7" reviews.

Lp reviews.

Cd reviews.

Demoncy/Dark Opus (usa/?) - split 7" 300x (Battlesk'rs '04)

From the ashes of Spikekult rises the Battlesk'rs label, and, after a fantastic re-issue Lp on the kult Demoncy album Joined In Darkness  they continues to pay tribute to Demoncy by releasing a split 7" with this cool band Dark Opus (?). In the Demoncy side The Ode To Eternal Darkness, old track originally recorded for a compilation Cd and released anywhere finally available: Ixithra on vocals, necrotic sound at its best, and definitely a great black metal song. Dark Opus in the B side with Infectious Ritual plays something not very far from Demoncy... from 1 to 10 I would give to this Ep 8.

Cult Of Daath (usa) - Razor War 7" 1000x (Nuclear War Now! Prod '04) 

Cruel & barbaric, two words to describe the Cult Of Daath music, if you have listened to their unique Cd The Grand Tortures Of Hell you know what I',m referring to, but probably you know, unfortunately they have disbanded now... anyway here I have this cool Ep titled Razor War, out for the master label NWN! Prod. and featuring two unreleased trax, Razor War and Piercing The Thorax. Hellhammer meets early Sodom or early Kreator's most untechnical and approximative playing, imagine a kind of black grinding metal approaching some thrash veins... Barbaric & cruel, don't? 700x on black regular vynil, 300x (Die Hard version) on picture disk w/sticker, patch, poster and a special sleeve...

Anu (usa) - s/t 7" 200x (Ma Kahru Distr. '00)

Night falls and a candle start to lightning, when I start to listen to a music which seems to be coming from a parallel dimension. After a brief intro The Fires Return... surrounded in darkness. Abyssal. Furious. Occult. Evil. Dark Evil music as I didn't hear alike from years. Within The Realm Of Blackfrost smooths a carpet of keys, the beginning of my journey through the darkness, and Into The Gates of Eternity follows maintaining this dismal atmosphere, a more calm atmosphere... and only at the end of the outro Towards Thy Frozen Dominion I'm able to rejoin this world. Black air covers my room. Masterpiece (all the review could be summarized by this word). Anu is a side project built up by Drathrul, mainly known to be part of the Demoncy kult (Ixithra -see my interview elsewhere- too appears here with some summonings in the outro) and this black jewel, which was originally printed as a demo-tape, is unfortunately the only release from these demons; it was planned to be re-issued on the same format (with two bonus tracks) and on Cd-r by Ma Kahru in 2002, but it seems that all will go failed since Mike/Ma Kahru has closed down his label activity (maybe forever) for irreversible problems...  

Arkhon Infaustus/Revenge (fra/usa) - The Toddler And The Priest/Deathless Will split 7" 500x (Osmose '04)

Aaargh!! What I read on the cover of this record! Revenge! a split ep togheter with french Arkhon Infaustus! Yeah! It is a mess I still don't have the last albums of these two band, but I can say that the headbanging starts when I put the A side and hear the new Arkhon Infaustus tune titled The Toddler And The Priest. Totally in their own style, this song is a exploitation of perversity (you're welcomed to read the bible quotings in the inner sheet) and brutality and has some cool moanings of pleasure in the central part (oh, oooh, ohhh!!); the Revenge Genocide Squad Session Deathaxe Atrocities still rules, now with Mr. Pete Helmkamp of the Angelcorpse kult (RIP - but mostly Order From Chaos, which is a bigger kult) playing bass. I think  Deathless Will is a superior piece compared to the previous 7" in my possession, better recorded and better played: more rage and more war, dedicated to extremists who bleeds on the altar of triumph.   

Darkthrone - Crossing The Triangle Of Flames 7" lmt. bootleg

Still on the same mood of the Burzum bootleg 7" here we have a Darkthrone bootleg 7", like a sort of record brotherhood (both have the same kind of artwork). Still we could find two rehearsal trax from 1992, when they were releasing the Under A Funeral Moon album: the first track is, that's right, Under A Funeral Moon and the second is Unholy Black Metal, both well played but with some noise on the background. I don't know if still you can find these two ep's around but try, there are more probabilities to find them in some north american distro's than european ones. 

A copy of both the Burzum and Darkthrone bootleg ep's is available at my address for trade, get in touch damn!!

vanishing82@yahoo.com

Goatvomit (gre) - Chapel Of The Winds Of Belial 7" w/poster  (Nuclear War Now! Prod. '02)

Bestial black metal worship of the Blasphemy and Beherit ancient cult here... after a wonderful demo here we have agan greek Goatvomit back with a limited 7" pressed by NWN! Prod. Bestial cover artwork, bestial nicknames in the vein of Blasphemy/Beherit/Demoncy, truly bestial music: I think the major reference to describe them musically is Sarcofago's INRI Lp, but the vocals are devoted to Beherit and the like... 2 main tracks alternated to instrumental short ones and intro + outro (a thing that reminds me a lot the first Impaled Nazarene Lp). Only for true worshippers of early Impaled Nazarene, Beherit, Blasphemy, Sarcofago, Demoncy and ultra satanic metal with a real underground spirit. This Ep was limited to 500 copies I think and contained a poster, but if you missed it you'll soon have a chance to get their first full-lenght Lp still through NWN! Prod. 

click here for interview 

Profanatica (usa) - Broken Jew 7" 666x (Metal War Prod. '02)

Mmmh... Paul Ledney came back with the monickers Profanatica and Havohej in 2001/2002, released some stuff (Profanatica live Cd, Havohej "Man And Jinn" Mcd and Profanatica pic Lp) and then disappeared (it seems that he ripped off a lot of people who sent money at his address and however -damn Jesus!- a Havohej 7" was planned to be out for Us' label Blood Fire Death). Anyway for the joy of the legendary Osmose bands' maniacs, Us' War Metal Productions released in time this limited edition 666 Ep that which feature the only two existent studio trax done by this second incarnation of Profanatica which had Ledney doing (of course) drums and vocals, and two unknown guys (not a line-up here) which played live shows in the come back of 2001/2002.Anyway in my honest opinion Broken Jew and Fuck The Messiah are two trax not from Profanatica, but from Ledney with two unknown idiots, that's a real profanation of a cult: the Ep is easy listening extreme metal or better: it's hard to define its style even if sounds somewhat crude black/death, but it is not putrid, dark or desecrating as Profanatica were! The most negative point of the whole is that the cover (a sort of digital drawing with the cadaver of Jesus Christ in a desert) intensively sucks.

Revenge (usa) - Superion . Command . Destroy 7" (War Hammer '02)

War. This music makes me crazy! If you're not familiar with Revenge and you have not an idea of what their style is about I can tell you that Revenge is the new incarnation of canadian Conqueror since of their split-up after the War Cult Supremacy Lp. I have got this Ep as a promotional copy from War Hammer Rec. some months ago, now I think it's a bit obsolete to do a review for an Ep which can't be found ever, and by the way all of you should know that now this band is under Osmose Prod. and Pete Helmkamp of Order From Chaos/Angelcorpse is doing bass parts on this band, ha! But I love this record, so let me write a review on it: the music is still in the same way: furious war war grindcore/metal to the core with raging vocals. I listened to this 7" a lot of times with my bass amplifier just to hear more noise and start a total pogo: do ill yourself, ahah! To end the only Revenge man here is J. Read with two session members and among the two tracks we can find a song which was originally written for Conqueror, fucking great.

Sadogoat (den) - Scourging The Son Of God 7"  647x (Ancient Darkness Prod. '03)

That's fucking cool: after 6 demo tapes comes a Sadogoat 7" and the music is still played in the same fucked up way: noizz noizz noizz. The Ep (Scourging The Son Of God - aka: The Worst Session Ever) starts with Sacred Sodomy which in my opinion is very influenced stuff by the latest Profanatica ('92 circa) and anyway if you take a look on the cover or the logo you'll find a certain similarity between the cover of Profanatica's Putrescence Of... demo and this 7" -!!- (actually this title seems to be a fusion of Profanatica's Scourging And Crowning + Havohej's Dethrone The Son Of God, ha! and the line up presentation has Profanatica song-titles too! Necrodevil: Spilling Holy Blood; Sadistic Slayer: Raping Of Angels, etc.)... Unholy Blessings and Glories Of Mary were trax released in some Cd-r if I'm not wrong and in general I can say that the mood of this record reminds me some Goatvulva or Abhorer shit and by the way fans or true holocaustic metal noizz will not be of course disappointed. Limited edition of 647 copies, 547 (pussy version) on damn splattered pink gay vynil, 100 (die hard version) on black vynil including a pin.

Psychonaut (usa) - Zos Vel Thanatos 7" red transp.  vinyl (Ajna Offensive '99)

Not properly a side project but a real musical project with a consolidated mass following, Psychonaut (now known as Psychonaut 75 -75 being the qabbalistic number of Lucifer, Psychonaut maybe as a Fields Of The Nephilim reference?) were built up some years ago from the Black Funeral's brainchild Mike Ford in order to make real occult/ritualistic music inspired by Mr. Crowley (maybe you heard of the Psychonaut's Liber Al Vel Legis Cd) and the like in the crucible of the major occultists in the XX century. The present Ep Zos Vel Thanatos is inspired and dedicated to the art of Austin Osma Spare and contains hand-attached pictures (as in the front cover) of paintings of the famous painter/occultist as well... the music is done with the efforts of acoustic instruments, sampling programming and the drums are played with human and coyote bones to estabilish a connection between the self (Zos) and the dead of the astral dimension, the whole is produced with a deep-of-jar sound to make the listener fall into another level of conscience. Including a hand made sigil.

Morbosidad (usa) - Bajo El Egendro Del Crucificado 7" (Bestial Onslaught Prod. '02)

I'm sorry I have known this band too late to take a copy of their Lp through the masterlabel Nuclear War Now! Prod, but at least I'm fucking happy to grab this wonderful record of Morboso Metal! Well, if you haven't ever listened to them you can however suppose which kind of metal they do, releasing something for NWN!: total Blasphemy kult worship!! You have to imagine a kind of Blasphemy (especially for the demonic vocals) + brazilian black/thrash like Sextrash and early Sarcofago! Supporting the Satanic Metal revival with rage against the holy trinity of shit! Lyrics are totally irriverent to the jew deceiver and for the half are on spanish and half on english, a thing that in my opinion gives to the music a more barbaric approach... as far as I know this Ep (released in 2002 e.v.) is nearly to be sold-out, but if you want to get a copy you'll should ask to Bestial Onslaught Rec. directly.. An interview with these monsters will be featured in the next paper printed issue of MHBFY 'zine!!

click here for interview

The Black - The Priest Of Satan Lp re-issue 300x (Cryptia Prod. '04)

Let's start the discovering of such kult acts outside norway by this trend of releasing on vynil their out of print Cd's or making poor looking "demo Lp"'s, yeah! 1000 better to have the original Cd with lyrics and old pictures, but what the fuck, I had only the Black Blood Mcd on Necropolis Rec. and I missed out The Priest Of Satan, and this was a good chance to recover it... Ok, I'm still am a little skeptic about this reissues on vynil, anyway this Lp is ok. Originally, The Priest Of Satan album was released from Necropolis Rec. around 1995 and in between a decade it remained unobserved, even if in my opinion The Black would had the chance to become part of the essential, most serious part of scandinavian black metal, and along with names like Dissection, Nastrond and Setherial is part of the old swedish scene, when the black metal genre was still truly hidden. This Lp, instead of many recent BM releases, sound truly metal and dark, keyboards are here and there, and it features all the track the Black Blood demo among the other. Also reissued by Miriquidi Prod. (Pol) on another 300x stock.

Black Funeral - Belial Arisen Lp '95/'04

Everyone by now hails everyone to be "great black metal" -bands or albums-, the world seems now overfilled with "great" people, so I wonder: "But who are those who NOT great?". I know it's an overrated question, everyfuckingone in underground black metal at least once speaks about it, and I don't know if I am the proper one to talk about this, but in this world, in every field or every level a thing is certain like death: many are the mediocres, few are the ONES. And Black Funeral were for sure within the second category. "Belial Arisen" was originally conceived and recorded in the mid 90's (and vocals latter completed in 2000 e.v.) and it exactly sounds like an uncontaminated and sincere black metal record; pure black metal with a pure personal vision, (this stuff could be put side by side with some Darkthrone, but all of you will understand this paragon is a bit approximate). Lyrics are serious and shows a true knowledge on occult subjects, and they deal the most with vampirism and licanthropy, but also with infernal gerarchies, and praise the cult of the selfgodhood (what would you think if I'd say that some lyrics blew lots of Darkthrone verses off?). The production makes this record sounds 100% underground, all songs are perfecly structured and arranged, while such demonic screams are flowing over those evil melodies... absolutely essential.

Darkthrone - Hate Them Lp gatefold 500x (Moonfog '03)

Finally I can grab a copy of the Darkthrone's 10th album and I immediately start playing the record putting the bass bost option at the maximum. After a short intro a slow and fucking pleasant riff introduces Rust, a slow funereal song with a halving of tempo in the chorus, as the norwegian masters learned from some Hellhammer/Celtic Frost stuff (especially Morbid Tales or Emperor's Return's most crude outfits); then Det Svartner Nå and Fucked Up And Ready To Die with a more fast yet cold approach and Ytterst I Livet with another cool slow headbangable main riff. B side opens with Divided We Stand which could be exchanged for a Plaguewielder song: a bit much more complex structure (or maybe it's just my impression); Striving For A Piece Of Lucifer follow the path of the fast songs in the A side and the Lp ends with In Honour Of Thy Name, in the pure Hellhammer way of riffing. Only 7 trax but lenghy songs as Plaguewielder, don't worry! All in all the atmosphere I feel by listening this Lp is so fucking heavy and more straigh-ahead than any Plaguewielder album and of course much less "death metallish" than every Ravishing Grimness stuff (ok, in my opinion Ravishing was a bit bit death metallish, but I haven't said death metal sounding!), this one is probably my favourite album of the second aera of Darkthrone (in my opinion started with Total Death). Unfortunately a negative point on this album there is: try to read the totally uninteresting lyrics and you'll understand what I mean, maybe Darkthrone stopped to be lyrically great on Total Death (which anyway had lyrical support from Satyr, Ihsahn, etc.). That's all.

Profanatica - Collection picture Lp 1000x (Necroscope '02)

After having released the Profanatica "Live" Cd and the Havohej "Man And Jinn" Mcd, Paul Ledney released in 2002 the picture disk version of the "Collection" Cd anthology originally released from War Hammer in 1000 handnumbered copies. What to say more? The artwork is the same, the music is the same: 16 tracks on which you can find the Putrescence Of... demo '90, Broken Throne Of Christ demo '90, Weeping In Heaven 7", the 4 trax of the legendary split w/ Masacre and 5 more or less unreleased trax (taken from a demo '92 on whick Ixithra of Demoncy was doing the guitar parts (the main riff of As Tears Of Blood Stain The Alter Of Christ is the same of a Demoncy track...) and anyway a few trax of those 5 appeared in the split ep w/ Impiety). After the War Hammer version in 2001 also Osmose Prod. planned to do a Profanatica anthology titled "The Unholy Black", hopefully will be released soon.

A copy of this picture Lp is available at my address for trade, get in touch if interested.

Xasthur (usa) - Suicide In Dark Serenity Mlp (Bestial Onlaught Rec. '03)

Did we forget the pure essence of black metal? Ok, this phrase sounds like shit, but did we forget about the true individual supremacy which BM praised for? Many 18 years old human fans of BM never known, and probably don't will understand what I mean, so I think that Xasthur's music is not for them. I heard a lot talking about this one man band from California and I felt a little skeptic about those reviews who described them to be near to the north european feeling, but yes I have to admit that it's true and not only, this is pure TALENTED music (if you know my definition of talent); Burzum, Ulver and Graveland influences are quite recognizable, but this Mlp can't be said as a mere sum of external influences: from the way of touching the guitar chords, to ending up to the lyrical aspect, passing through the very personal way of composing, every single note here seems to scream words like dismal, sorrow, hate, revenge, and misanthropy... a pure "cold" (this word fits at 100% what I feel during the listening) masterpiece like I didn't hear alike since the saddest Burzum or early Dimmu Borgir...

Inquisition (usa) - Unholy Inquisition Rites Mcd 500x (No Colours '04)

After the double Lp re-issue of the Into The Infernal Regions..., No Colours Rec. releases a Inquisition Mcd which features 4 tracks, 2 being raw wix of upcoming songs from the new Magnificent Glorification Of Satan album (soon to be reviewed here!): Crush The Jewish Prophet and Impaled By The Crypitic Horns Of Baphomet are in the vein of the 2nd album  Invoking The Majestic... maybe a little more fast drumming (or maybe it's just the imperfect mix to give this impression?). Other tracks are Baptized In Black Goat Blood, taken from a rehearsal in feb 2004 and a live track from the 1st album recorded in 2001 in Germany. Limited to 500 and absolutely a must...

Open Grave (usa) - The Heavens Cry Black Tears Mcd (Regimental Records '03)

Necro, necro terrifying antihuman -anti everything- black metal from Usa. Here we have Open Grave with this cool Mcd that is a reissue of their unique demotape released some years ago and in my opinion their stuff can be compared to a sort of Havohej or Krieg grinding sound of guitars but with a certain dose of never heard stuff, quite interesting, brutal and extremely rotting black metal with simple lyrics, this Mcd contains 6 trax and presents us a magnificent elegant looking artwork... available from Regimental Rec for 7 usd: info@regimentalrecords.com

click here for interview

Beyond The Gate Of Nanna, A Tribute To Beherit Cd-r 113x (Goat Perversion Rec./Unsung Heroes Rec. '02)

UHR is a north american based label guilty to have released, amongst its other sampling Cd's and shit like that a Darkthrone tribute in '99 or so which was titled "The Next Thousand Years Are Ours", limited on damn 113 copies and featuring more or less only north american demo/unknown black metal  acts... so in june 2002 UHR striked again with a Beherit tribute (still limited on 113x, which some I saw to be sold on Egay (Ebay) by crafty customers): damn rotting piece of true rotting music performed by fucking rotting people: Rampage (Usa - if I'm not wrong one of the members is the label owner?) opens with Tireheb/Salomon's Gate, Wrath Ritual (Usa) doing a morbid version of classic Down There..., The Syre (Can) - The Gate Of Nanna; Hellchasm (?) - Black Arts (pleasant...), Cult Of Daath (Usa) - Sadomatic Rites (previously released in The Grand Tortures Of Hell Cd '01 by War Hammer); Negative Plane (Usa) - The Oath Of Black Blood; Necroslaughter (Pol) - Metal Of Death; Tophet (?) - Penetrator Hammer; Nocturnal Evil (Arg) - Satanic Chaos; rehtaF ruO (Usa) - Grave Desecration; Wind Of The Black Mountains (Usa well known underground veterans) - Hail Sathanas; Megiddo (Usa) - Sadomatic Rites; GomorraH (?) - The Gate Of Nanna. Try at Egay and make a high bid or get in touch with the label...

Demoncy (usa) - Faustian Dawn/Within The Sylvan Realms Of Frost 2CD re-issue (Baphomet Rec. '02)

This double Cd re-issue is pretty old I know, it was done by Baphomet Rec. (R.I.P.?!) in 2002, with the purpose to resume such jewels of US' black metal: I thought it was just the two now totally out of print albums by Demoncy (Faustian Dawn & Within The Sylvan Realms Of Frost), but this is a complete anthology filled with lots of rehersal stuff, demo stuff, rare tracks etc... I know that in te various vynil re-issues (Sombre Rec. and Spikekult Rek.) many btx were put... well, here you can find all of them... Starting from the Faustian Dawn album (which in effects is their demo '93), on which Demoncy showed to be very influenced by early Beherit (and Blasphemy, for their long war names...) passing through the history of this band that has remained so hidden for a such long time by listening to their various reh tape,which in my opinion are very different one from each other (from raw black metal to somewhat scandivian black...). Track list is the following: 1-7 "Faustian Dawn" demo '93, 8-10 from reh tape '95, 11-15 from reh tape '96; and in the second Cd: 1-6 studio trax '96, 7-10 "Hipocrisy Of The Accursed Heavens" demo '94, 11-13 "Ascension Of A Star Long Since Fallen" demo '95... more than 160 minutes of Demoncy, a must for fans of underground satanic black metal.

Church Of The Flagellation, Extreme Doom Compilation w/ Stabat Mater, Bunkur, Malasangre, The Sad Sun (Catacomb Music '04)

Catacomb music is a new extreme doooom metal label built up by John, the guy which gained a certain reputation around the underground for having released some issues of a 100% doom 'zine called Abandon All Hope (Ire), and now with this tape released we could hear by ourselves some good (more or less) and very slow, enervating, exhausting doom metal from the pits of the church of flagellation... the first band is the mysterious Stabat Mater, known for hasving done a split w/ Worship (fra) and Mournful Congregation (Oz - see Cd reviews), proposing a great untitled track, 100% doom with dark feelings, growls and a good dose of dismal... Bunkur follows: really a weak and too long track with very thin guitar sound, in my opinion a kinda stoner version of the worstest Abruptum (curious is that a member is wearing an Abruptum shirt in the pic!).  from the B side Malasangre doing doom with sampling, synth, organ and drones, and at the end The Sad Sun with a long track of standard doom/death... if interested: intothecatacomba@hotmail.com

Beherit - Live In Oulu 23-8-91 tape, bootleg 200x (unknown, '04)

I am disappointed. This is the last bootleg tape of Beherit and features a live performance dated 23-08-91... in Oulu: is wasn't the Day Of Darkness Festifall datation? Yes, it's just the Beherit side of the legendary split Lp w/Impaled Nazarene (minus the Sarcofago cover which is not present here), which was bootlegged also on Cd recently, so I guess these tapes are recorded from the Cd directly: to easy to dub a tape from a already existent bootleg and make a new bootleg; it is not surely essential to own a copy of this release, unless you are a true maniacal collector.  Anyway this tape has a good sound.