Ivan Tibos.

~~Tino Thiele and Jens Roder joined forces under the Wulfgar banner, being named after the barbarian warrior from Icewind Dale, created by American SF / fantasy novelist / author Robert A. Salvatore. They are not to be mistaken for the Swedish (Death Metal) band, for your information! This Brandenburg-based duo did record the Heidenwahn album after quite a long period of silence; the last album (Jens wasn’t part of the project yet) was released in 2008, so for the ‘fans’ is might have been quite a period of impatience and uncertainness.

~~Mark ‘Hellcommander Vargblood’ Azzopardi is a (talented) musician from Malta. He was involved with acts such as legendary X-Vandals (for sure one of the oldest bands ever from those Mediterranean islands, once formed as Vandals), Hell Rats and Martyrium. However, he is the very same guy behind mighty Draugûl, one of the several superb projects on Pesttanz Klangschmiede. I wrote two reviews for this solo-outfit in the past, and in a near future I will write one on the third full length album too – but that’s not relevant right now. Just stay attentive.

~~Pénitence Onirique is born from an ancestral and powerful bicephalous mystical appearance…

“forget your world and open your souls because the great procession comes.”

V.I.T.R.I.O.L. is taking us for an initiatory journey to the meaning of death…

…and so on…

Friuli is a region in Italy, in between the Gulf of Trieste (the northernmost part of the Adriatic Sea) and the Dolomites, somehow at the feet of the mighty Alps, near the borders with Slovenia and Austria. Nature-wise it’s a fabulous area, quite unspoiled, with only a handful of larger (mainly ancient and, therefore, not that ugly-industrialised) cities. Oops, I sound like a touristic guide…

Ventre, dear reader, is actually a total artistic package, i.e. a book and a CD in one. But it’s not the first time that Cyclic Law come up with such thing. Cyclic Press can be considered as a visual art book-oriented sub-label of Cyclic Law, with material done before by Krist Mort and Dehn Sora.

I had not heard of Slovakian project Keosz before, but what sole member Erik Osvald brings with Be Left To Oneself surely fits to the ‘cinematic’ approach of the fabulous Cryo Chamber roster. Erik took care of song writing, performance / recording / production, as well as the artwork, and the mastering for this album, which lasts for forty-nine minutes, was done by label-owner Simon Heath (like about all releases on his label).

In a couple of days I will publish the review for Khaospath’s …For The Devil Speaks The Truth, their latest record, released via Belgium’s Immortal Frost Productions (don’t miss it!), but first I’ll focus on the former full length by these Swedes (actually, the origins lie in Malta). I know that this is an ‘older’ recording in mean time, but then again: it is never, and I repeat: NEVER, too late to give some additional promotion and attention to great material!

When Aleksey Korolyov from Satanath Records did send me a new package of releases for both his labels (besides Satanath Records, Aleksey also runs Symbol Of Domination Productions), I was sort of aroused. There are different reasons. First of all, I do appreciate the variation of material.

Astral Winter are an outfit by Josh Young, quite a young guy from the Australian island Tasmania.

Tragacanth are a young band from Holland, consisting of members involved with e.g. Thrash-act Chained Messiah and melodic Death Metal band Shade Of Hatred. But the band also includes Adrian Neagoe (here acting under the nickname OqPe Bune or OQ), who several amongst us do know from his involvement with (the likes of) Negura Bunget.