Review Azath "Through a Warren of Shadow"

At this point, I would like to introduce the 2020 debut album by Azath, a US-Canadian collaboration, which in my opinion did not receive enough attention. The album was released by Pulverised Records, which is already a certain seal of quality. The band, which has been around since 2018 and released a demo before the album came out, as well as a 7" with the Americans from Nucleus in 2023 as their last sign of life, plays fast, mangy death metal, somewhere between old school heroes like Incantation or Dead Congregation, or, for that matter, like playing an Autopsy LP at 45 rpm.

INTERVIEW NOVEMBER GRIEF

"Our sound was finally developed in a way that pleased us, and we all have very fond memories of it. I can’t believe that at the end of this year it will be 30 years since it’s release…"

November Grief from Montreal, Canada, were founded back in 1993 and have been dormant for more than 20 years. Now that the band has been active again since 2020 with a few new members, it made sense to talk to bassist and singer Stéphanie Masson, who was in Wallonia, Belgium, at the time of the interview.

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Hello Stéphanie, how are you?  I saw you had a gig recently. Did it go to your satisfaction?

Hello Gerald, I am doing very well thank you. Just arrived from Belgium a few days ago and still a bit jet lagged. Yes, we did  show here in Montreal last December 14 and it went very well. It was also our first show at home with our new lead guitarist Rachel, and boy did she deliver the goods that night ! Kudos also go to Simonne and Zack. We had a good flow onstage that evening and the maniacs in the crowd had a good time. 

REVIEW "INTO EVERLASTING FIRE -THE OFFICIAL HISTORY OF IMMOLATION"

With “Into everlasting fire”, Kevin Stewart-Panko presents the official 450 pages long band biography of Immolation, one of the longest-serving and for many probably one of the best death metal bands on the planet. First of all, it should be mentioned that this work is one of the best, if not the best and most interesting band biography I have read, and I have read quite a few, such as those of Obituary, Paradise Lost, Necromantia, Rotting Christ, Hellhammer / Celtic Frost, Behemoth, Kreator or Tankard to name but a few.

First of all, let me mention my personal connection to the band; the first album I bought was the “Here in After” album (which I remember scoring just 6 out of 10 in the German Rock Hard magazine, but more on that topic later), which I bought during my civilian service in the former German capital Bonn as an adolescenct. A year later, in 1999, I went to Wacken for the first (and last) time and as the author describes, Immolation were supposed to play in Wacken in 1999, but due to visa issues this didn't happen until 2016, 17 years later; the band was also in muddy Wacken in 2023. So unfortunately I've never seen the band live, more on the band's live presence later. 

INTERVIEW MORTA SKULD

" 'Dying Remains' was a huge album for us and set the tone, lots of fans really enjoy this record and we are so blessed that it's still a great record and stands the rest of time."

After decades in US death metal, Morta Skuld from Milwaukee are a firm institution in the genre. Now they have delivered an absolute highlight with "Creation Undone", which can also be seen from the numerous enthusiastic reactions from the press and fans. A good reason to talk to the only remaining founding member Dave Gregor.

INTERVIEW UGRA KARMA

"Nepalese regard their mountains as sacred and have a high regard for everything the mountains provide: annual monsoons, fertile rivers and breathtaking beauty."

We in Europe, or more specifically here in Germany, are mostly confronted with bands from Northern or Central Europe, the USA or Australia, even Southern European bands are less on the radar, and South America is also less present. Now I am pleased to present Ugra Karma, a band from Nepal, based at the capital Kathmandu. Read for yourself what vocalist and bassist Sunil, who founded the band in 1999, has to say about death metal, the difficult early days of the band, mountaineering in the Himalayas, the caste system in Nepal and the serial killer Charles Sobhraj.

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REVIEW HAMVAK "MAELSTROM OF ABHORRENT INCANTATIONS"

Out of nowhere I heard about Hamvak (Hungarian for ash), a great one-man band from Stuttgart. The factotum behind the music, Dávid Vadkerti-Tóth, now delivered Hamvak's debut album after releasing a three-track demo back in 2017.

Hmavak's debut album, released by Morbid Chapel Records and Rotten Tomb Records, is the best example of what undiscovered gems the underground has in store. The six, mostly overlong tracks that bring the album to a total playing time of 40 minutes, should delight any fan of gloomy and sophisticated blackened death metal. Like the album title, which, by the way, was visually very appropriately implemented by the cover artwork, the listener feels drawn into a veritable maelstrom, from which there is no escape, because the tracks cause a partly captivating-hypnotic effect.

REVIEW BLASPHEMATORY "THE LOWER CATACOMBS"

Blasphematory from New Jersey, USA, honoured us a few months ago with their second album called "The lower catacombs" on Nuclear Winter Records. The album title really says it all, because musically the band descends into the deepest maws of hell to present their rancid, dirty death metal, which is always presented with the right groove at the right place. The band, which consists of veterans of the scene - among others, there are personnel overlaps with the also highly recommendable death metallers of Siege Column and the long-established black metal band Abazagorath - knows how to convince the listener during the almost 40 minutes with a brutal mixture of fast parts, gruff, dragged-out parts and a always wonderfully creaking bass. In addition, there are abysmal vocals, what else would fit to this kind of music? So whoever wants to listen to a extremely dark and dirty bastard, consisting of influences from compatriots like Incantation, Funebrarum, Autopsy, Rottrevore, Obituary but also from Finnish bands like Abhorrence, Depravity or Necropsy has to listen to this masterpiece. Highly recommended!

INTERVIEW INCANTATION

"In death metal there are no rules, it's just about expressing your inner most dark feelings. We have our own vision and at times the masses didn’t always get it. But I think over the last few years more and more death metal fans understand what we are trying to express with our music. It’s like the scene caught up with us."  

Incantation, who have been around since the distant year of 1989, have been a constant gourmet treat for fans of dark, dirty death metal since their debut album "Onward to Golgotha" in 1992. Fortunately, according to the motto "what goes around comes around", the band's qualities seem to be getting around more and more, so that the latest album "Sect of Vile Divinities" can already be considered the biggest commercial success in the band's history.The author of this blog is a die-hard follower of the band, and so the opportunity had finally come to talk to band founder and scene veteran John Mc Entee, who plays guitar and is responsible for the vocals, about various things. The frontman turned out to be a very thoughtful and reflective guy.

Hey, how are you at the moment? I hope you and your families, relatives and friends are healthy! How is it corona-wise with you in Pennsylvania at the moment?

All is good here. I now live in Greensboro, North Carolina for the last few years and it’s totally amazing down here. For me, the lockdown has been ok. I’m kinda a loner so I don’t really like to be around other people unless it’s friends or horror or metal people. For the band, it has been great, we didn’t know what to expect releasing the “Sect of Vile Divinities” album a-mist the pandemic, but it ended up being a major success for us, which was super cool.

I know it’s been a difficult time for almost everyone over this pandemic and I have sadly even lost a few friends due to it. It's just my personality to want to make the best out of any situation. I’m also very fortunate to have an amazing home life and that really makes everything seem great.   

REVIEW ATAUDES "MERECEMOS LA EXTINCTION"

First of all, let me say that I'm very glad that I was asked by Brutal Cave Productions, a real cool  underground label / distro from Portugal, for doing a review for this album. I've never heard before from Ataudes, a death metal band from Buenos Aires, Argentina before, but if this never had happened I would have missed this hell of a record.