One of Belgium’s finest (in quite an impressive list of splendid bands and projects, of course) must be Saille, once formed by Dries Gaerdelen in order to pay tribute to bands like Keep Of Kalessin, Tartaros and Limbonic Art. The band recorded two fabulous albums before, Irreversible Decay (2010) and Ritu (2012), both of them released via Code666.
An Unending Pathway is the third album by Atriarch (they released stuff before via same-minded labels Seventh Rule and Profound Lore), and it clocks forty minutes. This album, a seven-tracker, was produced by one of the greatest names within the scene, Billy Anderson. The quartet once again created a very distinctive, own-visionary form of Aural Art, which cannot be labelled as ‘Metal’, yet with pertinent, persistent metalized basics anyway.
Existencial Delirium Records are a very young label from Russia from the Krasnodar-region at the Black Sea and Azov Sea, very close to the Crimea peninsula, and known for the Olympic Winter Games 2014 (in the city of Sochi, at the South of this krai). The label houses several Black and Doom projects, and with several of them label manager Gweld Anobaith is involved.
I knew a Spanish Punk act called Siniestro (a long time ago), but this review deals with a band formerly known as Graverape Ritual. This Swedish project’s name changed into the current moniker in 2012, if I am not mistaken, and Oppression Of The Sunlight is the first release under the current constellation. At the same time it’s the third release on Berlin-based Bleeding Heart Nihilist Productions, a young label that focuses on Extreme Music in general, i.e. Punk, Metal, Crust etc.
Most Black Metal releases that refer to ‘tradition’ are inspired and / or influenced by the so-called Second Wave. Nothing wrong with that, I think, because that early nineties’ current created hundreds of marvellous acts all over the globe, with truly thousands of excellent recordings, back then and still now. But the First Wave isn’t as ‘big’ as the second one. That’s a pity, because without that first wave there wouldn’t be a second one, would it?... However, once in a while my eardrums get satisfied by stuff that just breathes the purest essence of the eighties’ scene.
The glorious history, including rise and fall, of the Roman Empire, has been used as lyrical theme by dozens of (Metal) bands before. This goes as well for Ordo Inferus, a young Swedish act with members of e.g. Necrophobic, Excruciate and Nifelheim. Last year they surprised Mater Terra with the short yet highly interesting EP Damnati, and now Ordo Inferus return with their debut full length, Invictus Et Aeternus, done via major Doomentia Records.
Next year Californian band Nokturne will celebrate their twentieth anniversary. So, feel free to sing a birthday-sing-along…
When I saw the names of both bands joining forces on this split-album, I couldn’t but smile satisfied. Both of them are modestly appreciated by undersigned. And the same goes, I am sure, for the majority of the Doom-community.
The Czech Republic for sure is one of the most notorious countries when it comes to Grindcore Music and relatives, but it also houses one of the most important labels -and then I am honestly referring to the worldwide scene- within the Brutal Death / Grind / Goregrind scene: Bizarre Leprous Productions, home to bands like Pigsty, Ingrowing, Tu Carne, Destructive Explosion Of Anal Garland (I will review their newest collection of elegies in a very near future too), Bowelfuck
Polish combo Genius Ultor was formed in 2008 as a side-project for Stillborn, and in 2010 they debuted with Dzien Nocy (Ataman Productions). Now the trio returns with the seven-tracker Nic Co Boskie Nie Jest Mi Obce (meaning something like ‘I consider nothing that is divine as alien’), which was recorded in 2013 at the ruins of an old pre-war house by Zgorzel, Kra and Wirus.
