20 years in mean time, this Dutch Thrash band has climbed up to the highest regions of the international scene. Now, finally, after several years of silence, they return with their fifth full length, The Ferryman’s End, once again via France’s Listenable Records. It got recorded at the famous Soundlodge Studio and lasts for forty two minutes (I know, a very short introduction, but since their ‘popularity’, you will find everything you want to know on the net).
Young formation Lifestream hail from the Bordeaux era, one of my preferred regions when talking about rich French wines: Saint-Estèphe, Margaux, Pomerol. But this isn’t an oenological essay but a (serious) review on the band’s first official release, called Post Ecstatic Experience. The band consists of members from e.g. Demented and Otargos and they recorded (+ mixed and mastered) this debut at the Darkened Studio.
It was at the end of last decade that Balkor (the Toulouse-born guy involved with e.g. Pestiferum, Mourning Forest [(1)] or Caterva Runa) decided to start a new project in order to focus even deeper on the whole Old School current we all adore. So he started writing new material under the Halsfang-moniker, and step by step the realisation of an album transformed into a final stadium.
Blåkulla are an outfit by a French guy who calls himself Surtr Blackmoon Emperor aka S.B.E. (sometimes also active as Sveigdir Bölverks Einherjar). He released two recordings before, Darkened By An Occult Wisdom in 2011 and the EP Hymns To The Past Glory in 2013. Now he returns with his second full length, which gets released in an edition of 1,000 copies via Lower Silesian Stronghold, the label of Dark Fury’s band leader K.
This review deals not with a recording by German Death combo Common Grave (are you guys still active anyway?), but with the Italian Black Metal formation. They were formed at the end of last century, and after some demonstrational and promotional material, they did record and release their debut Il Male Di Vivire in 2008 via Eerie Art Records.
Projet Cluster are a trio I had not heard of before, but apparently they acted under the moniker of Sugar Pill before, if I’m not mistaken. In any case, Christopher Mc Ghee, Charlie Chine and Jérôme Grivel did record this album, Hoc Unto Fecit, live at the Chapelle St Catherine, Breil sur Roya (in the south of France, close to the Italian border), in November 2014, and it resulted in one lengthy piece of Aural Art (forty minutes of length in total).
One of the several solo-outfits started by the very young multi-instrumentalist Damien Anton ‘Elisa’ Ojeda is Born An Abomination, quite a productive outlet. On March 28th I did upload a review for an album by Sadness, another project from this person, and in the near future there will be a handful of others too (for e.g. Left Alone…, more Sadness material, or Nänmëë).
There are some things in our world which must rest eternally. But sometimes, in the deepest caves of the earth, where no light shines, there is a sound that echoes under the stones and wakes our nightmares… Still feeling comfortable?
For quite some time, and through different releases, French outfit Barbarossa Umtrunk gives its specific view on humanity (anti-Liberalism and searching the truth behind totalitarism in a democratic society; or am I misinterpreting the concept?) by means of quite unusual and eerie sonic escapes. This solo-project by Baron Von Stenay appears on splits especially, and now they return with a new full length, La Fosse De Babel (‘the tomb of Babel’).
I have to be honest, but I hadn’t heard of Jozef Van Wissem before. But actually, this guy did win an award in Cannes for the best soundtrack for the movie Only Lovers Left Alive (by James Roberto ‘Jim’ Jarmusch, known from the Coffee And Cigarettes motion pictures especially, I guess). Apparently, Jozef composed some material as well for some of the Sims video games, but with his lute, the guy did reach quite a bigger audience.
