Band: AGGRESSOR

Country: Poland

Title: Crisis

Label: Self Released

Year: 2010

Style: Death Metal

Review

Aggressor was founded in 80th in 20 century. Some fans call this band „Dinosaurus of Polish deathmetal” and this is true. Aggressor is one of forgotten band, which come back on the stage, but they never split up. New album „Crisis” was recorded from 2009 to 2010 and include a lot of old school, kicking ass death metal. This is still deep underground with some mistakes on cover, some language mistakes in lyrics  - but music is brillant. Brillant for old school death metal maniacs. Lyrics also concern some dirty policy, social distortion, etc. What else? One track singing in Polish (track „Ja” means „I”). What else? I don’t know, just listen to!

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 7,5/10

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Band: ALTUS ASTRUM

Country: N.Ireland

Title: Antediluvian

Label: Pest Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Black Death Metal

Review:

Altus Astrum was formed in 2007 as a band but only released their first tracks in 2010 in form of a 3 tracks promo CD meant to get them a record deal. And they got it, Chinese Pest Productions signed them and released, the same year, the debut album I'm having now in front of me. Fast and cruel Black Death Metal based on old-school guitar riffs, not bad at all, but the thing I don't like inhere is the mixing of all instruments, the guitars are too in front of the other instruments and capture almost all attention but I'm sure that' not how they intended their music to sound. And the best thing on this CD, the vocals, very aggressive and sharp, with a horrifying timbre, perfect for any Black Metal band. The album has its slow, doomy parts as well, but although it's not monotonous it failed to impress me (maybe because of the mixing), but at least it doesn't sound like any other such album I've reviewed lately. Try it yourselves, maybe you'll like it more.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: ANDRAS

Country: Germany

Title: Warlord

Label: Einheit Produktionen

Year: 2010

Style: Pagan Metal

Review:

The sixth album of these German heathens is by far their best work to date. I've had the chance to listen to their previous works as well, but this one tops them all, so such a long and productive career in the Underground (17 years) had to show its fruits. Andras developed from a raw Black Metal band to a Pagan Metal one but still not forgetting or omitting their roots, and that's great. Warlord is a majestic piece of complex, melodic, clever and tasteful Pagan Metal that should bring them to new hights in the scene. Besides the great guitar riffs, leads and solos, the powerful rhythm section, and the enchanting melodies, Count Nightsky's vocals are simply perfect, raging from majestic clean tones to raw Black Metal screams. A "not to be missed" album, for sure!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 10/10

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Band: C.SAW

Country: Greece

Title: Acid Rain

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Dark Metal

Review:

C.saw or Christossaw is a project of Christos Kosmidis from Greece. He's planning his debut album and with this occasion he released this advance single consisting of 3 tracks, 15 minutes of playing. Unlike other such projects this is actually a full line-up band although Christos seems to be the one making the music and concept. The closest band i can think of when comparing C.Saw to any other bands would be Lake Of Tears. Calm Dark Rock music combined with some Metal guitar riffs but also with some Dark Wave like rhythms here and there. Christos has some good vocal qualities, and adding some female vox, C.Saw manages to create some interesting stories about life in general. Nothing groundbreaking, but quite entertaining and good to listen to while having some beers.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: DOSE

Country: Venezuela

Title: Demo

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Thrash Metal

Review:

I don't have much info on this band, so I'll just stick to what I'm hearing on this 5 tracks demo lasting for 17 minutes. Dose is all into Thrash Metal, fast, quite catchy, having good compositions, old-school spirit and aggression, and above all, they are quite skilled on their instruments. This demo is mostly dedicated to the Spanish speaking part of the World as all lyrics are in Spanish, but any old-school Thrash Metal follower can find something to chew on inhere also. The sound is not so good, but it doesn't create any problems for listening this material, so all in all this is a good debut, nothing new on the scene, but very honest work. I have to admit I liked the keyboard insertions idea a lot.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7/10

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Band: ETERNAL CHAOS

Country: Colombia

Title: Dark God of the Eternal

Label: Mighty Hordes Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

I think this is the first Colombian Black Meta band I'm reviewing. Eternal Chaos were formed in 2004, but "Dark God of the Eternal" is their debut album, a 10 tracks effort lasting for a bit more than half an hour. Eternal Chaos' music is raw, aggressive, fast and old-school Black Metal without influences from other genres or any attempt on discovering something new. This is old-school to the bone, organic sounding, and correctly interpreted, nothing to argue about it. If you want like Black Metal raw and brutal try Eternal Chaos. Unlike most of the South American extreme metal bands, they are using English lyrics so I guess that makes it easier for the rest of the World to understand what are they all about. As a final statement I would say this is homest Black Metal from South America.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ETHELYN

Country: Poland

Title: Traces into Eternity

Label: Brewery Distro

Year: 2008

Style: Melodic Black Death Metal

Review:

This is Ethelyn's debut album, released in 2008, but the label sent it for a review in physical form so I have to respect their effort and say a few words on this music although I don't know how representative it is for the band nowadays since they have released a second album last year, but on a different label. Anyway, Ethelyn is a nice discovery, this album doesn't have the best sound around, but it certainly give a good impression on the band's abilities to create a solid melodic Black Death Metal highlighted by some very good guitar leads and solos, catchy riffs, solid bass lines, complex drumming, atmospheric background keys, and a mix of screams, growls and clean vocals. If this album would have had a better sound production it would have been a blast. It made me want more of Ethelyn's music, so I recommend it to you, too.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: EXPURGO

Country: Brazil

Title: Burial Ground

Label: Black Hole Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Grindcore

Review:

Oh, it's a long time since I've listened to some good old-school Grindcore, so Expurgo is more than welcome to my ears. The band was formed in 2003 in Belo Horizonte (the well known city that gave birth of Sepultura) and since now they have perticipated in several splits released by South and North American labels, but also by European ones, so they worked quite seriously on building a name for themselves. "Burial Ground" is their debut album, containing 27 new track, and two remakes of old compositions. The music is absolutely awesome for any Grindcore maniacs out there, old-school to the bone, with influences from Death Metal, Hardcore, Punk, but still keeping the real, brutal sound of Grind. Expurgo is: two vocals (growls and screams), fast, catchy guitar riffs, fast drums and powerful bass lines. This album is absolutely delicious, I honestly recommend it to all of you, you can't go wrong with a whirlpool of horror inspired Grind, crystal clear sound and a great looking CD booklet.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: EXTREME DEFORMITY

Country: Hungary

Title: Internal

Label: Neverheard Distro

Year: 2011

Style: Death Metal

Review:

This is an awesome gift for any Hungarian metal follower, Extreme Deformity is a band that was active in the beginnings of the 90's and released a demo and a studio-album, both being featured on this "best of" compilation, so the "Internal" release on Neverheard Distro contains the 6 tracks of Extreme Deformity's '92 demo, the 8 tracks of their "Internal" album from '93, plus a bonus, unreleased track, totalizing an hour of playing. Their '92 demo is what was considered back then a Brutal Death Metal piece of music with primitive but listenable enough sound. Catchy simple riffs, powerful bass lines, brutal drumming and a raw, growling vocal, all played in a combination of mid-tempo and fast rhythms, nothing spectacular, but honest enough. Their '93 album  has a much better sound production, much complex guitar riffs and solos, and the vocal parts, although growls again, sound a bit more natural, so this is indeed a great album for any collector of old-school extreme metal. Recommended!

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: FANGTOOTH

Country: Italy

Title: Fangtooth

Label: Solitude Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Metal

Review:

Debut album for this Italian band founded in 2007. "Fangtooth" contains 6 tracks of traditional Doom Metal the way it was done in the end of the '70's - beginnings of the '80's so of course you can think of bands like Pentagram or Saint Vitus as major influences on Fangtooth's music. No innovations here, but the music is entertaining enough to catch a Doom Metal follower's interest. The guitars deliver some pretty solid riffs, but their tone is not always the best and makes you think of a jam session rathen than a real CD recording. Unfortunately although I like a lot of the riffs inhere I can't say I was hooked in any way by Fangtooth's music. Still, I like the fact they choose the traditional way of expressing their music.

Reviewed by Adrian

rating: 6.5/10

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Band: FROZEN DAWN

Country: Spain

Title: The Old Prophecy of Winterland

Label: Mighty Hordes Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Melodic Black Metal

Review:

Debut album of a Spanish band formed in 2006, "The Old Prophecy of Winterland" is composed of 11 tracks lasting for almost 50 minutes. Frozen Dawn presents us a guitar leads based Black Metal mid-tempo played with some good old-school flavour at times and with an overall melodic atmosphere given by the same guitar leads, without keys or any other extra instruments to fill in and give the melody to the whole. And that's the key point of Frozen Dawn, meaning the guitar work, the most important element in their music. The bass lines are ok, but a bit hidden behind the other instruments, the drums are flowing Swiss-clock-like making me think of drum-programs, but even if they are, their sound is not disturbing at all, it's pretty good actually. Grinder, the vocalist, has a good, hoarse vocal timbre and he seems to put a lot of effort into what he does giving their music a bit of feeling because the rest sounds a bit too calculated, too mathematical and perfect, and the choirs used here and there, plus the addition of the raw female vocals of bassist Davinia are more than welcome. Not a groundbreaking release, but a decent, entertaining one that won't disappoint Melodic Black Metal followers, especially live I guess.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: KAMLATH

Country: Russia

Title: Stronger than Frost

Label: BadMoodMan

Year: 2011

Style: Dark Metal

Review:

From my point of view this is BMM's best release so far and most probably the most commercial they have released, although I don't know if the "commercial" therm is the best used here. Anyway, Kamlath, although presented as being from Russia is actually an international band featuring Russian, Swedish, Dutch and Italian members, and amongst them, Mike wead known for his work with King Diamond, Mercyful Fate, Candlemass, Memento Mori or Candlemass. the 7 tracks featured here have a total playing time of 42 minutes and present us a very melodic, emotional Dark Metal band that doesn't refrain from using metallic, powerful guitar riffs or fast, aggressive drumming, and still manages to create a heavy melodic atmosphere. Marco benevento from teh Italian The Forwshadowing does a very good job on vocals, using only clean vox and whispers here and there he manages to capture your attention from the start and keeps it steady till the end, but this only in case you like it from the beginning because if not, it may proove to be extremely boring and monotonous (I was lucky, I liked it). The compositions are complex, none resembling another but the album still emanates a conceptual feeling. I guess fans of Katatonia will enjoy this release.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: MASS INSANITY

Country: Poland

Title: Silent Language

Label: Brewery Distro

Year: 2010

Style: Death Metal

Review:

This CD contains 2 previous demos of Mass Insanity, "In Deadly Silence" from 2004 and "Language Of The Dead" from 2007, totalizing 8 tracks in almost 40 minutes of playing. I decided to start listening to the first demo tracks, so with the 5th track on this CD, only to see the band's evolution during the years. What we get on this demo is a pretty solid old-school Death Metal, fast, intricate, aggressive but with some (few) crums of melody also. Still the first demo is a find piece of Death Metal with underground sound but not bad at all. The second demo (starting with track 1 on this CD) has a much better sound (not perfect though), keeps the same combination of two aggressive vocals, the same music based on razor sharp riffs, a little mor egroove on the drums section and a much more involved bass line. I prefer the sound on the first demo and the music on the second, so I guess their next release (debut album to be soon released on Brewery Distro) will form my opinion 100%.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10

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Band: MISTS OF POVEGLIA

Country: UK

Title: Soundscapes Of The Glorious North

Label: Glorious North Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Dark Ambient

Review:

Heh, such a perfect release title for Glorious North Productions. If this was my first encounter with GNP I'd say they decided to release it only based on it's title. :) But no, Mists Of Poveglia is a one man Dark Ambient project from UK that fits perfectly with the concept of this label. 

"Soundscapes Of The Glorious North" is a 17 tracks release lasting for more than an hour, but only 11 of the total 17 tracks are composed for this release, and 6 of them are featured as bonus tracks, I guess they were previously featured on other releases or unreleased before. I'm listening to this album when outside it's a massive Summer storm and I can tell you it fits perfectly, couldn't have been better. Mists Of Poveglia's music is based on keyboards and nature effects, but there are some good piano insertions also which are welcome, creating a honest soundscape, good for meditation and dreaming with your eyes open. Honestly I would have liked the tracks to have a better bound, to slip senslessly one from another, but Lord Funerus (the man behind MoP) seems to have had other plans, more stories to "tell". Good atmosphere, dark and desolate, I liked it, too bad the print-run is limited to only 50 digipack copies, but if you're into Dark Ambient and you can get your hand on one of these copies, do it, you won't be disapointed.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: MORD'A'STIGMATA

Country: Poland

Title: Antimatter

Label: Sun & Moon Records

Year: 2011

Style: Avantgarde Black Metal

Review:

Second full-length for this Polish band, and their first out on Sun & Moon Records, "Antimatter" displays a vivid desire for the band to explore new territories linked somehow with Black Metal. If you're an old-school die hard Black Metal fanatic stay away from this release, but if you're looking for something new, Mord'A'Stigmata can be a good choice. What's great on this release is that even if they include a very large palette of genres within their influences, they keep the music ugly and aggressive, exploring new fields only in the technical segment. This approach can also be tricky because they might loose their overall atmosphere and the whole point (in my opinion) of playing music: expressing feelings. This album is somehow in the middle of no feelings and aggressive, visceral emotions, so it's ok, but on the next one I'm sure they will either loose it for the technical, "mathematical" approach on avantgarde music, or evolve into an awesome, hatefilled entity. Get this CD if you're looking for interesting stuff, the production is flawless, and the cover artwork is a work of art, so you can't go wrong.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: NIGHT OF SUICIDE

Country: Holland / Finland

Title: Desire

Label: Solitude Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Funeral Doom Metal

Review:

Well, this is not bad at all, I really liked giving this album a few spins, but what I don't get from it is why, if they knew the vocals would be so lowtuned and hidden in the background (plus they are growls, not clean vox), they didn't list the lyrics on the booklet as well. For a Funeral Doom band lyrics are extremely important, one cannot express all sadness and/or melancholy only through the instrumental part. Anyway, Night Of Suicide, this duo formed of a Dutch guy (Ben on vocals) and a Finnish one (Markus on instruments), offer us on this third studio album a melancholic, quite complex Funeral Doom Metal that takes influences from traditional Doom Metal and even Gothic at times, and the final result is a great piece of music for the meditative, romantic metallers out there. Except for that lyrics thing I have nothing to object on this album, I like it a lot and so I recommend it to you, too.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: NUMEN

Country: Spain

Title: Numen

Label: LADLO Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Folk Black Metal

Review:

Numen is a quartet from the Basque Country (part of Spain, at least for the moment) formed in 1997. This one is their third album, originally released in 2007 by Goi Music and picked up this year by Les Acteurs De L'Ombre Prod. for a re-released. What we have here is a fast rhythmed Black Metal with occasional Folk insertions and an overall Pagan feeling. The guitar riffs are very good, catchy and intricate creating the cold, dark atmosphere that shrouds Numen's music, the drums are extremely fast with war-like pagan rhythms here and there, the bass is doing its job well by filling up the gaps in their music and still keep a low profile, and the vocals are hoarse Black Metal ones a la Shining I would say. Overall this is a very good release, with great production, correct atmosphere, so why not giving it a try yourselves?

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10 

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Band: PRAYER OF THE DYING

Country: Malta

Title: In Silence and Grief We Decay

Label: Necrogoat Heresy Productions

Year: 2011

Style: Ambient Black Death

Review:

Martin Ciappara (the man behind Prayer Of The Dying) is most probably the most active underground metal activist in Malta. He manages to get his band's name almost everywhere and that requires a lot of dedication especially nowadays when there are so many websines, radios, magazines and labels out there and the metal followers are all fed up with that much information. I hope he will continue this way and that he will get the interest he deserves. "In Silence..." is Prayer Of The Dying's third studio album, a 12 tracks effort lasting for an hour. I would label his music as Ambient Black Death Metal with quite a lot of variation and interesting elements (I think I've heard also some violins here and there), but although the ambient keyboards, the melodic lead guitars and the occasional choirs give the music a melodic, melancholic feeling, the whole is very aggressive, almost brutal at times. Honestly this reminded me of the Atmospheric Greek bands from the '90's, so you can easily get that we have here a raw, old-school sound. The only thing I don't like on this album is the drum-machine that sounds too synthetic for such a release, but except for that Martin has created a very good and interesting full-length, much better than what we're used to nowadays to come out of the Ambient Black Metal scene, this guy really knows how to handle his guitar.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8/10

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Band: ROHESFLEISCH

Country: Italy

Title: First Jurney to Flesh of Human Nature

Label: Infernal Kommando Records

Year: 2011

Style: Industrial Black Metal

Review:

This is a lucky band: Rohesfleisch was formed as a one-man-band in 2008 but became active only some time later when Zeyros, the founder, teamed up with Azhrarn to create some devastating Industrial Black Metal. Only a month after they have released their Myspace profile they got contacted by Infernal Kommando Records who proposed a deal, and so this debut demo, "First Jurney to Flesh of Human Nature" was released this year both as CD format and as a tape. Pretty rad, isn't it? Here we have 5 tracks in about 23 minutes of playing. Rohesfleisch is a winning combination of Industrial with raw Black Metal. The result is one of the most aggressive and disturbing form of Black Metal I've heard lately: ultra-fast drum programmings, evil, industrialized vocals, noisy, fast guitar riffs with some occasional mid-tempo insertions that are more than welcome. The sound is not the best one around, but it adds up to the chaotic, but still premedited overall atmosphere of this demo. If you're searching for the ugliest form of Black Metal around, try this band, too, they might surprise you positively.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: SOULTHORN

Country: Hungary

Title: Embertormelek

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

Got this demo from my friend Balazs fron the Hungarian Neverheard Distro. It's nice how they support each other in the Hungarian underground, but again, Balazs might be an exception, I don't really know.

I have not much info on this band since almost all content of their website and myspace is written in Hungarian, but from what I understand it was first established by K. in 2007 as a solo project and was joined by Vorst in 2010. Soon after they have managed to record and release this 3 track demo. What we get here is a raw Black Metal, very aggressive (mostly because of Vorst's vocals), but also quite synthetic because of the drum programmings they use. By the way, Vorst is a lady, but if you wouldn't know that you'd bet on it being a male vocalist. She uses growls most of the time, but on the last track of this demo there are some of the nowadays so popular desperate Depressive Black Metal screams, but all in all she's a very good vocalist, makes you be afraid of meeting her. The guitars are quite ok, mostly aggressive and fast, with occasional melancholic parts, but I simply don;t like the drum machine at all, it is not only synthetic sounding, but also very simplistic. For a demo it is ok, looking forward to hearing their next release. This one is available both as free download from their website and physical form for only 1.5 Euro.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6/10

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Band: SOURCE OF DEEP SHADOWS

Country: Poland

Title: Fading Emptiness

Label: Redrum666

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Metal

Review:

Source Of Deep Shadows (SODS) is a trio from Poland founded in 2004. this is their second album, an 8 tracks effort lasting for 40 minutes. I would say SODS plays an old-school type of Doom Metal combined with many elements from Funeral Doom, Death Metal and even Gothic Metal. It's a very complex album, as much as this style allows, avoiding too much repetition, and that's a great feature for SODS. The guitars are as inportant as the other instruments inhere, while they create the diversity (lots of different riffs, leads and solos), the bass keep the atmosphere a cold and dark one, and the drums are creating the funeral rhythms. The vocals are deep, low type growls with occasional whispers. An interesting, organic release. I'm not a fan of this album's cover/booklet artwork, though, too many different colours and themes.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 7.5/10

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Band: SPORYSZ POLSKA

Country: Poland

Title: Sporysz Polska

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Progressive Jazz Folk Metal

Review:

Sporysz Polska is new and very interesting band, which connect metal and rock sounds with jazz and folk things. During the first listening I thought „This is Polish Hoven Droven or Hedningarna” and this is true, this kind of folkmetal drive. This EP is really a professional free demo with four tracks. First of it, called „Ober” is a traditional Polish folk dance „oberek” recorded as folkmetal track with jazz influences. Another one, „Nie wypedze bydla z rana” is a traditional Polish folk song recorded as instrumental track with fusion of traditional violin, saxophone, and hard’n’heavy guitar/bass/drums drive. Amazing !!! Third track is a combine of ambient/rock ballad with originally folklore voice taken from old records... The last one is a known in Polish folkmetal scene track „Polka Kowalewskich” but... as instrumental folkmetal cover. I’m really curious what Sporysz Polska will record on full length album in future, I’m sure that will be great !!! The name of the band is a game-words, Sporysz is a kind of toxin taken from fungus growing on rye (violet colour grain) and Polska means Poland of course, but „polska” is a kind of tradtional folk style from Sweden, but with Polish roots. 

Reviewed by Vilcin

Rating: 9,5/10

Band: THE UNBORN DEAD

Country: Canada

Title: Primitive Origins

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Brutal Death Metal

Review:

the first thing that hits you when starting to listen to this album is its very good production, it's almost weird how this debut album is selfproduced and is not out on some fancy label, so horns up for The Unborn Dead for their effort to deliver something very professional by themselves. Musicwise "Primitive Origins" is standard American Brutal Death Metal correctly executed, very aggressive, technical and entertaining, although not innovetive in any way, and containing some pretty demented lyrics. The groove is not missing as well, and I'm sure any Brutal Death Metal can find something on his/her liking here, so as a debut album this is damn great, I can see The Unbord Dead getting signed in no time. Honestly I would have liked more solos, like on the "Pieces" or "Parasitic Leach" tracks, but maybe on the next record... A band to support and follow.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9/10

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Band: VASTUM

Country: USA

Title: Carnal Law

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2011

Style: Doom Death Metal

Review:

This is Vastum's debut demo, and also their debut album. How so? Well they have released it by themselves earlier this year and immediately got signed by 20 Buck Spin, so this will be released at the end of May as a full-length also by 20 Buck Spin, I guess with something different on it (at least the cover). Vastum plays a slow-driven Death Metal with fat, Doomy sound and slow to mid-tempo rhythms. nothing spectacular, but quite enjoying for any old-school Death Metal follower, but also for Doom Metal fans who like their music a bit more aggressive, not only slow and meaty. The sound is great, very dark and extremely heavy (just listen to the bass which sounds like a rusty machine gun), and the atmosphere is overwhelming, feels like a bulldozer coming at you. Recommended to fans of Doom Death Metal from the beginnings of the '90's.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 8.5/10

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Band: WALDGEFLUSTER

Country: Germany

Title: Femundsmarka - Eine Reise in drei Kapiteln

Label: Black Blood

Year: 2011

Style: Melodic Black Metal

Review:

Ok, I admit I am kinda suspicious when I come across bands with names I can hardly read, and this happened in Waldgefluster's case also, I thought if it takes me an eternity to write down their name without using copy/paste I will have a rough time listening to their album, but I am so glad I was wrong... This is their second album to date, a 7 tracks work lasting for 53 minutes of Melodic Ambient Black Metal. The atmosphere they managed to create inhere is absolutely great, combining cold and dark Black Metal rhythms (although drums could have been better mastered) with melodic guitar riffs and leads, acoustic interludes and a very good vocal part (including some choirs here and there). Nothing feels to be in excess, there's the right amount of aggression, right amount of melody, and the right amount of desperation. Their music (including choirs, piano parts, acoustic interludes, effects and nature sounds) succeeds perfectly to drive you into a new dimension and keep you tight till the end, although using an underground, unpolished sound. I have deeply enjoyed this album and recommend it to you too, and my next step will be to start memorizing this name, Waldgefluster, and so should you.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 9.5/10

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Band: WARSMOKE

Country: Italy

Title: Dove infuria la battaglia

Label: Selfreleased

Year: 2010

Style: Black Metal

Review:

I wasn't able to find any info on this Italian band on the net, so I'll just speak about what I hear on this demo CD. "Dove infuria la battaglia" is an 8 tracks CD lasting for almost 40 minutes. The CD openes with a track that is absolutely horrible, except for an exceprt from a war movie at the start of it, the drum-machine is childish to say the least. Fortunately starting with the second track the drums sound is getting covered by the guitars and vocals, I would say the sound is getting a bit equalized, but what remains is not much better also... Chaotic sounding Black Metal based on fast and extremely simple drum-machines, simple guitar riffs and monotone vocals. Well, the vocals are ok, raw and evil, but still not enough to make me recommend this first (?) demo of Warsmoke. Algeroth still has a lot more work to do on his music to attract the underground maniacs. A good thing is that he decided to release this in physical format unlike tons of other projects like his who decide to go for the download option only, and that means he might take this serious and improve in the future.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 4/10

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Band: EZAYAH / VALEFOR / ZENITH MAUDLIN

Country: Turkey / Turkey / Turkey

Title: Passages from the Dark Side

Label: Extreminal Productions

Year: 2010

Style: Ambient Depressive Black Metal

Review:

Here's a three way split released by Extreminal Productions from Turkey. All three names presented here are one-man-bands, and all come from Turkey as well, so let's start talking about them.

Ezayah is a project started, as it seems, back in 1999, although it has only managed to release one full-length, last year. There are only two tracks from Ezayah inhere, and the first one is actually an intro. The music is quite interesting and catchy, I would recommend it to underground Ambient Black Metal fanatics out there, but the sound is not so good. Supporting the main Black Metal guitars (mid-paced to fast rhythmed) by melodic guitar lines in the background, and also adding clean chants are both good ideas that make this project interesting. Still 2 tracks is not sufficient for one to make a complete idea on Ezayah's music.

Valefor comes second, a Depressive Black Metal project started in 2008 that has already managed to release an album on the Russian very productive Rigorism Productions. 2 long tracks (about 8 minutes each), showing almost nothing good about this band: repetitive, uninteresting guitar lines, extremely simple drumming and an awful type of vocals. This band sounds more of a mockery on this genre than a real band. Sorry, but I really don't like this one a bit.

Zenith Maudlin was formed in 2005 and has some demos and splits out so far, but no full-length. Its 2 tracks are again about 8 minutes long, without vocals, conceived on the Depressive Ambient genre, but it has also some slow Black Metal-ish guitars as support to the decadent, cold and dark atmosphere it creates. Very good horrifying atmospheres, this is a project worth checking out. I only hope it had a better sound.

Reviewed by Adrian

Rating: 6.5/10, 2/10, 7.5/10

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Band: Various Artists

Country: Hungary

Title: Hungarian Black Metal Assault Vol. II

Label: Fekete Terror 'zine / Neverheard Distro

Year: 2011

Style: Extreme Metal

Review:

Nice initiative from the Hungarian Fekete Terror print zine, supported with distribution by Neverheard Distro, "Hungarian Black Metal Assault Vol. II" is a compilation containing not only Black Metal acts, but from other genres too. And here are my impressions on the bands featured:

Cryptic Remains - very good Death Metal with an old-school feeling but adding some influences from the nowadays Brutal Death Metal also; plenty of brutality with some melodic touches, a band to keep an eye on, that's for sure;

De Profundis - this is a band I have reviewed last year and I remember I liked them a lot. The track featured here confirms my general opinion on them: great technical, melodic, dark and aggressive fast as hell Black Metal, very good band

Fantom - a live track with bad sound, but it lets you understand you're dealing with an old-school raw Thrash Black Metal band; it seems they are pretty legendary in the Hungarian metal scene, the band was formed back in 1987, but now it's split-up; I'd love to hear some better recorded tracks of Fantom, their compositions sound pretty neat

I Divine - great Experimental Black Metal band that by its use of trombone makes you think, of course, of Sear Bliss, and they have something in common with Sear Bliss, some former members, but that's it, they are pretty original, very catchy and display a huge potential. Excellent atmospheres, twisted melodies, complex composition, look out for this band!

Malediction - quite complex Death Metal, mide tempo to fast rhythmed, catchy and fat sounding. The only thing I don't like in this band's music is the drums' sound, too slam-oriented for their style. The rest is very enjoyable, very dark Death Metal

Nuclear Beast - fast and furious Thrash Metal with Punk attitude, raw sounding; I guess they can appeal to Hungarian speaking metalheads

Rombolo - an Austrian one man project that may have moved to Hungary or something as it is presented as being both Austrian and Hungarian project. Old-School Black Metal with Thrash Metal guitar riffs, primitive rehearsal-like sound, nice guitar solos used to create the atmosphere; seems to be a good band, too bad for the horrible sound

Solus - average fast Black Metal with repetitive guitar riffs, not bad at all, but not original either; 

Tyrant Goatgaldrakona - brutal Black Death Metal with growling vocals, some old-school guitar riffs that I have quite enjoyed, nice groove and overall a simple but memorable music, but it would need a better sound to break through;

Vrag - slow tempo melodic Black Metal one-man-project founded recently; simple composition, repetitive themes, primitive sound, it still needs a lot of work to be noticed amongst all the similar bands.

Ok, these are the 10 bands featured on this compilation, but as a bonus, the producers also included the full debut demo of Witcher, a two members band including the man behind Vrag. 3 track in more than 20 minutes of playing; melodic slow to mid-tempo Black Metal is their style and I have to admit I like it way better than Vrag, it reminds me of the '90's underground Black Metal bands thriving to get recognition, although this is basically Vrag's music with the addition of keyboards, '90's like atmospheric simple but effective keyboard backgrounds. It's a long time since I've heard a new band having this sound, I give this a big thumb up. 

Nice effort by Fekete Terror and Neverheard, they deserve respect for getting the word out about their homeland extreme metal scene. Support!

Reviewed by Adrian

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