Reviewed: March 2021 Released: 19th March 2021, self-released Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Graeme Smith I never understood why bands select dodgy covers for albums which don’t reflect the music contained. Well known examples of this are Black Sabbath’s ‘Paranioid’ and Anthrax’s ‘Fistful of Metal’, which the bands admit themselves are ropey…
blackened death metal
Edoma – Immemorial Existence
Reviewed: February 2021 Released: 2020, Petrichor Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Pete Mutant Edoma are fairly fresh on the scene and have brought out their first full length in ‘Immemorial Existence’. This album provides nine tracks of Russian blackened death metal straight from the heart of St. Petersburg and gives the band…
Hell-Born – Natas Liah
Reviewed: January 2021 Released: 2021, Odium Records Rating: 2.5/5 Reviewer: Pete Mutant Polish death metal act Hell-Born have returned with their 6th full release, nearly 13 years after 2008’s ‘Legacy Of The Nephilim’. A bit of a hiatus for the band came to an end as we have recently been…
Azarath – Saint Desecration
Reviewed: December 2020 Released: 2020, Agonia Records Rating: 3/5 Reviewer: Rossy Maguire “Saint Desecration” is a new extreme illumination revealed by AZARATH at the altar of blackened death metal. Unrepentant and provocative to the core, the album is set to astound the connoisseurs of sonic terror. AZARATH crept from the shadows over two…
Necrophobic – Dawn of the Damned
Reviewed: November 2020 Released: 2020, Century Media Records Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis Swedish death metal veterans Necrophobic have returned with their ninth studio album: Dawn of the Damned, a title I would find quite fitting given how the world has received a lot of damnation this year by a pandemic…
Dying Vision – The Death and its Slaughter
Reviewed: September 2020 Released: 2020, Self Released Rating: 5/5 Reviewer: Demitri Levantis In a year overrun by a murderous pandemic stealing the lives of the best part of a million innocent people, the genre of death metal seems more appropriate than ever – particularly from bands who like to explore…
Temple Nightside – Pillars Of Damnation
Reviewed: August 2020 Released: 2020, Iron Bonehead Productions Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Kira Levine Hailing from Australia and founded just a decade ago, Temple Nightside will be releasing their fourth full-length Pillars Of Damnation on August 7th, via Iron Bonehead Productions. Their label states: “By now, Temple Nightside require little to…
Sinistral King – Serpent Uncoiling
Reviewed: May 2020 Released: 2020, Vendetta Records Rating: 5/5 Reviewer: Kira Levine What do you get when the members of the bands Unlight, Triumph Of Death and Vredehammer (from Germany, Switzerland and Norway respectively) collaborate? A mix of pulverising death vocals, shattering black metal screams and otherworldly chorals that perfectly…
Abhomine – Proselyte Parasite Plague
Abhomine – Proselyte Parasite Plague Reviewed: April 2020 Released: 2020, Osmose Productions Rating: 3.5/5 Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz Most anything involving Pete Helmkamp is blackened death metal gold (sulfur?), and his sophomore release up under the Abhomine moniker is no exception. While the LARVAE OFFAL SWINE debut was essentially a solo…
Cell – Ancient Incantations Of Xarbos
Reviewed: January 2020 Released: October 2019, Independent Release Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Beandog Winnipeg is located in Canada, underneath a cold air mass, near the fast flowing polar jet streams of the Northern Hemisphere. It’s placement on the flats of the prairie make it susceptible to harsh conditions and brutally cold…
Hour Of Penance – Misotheism
Reviewed: [November 2019] Released [2019 Agonia Records] Rating [4.5/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson If Italy’s Hour of Penance seemed to have gotten stuck in a bit of groove-oriented rut with 2017’s Cast The First Stone, following a decade-long run of stellar death metal that preceded it, it hasn’t taken the band…
Nile + Hate Eternal + Vitriol + Omophagia @ The Dome
Nile + Hate Eternal + Vitriol + Omophagia @ The Dome 26 September 2019 Review by Demitri Levantis Photos by Manu Volpina
Necronomicon – Unus
Reviewed: October 2019 Released: 2019 Season Of Mist Rating: 4/5 Reviewer: Peter Atkinson Led by frontman/guitarist Rob “The Witch” Tremblay, with an ever-revolving cast of co-conspirators, Montreal’s Necronomicon have championed a “symphonic blackened metal” mix of pomp, power, finesse and mysticism that is surprisingly rare on this side of the…
Retribution Alive: Dark Clouds Over Camden
Retribution Alive: Dark Clouds Over Camden @Black Heart/The Dev/The Lounge September 6th – September 8th 2019 Review by Ambra Chilenwa Photography by Joanna Kat (Day 1) and Paweł Dziepak (Day 2 & 3) Editing by Johnny Wolf
Valkyrja – Throne Ablaze
Reviewed: [February, 2019] Released: [2018, W.T.C. Productions] Rating: [3/5] Reviewer: Peter Atkinson If there’s one persistent knock on Swedish black/death metal mob Valkyrja it’s that their songs are often just too damn long for the kind of music they present. With a visceral, snub-nosed approach that recalls Marduk, Dark Funeral…