Do Azaghal need any introduction? Well, just for fun: formed more than three decades ago (initially as Belfegor) with some demonstrational material and a 7”EP during the second half of the Nineties. Debut full-lengths Mustamaa and Helvetin YhdeksÄn Püriä followed soon after; ah, I remember my modest enthusiasm back then, but that’s another story (and damn yeah, I am getting old).
The adventure of the angel continues when he approaches a realm where time stands still, yet space shifts endlessly. In the center lies a glass castle, where truth and revelation wander around. It’s there where the seraph’s bride lies in eternal slumber, lifeless yet alive. To get there, Kasriel must face evil beings, vile creatures that cannot enter that heart-of-the fortress themselves, yet that will do anything to stop the protagonist of this story. Disappointment, pain, struggle and anger are on his path; so are hope, alleviation, persuasion.
A short one…
Dream My Life Away is the latest effort by Mister (bleak) under the Carrion moniker. The guy, as you might know, is active as Gold (now called Gold Membership), D¥$FUNCTion, Aspects & Fragments, and several others too, but Carrion might be his most productive outfit.
Militant Liturgy is a sub-label of Gates Of Hypnos, also based on different kinds of Electronic Music (from Dark Ambient over Ambient Noise Wall and Death Industrial to Harsh Noise), yet with a Christian character. Focusing on a connection with Higher Power, rather than blindly following any monotheistic deity, this label expanded into an aural institute of sonic creativity combined with philosophical, theological, introspective and faithful content.
Quite an unknown (read: underestimated) project, the Belgian act This Morn’Omina will celebrate its thirtieth anniversary later this year. Modestly productive since the end of last century, This Morn’Omina now returns with Insha, a fifty-minutes aural ceremony consisting of eight chapters. This time it’s a ‘major’ release, I mean, it will be available via two ‘bigger’ labels within the scene, i.e.
…another chapter within the saga of the Emperor and the King… I ended my series of reviews with the two first releases of the U.T.R.Y.N. set; part three and four were prepared yet never finished because of a lack of [my] time, and the overwhelming productivity (an excellent given for sure, yet in the case of a reviewer it can be a disastrous venom) of Mister Ghafur, that held me back, and so on, and so on… But the story still goes on, through Greed (Vrozlyd), Cruel (Themis), Wound (Obsidian Mirror
I just noticed – and that’s a pity – that I did not write down my thoughts on the self-titled debut by Pillar Amongst Willows, which was released in very early 2025 via Centipede Abyss. But I’ll make it right up by reviewing the second release by this one-man project, called Kindred Odyssey, which got released as well via the Centipede Abyss label more or less one year after that nameless debut album.
Even-though this label, LOUDsilence (do you hear the whispering name, the soft whisper of this moniker?...), exists for a (limited) couple of years (I guess it was spawned from earthly mud and the intestines of our planet at the very beginning of 2024), it is way too underestimated, I think.
Lux Sine Lumine, which is Latin for ‘light without light’, is a project by Eri Nthentropy aka Yydraah aka Ni (or just Nathalie, haha), the directing entity behind the unique Centipede Abyss community and partner of Pan Inentropy. She’s active in acts like Zvylpwkua, Act Of Entropy or Ukakuja (all Centipede Abyss combos) as well, for your (extremely important) information.
Darkened synth music for solitary wanderings through majestic forests, or for the journey into one's own mind with closed eyes and open portals... I think this description is a fitting definition for what the new (?) American project Nightweald stands for. Nightweald is the outfit of some C. Davis, debuting with the demonstrational four-track EP Skogstema. That title comes from Norse and means something like ‘forest theme’, referring to pristine wildlife, Mother Nature, and our affiliation, spiritually, with Earth.
