CD

[review for ‘an older’ release, but once again: so what?! It is never too late to focus on intriguing Aural Art, even after a couple of years after an actual release date]

Once again thanks to the fabulous partnership of Armenia’s Funere and Japan’s Weird Truth Productions, German one-man act Sinister Downfall is able to release its third full-length. After Eremozoic (2018) and A Dark Shining Light (2020), The Last Witness was created to bring grief, oblivion, doom and despair in its purest – and therefor most beautiful – form. Herr Eugene Kohl (a very productive wandering spirit, also active behind the likes of e.g.

At the very end of last decade, Swiss vocalist (and keyboardist) David Genillard aka D.G. (known from his collaboration in e.g. Nightshade, Sic Semper Tyrannis or Duthaig) decided to start a new outfit that dwells within spheres of traditional Doom-Death Metal. He joined forces with string-master J.G. Arts (here active as J.A.), who you might know from his notorious Doom-act Doomcult (the Netherlands).

I’ll keep it short this time, for I will politely ask you to search the .net, or to read one of the reviews I did in the past (links below), to check out everything ‘behind’ the project Alphaxone and its human entity behind it, Mehdi Saleh. Once again, this album was totally written and created by this guy from Iranian soil, and released via long-time partner Cryo Chamber.

It is with grief, and shame, that I have to admit that I did not review any release for Depressive Black Ambient Records since more than half a year, despite two hands full of new (and great, evidently) releases. But I’ll make it all up, starting with this successor of Catharsis by Mexico’s Trauma.

In all honesty, I have seen this duo growing and growing throughout their time at the Aesthetic Death offices. I did not dislike Nightmare Painting at all, but I did ‘miss’ something essential. With Hallucinations, I enjoyed the important step forward enormously. But as from the last album, Decadent Luminosity, I was convinced about the impact Haiku Funeral have on my open-minded state-of-mind (for what it’s worth).

Short biography: formed in 2019, with an independently-released EP shortly after (including a Metallica-cover; and for what it’s worth: it was / is a stunning EP, with an amazing reinterpretation of that original anthem).

(released a year ago, but too great not to get reviewed…)

Very recently I got in touch with Wim ‘Snoodaert’, whom I knew from bands like Kludde, Morrigu or Welcome To Holyland, amongst others. This guy (whose artistic name ‘snoodaert’ is an archaic medieval word for ‘villain’ in old-Flemish) assured me that he started a new outfit (about two years ago) that would trespass all boundaries of normality. Well, let’s say that he did not exaggerate.

Under the moniker of Scorpio V, the Serbian guy Alexander runs a truly interesting number of outfits. He’s the guy behind the Prometheus Studio organization (which is ‘dedicated in delivering immersive musical narratives’), which releases (self-made) material by obscure and border-trespassing projects like Monasterium Imperi and Paleowolf, or the likes of Gaetir The Mountainkeeper, Forest Of Yore, Stronghold Guardian and several more.