Dec 032015
 

Three Eyes Left - 5

 

(Comrade Aleks brings us this interview with Andrea from the Italian band Three Eyes Left.)

The angry guys from Three Eyes Left will teach you how to worship Satan through unholy acts of headbanging under heavy and driving doom riffs! This outfit from Italian Bologna started its work in 2004 as a trio: Maic sings and plays guitars, Ste is responsible for drums, and Andrea is a bass-player. So since the band was born, the guys have released three full-length albums; the latest one was put out by Go Down Records in May 2015 and it wears the name of Asmodeus demon. This record is the first part of trilogy; I’ve had a conversation with chief demonologist Andrea and he reveals some aspects of the Three Eyes Left iconoclastin cult.

******

Hi comrade Andre! How are you? What’s new in the Three Eyes Left camp?

We are writing new material for the next chapter of our Demon Trilogy that began with Asmodeus and we’re trying to do our best with old songs for the next live concert. It will be somber and doomy like hell. Continue reading »

Dec 032015
 

Martriden-Cold and the Silence

 

(Andy Synn reviews the first album by Martriden in almost six years, which unexpectedly appeared on Bandcamp earlier this week.)

So formerly Montana-based and now Denver-based Progressive Black Metallers Martriden decided to go the Krallice route with the release of their latest album, and drop it onto Bandcamp earlier this week with little to no fanfare preceding its appearance. Thankfully for all of you, I’m a huge (borderline obese) fan of this band, so the second I spotted the message about its release I dived on it as if it were a live grenade/puppy and have been listening to it almost non-stop ever since.

What I’ve found, however, is that, for whatever reason, this is actually a pretty hard album to review. For me, anyway. I’ve written, deleted, and rewritten so many paragraphs about each track and then scrapped them totally so many times now that the version you’re currently reading bears little to no resemblance to what I originally intended when I first set out to form my thoughts into (semi)coherent sentences. Continue reading »

Dec 032015
 

Against the Plagues-Purified Through Devastation

 

On December 18, the Dutch label Non Serviam Records will release the new album by multinational, Chicago-based extreme metal band Against the Plagues. Entitled Purified Through Devastation, it’s emblazoned with the flame-throwing cover art of Pär Oloffson and it includes a lot of flame-throwing music, too — as you will discover, through our premiere of a track called “Man’s Modern World“.

At just over 47 minutes in length, the album is a full-bodied offering of blackened death metal and features a revised line-up for this band, which includes current or former members of Damnation, Forest Of Impaled, Luciferion, and Throne of Sacrilege, among others. Continue reading »

Dec 032015
 

ironcladalchemy

 

(Grant Skelton brings us this collection of new music and videos by seven bands.)

IRONCLAD

To form a band and then release a debut EP in the span of only three months seems a daunting task. But that’s exactly what happened for Ironclad from South Wales in the United Kingdom.

Their current line up includes Steve Taran (bass) and John Courage (guitar), also of folk/pagan metal outfit Siluria. Trak is the man behind the drumkit, while Dean Fletcher (Black Tamanous, Godkilla) handles vocal duties. Continue reading »

Dec 022015
 

Vale of Pnath kickstarter

 

It seems that almost every day brings news of metal bands or other artists associated with metal attempting to raise money for their projects (or their own survival) through crowd-funding campaigns. If we attempted to provide news of such things on a consistent basis, we’d probably never get anything else done around here. But the three items I’ve collected in this post caught my eye for differing reasons, and so I’m making an exception.

VALE OF PNATH

(Austin Weber graciously volunteered to write this first blurb, and these are his words.)

Back in 2011, a little-known band from Colorado called Vale Of Pnath dropped a monster of a debut full-length through Willowtip Records named The Prodigal Empire. With the passage of time, The Prodigal Empire has been rightly lauded as top-tier technical death metal music that fans of the genre hold dear. In the years following its release the band has lost and gained various members, which has unfortunately delayed the release of a follow-up from the group. Continue reading »

Dec 022015
 

Humanitas Error Est-Jewelcase-Cover

 

Human Pathomorphism is the debut album by the German black metal horde Humanitas Error Est, and it’s set for release on January 11, 2016, by the unholy quartet of Satanath Records (Russia), The Black Plague (U.S.), Abstruse Eerie Radiance (Belgium), and The True Plague (U.S.). Today we present the exclusive premiere of a track from the album named “Quod Homo Apellatur Morbus Est“.

Few people alive can tell you what it’s like to be caught up in a cyclone, but you can imagine that experience when you listen to this song — except in this case it’s more like being whipped around in a tornado of flame and knives. Continue reading »

Dec 022015
 

Poland_map_flag.svg

 

(As part of our annual LISTMANIA series, KevinP brings us his round-up of awards for 2015.)

Here’s my rundown on the best stuff of the year that doesn’t fit into my Top 25 Albums and EP’s of the Year column (which will be published next month).

 

Best Metal Country:  POLAND

How many Polish albums does it take to win the “best of” honors?  Apparently 8.  1 to hold the lightbulb… ok, you’re not here for the jokes.  This year featured releases ranging from outstanding to solid by Outre, Lost Soul, Blaze of Perdition, Mgła, Infernal War, Manipulation, Ogotay, and Kult Mogil.  Greece, who won last years award, had yet another solid year, but was edged out by the big 3 kielbasas of Outre, Lost Soul, and Blaze of Perdition, a trio that’s impossible to beat. Continue reading »

Dec 022015
 

wrathrone

 

(In this post, Latvian music journalist Evita Hofmane presents her interview with vocalist Matti Vehmas of the Finnish band Wrathrone, whose debut album Born Beneath is coming out next month.)

How many death metal bands are in Finland? Nobody knows.

Wrathrone saw the darkness of the day at the end of the year 2008, when Mr. Holm and Mr. Vehmas started to think how great it would be to start playing some good old death metal. And that is what they did.

The band is about to release their first full-length album Born Beneath on January 22nd, 2016, via Inverse Records. The album consists of eight slammering old-school death metal hits. The pre-sale has now begun worldwide at the Inverse shop (here) and at Levykauppa ÄX (here).

To promote the album they will begin the Born Beneath tour this December with two exclusive shows in the Baltics. After the release, the band will continue the tour in Finland and hopefully abroad as well! Continue reading »

Dec 012015
 

Baphomet's Blood-In Satan We trust

 

I have so much new music I’d like to tell you about, but not enough time for all the telling. Not for the first time, I thought about giving the tracks to the loris horde and letting them do the write-ups. Not for the first time, I came to my senses before it was too late. I’d still be waiting for their work product this time next year. So, with a sigh, I’ve randomly picked new music from four bands for now, and hope to write about more tomorrow (assuming I can finish a review I’m scribbling about something very surprising).

BAPHOMET’S BLOOD

On Saturday, Iron Bonehead Productions announced that on January 25, 2016, they will release a vinyl version of a new album by Italy’s Baphomet’s Blood. This is the band’s fourth album, and their first one in nearly seven years, and its name is In Satan We Trust. On they same day, we got the first advance track to stream, a whiskey-fueled rocker named… “Whiskey Rocker”. Continue reading »

Dec 012015
 

California Deathfest II-initial flyer

 

Over the last 24 hours I spotted some announcements about some unholy festivals that I thought were worth passing along:

CALIFORNIA DEATHFEST 2016

They probably still haven’t finished cleaning up the Oakland Metro after the inaugural edition of the California Deathfest in October (which I scribbled about in these posts), and now CDF has already announced the initial list of bands for the follow-up installment of the festival on October 14-16, 2016 — and it’s a damned fine beginning. Take a look: Continue reading »