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.
I knew a Texas-based Thrash band called Pendulum (it was a long time ago), and it was the moniker as well in the earliest years for Carpathian Full Moon, but this review deals with a French act, nowadays coming from the city of Nantes, in the West of France, at the border of the Loire river (a region known for some highly agreeable Muscadet wines, but that’s irrelevant right here).
If you believe it or not (not that I do care about what you believe), but there sort of is a small and hidden yet highly impressive scene in Iran. Personally I owe (and appreciate) stuff from ‘out there’ within several of my favourite aural genres, like Drone / Dark Ambient (such as Xerxes The Dark, Alphaxone, Porya Hatami) and (different kinds of) Black Metal (Ekove Efrits, Margg, Silent Path, Aras, Nathorg, …), amongst others.
I do follow Germany-based Old Pagan for quite some time. The members joined forces two decades ago, and since then they did record and release quite some interesting material. In 2014, for example, Vacula Productions and Narbentage Produktionen did release the album MaledictusS (which was actually recorded a couple of years before, yet not released until then); a review which I did write for that recording was published on December 24th 2015, by the way.
‘negru pvlse’, it does include ‘negru’ and ‘pvlse’ (but the smartest ones amongst you saw that…). But I mean, it’s ‘negru’ as in Negru Voda, and ‘pvlse’ as in Moljebka Pvlse. And hey, this seems to be a project of Mathias Josefson (Moljebka Pvlse) and Peter Nyström (Negru Voda) indeed…
On March 21st 2016, a partnership of Hypnotic Dirge Records and BadMoodMan Music (a side-label of Solitude Productions) resulted in the release of two albums: Cold Redrafted by Negative Voice (the review was published on July 4th 2016 – for the review, just enter the band’s name in the ‘search’-tab) and Immensity’s debut The Isolation Splendour. Both releases are somewhat comparable in approach, so pay attention!
American act Concrete Mascara floats around for five years or so, yet despite their ‘limited’ number of years of existence, they brutally reached the top of the international Power Electronics community. Concrete Mascara’s debut Blossoms Of Shame (Corrosive Arts Records, 2014) got highly acclaimed, and now the project returns with the sophomore album Perennial Disappointment via mighty Malignant Records.
Sintax were formed at the end of 2010 in Jerusalem, Israel, by some members from acts like Birth, Salem, Sensorium (though I didn’t think Nir was the original drummer, actually) and Shwortsechaye. In mean time, they gained an enormous fan-base in their home country, being considered as one of the most prominent live acts around.
