CD

The ancient city of Tier, not that far away from Moscow, capital of the Russian Federation, has quite an interesting history. Unfortunately, the old Soviet institutes sort of ‘killed’ quite some elements from the culture and traditions of that era, at the shores of the river Volga. But are several bands out there that try to revive the forgotten glory of that era / area, and amongst those is this one: Kreiviskai. The band was formed in 2013, and soon after their birth, the quartet started working on their debut full album.

Faunus Amadeus Loki acts under different monikers, both in collaboration with other artists (think Dracul - Order Of The Dragon), as well as solo (Herrenvolk, Stark von Oben, Endoki Forest); I recently wrote and updated the review for Endoki Forest’s Black Sorcerers Forest or Herrenvolk’s EP Imperator – see the upload of March 4^th 2016 and March 28^th 2016 respectively.

Abysmal Growls Of Despair are a very young yet extremely productive solo-project from Aimeric ‘Hangsvart’ Lerat, hailing from the south of France.

To celebrate their fifteenth year of existence, Quercus present us their third full length album, two years after Sfumato. This Czech act, with members from Umbrtka (vocalist Ondřej ‘Lord Morbivod’ Klášterka and multi-instrumentalist Lukáš Kudrna, with newly recruited keyboardist Marek ‘Markko’ Pišl), recorded this lengthy five-tracker over a period of almost one year.

How many bands do you know from Kazakhstan? Personally, I know about a handful of names - just by name (and maybe I’ve heard something of them on the net or on a sampler, but nothing more than that). And to be honest, in my (limited, haha) physical collection, there’s only one name that appears: Scolopendra Cingulata. And I have to say that I do truly adore their demo Paccbet (from 2014; you can find the short review on the update of December 2^nd 2014).

Formed a decade ago, South-France’s Pestiferum did offer the audience a limited yet highly acceptable number of releases; amongst those two splits (one with mighty Fhoi Myore) and a first album in 2009, being Solstice d’Hiver. Then, un moment donné, Pestiferum signed to (also mighty) Hass Weg Productions in order to release the sophomore full length studio album, Déchus Du Fléau, coming in an edition of 1,000 copies, including a sixteen-page booklet.

Despite being formed in 1992 (!), Riga, Latvia based act Claustrum did not actually realize a proper full length. There were some CDr’s before, live and split material, but Legion Of Silence seems to be this project’s very first ‘real’ full length. But believe me if I say that is was worth waiting for!!! Legion Of Silence, consisting of thirteen beautiful hymns, gets released via the mighty Old Captain label in a digipack edition, and this limited to 300 copies.

The Polish horde Aryman was formed at the very beginning of this century, but initially it was a band without name, without an aim (besides playing Black Metal!), without any official and professional recording or release. I guess it was in 2006 when main members Nefarius and Non Serviam decided to baptise their sonic brainchild as Aryman.

I recognize Pär Boström’s name from the (great) Cities Last Broadcast project (expect a review on The Humming Tapes, released via Simon Heath’s Cryo Chamber label, in a very near future). But apparently he and his twin sister, Åsa, have a mutual project going on as well, called Hymnambulae, as well as a new label, Hypnagoga Press.

Chasmbound are a young New York-based one-man army, formed in 2014 by Jun and now debuting with Sourpop via Montréal-based Deathbound Records. This first album was produced by Jun and engineer Jaime Marcelo, and mastered at GAB Recordings with Garry Brents. It’s recorded with the assistance of two additional session vocalists (A. Toussi and R. Gill), and the whole album lasts for about half an hour.