My first acquaintance with Xaos Oblivion was in 2008, when this Polish horde did release the album Antithesis Of Creation. Before there were some demonstrational recordings under the name Oblivion, yet since there were several Polish acts with that very same moniker, the name turned into Xaos Oblivion. Some more albums did follow under the Xaos Oblivion-moniker, each time praised and hailed, at least by those who understand quality.
Sigihl are a young Polish act, formed in 2012 in the city of Katowice. The quartet, with former and current members of e.g. StrommoussHeld and Thaw, had this album, Trauermärsche (And A Tango Upon The World’s Grave), recorded, mixed and mastered in their home town with Krzysztof Kurek (drummer Grekh’s former colleague in Thaw). And they climb out of the shadow, these prophets of the Bringer of Light, marching under the flag of his sigihl.
I was extremely confused when I listened to The Kudos Of Serial Killing the first time, and actually, right now, listening to this album for the third time, I am still brain-twisted. And when I read some info about this project on Aesthetic Death‘s home page, it didn’t quite help me to understand what was going on. But I think it’s charming to be submerged to the unexpected.
Forever Plagued Records are releasing another Orcultus recording, at the very same moment of the Endless Hate & Misanthropy re-release (which was reviewed in 2014 – check the site somewhere, sometime). This sweet Swedish outfit and the label did choose for a cassette edition once again, instead of fully mastered CD-stuff, in order to express their adoration for the underground.
The first time that I came in touch with New Era Productions was when I bought the Bloodwraak – Verdoem Al ‘t Christelijk Leven album by Mordaehoth at the beginning of this century. It’s this label once again that takes care of this must-have compilation, because of the rarity of the material on it. And it was the first time I listened to Mordaehoth too.
Mor are a Serbian act (‘mor’ means ‘death’ in Archaic Slavic) which I hadn’t heard of before. They recorded some material during the second part of last decade, with a full length in 2009, but I didn’t experience this material (yet). During Autumn 2013, Mor recorded their second album, Lutanja Sakatoga Bespućima Samsare, which means something like ‘wanderings of the crippled one through moors of Samsara’, and in early 2014 the whole was finished studio-wise.
Transmissions is a split-album by a Finnish and a Hungarian project. The album lasts for almost fifty minutes and gets released via mighty Russian Satanath Records, once again in co-operation with two other highly professional labels: Metallic Media and Black Plague Records.
I think one of my first acquaintances with Lower Silesian Stronghold must have been when I bought Nekriki Mistagogia, a mini-CD by Greek project Aasgard. Shortly after that release, frontman Aethyr started working on what would become the second full length, being Morbid Celestial Desecration. The material was eventually released on vinyl in 2012 via Unmerciful Death Productions.
It was a sad thing to notice that Psychomanteum broke up a while ago (even though they only short-lived), but it’s a pleasure to see that half of that act, i.e. Robert C. Kozletsky, decided to start an own outfit, called Apócrýphos within pretty much the very same vein. With The Prisoners Cinema, he debuts via mighty Cyclic Law, and it won’t disappoint the fans of Psychomanteum; that’s a promise!
This will be a quick one, this review. Tyrania are an act from Ukraine that brings so-called ‘Sympho Gothic Metal’. And that’s correct. But you have quite a large scene, so the question is: where will Tyrania be placed?
