Today, Edged Circle Productions announces September 1st as the international release date for the highly anticipated third album of Chile’s Demoniac, Nube Negra, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
It was but that cursed year of 2020 when these long-running thrashers domestically released their breakout second album, So It Goes. Released on a worldwide scale at the beginning of 2021 by longtime fans Edged Circle, Demoniac‘s So It Goes showed remarkable growth from the band’s not-inconsiderable Intemperance debut album from 2017, but showed it in such a shockingly bold way that it was almost like a new band. Sure, it sounded identifiably Demoniac, but the wild ‘n’ weird paths it took upended all the usual “evil thrash” cliches with mischievous glee, remaining resolutely serious but not without a sense of (wait for it) demonic fun. Clarinet? Check. A 20-minute suite for the title track? Check. Crazy angles AND memorable hooks? Fucking CHECK.
Thankfully, Demoniac continue to (seriously) travel the path of the wild ‘n’ weird with Nube Negra. Featuring a more palatable/approach eight songs in 42 minutes, Demoniac‘s third full-length nevertheless carries on the craziness of its predecessor and makes the steel even more gleaming and the hooks even more mesmerizing and melodic. And yet, as suggested by its title, Nube Negra is undeniably the band’s most blackened record in many a year. Together, this combination of classic-metal-era class and sulfurous South American intensity makes Demoniac‘s third long-player even more curious – and even more engaging, impossibly so, as their already-insane chops are brought to a fever pitch of dexterity and devilishness as their strange-yet-sinuous songwriting leads the listener to uncharted heights and depths of abandon. Plus, there’s surprise visits by accordion, Moog, and – yes – clarinet, further underlining the fact that Demoniac are pursuing a muse that’s entirely their own…and, crucially, without being obnoxious about it. And, once again, absolutely 3D production that proves that underground ethics can be given totally respectable clarity without dulling the intent.
Ever want to hear a mind-blown, HELLishly intense and tuneful trainwreck of 1991 cult classics like Dark Angel’s Time Does Not Heal, Heathen’s Victims of Deception, AND Sarcofago’s The Laws of Scourge? Demoniac offer such a hypothetical collision with Nube Negra. But, like its likewise-cult predecessor, there’s really little to nothing like this around right now: the future is NOW for these Chileans.
Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Granada” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Demoniac (Chile)’s Nube Negra 1. Nube Negra 2. Marchageddon 3. Ácaro 4. La Caída 5. Synthèse d’accords 6. Granada 7. Veneno 8. El Final
Today, ancient black metallers Black Sorcery premiere the new track “Gasping for Light Under a Petrine Cross” . The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated debut album, Deciphering Torment Through Malediction, set for international release on July 28th via Eternal Death. Hear Black Sorcery‘s “Gasping for Light Under a Petrine Cross” in its entirety here:
Rooted in two decades of Rhode Island black metal lineage – with members hailing from past bands Bog of the Infidel, Sangus, Nefarious, and Sorcery – America’s Black Sorcery emerged out of the plague days of early 2020. Fittingly for such origins, the quartet play a consciously regressive style of music that rejects the bloated aesthetics of most modern American black metal and embraces the arcane forms of the past. Whether it’s the paradigmatic early days of Gorgoroth or the contemporaneous turn-of-the-millennium work of Behexen and Satanic Warmaster serving as the aesthetic foundation, Black Sorcery truly sound like they do not belong to this decade nor this country.
Crude and rude but not without a sense of regal refinement, the band’s Deciphering Torment Through Malediction debut album storms right out of the gate and leaves little to the imagination: this is all-caps BLACK METAL forged in the fires of old and tempered with the patience of longtime zealots. Each song of this 40-minute work combines cold, somber melodies with raw, visceral aggression in an unapologetic homage to the early waves of black metal. No matter the tempo – rippingly fast, folklorish downshift, hypnotic pulse – Black Sorcery keep proceedings orkish and medieval, such as they were back in the glorious times of Sombre, A.M.S.G., and Drakkar Productions. Form meeting content, their lyrical expression revolves around the themes of torment and mutually-assured destruction in the form of curses wrung from a severe disdain towards all human life, and butchered rituals performed in the heat of pure resentment, resulting in one’s own self-destruction: the ouroboros of esoteric failure and abysmal ruin. And all these ripped-raw tones are rendered all the more powerful with mastering courtesy of Enormous Door.
No more but definitely no less, Black Sorcery‘s Deciphering Torment Through Malediction is pure black metal for pure black metal people!
Also hear the previously revealed “Erinyes Slough” HERE at Eternal Death‘s Bandcamp, where the album can also be preordered. Cover artwork, courtesy of Maegan Lemay, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Black Sorcery’s Deciphering Torment Through Malediction 1. Intro 2. Gasping for Light Under a Petrine Cross 3. Final Meditations on Despair 4. Erinyes Slough 5. Gomorran Virtue 6. Sordid Rote 7. Heinous Rites 8. (Endgame Thought Process) 9. Seven Veils
Blasphemous black metal legion PROFANATICA are back with a brand new album ‘Crux Simplex’! In celebration of the new satanic offering, the band is now releasing the very first track “Take Up The Cross”, which can now be heard here:
The new album will be out on 22 September, 2023 via Season of Mist Underground Activists and can be pre-saved HERE. Pre-order are now available HERE!
Ledney comments on the new offering: “‘Take up the Cross’ is the 2nd station of the cross. Jesus is forced by Roman’s to carry it, and it’s weight is that of 10,000 suns. As spikenard fills the air so does the very real scent of sweat and blood. This is the beginning of the days of stains and pain.”
PROFANATICA have simultaneously unveiled the cover artwork for “Crux Simplex”, which can be viewed together with further album details below.
Tracklist: 1. Condemned to Unholy Death (4:38) 2. Take Up the Cross (3:01) 3. The First Fall (3:24) 4. Meeting of a Whore (3:02) 5. Compelled by Romans (4:47) 6. Wipe the Fucking Face of Jesus (2:20) 7. The Second Fall (2:40) 8. Cunts of Jerusalem (3:35) 9. The Third Fall (4:18) 10. Division of Robes (6:51) Total: 36:76
PROFANATICA are at the vanguard of the first wave of American black metal. Founded and led by infamous master of black perversion Paul Ledney (drums/vocals), they have purveyed primeval blasphemy for nigh on thirty-three years.
Ledney formed the band from the ashes of the first INCANTATION lineup when he split and took with him all of the members sans John McEntee. That early trio of ex-INCANTATION members reeled off three ground-breaking demos of some of the most extreme and blasphemic metal of its time in rapid succession. The band flyers that permeated the tape-trading circuit were no less shocking and featured the trio bloody and naked and in the throes of what was most certainly a primeval summoning of some kind. In short order, they had inked a deal with the fledgling Osmose Productions for what became one of that labels first releases (Osmose release #5); a legendary split with Colombia’s MASACRE.
Something so volatile could only last briefly, and after another brief recording session the band collapsed under the weight of its own extremity. but the recordings made in this two year window went on to see dozens of reissues in the coming decades, in a testament to how formidable and formative they are to the black metal scene worldwide.
After almost fifteen years spent with his equally polarizing solo project HAVOHEJ, Ledney reignited the flames of PROFANATICA in 2006. Reemerging with a new deal from Hells Headbangers, Ledney and his new band released ‘The Enemy of Virtue’, a collection of that vaunted early material, and a new full-length, ‘Profanatitas de Domonatia’. A triumphant return, ‘Profanatitas de Domonatia’ picked up right where these Kings of US Black Metal left off, delivering a savage stream of chainsaw guitars and relentless battery upon which they desecrated everything sacred.
This set-in motion another frenetic burst of work for PROFANATICA. The next decade saw them unleash four new full-length albums of blasphemous perversions, sacrilegious incantations, and furious black metal. In addition, the band issued six mini-albums and EP’s, a full DVD of early footage, and began touring internationally in Europe and in Central and South America. For the first time PROFANATICA were appearing near or at the top of the bill at festivals like MDF, Messe Des Mortes, Hells Headbash, Prague Death Mass (Czech Republic), Chaos Descends (Germany), Black Sun (Spain), Tyrant Fest (France), SWR Fest (Portugal) and many more.
In fall 2018, PROFANATICA joined forces with Season of Mist and undertook their biggest tour to date supporting WATAIN and ROTTING CHRIST across Europe. And a year later, the trio vomited forth a most vulgar strain of black metal ejaculate with their SoM debut album ‘Rotting Incarnation of God’.
The band embarked on an extensive twelve-country European headline tour in the album’s wake. Shortly after returning home that winter, the world ground to a halt in 2020. Save a live-streaming concert production for the legendary Rock al Parque in conjunction with BATUSHKA, little was heard from PROFANATICA.
That is until spring 2023, when PROFANATICA emerged from their den of iniquity on a European headline tour to promote a new album. ‘Crux Simplex’ is a ten-track offensive of sin and sacrilege, a nasty affront that bastardizes the first 10 stations of the cross. As per their legacy, PROFANATICA deals in bestial, first-wave black metal barbarity, and their eighth album unveils ungodly levels of bile and blasphemy.
Line-up: Mayhemic Slaughter of the Heavens – Drums / Vocals Destroyer of Holy Hymen – Guitar / Bass
Recording line-up: Mayhemic Slaughter of the Heavens – Drums / Vocals Destroyer of Holy Hymen – Guitar The True Perversion of the Heavenly Father – Bass
Today, Shadow Kingdom Records announces September 22nd as the international release date for Cruel Force‘s highly anticipated third album, Dawn of the Axe, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
Truest of the true, Germany’s Cruel Force burst onto the scene in 2008 with the Into the Crypts… demo. While many have tried to emulate the ancient German (black)thrash sound, Cruel Force brimmed with an authenticity that could not be denied, as well as songwriting that added to that noble tradition rather than lazily picking at its corpse. Their two successive albums, 2010’s The Rise of Satanic Might and 2011’s Under the Sign of the Moon, made Cruel Force a certifiably CULT name in the international metal underground. Sadly, the band fell into a hiatus following that second album, but returned reinvigorated with the comeback 7″ EP Across the Styx in 2022 and are ready to make up for lost time with their imminent third album for new label home Shadow Kingdom.
Titled Dawn of the Axe, Cruel Force‘s long-awaited new album is, in many ways, a new chapter for the band. As presaged by that short-length, Dawn of the Axe harkens to dustier, more archaic times – ones where subgenre delineations weren’t so strict and all was mostly HEAVY METAL. For sure, Cruel Force can still thrash with the best of them – regular thrash, “blackthrash,” whatever – but their sound carries a strong old-style speed metal edge reminiscent of ’80s Kreator, Iron Angel, and Germany’s Deathrow, sharp as an axe and just as lethal. And while the blackened elements of the first two albums have been dialed back some here, the overall speed of LP#3 is, in fact, faster. But as Dawn of the Axe slices onward, it soon becomes apparent that that the quartet are subtly integrating a more rarefied field of influences, with the mysticism of ’70s Rainbow and especially Scorpions most prominent as well as the blue-collar thrust of early US metal – again, all before the development of speed metal or thrash. Thus, the nine songs comprising the 39-minute album exude a wider variety of moods and dynamics, and also sees Cruel Force exploring their more epic side, with three of those songs topping six minutes. No matter the mood or dynamic, though, energy bristles from every second of Dawn of the Axe – riff, rhythm, lead, vocal, EVERYTHING – and with the slightly-more-atmospheric recording style (or a more “mysterious” production, perhaps), it all gels together to create the band’s strongest and most complete statement to date. No matter how you (axe)slice it, there’s no wimping out whatsoever!
It’s rare for a band to be away a full decade and then come back with their best work, but such is the case with Cruel Force and Dawn of the Axe. There’s some strange magick brewing in the Devil’s Dungeon, and they’ve crossed the Styx to bring you that Power Surge! To celebrate this momentous occasion, Shadow Kingdom will also be reissuing on a worldwide scale the band’s first two albums: the time of Cruel Force is NOW!
First single with accompanying video to be revealed on July 5th. Preorder info to follow on July 11th. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Cruel Force’s Dawn of the Axe 1. Azrael’s Dawn 2. At the Dawn of the Axe 3. Night of Thunder 4. Death Rides the Sky 5. Devil’s Dungeon 6. Watchtower of Abra 7. Across the Styx 8. Power Surge 9. Realm of Sands
On August 25th internationally, Personal Records is proud to present Of Darkness‘ highly anticipated second album, Missa Tridentia, on CD format.
A cult band even among an already-cult scene, Of Darkness are an experimental funeral doom band hailing from Barcelona. While exuding the characteristic traits of the subgenre – sepulchral tones, glacial pace, suffocating atmosphere – the Spaniards look beyond mere metal for idiosyncratic deployment of other such musics as ambient, industrial, and especially classical. Intensely atmospheric and deeper than the abyss, their sound is the perfect landscape for the members’ extreme nihilistic beliefs. And although those members concurrently play in such distinguished bands as Teitanblood, Balmog, and Graveyard among many others, in thought and deed is Of Darkness entirely its own entity.
Of Darkness was born in 2003 and released their first demo, Death, a few months after. In 2004, the entities behind the band started working on a new work, The Empty Eye, which was released in 2005. Around that time, several labels showed interest in both records: Goatowarex Records and Xtreem Music. None of those deals came to a good end, so the band stayed on hold for a few years until Psychedelic Lotus Order (the new guise/ruse of infamous rip-off Goatowarex) and Black Mass Records decided to give a second chance to both records, re-releasing them on limited vinyl and CD in 2009/2010. In 2012, in conspiracy with Black Mass Records again, Of Darkness released Scorpiace, a split tape with legendary Galician drone / ambient / industrial act Like Drone Razors Through Flesh Sphere, which was re-released (including another very long track) later on CD by Gradual Hate Records in 2015. Perhaps most indicative of the band’s unique take on funeral doom was the release of Tribute to Krzysztof Penderecki – Passio et Mors Domini Nostri Jesu Christi Secundum Lucam. More or less their debut album, the 43-minute record indeed interpreted two compositions of modern classical master (and master of tension & terror) Penderecki, complete with a cover that mirrored those of Deutsche Grammaphone’s long-running line of classical records.
Fittingly for their cult nature, Of Darkness have never been an active band in a traditional way; it’s just an on/off project that appears every once in a while, so many people thought and still think the band is on hold or even inactive – which, in a way, is true. During the infamous lockdown, the trio decided to prepare new material, which was composed, recorded, arranged, and mixed in three days: as usual for Of Darkness since they never rehearse, and rather just improvise in the studio while recording. Nevertheless, what has emerged – the seven-song/43-minute Missa Tridentia – is a monumental album that sounds anything but improvised. Solemn and spacious, much like an ancient cathedral, Of Darkness‘ second album slowly unfolds, each minute moving ominously but with portent, almost soothingly, as textures flicker with recognition but then fade away, and on and on and on again. The whole work is threaded together as one massive composition, and therein lies the genius of Of Darkness: taking far more cues from classical than funeral doom, one could view these separate movements as suites of a larger orchestral work, and indeed do they incorporate orchestration that arguably plays a great role than the usual metal-oriented instrumentation. At times, there’s a diabolical disconnect – and successive dissonance – between both elements, as if they’re each playing of their own accord; but then, like slowly undulating wisps of smoke, a certain sense of order arises, haunting and hypnotizing. It’s incredibly avant-garde without being belabored or overbearingly performative about it. It’s also unlike most “funeral doom” records past and especially present. Of Darkness challenge even the bravest listeners with Missa Tridentia.
In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Requiem Aeternam” here:
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Of Darkness’ Missa Tridentia
1. Adjutorium Nostrum In Nomine Domini 2. Requiem Aeternam 3. Dies Irae 4. Deus Qui Humanae Substantiae 5 Eis Requien, Eis réquiem Sempiternam 6. Requiescant In Pace 7. Ite Missa Est
Today, Norwegian black metallers Eternity reveal the new track “Gunmetal Sky.” The track is the third to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated third album, Mundicide, set for international release on July 7th via Soulseller Records. Hear Eternity‘s brand-new track “Gunmetal Sky” in its entirety here:
Eternity is the fire burning in the blackest night, a gateway to enlightenment through blacklight illumination: timeless True Norwegian Black Metal for all times….
Eternity‘s beginnings go all the way back to the ’90s and the golden age of black metal, when the flames of burning churches lit up the northern sky, echoing around the world. The death of Euronymous had far-reaching consequences for the creation of Eternity and its founder and frontman Evighet, who was in a band with Blasphemer at the time. When Blasphemer was called upon to join Mayhem, Evighet took his riffs and ideas and went on to create his own band – Eternity. Through all this time, the name, the symbols, and the fundamental philosophy have remained the same.
After a few years in Oslo, playing in various acts with Blasphemer, Apollyon, Tristan among others, not least of which later Eternity members J.Röe and T.Ødegaard, Evighet decided to leave behind the city’s sickening glow and turn to the purity of the Norwegian mountains. During years of self-imposed exile, much of what remains essential Eternity today was created. Two demos were recorded between 2001-2005, and the work culminated with the album Bringer of the Fall in 2006. A recording contract with Soulseller Records was eventually secured, and a few years later, the time had finally come for Eternity to arise as a band.
Rejoining forces with T. Ødegaard (Nocturnal Breed, Ekrom) and J.Röe (Old Man’s Child, Nattefrost), Eternity started rehearsing the material that would make up To Become the Great Beast and went into studio near the end of 2016. With Blasphemer joining on bass for the recording and Brynjard Tristan (Dimmu Borgir) visiting to lay down additional vocals, the combined energy and shared history of the those involved made it possible to create something truly special and timeless. After three years of hard work and dedication, To Become the Great Beast was finally ready to be let loose.
The Satanic masterpiece To Become the Great Beast was released by Soulseller on Friday the 13th, September 2019, to great critical acclaim. In the meantime, V. Fineidet (Den Saakaldte, Sovereign) had taken up the mantle as bass player and thus the band was complete. Playing live now being an option, Eternity took to the stage and played gigs around Norway with bands such as Mork and Dødheimsgard.
Just as things were looking good, the world closed down. The existing plans for an EP to keep momentum up were quickly shelved in favor of creating the next full-length album, as the material that would eventually become Mundicide took on a will and life of its own. Another three years of hard work and dedication followed.
After the soul-searching horrors of Great Beast, the original intention was to create something a bit lighter and less harrowing, but with tyrannical lockdowns, people staring fearfully at each other from behind masks, and the coming of war and the world’s slow descent into global conflict, Mundicide soon found a will and a voice of its own. From the alluring temptation of the sinister in opener “Journey Towards the Darkside” to the mighty war horns signaling the End of Days in closing doomsday epic “The Seventh Seal” via tales of the plague, black magic, and struggles with addiction and autodestructive urges – all set under the looming specter of nuclear war – Mundicide is a many-faceted primal scream about the state of the world today and a broken mirror reflection of the pain of living through such times.
Over a period of three years of work, Mundicide became the album it needed to be to give strength and hope to get the band through the days of darkness. This is the first Eternity album to have taken form with the band working as a collective, and it helped them retain sanity in a world gone mad.
Mundicide means the killing of the world, and the cover artwork shows human arms holding weapons, growing out of the planet. This represents a dual potential future outcome. Humanity finds itself at a threshold. In contrast to the seemingly unavoidable destruction of our species and its homeworld, there is the hope that we can still live up to our potential and the evolutionary commands of the planet that brought us forth. Working together with the Earth Herself, we could bring about a glorious age of interstellar travel where we colonize the galaxy and kill other worlds instead of our own.
In a time of media overload where the bombardment of propaganda is ceaseless and the veil of Maya seems thicker and more impenetrable than ever, in a world of lost hope where religion is dead and we are left to believe in nothing but our sinful path to self-destruction and the transitory nature and inevitable end of all things, in these dark Orwellian times where war is peace and truth is treason, the only glimmer of hope seems to be the faintly glowing torch of the Lightbringer, beckoning to us from behind the veil with promises of a different future for humanity and its planet. With Mundicide, Eternity holds that torch high and proud!
Also hear the previously revealed tracks “Hymn” HERE and “Journey Towards the Darkside” HERE, both also at Soulseller‘s official YouTube channel. Preorder info for world can be found HERE while preorder info for the Americas can found HERE. Cover artwork, courtesy of Maggotmeister of All Things Rotten, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Eternity (Norway)’s Mundicide 1. Journey Towards the Darkside 2. Under the Gaze of the King 3. Mundicide 4. Hymn 5. Gunmetal Sky 6. Pest! Frykten i den andres øye 7. O Discordia 8. The Seventh Seal
Today, American black metallers Black Eucharist stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Inn of the Vaticide. Set for international release on June 23rd via Stygian Black Hand, hear Black Eucharist ‘s Inn of the Vaticide in its entirety here:
Originally under the moniker Black Ejaculate, Black Eucharist began in 2018 with the sole purpose of blasphemy and ridicule of Nazareth’s infamous liar who shat himself upon the cross. After a name change in 2021, Black Eucharist return with darkness and evil to continue where they left off, following in the footsteps of their USBM predecessors Profanatica, Demoncy, VON, and Masochist among others: Biblical dejection, phallic corruption, and holy profanation manifest in the utterings of this treacherous triumvirate.
At long last unleashing their first full-length, Inn of the Vaticide, the power-trio of drummer Shemhamforash (Blood Ouroboros, Graven Hag), vocalist/guitarist Infestor (Demiser, Primitive Warfare), and bassist Gravepisser (Demiser) proceed to blow the floodgates open with a vile stream of viscera and effluvium. As a debut album, Inn of the Vaticide does what it should: carrying forward the sound & style as set forth on a demo and then adding new vulgarity & violence, hammering home the message with both authority and daresay swagger. Truly, Black Eucharist add to and elevate their noble influences, stylistically slotting among the aforementioned but never fully feasting on the corpse of the past. Imagination and perversity are in equal supply here.
So, all deviants and perverts, antagonists and maniacs: witness the debut full-length of Black Eucharist as they revile the scum-born charlatan whose treachery still befouls his flock! A full 40 minutes of profanation, desecration, and impiety will flood your ears with the lamentation of the “virgin” and her duplicitous progeny! Inn of the Vaticide is a VICIOUS MOCKERY OF THE MEEK!
Preorder info can be found HERE at Stygian Black Hand‘s Bandcamp. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Miserere Luminis’ Ordalie 1. Noir fauve 2. Le sang des rêves 3. La fêlure des anges 4. Les couleurs de la perte 5. De venin et d’os
Black Metal legends TSJUDER is now releasing their newest vigorous album “Helvegr” in advance of the release date! Their gem will be released onto this desolate planet via Season of Mist on the 23rd of June, 2023, but can already be listened to here:
TSJUDER comments: “Helvegr is raw Norwegian Black Metal. No synthesizers, no wimpy vocals, NO FUCKING COMPROMISES!”
But there’s more! The bonus album “Scandinavian Black Metal Attack” (an special ode to BATHORY) will also be available on all digital platforms HERE and can be viewed on the official Season of Mist Youtube today at 5PM CESTHERE
TSJUDER comments to this special release: “It’s so great to be back to bring you five new evil recordings with Tsjuder, from some of the gruesome material Quorthon, Jonas, and I played when we started Bathory in our dark cold cellar rehearsal room back in 1983.”
Shop for “Helvegr” are available HERE, while the album can be streamed 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) 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 NorwegianApocalypse 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.
Today, Québec black metal “supergroup” Sacrenoir stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines. Set for international release on June 24th via Sepulchral Productions, hear Sacrenoir‘s Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines in its entirety here:
Two pioneers of the Québec black metal scene, Athros (Brume d’Automne, Forteresse) and Monarque (Monarque, Forteresse) revisit the very early days of black metal on Sacrenoir’s raging debut album. Falling in somewhere their respective bands and old Darkthrone and Gorgoroth or even Bathory, Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines is cold, raw, classic black metal, the likes of which has seldom been heard within the Québécois scene. For fans who will never get enough of that early ’90s sound, this is an album you cannot afford to miss!
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Sacrenoir’s Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines 1. Mille nuits ont passé 2. Portail vampirique 3. Étouffés par les flammes 4. The blade of Satan 5. Épuration 6. Le puits du diable 7. Aux portes de l’enfer 8. Vers d’autres mondes 9. Parmi les ruines
On June 23rd internationally, Iron Bonehead Productions will release a brand-new mini-album from Malaysia’s Tomb, The Dark Subconscious, on CD and 12″ vinyl formats. Hear Tomb‘s The Dark Subconscious in its entirety here:
Formed in 2014, Kuala Lumpur’s Tomb hail from the small-yet-lethal Malaysian black/death underground that features such stalwarts as Mantak and Thorns of Hate. And just like those two contemporaries, Tomb exhibit a frightening feralness that can only come from South East Asia. And while many/most bands wimp out or slick up as they go along, the reverse is actually true for Tomb, as proven by their latest The Dark Subconscious mini-album.
While their earlier EPs are hardly “refined,” the throbbing mysticism compared favorably to earliest Samael, Root, and Black Funeral. Here on The Dark Subconscious do Tomb go even more primitive – “bestial,” yes, but a form of bestiality birthed by the likes of Abhorer. Indeed, it’s no accident that Tomb‘s logo change is not unlike that of those cult Singaporeans: a swirling, sulfurous mass of gutter frequencies soon assault the listener on The Dark Subconscious, occasionally colored by no-less-primitive synths left over from their earlier days. In that regard, one could liken the 16-minute miasma to Beherit’s Drawing Down the Moon, the ’90s work of Greece’s Disharmony, or especially Mystifier’s paradigmatic duo of Wicca and Goetia…but there’s still that sense of strange, of scene-unbound lawlessness, across Tomb‘s latest short-length. Short but VERY sweet, long may they obey that lawlessness!
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Tomb (Malaysia)’s The Dark Subconscious 1. Abomination Spells 2. Cursed Angel Of Doom 3. Black Conjuration Of Beleth 4. Occult Eternal Mysteries 5. Black Altar Of Sathanas 6. Nocturnal Rites Of Blasphemy
