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.
The legendary sword of Turin Turambar strikes again!
The German rulers MNHG return with their second album, about three years after their fine debut Mundare (link for the review: see below). Like the debut, this one gets unleashed via Belgium’s premium Black Metal label Immortal Frost Productions, and it’s quite evident that it gets released on compact-disc (including a twenty-page booklet; 500 copies), and on vinyl in two different editions / colors (250 copies, with a poster and a lyric sheet included).
Purification through fire! Rebirth through flames!
For an introduction on this Italian act (like ‘formed in 2020 as a duo’, and that kind of interesting stuff), I’d like to refer to my review on this band’s debut-EP, ingeniously called Pyra (link: see below).
Dutch act Infinity started almost three decades ago and still consists of two of the original members: Draconis (okay, he left this project for a while) and Balgradon Xul. During the first decade of this millennium, they did record four albums, yet as from then on, they did take their time before releasing new material. In this case, we, the impatient audience, had never awaited so long, for it has been six years (and a couple of times) before we could now, finally, bit welcome to this band’s seventh full-length studio album.
Since I was quite impressed by Blood Oath and (especially) by With Hoof And Horn, I did look forward to listening to this newest album by the trio Rituals Of The Dead Hand. Well, after a couple of listens, my appreciation for this act has not disappeared; on the contrary.
Country (for what it’s worth): Italy
Members: Xes (vocals), Nekroshadow (guitars), Apsychos (guitars) and new (on this recording) members Postmortem (drums) and Asdraeth (bass guitars)
Engineering / mix / mastering: Christian d’Onofrio (Atrocity Exhibition Studio)
Artwork: Zizi Amri (cover artwork) / Apsychos (layout & design; adjusted by WrathDesign)
Quite recently, Immortal Frost Productions introduced me to a new project, which is called Bloedmaan. It’s Dutch for blood moon, by the way. I did not know this act, but apparently it is a new outfit by no one else but Ronarg, whom you might know from Antzaat and Ars Veneficium as well. Both these two bands are signed to Immortal Frost Productions, and the owner of this label, S., is part of the Ars Veneficium line-up too.
The Canary Islands (Tenerife, Lanzarote, Gran Canaria, La Palma etc.) are usually associated with hot bitches, sorry, hot beaches, happy-hour-cocktail-binge-drinking-sh*t, and mass tourism. Okay, this has somewhat of an exaggeration, for there are some calm traditional villages out there, as well as truly beautiful national nature parks / wildlife, and above all, a guy called Ronald Rodriguez.
