Besides former drummer Vidharr (ex-Beatrìk etc.), frontman Kvasir (Abhor, Mourning Mist etc.) dealt with vocals and all instrumentation. The first six songs constitute the Black Misanthropic Elite section, while the last two poses Moon Anthem.

Everyone must start somewhere, and so Profezia begun here. After a few demos, that is. Time has passed but Black Misanthropic Elite - Moon Anthem has barely passed the test of it. I expected later releases to have more to offer, but the subsequent album actually seems equally meagre.
This album represents a motley assembly of songs. Despite some varying degree, mediocre quality that I can do fine without is too often to be found amongst them.

The music is gloomy, grim and cold, but the "negative" superlatives stops there. Well, the sound also holds properties that fans of the genre can appreciate, but the three same adjectives constitute an adequate description for the primitive basement sound as well.

The songs are not that bad, but they are not at all exciting, clever, especially moody or anywhere near innovative. A few songs are good enough to almost pull the grade a notch up, but it's a disappointing amount of scrap metal on the album that seems to consist of randomly assembled riffs.
Also, the vocals has to be mentioned, although I'd prefer to repress it. Kvasir may wish to appear as a grief-stricken soul, an Italian Greifi Grishnackh. Haha ... I laugh my ass off and cry blood.

Poem for the... and Black Misanthropic Elite are the two songs featuring black unpleasant atmosphere. The rest I couldn't give a fuck about. Unfortunately these two ain't streaming, so you'll have to settle with Bewitched and...

Cover art and label can in this case be somewhat deceptive. I expected something infernal and noisy, but the band rather plays low tempo death/doom with emphasis on doom. The two songs the band presents themselves with, shows a band with some debris in the carburettor, but with much potential.

Maligne (05:34) opens with sore, melancholic tones of church organ before more typical doom tones take over. The vocals are far less typical though. It is sharp and bitter. Even the drums work is a little harder than what the music suggests. The track shifts smoothly between decent riffs and rhythms before it fades out with hushed acoustic guitar.
Nocturniae Monumentalis (07:55) opens with pretty polyphonic violin before they're cut brutally off as fiery doom steals the show. Clean and unison (or only slightly echo-filled) vocal occurs occasionally and creates diversity, but otherwise it is so-so with variety. The song has a tough vibe of grudge and good melody, but it lacks that little extra. Acoustic guitar gets the honour of finishing this one off as well.

I like the two songs, but they offer no elements of surprise or other extras. Thus they dance nicely into one ear and out the other. The sound is a matter of taste. That it is far from polished, and that the dynamic range is on respectively DR8 and DR7 for the two songs counts in their favour. That's not surprising as I bet the recording is home made. It's rich on punch, but it's also a bit cloudy (if I can put it that way in English), which is particularly evident in the acoustic parts.

The Second Ceremony has a charming touch. I like what I hear, but would like to hear improvements in assorted elements until next time. If the band manages to write songs with a little more finesse and depth that eliminates predictability in the future, I'll be more than happy to hear from them again.

Imagine something dirty and old with cobwebs between the ribs. Something in between Obituary and Entombed. Besides a fittingly rotten expression, howling feedback is mixed into the rough and unpolished sound. Somewhat amateurish to begin with, but it doesn't take long before it fits well into their spirit and contributes to a sadistic playful and mischievous expression. The music doesn't emerge as particularly original otherwise, but every little bit helps.

I've heard better, but also far worse. My enthusiasm is limited, but it works well and is pretty cool and rather charming with a reckless satanic smile. Revelation of Chaos is a far cry from classic, but fans of the genre will probably dig this as well. Thumbs up because the term “Good” is more appropriate than the label “Middling”.

Doedsadmiral cuts through with razor sharp vocals.
Maletoth is in control of every kind of barbed wire despite extensive diversity.
AK-47 launch with violent force on an adrenaline-rushed charge on the battery.

It does not take long before one realizes that the band offers something out of the ordinary. Besides fulfilling the requirements of traditional Norwegian black metal, they also incorporated non-traditional items that few would have deemed suitably. It all creates much needed originality while the authentic nihilistic godlessness is well taken care of.

The more than ten minutes long title track hardly get started before intoxicating lustrous hammond organ occurs. Along with black sober guitar tones, pitch black euphony is created. Good melodies doesn't encourage sofa snuggle to other than black hearted souls. The track offers no peace of mind when calming down, as the notes that seeps out of the speakers are biting dark and destructively grim. The pace varies violently before Bleeding Wounds takes over. Even this alters slightly in speed, but the different degrees of mid-tempo doesn't change that much as they wash over me like drifting arrogant waves of disgust. With its 6.5 minutes it represents the shortest portion of the EP before 7 minutes long Ingen Vet Jeg Var... (No One knows I Was ...). Again depression and contempt rages.
“Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall”, or so they want you to believe. Those who wants you piously tamed and oppressed. Quite contrary, arrogant pride is the admission to the black metal elite.

With very solid songs, pretty unique expression, grim vocals and instrumentation and sound with cascades of punch (mixed and mastered in WSL Studios to DR7) (and a haughty spirit) Svartelder begins their journey with stark raving force. This is definitely a band I look forward to follow into the future!

EDIT 25.07.15: There is talk here and there about members from Carpathian Forest, Den Saakaldte etc. but as long as I can't confirm this, I didn't mention it. The music definitely suggests professional members, but Svartelder stands solidly on its own feet no matter what.

Despite rather lacklustre innovation, the trio does a more than decent job. The three songs don't put the demo title to shame, even if this isn't what we traditionally associate with “horror” (in front of 'metal').

It sounds good, as the sound is far better than what the format often implies. “Recorded in a barren Icelandic tomb” Metal Archives declare. Romantic! The three tracks offer a rotten and creepy expression packed in adequate sound. The songs moves with nice flow through good variety. Also the instrumental works well. The delightfully raw and necrotic death rattle tops it all of exquisitely.
If you can't get enough of the style this should be pretty much on the button, but if you require a touch of originality you might as well wait for the band to perhaps developing more identity. An okay release, but far from indispensable. The release nevertheless deserves this kind of distribution just as much as the next al-right underground death metal EP covered with soil, mould and worms.

Vocalist and guitarist Skaðvaldur has crafted cover art for CD and cassette, but the release via Signal Rex is only issued on the latter format in limited editions. If you're perfectly happy with digital files you can also name your price, which should convince even sceptics to take a closer listen.

A full hour might seem rather excessive, but the five Poles do pull through nicely. Earlier they only have a self-titled EP from 2010 to their credit.

Part of the secret seems to be the combination of good melodies and variety. The versatility does not only pose rhythmic and structural changes, but also great diversity in guitar sound. The genre quickly becomes dreary and dull when the same threadbare guitar sound and the same monotonous riffs fills an entire disc. Moanaa alternates between a far greater diversity of riffs, guitar wise sound and a full range of tempos. Also the vocals use some variation. Not quite as plentiful, but then again, there's not an extravagant amount of vocal on the album either.

The expression is atmospheric, and extends from the subdued dreamy to rasping hostility with chips on their shoulders. The mood alternates between gentle mournfulness, via slight nervousness and cautious in the face of the scary and unknown, to bitter resentment. Again, diversity is the key word for which the band achieves victory.

Apart from a single two minute clip we find seven tracks in just over eight minutes on average. For impatient souls this can probably be somewhat of a trial at times. Not everything works just as smoothly. At its best, however, Moanaa tangent Alcest, and all in all I think their début is very comfortable with everything from beautiful to raw passages.

My first encounter with the band consists of three tracks clocking in at almost a quarter in total. Imagine melodic metal more in the power/viking fairway, and then run it all through a death metal filter. It thrusts and swing well, while building on good melodies that create song-wise identity.

The band would not have been the same without two guitars. Rough riffs and melodic gems are thrown out simultaneously, while it also allows for some twin-guitar. The guitar play is impeccable, and forms the core of the band's quality. Yet one should not forget the other three members. Steady and rather hefty drumming and ditto bass is flanked by coarse and large calibre growling.
When the technical playing-skills works excellent, the songs have good identity and adequate characteristics, and the sound is crystal clear with plenty of punch, I see no reason not to recommend this.

On this 7" EP, she received assistance from Desaster drummer Tormentor.
Two songs of respectively about 4 and 3.5 minutes is hurled of by rapid speed/thrash fashion. The melodies are good enough, but the EP doesn't offer any big surprise in the form of exceptionally good songs or structure. Perfectly okay, no more no less.

Purely subjective, I don't think fem-vocals fit this kind of music, although Tanza does a decent job.
Listen and judge for yourself:

Together they brew mid tempo, dark and claustrophobic black metal.
Without even a demo, they get straight to the point with their over 50 minutes long début album, and if I should judge by the music I would have guessed that the band had at least two albums behind them.

The instrumental works fits like a glove, packed in a dark and powerful sound. Recording and mixing took place at The Source Studio, where Ascension's masterpiece The Dead of the World came into being, with M. Zech behind levers and buttons. V. Santura (Triptykon, Dark Fortress) has been responsible for mastering at Woodshed Studio. The man also had a hand in producing Kuolemanlaakso's Tulijoutsen, Thy Darkened Shade's Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet and Alkaloid's The Malkuth Grimoire. The man's name is indeed synonymous with quality.

The important thing, as always, is the song material. And there is not much to criticize. In fact, there's practically nothing. Although AZAVATAR doesn't revolutionize the genre, they bombards the listener with five killer songs. The first two are between 7 and 8, and the last three from barely 11 to just over 14 minutes. You know the recipe; alternating pace and variety where constantly advancing movement creates a very good and coiling yet volatile song-wise progression. Although the foundation is not new, the framework raised on top of it is both new and frightening. Not directly original, but no look-alike either.

The melodies are cold and deadly when they drift forth as a thick fog of poison smog.
Despite my inability to convey these demon spirits via the keyboard's conform keys, at least without resorting to too many overtly used adjective phrases, I think you understand approximate where in the dead forest, the impoverished soil and the unhealthy fog AZAVATAR's realm has manifested and fortified its position.
And believe me, they do a fabulous job of spreading negative vibes, which of course you can observe yourself. Set reserve the next 51.5 minutes to explore AZAVATAR.

Like the versatile vodka - you can cool down with a drink or warm yourself on one - can strains of doom in all its many facets freeze your blood and give a chill down the spine on a hot summer day, yet also the genres are perfect companions for classic (at least Norwegian) summer weather: heavy rain.

I must be allowed to call this the ultimate compilation of doom/death and so on. Solitude Productions celebrates 10 years, and has thus created a collection compiling one song from each release on the label, as well as the three sub labels BadMoodMan, Slow Burn and Art Of Silence. In chronological order, no less.
220 songs! About 35 hours! ... and all this for free!

During this barely one and a half days long play-list, there is naturally some garbage, but the label has released a surprising amount of goodies. I do not intend to start listing up a lot of stuff, even though it may be tempting, but if I should mention just one, I choose track number 57, as I really like Nox Aurea.

The label has just issued two Norwegian releases that I shall return to. Funeral's sophomore album In Fields Of Pestilent Grief (2001) has just been re-released, and Fallen has a self-titled compilation out now.
Should you decide to purchase anything, make sure to order their Anniversary Album at the same time. It comes in limited edition, and is sold for just 1 Russian Ruble(!)

If you like doom metal, death/doom and funeral doom, with drops of dark metal, black ambient, post-rock etc., you'll barely find a better collection of songs from familiar and unknown albums. X Years Of Doom & Solitude is a golden opportunity to get acquainted with new exciting bands.

The cover of The Crippler glides practically unnoticeable inn amongst the tree remaining songs. Thus, you will get a sense of where in the landscape they are located. Blasphemic Cruelty makes a good figure with frantic death/thrash, high speed, low morale and breakneck solos. The music is absolutely cool enough to deserve a stronger hieroglyphic indication in the upper right corner, but I've got too much of an issue with originality contra format.

You know where this landscape is located. You've been there many times before. You have tasted all the local dishes, drunken the local beer and ... Well, what you've done with the local women I won't interfere in. The point is that it tastes a bit of well known fast food of this dish. 21 minutes going strait for the throat, and that's it.
Initially, I love this music, it's certainly well played and I can't complain about the sound. Nevertheless, I can't really exhibit much enthusiasm over this, unfortunately. It's just as much me as the music there's something the matter with. I'm not a big fan of singles and EPs as long as there's nothing new or otherwise exciting about them. 21 minutes of heard-it-before is kind of pointless in my eyes. Give me 40 minutes, and at least I can delve into it.

The band's death metal is dirty, thunderous and eerie in an evocative way. As a raven black tanks without registration marks, decorated with occult symbols, the beast comes rolling out of a nearby grove while trees creaks and yields. With roaring engine it barges forwards in an unstoppable manner. Does it break new ground? No, it certainly isn't planning to start off any construction project. This tank only break as in destroy.
In other words, it is well known terrain that shall be laid in ruins once again. Fortunately, the trio bear enough ammunition in all compatible calibres, to get away with it.

The vocals rumbles in delightful occult ways while guitar and bass dance like macabre shadows cast by torches in the woods. Or should I say by the tanks flickering headlights. Along with an unyielding man behind the battery, a thundering and roaring inferno is formed. Stun grenades and a barrage of gunfire scares all living things away before all their earthly sanctuary is laid violently in ruins.

Ectovoid admittedly hasn't got enough ammo up their sleeves lay all earth waste, but they're certainly packing enough hefty brutality to cause great harm.
Dark Abstraction is a tough album that in a sense got that little extra, but still lacks some of the necessary individuality. If you give it a chance, it is quite possible it will shoot its way into the your heart, although it does not exactly consist of unimpeachably classic material.

The demo consists fittingly enough of three songs in just over a quarter.
It starts with Nergal, The Raging King, which opens with mournful piano and liturgical monologue praising Nergal. As more metal arrives, the expression stays airy and staccato. A ceremonial atmosphere rests above the product, and the melody-lines ain't bad at all. It's obvious that these guys are on to something. The executed is still far from flawless, though.

The short Conjuration of the Fire God is just an interlude with church organ, bombastic battle rhythms and beastly monologue before The Dark Young of Shub Niggurath continues where the first song left off.

As a demo Spirit of the Entrance Unto Death isn't bad, but demos are as the name suggests only demonstrations. I'll rather wait for a more refined product.
I don't doubt that the duo Xarangorth and Ghûllzaraën is going to surprise positively in due time, but for the time being, their music just doesn't impressive me remarkably. If this had been a regular EP, the grade would have been set a notch lower. I will however call this a promising demo.

Out in cassette now, and digitally in two days.

And destroy they shall! The two Swedes and Florida-inhabitant Kam crushes almost everything on their way.

After an uncomfortable intro with sounds that only fit together in one context, torture, all hell brakes loose for approximately 40 minutes. A length that has almost become an unwritten standard within the genre. The sound is hard as granite, thick as cement and massive as Osmium (22.59 times denser/heavier than water). Ronnie has himself taken care of the sound. Through various mid-tempo paces, deadly riff are produced en masse. These are only friendly in one context; head-banger friendliness.

From the first listen-through, Cannibal Crematorium appeared as one of the most ruthlessly bone-crushing and anvil-hard death metal albums I've heard in a long time. The whole album is simply a display of fierce and brutal, though not excessively brutal, death metal. The album is so killer that it's balancing on the verge onto the topmost verdict.
The most negative aspect about the whole album is the meaningless two-minute interlude Il Sesso Bizzarro di Cannibali that just seems foolishly misplaced in the middle of the album. Otherwise it's just great.
When this still doesn't reach top-rating it's because few songs really stands out. If I skould point out a track that is qiute suitable at providing goosebumps, it must be the penultimate song, Untold Story: Human Pork Bun, where the guitar pull some insane and awesomely evocative solos and other moody, floating tones.
Death metal fans shall and must check out Bone Gnawer!

“When I stare down that path, I see blood, I see tears, I see darkness.
It's not my blood, it's not my tears, but it is my darkness”.
Thus begins Militant.

The sound is thick and powerful as Old Nick's juicy riffs fill the air. Headphones still reveals a rather special abrasive crooning in the guitar sound. As the emulated roar of an engine in a 25-year-old racing game. Special, yet stylish. Drums pound away thanks to Freddie Fister, the bass is smooth and nice and vocalist/bassist Ronnie "Ripper" Olson (ex-Vomitory et al.) growls tough with semi-clear distinctness.

The music is robust, strait to the face, with solid force, but even if tough sound and gloomy, aggressive atmosphere is in place, the extra mile to stand out among the masses is lacking. It is by all means absolutely all-right, but it still goes on and on without significant hooks.
After a great number of spins, nothing have stuck to me, and the songs are still not really easy to tell apart. It sounds killer (although it is palpable how the sound of the rhythm guitar evaporate in solo sections, due to one guitarist), and it can thus be characterized as “good” but the 40 minutes unfortunately emerges as mediocre in its entirety.

Conclusion: It sounds hard and tough, but as the band has grown to become fifteen years as living dead, I expect a little more depth and structure in the song-writing. Ergo, middle-of-the-road.

Feel free to view the teaser, and hear the title track:

The Italian trio with two members from Hobbs' Angel of Death are back with their third full-length album since its founding in 2009. Their thrash contains strong traces of crust punk. It's probably one of the reasons why I'm not turned on by their music. A very subjective justification that bigger fans of the genre doesn't need to take to heart.
Another reason for my disappointment is the compositions. When the song structure is generic and repetitive, I consider that “this is as exciting as vacuum cleaning” an objective argument.

With that said, this is perfectly all-right to listen to. It sounds fittingly home crafted, loud-mouthed and disrespecting.
I tend to be (far) too kind. I'll compensate by punishing Violentor. (How's that for objectivity?)
I am in excess strict here, but the decision is based largely on personal taste.

Supporters of jump-around-and-bump-into-each-other genres should check out Maniacs.
The album is out on CD now, and will be out on MC & LP in early August if my understanding is correct.

Through six songs and a little over forty minutes we are drawn onto a frantic roller coaster. At its most frenetic it's a state of pandemonium with swaggering aggressiveness and indomitable speeds on a runaway frenzy. It goes a little bit overboard with a rather noisy sound, but the guys still lands on their feet. Mostly.
Abrupt and unexpectedly they turn into very slow, calm, melancholic and enchanted moods.

The entire début has a rapid and rabid home-made touch that still fits the expression a bit. Home-made is well-made, and an authentic unpolished spirit of genuine and honest satanic metal rests on the product. While it may at the same time become somewhat clattering and messy. The dynamic range varies primarily from DR5 to DR7.
Both the reckless atmosphere and a lot of the music smells of freshly burned church and appeals on a spiritual level, but in the same way that the music is chronically manic depressive, I'm two-folded in my view.

The vocals alone are enough to give a faltering impression. At its best it reminds of old Count Grishnackh, but otherwise it's often howling, roaring and crackly. The music suffers much the same. Despite sections with good drifting black metal, sequences with rather funeralistick stripped down eeriness, thrilling incorporation of harmonica and church organ and an overall genuine mood, Sepultus also appears as a schizophrenic rickety, ram-shackling orchestra.

Ambivalent nonetheless, I choose to emphasize the positive factors, but this album is in the lower part of the gradation.

The metal is semi-extreme with strong melodic qualities and doesn't remind much about neither death nor black metal. It's mainly the vocals that draws in black directions. The overbearing, rather monotone vocals don't compliment the music too much in my ears. Dan Swanö's clean guest vocals only contributes to fuel further up under my sense of where this music belongs. It is melodic, reasonably smooth, modern and quite commercial. Common people would not use words like polished or accessible, but their respect for artistic finesse is skin deep. Everything should be consumed with a straw, without any chewing resistance.
Evemaster ain't that slick and simplistic.

I've never had a taste for Dark Tranquillity, In Flames or Soilwork, and it is in that direction I feel I'm being dragged with III.
It should be said that the two guys have crafted many good melodies, and they also perform good on their instruments. Sometimes they offer good moods as well, as in rather melancholic Humanimals, fairly creepy The Great Unrest or the dreamy tones of Absolution.

Evemaster's five years old, but still last album, offer up all right muzak in a genre on the outside of my comfort zone. I sneak off quietly, while those with a tendency toward such music may linger longer in its bosom.

Hear Harvester Of Souls and New Age Dawns:

The duo has almost kept going for ten years, but they've taken pretty good time. They released their first record two years ago.

The black aspect consists of a bit slow mid-tempo black(ish) metal with minimal use of tremolo, a touch of black'n'roll and soaring guitars. This, together with melody and atmosphere offer an atmospheric, partly post-metallic mark. When cosmic sound effects are swirling like comets, meteors, asteroids and satellites around the ears, it becomes clear that these two lads barely have their feet on the ground. The whole thing is quite hypnotic, with pleasurable moods and hallucinatory effects.

Unfortunately, the good mood is broken up by some meaningless sequences of tactless feedback and punk orientated attitude which gives the music a recklessly garage feel.
The rough Finnish speech-vocals goes a tad in the direction of Ajattara, but it becomes a bit too shouting.

Luonnon harmonia ja vihreä liekki, which means something like “Harmony of Nature and The Green Flame”, was recorded in Wastement and mastered by Jack Control in Enormous Door, Texas, USA. The dynamics ain't spacious but the sound fits the music.

Appart from the meaningless, tacky ingredients I find the psychedelic dark metal rather refreshing and enjoyable.
All in all a pretty good album.

Vacivus was previously named Dawn of Chaos, and on the metal-archives it's an absurd mess, where the bands only full length is listed under both band names. I stick to the promo leaflet which insists this is Vacivus' début.
In this respect, the band's beginnings in the battle for world domination appears in the form of five songs on a 25 minutes EP.

Vacivus hew their path in a brusquely and violent manner in both mid-tempo and higher speeds. Ian Finley's (Wodensthrone etc.) drums pounds and crashes, while Dan Rochester's (Spartan Warrior etc.) and Ross Oliver's (Haar etc.) guitars and Dan Jones' bass buzz and shriek in bestial tones. As an obsessive circular saw out of control, eerie moods is on the loose.
Nick Craggs twist his vocal cords as a wet rag after scraping it with coarse sandpaper. We are speaking rude and crude, simply demonic growling. Unless the vocalist shoots razor blades of black screams into the night. The black vocal casts ice cold and thorny echoes in underground concrete corridors that above all is associated with foreign armed forces, and their fearsome war machines. Tough as nails. This can be perceived amongst others at 3:13 into Vacivus Aeternum.

But of course, the songs are completely imperative. It doesn't matter if you play the living shit out of of everyone else if the song material don't measure up. These songs are fortunately surprisingly good. Thrust, mood, furious instrumentation, progression, excitement... everything fits like a cement/concrete glove. Even the sound is killer. The recording took place in The Garage in October and Chipy has mixed the EP. The sound is dark, obscure and mysterious as the band hammers out their satanic death manifest (with passable DR7).

The EP was issued yesterday on 100 cassettes via Goatprayer Records. At the moment they have only one copy left. Fortunately it will be released on CD later this year via Hellthrasher Productions.

The band's thrash is on one side fairly swift and energetic. On the other side, the five musicians is fronted by a fairly gentle vocalist. Sammy Peleman is among the latest addition to the band, and based on my meagre knowledge of the band he screams more and better than his predecessor. The two new songs have fairly conventional thrash vocals, but in a harmless form. It's somewhat in the direction of old Anthrax, in lack of a better reference. Sammy also takes an occasional jump high into the frequency register. With high pitch that can compete with dog whistles, he makes the shot glasses tremble with fright in the glass cabinet. He doesn't scares, though. An occasional, and minimal sequence of black-growls isn't nearly enough to prevent me from missing a bit more aggressive vocals.
The aforesaid Land Of Sin has a different vocal style, more reminiscent of previous vocalist. Here we get laid-back and a bit sleazy, yet harmless clean vocals. The song includes a guest appearance by Andy LaRocque (King Diamond). I'm not going to speculate on whether or not this is the exact same contribution as on the original recording.

That there's no innovation in the music I choose to ignore, as that's not to be expected.
The music kicks very well at high volume. It's a most crafty bunch that has rolled up their sleeves and step into action on their respective instruments.
The sound is also competent. Dan Swanö has handled mixing and mastering. The result is high quality sound, despite disappointingly low DR5.
The cover sleeve oozes undoubtedly of thrash, and is designed by famous Ed Repka. Well, at least his cover art is well-known. The 10-inch is printed on green vinyl and is limited to 300 hand-numbered copies, distributed through After All.

The EP is essentially perfectly okay. The two new songs rips, whilst the remake doesn't quite hit bulls eye. I prefer my thrash a bit more fierce, evil and/or well-structured. It is quite possible that this will work better in full-length format, however.

Watch the video for Rejection Overruled.

We might as well begin by presenting Ysengrin, because I'm hardly the only one who's never encountered this band before.
The French band was founded ten years ago by Guido Saint Roch. Others with membership has changed a bit. To date, the band is a trio. A couple of demos and three splits was released before the 2011 début. It's mostly been limited editions, independently or via various small labels. The two releases here present originally came out on De Profundis Éditions. In 2012 another full-length album (To Endotaton) was released, by I, Voidhanger Records this time, and last year the band released the EP Palimpseste on their own.

When the first album Tragedies - Liber Hermetis now gets printed in a greater edition along with wider distribution, there's a good chance that more people will discover them.
It is a rough mixture of death and depraved minds the Frenchmen presents for the listeners. Genre-wise it incorporates doomsday prophecies of doom, decay of death and an indifferent, cynical, blasphemous attitude that originates in dark, colourless shadows. Everything draped in the admonishing moods of occultism.
Ysengrin take their time to let the rot and decay sink in and infect existence. Without falling completely into syrup, the pace is still tightly reined during much of this diabolical ritual.
The début it selves lasts for 57 minutes and has a slightly unfinished feel. This is nevertheless extremely charming. Raw riffs, rumbling and jarring bass, and occasionally hectic drumming is joined by long guitar tones, finger play, playful bass, acoustic guitars, pump organ (I think) and various forms of extreme vocals, all raving mad. Including lovely black growling relating to that of Necros Christos.

The demo's got a rougher, more necro/occult death/doom-touch that smells of Greek brutality and early nineties, despite the fact that it came out 20 years later. Among the 25 minutes, it's the long-standing Mystères de L'Artifex that emerges as a dystopian opus. Evidence indicates that it is extended from just above 12 to almost 18 minutes.

The sound on both releases is dripping with soil as if something ancient, stinking and unholy has penetrated the ground and ascended from its abnormally deep grave.
Both releases are mixed and mastered (to DR7) by Fureiss in Rosenkrantz Studio.

I've really got a fondness for the French deranged black/death/doom universe. It stinks of French frenzy whilst a bitter after-taste of Greek godless furore in evidence.
Some tracks could indeed have been a clue stronger, for example by combining ideas from several songs to a higher unity, and the album could advantageously have been slightly more coherently structured.
There are nevertheless nitpicks, as this release with its obscure coal black moods are only a hair's breadth from ranking of the highest order. After three further playthroughs, I conclude that Ysengrin is certainly is a band to my taste!

Listen to Temphomet (below) and Satvrnia Regna from Tragedies - Liber Hermetis, as well as Ovvertvre, Anteros (below) and the original version of Mystères de L'Artifex.

The duo comes from the Midlands, UK and consists of Al-Xul on grunting low-frequency vowel and Áhéheste (or A.H.S., ex-שְׁאוֹל (She'ol) et al.) on all instruments. This three-track EP is their first sonic attack. It was first released on cassette in April last year via Exitium Productions, and is now released on CD.

If staggering brutality with eclectic features is your thing you are perhaps a fan of bands like Portal and Ævangelist. Personally, I like Vorage's approach better. The three songs are somewhat closer to Deathspell Omega in expression. The guitar work creates a mood of dizzying heights and disturbing views of desolated worlds appearing as distorted and out of place, as in Lovecraft's apocalyptic and grotesque dream world of abandoned cities studded with bizarre buildings in hideous colours and illegitimate angles.

If a psychedelic occult berserker onslaught sound like something for you, Vorage is hereby recommended.
Work on material for a split is reportedly in progress, so hopefully we'll hear from the band again sometime soon.

The band gives full throttle with their melodic death/thrash. The drummer is accomplished. The guitars are working diligently. The sound is thick and juicy. I can't think of any bands they sound distinctly alike, but a gruel of Arch Enemy, Hypocrisy, The Crown and Amon Amarth might perhaps provides an approximate indication. (I can't do a proper comparison at the moment, so this is only a gut feeling). The vocals have a slightly unattractive core-touch, but I can live with that.

Then there's the objections. Well, I've only got one nit to pick. The songs lack that little extra. It bats around in a more than listenable fashion of frenzy, but there's really not much that sticks.
Expression and style is by no means polished, but as long as nothing stands out or sinks in, I get a sense of Polytetrafluoroethylene (Teflon). The music is nevertheless well played and rather tough and hard.

The veterans do a more than honourable effort, although all hooks are missing and the result becomes fairly anonymous. Generic song-writing despite - punch, fiery guitars and rhythms played tightly raises the album above common mediocrity. The album was mixed in Unisound Studio with Dan Swanö, and so the sound is of course also more than acceptable. It may be noted that the dynamics is on (not much more than) tolerable DR7.
Therefore, I would really like to put this in the (lower part of) the “good”-booth. After five rounds Intermination still feels like a rather “gray mass”. The band plays it safe, and takes no chances that could have made their tenth full length a little more exciting.
If you like the style and/or the band, you should still absolutely check out this album. The energetic discharge of this five-piece might just raise your roof, even if my roof is still in one piece after this.

Hear On A Collision Course, see the lyric-video for Ode To Extinction, and hear Affect Gravity below.

Fans know what they'll get thrown in their face. Everyone else may receive the following warning. Death Hammer is an untamed speed/thrash abomination that hurl cascades of fast riffs around to the cutting tones of an rabid vocalist.
This disorderly savagery has a good reputation in the underground, and Evil Power will surely be well received. The sound is clearer and more powerful than its predecessor, but fear not, followers of the cult and members of the congregation, this is still unpolished and reckless as Hell. It is released on the unholy physical trinity, CD, LP and MC, and I have a small suspicion that the sonic difference between CD and cassette will not be extremely dissimilar.

The album is good, with serious amounts of crushing guitar works, but if I'm going to criticize something, it' that it doesn't have much depth. Someone will presumably throw beer glasses at me and point out that Death Hammer shouldn't even be allowed to play sophisticated show-off-shait. Yes, I agree, but there are plenty of examples of more memorable classics within extreme thrash. Let it be stressed that these are small nitpicks, but I do not get as good a relationship with this as from Inculter's début. It might have something to do with structuring and variety. That sort could namely have been a clue more thoroughly processed on Evil Power.
But now I sound too damn cranky, and that's not the intention. I just want to put my finger on why I'm not giving this album full score when it gives full throttle, rasps like a grater, shatters like a bulldozer and is unstoppable as a locomotive.

Personally I believe this will kick fucking ass live, but on disc, it soon becomes something that fits best when I am drunk and disorderly, and then I'd probably go for the CD version. My cassette player has eaten its last tape salad and it was was adopted by a recycling station before it came to domestic violence and it got to taste the wrath of my hammer, and the pickup cartridge's stylus on the vinyl player is bloody difficult to operate with 0.25% blood alcohol content.

Kudos for the Norwegian lyric on Total Metal. It took me by surprise and provides an original twist. Even if you might not agree, I think it's damned cool, although I don't quite get a hold of the text myself either.

The self-titled début is a quiet affair with a strong soundtrack/score feel. Had this been taken from a film it would either been a pretty psychedelic sci-fi from space or just a damn peculiar and absurd rock opera. Jazzy beats, odd transitions and whimsical sounds hangs strangely together. It sometimes feels as if some cosmic law on context is temporarily suspended.

Another aspect that clings on to the music is the interplanetary and extraterrestrial. I did at one point pick up a little too strong associations to Pigs in Space.

There are more creative use of all sorts of synthesizers than guitars with fuzz here, so pure metal heads might not find a whole lot of interest. For me, this is a subtle curiosity that is unlikely to be played again.
For proggers amongst you, however, I think the abstract sound collages, the soaring guitars, the pleasurable and good melodies and the relaxing, psychedelic mood will find their listeners. There's no quibbles to be voiced on the quality as far as I can judge, but than again, what do I know?

See the lads perform live.