I am quite crazy about J.R.R. Tolkien’s material, and then I am referring to much more than the Lord Of The Rings or The Hobbit books alone. Also the former eras are pretty interesting, if not even more, yet they are sadly underestimated. But around our little globe, there are many (human) beings that know something about the older stories. Such one is Portuguese duo Nienör, named after Niënor, the daughter of Húrin and Morwen, and sister of Urwen and Túrin aka Turambar.
I had not heard of them before, but apparently Monox wander around our globe for more than a decade. And what’s more, they were formed by members of notorious acts such as Mass Hypnosis, Gorthaur’s Wrath and Omega Lithium. In 2009, these Croatians released an EP called Ending – Beginning, appropriately entitled this way to focus on a new era to come. Then they played live in their home country and some neighbor countries, and the band started writing and, eventually, recording their debut full length.
Polish horde Gurthang (another reference to the great Tolkien-sagas!) finally returns with new work. In the first years of their existence (they were formed in 2010), they did record and release quite some stuff, but as from half of 2013 nothing seemed to happen anymore. Until now…
Ethir Anduin (named after the delta of the Anduin-river in the Belfalas Bay; cf. Tolkien…) were formed in 2006, and the earliest years were characterised by a relative silence, at least when it comes to official releases. Sole member Alexei Veselov wrote several tracks, but none were released. As from 2010 however, Ethir Anduin did bring out lots of things, including several mini and full length albums. And now this project returns with the fifth album, I Magen Av Svart Kaos, which has a total running time of forty two minutes.
Swedish outfit Entrench finally return to our dimension (though apparently, but I’ve seen missed them, there were some split-EP’s too, with the likes of Bombs Of Hades or Insane), but this time as a duo, since their drummer died a year and a half ago. I’m glad they did not decide to quit, yet rather to continue in order to pay tribute to their deceased brother-in-arms.
Well, sometimes surprises are great. And it has not always to do with renewing details or superb quality – though in this case both options I just mentioned are part of the greatness too. But it’s especially the style versus the label that did confuse me, albeit the positive way. I’ll explain why.
Devouring Star are a pretty young and quite mysterious horde from Finland, which I knew from one single demo only. Now they come up with a studio full album, consisting of five pretty lengthy compositions (i.e. lasting in between five and ten minutes), written for this release exclusively (meaning: these tracks were not on the 2014-demo).
One of the most active guys from the Extreme Metal scene from Spain must be a guy who goes under many nicknames, amongst which Erun Dagoth.
I have no idea why I do have the ‘honour’ to write a review about Deepshow’s debut, for this isn’t usually ‘my kind of stuff’. But actually, I am not mad / sad about this decision, for it was quite an interesting experience.
Hail and honour! Album #100 for the superb / superior label Satanath Records! There are several new ones in mean time, but unfortunately Concreteweb has been silent for quite a while. But since I have an enormous respect for the label, the bands / projects on it, and, especially, the label owner (one of the greatest guys I met lately), I will make sure an overload on new reviews will be taken care of by undersigned in the next couple of weeks.
