Earth Ground is my first meeting with Polish act Thaw, but there seems to be a first album, called Decay, released in 2010, and a second one, simply called Thaw, in 2013. Apparently the band was able to perform live on stage with notorious acts like Altar Of Plagues, Behemoth or Jarboe, so they are about to become quite a noticeable name within the Extreme Metal scene.
At the very end of 2011, string master Will Peplinski started the outfit Malignant Abomination with a friend, but that didn’t last that long at all. Will continued, but since Malignant Abomination was a solo-outfit now, he changed the moniker into Hypoxic. Then he joined forces with Devin Alford (vocals and drums), and under the Swine Overlord moniker, things started getting better.
Scolopendra Cingulata (named after a centipede) were formed in 2013 by Kazakhstan-born Andrey ‘SS’ Kozlov, but in mean time he moved over to Russia (to the city of Ufa, not that far from the Kazakh border). His solo-outfit grew out to a band in mean time, with members from Ukraine and Russia involved. In January this year Grotesque Sounds Productions and Nitroatmosphericum Records released the project’s first demo-tape, and under the same collective constellation the second demo gets released, i.e.
We do know Transcending Obscurity especially for their superb support to the (underground) scene. Kunal Choksi and his crew try to promote the scene as much as possible, just like we at Concreteweb try to do as much as possible. And since his promotional activities focus especially on the Death / Black / Grind-trends, I do respect this Indian guy a lot!
With exceptions of the three Guyanan countries, I do have material from bands from each country in South America, more than often being superb stuff. I am not about to make a list of each country (you know that some of the protagonists hail from Brazil, Peru, Argentina or Colombia), but the scene from Chile has always been of highly influential importance too, both in the past as it still is now. One of the most interesting bands from that country is three-piece Force Of Darkness, formed more than a decade ago.
Quality Steel Records aren’t that known (yet), but they came up with quite some fabulous releases lately. And then I am talking about material by the likes of Ajuna, King Fear, Divine:Zero, Harasai or Karne. You can find the reviews on these band’s last releases on the site, or you will find them in a very near future, by the way.
A.П. are a Russian act that, if I am not mistaken, have this EP as sole official release. The stuff was recorded at the Premier Studio, and the ten tracks last for just under eighteen minutes only. Indeed, it means ten short songs.
Swedish duo Murmurs very recently split up; don’t ask me why because I do not know. In 2012 Ulf and Dísa recorded the full length Fædd Úr Eldi (via Australia’s Parkbench Records), but that’s the sole official release, except for a handful of demos.
Mal Etre are a Swiss project by Nocturnalpriest, who’s also active with blackened outfits Malvoisie, Baalshamin, Parämnesia and Polish horde Funebrum. After a handful of demos, Mal Etre released a first full length in 2010, Torment, via the great Kunsthauch-label. It was one of the most surprising albums that very same year, I think.
I don’t know anymore how many Extreme Metal acts there are with the moniker Lycanthropy. But this review deals with the extremely productive one from Orel, Russia, close to the borders with Ukraine and Belarus. The city of Orel, by the way, isn’t that far away from the city of Voronezh, known for a very vivid Metal-scene, and house of another act called Lycanthropy (though defunct in mean time) – FYI.
