Vircolac from Ireland… Codex Perfida, their debut, lasting for 23:36 minutes (four tracks). ‘at once grounded in filth, bulldozing and palpitating, doomed-out and disgusting’, or a ‘study of contrasts, set amongst a haunting ‘n’ harrowing soundfield and shot through with violent execution’. What do you think?... Are you willing to continue reading? Of course you are…
All right, and beware: this stuff is pretty old, going for the original writings as well as the recordings. So don’t expect to hear something in the vein of the recent trends, okay…
When Naturmacht Productions gave me the opportunity to listen to Knokkelkraft, the debut for Norwegian act Skygge, I swore eternal gratitude to this label. …kind of… Seriously, I was enormously impressed by this stuff conceived by multi-instrumentalist Frank ‘Skyggemester Kuldegys’ Bratten (formerly also in Viðr and Frozen Cries, by the way).
Together with the release of the new recording (on cassette) called Black Rust, Forever Plagued Records re-release the Endless Hate & Misanthropy EP, which was initially released independently the digital way in Autumn 2013. The review on Black Rust will be written and uploaded one of the next days, by the way. First a word about this re-issue.
Okay, this will be a quick one. Burn The Cross saw the unlight ten years ago, but it will be part of the new series of picture disc 7”EP’s via Hells Headbangers Records. Some others are about to follow soon…
Black metal from Nicaragua – why not?
I know, that’s a silly introduction, for there are tens of great acts from Nicaragua, Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, but even the most experienced non-Latin American metal head needs to admit that he / she might not know an impressive list of bands from ‘out there’ (unless you live there).
I think the name of Josef Nadek isn’t that unknown within the (European) Industrial / Noise scene. This Austrian entity did create so much material in mean time, especially for diverse compilations or for net-release. And now there is a tape with four new creations, available via the very open-minded Austrian label Fall Into Void Records in an edition of (only) fifty (50) copies.
Harvest Gulgaltha were formed in 2012, and they did release two recordings via Aphonic Sonance: the demo-tape I and the 12”LP Necrosophic, respectively in 2012 and 2014. That demo, originally released on cassette in a limited edition of 100 copies only, will now be re-issued by great Nuclear War Now! Productions on vinyl as teaser for the upcoming second full album.
One of the best acts I know from New Zealand are Apnea, which were formed about four years ago by Drew Reid. Initially Apnea was supposed to be a solo-outfit by this multi-instrumentalist, but after a (short) while he joined forces with guitar player Ben Mikkelsen, and together they created a first EP in 2012, called Silent Cities.
Since a couple of years, Australia seems to become one of the most important countries when it comes to Grindcore. And then I am not talking about the ‘average’ kind of grinding ugliness; I am referring to a new angle within the scene. Internal Rot, Captain Cleanoff, Infested Entrails, Coffin Birth, Filth (they seem to have been resurrected), Fuck… I’m Dead and many more; they’re all doing what the grind-fan needs: infecting our mind with slime, pus, mucus…
