Ivan Tibos.

Doom Metal has many faces; that’s something we all know, that isn’t but a cheap side-line. Making abstraction of the Black-, Funeral-, Sludge- and Death-oriented sub-genres (amongst others), and concentrating on the more traditionally inspired bands, there are some huge different interpretations as well. There’s the so-called Epic-scene (with sword and shield), the Sixties-oriented one (with joint and mushroom), the sabbathesque clones (also with joint and mushroom), and so on, and so on.

HateSphere dwell within a specific genre I do not like that much, but this Danish act has always been one of my absolute favourites within this modern Thrash-edged scene. The Napalm-release To The Nines from 2009, for example, was for sure one of my favourite Thrash albums that very same year.

The Portuguese band Destroyers Of All was formed in 2011 by current or former members of e.g. Antichthon, Seventh Seal, Strikeback and Crystalline Darkness.

Four years after Emaciated Deity, French horde Bliss Of Flesh, with former Deviant Surgeon- and Fist 69-members, return with Beati Pauperes Spiritu, which has duration of about forty nine minutes.

Another excellent release via Germany’s top-label Iron Bonehead in quite an impressing series that we did receive at our headquarters, is the extended vinyl-edition of 2012’s …Smouldering demo by Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany-based trio Abyssous.

The Ruins Of Beverast were formed ten years ago by Alexander von Meilenwald after Nagelfar (unfortunately!) split up. The project did three albums in mean time (all of them via the small yet, at the same time, great underground label Ván Records), Unlock The Shrine, Rain Upon The Impure, and Foulest Semen Of A Sheltered Elite, which all, without exception, were of a fabulous quality (at least I think so).

Scarecrow N.W.A. (and ‘N.W.A.’, for your information, stands for new world annihilation) hail from the Austrian city of Graz, and they formed more than fifteen years ago.

I was pretty impressed by Nekrofilth’s 2008-demo (re-released in 2011 via their current label, Hells Headbangers; see update on May 8^th 2011 in the Archives-section). The stuff got followed by two splits, one with almighty NunSlaughter and one with Speedwolf (resp. on Hells Headbangers and Doomentia), and earlier this year the band and Doomentia released the EP Street Bitch.

Norway’s Drottnar were formed in 1996 as Vitality, back then playing a slightly technical form of Death Metal. Shortly after, they did change both name (into the current one, Drottnar) and musical approach, the latter being more epic and paganized Black Metal oriented. But during the 2000’s, the style evolved some more, floating into the actual direction of experimental and technical Grind-Metal with, musically, a profound Black Metal foundation.

At the end of Summer 2009, drummer Quint Meerbeek (ex-Bloodphemy & Autumnal Reaper) and guitarist / vocalist Thomas Wouters formed Bodyfarm with the intention to pay tribute to the basics of pure Death Metal. In 2010 there was a self-called EP, followed by their Cyclone Empire-debut Malevolence (review updated on August 29^th 2012 by undersigned). In mean time, the band also built a huge reputation as live act within the trans-European scene.