Harpag Karnik is a very young musician from Iran, who originated from Tehran, if I am not mistaken. Despite his young age (he was born in Autumn 1997 [which makes me feel old once more, haha]), Harpag is behind almost two hands full of very interesting projects, both solo or in partnership. These ones are gathered under the Ardawahisht Kollective, which he founded in 2018 or so (also including the solo and mutual outfits by Earthen Shade).
Even-though Inferna Profundus Records (which is, for what it’s worth, one of my mostly preferred labels lately!) did release two hands full of great new (and older, re-released) material in the meantime (reviews will follow soon!), I couldn’t just ignore this older recording by Canadian act Nocturnal Prayer. I know that it is a personal opinion, but I did deeply adore this project’s former stuff passionately (cf.: see below for a couple of links on former reviews for this Arctic horde).
I was really pleased when Raffaele Pezzella let me know that he started a new outfit recently. This one would be called The Great Old Ones, which refers to Lovecraft’s surreal universum, as you surely know. And it’s not just the name of this project that bears that Lovecraftian influence; the themes on the recordings will focus on the novels of this great writer as well. This one, Mythos Of Cthulhu, is the second release in a series that is inspired by these deities’ pantheon created by Mister Lovecraft.
This release was released more than one year ago in the meantime (it got prepared a while ago, but I just forgot to finish and publish it), but I couldn’t just ignore it. Due to circumstances in 2022 I haven’t been active for a long time, but even ‘older’ material that deserves all additional support and promotion, will be taken care of by yours truly.
Curse All Kings is a young project by Rob Fisk aka B.S.s., whom you might know from his outfit Common Eider, King Eider in the first place, and some Psych / Indie Rock bands with international fame as well.
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.
