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Since 2011, ÚLFARR have stood for uncompromising, antisocial UK black metal - or, under their own banner of Cumbrian Black Metal. Helmed by Dominus, AKA Hrafn - who counts the equally prolific THY DYING LIGHT amongst his activities, as well as fellow labelmates NEFARIOUS DUSK and MORTE LUNE - ÚLFARR released a couple demos its first few years and then a split album with comrades Hrafnblóð. Another demo followed in 2014, followed by, uniquely, two live albums. Then, in 2019 did the band's debut mini-album at last arrive, bearing the all-too-fitting title Hate & Terror - The Rise Of Pure Evil. Swift and scything, ÚLFARR stoked the flames of traditional black metal in the vein of classic Craft, Darkthrone, Mayhem, One Head One Tail, and Death Cult.
Now, after two more years of silence, ÚLFARR return to stoke those flames again with The Ruins of Human Failure. Another apt title, The Ruins of Human Failure encompasses a four-part title track that spits venom and vitriol for miles around, dumping further fuel on the bonfire of humanity. No more and no less, ÚLFARR hold tight to their sound and hone in one dark, dismal energies inspired by the desolate landscapes of their homeland, the unrelentingly bleak climate, and a shared disdain towards humanity in the overpopulated wastelands of modern Britain. At times more primitive than its predecessor and more headbanging at others, you don't so much as listen to The Ruins of Human Failure as FEEL it - and it still hates you, too.
FROSTEN is the most recent creation of prolific UK underground veteran Azrael, who also numbers such entities as Heathen Deity, Helvellyn, Torver, and now-labelmates THY DYING LIGHT among his many current endeavors. As FROSTEN, the duo of Azrael and session drummer Julian Foster play True English Black Metal. Their debut album, With Sigils and Infernal Signs, was originally released in 2020 on cassette only, and now PURITY THROUGH FIRE steps forward to unleash this blast of cryogenic fire on CD format. Almost effortlessly, FROSTEN skillfully exude a classic atmosphere of the late '90s, brimming with the stultifying violence and cold, hard gleam of early Enthroned, Setherial, and Thy Primordial but with a subtly British aspect, most especially in the oft-melodic (and tastefully so) riffing. Grim and bare it With Sigils and Infernal Signs!
Formed in 2020, VAMPYRIC TYRANT are a Teutonic black metal duo forged in the fires of old. The band is helmed by ex-Grabunhold member Graf Nekromant, joined by drummer Akatash. As foretold by their moniker, VAMPYRIC TYRANT indeed offer an iteration of vampiric black metal, but one locked in the dungeon of the '90s, as well as equally pursuing the epic ruminations of the legendary Moonblood.
Now joined under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE and with the addition of bassist König Grausamkeit, VAMPYRIC TYRANT enter their next epoch with a four-song/19-minute EP fittingly titled Zorn und Hass. Grim yet stately, raw yet refined, the ghoulishness they offer here is as ethereal as it is insistent. More than that, each of the four tracks offers its own labyrinth of nostalgia and despair, perhaps hitting its sorrowful peak with the crying-orc instrumental "Ein Traum." Then, Zorn und Hass concludes in mesmerizingly hooligan fashion with the six-minute, organ-led "Totschlag."
Formed in 2020, VAMPYRIC TYRANT are a Teutonic black metal duo forged in the fires of old. The band is helmed by ex-Grabunhold member Graf Nekromant, joined by drummer Akatash. As foretold by their moniker, VAMPYRIC TYRANT indeed offer an iteration of vampiric black metal, but one locked in the dungeon of the '90s, as well as equally pursuing the epic ruminations of the legendary Moonblood.
Now joined under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE and with the addition of bassist König Grausamkeit, VAMPYRIC TYRANT enter their next epoch with a four-song/19-minute EP fittingly titled Zorn und Hass. Grim yet stately, raw yet refined, the ghoulishness they offer here is as ethereal as it is insistent. More than that, each of the four tracks offers its own labyrinth of nostalgia and despair, perhaps hitting its sorrowful peak with the crying-orc instrumental "Ein Traum." Then, Zorn und Hass concludes in mesmerizingly hooligan fashion with the six-minute, organ-led "Totschlag."
The work of one Alexis Chiambretto, with drums provided by Nicolas Muller, UNHOLDUN's style of black metal is simple but sublime. Although the band hails from France, the sweepingly melodic surge which pushes this self-titled record forward favorably recalls the Québec scene that's made waves in the underground for the past decade-plus. Melancholic yet triumphant, faintly folky but never mawkish, its ever-insistent propulsion taking dynamic twists and turns, and even some commanding lead work cropping up, Unholdun retains a certain timelessness: looking to the past, UNHOLDUN nevertheless feel very NOW.
"I didn't try to revolutionize black metal with this EP," says Alexis. "It's more like 'a tribute' to the good, old black metal. So, I would like to feel a little bit the 90's vibe, even in the artwork." Expanding on that latter element, he says, "The devil on the front cover plays a 'carnyx,' a French trumpet used by Gauls before a war to frighten enemies." Sound that trumpet, then, for the arrival of UNHOLDUN!
The name VERMINEUX should not be unknown to those who follow the crimes of PURITY THROUGH FIRE, for the band's two demos to date have been reissued by the label. Likewise, VERMINEUX is the work of Spectre, erstwhile found of the esteemed Minenwerfer. However, whereas that band focuses on World War I, with VERMINEUX does Spectre focus on the 14th Century, particularly the plagues and warfare rampant during those times. Here, he delivers a surging seven-minute epic titled "Ashes" and then a reverential cover of Vlad Tepes' "In Holocaust to the Natural Darkness." But those expecting the Black Legions to loom large over split-mates PRIEURÉ, who indeed hail from France, will be in for a surprise with their primary track here. Following its brief but stage-setting "Intro" flowing into it, "Le Sang" is a wild 'n' wanderlusting epic, alternately invigorating and sorrowful. Mainman Sans-Visage (the English translation says everything) exhibits trademarks of much millennial French black metal - be it the undulating medievalism of the post-Sühnopfer school or the more recent wave of "elevated hooliganism" - but the ever-unfolding track is staggering in its stand-alone vision.
Matt Inside-Out Cover / 180g Vinyl
One sided
The varied song structures on their debut, coupled with instrumental dungeon synth passages, capture the magic of what was once the Black Metal art of the past, without sounding like a copy of those artists in any second. This independence runs like a thread through this record and proves that Vampyric Tyrant’s »Schwarze Schwingen« will definitely establish itself as a future classic in (German) Black Metal music.
One of the most imposing and revered bands in black metal's underground for the past decade, BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ have built a literally towering body of work. The band is yet another creative vehicle of Ancient Records linchpin Swartadauþuz (Azelisassath, Digerdöden, Gnipahålan, Musmahhu, Mystik, Summum, Trolldom, Daudadagr, as well as current labelmates GREVE and MUVITIUM), but it's largely BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ where the man has most built his legacy. To date, three official albums have been released - 2010's de dunkla herrarna, 2019's De fördolda klangorna, and last year's literally massive De Fornas Likgaldrar double-album, which featured over two hours of re-recorded material, recast as a whole new experience - and a literal bounty of demos, each one arguably greater and grander than most band's actual albums, that have equally put a frightening new(er) face on Swedish black metal, by turns becoming the nowadays face of the form.
Atmospheric Black Metal from Finland! New project of the October Falls mastermind.
silver wax lim. 250
Kroda are back with their 4th full-lenght album.Schwarzpfad is more into Black Metal than before, but it is still Kroda like they are loved or hated.The CD will be released as luxurious Digipak Edition like we did it with Kroda - Kulturkampf before.This time with partial UV-Lack printings and 20page booklet. First orders will also get a A2 Poster for free."All in all, we have here an above-average album that marks a new beginning for Kroda. But it will for sure not disappoint the old fans.
Hailing from Tampere, Finland, LICHT DES URTEILS emerged in 2019 with their first demo, later released on tape by Worship Tapes. Since then, the band have taken to the stage and sharpened their attack, which is simultaneously idiomatic and defiant of traditional Finnish black metal. A reconfigured lineup finalized itself in 2020, with the resultant full-length Uhraamo being the first recorded document of this lineup.
Ghastly and gutted, Uhraamo is pure filth shotgunned into the stratosphere. Heaving and hammering is LICHT DES URTEILS' surge here, with savage low-end anchoring riffing that ably splits the difference between rusty chainsaw and cursed nightsky. Indeed, it's that very real sense of physicality - as in a real band, playing together as one, rather than pieces cut & pasted with a computer - that ever-present DANGER, which renders Uhraamo such a compelling listen. It's pure & proud BLACK METAL, to be sure, but the songwriting's nothing short of electrifying and the production's powerful and punishing: simple pleasures, but sublime ones. And the hysteria only intensifies as the album plays on...
Finnish black metal is surely in no short supply, but only the nastiest banners are united under PURITY THROUGH FIRE. For those who dig among the dungeons for the late/great likes of Impious Havoc, Vitsaus, Catenatum Lucem, and the short-lived Syöpä, then LICHT DES URTEILS' Uhraamo is mandatory listening.
Formed in 2010, HELVELLYN are part of the Cumbrian Black Metal orbiting around the incredibly prolific P.G., who currently numbers labelmates THY DYING LIGHT, NEFARIOUS DUSK, ÚLFARR, and MORTE LUNE among his many endeavors. Joining him in HELVELLYN are other equally prolific members of the UK metal underground whose credits also include THY DYING LIGHT as well as Heathen Deity, Volition, Skiddaw, and Absinthropy among many others.
Now, after a handful of short-length releases, HELVELLYN arrive with their debut album, The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly. No more but definitely no less, The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly is a compact summation of the HELVELLYN aesthetic during the past decade, but sharpened to ice-cold perfection. Theirs is a deliberately (and proudly) traditional style of black metal set somewhere around 1995; the paradigmatic works of earliest Dodheimsgard, Gorgoroth, and especially Darkthrone as well as later gatekeepers like Armagedda and Sweden's Craft keep the parameters pure and cold. Indeed, to say The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly could've come out on Malicious Records back in the mid '90s should be viewed as the highest of compliments, so cryogenically authentic is HELVELLYN's attack here. Those who know, KNOW, for this is The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly!
Black Vinyl
When FLAGG burst from the void in June 2020 with their debut album, Nothing But Death, the veil of secrecy had yet to be lifted. Which mattered not, when presented with black metal of such sterling quality: both ancient and ageless, old yet new. Their attack was immediately intense, exhibiting a restlessness that's roiling and raging, always moving but always with a target in sight. Eventually, it was revealed that FLAGG hailed from Finland and was the work of selfsame multi-instrumentalist Flagg, who was a part of reanimated old Finnish cult Annihilatus, and vocalist Tyrant, whose hordes include the esteemed likes of MALUM, Infernarium, and Kalmankantaja.
With that lineup thus set, FLAGG return little more than a year later with their second full-length, Cosmic Chaos Manifest. An immediately harsher spin than its not-inconsiderable predecessor, Cosmic Chaos Manifest duly lives up to its title through a shapeshifting style of ultraviolence that retains a unique gleam, one that's paradoxically grittier for all its seemingly on-the-surface clarity. As ever, FLAGG's songwriting strikes true through a skillful balance between burning fire and nightsky melodicism, here actually sounding more richly 1990s - specifically, the oft-overlooked late '90s - than the comparatively modernist grime of Nothing But Death. But, just like that bolt-from-the-blue debut, FLAGG understand archaic expressions, the Old Language of Black Metal, where medieval atmosphere and ghostly portent informed even the most straightforward forms, rendering an air of aristocracy to that of belligerent bravado; now, they're just rendered in more restless, dizzying form.
