Season Of Mist

Expect nothing, receive nothing!

I will keep it short and concise, for this Finnish act does not need any introduction anymore. It would be a waste of (my precious) time right now. The same goes for the fine Flemish label that is responsible, once again, for this release. My devotion and dedication go for both band and label, but I’m too lazy right now (haha) to go deeper into their history, biography or discography.

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…

Hailing from New York – more specifically Poughkeepsie (ah, I adore that name, though I do not exactly know how to pronounce it decently) – 8 Hour Animal is an Industrial / Electronics act that did impress undersigned deeply with their Sentient Ruin Laboratories debut Resigner (link for the review: see below). In the meantime, this project recorded and released some more interesting stuff, and earlier this year they did also finish a new effort for Sentient Ruin Laboratories, called Kill Your Boss.

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…

I did not know the band with the unpronounceable name H, even-though they were already formed in 2015 or so. But that can be, for they did not release anything official yet until now. This Italian act was ‘born with the idea to create something extreme that fits both their musical inspiration and tradition’. The main intention was to establish a concept based on John’s The Apocalypse - the biblical epos, if you want to - written by one of the ‘legendary’ evangelists.

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.

A short one…

The word ‘pyra’ comes from ‘wood-pyramid’ when referring to a pile of wood, like a (funeral / sacrificial / tribunal / burial) pyre. English-speaking folks might have known that, but in case you did not (yet), here you are… Purification through fire, or something…