René Thuys is a well-known Flemish musician, acting under the moniker of Ronarg. he’s involved with Ars Veneficium and Antzaat, two of the most notorious Scandinavian-styled acts from the Field of Flanders. Recently, he also joined Cirith Gorgor and Ronarg collaborates with Nachtmaer too. What a curriculum vitae. Lesser known, unfortunately, is his solo-outfit Bloedmaan (Dutch for ‘blood moon’), which he started almost four years ago.
I have never hidden my appreciation for the Tasmanian outfit Atra Vetosus, which might be one of my favorite acts on the great Flemish label Immortal Frost Productions. For more than one decade, both parties have been working together, with always a satisfying result in mind.
Dutch act Dystopia will celebrate its twentieth anniversary next year; okay, there used to be a hiatus somewhere during their first years, yet this band recorded their first demonstrational material during the start of the second half of this century’s first decay, eh, I mean decade (got it?). Initially, this outfit was created as a rather Thrash-oriented alternative for Pulverised.
Finally, after four and a half years…
I will keep my introduction short and concise, and I’d like to refer to one of the other reviews I did in the past for Ars Veneficium, one of the leading Belgian bands within the current Black Metal scene. Links: see below.
Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, U.S. of A., Kommandant are active for almost two decades (founded in 2004 or so). Throughout the years, they recorded and released several Ep’s and full-lengths (this review deals with their fifth official full-length album), as well as more than one hand full of (often stunning) splits (with the likes of e.g. Missouri’s Fever, Animus Mortis or Absentia Lunae). This introduction in short…
The history of Stuttgart, Germany-based act Beyond Helvete goes back to the second half of the first decade of this century. At that moment, this project was the main outfit by Sven ‘Natrgaard’ Krause and could be considered a renewed direction on top of his (now defunct) outlets Nachtfrost and Zwenz. After some mini and full-length recordings, things went silent. An immense emptiness remained…
First, to avoid any consternation or confusion: ½ Southern North needs to be pronounced as ‘half southern north’. This said…
When Osmose Productions (not a small player within the scene) offered us the album I - The Serpent at the very end of 2016, the world could make acquaintance with a new Dutch / Italian project, Liber Null. Unfortunately, this project, with members of e.g. Frostmoon Eclipse, faded away for a while, and nothing spectacular did happen anymore.
Introduction: after a very long time of abyssal emptiness and silentium, Muert finally come back with a fourth full-length album; the first new studio release after 2017’s Ye Canariae Abezan (released via the mighty and quite ‘old’ Dutch Extreme Metal label Hammerheart Records).
Despite having some Gotmoor members in its ranks, it would be too easy (and incorrect) to consider Darkest Mind as a side-project of aforementioned top-act. The story started in 2014 or so, when Yuri ‘Y’ started this outfit as a solo-expression of the ideas he had. Actually, he wasn’t part of Gotmoor’s line-up yet, back then, which proves my former statement (about the ‘side-project’-thing).
