Ivan Tibos.

The Post / Sludge genre is permanently growing, and for sure the French scene is one of the most prominent ones worldwide. One of my most beloved acts from France is Dirge, hailing from Paris, and active for almost twenty-five years. In the earliest years, the band brought some kind of industrialised and psych-grinding Metal (also quite ‘popular’ in their home country), yet throughout the years they evolved a lot. Dirge recorded and released six albums in the meantime, but the last one, Hyperion (*), was released four and a half years ago.

I do remember that I did end my review for Malthusian’s debut demo (which was called MMXIII; (*)) with: ‘I NEED MORE! When can we expect a full album? SOON, I hope!’ Okay, to be honest, I did not remember this anymore – I just read it again a couple of minutes ago – but that is of no importance, haha. But I did mean it back then. I was craving for more, much more. Apparently, this Irish band had an EP in 2015 (Below The Hengiform, also via Invictus Productions), but it never crossed my path, unfortunately.

When Satan Maleficarium were put asleep, bass player Vixxer and screamer Necro decided to start a new outfit. Together with drummer Krilin and lead guitar player Cynic (Necro now does the rhythm guitars too), they formed Akelarre, which means something like ‘witches’ sabbath’ in the Basque language. This Mexican horde recorded some demonstrational recordings, and in their local scene, they gained a steamy live reputation.

It is always a great thing to get confronted with new material on Eighth Tower Records, for this Italian label, part of the Unexplained Sounds Group family, did release some excellent stuff in the past. This time the release deals with a four-way partnership, which includes at least one project that I deeply adore – and now, after a couple of listens, that number did increase up to four!

The name ‘Aornos’ comes from a fortress in contemporary Pakistan, more or less ‘close’ to the Himalayan mountains and the Indus river. It was a fortified site known for the passing of Alexander the Great and his final siege (or at least one of the latest ones), some centuries before our modern era. It is the moniker as well for a productive outfit by Tatrai ‘Algras’ Csaba, a Hungarian multi-instrumentalist who is member of Frost too, and who used to be in bands like Carcharoth and Bornholm.

I used to be a devoted Death Metal fan at the end of the Eighties and during the Nineties. However, so many new bands showed up, and the better part was (and still is) crap! Okay, the very same goes for Black Metal, but the average level is, to my opinion, still much higher when talking about the latter. Within the Death Metal scene, so many fake stuff appeared, and that’s why I am quite sceptic when getting introduced to a new band.

I am not about to write a huge introduction on MZ.412. I am intending to get little deeper into the history of this legendary act when reviewing the re-release of 1995’s In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi (to be released on vinyl in a couple of weeks via AnnapurnA). But praise the Horned Lord of Black Industrial, because Nordvargr, Drakh and Ulvtharm joined forces once more to continue their aural saga of diabolical destruction.

It is a very sympathetic thing to do, dearest Aleksey, to celebrate you 200^thSatanath Records release by means of Panchrysia. Good idea, respect, haha!

Often it is a pleasure to experience the result of a collaboration in between two artists from the Drone / Ambient / Experimental / Noise scene.

Because I am quite thrilled by Sombre Présage, I heard about Occultum Productions, a label hailing from Lyon, a city in the South-East of France. And the first time when I was delving deep into their catalogue, I was so impressed. This label, unfortunately underestimated (but I will change that, haha!), houses several highly qualitative bands and projects – it would be stupid to list up some of them, for (almost) all of them a worth being mentioned.