Quite soon after the full length Tysiacletnie Kajdany, which was this band’s fourth full length in a decade and a half of existence, Mystherium return with a new EP, Zwycięstwo. It’s a five-tracker that lasts for twenty-three minutes. The EP comes in a truly beautifully artistic CD-edition via Lower Silesian Stronghold, and there’s a (limited) tape-edition too (Werewolf Promotion). The material was mixed and mastered by Wojciech Cenajek at the Metal Sound Studio.
This untitled split album compiles previously released yet, sometimes, hard-to-get material from two cult-acts within the world of Thrash-Heavy-Fucking-Metal Violence. There’s Guerra Total at the one hand, a total-war horde from the capital of Colombia, and Metalucifer at the other, once started as a side-project for Japan’s finest Sabbat.
The Bearer of Death… Kalmankantaja is a productive outfit of a productive guy from Finland, Aki ‘Grim666’ Klemm. As musician, he’s involved with bands and projects like Hautakammio, Order Of The White Hand, Lathspell, Oath or Grimirg, amongst others, but he also runs the Patologian Laboratorio Productions label and the Patologian Laboratorio Studio.
Porcupine Tree frontman Steven Wilson acts under some other synonyms too. One of them is Bass Communion, which is a totally different outlet compared to his Rock-oriented bands or projects like, for example, higher mentioned Porcupine Tree, Storm Corrosion, Blackfield or Incredible Expanding Mindfuck.
Most of you will probable recognize the name of Nicolas Skog as the (sympathetic) guy behind one of Canada’s finest labels, Hypnotic Dirge Records. But he’s the guy as well who plays in Ancient Tundra, a project that surprised me enormously last year with Lost In Claustrophobic Thoughts.
One of the first Black Metal formations from New Zealand was (is) Vassafor, a band that has a limited curriculum vitae during the nineties. At the very end of last century, they broke up, but in 2004 Phil Kusabs decided to resurrect his main project. The guy, FYI, is involved with quite some other bands and projects too, but this review deals with higher aforementioned Vassafor, so I’ll stick to this one.
Soul Extremist is the very first release by a young duo (I do not know whether the members are young – just like I am – but the project was formed in 2015, and that’s what I meant with ‘young’ – except, once again, compared to my juvenile virility…). They’re called Temple Of Nihil, hailing from the Kaluga Oblast, somewhere in between Moscow at the one hand, and Ukraine and Belarus at the other.
Vortex might not be that known, but this project by German artist Marcus Stiglegger did release three albums before this one. Being inspired especially by cinematic concepts, ritual heritages and spiritual subjects in general, Marcus permanently searched for conceptual sources to create his evocative Music. With Moloch, Vortex (excerpt from the bio) ‘crafted an apocalyptic soundtrack for urban decay’.
I knew French artist Furniker (real name: Franz Schultz, very French indeed) from some material I heard via Murmure Intemporel, an experimental label from France’s soil. Recently I also received a copy of a new recording by this project of Herr Schulz, this time released via Death Carnival Records, one of the labels by the talented and devoted artist A.Arthur.
I usually do not write an article about a short preview on an upcoming release. But if asked very kindly, I can’t say no. Why should I ignore a good band anyway, especially when a review might mean some additional promotion and attention? So here I am…
