There was a Polish band called Darkstorm during the nineties, with a couple of demos that, back then, were quite appropriate to the scene. After the album / EP The Black Stone, however, the project ceased its activities. It was a pity, for there might have been a ‘future’ for this unholy horde. Apparently there was a return as Ravenlord Darkstorm (founding member Lord Darkstorm did not want to use the original moniker), yet that wasn’t but just a brief revival.
The Funeral Doom scene in France is pretty interesting, at least that’s what undersigned is thinking about it. One of the (many) projects that I can truly appreciate is a quite productive one, being Abysmal Growls Of Despair, one of the many (digital) projects by Hangsvart. Despite the very young age of this project (and this guy), there are quite some recordings in mean time.
It took quite some time, because the last Macabre Demise-album, Stench Of Death, was released in 2011. But now the German grind-head behind this project, Andreas Rieger, returns with another extreme effort, Homicidal Parasites, which has a total running time of twenty six minutes. The stuff was recorded by the sole member, Andreas (vocals, strings and drum computer programming), and believe it or not, but mix and mastering were done in Venezuela (Abhorrent Technology Productions).
In my review for the new Lauxnos-album My Dead Ocean, I mentioned the sad burial of Emptiness Soul, a fabulous band that shares a member with Lauxnos (see update December 24th 2014). It is very sad to notice Emptiness Soul are no more. But anyway, Tim of Metallic Media was so kind to send the Three Days-album to us, which surely is an underestimated release, seen the strength of this Russian project.
I don’t know anymore how many Extreme Metal acts there are with the moniker Lycanthropy. But this review deals with the extremely productive one from Orel, Russia, close to the borders with Ukraine and Belarus. The city of Orel, by the way, isn’t that far away from the city of Voronezh, known for a very vivid Metal-scene, and house of another act called Lycanthropy (though defunct in mean time) – FYI.
On November 11th 2014, Concreteweb put the review for Astarium’s Wyrm Of Melancholy online. It was kindly send to us by Metallic Media, which did send us this album, Atenvx, as well.
The Salem, Illinois-based project Wrathful Plague was formed almost ten years ago by Nostaum, whom you certainly do know as well from Fecund Betrayal. On November 10th 2014, by the way, Concreteweb did update the review for Fecund Betrayal’s Depths That Buried The Sea, which was released as well via Metallic Media.
The history of this Rio de Janeiro, Brazil-based band goes back to 1992. Coldblood were formed by Marcus ‘M.Kult’ Couttinho and some friends, and they recorded one demo (Terror Stench) before splitting up a first time. In 1999 the band reformed, yet once again for a short period, and with just one single demonstrational recording. In 2005, Coldblood was reborn for another time, but this time things seemed to work out well.
I will not ignore or deny this: I’ve always been a ‘fan’ of Astarium. I am not going to deepen this project’s history this time, because this review does not deal with a new release. But, since I am such a sweet human entity, and because Metallic Media, a fabulous label we recently started to collaborate with, did send us this album too (of course I did buy it when it came out two years ago, since I am a ‘rich’ [hèhè] collector of skulls, I mean, of albums), I have the politeness once again to write some words about it.
The first time that I listened to this album – I bought it shortly after the release date in my favorite CD-store – I was pretty enthusiastic about the approach of this Illinois-based duo, consisting of Dylan Taylor (bass and guitars; he also writes the lyrics) and Nostaum (vocals, guitars, drums and keyboards) (he’s a founding member of Wrathful Plague as well; the review on the Thee Within The Shadows-album will follow very soon, by the way).
