CD

A quick one… Not only because it’s a short one (fifteen minutes), but because I want to make a statement: Sepulchral Curse, take care of a full length soon!!!

Redemption is the latest album by Polish horde Preludium. It was released at the very beginning of 2014 (indeed, almost a year and a half ago) but there’s a reason why I still want to write a review about it, besides my unconditionally urge to promote both band and label. When talking about the latter, well, Transcending Obscurity gets run by Kunal Choksi, one of the most sympathetic and devoted persons I met lately.

Finnish horde Archgoat was formed at the end of the eighties, and after the recording of some demo tapes, they wrote some new material that was supposed to be released via Necropolis Records (which, at that time, was one of the most impressive underground labels, I think), along with some older stuff that appeared on the demonstrational recordings. Normally it would come out in 1993, but because of some specific circumstances, the release got postponed.

Apontokation are a band from Guadix, Spain, formed in 2010 by guitar player Patxi and drummer Sijmen. With three other members, Apontokation recorded a first demo in 2011, called Awakening The Beast, followed in 2012 / 2013 by a second demonstrational record, Bloody Carnival (after being ‘reduced’ from a quintet to a quartet). In the meantime, the band was able to perform on festivals like Skulls Of Metal, Blood Fest, Exorcismo Vaginal Fest, Coin Rock etc.

Satanath Records’ head commander Aleksey let me know, a couple of weeks ago, to look out for some auditive quality from my home country, i.e. Vlaanderen / Flanders, eh, I mean Belgium. And indeed, Zardens are the first Belgian band on this superb Russian label. Actually, sub-label SODP had some stuff from right here in a recent past (Scum Noise and Vox Impia), and in mean time also Angakok signed to Satanath.

Neter are a Spanish four-piece which I hadn’t heard of before. Apparently they did release a first album about exactly six years ago (title: Nec Spe Nec Metu), but then everything turned into relative silence. Until now… the band returns with Idols, which lasts for forty five minutes.

It took quite some time, because the last Macabre Demise-album, Stench Of Death, was released in 2011. But now the German grind-head behind this project, Andreas Rieger, returns with another extreme effort, Homicidal Parasites, which has a total running time of twenty six minutes. The stuff was recorded by the sole member, Andreas (vocals, strings and drum computer programming), and believe it or not, but mix and mastering were done in Venezuela (Abhorrent Technology Productions).

The Russian one-man army Error gate was founded by Rigor in 2010 as Eg, and that’s why the current name still gets spelled as Error gate and not Error Gate – I understand that might seem quite irrelevant, yet purists amongst us will surely appreciate this worthy information. Or not… The project does not stand for (excerpt from their own bio:) ‘just music; it is the concept of perception of the world, nature, thoughts and consciousness’.

Once again I have the honor / the opportunity / the task to write a review on a Polish Death Metal recording, and okay, Poland is one of the most influential, inspirational and impressing countries when talking about ‘pure’ and ‘technical’ Death Metal, but I am sort of satisfied (going for both the positive as well as the negative definition of this description) by the overcrowded scene. That’s why I was sort of skeptical when listening to this album for the first time.

Mories is the ‘artist name’ of Maurice de Jong, which is one of the most grim-thinking Dutch guys within the sonic netherworlds. He’s known from tens of solo-outfits and a couple of collaborations, with Gnaw Their Tongues, De Magia Veterum, Aderlating and Seirom being the best known ones, I think. Under the moniker of Cloak Of Altering, he did record and release some very impressive stuff before too.