalty – released to international fanfare in 2011 by Hells Headbangers – that entered the band’s name into the annals of “classic.” Never one to rush things (nor drop an EP along the way), Midnight continued their underground dominance with No Mercy for Mayhem in 2014, further perfecting their signature sound. Now, with their massively anticipated third album, Sweet Death and Ecstasy, Athenar and co. return with their darkest and most daring effort yet.

Granted, upon the first detonating chords of opener “Crushed by Demons,” it would be fair to assume that Sweet Death and Ecstasy is simply classic Midnight…until the tracktime nearly doubles what a characteristic track of theirs would be. This is no mere bloat, though: bookended by two of the band’s longest songs to date, Sweet Death and Ecstasy lays bare a more anguished ‘n’ aggravated Midnight, forever in thrall to the usual subjects (LUST, FILTH, SLEAZE) but speaking a slightly different, altogether-more-poisonous tongue. It both charges harder than ever – even harder than the band’s early EP work, arguably – and also puts on the brakes to bang ‘n’ clang in a manner most foul. Indeed, Midnight truly deliver Sweet Death and Ecstasy in a swift 32 minutes, and it’s absolutely addicting. What’s more, the CD version will feature a bonus disc that’s a 12-song live rehearsal recorded in 2015 by Commandor Vanik. There’s no dawn for Midnight…ever!

Release date and preorder info to be revealed shortly.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

1. Crushed by Demons
2. Penetratal Ecstasy
3. Here Comes Sweet Death
4. Melting Brain
5. Rabid!
6. Bitch Mongrel
7. Poison Trash
8. Before My Time in Hell

Finnish death metal masters Purtenance premiere the new track “Vicious Seeds of Mortality”

Today, legendary Finnish death metal masters Purtenance premiere the new track “Vicious Seeds of Mortality”

The track hails from the band’s highly anticipated EP, Paradox of Existence, set for international release on September 12th through Xtreem Music.

After returning to a five-piece lineup, Purtenance began to work on new tunes, which were recorded during the first half of 2017, and are now released as an EP that follows their trademarked heavy old-school Finnish death metal for which they’re known since their inception in 1989. Cover artwork was once again made by Chris Moyen, who’s done every Purtenance cover artwork since their debut album, Member of Immortal Damnation, in 1992.

The first track from the EP, “In the End Only Death Will Remain,”HERE.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Purtenance’s Paradox of Existence
1. In the End Only Death Will Remain
2. Vicious Seeds of Mortality
3. Paradox of Existence
4. Nekro Orgy

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/Purtenance

KAWIR set release date for new album, reveal video

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions sets November 3rd as the international release date for Kawir’s highly anticipated seventh album, Exilasmos, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Since 1993, Kawir have been one of the unsung pillars of the classic Greek black metal sound. While the names Rotting Christ, Varathron, and Necromantia are incredibly important to that style’s foundation, it was Kawir who kept the faith during the ’90s and into the new millennium. In 1994, the then-young band released two pivotal 7″s, Eumenides and a split with Japan’s Sigh – on the pivotal Cacophonous Records, no less – and then followed those up in 1996 with the To Cavirs MLP, which is the first truly pagan-oriented record to hail from the Greek black metal scene. With that mini-album, Kawir set about on a Hellenistic crusade to celebrate their native gods and mythology in their lyrics and sartorial presentation. From the late ’90s onward, the band continued to remain prolific, perpetually committed to fine-tuning their idiosyncratic craft, culminating in underground classics Arai (2005) and Ophiolatreia (2008). Although 2012’s Ισόθεος featured a cross-continental lineup, the album further solidified Kawir’s status as unique icons in the black metal underground.

Read our Interview with Kawir here

Then, just last year, Iron Bonehead released the massively acclaimed Father Sun Mother Moon, which saw Kawir return to an all-Greek lineup and recast their classic sound in a whole new light, and now they continue that forward momentum with the fiery Exilasmos. If the 64-minute Father Sun Mother Moon was the sound of Kawir indulging their most epic expanses – always with power and poignancy, it must be said – then the 42-minute Exilasmos is its punchier and more restless counterpart. Across its six characteristically cascading tracks, Kawir take a decidedly darker and more aggressive turn, racing into the fray in a manner most mid ’90s (or To Cavirs, as it were) but never losing the inherently heroic aspect so crucial – and so engaging, after all these years – to their Hellenic sound. Supplementing that dark heroism is the addition of a fulltime keyboardist in Aristomache, who lends mystical light and shade to the band’s surge ‘n’ swell. Further coloring the windswept wildness of Exilasmos are an endless supply of dramatic solos from guitarists Melanaegis and founder Therthonax.

But, as ever with Kawir, the sonic portrait they paint is imbued with a deep lyricism hailing the Greek pantheon. In the case of Exilasmos, the record is conceptually about the tragic dynasties of the house of Lavdakides (Oedipus Tyrannus) and the house of Atreus. Both dynasties nearly exterminated themselves, and all these violent and inhuman acts brought forth the wrath of Zeus and the curses were consequently laid upon the whole bloodline. “Exilasmos” in Ancient Hellenic Language means calming down the gods’ wrath, so it perfectly describes the tragic events featured in the namesake album.

Recorded at Esoteron Studio in Athens and mixed and mastered by Esoteric’s Greg Chandler at Priory Studio, Exilasmos is yet another gleaming jewel in the rich Kawir canon. Long may they ascend Mount Olympus! Begin that ascent with a special promo video for the new track “Agamemnon”

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Kawir’s Exilasmos
1. Lykaon
2. Oedipus
3. Tantalus
4. Thyestia Deipna
5. Agamemnon
6. Orestes

Read our Interview with Kawir here

Roman Catholic Black Metal Act REVERORUM IB MALACHT stream new album

Today, black metal enigmas Reverorum ib Malacht stream their highly anticipated third album, Ter Agios Numini. Set for international release on August 18th via The Ajna Offensive, stream the entirety of Ter Agios Numini HERE.

Reverorum ib Malacht’s newest offering, however, isn’t all that new, having been composed and compiled and reworked and redesigned over the past 10+ years, kept lingering in a haunted and purgatorial state until just a few months ago. Therefore, those who came to understand and marvel at the likes of Ur-kaos and De Mysteriis Dom Christi will find Ter Agios Numini to be equally as dense and vast and inspired. And yet, Ter Agios Numini reveals another complex dimension of the band, all the while being unapologetically Reverorum ib Malachtian: cryptically, murkily terrifying and simultaneously cathartic with moments of sublime remoteness.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Reverorum ib Malacht’s Ter Agios Numini
1. Synestesi
2. Long into the Time Beyond
3. Reverorum ib Malachtum
4. Dwellings are His that Die

WAR POSSESSION set release date for debut, reveal first track

In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that perpetuate the odor of vintage death metal, on October 23rd, Memento Mori is proud to present War Possession’s highly anticipated debut album, Doomed to Chaos. Hailing from the black metal hotbed of Greece, War Possession indeed features a number of scene veterans within their ranks, including current and past members of such bands as Embrace of Thorns, Merciless Crucifixion, and Wargoat. Since the band’s beginnings in 2008, they’ve been possessed by an unwavering desire to craft and perform punishing, war-themed DEATH METAL impervious to trends and modern standards, combining corpulent, ominously slow riffs with blasting brutality soaked in a blackened ambience. References to be made are the olden endeavors of Bolt Thrower, Demigod, Treblinka/Tiamat, Incantation, Therion, Archgoat, Imprecation, and Asphyx. But while they’ve quietly made an impression across a demo, split, and EP, at long last, War Possession reveals its most devastating assault in Doomed to Chaos.

Totaling 10 tracks in a lean ‘n’ mean 40 minutes, Doomed to Chaos begins its slow lurch into undead life with an ominous intro, setting the stage for the audial apocalypse to come. War-torn atmosphere established, War Possession soon kick into caustic ‘n’ crunch gear with a proud ‘n’ powerful pulse not unlike a Panzer tank. No more and certainly no less, the band evince totally pure, unapologetically untarnished DEATH METAL songwriting that finds the right balance between linear and labyrinthine. Engaging the listener (and enemy!) at every decimated turn, the sonic canvas of Doomed to Chaos soon becomes a battlefield, as each song plays out the stark drama so endemic to war. Or, if you simply listen and prepare to be flattened, never giving a thought to their thematics, War Possession lurch ‘n’ lunge in a most classic way, even down to the early ’90s-style production (with mastering by The Crypt’s Ted Tringo). Completed by equally classic, era-accurate artwork by Fendieart, Doomed to Chaos is diehard death metal for death metal diehards – for victory!

Feel the first opening fire with the new track “Operation Neptune.”

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for War Possession’s Doomed to Chaos
1. March into Hell (Beyond the Chaos Gate)
2. Operation Neptune
3. God of a Wicked Mind
4. Verdun Hell
5. Doomed to Chaos
6. War Is the Father and King of All
7. Slapton Sands Tragedy
8. The Sword of Stalingrad
9. Haunted by Carnage
10. Mass for the Dead

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/War-Possession-416122555097944

SACROCURSE set release date for new album Gnostic Holocaust, reveal first track

Iron Bonehead Productions sets October 27th as the international release date for Sacrocurse’s highly anticipated second album, Gnostic Holocaust, on vinyl LP format.

Following hot on the heels of their Destroying Chapels 7″ for Iron Bonehead last year, Gnostic Holocaust sees Sacrocurse going from strength to strength and reaping their most ravenous whirlwind yet. Whereas the Destroying Angels EP introduced the live lineup that’s been in place for a couple years now, Gnostic Holocaust is the first full-length display of the band’s true power and potency. Here, Sacrocurse take all their original rudiments – bestial propulsion, immediately memorable songwriting, and mind-melted solos – and adds even more insanity and ritualism, more red-eyed and rabid than ever. It’s quintessential South American-style black/death witchery, but given a dosage of Ross Bay-steeped sturm und drang. What’s more, while the power-trio are just as apt to blast away at dangerous speeds, there’s expert pacing in their down-tempo death-marches, giving further iron-fisted thrust to what is truly a Gnostic Holocaust. Fan the flames of zealotry and prepare for Sacrocurse’s Gnostic Holocaust!

Check the new track “Maze of Serpents.”

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Sacrocurse’s Gnostic Holocaust
1. Just Fucking Die
2. Jaws of Hell
3. Spirit versus Flesh
4. Endless Khaoz
5. Kirie Eleison
6. Maze of Serpents
7. Empire of Sekmet
8. Triumphant Tribulation
9. Gnostic Holocaust
10. Vengeance Consumed

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/sacrocurse