Funereal Presence – Achatius

by Nicholas Vahdias on December 31, 2019

Following the tale of one of the fourteen holy helpers Achatius, more commonly known under the name of Saint Agathius, the patron saint against headaches and more importantly a central figure in the various wars against the Ottomans. His story is that of a soldier who was tortured and decapitated for not relinquishing his faith and therefore becoming a martyr. Funeral Presence expand on this brief tale by playing a form of Black metal that exists within the confines of the first wave yet but with subtle influences in overall scope and direction from the second wave.

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An attempt To Trace The Evolution of Underground Extreme Metal

by Guest Contributor on December 20, 2019

Join guest writer Fangorn as he attempts to trace the main progression of extreme metal and the controversial conclusions he reaches.

Foreword: Personally, I think music reviews are a form of marketing, except for the serious(musical notation) music field. Marketing(or we can call it sharing) about one’s idea, perspective and experience of music. There is no absolute objective point of view. People always understand and communicate based on the perspective of something, personal preferences, uphold some beliefs, or they want to be as neutral and objective as possible, but they are still limited by cognition / experience or hormone / brain state. But now I’m going to invite you to my marketing show, peeping into the nude of my spiritual / ideology.

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Gevurahel – Un Nuevo Amanecer Satánico (2019)

by D.A.R.G. on December 13, 2019

Coming back not with a reformulation or evolution of their sound but a deepening of their purpose, Gevurahel give us a new presentation of old and new compositions that fine tune their expression of satanic devotion. The musical style has been boiled down to essentials of unity and comprehensibility, letting the variation and exploration take place in a more controlled way. These designs are not random nor do they respond to a musical urge, but rather to an inner insistence upon necessity with respect to purpose. That is, the direct opposite of music for its own sake.

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Treblinka’s “Evilized” – Song Analysis

by Max Schoenbach on November 20, 2019

There was this short period of time, when death metal sounded really gloomy. This type of death metal was sometimes considered as black metal, which was judged back then not as much by used techniques, but rather by imagery, themes and atmosphere. When black metal proper was defined, for lack of a better name, the term dark metal, which over the years garnered various applications, was sometimes used to describe this style of death metal.

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Witch-Hunt – Darkened Anthology 1992-2002

by Nicholas Vahdias on November 18, 2019

Witch-Hunt hail from Virginia and were formed by brothers Brian and Ben Straight at a young age. The band would go through multiple periods and lineup changes that resulted in only one full length and a band trying to find its identity through various styles and constant lineup changes. On Darkened Anthology 1992-2002 the band showcase the best songs of each period in a “best of” style and such each section will be reviewed separately.

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Irillion – Fatanyu (Self-released, 2019)

by Johan Pettersson on November 9, 2019

Ostensibly positioning themselves somewhere between the exalted primitivism of Demoncy and the “flowing” school of Eastern European black metal, Irillion emerged as one of the more promising black metal-acts of recent years with 2016’s Egledhron. Not so much for their choice of style, but for displaying courage to move beyond established forms in intuitive pursuit of the most effective and far-reaching mode of expression. This recently released second EP entitled Fatanyu retains the sonic signature and raw, essentialist approach evident on the debut, but trumps the debut in terms of composition and stylistic refinement.

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Fester – Silence (Lethal, 1994)

by Johan Pettersson on October 22, 2019

Back in the day, this Norwegian band was derogatorily referred to as a “life metal”-band by scenesters. Especially their sophomore effort Silence suffered a reputation of being an exceptionally weak, pretentious and – above all – boring release. Although recent years have given rise to sporadic reevaluations of the band’s work, Fester remains largely neglected to this day (and some would say deservedly so).

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Sarcasm – Esoteric Tales of the Unserene (Chaos, 2019)

by Johan Pettersson on October 21, 2019

One of many promising acts who fell by the wayside in the early 1990, Swedish melodic death/black band Sarcasm made a somewhat unexpected return in 2015 with the long overdue release of their 1994 debut full-length Burial Dimensions. Then in 2017 came their return proper with Within in the Sphere of Ethereal Minds, an aesthetically pleasing marred by haphazard assembly. With Esoteric Tales of the Unserene (2019), Sarcasm return to previously explored territories; maybe in the hope of striking a better equilibrium between the style’s main constituents: black-, death- and heavy metal.

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