Ivan Tibos.

In a very near future, Aesthetic Death and Megalith Levitation will officially release the new album Obscure Fire (of course you might expect a review on that recording in some future), but this review will deal with the former full-length, Void Psalms, which was (and still is, of course) the second full-album by Russia’s Megalith Levitation. It was actually released almost a year and a half ago, but then again: so what? Great material will always deserve (my) attention and promotion.

There are a couple of reasons why I want to focus on this release: the Aural Art, the label, and the content / concept (+ location of recording).

Come journey deep into the depths, where long forgotten temples to strange creatures and dark cosmic summons lie unexplored by mortal eyes.

Multi-instrumentalist / composer / lyricist Artem ‘Voidger’ Kilka did form the outfit U Kronakh (also known as Ukronakh or У Kронах) in 2020 as an outlet to transform his ideas into sonic format. Since he originates from the Carpathian area (actually, the band is located in the city of Chernivtsi, in Ukraine, close to the borders with Moldova and Romania), he wanted to tell ‘a story about the spirits of antiquity who wander the forest paths of the Carpathian mountains in oblivion and find no rest’.

Being active under 665 pseudonyms and releasing an album every single day, it makes Maurice ‘Mories’ de Jong one of Mater Terra’s most active and productive musicians. He’s active within so many different, yet somehow related, genres, from Dungeon Synth over Black Metal to Noise, you know, yet also within the cheerful regions of Doom / Doom-Death. That was the case in the past, and it is still the truth nowadays. The latter gets translated via his outfit The Sombre.

I do know that Salqiu did release a ‘new’ album in November 2022, but this review deals with the first part of the evil-twin sessions from hot, sunny, cheerful late Spring / early Summer 2022, Pariah. The second chapter of this diptych, if you want to, is called The Colossal Weight Of My Illusion…, and I might write a review on that one too, if I’m in a good mood. Who knows…

Once in a while, a Stoner act surprises me, out of the blue (cheese?). That’s why I want to spent some words of the debut album by Sons Of Arrakis, called Volume I. This band was formed in 2019, created to pay tribute to Frank Herbert, and his Dune series at the first place. And I do not know anymore where I got this from, but somewhere I wrote down that the band define their stuff as different from ‘the vast sea of Stoner Rock bands with their lightning Armor-piercing torpedo’, performing ‘Melange Rock and Cinematographic Sci-Fi Rock’.

In Quo Qui Moriens Aeternum Patiebitur Incendium is the second Vallée Des Larmes album for Depressive Black Ambient Records (there is a third one in the meantime, by the way; and a review on the former one will probably get finished and published soon too, despite the fact that it is ‘older’ material). Vallée Des Larmes hail from France and create Dark Ambient Music with a religious atmosphere.

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.

First of all: the exact release date for Turkey has not been confirmed yet. The initial worldwide one, February 10^th 2023, got postponed out of respect for the devastating earthquake that took place recently in Turkey and Syria. Respect to you, guys from Sermon!