Ivan Tibos.

My first acquaintance with Phurpa was about three years ago, when Cyclic Law released this project’s self-called album. I did a review for it, which had been published on November 16^th 2014. But this Russian act is active for quite some time. Actually, founding member Alexei Tegin started this outfit more than two decades ago, being inspired by the Bon cult, a tantric philosophy closely related, yet somewhat different (and older) than traditional Tibetan Buddhism as we, ignorant western people, know it.

As a convinced ‘fan’ of obscure, mystic, occult, ritual or just crazy Aural Art, I do whatever it takes - no, not whatever, yet at least quite a lot - to promote and support the (underground) scene. As an open-minded reviewer, I do write chronicles for new material, kindly offered to me by labels or bands / projects, but I do not mind, never at all, to spend my time on listening to, and writing about older material too. When a label or a band propose me to review an older recording, and in case I think it is worth spending my (valuable) time, I have no reason not to do so.

Doomster Reich are an act from the city of Łódź (located in the centre of Poland, about 140 kilometres South-West of capital city Warsaw), which were formed in 2012. They did release a first album in 2014, called The League For Mental Distillation, which I wasn’t that enormously enthusiastic about. Yet then again, I noticed a certain potentiality, despite leaving me unsatisfied. I did describe it like ‘The intentions, the ideas, are interesting; the final execution, unfortunately, is not - or at least: not yet.

Cold July Water is a co-operative work by two famous Experimental / Ambient / Drone artists, Arthur Arsenne and Vitaly Maklakov. First a short introduction on both of them.

Loud Rage Music is a Metal label from Romania, which focuses on Romanian bands (Ashaena, Blutrina, Whispering Woods, Akral Necrosis, Ordinul Negru, The Wake and some more) especially, though not exclusively, for they did release some albums from non-Romanian acts too in the meantime (like Tragacanth and Grieving Mirth). For the better part I did write a review (enter the label’s moniker in ‘search’…).

Finnish horde Gloomy Grim were formed in 1995 by Juha ‘Agathon’ Hintikka, who was in bands like Airdash and Corporal Punishment back then, and known for his membership (little later) in known acts like Thy Serpent, Walhalla and Soulgrind (of which he is still a member, like some other former or current Thy Serpent and Gloomy Grim members).

Aleksey from Satanath Records did sign the duo Lava Invocator in order to release their debut via this open-minded Saint-Petersburg located Metal label.

Tornio is a city in Finland, located at the border of Sweden (it’s like a sister-city of Sweden’s Haparanda), and at the very Northern shores of the Gulf of Bothnia. Tornio is also the location where Ordog hail from. The latter is a band that was formed at half of last decade, being named after the Hungarian word for ‘devil’. These Finnish doomsters did record and release a couple of demonstrational stuff, and five full lengths (without the compilation that covers the first demos).

Hailing from Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, Perpetratör return with their second album, Altered Beast, four years after the debut Thermonuclear Epiphany (released via both Stormspell Records and Caverna Abismal Records). The trio (with former and current members of e.g.

I must admit that I am not exactly Mater terra’s most convinced fan of Crust / Grind / Hardcore stuff, though I can appreciate that stuff when I am in the mood. And there are a couple of labels that can convince me with their Grind-edged stuff, like: Xtreem, Relapse, Identified By Dental, Selfmadegod, Unique Leader and so on.