THE RITE set release date for new IRON BONEHEAD album, reveal first track – features members of DENIAL OF GOD, BLACK OATH+++

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces August 11th as the international release date for The Rite‘s highly anticipated second album, The Astral Gloom, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

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!

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

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

ASCENDENCY set release date for new ME SACO UN OJO / DARK DESCENT mini-album, reveal first track

Today, Me Saco Un Ojo Records and Dark Descent Records announce July 14th as the international release date for a brand-new mini-album from AscendencyA Manifest of Imperious Destiny, on 12″ vinyl and CD formats, respectively.

Prepare for the ultimate black/death metal assault by Denmark’s Ascendency… Following a punishing demo in 2019 and their equally merciless 2020 MLP, they now return with another tome of destruction. Four new tracks span an unforgiving half-hour of desecration.

While Denmark has offered some of the best contemporary death metal in the last decade or so, Ascendency are quite a unique beast within this. Their much darker, venomous black metal influences create disquiet with uncomfortable atmospherics that still retain that brutality, just with a much-more-unhinged twist. These new pieces showcase what the band has incubated in the last three years, which is feral and harrowing musical extremity with a sepulchral atmosphere and tremendous musicianship to boot. Reverberating howls and guitars send a chill through the ossuary while drums hammer through remaining skulls with ease.

While Ascendency clearly revel in delivering punishment, they do so with intricate and carefully constructed songs that contain more than enough nuance to really sink your teeth into. Melodic-yet-bestial riffs charge atop devastating percussion with demonic vocals while never straying too far from the cacophony of fury remains the heart of this untamed sound. The subtleties tie in with bludgeoning violence effortlessly and leave us with a truly potent, memorable, and distinguished record. Atmosphere and malice, when they coexist in such a manner, become an unstoppable beast, so prepare for annihilation if you seek out this mystical-yet-malignant gem of underground might. Delve into oblivion with these new offerings of unfaltering triumph and might. [text by Jørgen Sven Kirby, Nattskog webzine]

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

. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Ascendency’s A Manifest of Imperious Destiny
1. The Triumph of Draconian Might [7:05]
2. Victory – in all its Ephemeral Glory [5:41]
3. Domitor Invictus [5:50]
4. A Manifest of Imperious Destiny [9:30]
MORE INFO:
prophesiedascendency.bandcamp.com

www.mesacounojo.com
www.mesacounojo.bandcamp.com

America’s BLACK EUCHARIST premiere new track

Today, American black metallers Black Eucharist premiere the new track “Ziziphus Paliurus”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated debut album, Inn of the Vaticide, set for international release on June 23rd via Stygian Black Hand. Hear Black Eucharist ‘s “Ziziphus Paliurus” 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!

Also hear the previously revealed “Deflowering Jerusalem” HERE at Stygian Black Hand‘s Bandcamp, where the album can also be preordered. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Black Eucharist (USA)’s Inn of the Vaticide
1. Black Ejaculate
2. Deflowering Jerusalem
3. Drowned Flock
4. Inn of the Vaticide
5. The Soiled Crucifix
6. Broken Staff of the Shepherd
7. Ziziphus Paliurus
8. A Foul Stench Lingers at Peor

www.stygianblackhand.com
stygianblackhand.bandcamp.com

EN LA NIEBLA set release date for HELTER SKELTER debut album – streaming in full now

Today, Helter Skelter Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records) announces July 28th as the international release date for En La Niebla‘s striking debut album, El Limbo de Los Callados, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Hailing from the rising Argentinian stoner scene – from which labelmates Mephistofeles, Fulanno, Sahara, The Crooked Whispers, and Serpent Cobra sprang – En La Niebla are a power-trio carrying forward their country’s prevailing paradigm. Uniquely in light of their no-less-distinguished contemporaries, the band sing entirely in their native tongue, lending a foreign-yet-familiar element that makes their diabolism hit that much harder.

Released digitally during the final days of 2022, El Limbo de Los Callados confidently introduces En La Niebla‘s moody, bluesy style of stoner doom. Short but definitely very sweet, the album’s five tracks in nearly a half-hour plod with a downtrodden swagger, but frequently dip into (very slightly) quieter moments that almost seem jammy. The bluesy licks then hypnotize with hazy majesty as the volume & intensity continue to dip, heightening the tension (and darkness) before the BIG diabolic crush of traditional doom riff. Simple-yet-sublime pleasures, and with personality to spare: En La Niebla begin their journey into the beyond with El Limbo de Los Callados.

In the meantime, stream the entirety of El Limbo de Los Callados here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for En La Niebla’s El Limbo de Los Callados

1. El Sendero del Druida [3:10]
2. Evocando el Ritual [5:54]
3. Cabras Negras [6:36]
4. Las Brujas [7:16]
5. El Limbo de Los Callados [6:30]


MORE INFO:
www.enlaniebla666.bandcamp.com

www.helterskelterproductions.se
www.facebook.com/helterskelterproductions

COUNTESS ERZSEBET sets release date for new mini-album, reveals first tracks – features XASTHUR collaborator

On July 28th, Countess Erzsebet will self-release her self-titled mini-album on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Countess Erzsebet is the work of Rachel Bloodspell Moongoddess, who’s previously played bass for a number of bands but more recently Xasthur, where she did three tours playing acoustic bass and was on the Aestas Pretium MMXVIII EP. A guitar/bass-maker learning the luthier trade, Rachel plays in Countess Erzsebet her own electric bass and guitar she both built. All instrumentation in the band – guitar, bass, organ, vocals, and programming – is handled by Rachel, with four of the upcoming mini-album’s songs featuring drums by Steve Peacock of Spirit Possession and Pandiscordian Necrogenesis. Trained in classical piano and jazz bass and guitar as a child, Rachel’s unique upbringing is subtly interwoven into Countess Erzsebet.

Previously monikered Erzsebet and having digitally released the nearly-album-length Black Spell in 2017, Rachel’s rebirth as Countess Erzsebet marks a clear, new epoch for the one-woman band. Whereas that previous recording was more than half acoustic and largely instrumental, Countess Erzsebet builds a grimier and ghastlier soundworld where the likes of Goblin, Ved Buens End, Mercyful Fate, Coven, Leviathan, and Bathory all bubble in a murky, mysterious cauldron – and what emerges sounds entirely unique, and entirely Countess Erzsebet. Olde-worlde and unorthodox, Rachel here harkens to lonelier, more vanguard days for black metal, brimming with a bounty of ideas that seem strange on the surface, but all eventually are threaded together with bedeviling witchcraft. With Hammer-horror organ and her whisper-to-a-scream vocals at the forefront, Countess Erzsebet here creates a remarkably varied canvas where each track holds its own identity – be it primitive gutter pulse or wandering-in-the-woods ethereality, ultra-minimalist doom or occultic torch song – and they’re then sequenced in a manner that creates an all-consuming experience. And one, above all, that is HAUNTING beyond belief: Rachel’s own music videos and plans for using the mini-album as the soundtrack to an independent short film no doubt render Countess Erzsebet a cinematic work.

Out of the dungeons and into the woods, spells cast and the Self recast, Countess Erzsebet displays a bold & brazen landscape on which to roam with Countess Erzsebet.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Glorification of the Profane” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Countess Erzsebet’s Countess Erzsebet
1. In the Blood of Virgins
2. Glorification of the Profane
3. 666
4. Pray to the Devil
5. Obliteration of Thine Enemy
6. Exile Into Depravity

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/Erzsebet.us

BASTARD NOISE set release date for ARMAGEDDON LABEL album

Today, Armageddon Label announces June 30th as the international release date for a brand-new album from the singular Bastard Noise, Incineration Prayer / Self Righteous Suicide, on vinyl LP format.

There is refuge in sound, especially when it collides with the critical human spirit. In desperate times (as the world is facing even more fervently), sound can truly be a weapon of awareness. Nothing makes this case more “black and white” and apparent than the most recent full-length by Bastard NoiseIncineration Prayer / Self Righteous Suicide.

Created exclusively with organic handmade ROARAFC caveman electronics (built by Barnes of Man is the Bastard, Bastard Noise, and Amps for Christ), “Incineration Prayer” (Side A of the album) is a dire message to take heed that the earth mother is bleeding and turning into a furnace at the hands of “mancruel.” Full-blown cosmic attack and next-level desperation-based vocals/lyrics that reflect the power of nature rebelling in the face of death: “Incineration Prayer” is a single cutting-edge, long-form composition that sees hope in danger and crisis.
 
“Self Righteous Suicide” (Side B of the album) spans four separate tracks of sound and vision highlighting without regret the endless misery the animals of the world face at the hand of dirty, ignorant, and selfish humans. Using TROGOTRONIC electronics solely on this side, the listener is brought to the “front lines” of animal liberation consciousness and the “David vs. Goliath”-based existence we face every day at the hands of the global factory-farm “murder machine.” “Self Righteous Suicide” is a humble B Side statement that “rocks the boat” for all (even the unwilling) to see and hear.

This a complex and destitute (in its attack-based violence) sound document that pushes low-end energy and visceral, naked high frequencies into the red. It is dedicated to all who help heal the earth and for those incarcerated for liberating sentient beings across the world in vivisection laboratories, factory farms, and fur farms.

Preorder info can be found HERE at Armageddon Label‘s Bandcamp. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Bastard Noise’s Incineration Prayer / Self Righteous Suicide
Side 1:
“Incineration Prayer”
1) Incineration Prayer

Side 2:
“Self Righteous Suicide”
1) Simulated Kindness
2) Her Milk Is Not Yours Asshole
3) The Holocaust No One Cares About
4) Earth Without Man (The Only Unspoiled Time)

MORE INFO:
www.bastardnoise.com

MISERERE LUMINIS premiere new track – features members of GRIS and SOMBRES FORÊTS

Today, reanimated Quebecois black metallers Miserere Luminis premiere the new track “Le Sang des Rêves”. The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s long-awaited comeback album, Ordalie, set for international release on June 24th via Sepulchral Productions. Hear Miserere Luminis’ “Le Sang des Rêves” in its entirety here:

Nearly 15 years after the release of the debut album of their collaborative project, Gris’ Icare and Neptune as well as Sombre Forêts’ Annatar are back with a long-awaited second Miserere Luminis album! Despite the very long time between the two albums, fans of the band will find there everything that made their first opus so striking: dissonant and atmospheric guitars, complex song structures, tortured vocals, and that ever-present flair for the dramatic! Dark and beautiful at the same time, Ordalie will take you through a journey unlike any other, crafted by legends of Québec’s atmospheric black metal scene…

Preorder info can be found HERE. 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

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/luminis

www.sepulchralproductions.com

HATE MANIFESTO reveal new track from upcoming HELTER SKELTER album – features members of CAEDES CRUENTA, MARDUK, EUCHARIST, WALPURGIA+++

Today, Greek black/death cult  Hate Manifesto reveal the new track “Chains of the Oppressor pt II.” The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated second album, ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ, now set for international release on June 9th via Helter Skelter Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records). Hear Hate Manifesto‘s “Chains of the Oppressor pt II” in its entirety here:

One of Greece’s best-kept secrets, Hate Manifesto formed in 2003 but, so far, have an extremely sparse discography. However, what they lack in quantity, they more than double-up on in quality. To Those Who Glorified Death, their debut album from 2017 – which Helter Skelter rereleased on a worldwide scale in early 2018 – displayed the shockingly extreme force with which Hate Manifesto could create their whirlwind of martial black/death. In 2019 came the aptly titled Herald of Triumph EP, which fully displayed the armament of their potential. Comprising four fierce ‘n’ fiery tracks in a swift ‘n’ decisive 17 minutes, Herald of Triumph was full-on shock & awe – CRUSH, KILL, DESTROY – with Hate Manifesto‘s chosen weapons being the iron-fisted surge of black metal and the muscular swarm of death metal, all rendered in rich, devastating tones. Of course, none of this should’ve come as a surprise given that the band is yet another work of the extremely prolific W.S.P., who also numbers such Helter Skelter cults as Caedes Cruenta, Black Blood Invocation, and Walpurgia among many others.

Now W.S.P. returns Hate Manifesto to the front with the full-length ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ, and he’s joined by drum-god Simon “Bloodhammer” Schilling (Marduk, Eucharist). Picking up the pieces left behind by Herald of Triumph – or rather, the wreckage from the battlefield – ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ (“Apostate” in English) is an immediately obliterating spin. Across eight songs in 38 minutes, the duo continue to create a martial sort of black/death that’s strict, cruel, and caustic. Is it “blackened death metal” or even “deathened black metal”? Appellations matter not when faced with this sort of iron-fisted attack, for its strength lies in the songwriting: W.S.P.’s riffs flow like acidic mercury, and Schilling’s drums race with deft dynamics. Indeed, for however harsh and austere Hate Manifesto‘s aesthetic is here, there’s a remarkably streamlined sensibility that lends infinite memorability to ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ – and repeatability, as you’ll be compelled to press “play” and submit to their onslaught again and again. And when the rare burst of guitar solos come in? MADNESS!

Simultaneously classic and modern, Hate Manifesto continue their campaign of cruelty with ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ!

Continue the march with the previously revealed “Poison Infliction” HERE, also at Regain Records‘ official YouTube channel. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Hate Manifesto’s ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ
1. Inauguration of Triumphal Ascension
2. Extinction Ordained
3. Poison Infliction
4. Purging the Seeds of Pestilence
5. Sworn to Hatred
6. Decimation Order
7. Deconstructing the Assemblage of Deception
8. Chains of the Oppressor pt II

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/hatemanifestohorde
www.hatemanifesto.bandcamp.com

www.helterskelterproductions.se
www.facebook.com/helterskelterproductions

SACRENOIR set release date for SEPULCHRAL debut – features members of FORTERESSE, MONARQUE, BRUME D’AUTOMNE+++

On June 24th internationally, Sepulchral Productions is proud to present Sacrenoir‘s highly anticipated debut album, Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines.

Two pioneers of the Québec black metal scene, Athros (Brume d’AutomneForteresse) and Monarque (MonarqueForteresse) 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!

First track premiere to be revealed shortly. 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

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100065311967575

www.sepulchralproductions.com

TSJUDER unleashes new track ‘Prestehammeren’

Black Metal legends TSJUDER are ready to release ‘Prestehammeren’ to the world! ‘Prestehammeren’ (which means The Priest’s Hammer) is taken from their new album “Helvegr”, which will be released worldwide on June 23, 2023 via Season of Mist.

TSJUDER is releasing ‘Prestehammeren’ in a form of a visualiser video, envisioning the concept of this raw, aggressive, and uncompromising song. The new track is available here:

TSJUDER comments: “This is Prestehammeren. The second track on our forthcoming album Helvegr. Torture and Revenge!”

Pre-orders for “Helvegr” are available HERE, while the album can be pre-saved HERE. (Some vinyl’s are already sold out)

The album will be released on various physical formats, such as cd digipack and coloured vinyl, but also limited edition clamshell box (cd) and LTD vinyl box.
These limited edition come with a bonus album “Scandinavian Black Metal Attack” in which TSJUDER pays a special ode to BATHORY.

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 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

TSJUDER live
27 May 2023 Thronefest (BE) 2023
16-19 Aug 2023 Midgardsblot (NO) 2023

Biography: Spencer Grady

Photos: Chantik Photography – www.chantik.nl

Management + booking: Photograve Management – Håkon Grave www.photograve.net

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