Ivan Tibos.

Rivers Of Nihil are a pretty young quintet (current line-up: Adam Biggs, Jake Dieffenbach, Jon Kunz, Ron Nelson and Brody Uttley) from Pennsylvania, formed in 2009.

This split-album entitled Operation: Enduring is rather unique, for both acts involved have something remarkable to add. When it comes to Rot In Hell, it has to do with the newly-created approach they introduced, leaving the Hardcore basement in favour of the apocalyptic Neo-Folk tradition. When it comes to Psywarfare, it deals with the first material in almost fifteen years.

I’d like to give them a hug, my dearest, sweetest humans from Profanatica, for still pleasing us with their hymns of beauty, love and peace…

In a series of bands I do not want to introduce anymore, because it will be a waste of time, this Dutch act comes next. Those who do not know Pestilence better skip reading, because for this band is one of the most important ones within its specific genre, you simply have to know them. But again I cannot just go onto the specific review without at least giving a very limited impression (read: I’m too lazy to add a full biography, but I am so willing to give my personal opinion about the band; if you do have a problem with that, please F.O.

Mountain Throne were formed in 2009 by Mirror Of Deception-members Andreas ‘A.’ Taller (g) and Jochen ‘J.’ Müller (d).

Austria’s Mastic Scum recently celebrated their twentieth anniversary, but the energy the members inject in their songs are far away from ‘guys being old’. The band has always been one of my favourite Alpine Grind / Death combos, with a hand full of great releases on their discography, appearing every three or four years.

I was enormously surprised by last year’s full length Uljas Uusi Maailma, Kuolemanlaakso’s debut for Svart Records. This new material was written and recorded under the same constellation and under the same moon, with producer / engineer Victor Santura taking care of the studio duties once more. And it was a correct decision to have all this stuff released as two different releases, the full album and this EP (on CD and vinyl, in both cases strictly limited).

Next year, Sweden’s Exhale (with former and current members of e.g. Anata, Inevitable End, Miseration, Cipher System or Age Of Woe) will celebrate their tenth anniversary. But first they wanted to release their third full length, after Prototype (2006, Emetic Records) and Blind (2010, Dark Balance Records).

Drugs Of Faith are a trio from North Virginia that did surprise me with their 2011 full length Corroded. On Poland’s Selfmadegod Records, Drugs Of Faith delivered different other brutal sonic attacks, which were well received within the Grindcore-undergrounds all over our detesting globe. The band was formed ten years ago by Richard Johnson, whom you might know as well from bands like Enemy Soil or Agoraphobic Nosebleed.

Finland’s Demilich were an important name during the earliest nineties. Their demo tapes got distributed all over Europe and abroad, and in 1993, Necropolis released the band’s debut full studio recording, Nespithe. This album has been re-issued a couple of times in the past, both officially and bootlegged, by the way. The band broke up a little later, and reformed in 2005 for a couple of months.