#7 Inside the darkness by Inside The Darkness

#7†30.11.2019

MAYHEM/GAAHLS WYRD IN LONDON PROFANATICA IN BOGOTA DJEVEL IN LONDON THY ANTICHRIST IN BOGOTA ASAGRAUM IN LONDON BOGOTA GRIND DEATH FEST IMPERIUM DEKADENZ IN LONDON IMPALED NAZARENE IN BOGOTA News•Reviews•Interviews•Exclusive

CREW A special thanks to... Mark Walsh for IMPERIUM DEKADENZ/ ASAGRAUM/DJEVEL/MAYHEM/Gaahls Wyrd in London reviews Diego Molina for Profanatica, Thy Antichrist, Birth Death Party 15, Bogota Grind Death Fest XVIII and Grita Fest reviews Helmuth Lehner (Belphegor) for his TOTAL support

Evgeny-Destroyer Editor-in-chief, design https://www.facebook.com/ evgeny.dubovskoy Mail: destroyerr78@mail.ru WhatsApp: +79180242178

Olga «Blackie» Schneider Editor, interviewer, text corrector https://www.facebook.com/ olga.metalheart Mail: olgaschneider.1997@gmail.com Inst:https://www.instagram.com/blackie_metalheart/

...and especially to these people for the interviews Marius Vold (Mortem) Adam “Atf Sinner” Buszko (Hate) Evgeny Belikov (Eskalada) Totleben and Narbengrund Nihilis (Totengefluster) Micke and Mattias (In Pain) Mafalda ‘Muffy’ Hortas (Karbonsoul)

https://destroyerr78.wixsite.com/insidethedarkness https://www.facebook.com/InsideTheDarknessWebzine/ https://www.instagram.com/inside_the_darkness_webzine/ https://vk.com/insidethedarknessmetalwebzine

Editor’s brief

Hails to everyone who’s reading it right now! First of all, must say that I can’t believe it’s been a year since the edition was founded. Moreover, working process was kinda special for us this time. For me personally it was a time of some drastic changes in my life, and I can assure that our editorial board will definitely get some profit from these changes. Despite the fact that our chef editor recently got a dangerous hand trauma, we can proclaim with pride that we’ve fukked all the circumstances and... Just did it! It was strongly done, man! We express our infernal gratitude to everyone who took part in creative process this time, who helped us and supported us. You guys are the main reason why we’re here. Enjoy! Olga Schneider, editor&just a devil woman

CONTENT Mortem Interview with Marius...........10 Hate Interview with Adam “Atf Sinner” Buszko...........14 Eskalada Interview with Evgeny.............18

News from hell..........................................4

Profanatica in Bogota review...............56 Thy Antichrist in Bogota review..........59 Birth Death Party 15 review...................62 Bogota Grind Death Fest XVIII review....66 Grita Fest 2019 review..............................72 IMPERIUM DEKADENZ/ASAGRAUM/ DJEVEL/MAYHEM/Gaahls Wyrd in London..............................................76

Totengefluster Interview with Totleben and Narbengrund Nihilis......................22 In Pain Interview with Micke and Mattias.....28 Karbonsoul Interview with Muffy..............34

Best metal releases..............36

Inside The Darkness reviews............82

Metalheads are wait it............84

World Metal News The longest-running

extreme metal indoor festival of the Netherlands (black/death/thrash/doom metal & grindcore) takes place on 13 & 14 December 2019 at Effenaar in Eindhoven. Before the main festival of Eindhoven Metal Meeting 2019 is going to start there will be a warm-up party in the same venue, the Effenaar, on Thursday December the 12th. These four bands will be performing: the Swiss of Matterhorn, their fellow Swiss Bolzer, the Norwegians of Dodheimsgard and the Poles of Blaze of Perdition.

Friday December 13 Main Stage 17:00-17:40 The Committee 18:00-19:00 Tsjuder 19:30-20:30 Alcest 21:00-22:00 Bloodbath 22:30-23:30 Sodom 00:00-01:00 Kampfar District-19 Stage 16:30-17:00 Lucifericon 17:20-18:00 Asagraum 18:20-19:00 Acrostichon 19:20-20:00 Bodyfarm 20:20-21:10 Nocturnal Breed 21:40-22:30 The Vision Bleak 23:00-23:50 The Ruins of Beverast 00:10-01:00 Burning Witches

Saturday December 14 Main Stage 16:00-16:50 1914 17:20-18:10 Spectral Voice 18:40-19:40 M.O.D. 20:10-21:10 Dying Fetus 21:40-22:50 Candlemass 23:20-00:30 Paradise Lost 01:00-02:00 Taake District-19 Stage 15:30-16:00 BĂźtcher 16:20-17:00 Graceless 17:20-18:00 Darkfall 18:20-19:00 Hellfire Deathcult 19:20-20:00 Hour of Penance 20:20-21:10 Officium Triste 21:30-22:20 Haemorrhage 22:40-23:30 MĂśrk Gryning 23:50-00:40 Malokarpatan 01:00-01:40 Undead Prophecies 02:00-02:30 Rectal Smegma 4

Mass Deathtruction Festival is back in 2019! DATE Saturday 2019

7th

December

PLACE Salle de La Sucrerie Rue de lâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;Hermitage 43/45 1300 Wavre Belgium

10:45 DOORS OPEN 11:00-11:30 DEMENZIA MORTIS (BE) 11:40-12:15 EXUVIATED (BE) 12:30-13:10 SUBLIME CADAVERIC DECOMPOSITION (FR) 13:30-14:10 AU CHAMP DES MORTS (FR) 14:60-15:10 AKTARUM (BE) 15:40-16:20 HAMFERD (FO) 16:40-17:25 AZARATH (PL) 17:45-18:30 SEVERE TORTURE (NL) 19:00-20:00 BORKNAGAR (NOR) 20:30-21:30 MGLA (PL) 22:00-23:00 MOONSORROW (FI) 23:30-00:45 DARK FUNERAL (SWE)

World Metal News This year, 70,000 Tons of Metal will be voyaging to Cozumel, Mexico, the original cruise destination when the festival launched in 2009. Since that inaugural year, the ship has been upgraded to the 154,000 ton-plus luxury cruise ship, the Independence of the Seas, which will host 120 total performances between Jan. 7 and Jan. 11. As always, 70000 Tons Of Metal will be host of some very exclusive performances: MOONSORROW will perform its album «Verisäkeet» in its entirety and WINTERSUN will play its only two shows of 2020 on board.

36 out of 60 bands: Aborted Haggard Aether Realm Insahn Archon Angel Kampfar Atheist Kissin’ Dynamite At the Gates Leaves Eyes Axxis Michael Schenker Fest Bloodbound Moonsorrow Candlemass Omnium Gatherum Carach Angren Origin Cattle Decapitation Orphaned Land Cruachan Soen Devin Townsend Sortilege Einherjer Stam1na Emperor Suffocation Epica The Agonist Finntroll Trollfest Flotsam and Jetsam Venom Grave Digger Wintersun

With nine consecutive sellouts since the first voyage in 2011, this five-day, four-night heavy metal music festival and Caribbean vacation will celebrate Round X in 2020, offering 3000 metalheads the unique opportunity to mingle side-by-side with 60 world-class heavy metal bands.

HATE announces European tour in support of SUFFOCATION and BELPHEGOR! Legendary Polish blackened death cultists HATE have released their latest work “Auric Gates of Veles” through Metal Blade Records in June of 2019. After numerous tours and festival appearances throughout the year, the band is now announcing their first tour for 2020! Both musically and visually “Auric Gates of Veles” shows HATE at its most mystically morbid and hauntingly violent. To go along with the album release, HATE released a clip for the song “Sovereign Sanctity” that delves deeper into the themes of the album. Check out music and videos from Auric Gates of Veles at: metalblade.com/hate - where you can also purchase the album in various formats. HATE OFFICIAL MERCH STORE: https://hate.animate-records.com/ Premium merchandise, top service and fast worldwide shipping.

Fri 13.03 - Wil (SUI) “Gare de Lion” Tue 17.03 - Bilbao (SPA) “Stage Live” Wed 18.03 - Santiago (SPA) “Capitol” Thu 19.03 - Porto (POR) “Hard Club” Fri 20.03 - Lisbon (POR) “RCA Club” Sat 21.03 - Madrid (SPA) “Independence” Sun 22.03 - Barcelona (SPA) “Razzmatazz” Wed 25.03 - Saarbrucken (GER) “Garage” Sat 22.02 - Helsinki (FIN) “Aaniwalli” Thu 26.03 - Oberhausen (GER) “Helvete” Sun 23.02 - Tampere (FIN) “Klubi” Fri 27.03 - Leipzig (GER) “Felsenkeller” Tue 25.02 - Stockholm (SWE) “Slaktkyrkan” More dates t.b.a. Wed 26.02 -Malmo (SWE) “PlanB” Thu 27.02 - Aalborg (DEN) “Studenterhuset” Other HATE live shows: Fri 28.02 - Berlin (GER) “Orwo Haus” 15/03/20 CZ – Ostrava – Necro Metal Pilgrims Sat 29.02 - Prague (CZE) “Futurum” 22-23/07/20 PT – Laurus Nobilis Fest Sun 01.03 - Kosice (SVK) “Collosseum” 31/07-01/08/20 IE – Cork – Monolith Festival Mon 02.03 - Bucharest (ROM) “Quantic Club” 15/08/20 PL – Wroclaw – Siekiera Fest Wed 04.03 - Sofia (BLG) “Mixtape5” Sun 08.03 - Venice (ITA) “Revolver Club” Wed 11.03 - Milan (ITA) “Legend Club” Thu 12.03 - Lyss (SUI) “Kufa”

World Metal News Here we go again: The tribute to the 80s cult-TVshow will again present a tour with the following Acts: KATAKLYSM, WHITECHAPEL, FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE and DYSCARNATE! Apart from the well-known Canadian DeathMetal-Veterans from KATAKLYMS, the 2006 formed American Deathcore-Act WHITECHAPEL will be a part of the touring LineUp this year. FLESHGOD APOCALYPSE will present their Technical Death Metal, which soon became famous outside their home country Italy, while DYSCARNATE are known for their straight forwarded Death Metal.

MTV Headbangerâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Ball Tour 2019

28.11. D Leipzig - Felsenkeller 07.12. D Geiselwind - Christmas Bash 29.11. SLO Bohinjska Bistrica - Winter Days Of Metal 08.12. NL Haarlem - Patronaat 30.11. CZ Zlin - Masters of Rock Cafe *NEW VENUE* 09.12. D Hamburg - Gro?e Freiheit 36 01.12. D Munich - Backstage 10.12. DK Aarhus - VoxHall 02.12. D Stuttgart - LKA Longhorn 11.12. D Berlin - Huxleys Neue Welt 03.12. CH Solothurn - Kulturfabrik Kofmehl 12.12. A Vienna - Arena 04.12. D Saarbrucken - Garage 13.12. D Ravensburg - OberschwabenKlub 05.12. UK London - Electric Ballroom 14.12. D Wiesbaden - Schlachthof 06.12. D Oberhausen - Ruhrpott Metal Meeting

Swedish melodic death metal pioneers AT THE GATES recently wrapped up a successful run of international summer festival appearances and the promotional campaign for their current album, «To Drink From The Night Itself» with a tour across North America in an allSwedish package together with AMON AMARTH, labelmates ARCH ENEMY and GRAND MAGUS, before heading out on European roads again, this time in the headlining role with NIFELHEIM and labelmates DESERTED FEAR supporting. AT THE GATES frontman Tomas Lindberg commented as follows: «Finally it is time for us to return to Europe for a real headline run! We have been looking forward to this for a while... It is always so special playing in front of your own crowd. We can’t wait for these special shows. We also have the privilege to share the tour with our Swedish metal brothers NIFELHEIM. We have played a few select shows in Sweden together before and it is always a blast. This will be the one tour you don’t want to miss this winter. We are all very fired up! Along for the ride is also German death metal warriors DESERTED FEAR. Prepare for a night of classic metal mayhem in your hometown! See you there!»

Tour dates: Dec. 08 - Hamburg, Germany - Übel & Gefärlich Dec. 09 - Bochum, Germany - Zeche Dec. 10 - Berlin, Germany - Festsaal Kreuzberg Dec. 11 - München, Germany - Backstage Werk Dec. 12 - Zagreb, Croatia - Culture Factory Dec. 13 - Trezzo Sull’Adda/Milano, Italy - Live Club Dec. 15 - Wiesbaden, Germany - Schachthof Wiesbaden Dec. 16 - Paris, France - La Machine Du Moulin Rouge Dec. 18 - Manchester, UK - The Academy Dec. 19 - London, UK - Electric Ballroom Dec. 20 - Tilburg, The Netherlands - 013 Dec. 21 - Antwerpen, Belgium - Trix

9 9

Mortemâ&#x20AC;˘ Black Metal from Norway

Interview with Marius

Interview by Olga Schneider

You were one of those ones who created Norwegian Black Metal as genre.

al? Now you can hear a lot of positive things about your first demo, but how

demo in Norway, but around the world, we sold about 300 demo cassettes. This before

We just want to play and write what we like What was the attitude of local metalheads and music critics both to your band and to the genre in gener10

did people react then? Back then, the metal scene was not big in Norway. We did not sell too much copies of the

we got the contract with Putrifaction Records, in France. At that time, I do not think the local metal heads (Norwegians)

appreciated the sound of the demo, because of the extremely distorted voice sound in the demo. Only the pure hardcore metal fans loved it. Why did you stop with such a promising project as Mortem for about 30 years? And what was the reason of your rebirth? I left Mortem in 1990 and started playing in Stigma Diabolicum (aka Thorns), and a year later, I started Arcturus with Steinar, so you can say Mortem became Arcturus. The reason to rebirth Mortem: Steinar wanted to play more Black metal, and Arcturus represent Avantgarde metal. At the same time, I was ready to return to the metal scene. If you compare the past and present, when in your opinion was the best time for musicians? That was the time of material values and everyone tried to get physical copies,

but n o w , in the age of the Internet and digital format, all this fades into the background. What do you think about this? I think the decade of the 90â&#x20AC;&#x2122;s was the best years of Metal productions. I like that some people still

wants the physical copies, but I have no problem with the internet and the digital format. It makes the music easier to access. Seeing so much positive things said about Ravnsvart, we can confidently say that the expectations of the release were not in vain. In your opinion, did the album justify your hopes and experience gained over all these years by all of you have been sent in the right direction? I am happy the album has been well received. Off course you always hope your music will be appreciated. Since I have been absent from the metal scene for so many years, I cannot say, but I can say, from Steinar, the creator of Mortem music, that he is very pleased with the progress. From the very first seconds of the albumâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sounding, the great experience of the musicians is felt and the Norwegian black stands out from all the subgenres. 11

Mortemâ&#x20AC;˘ Black Metal from Norway

It seems that this is not a currently composed album, but a long-stored creation from the past. Tell me, was the material for the album ready for a long time (maybe it was some riffs or achievements) or was it a composition not connected with the past and everything was composed in the very recent past? How much time did the composing and recording process take? Only a few riffs was composed years ago. The rest was composed mainly 2018. The recording process was about 4 days with drums in studio, and the rest was recorded at Mortems rehearsal place. The album was finished in April 2019, and sent to Peaceville. What does the cover pic mean? It is not at all like modern graphic designs and is drawn with an ordinary pencil in monochrom, which once again proves that the band is underground. Was it so conceived to indicate that you are not striving to be modern and still stay in those best times for Black Metal? The cover is created by Hayley Johnson. This is hers and Steinars interpretation of the lyrics of Ravnsvart. 12

And I think it is important that we have a red line back to the start of Mortem. You are right; we are not striving

Transilvania. Was this your first performance after the reunion? What can you tell about this event? How did

to be modern. We just want to play, and write what we like. On August 2, you took part in one very interesting Rockstadt Extreme Fest in

people perceive your music? Yes it was our first performance. A lot of things happened before and during the concert, that was not good for the band. We did not get to rehearse enough before the gig, and on stage we got extremely bad sound, making it almost impossible to hear what we were playing. This made the performance a lot worse than we hoped. We actually walked off stage in anger. At the same time, we learned a new experience, and we will

You can Buy Compact Disc or Vinyl here: https://burningshed.com/tag/Ravnsvart NOT let this happen again. What are your plans for the future? Is it likely that the band will promote their album on a tour in support of Ravnsvart? Play as many gigs possible. Hopefully some great tours. Currently we are working on re-releasing parts of the Slow death demo, and some old tracks that never has been recorded before. This will be released on Peaceville records sometime next year, hopefully. Some of your tracks are written in English, others in Norwegian. Your native language very accurately conveys the meaning inher-

ent in the album. Was this done specifically to emphasize the cold music of the northern lands with lyrics? Some of the music needs the Norwegian lyrics to enhance the atmosphere, and when I write lyrics, some comes in English and some comes in Norwegian. Two of the lyrics are made by 1) Hayley Johnson (English speaking) and 2) Tor R. Stavenes (who got the inspiration from an american movie). Thank you for your time and interesting answers. I want to wish your band not to disappear for a long time and, like many who care

about your work, I will look forward to continuing your story. And in conclusion, our traditional question is your wishes to those who are reading this interview. Thank you for the interview, and your readers for actually reading this. Hope to see you in a concert nearby. Stay true!

Hate• Blackened Death Metal from Poland

Interview with Adam “Atf Sinner” Buszko

Interview by Olga Schneider

First of all, we’d like to express our infernal gratitude for this possibility to do the interview! How is the band feeling at the moment, considering the fact that you released your new album this year? Thank you! Pleasure is ours! Well, the new album has been welcomed very well and we are grateful for that. We feel that this is one of our best materials thus far, and the fact that it’s been released via Metal Blade Rec gives it even

more significance because it seems like the best label we have ever worked with. So, in support of the

meet during this long way? It was absolutely great tour without any problems or difficulties. Moreover, it was our return to North A m e r i can soil after 7 years and we were very glad to be welcomed there by the crowds in the way we were. All the tour was just one fantastic experience and we plan to invade America again next year.

still is d n la o P in l a t e M d... n u o r g r e d n u e h t in new album, you did a big tour around USA with such monsters as Incantation, Dark Funeral and our brothers Belphegor. Tell us a bit more about this experience. What difficulties did you

We know in particular that you shared your drummer with Belphegor this time. How did you come to that? Didn’t it seem too hard for the dude to play two gigs in one evening? Well, it was actually a pure accident that Pavulon joined them on stage. Belphegor were rehearsing some drummer a few days before the tour and it turned out that he couldn’t play their material at all. Some video he had sent them earlier turned out to be completely edited and fake. They understood they were in a serious trouble because the tour was supposed to start in just a few days and they didn’t have a drummer. They asked Pavulon if he could help them. He agreed and learned their live set very quickly. It was a real challenge for him, but he managed to play two sets every night on that tour. You have recently returned from the tour around Europe with Vader and Thy Disease. So, if you

compare the two big tours you did this year, which one was the best in your opinion? What’s the dif-

ference between audience on these two continents? Well, the audiences in America seem to be more lively and dynamic than “colder” Scandinavian

crowds. But I must say we had a great time being on the tour with Polish bands and crew – people we have known for years. Also the shows were surprisingly good. I mean really good venues and turn out. So it was very satisfactory. At the moment, you’re getting ready for your final raid in this year, this time with Batushka. What are you expecting from it? And what’s your point about this huge wave of hype with Batushka? As you may know, the tour we were supposed to do in North America supporting Batushka was canceled. There was a lot of controversy around the tour from the very beginning. It was because of the “schism” in Batushka itself. It is actually two bands fighting each other. We have always been neutral in this conflict, so when American promoters offered us this tour we said – yes, why not! 15

Hate• Blackened Death Metal from Poland

But we were informed that the tour might be canceled and so it happened. As far as I know, it was Batushka’s decision to cancel the tour. But I still don’t k n o w exactly what reasons were behind this decision. I saw that it was very band p i e c e of news for our followers and fans in America and I know that we will try hard to make it up for them as soon as possible. How do you see the difference between Polish Metal scene some 5-6 years ago and nowadays? And, considering the fact that Poland is a catholic c o u n try, can you assure that it’s getting even h a r d er for Metal16

heads there? The metal scene here is really strong and it has been evolving all the time with

new bands coming again and again. It’s a real artistic phenomenon which is hard to explain. But metal in Poland is still in the underground. And since catholic fascists have come to power a few years ago (and now won parliamentary elections

again), the metal scene has been facing different obstacles. It refers to a few most popular bands in particular which have been persecuted by the officials making them some troubles. It doesnt refer much to HATE though, as we seldom play any shows in Poland these days. Which bands of Polish and world Metal scene generally still inspire you? Well, there is a lot of music that inspires me and metal is just a part of it. If you ask me about metal in particular, I’d say I have always preferred extreme metal bands and it hasn’t changed much over the years. I always look for music that gives me adrenaline rush. Bands like Immortal, Mayhem,

Anaal Nathrakh, Funeral Mist, Slayer, Suffocation, Satyricon are those high on my list. I also listen to atmospheric black metal, industrial and alternative rock and some folk as well. Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Fields of the Nephilim are among my favourites. What are your plans for upcoming 20, concerning new raids and maybe some new material? Since we’re actually from Russia, I can’t avoid asking you... Any plans about coming here again? Oh yes, we are talking about Russia with some promoter right now and I hope we will manage to come back early next year for a few shows. It is not confirmed yet, but it looks optimistic. We would definitely like to visit Russia once a year at least. That’s our purpose. I’m aware that we have really dedicated fans in your country and we mustn’t forget about them. Our traditional question. What would you like to

say to those who are reading this interview now and to our editorial staff? I would like to thank you for this set of questions and I really do hope we will have an occasion to meet in Russia in 2020! I’m sending best greeting

https://www.facebook. com/HATEOFFICIAL https://www.instagram.com/hateofficial/ https://twitter. c o m / H A T E B a n d HATE OFFICIAL MERCH STORES https://hate.animate-records.com/ https://rockmarkmerch.bigcartel.com/

to all our followers in your country!

Eskalada - melodic death Metal from Russia

Interview with Evgeny

Interview by Olga Schneider

In the world there are a huge number of interesting bands worthy of learning about as many metalheads as possible. In Russia there are also those with whom we will introduce the world community. This time we decided to tell the world about one interesting and promising team. This is an ESKALADA. So, letâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s begin. Your bandhas already turned 10 years old and this indicates that you are serious and are not going to leave such a hard business called Metal. Looking back, what could you single out from gray everyday life, what facts in the history of the band are you proud of and what could be changed, would there be such an opportunity?

To be honest, we left this really hard business in early 2015. Then the band turned 8 years old, and there were almost no results. 1 album, 1 clip ... Relations in the team were broken as well, and we decided to take a break, which became in fact the breakup. Last fall, I invited the guys to get together for a rehearsal, remember old emotions. We did it and that evening was a new beginning. Now we are really serious and will only go forward. I began with this in order to lead to the fact that the approach is now completely different. So

but also producers, managers, designers, bloggers, writers and many more) from now on, not a single day was a gray day for me. I burn it all. For me, this is a job, a hobby, and a favorite business, and entertainment, and business. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s my business. In addition, I have a job and a family. Therefore, I do not have to miss and feel the grayness of everyday life) If you highlight something, then these are the releases of new releases, concerts ... All this is very pleasantly exciting) This year I am probably proud of every day, because without jokes, they are all full of small victories and overcomes. And on the bill what to change ... everything was as it should be. I look only forward, at least for the moment.

Eskalada is an assault on the fortress with the help of stairs.

that this forward movement was not only in words, we had to become not only musicians,

For most foreigners, Russia is associated with such cities as Moscow and St. Petersburg, where, in general, a large part of the bands, both famous and underground, is concentrated. Eskalada also represents the southern territory of Russia, where it is very difficult to get out of the shadow, but, in my opinion, you did it. How did the formation of your band go through all these years? If very briefly, then in that part of history, until 2015, we were a local flight band. Landmarks only in our Rostov region. When it was possible to try to get out of the shadows, we were either afraid to do it or simply did not look forward with wide eyes. Now everything is different. Every month we have a band meeting where we on paper designate goals and objectives. And from the next morning we sell them every day. This approach from the very first month has shown its efficiency and now you say that we managed to get out of the shadows. Here I want to add one point. At the first meeting, it was decided to blog in our band on

VK and on Instagram about our way forward and all that is around) I invite everyone to our social networks, there are a lot of interesting things) Does the name of your band mean something and why was it chosen? There are several meanings. In the same Wikipedia it is

written about something else. I will say the meaning that we first learned from our lead guitarist Hevik. Eskalada is an assault on the fortress with the help of stairs. This is a French word. We consider the name to be just perfect for us. At the end of last (2018), your second full-length album was released. Why in 10 years only 2 albums? Is this due to the difficulty of implementation or in view of the employment

of the members of the band with household chores and problems, is there no way to regularly give yourself to music? Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s impossible to tell in a few words. Six months after the release of the first album, I left to serve in the army. This is minus 1 year. In the middle of 11 I returned and already at the beginning of 12 work on 2 albums began. But she just unrealistically dragged on. There were a lot of factors, but the main reasons, in my opinion, were the lack of finances and texts. This caused the first problems. As a result, enthusiasm began to fade. Domestic affairs, work, some kind of entertainment and the feeling that we did not immediately drag out the album made me put my thoughts about it away into the basement. Every time when trying to continue, something was missing. A week, a maximum of a month, and we gave up again ... There were attempts, they even released singles ... But it was weak for the album. As a result, the year 15 came, and as I said earlier, we broke up. 19

Eskalada - melodic death Metal from Russia 20

Last fall, we had a new start. We are again ESCALADA and now we should have heard. Personally, I was charged to go forward 200%. I could not be stopped. After the main work in the afternoon and evening with my family, I sat down at the computer and myself tried to reduce that old material. We wanted to release a single, maximum EP. The efforts were not in vain, and I was able to make the sound that the whole band liked. Of course, this is not prof. Mixing and sound in general, but later it was appreciated by many) 3-4 songs were few, and I brought the whole album together.) I would like to dwell a little on the album “hear me”. Is this album similar to your previous work or did you decide to change something here? Tell me what your songs are about. This is the second album, so far there was nothing to change. We were still looking for ourselves, developing what we got on the debut release. Songs are primarily about people, about their aspirations, about their struggle with themselves, about their vices, etc. A lot of motivation with the call to improve yourself.

Of course there are many other topics, but mostly about people) I heard that a very small amount was spent on recording the album and almost no one was attracted from outside, with the exception of the author of the album cover. Tell me, how is this even possible? And I would like to know more about

the semantic load of the region. Everything is possible if you go to your goal no matter what. When one road is closed to you, in our case it is a lack of finance, there is always another. It is necessary to take and do - this is the cherished and at the same time very simple formula. About the cover... On the first album we had a post-apocalypse. Not really our topic, but how we like it. Here we also decided to continue in the same vein. But we wanted our character, the symbol

of the band, in the spirit of maiden, aria, megadeth... Everything was done in the course of the process. The artist painted, we corrected. We have a collective image from the vision of each team member. And then the idea arose to name the album in honor of the song Hear Me. Our character, Ganya (ganibal), in post-apocalyptic Moscow, says, looking directly at you: “Hear Me.” That’s cool. Plus, they invested a second meaning, the disc itself tells you: “Hear me and you will be fucked”)) And all this is in the style of crazy max. We are bastard from this cover. Recently, you have been actively performing concerts, I suppose that this is due to the release of the album. Have you received any proposals to expand your horizons and go on a tour of the country? Yes, this year there were many concerts in support of the new album. We ourselves organized a tour of 9 concerts in 8 cities. It’s great. Offers began to arrive in individual cities. There are not many, but they are. This makes me happy.

What inspires and influences your creativity? I understand that every self-respecting team strives to be different from others. But still, if you draw an analogy, with whom, in your opinion, can you compare Eskalada? And with whom, if the opportunity presented itself, would it be an honor to speak for your band? As I understand it, you are interested in specific teams. There are a lot of them, but I will name 3 that had the greatest impact on me as a composer. Iron Maiden, children of bodom and in flames. I will not compare, as everyone in us hears something of their own. We have developed our own style, in my opinion, which does not fit certain well-known genre names) if it is very crudely called, it would be a melodic child of heavy metal)) We haven’t had to play with superstars yet, so it would be interesting to share the scene with almost everyone. Once we played the opening act at ILLIDIANCE, and the list just ends there. Next year there will be a big gun FEST. It would be very cool to get there.

Plans for the future both in the near future and in the future. It’s good to play the last concert this year. He will be in Rostov on December 14th. Then we throw all our strength into the 3rd album. Very soon, we will launch a crowdfunding company to raise funds to record it. This will

be our first experience in such matters and we really count on the support of our listeners. Personally, I have long dreamed of a high-quality, cool clip. Well, after the album, a city tour of 15-30. There are still a bunch of less noticeable tasks, but I won’t talk about them. As an advertisement, I would like to show our readers a couple of links where you can be found and how those interested can

get your CD or digital format? VK https://vk.com/ e s k a l a d a _ m e t a l Instagram https://www.instagram. com/eskalada_metal Youtube h t t p s : / / w w w . youtube.com/channel/ UC5T04ao6xgklnooc7d39Jiw The disc and merch in our group in VK can be viewed and purchased. W e have one traditional question that we always ask everyone: what would you wish our editors and those who will read this interview? And the editions and those who read it, I wish never to stop there, to develop and move forward no matter what; to live every day with fire in his eyes, and of course all th best. Thanks for the interview.

Totengefluster - Symphonic Black Metal from Germany

Interview with Totleben and Narbengrund Nihilis

Interview by Olga Schneider

Not so long ago, Totengefluster released the third full-length album. I congratulate you on this event which is significant for every band. I would like to know the details of its creation, as well as introduce our readers (those who didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hear) such a wonderful band from Germany. So, tell us about the history of your band - how and

when the idea of creating a band was born, why you have chosen Black Metal etc.

out the concrete wish to form a band. Back then it was his wish to create the kind of music that he wanted to hear and to see (on stage) because he was disappointed about the development of the metal scene and missed the spirit of the mid 90s Black Metal bands.

ws o h s e in iv D s s le e The Fac ld r o w e h t n o p u h t Dea Narbengrund Nihilis: The first Totegefluster songs were written in 2007 by Totleben however with-

After a while he decided that those songs would benefit from having vocals on it and that’s the point when I joined in. During the recording of our debut album Schattendorn aka Frostbitten joined in and about one year after our first release Totengefluster was completed by Rorschach and Frevelsaat (Egregor), I guess this was the birth of Totengefluster as a “real” band. Later Rorschach left the band and our actual bass player Teufeskald joined the band in summer 2016. Totleben is, as mentioned

before, a huge fan of the kind of the 90s (Black) Metal and apart from metal he loves classical music too, so I think creating symphonic Black Metal music was… obvious? About our new album “the Faceless Divine”: At first we just wanted to release a EP to shorten the time until our next full length album but Totleben had so many brilliant ideas, that it seemed to be outrageous not releasing them. Totengefluster can be described as Symphonic Black Metal, with great orchestrations and a gloomy atmosphere. Having familiarized yourself with your work, you immediately feel the professionalism and clear refinement of each track, each note. How do you manage to create such an explosive mixture? T o t l e b e n : I think the fact that every song is very unique it does not seem as that much to handle. It feels right to me to have a complex sound and structure. Sure, you do not need a bombastic sound every second and some parts fit better without orchestra-

tion, its just like spicing up the emotional storytelling using musical elements. From album to album, you develop and each time you create more and more recognizable music and gain your personality. If before there was a noticeable resemblance to titans as Dimmu Borgir and Cradle of Filth, now it’s Totengefluster! What makes you evolve? Narbengrund Nihilis: I totally agree with your thoughts, we`re becoming more and more ourselves and I`m damn proud of it! I think this process is up to a certain degree natural.

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Sure, you have your own ideas but first you need some “basic modules”, a kind of base on which you can start to build something new. The more experience you get, the easier it seems to create something individual. Maybe you can compare it with learning an instrument: the better you get, the more options to compose you get. In addition to this we`re getting older and our musical horizon widens. Totleben writes the lion`s share our songs but the rest of the band is getting more and more involved into the song-writing and this also brings a fresh touch to our music. The first two albums were made in German, The Faceless Divine mostly consists of English lyrics. How did you come to that decision? Perhaps to get a larger audience? Or did you just realize that it was time to expand the boundaries of your work, diluting the lyrics with English lyrics? Narbengrund Nihilis: I guess this one is the favourite question related to the new album. Lyrics are always part of an album (as long it`s not an instrumental of course) and if you first have to

translate them into your mother tongue it creates an unnecessary barrier to overcome. English is the world`s most spoken language and I think that most of our listeners can speak or at least to understand it. Maybe English lyrics make it easier to understand our art as a whole. Ironically we had a strong fan-base in Great Britain (with German lyrics), maybe a Rammstein-like phenomenon? Anyway… I guess it was an experiment and we don`t know what the future will bring and if we switch back to German lyrics again. I should definitely ask about the cover design - it is incrediblycool done. Do you create these masterpieces yourself? The process of drawing such complex paintings probably requires full dedication and takes a lot of time? And what do the covers of your albums mean? T o t l e b e n : “The Faceless Divine” shows Death upon the world. Some embrace him, some are scared, some are surprised as you can see on the poses of the people below him. On this actual album I drew inspiration from Gustave Dore. I love his style and realism in drawing.

It delivers a msytical feeling and looks like a document from another time. I love the Idea of displaying death timeless. I would like to talk more about Metal Artworks. You create custom designs for many bands and events. By what criteria do you choose with whom to work and which of your works are most valuable to you as an author? T o t l e b e n : I’m very open to every request that bands send me at Metal Artworks as long as we share the passion for art and music. So there are no specific criteria on me choosing bands. Sure I have my own style and it would probably not fit to every project but as long as things go hand in hand I’m open to it. Things I’m happy with … I would say I’m more or less happy with everything I create. Its also not 100% up to me to judge it. If the client is happy and gets 100% what he imagined and I was able to create it I’m happy to help. Among the releases of your albums you take quite a long time. What is the reason for this? Narbengrund Nihilis: After our debut we weren`t a complete band and not until the joining of Rorschach and Egregor (aka Frevel-

saat) we were able to perform our music on stage. Then of course those two had to learn our songs first and the whole “band-thing” you usually do before releasing your first record. The time between “Im Nebel der Vergänglichkeit” and “the Faceless Divine” was about

two years… and I think this is a normal period of time between two albums. Totengefluster over the years of its existence has accumulated a fairly rich experience of live performances both in open venues and in clubs. Which performance was the most memorable? And

you still remember visiting a country from both the good and the bad side? Narbengrund Nihilis: Crossing borders is always annoying but that`s it when it comes to bad sides of playing in other countries. We always have a wonderful time in England and playing in Switzerland was also great! Of course, the farer away you play the more expensive it gets – but fuck off, I rather play a tour with Totengefluster than having a vacation on Mallorca. Most memorable… puh… we had many very memorable shows. Maybe our live debut at Beermageddon in August 2014, because we simply lost our (stage-)virginity… in England… on a festival, that was a breath-taking feeling! With whom would you like to perform on the same stage as part of a tour, maybe on open air or in some cozy little club? Perhaps this is one of the musicians or some specific band? Narbengrund Nihilis: I don`t know if meeting your idols is always that great. When it comes to me, the names do not matter, as long as you have a great time with them backstage and you can respect one another. 25

Totengefluster - Symphonic Black Metal from Germany 26

Does your daily life affect your music and vice versa, how does your creativity affect your life, not just musical? Sure it does. Art in general is a reflection of my inner feelings. It’s like writing a diary. I do a lot of differ-

the fact that such a beautiful girl is part of your team? How did she join the band and how did the other members accept her? Narbengrund Nihilis: We are very grateful that she is a part of Totengeflüster and a dear friend of ours.

and we chose her because she was very dedicated and we simply liked her most. There is no reason why anyone of us shouldn`t accept her, she is a great musician and wonderful person and this is anything that counts. Do you make a video for

ent stuff besides “Black Metal” and I’m happy to be able to do it. All those non Black Metal things are mostly unpublished. Maybe one day … we will see. Over the past few years, the wonderful Teufeskald has been playing as a bass player in your band. How do you feel about

Of course a beautiful girl in bunch of men has always a problematical potential but I guess we somehow managed the difficult phase. We met her before by visiting a club named s`Bokle were we`ve played and she took care of the bands. And after Rorschach left the band she applied for his position

your band yourself? Where do you get ideas for clips and why choose the songs that the viewer finally sees in the finished form? Narbengrund Nihilis: Yes, we`ve done all our videos by ourselves. The screenplay for our first video is based upon the lyrics of the song “Vom Seelensterben”.

We thought how we could transform them best with our admittedly limited resources (a wood nearby, a living room and many many rubbish bags). “Totengeflüster” our second video should have something unbound and timeless, so we choose a very simply black background for the band scenes and tried to involve the lyrics a bit by filming a friend of mine in my attic. For our latest video “On Carrion Wings” we first found an amazing the location and then thought about which of our songs would fit best and because of the relatively “modern” atmosphere we choose “On Carrion Wings” mainly because of it`s finale. The other ideas were also abstracted from the lyrics. Yes, we`ve seen many music videos but I can`t say that they`ve influenced us that much. Thank you for your time for our interview. I want to wish you good luck in all your endeavors and in the future to continue to pleas-

antly surprise us with your albums and design work. And finally, our traditional question - what would you wish for those who are reading this interview now? Narbengrund Nihilis: Be yourself, no matter how hard it may seem. There are far too

much c o p i e s out there! Totleben: Thank you for giving us a platform to speak or minds! You can Buy Album here: https://www.totengefluester.de/shop

In Pain - Death Metal from Sweden

Interview with Micke and Mattias

Interview by Olga Schneider

First of all, we would like to congratulate you to your latest release. So, your very first full-lenght album is finally here. How are you feeling now, how do you rate the work done? Micke: Thanks! Well it feels great. I think it turned out good, this is the first recording with the new lineup and it always takes some time

for a new member to adapt to the whole In Pain way of working but Nicklas did a

for this one and they fit the In Pain sound. I think the title, artwork & music go hand in hand. The lineup 2019 looks as follows: Mattias – Vocals (1999), Wegren – Guitar (2017), Nicklas – Guitar (2018), Matte – Drums (2013), Micke – Bass (1992).

Death Metal, e. v a r g e h t m o r f t straigh g r e a t job. This is Wegrens second recording with the band so he´s already into it, he wrote 4 songs

Almost 30 years have passed since the formation of the band. How did it happen that this is your debut full-length album? Perhaps this happened because all the members of the band were involved in other projects? Or did you improve your skills and decide to surprise the world with your work? And what happened between 1994 and 2015? Why was there absolute silence in the band during this period so long? Micke: Nothing that we have planned, it just turned out this way. The main reason is that now we are a full band with people that can work together, we are on the same level and have similar backgrounds and it just took nearly 30 years but why rush into things haha. Yes we have been involved in other projects but we have always kept In Pain alive. Well absolute silence… I can’t agree on that. We have released stuff in between but never reached out, I guess that we are too underground. Nobody seemed interested in a band from

a “cowtown” in southern Sweden during that time but now things seem to have changed and for that we are thankful. We had a MySpace page back then but there was not much response there and we got a Facebook page late so maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe bad self promotion is one other reason. We have always been here more or less active since 1992 except for a break between 1996-1998. Shortly before the release of your debut album, in February of this year, you showed up on Split w i t h Brazilian

Chemical Disaster. How did such cooperation become possible and why did you choose this band to cooperate? I assume that the name of the split is made up of a combination of parts of the names of your bands - Pain of Chemical Sufferings (In Pain + Chemical Disaster)? Micke: Well Luiz Carlos Luzada Contacted me and suggested that we should do a split and it felt like a great idea. We were right in the recording process of our album so we couldn’t record any new songs just for this release so we included our Summoning The Dead EP + the title track from the 7”. The tracks were never released in South America before so it was a great opportunity. Luiz handled the whole thing and came up with the name and sure it’s a combination of our band names. The Sound Of Death is an old-school album. Now many bands dilute their music with modern sound, but you decided to pay tribute to the traditional Death metal. 29

In Pain - Death Metal from Sweden 30

This fact cannot but rejoice, because you firmly know what you want and do not strive to change what is already an ideal. Do you think the old school is now appreciated by metalheads or has it remained in the 90s? Mattias: In my opinion the modern death metal has become too “clean”, it’s all about the techniques, fastest drums, as many shreds you can put into 50 minutes of music and with the sharpest production. I grew up with the old school Swedish sound, Grave, Dismember, Entombed, with old American and English bands in between. It was rough and not always tight, but it had a soul. Micke: We just continue writing the same kind of music since the bands beginning, and we have no plan to change that. Of course the tracks and songwriting have changed a bit through out the years, you get better at what you are doing (hopefully) but the “In Pain sound” remains the same. We have never looked at others to see what is popular

today, we just write music that we like. I think old school DM is “popular” again, new generations find the music and want to play it. And I think it’s more “acceptable” today than before. For me Death Metal has always been there, when people thought DM was “dead” there have always been bands playing it. You just had to look harder to find them. I can not help but pay attention to the cover of your album. It’s so beautiful! Tell us about the history of its creation. Your previous discs were decorated in black and white, why now have you decided to design everything in color? Micke:

Thanks! I came up with an idea of some kind of dedication to Tomas Skogsberg and Sunlight Studio. Ville Kemi that did the 2 previous ones didn’t have the time so we had to change artist. I stumbled across Chainsaw Design on Facebook and that I don’t regret. I contacted him and presented my idea and he got back to me with a quick drawing and you could see that this would be a killer. He really did an amazing job and captured the whole thing in the right way. The house on the left is where Sunlight Studio is today and if you look closely you can see Tomas in the entrance to the studio. The HM-2 doesn’t need any further introduction. Mr R. Utten (as it says on the tombstone) is a undead that you will see again in the future. The plan from the beginning was a full color artwork. This was a full album and we wanted to give it a cover and title that summoned the whole album and I think we accomplished that.

The album was Produced by Tomas Skogsberg. Perhaps that is why the sound of your music is so recognizable and gives away the old school of Swedish Death metal. How did you manage to get this collaboration with Thomas? Mattias: The Sunlight Studio sound is well recognized, and Tomas Skogsberg knows his equipment and how to get that killer sound. We have been working with Tomas with other projects, so we know him well and he knows what we want. Summoning the dead and The Sound of Death are produced by Tomas. He is Mr. Swedish Death Metal and we get what we want when he produces our material. Micke: I have known Tomas for a long time now and he has recorded

my other projects several times, but we never did a Death Metal recording together. Now that you think about it it’s really strange… We talked about it but it never became reality until the “Summon-

work begun by colleagues from this wellknown band, or do you consider these comparisons inappropriate? Micke: Well “Into the Grave” is a master piece! The sound on that is kill-

i n g The Dead” EP. You can always record the HM-2 sound in another studio and get the sound of that but if you want the Sunlight sound there is only one place to go. Your band is often compared with Grave. What can you say about this? Is this really so, and you continue the

er. We actually told Tomas that we wanted the sound to be more towards Grave “Into The Grave” than other recordings he has done so maybe that has something to do with it. Grave didn’t record with a HM-2 if I remember it correctly so it’s not the same but in that direction. 31

In Pain - Death Metal from Sweden 32

We try to write music that sounds like In Pain, but being compared to a band like that is not a bad thing. How do you see Swedish Metal scene nowadays? I just mean that some bands, not only in Sweden, have a tendency to split up, and your country is the homeland of so many titans which had incredibly strong influence on the genre, they still have it... How did the situation change with the time a n d what r e -

mains the same? Mattias: The scene is back, not only the death metal scene. We’ve got many great bands in old school metal, speed and heavy. We had a regression back in the late -90’s when metal was at

a standstill. Many bands just faded out and some split up. The old death metal bands are back, bands like Dismember, Sorcery etc. and the new ones are ready to take a place around the table. Micke: I think the scene is fine, so many great bands in different metal genres release awesome stuff. New bands playing old school metal in different styles and new ones trying to make something fresh,

interesting times indeed. I try to buy and listen to as much as I can, I like to support the scene and buy an unhealthy amount of records, demos, shirts etc. Bands quit and I totally understand that. It’s a hard job to keep a band going, so much more to it than rehearsing and releasing records. I have played, written music and handled band matters for 30 years now and it still gives me a kick and as long as it does that I will continue, maybe I’m crazy. Back in the days it was tape trading and you had to go to a studio to record a demo or a record. Now you can record things at home for basically no money and just put a demo or record out digitally on various platforms, that is the biggest difference I think. What are you gonna do to promote this album? Probably you’re planning some tour at the moment or do you think to sell the CD-s only?

Micke: No we are not planning a tour at this time. Due to various reasons we will just try to promote the album as much as we can without touring right now. We will probably do some gigs next year but not a tour. However this will change in the future and there will be a chance to catch us live. Our last and traditional question. What would you like to say to those who are reading this interview right now and to our editorial board? Mattias: As for you who read this, I’d just like to say thank you for your time and I hope you enjoy our music. And to you guys in the editorial board, keep up the good work and stay true. Horns up! Micke: Thanks for your interest and for your support! And to the readers check out “The Sound of Death” if you haven’t done it already. If you are into old school Death Metal you will probably enjoy this one. Death Metal, straight from the grave.

Follow the band https://www.facebook.com/inpain.sweden/ https://www.instagram.com/inpainswe/

You can Buy Album in Digital, CD or Vinyl here: https://southcoast-productionssweden. bandcamp.com/album/in-pain-the-sound-of-death https://tothedeathrecords.bandcamp.com/ album/the-sound-of-death You can listen “The Sound of Death” on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/ album/395gCFyK8XPtXRT2od2c5s Full album on YouTube https://youtu.be/2Jjb1MI3isI

Metal from Portugal

- Death Karbonsoul

Interview with Mafalda ‘Muffy’ Hortas

Interview by Olga Schneider

First of all, I’d like to say thank you for this opportunity to do the interview. How does your band feel at the moment? Thank you so much for your contact and interest in our music. It is a pleasure to us too! We’re very excited to have a new member with us. Fabio Mata is the 5th element that KARBONSOUL needed. He is a great guitarist and also, he is a long-time friend and ex-member of an old black metal band, with our drummer Carlos ‘Sir Nightfall’ Pereira. So… all the pieces fit right now, that our sound is more dynamic, intense and darker. Tell us a bit more about your history. We know that at the very beginning Karbonsoul was supposed to be rather a Gothic Metal project, but in the end it turned into Death Metal. Strong contrast, isn’t it? What

were the reasons for these changes? Well, yeah… LOL KARBONSOUL began with the mentor of this project, Mario ‘Rstein’ Rodrigues with the intention of producing a studio project with a collaboration of musicians, not a band. But as long as the times go, a band was formed. We played live a lot and composing at the studio, and we start to create our own identity. At that time, we

Nightfall’ Pereira joins the band (2011). He was on a black metal band, and he’s got that fast skills that we needed. Her drums are very detailed, fast and powerful. What inspired you then, at the very beginning, when you were a really young girl and what inspires you now, when you’re an adult woman who definitely knows what she stays for? What changes do you see in yourself now? I felt the same way actually. I “suffer” with Peter Pan syndrome :P Forever young and full of dreams. I guess it’s a good thing to keep your spirit alive. I came from a small town in the interior of Portugal (Elvas - border to Spain) and move to Lisbon to follow up my dream with music, my love (my husband now - he is the leader of black metal band Invoke

ying tr s y u g ed d r a et r e m so s y There’s alwa nd a s in a r b ll a sm r ei th h it w to be eloquent all! balls speeches. Fuck them mix something like a doom/ gothic metal influences. But the main principal reason it’s when our actual drummer Carlos ‘Sir

& singer of Gwydion) and my career (I work as UX/UI & Digital Designer). Musically, I’ve always heard a little bit of everything in the universe of metal bands. I enjoy exploring and learning new ways to compose, sing and perform. Ifeelmoreconfidentwithmyvoice,more experiment. But I’m still a simple girl. And how do you feel the difference between being a woman in Metal back in the days, when it was not such a common phenomenon, and now, when there are so many “female fronted” bands? How do you see the difference between yourself and most of these bands/women? Cause you do have it... I feel more hate now than ever, strange as it may sounds… There’s always some retarded guys (mostly) trying to be eloquent with their small brains and balls speeches. Fuck them all! Nowadays we live in a social media age, it’s easier to discover this “anti-female fronted movements”. Bullshit! I’m not a feminist. I’m just an artist, a voice, a singer and a woman. I don’t get it… But I can deal with it I have “big balls” LOL Your scenic image is quite aggressive, but at the same time incredibly sexy and attractive. Do you use it often in everyday life or you prefer to have some contrast between scenic image and your real essence? Ohh really? Well... it’s a compliment, thank you. I embody a character, a demoness. Every time I go

on stage and play our songs I’m someone else. It’s my alter ego. My everyday look and life it’s very “normal” comparatively. Off course I’m a metal head, I have an alternative look. Red hair, piercings and tattoos but I have a job (fortunately I work with marketing & digital agencies and they don’t care about

it. Very informal and creative mood). It would be a little creepy going to work with spiked bra, red contact lenses and full of blood or black painting. Your band has existed since 2007, but you’ve released your only split album in 2010 and your only EP in 2014. However, as we can see, live gigs are not a rare thing for you at all. Were there any circumstances that inter-

rupted your studio work probably? Lots of highs and lows, personal problems, death, distance, different jobs schedules, kids, health problems, etc... Adulthood! It sucks! And because we change our style. So, more time spend composing and try to create cohesive songs. He don’t have much time to work on it, the process is very low, and we focus on play live. But better times comes. What are your current plans? Probably we should wait something new in the near future? We’ll want to release the album ‘INFERIVS’ next year. I can tell you that is a conceptual album. It’s inspired on Dante’s Inferno. Yeah, it’s not a super brand new concept we know (lot’s of band explores this), but we’re working on it since 2014, and I personally have a big passion about it. So 9 songs, 9 circles of Hell, with a twist. Thank you once again for the time you’ve taken, it’s always a pleasure to meet strong and talented women. But now, what would you like to say to our readers and our editorial board? Thank you for your support and I’ll hope to meet you some day and have some drinks and listen good music. We would love to get closer with some readers/fans and play on your country off course! So we want to hear from you guys! Stay tunned to our social media for upcoming news! WE WILL REAP YOUR SOUL! \m/ 35

Latest releases

Daemon The most notorious black metal band of all times is back! By the power of darkness and the might of black-hearted will no two Mayhem albums have been or will be the same. Thus, the newest offering “Daemon” is unto itself. It’s not the next chapter but rather the next tome in Mayhem’s authoritative oeuvre. Composed and decomposed with the same lineup—Necrobutcher (bass), Hellhammer (drums), Attila Csihar (vocals), Teloch (guitars), and Ghul (guitars)—that handled

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“Esoteric Warfare” and performed Mayhem released the sixth Full-length “De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas” in album Daemon November 8, 2019. its entirety over the last few years, Tracklist: “Daemon” also isn’t a retrofit 1. The Dying False King of classic songs like “Freezing 2. Agenda Ignis Moon,” “Pagan Fears,” or “Buried 3. Bad Blood by Time and Dust.” That’s what the 4. Malum live album, “De Mysteriis Dom 5. Falsified and Hated Sathanas Alive” (2016), was for. 6. Aeon Daemonium “Daemon” is a chance for change, 7. Worthless Abominations Destroyed for new hells to be envisioned and 8. Daemon Spawn offered. 9. Of Worms and Ruins Line-up: 10. Invoke the Oath Necrobutcher - Bass Hellhammer - Drums Attila Csihar - Vocals Teloch - Guitars Ghul - Guitars

Norwegian Black/Death Metal band started in 1987 by Steinar Sverd Johnsen, Marius Vold and Jan Axel(Hellhammer) Blomberg. When one looks back at the bloodstained history of black metal, the names are as familiar as those of old friends – Mayhem, Burzum, Darkthrone. But in the shadows lurked another prime purveyor of northern darkness. Formed by Marius Vold & Steinar Sverd Johnsen, Mortem was one of the first black metal bands to crawl out of the woodwork in Norway, releasing the highly coveted and brutal Slow Death demo, with Euronymous & Dead of Mayhem acting as producer and cover artist respectively. After the release of Slow Death, the band was laid to rest with members going on to form

and feature in acclaimed titans such as Arcturus and Thorns, both of which would become mainstays in the black metal scene and beyond. “Reviving Mortem was something we had thought about for a long time. Due to increasing

creative differences it was a natural move to drag Mortem out of the ground, and come together with other brilliant additions to the band, to make something evil, fast, and heavy as hell, borrowing elements from

Arcturus and Bathory, It’s old school while being totally unique” Steinar Ravnsvart released September 27, 2019. Line-up Steinar Sverd Johnsen - Guitars, Keyboards Marius Vold - Vocals Hellhammer - Drums Tor Stavenes - Bass Tracklist 1. Ravnsvart 2. Sjelestjeler 3. Blood Horizon 4. Mørkets monolitter 5. Truly Damned 6. Demon Shadow 7. Port Darkness 8. The Core

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Latest releases

1349 was the year the Black Death came to Norway, wiping out 2/3 of the population and ending the Golden Age of Norway. Norwegian black metal titans 1349 have returned with their long awaited seventh full-length: ‘The Infernal Pathway’. The album promises a journey through chaos and madness, darkness and peril, terror and annihilation. 1349 is AURAL HELLFIRE. That has been, and continues to be, the primary concept since the band first rose from the ashes of Alvheim in 1997. After performing a fiery show at Norway’s Inferno festival this year, 1349 started recording in Amper Tone studios and Studio Nyhagen with

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engineer Jarrett Pritchard. Thus, ‘The Infernal Pathway’ was born, a sonic parallel to summoning and unleashing the beast of the abyss in all its fearsome, ferocious and powerful splendor. Gearing up for a full U.S. tour in the fall, and a European tour with ABBATH and VLTIMAS in 2020, more events will unfold, making

this a banner year for 1349. Tracklist 1. Abyssos Antithesis 2. Through Eyes of Stone 3. Tunnel of Set VIII 4. Enter Cold Void Dreaming 5. Towers upon Towers 6. Tunnel of Set IX 7. Deeper Still 8. Striding the Chasm 9. Dødskamp (album edit) 10. Tunnel of Set X 11. Stand Tall in Fire The Infernal Pathway released October 18, 2019 Lineup Seidemann - Bass Ravn - Vocals Archaon - Guitars Frost - Drums

The band name is German for «whispers of the dead». In the year 2007 Totleben began writing his first songs, his musical interests bound to his inspirational roots. He had combined the coldness and anger of Black Metal with elements of classical music to create an aggressive and cinematic feel to his compositions. But the music was not meant to be solely instrumental, he contacted his good friend Narbengrund. Since Narbendgrund had a natural talent for writing and performing lyrics he was perfect for the ideas Totleben had in mind and so Narbengrund was made a founding member of the Black Metal act «Totengeflüster» (Whispers of the Dead). The main goal for Totleben and Narbengrund was to create a coherent and sophisticated piece of art. In Spring and Summer 2019 the band recorded their new album „The Faceless Divine“ and signed with Black Lion Records.

The Faceless Divine

Tracklist 1. The Arrival of the Withered 2. On Carrion Wings 3. The Holloe Wanderer (Cursed) 4. The Hunt 5. Affliction 6. Extinct Paradise 7. Grans Us Thy Blessing 8. Vermin 9. Reise eines verlorenen Geistes 10. Requiem 11. Entflamme mich 12. The Hollow Wanderer (Satin version)

Lineup Frostbitten - Drums Totleben - Guitars Narbengrund - Vocals Teufeskald - Bass Egregor - Guitars The Faceless Divine out October 11, 2019

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Latest releases

Ushered Forth By Cloven Tongue

Black Metal band from Sweden released the third Full-length album Ushered Forth by Cloven Tongue September 27, 2019. Blessed by the dark Gods in 2008 Patronymicon brought their uncompromising black metal to this world of scuminfested inhabitants. Through a journey of blood, chaos and violence

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they now 11 years later stand stronger and prouder than ever before, presenting their third masterpiece of haunting violent black metal pride. From the fastest blastbeats to the grooving slow-paced haunting riffs and drums that take you on a dark trip to the underworld, while being possessed by the eerie vocals spewed forth. Youâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been warned, Patronymicon attack.

Tracklist 1. Haissem 2. The Funeral of a Passive God 3. XI Kings XI Curses 4. Lightless Flames 5. Womb of Rejection 6. From the Depths of Damnation 7. A Star That Shineth Not 8. Death Itself Lineup N. Sadist - Guitars J. Malice - Guitars H. Sulphur - Vocals M. Feral - Bass Y. Nifl - Drums

In Pain Death Metal band from Sweden released the first Full-length album The Sound of Death September 27, 2019. Swedish Old School Death Metal, straight from the grave. Frozen ground and cold riffs. Voice of the beast, bursting skulls under the pressure. As if someone had filtered the good old Swedish rattle with a bag full of bones, additionally stirred with the darkness, and served in the cold. IN PAIN are true, honest, and believable. They do it in the same way as bands like GRAVE, DISMEMBER,

ENTRAILS, NIHILIST, SORCERY. It is the first long-playing album of the band, whose history dates back to the nineties. It is the perfect essence of Nordic metal with everything that belongs to it. The excellent sound from Tomas Skogsberg, the masterpiece cover art from Chainsaw Design, they didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t leave anything to an accident.

Tracklist 1. Atrocity 2. Shallow Grave 3. Battle 4. B.T.K 5. It Was Meant to Die 6. Stabbed from the Inside 7. The Shadow from the Ancient Tomb 8. Zombie Front 9. Rise from the Deep Lineup Magnus Wegren Guitars Micke Andersson Bass Mattias Flintberg Vocals Mattias Johansson Drums

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Latest releases

Vorna Folk/Pagan/Black Metal band from Finland released the third Full-length album Sateet palata saavat September 27, 2019. Vorna are a melancholic metal band from Tampere, Finland founded back in 2008. The sixpiece band started first as a melodic black/folk metal but later absorbed various influences from symphonic, atmospheric and melodic metal – now delivering a dark

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and majestic performance sung in the beautiful Finnish language. In 2019 Vorna are coming back with full force. Now with over 10 years of experience under their belt and still going strong with the original line-up, the six-piece are bringing their anticipated and carefully crafted third full-length album “Sateet palata saavat”. “Sateet palata saavat” is the most refined and most ambitious Vorna release to date which will redefine the Finnish melancholic metal music for years to come.

Tracklist 1. Ylle kaartuvat 2. Toinen 3. Syvyydet 4. Sydäntalven puut 5. Maa martona makaa 6. Aalloista 7. Virvatulet 8. Tyhjyys on tyyni 9. Sateet 10. Kauas Line-up: Niilo Könönen - Bass Arttu Järvisalo - Guitars (lead) Henri Lammintausta - Guitars (rhythm) Vesa Salovaara - Vocals Mikael Vanninen - Drums Saku Myyryläinen - Keyboards

Haunted by Silhouettes Melodic Death Metal band from Norway released the second Full-length album The Last Day on Earth October 4, 2019. This album-titled apocalyptic schlager signals the beginning of the end, and dives straight into imaginings of humanity’s last day on earth after a fleeting utopian intro. While this pumped up album-opener is a melodic and catchy one, the theme itself is pretty serious. The song aims to make the listener envisage the end, and ask the listener one question; What would you do on the last day on earth? Tracklist 1. The Last Day on Earth 2. Pyroclast 3. Deadlock

4. Death of Janus 5. Mountain of Skulls 6. Stitches 7. Jakta 8. Post-Mortem Portraits 9. Undertow 10. The Well 11. Horns 12. Ghost Heart 13. Before the Last Pyre Ends

Lineup Ola Nilsen Kjøren - Bass Håvard Bustad - Drums Stian Hoel Fossen Guitars Per Kristian Grimsland Guitars Mathias Jamtli Rye - Vocals

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Latest releases

Insomnium Melodic Death Metal band from Finland released the eighth Full-length album Heart like a Grave October 4, 2019. Strange and formidable things may grow from humble beginnings. Back in 1997, in a remote town of Joensuu, beyond the great vast forests of eastern Finland, some teenage metalheads got together to play loud and fierce music, drink beer and have fun. Little did they knew that two decades later they would be saluted as one of the spearheads of their genre, preparing to release their 8th studio album and embark on

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branches but the roots go deeper into the black, rimed soil.

another world tour. Consisting of 10 songs and over an hour of music Heart Like a Grave (2019) evolved to be an epic tour de force of Finnish melancholy, drawing inspiration from some of the bleakest tales, lyrics and poems of the north. With four composers in the band the sound of Insomnium is now richer and more versatile than ever before. And yet the essence and core of the music is the same as 22 years ago. The tree grows new

Tracklist 1. Wail of the North 2. Valediction 3. Neverlast 4. Pale Morning Star 5. And Bells They Toll 6. The Offering 7. Mute Is My Sorrow 8. Twilight Trails 9. Heart like a Grave 10. Karelia Lineup Niilo SevĂ¤nen - Bass, Vocals Markus Hirvonen - Drums Ville Friman - Guitars, Vocals (clean) Markus Vanhala - Guitars Jani Liimatainen - Guitars, Vocals (clean)

Sammath Black Metal band from Netherlands released the sixth Full-length album Across the Rhine Is Only Death October 7, 2019. Like a war hammer to the head “Across the Rhine is Only Death” is extreme metal which beats you into submission. It provides a grim soundtrack to battle, the total annihilation and raging destruction that war brings. War is no fun. Destruction is not a Satanic gimmick. It is a reality created by humanity. The concept focusses on the final months of World War II, when Germany desperately holds on to

the Rhine as the western border, hence the name of the album. It is the ultimate soundtrack to the nightmare of war on the frontline. Hard to pin down if Sammath belongs into the Death or Black Metal scene, or even War Metal scene. Lets agree it is Extreme Metal, in music, in concept and in attitude. It is not for the weak, but for those made of Krupp’s Stahl! References one might find when listening: Revenge, Angelcorpse, Autopsy, Mayhem, Marduk.

Tracklist 1. Savagery 2. All Lay Dead in the Slit Trenches of Calcar 3. Battletorn 4. Ferocious Mortal Fire 5. Totenhügel 6. Blood Ridden Fields 7. Bitter Fighting Amongst the Dead 8. Across the Rhine Is Only Death Lineup Jan Kruitwagen - Guitars, Vocals, Lyrics Ruud Nillesen - Bass, Vocals Wim van der Valk - Drums, Vocals

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Latest releases

Nile Brutal/Technical Death Metal band from United States released the ninth Full-length album Vile Nilotic Rites November 1, 2019. There’s death metal and then there’s NILE. For Vile Nilotic Rites, the mantra was: if it’s not right for the song, it gets cut. Nothing superfluous or idiosyncratic were allowed to persist on and live through NILE’s new team-based songwriting process. If a part was savage but didn’t fit, out the door it went. But if it was merciless and fit into the overall design of the song, it was kept

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and curated. The end result of NILE’s extreme musical vetting was 11 songs, sharp as obsidian blades, heavy as nine Nubian pyramids. Songs like ‘Oxford Handbook Of Savage Genocidal Warfare,’ ‘That Which Is Forbidden,’ ‘Revel In Their Suffering,’ and the title track exhibit the self-made qualities of editorial perfection without losing the fiery passion that

makes NILE’s death metal devastatingly uncontestable. Tracklist: 1. The Oxford Handbook of Savage Genocidal Warfare 3. Vile Nilotic Rites 4. Seven Horns of War 5. That Which Is Forbidden 6. Snake Pit Mating Frenzy 7. Revel in Their Suffering 8. Thus Sayeth the Parasites of the Mind 9. Where Is the Wrathful Sky 10. The Imperishable Stars Are Sickened 11. We Are Cursed Lineup Karl Sanders - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards George Kollias - Drums, Percussion Brad Parris - Bass, Vocals Brian Kingsland - Guitars, Vocals

Ormer Til Armer, Maane Til Hode

Djevel Black Metal band from Norway released the sixth Full-length album Ormer til armer, maane til hode October 18, 2019. A supergroup formed by members/ex-members of Koldbrann, Ljå, Orcustus, Enslaved, Kvelertak, and other projects. «Djevel» means «Devil» in english. The sixth fullength album from Djevel, the uncompromising norwegian band performing Black Metal which sounds like it has been crafted since the 90s until today. With a structure and style far from modern Black Metal, this is how it sounded back in the days, with a raw and unpolished sound, still carefully maintaining melodic sounds and passages

which creates the atmosphere a great Black Metal album needs. The band, consisting of songwriter Ciekals, Mannevond (Koldbrann) and Faust (ex-Emperor, Blood Tsunami) has once again proved their stellar quality, making «Ormer Til Armer, Maane Til Hode» one of this years highlights in the genre. The album artwork is another product from acclaimed norwegian artist Danny Larsen. Lineup Mannevond - Bass, Vocals (harsh) Trond Ciekals - Guitars, Vocals (clean), Vocals (chants) Faust - Drums

Tracklist 1. Ormer til armer, maane til hode 2. Et menniskes hele korpus og legeme 3. Den gang jeg banket paa helvedes tunge doer 4. Dreb dem alle, herren vil gjenkjenne sine 5. Ved Hildr’s haand for Hel 6. Det eders herre lover er mer enn hva mennisket taaler 7. Over svarte skriigende skoger 8. Illoyegd foedt som Satans barn, paa ferd uden spor af menneskeverd

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Latest releases

Ragnarok Black Metal band from Norway released the ninth Fulllength album Non Debellicata November 15, 2019 The band gives us an insight into what went into the making of «Non Debellicata», an album in which RAGNAROK’s entire line-up of founder and frontman Jontho, guitarist Bolverk, bassist Rammr and drummer Malignant, had a significant input: «Our new album, Non Debellicata, is

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t h e result of a n extensive process in which all the members of the band participated creatively, both musically and lyrically. We put a lot of work into this album to make it as extreme and violent as we possibly could, pushing the borders of our musicianship and song writing skills. Originally we started out with 20 songs, out of which we rehearsed

16 and whittled it down to 13 for recording. We eventually chose 10 for inclusion on the album, because we wanted to ensure highest possible quality of every song». Tracklist 1. Non Debellicata 2. Chapel of Shadows 3. Sanctimoneous 4 . Bestial Emptiness 5.Nemesis 6 . The Great Destroyer 7. Gerasene Demoniac 8. The Gospel of Judas Iscariot 9. Jonestown Lullaby 10. Asphyxiation Lineup Jontho - Vocals Bolverk - Guitars Malignant - Drums Rammr - Bass

A PYRRHIC EXISTENCE Esoteric Funeral Doom titans ESOTERIC return with the monolithic ‘A Pyrrhic Existence,’ the collective’s first new album in eight years. Their undeniable power and time-warping arrangements are unparalleled even by doom metal standards, taking on an almost psychedelic hue at times here. As each of the six songs in this 2CD set roar to life, including the 27+ minute epic «Descent,» the gravity swallows’ listeners up as they are pulled into their depths. ESOTERIC are, quite literally, one of metal’s heaviest bands, and the somber ‘A Pyrrhic Existence’ is further proof of their mastery. Regarding the new record, the band comments: «’A Pyrrhic Existence’ is an

album that deals with some of the darkest sides of the human psyche and the harsh realities of existence. The concepts of the lyrics deal with death, suffering, tragedy, lies and the breakdown of the human psyche. The title is a reference as to how existence can be perceived as something that inflicts so much devastation on the survivor, that it becomes tantamount to defeat. The music is a progression from previous albums, and is of an extremely psychedelic and experimental nature. It can be likened to a vicarious journey through the twisted passages of the broken mind.»

Tracklist 1. Descent 2. Rotting in Dereliction 3. Antim Yatra 4. Consuming Lies 5. Culmination 6. Sick and Tired Lineup Gordon Bicknell - Guitars, Keyboards Greg Chandler - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards Mark Bodossian - Bass Joe Fletcher - Drums Jim Nolan - Guitars, Keyboards A Pyrrhic Existence released November 8, 2019.

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Latest releases

Verheerer Black Metal band from Germany released the second Full-length album Monolith October 4, 2019. Line-up MYR - Bass KRZ - Drums SMN - Guitars LKS - Guitars BST - Vocals Tracklist 1. Intro 2. Monolith 3. He Who Sowed the Poisoned Seeds 4. The Fatalist 5. The Eskapist 6. He Shall Reap a Thousandfold 7. Serpent Grave 8. Theios Aner & Irrisio

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Saxorior Melodic Black Metal band from Germany released the eighth Full-length album HEM October 4, 2019. Tracklist 1. Ursprung 2. Land aus Stein 3. Hexenpest 4. Blutregen 5. HĂśllentor im SchĂ¤fergrund 6. In Waldes Flur 7. Hussiten 8. Pan Dietrich 9. Ewig Gang Lineup Kai-Uwe Schneider Vocals, Guitars Matthias Eschrich Vocals, Guitars Frank Nitzsche Keyboards Tom - Bass Andy - Drums

Gutgrinder Death Metal band from Colombia released the second Full-length album Maelstrom of a Blasted Paradox October 1, 2019. Death metal band from the city of Cali. Born from the idea of David Medina to create strong and powerful music with three members mixing elements from different genres like death and black metal and an explicit theme in his lyrics. Tracklist 1. The Blasted Paradox 2. Lodge of Assassins 3. Enslavement 4. Virgins Blood Ritual 5. Lord of Lewdness 6. Charred Flesh 7. Breeding the Abomination 8. The Treason 9. Merciless Punishment Lineup Saul Muriel - Drums Luis Cuartas - Guitars David Medina - Vocals (lead), Bass

Venomous Melodic Death Metal band from Brazil released the second Full-length album The Black Embrace October 9, 2019. Venomous was founded in 2012 by the guitarist Gui Calegari, but only in 2016 it established its current lineup and began writing its first studio album. The band’s range of influence spans from traditional heavy metal to contemporary metal music, mixing melodic guitar lines with extreme vocals. Tracklist 1. The Orchard 2. Event Horizon 3. Penitence 4. Duality 5. Heirs of a Dream 6. Zumbi 7. Black Embrace 8. Rise 9. Redemption Lineup Alexandre Bonal - Bass Lucas Prado - Drums Ivan Landgraf - Guitars Gui Calegari - Guitars Thiago Pereira - Vocals

Profanatica Black/Death Metal band from United States released the fifth Full-length album Rotting Incarnation of God October 11, 2019. Formed by three former members of Incantation on June 9th, 1990. One of the first wave of American black metal bands, PROFANATICA have purveyed primeval blasphemy on nigh for three decades. ‘Rotting Incarnation of God,’ their latest album and first with Season of Mist, vomits forth a most vulgar strain of black metal ejaculate. Tracklist 1. Liturgy of Impurity 2. Prayer in Eclipse 3. Broken Jew 4. Washed in the Blood of Lord 5. Sacramental Cum 6. Mocked, Scourged and Shit Upon 7. Tithing Cunt 8. Rotting Incarnation of God 9. Eucharist in Ruin 10. In My Kingdom Lineup Paul Ledney - Drums, Vocals Adam Besserer - Guitars Richard Olsen - Bass

Gatecreeper Death Metal band from United States released the second Full-length album Deserted October 4, 2019. The new album, a furious mix of snarling guitars and driving, rhythmic pummeling takes death metal from its 80’s Floridian roots and 90’s Swedish expansion straight into the here and now. Tracklist 1. Deserted 2. Puncture Wounds 3. From the Ashes 4. Ruthless 5. Everlasting 6. Barbaric Pleasures 7. Sweltering Madness 8. Boiled Over 9. In Chains 10. Absence of Light 11. Anxiety Lineup Sean Mears - Bass Matt Arrebollo - Drums Eric Wagner - Guitars Chase H. Mason - Vocals Jack Maniacky - Guitars

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Latest releases

Abigail Williams Atmospheric Black Metal band from United States released the fifth Full-length album Walk Beyond the Dark November 15, 2019. Tracklist 1. I Will Depart 2. Sun and Moon 3. Ever so Bold 4. Black Waves 5. Into the Sleep 6. Born of Nothing 7. The Final Failure Lineup Ken Sorceron - Vocals, Guitars

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Paganizer Death Metal band from Sweden released the new Full-length album The Tower of the Morbid October 27, 2019.

Denial of God Black Metal band from Denmark released the third Full-length album The Hallow Mass October 25, 2019. At long last, legendary black metallers return with their LONGawaited third album, The Hallow Tracklist Mass! The Hallow Mass was preceded 1. Flesh Tornado by the short ‘n’ sweet The Shapeless 2. Apocalypse Writings Mass EP in June, which stoked the 3. Cannibal Remains fires for yet more new recordings 4. Drowning in Sand since 2012’s Death and the Beyond. 5. Redemptionless To say that this album is massively 6. They Came to Die anticipated and very long overdue 7. Rot Spreads would be quite the understatement! 8. Beneath the Gauze Tracklist 9. The Tower of the Morbid 1. Hallowmas 10. Purge the World 2. Undead Hunger 11. Demented Machines 3. The Shapeless Mass 4. The Lake in the Woods Lineup 5. Hour of the Worm Rogga Johansson - Vocals, 6. A Thousand Funeral Guitars 7. The Transylvanian Dream Matthias Fiebig - Drums Lineup Martin Klasén - Bass Azter - Guitars, Bass Kjetil Lynghaug - Guitars Ustumallagam - Vocals, Lyrics (lead) Galheim - Drums

Horrocious Black Metal band from Turkey released the third Full-length album Depleted Light and the Death of Uniqueness October 25, 2019. In this debut full-length Horrocious points the egoism and ambition of the divinity and his spatial prison in the thearchia light of his orders when he wanted to be respected, and prepares the ground for an endless struggle. true power of the Lucipherian energy above the spiritual light and embraces infinite sinfulness by rebelling against the incomprehensible secret uniqueness trapped in sanctity. Tracklist 1.Light Belongs to Our Heresy 2. Upon the Fallen Worlds 3. Corruption of Existential Structure 4. Inevitable Vortex.. Swallowed Divinity 5. Perceived Integrity of Lord 6. Hidden in Infinite Chaos 7. Everlasting Fractal Luminiscence 8. Reborn from Energy.. Sublime Demons Lineup Godslayer - Guitars Tyrannic Profanator - Vocals Erhan Kabakçı - Bass Goatperv_ - Drums Can G - Guitars

Necronomicon Black/Death Metal band from Canada released the sixth Full-length album Unus October 18, 2019. With an attack honed by three decades of toil and triumph, Montreal’s NECRONOMICON deliver vicious death metal that harnesses both ultramodern extremity and the dark magick of their name. On their new album ‘UNUS’, the veteran trio build on their deathly assault with ruthless blackened riffing and epic stabs of orchestral glory. Stand-out tracks like «Paradise Lost» and “Singularis Dominus” illustrate that NECRONOMICON are a world-class death metal band, and that the stellar ‘UNUS’ is their finest moment yet. Tracklist 1. From Ashes into Flesh 2. Infinitum Continuum 3. Paradise Lost 4. The Price of a Soul 5. Singularis Dominus 6. The Thousand Masks 7. Ascending the Throne of Baator 8. Fhtagn 9. Cursed MMXIX 10. Vox Draconis Lineup Rob the Witch - Vocals, Guitars, Bass Divider - Drums

Suidakra Melodic Death/Black/ Folk Metal band from Germany released the new Full-length album Echoes of Yore November 15, 2019. SuidAkrA is a Celtic Metal band from Germany founded in 1994. The name „SuidAkrA“ is founder Arkadius Antonik’s first name written backwards. After 25 years of bandhistory and 12 studio albums, SuidAkrA has become a flagship in the German metal scene. Tracklist 1. Wartunes 2. The Quest 3. Havoc 4. Morrigan 5. Rise of Taliesin 6. Hall of Tales 7. Pendragon’s Fall 8. Banshee 9. Warpipes Call Me 10. Lays from Afar Lineup Arkadius Antonik - Vocals, Guitars, Orchestrations Sebastian Jensen - Guitars, Vocals (clean) Tim Siebrecht - Bass, Vocals (backing) Ken Jentzen - Drums

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Latest releases

The Great Old Ones Post-Black Metal band from France released the fourth Fulllength album Cosmicism October 22, 2019. The Great Old Ones are deities in the H. P. Lovecraft fantasy universe. Tracklist 1. Cosmic Depths 2. The Omniscient 3. Of Dementia 4. Lost Carcosa 5. A Thousand Young 6. Dreams of the Nuclear Chaos 7. Nyarlathotep Lineup Benjamin Guerry Guitars, Vocals Léo Isnard - Drums Aurélien Edouard - Guitars Benoit Claus - Bass Alexandre «Gart» Rouleau - Guitars

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Cryptic Brood Death/Doom Metal band from Germany released the second Full-length album Outcome of Obnoxious Science November 22, 2019. Tracklist 1. Biting Through Flesh 2. Harrowing Hallucinations 3. Mantled with the Stench of Death 4. Wading Through Remains 5. Slaves of Hypnotic Commands 6. Ferocious Torment 7. Outcome of Obnoxious Science 8. Haunted by Nightmarish Visions 9. Interlude 10. Coated with Human Skin 11. Relish in Ecstasy Lineup Steffen Brandes - Drums, Vocals Michael Lehner - Guitars, Vocals Dennis Butzke - Vocals, Bass

Frostmoon Eclipse Black Metal band from Italy released the seventh Full-length album Worse Weather to Come October 25, 2019. The perfect soundtrack for your lifeless and sleepless nights since 1995. Founded in the Autumn of 1994 by Claudio Alcara, Frostmoon Eclipse is one of the oldest established black metal bands on the Italian scene, mixing melodic acoustics with old school black metal. Tracklist 1. I See the Void 2. A Room, a Grave 3. All Is Undone 4. Sunken 5. Brother Denial 6. Sleep 7. Song to Darkness 8. Resignation Lineup Gionata Potenti - Drums Lorenzo Sassi - Vocals Claudio Alcara - Guitars Davide Gorrini - Bass

Nifrost Viking/Folk/Black Metal band from Norway released the second Full-length album Blykrone October 18, 2019. Nifrost, one of the upcoming forces of the unstoppable norwegian Folk/Pagan Black Metal scene. In 2005 NIFROST was formed in Jølster in Sogn og Fjordane, an area of Norway famously known for sognametal bands such as Windir and Vreid. The second full-length album as a natural progression from their debut album, their sophomore new fulllength album will explore even darker themes and more ferocious sounds. Tracklist 1. Prosesjon 2. Blykrone 3. Slaatten 4. Arr 5. Tvihalden 6. Varden 7. Daudsvon 8. Gamling 9. Kongestol 10. Klander Lineup Kjetil Andreas Nydal - Bass, Vocals Jørn Ståle Norheim - Guitars Eyvind Jolm Aardal - Vocals, Guitars Henrik Nesse - Drums

Xoth Death/Black Metal band from United States released the second Full-length album Interdimensional Invocations October 18, 2019. In the year 2014, four musicians from different regions of North America came together in the Pacific Northwest to create Xoth, a band that captured their love of space, science fiction, Lovecraftian horror, and most importantly SHRED. Featuring ex members of Phalgeron, Warbringer, and Lecherous Nocturne, Xoth can be likened to a blend of Bal-Sagoth, Vektor, Absu, and Obscura Tracklist 1. Casting the Sigil 2. Mountain Machines 3. Back to the Jungle 4. Unseen Abductor 5. Haruspex 6. Plague Revival 20XX 7. The Ghost Hand of God 8. Melted Face of the Soul Lineup Ben Bennett - Bass, Vocals Jeremy Salvo - Drums Woody Adler - Guitars, Vocals Tyler Splurgis - Guitars, Vocals (lead)

Nihilism Death Metal band from France released the second Full-length album Apocalyptic Fate November 22, 2019. French death metal band Nihilism founded in 2009. They released their first six track demo EP Twelve Thousand in 2011. A few years later, in 2014, the split LP Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed with Dehumanize was released. In 2016 Nihilism released Beyond Redemption. Tracklist 1. Slaves of the Sacred Rites 2. A Wall 3. Akatheeb 4. Rip 5. Apocalyptic Fate 6. The Sin’s Cost 7. Fateful Rite 8. The Human Shrine 9. A Bunch of Bones 0. Custom of Shame 11. An Impetuous Choice Lineup Sebastien Pasqualotto - Guitars Stephane Hubert - Bass Sebastien Scherrer Vocals Sebastien Guillaume Drums Jules Kicka - Guitars

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews Review from Profanatica “Latin America Tour” in Bogota that passed in Bogota Colombia on September 18. The author is our friend and great photographer Diego Molina of Colonia Records f r o m Bogota, Colombia.

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Event organized by: Colombian Shows (Rock/ Metal Show Agency) Venue: Ozzy Company Date: September 18, 2019 Review & Pictures by Colonia Records (Diego A Molina)

Reviews

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

From New York, a cult band would visit Colombia for the first time and it would be two dates of extreme ritual that would be part of their “Latin American Tour 2019”, which began in San Salvador City (El Salvador), passing through Tegucigalpa (Honduras), Guatemala City (Guatemala), before arriving in Colombia. Bogotá and Medellín would be the places that would continue this tour, which would end in Puerto Montt (Chile), after passing through Lima (Peru).

† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

he opening show was by Perversion, a band formed in Detroit (USA) of death / thrash metal and followed by them The Satan´s Scourge (Bogotá) who would bring their touch of black metal to the ritual that would close the evening at Ozzy Company 18th of September.

Profanatica is a band that does not need presentation, led by Paul Ledney and also well remembered for that Split pressed in 1992 by the Osmose Productions label “Tormenting Holy Flesh / Wave of violence”, including on its side B the local band Masacre. In September they presented their new LP «Rotting Incarnation of God», this time under the Season of Mist label. A setlist with 13 songs would have prepared for his followers, including the previously mentioned Split songs, yes, they played «Spilling Holy 58

Blood», «Final Hour of Christ» and « We e p i n g in Heaven / I Arose», in addition to other songs most recognized as «Ordained in Bile», «Broken Jew», among others...

Reviews

Thy Antichrist («20 Years Of Blasphemy», Bogotá October 11, 2019) Review from «20 Years Of Blasphemy Colombian Tour 2019» of Thy Antichrist that passed in Bogota Colombia on October 11. The author - Diego Molina of Colonia Records from Bogota, Colombia.

Bands: Thy Antichrist (United States), Luciferian (Colombia). Vitam Et Mortem (Colombia). Infernal (Colombia). Event organized by: Thy Antichrist Place: Ace of Spades Club Date: October 11, 2019 Review & Pictures by Colonia Records (Diego A Molina)

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

In the celebration of Thy Antichrist anniversary of the formation, we accompany them in what would also be the beginning of a short national tour “20 Years Of Blasphemy - Colombian Tour 2019”, which would begin in Bogotá on October 11 in Ace of Spades.

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The presentation of the Colombian band, based in Texas (USA), would start at midnight and the song chosen for its opening would be «Between God and The Devil.» «The Great Beast» would become the first song that would be heard of their most recent production «Wrath of the Beast» released in 2018 under the Napalm Records label. A setlist prepared with 10 tracks, including a sample by much of their discography, included among others «Where is Your God?», «Pseudo Gods» and «Destruction Times», songs that would close a night full of black metal, in the which some of the most influential groupings of the genre participated; In his order the evening was completed with the shows of the Colombian groups Vitam Et Mortem (Carmen de Viboral), Luciferian (Armenia) and Infernal (Medellín). The tour of Thy Antichrist in Colombia is completed with his presentations in Pereira and Ibague at the “Ciudad Rock Festival 2019”.

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

Birth Death Party 15 (Full of Hell & Rotten Sound in Bogota). September 4.

Review from Birth Death Party 15 in Bogota that passed in Bogota Colombia on September 4. The author is our friend and great photographer Diego Molina of Colonia Records from Bogota, Colombia.

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Event organized by: Lemmy Productions and Blasting Records Store Venue: Ace of Spades Date: September 4, 2019 Review & Pictures by Colonia Records (Diego A Molina)

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We were in version No. 15 of the Birth Death Party and in turn the celebration of the 12 years of Blasting Store Records in Ace of Spades, party in which the common denominator was the grindcore. After 8:30 pm on September 4, Destitute (Colombia) would be responsible for the opening of the metal party, which as a main course would have the presentation for the first time in our country of Full of Hell (USA) and Rotten Sound (Finland).

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

A long trip took place the bands that from Cali would continue the event…. Zen/Aku and Mico and to finish the presentation of local bands, Carradine would leave everything ready for the passage of international guests. Full of Hell and Rotten Sound would join for a short tour «South America Tour 2019», starting precisely in Bogotá; their tour included dates in Lima, Santiago de Chile and a luxury closing in Sao Paulo, a city where they would join the “Setembro Negro Festival”.

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Full of Hell, a young band from the United States formed in 2009, would have prepared a setlist of 17 songs emphasizing their most recent LP «Weeping Choir», to which the song that started their show «Burning Myrrh» belongs. Songs like «Thundering Hammers», «Branches of Yew», «Digital Prison», would be performed including samples, making your show a mixture of metal, hardcore and electronic noises, which added to a tremendous drummer with it Dave Bland, they made it clear how they get a label such as Relapse Records, perhaps it is the most explosive moment of the band.

Rotten Sound is a group that does not need presentation and because the 29 songs that were part of its show are a sample of the band’s long history, which gave a small tour of much of its record collection, including songs like “Koiranyrjö «And» Köyhyys «, these belonging to their first EP» Sick Bastard «that saw light in 94 ... hardly forget the excellent presentation of the band led by Keijo and Mika...

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews Bogota Grind Death Fest XVIII. September 14, 2019. Review from Bogota Grind Death Fest XVIII that passed in Bogota Colombia on September 14. The author is our friend and great photographer Diego Molina of Colonia Records from Bogota, Colombia.

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Event organized by: Bogota Grind Death Fest, Blasting Records Store, Lemmy Productions and Gore and Blood Productions Venue: Ace of Spades Date: September 14, 2019 Review & Pictures by Colonia Records (Diego A Molina)

Reviews

Holy Shit B.S.E Colonia Records was at the most extreme grind party in Bogota and perhaps one of the most important at the South American level, the Bogota Grind Death Fest (#BGDF) that turned 18 editions with a luxury lineup that included the visit for the first time in Colombia from the Swedish band Vomitory.

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

Eleven bands met on September 14 at Ace of Spades, on a metal day that would start very early in the afternoon and that for 10 continuous hours, with a grind / death metal rhythm, would form the most brutal and noisy celebration of the year in the Colombian capital.

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For this version the groups that were part of the metal festival and in their order of presentation were: Holy Shit BSE (Bogotá-Col) responsible for the opening of the event, followed by Monstruo (Bogotá-Col), Cercenated (Sogamoso-Col), Impure Faith (Armenia-Col) who would give way to a long batch of international bands. Medical Negligence (Mexico) would form the first great mosh of the day, while Acéldama (Costa Rica) and Surgery (Mexico) would give way to the main course of the celebration...

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

Near midnight, the turn would be Malignancy (USA), a band that was already clear about its role as part of the #BGDFIX and the Birth Death Party in 2009. The closing of the perverse evening by Cercenatory (BarranquillaCol) and the Visceral 666 (Bogota-Col).

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Vomitory, as expected would give a show not to forget, the strongest moshes were in his show that had a setlist of 13 themes enough to absorb the energy of all fans, what to say about his presentation ... 200% brutality and in the memory they will be the interpretation of its great subjects: «Rotting Hill», «Serpents», «Chaos Fury», «Raped in Their Own Blood», among others.

Vomitory #BGDFXVIII setlist: 1. The Voyage 2. Gore Apocalypse 3. Ripe Cadavers 4. Perdition 5. Regorge in the Morgue 6. Madness Prevails 7. Rotting Hill 8. Serpents 9. Terrorize Brutalize Sodomize 10. Primal Massacre 11. Chaos Fury 12. Raped in Their Own Blood 71 71

† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews Grita Fest 2019 (Impaled Nazarene in Colombia) October 12 & 13, 2019. Review from Grita Fest 2019 that passed in Manizales (Colombia) on October 12 and 13. The author - Diego Molina of Colonia Records from Bogota, Colombia.

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Bands: Misery Index (USA), Kilcrops (Colombia) Impaled Nazarene (Finland). Event organized by: Grita Fest Location: Expoferias (Manizales – Colombia) Date: October 12 & 13, 2019 Assistance: Day 1 (8400 people); day 2 (more than 10,000 people) Review & P i c t u r e s by Colonia Records (Diego A Molina)

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Grita Fest, is a rock / metal festival that takes place in the city of Manizales (Colombia) and that in 2019 celebrated its version 14. Throughout its history, important international metal bands have been presented for this festival (to mention just a few of them: Moonspell, Tiamat, Unleashed, Goatwhore, Murderer, Malevolent Creation, Incantation, Grave, Death Angel, Testament, Entombed, Carcass), in addition to a large number of prominent local and national bands.

KILCROPS

The image of the festival in the words of the organizer means: “With an aesthetic that alludes to the lurking of war, this year’s image appears as a reflection against our realities, a story that has marked the lives of generations that populate the streets, a story that resists disappearing”. T he #Grita2019, had 18 proposals in search of exploring contemporary sounds and of exhibiting and recognizing the talent of Colombian bands, as well as showing bands of wide international trajectory; in this way the lineup for the two days of the event consisted of 5 local bands, 5 national bands and 8 international bands.

Colonia Records for the first time ventured to be part of the Grita Fest, an event that gave its first announcements at the beginning of August and that as usual, surprised with a lineup, which over the weeks was completed and became in an obligatory appointment of rockers and metalheads in the “city of open doors”.

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews

As usual at the festival, the first day was dedicated to rock, punk, ska, hardcore, reggae, among others; in their order the presentations that were given were: 1. Balaztro (punk from Manizales-Col), 2. Koncierto Para Delinkir (punk-rock from Manizales-Col), 3. Abismo (hardcore de Bogotá), Curasbun (street-punk from Chile), 4. Consulado Popular (guaracha-core from Bogotá-Col), 5. Alcolirykoz (hip hop from Medellín-Col), 6. Subversión X (punk-rock from España), 7. Rude Boys (ska punk rock from México) y 8. Quique Neira (reggae from Chile).

The second day of the festival, dedicated 100% to metal music, rewarded local fans and those who ventured to travel there; there were nine groups that wrote their history at the festival and these in their order of presentation were: • Mathausen (groove from Manizales-Col), • Butchery (death from Manizales-Col), • Altars Of Rebellion (symphonic black from Pasto-Col), • Athica (deathcore from Panamá), • Bang (heavy from Pereira-Col), • Kilcrops (thrash death from Bogotá-Col), • Misery Index (death / grindcore from USA), • Onslaught (thrash from Inglaterra) y • la esperada presentación de los Impaled Nazarene (black from Finlandia).

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And we mentioned t h e expected presentation of Impaled Nazarene, since it was his first presentation in Colombia, in addition to being an exclusive and unique show for South America in 2019. The legendary Finnish band is undoubtedly one of the most representative of the underground movement of the 90s and to date his more than 20 recordings make up an incredible career that speaks for itself... The Finns would bring a setlist with 25 songs and their presentation emphasized the works “Suomi Finland Perkele”, “Taog eht fo htao eht” and “Ugra-Karma”, which implies a brutal black metal show with atmosphere From the beginning of the 90s, surely the show of the band led by Mika Luttinen will be difficult to forget for the more than 10,000 attendees at that metal appointment...

Impaled Nazarene setlist for #GritaFest2019: 1. Apolokia 2. I Al Purg Vonpo / My Blessing (The Beginning of the End) 3. In the Name of Satan 4. Damnation (Raping the Angels) 5. Intro 6. The Crucified 7. Let’s Fucking Die 8. Kali-Yuga 9. 1999: Karmageddon Warriors 10. Cogito Ergo Sum 11. Penis Et Circes 12. For Those Who Have Fallen 13. Blood Is Thicker Than Water 14. Ghettoblaster 15. QUASB 16. Armageddon Death Squad 17. We’re Satan’s Generation 18. Enlightenment Process 19. Motorpenis 20. The Horny and the Horned 21. Condemned to Hell 22. Tentacles of the Octagon 23. Zero Tolerance 24. Sadhu Satana 25. Total War - Winter War

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews Review by Mark Walsh of METALFESTEUROPE.COM Photos (except Mayhem) by JOANNA KAT PHOTOGRAPHY: facebook.com/joannakatphotography

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Please check this site and you can see many information about great European metal fests! http://metalfesteurope.com

Dark Autumn Evenings in London Here in London, we are privileged to have so many small-medium sized music venues that are just perfect for the size of audiences that come to see touring Black Metal and Extreme

bands. Each year, once the summer festivals have been and gone, these bands tend to descend upon London to entertain us Metal folk during the dark autumn and winter evenings. So many decent bands have played here just recently that I

IMPERIUM DEKADENZ: 11th October, The Black Heart, Camden, London Now this was a gig I was really looking forward to having had their new album ‘When We Are Forgotten’ on repeat for ages, and it’s definitely on my album of the year short-list. Firstly though, credit has to go out to the two supporting bands Stahlsarg and Agrona who were all really awesome and set the bar high for the headliner.

such a g o o d listen. W e reach end of a really enjoyable set with the powerful ‘Reich der fahlen Seelen’ wrapping things up.

Reviews

could have almost gone to a gig every night if I could manage it. I did get to a fair few, and here’s a round-up of four of them that stood out.

In front of their large logo backdrop that spread wide across the back of the stage, Imperium Dekadenz opened with ‘Absenz Elysium’ from their new album, and followed it up with a few tracks from their backcatalogue, going as far back as the title track from their first album ‘… Und Die Welt Ward Kalt Und Leer’. A few more from the new album were slotted into the set-list and they came across really well, with emphasis on the melodic black element which so makes the album

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews ASAGRAUM: 26th October, Macbeth of Hoxton, Hoxton, London Billed as the Album Launch Party for Asagraum’s new album ‘Dawn of Infinite Fire’, I found myself (unusually) in a venue I have never been to before, ‘The Macbeth of Hoxton’. It’s basically a difficult to find pub with a large enough room to house a stage and a few hundred punters. After a long wait following the support band, the stage lights are turned on and the stage becomes bathed in a Red, Orange and Amber (no coincidence, as that’s the new album colour palette). Dutch vocalist Obscura takes her position centre stage and is flanked by the two other female guitarists. Asagraum immediately launch into the first track of the night and the power of Obscura’s vocals makes an immediate impact. With the colourful stage lighting, three prominent band members lined up at the front and some powerful Black Metal screeching vocals, we get a full bodied set compromising of tracks from their debut album ‘Potestas Magicum Diaboli’ and of course the new album ‘Dawn of Infinite Fire’. I must

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make a special call-out for Asagruam’s awesome drummer Amber de Buijzer (known as A) and her clever use of the ride cymbal to create a distinctive cow bell sound intermittently. Although Asagraum have some good tracks and a distinctive sound, I do

find they dip a bit here and there so weren’t always quite holding my attention, but on the whole this was a really enjoyable gig and a band I would definitely go to see again.

Reviews DJEVEL: 31st October, The Black Heart, Camden, London I find myself once again upstairs in The Black Heart for a rare opportunity to see Djevel. The band comprises of members from various other metal bands to form this Black Metal band whose name is Norwegian for Devil. To be honest, I had never listened to Djevel until the release of their new album ‘Ormer Til Armer, Maane Til Hode’ and it made a big enough impact on me to want to see them live. Vocalist Erlend Hjelvik (ex.Kvelertak) is dominant in the centre of the small stage and has an angry presence, enhanced by having full corpse painted face and a huge chain wrapped around his waist. He delivers varying vocal pitches, often in deep venomous tones, and during instrumental parts of their tracks he frequently turns his back on the audience to then turn back and make an impact when the vocals recommence. As expected, the Djevel set-list comprises of a combination of tracks from the new album, and older tracks from their previous albums and EP’s. I often find that it isn’t necessary

to know a bands whole back-catalogue and be over familiar with them to enjoy them live and this was predominantly the case with Djevel,

whereby having a band of high-calibre musicians and some decent tracks was plenty enough to watch and listen to without any wavering.

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† Hellfest † Wacken Open Air † Tuska † Brutal Assault † Summer Breeze † Rock Fest † Rock Am Ring † Rockest † Download Festival † Resurrection Fest †

Live on stage Reviews MAYHEM: 4th November, Electric Ballroom, Camden, London The Electric Ballroom is one of the larger music venues in Camden and quite a step up from some of the smaller local venues. We needed a bigger venue as we have Mayhem back in town, and the Electric Ballroom is packed. Gost were the first support band of the evening and I made sure I arrived in time to see them as they have been playing a few gigs recently in the UK and I had yet to catch them. Their electro metal sound is very trance-like and has quite a Drum & Bass crossover. Completely shrouded in dry ice, I was able to just about make out a keyboard player and a vocalist/guitarist, and for a 30 minute unconventional opening set, I thought they were really good, and seemed to go down well. Gaahls Wyrd were the main support and I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed their set. I had seen them last year supporting Tribulation and wasn’t overly impressed but tonight they were brilliant and Gaahl was super-imposing. He has such a wide vocal range and delivers with real power. Gaahl and the band use the stage well and

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perform a number of Gorgoroth and Trelldom tracks as well a sample from his own latest album ‘Gastir – Ghosts Invited’. Waiting for Mayhem to come on, you can’t fail to be in awe of Hellhammer’s massive drum kit that is raised up high at the back of the stage (and the amount

of shiny scaffold piping holding it all in place). When Mayhem do take to the stage, the guitarists and drummer break straight into ‘Falsified and Hated’ from the new album ‘Daemon’, and then on comes vocalist Attila Csihar who is dressed in a whole wardrobe of various

Reviews stage clothing. Devil Horns, Corpse Paint, Netted Head Shawl, Black, Red and Gold Robes – we’ve got the lot. Having heard about the sound issues that troubled Mayhem a few days prior when playing Rebellion Festival in Leeds, I was hoping they weren’t dealt the same fate, and luckily all was good here with the sound. With a barechested Necrobutcher noticeably staring out

members of the audience in the front rows, Mayhem worked their way through a number of tracks from their new and previous albums. The audience really got into it and moshpits broke out sporadically down the front. Set 1 finishes off with a fair few tracks from the famed ‘De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas’ before the band headed off for a short break. For Set 2, Attila is derobed and clearly able to get around the stage much easier. With various skull and bone props nestled in his hands he delivers ‘Deathcrush’, which really picks up the crowd following the intermission, and it gets very lively down

the front once again. Often ducking down low or standing tall looking up to the sky, Attila is far more animated now, and after three more well delivered energetic t r a c k s , Mayhem

finish with ‘Pure Fucking Armageddon’. Mayhem certainly delivered a tight and powerful set to a large London audience, and following this, had to head straight off to France and then Spain to continue with a gruelling 11 consecutive night stretch of gigs.

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https://www.facebook.com/nilecatacombs

Last two years have been the time of drastic changes for Nile, I would say the end of an era. Leaving of a frontman is always a big stress for a band and a big shock for supporters. But as for Nile, this is a completely u n i q u e case, these definitely are dudes with no regrets, always unstoppable no matter what happens. The new era began, Nile proclaimed the fact that Brian Kingsland had taken Dallas’s place. First, I was incredibly Review by Olga Schneider s cept ic a l, cause, as it seemed, who the fukk completely blast album wasn’t could replace this beast?? broken. This is 100% fresh On the other hand, Karl and interesting sound, and it Sanders has always been seems like the dudes have got a person who knows what a new giant portion of energy he’s doing. As the result, with the appear of the new time has shown that it blood in the band. was about the other beast. The first thing you notice So, November 1 was listening this opus is poisonous the day... The new atmosphere. On one hand, full length album was that’s still the same Nile you finally released, and... know. Pieces of Eastern music, The promise about a technical guitars and all the

music is higher mathematics where everything is clear, predefined, one clearly follows the other and no retreat possible (and that’s the main thing that makes your ears almost cum). But this time guitars are more vivid - even if it seems to be impossible to make them more vivid than Nile always do, they do it again and surpass themselves, and it perfectly emphasize this cannibal-like atmosphere. As for Sanders himself, he has an absolutely amazing speciality. Nothing can change his brutal u t e r i n e roar, and it’s even getting harsher with years. It seems like even when he’s a 80 year old greybeard, his voice will remain the same. I probably can describe this creation in a few words: this music makes me want to eat people, and that’s one of the most «right» feelings you should have while listening to Brutal Death. As for the new face of the band, there’s nothing to say besides the fact that Karl has made a blast choice. A great beginning of a new chapter, and of course we’re already waiting for its continuation.

moon nights, sometimes exorcism... Guitars are definitely

vocals reminding of a crow croaking sometimes. In my opinion, each of the tracks from this album could be a Review by Olga Schneider great soundtrack for a horror movie from inspired of Dissection, 2000’s. I wouldn’t Apostasy, Dimmu Borgir, say that the band brought a little bit of Graveworm something new to the - dark violent cold sound, genre, but however, the so typical for any Black dudes have found their own Metal band, but however, interpretation of the good checked by time and still old traditions. incredibly attracktive. A special respects to the dudes for dynamic solos which make the atmosphere even stronger, and even deeper with high screaming

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Nor t hw ind Wolves is a Symphonic Black/Death Metal project from Los Angeles, USA founded in 2012. For all the time of its existence, the band have released one full-lenght album called Dark… Cold… Grim… in 2017. Now, after two years, the band is returning, ready to introduce to the world their second full-length creation called Mountains And Darkness which will be released in December 2019. From the first notes, you drown in atmospheric keyboards sounds which are highly associated with old Theatres des Vampires and similar projects. Keyboards follow the whole album and keep this atmosphere... It’s hard to describe it so exaclty, but it reminds of medieval castles located far from mundane life, endless forests, full

Upcoming albums

Dutch death/doom metal legends OFFICIUM TRISTE, who have been around for 25 years, are back with their sixth full length album titled ‘The Death of Gaia’. They’re only wiser with age, for the music is just as evocative as always if not more this time around, with better arrangements and variations spread across the album. Their music has this gentle yet overwhelming approach that will leave you in complete tatters by the time it’s done. It’s beautifully hinging on this balance they’ve perfected over decades between plaintive melodies and wretched heaviness. Additional instruments such as piano, violin and cello have been brought in and even several guest vocals to lend to this an epic air, further entrenching their mastery over this form of poignant music. ‘The Death of Gaia’ is the pinnacle of the band’s illustrious career and sets new standards even now for others to look up to. Line-up: Martin Kwakernaak – Keyboards, Acoustic Guitars Gerard de Jong – Guitars Pim Blankenstein – Vocals Niels Jordaan – Drums William van Dijk – Guitars Theo Plaisier – Bass The new album will be release December 13, 2019

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Over the twenty plus years of their existence T.O.M.B have skilfully crafted their own avant garde style, which is characterised by an eclectic mix of Ambient, Doom, Industrial, Noise and traditional Black Metal. It is a style that has earned the band a well deserved place as one of the top innovators of modern day Black Metal. «Thin The Veil» rises menacingly from the underworld, in a flurry of storm laden blast beats, persuasive death riffs, ritual chants, superb voidlike vocals mixed with pure necrotic black metal harshness. It is a one of a kind album worthy of the angel of death himself. «Thin The Veil» features MAYHEM’s Hellhammer on drums, alongside collaborations with musicians such as Craig Smilowski (ExIMMOLATION), Andy Winter of WINDS, Duncan McLaren of VENOM WOLF, and with spoken necromancy spells recited by Maurice De Jong («Mories» of GNAW THEIR TONGUES). All in all fans can expect «T.O.M.B’s unique harsh atmospheric deathindustrial style to be combined with a relentless, fierce and primitive form of musicianship reminiscent of the old glory days of 2nd Wave Black Metal. Will be released on January 24, 2020.

Dating back to the band’s inception in 2002, vocalist/guitarist/bassist/drummer Athenar has always known exactly what he wanted Midnight to be, and over the course of countless demos, EPs, compilations, splits and three full-lengths he has stayed true to his roots. There is no denying that, like its predecessors, Rebirth By Blasphemy is a ruthlessly catchy collection, every song, vicious as they are, wielding the kind of hooks that sink deep and don’t let go. Handling every instrument himself and being quite unfussy when it comes to production typically means that the recording process is a straightforward one for Midnight, and this time was no different. Staying in his home town of Cleveland, he opted to record at Mercenary Studios with the assistance of Noah Buchanan, laying the drums down in a day, the guitars in a little more than that, bass in a few hours, and then tracking the vocals to two or three songs a day. «I think there’s really no production value on the album, it’s really just get in there, press record and see what happens. Maybe you can tell that the sessions went pretty quickly when you listen to it. There are socalled mistakes, of course, but I wouldn’t have it any other way.» He also wouldn’t have it any other way when it comes to touring this latest collection hard, with a lot of dates with a variety of bands already locked down. «It’s the rebirth, it’s saying fuck it and getting out there and doing what you’re supposed to do, and we’re supposed to play music. If people want to damage their ears by listening to it, that’s welcomed.» Will be released on January 24, 2020.

‘To Fathom the Master’s Grand Design’ is the new, sixth album for the Danish extreme metal institution. Following the highly acclaimed ‘World of Tombs’, this new frontal attack is even more brutal, dark, replete with vitriol and utterly caustic. Written over the the course of five years, slowly, like the serpent Ouroboros eating it’s own tail, material took form and evolved into this manifest of malignancy describing the destruction of man! History has proven that evil exists on many planes, from the forces of nature to the human psyche. The higher laws of nature are cruel and unrelenting, without sense or remorse, nor compassion for mankind... The entire record was approached with a no holds barred and no restrictions work effort, resulting in a musical equivalent to an epicenter slowly spreading death and destruction. The most diverse material ever, yet still unquestionably true to the band’s formula, the album delivers equally fast and furious punkish black metal and heavy crushing doomy metal! Lineup Hellpig - Bass, Guitars Will be released on January 24, S. - Vocals Harm - Drums 2020. Haxen - Bass Will be released on January 17, 2020. The solo-project Forlorn Citadel plays Epic Black Metal in the vein of Summoning. This is done so remarkably well that at times fans might find it quite hard to differentiate between these two bands. Nonetheless there are enough own elements in the music to distinguish Forlorn Citadel from the inventors of Epic Black Metal. So despite the considerable number of bands playing this style that appeared on the scene in the years following Caladan Brood’s immensely successful debut album, Forlorn Citadel is another very welcome addition and we highly recommend «Ashen Dirge of Kingslain» to all fans of Summoning, Caladan Brood, Emyn Muil and similar projects! The album is a collection of songs written late- 2018 to mid-2019 and is dedicated to all warriors who fight their battles, only to return home to a kingdom that is not as it was.

SVARTTJERN return to the front with their fifth fulllength of true Norwegian black metal entitled «Shame Is Just A Word»! «The stars have aligned. The planets are in place. Forget your joy and embrace your fear. The new Svarttjern album is here. Dive into Svarttjern’s basement of lust and rust! Ride the fleshtrain, bathe in the cesspool of fat, gurgle the lube or let it soak. Show your true self and shake off your invisibility cloak. Embrace your shame. Shame is just a word.» Lineup Grimmdun - Drums HaaN - Guitars (lead) Fjellnord - Guitars HansFyrste - Vocals Malphas - Bass Shame Is Just A Word will be released on January 17, 2020.

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