Ivan Tibos.

I don’t feel like writing an extended introduction to Polish act Vesania, because there is no way to express my appreciation for their sonic assaults anyway. Let’s say that their debut, 2003’s Firefrost Arcanum, was one of the most impressive debuts I’ve ever experienced, and it surely was one of the best albums that very same year (let’s call it end year’s list top-5 material, if you want to). Afterwards they continued impressing me, time after time, with each single album they recorded. Okay, these guys are enormously experienced (cf.

It’s not because I’m lazy (at least, it’s not only because I’m lazy right now) that I am not going to write a huge introduction about this band, but you know, Varathron are so ‘huge’; they do not really need a full introduction anymore, do they? They are one of the oldest (formed at the end of the Eighties) and most influential bands from Greece (along with, let’s say, Necromantia and Rotting Christ), which I do follow as from the release of their first demo-tape, Procreation Of The Unaltered Evil.

Vacant Eyes are a band from Easthampton, Massachusetts, which were formed in 2011 by Josh Moran. Initially it was a solo-project by this multi-instrumentalist, whom you might find back nowadays in the modern / progressive Black-outfit In Human Form too, or in Groove / Death band Krakatoa (twice as guitar player). After a while, Josh recruited some members, and Vacant Eyes evolved into a real band.

In quite an impressive series of 7”-releases, Hells Headbangers Records did add some splits too. Surprised? No, I wasn’t either.

One of these split-EP’s is a collaboration in between Australia’s Portal and Ukraine’s Blood Of Kingu, both of them being highly influential within the underground scene of the darkest and most morbid Death Metal spectrum.

The Ukrainian label Vacula Productions isn’t completely new, but during the past years there weren’t that much releases. Yet as from early 2014 on, there seems to be some revival, with some hands full of albums, both new recordings as well as re-releases. Expect in the next couple of weeks several reviews on stuff from this label’s great roster.

Phobiatic might not be the best known act from Germany, but when listening to their music, they seem to be active for two decades. It has to do with their technically skilled performance especially, which was clear already on their An Act Of Atrocity-album, or even the Spreading The Plague demonstrational recording (2009). But they seem to have evolved even more right now.

French outfit Mudbath debuted in 2012 with the EP Red Desert Orgy, but the ‘popularity’ of their existence stayed somewhat local. All right, they did perform outside France too, yet they didn’t reach the status they should deserve, not yet. With Corrado Zeller, things will change. I will make sure that at least this review will help to open gates for this quartet.

Outside Italy, Epitaph, originating from the beautiful city of Verona, aren’t that known at all. They were actually formed in the Eighties, and did release three demos, but that’s about it. And now, finally, almost three decades after their birth, Epitaph come up with their debut studio full length album, called Crawling Out Of The Crypt. It seems to be a mostly fitting title, isn’t it…

Emblazoned are an ‘old’ American act, finally coming up with their debut full length. You’re welcome…

Eucharistiae Sacramentum stands for half an hour of fast, energetic, rhythmic, tight and solid War / Death Metal of the ‘timeless’ kind (i.e. based on tradition without being retro, and modern without being progressive), including some hints of Black Metal (especially when it comes to the sphere) and Old School Morbid Doom-Death Metal.

There was an artistic collaboration of German and Russian painters, shortly before the First World War, who were active as ‘Der Blaue Reiter’. Amongst them, by the way, Wassily Kandinsky (if I am not mistaken, this partnership was named after a painting by this expressionist artist) and Paul Klee, both of them pretty well-known names, I think. But this isn’t an exposé about the history of pictorial art; this chronicle deals with a 21^st-century musical group, of course.