If I am not mistaken, Haiku Funeral were created in 2008 in the south of France by two guys, Dimitar Dimitrov (vocals, electronics, keyboards, hailing from Bulgaria) and William Kopecky (fretless bass, vocals, sitar; originating from the U.S.) under the influence of hallucinogenic and psychotropic pleasure. After three official recordings in the period 2008-2010, the duo signed to Aesthetic Death, and those trusted with this mind-blowing label will not be surprised.
Ethir Anduin are a productive formation, formed in 2006 in Leningrad by Alexey ‘Fenrir’ Veselov (currently also in Bestial Deform, by the way). Throughout this decade, Ethir Anduin (being a solo-outfit) recorded and released quite some stuff, including a hand full of full-length studio albums (many of them being self-released) (amongst them: I Magen Av Svart Kaos – link below)
Guillaume Taliercio is known from his activities in bands like Cowards, Colossus Of Destiny and Eibon especially. The guy wrote some material during the first half of this decade, which did not exactly fit to one of the combos he is involved with, so he composed it as a personal project, which eventually got baptized as Heaume Mortal. He did it, and this isn’t but informative, under the name Guillaume Morlat, by the way.
I had not heard of Unmensch before, but that is not that strange, for this project was formed just two years ago. It is the outlet of one ZR, a guy (or girl, who knows) from the far West of Flanders. Little is known about both musician and project, for Scorn is the first official release by this mysterious outfit. The only thing I know is that his or her ‘music reflects the resentment towards the herd and focusses on individual strength and wisdom’. As a one-(wo)man army that’s an honest statement!
One of the first reviews, maybe the first, that I did for Eighth Tower Records (a strongly upcoming label run by Sonologyst’s Raffaele) was The Cave Of Metaphysical Darkness & Lights (http://www.concreteweb.be/reviews/moloch-conspiracy), released one year ago. And now the label and the project joined forces once more for the release of Baclou, an eight-track registration that clocks over fifty minutes.
Indesiderium are a two-piece from Los Angeles, California, formed in 2012 by vocalist / lyricist / bassist / guitarist / composer Atrum Lorde aka Atrum Abbas, and drummer / keyboardist / mixer / master Mattias ‘No-Body’ Snyder (both of them were colleagues in Gravespawn for quite some time, for your sweet information). They officially debuted in 2015 with the full-length Wanderer Of The Abyssal Plains (self-released).
The Polish Black Metal scene might be (one of) the ‘richest’ from Eastern Europe, I think, so there might be an impressive amount of qualitatively high-standard bands dwelling around there too. And one of the top acts – at least, this is my personal opinion, for what it’s worth – is this one: Gurthang. In essence, it is the brainchild of one A.Z.V. aka Azathoth, whom you might know as well from, for example, Cosmic Despair, Beyond Life or Azathoth (defunct in the meantime).
About one year after the grandiose recording Particle Void, also released via mighty Cryo Chamber, the duo Martin Stürtzer and Christian Stritzel return with their fourth masterwork. It was a coincidence, or a prophetic omen, but the day before label owner Simon Heath did send me this album’s download link, I had listened to Particle Void once again because I just felt like. Karma or not, but it made me aroused for some (understandable) reason.
Phil Illsley used to be the lead vocalist in Lordaeron for several years, and he’s involved with bands such as Taken By The Tide or Death Tripper too. But as A|V, he recently started the project Abduction. This solo-outfit is modestly productive, for Abduction recently released a new full-length album, the third one in nearly two years. The working title of that recording is All Pain Is Penance.
For sure being one of my favourite bands from the Middle-East, From The Vastland actually hail from Iran, although band leader Sina lives in Norway nowadays. The guy started this outfit in 2010 and throughout almost a decade of existence, he wrote and recorded some very nice stuff. From The Vastland debuted in 2011 with Darkness Vs.
