Suffersystem from the beautiful half-timbered town of Hattingen in the Ruhr area will release their sixth album "Disintegration of the Individual" in mid-March, like its predecessor from 2021, once again via Black Blood Records. The two band members Dirk and Daniel, who are active in other bands such as Defected Decay (read a detailed interview in English here, in German here), False Mutation (who are also releasing a new album in March this year) and - relatively recently - Seeds of Torment, have added a new, fantastic chapter to the history of Suffersystem. The music on the ten tracks, which have a total playing time of 45 minutes, always moves between death and thrash metal, with a clear edge towards death metal.
Tuesday, February 13, 2024
Thursday, February 8, 2024
REVIEW SPECTRAL VOICE "SPARAGMOS"
Monday, February 5, 2024
INTERVIEW UGRA KARMA
Tuesday, January 30, 2024
INTERVIEW MASTER
Monday, January 29, 2024
REVIEW MASTER "SAINTS DISPELLED"
Saturday, January 27, 2024
REVIEW DROWNED "PROCUL HIS"
Friday, December 29, 2023
REVIEW MESSIAH "CHOIR OF HORRORS"
Messiah's third album "Choir of Horrors" from 1991, released on the legendary Noise Records label, represented a quantum leap for the band after the two predecessors "Hymn to Abramelin" and "Extremely cold weather" and also can be considered as a milestone in extreme music in general. The album, which features a cover artwork that is as atmospheric as it is terrifying, starts with monk chants before the death/thrash sounds kick in. Singer Andy Kaina, who sadly passed away last year, impresses with aggressive yet accentuated and intelligible vocals, while the band varies well between different tempos, especially the dragged out parts work well.
Wednesday, December 27, 2023
REVIEW DEINONYCHUS "THE SILENCE OF DECEMBER"
But this is supposed to be about Deinonychus, who were already playing a special role in the second wave of black metal, which was just exploding, as the majority of the acts at that time were increasingly oriented towards Norwegian black metal and were traveling in much faster realms or, under the impression of the success of Cradle of Filth's debut album "The principle of evil made flesh", began to move into more moderate soundscapes, whereby the peak of the sometimes unspeakably Gothic bombast "black metal" would not be reached until a few years later.
Sunday, December 24, 2023
DIE BESTEN, OBSKURSTEN UND THRASHIGSTEN DEATH METAL-VIDEOS PART II
Nach Part I (lest HIER) nun Teil II der tollsten und obskursten Death Metal-Videoclips. Wie immer besteht weder ein Anspruch auf Vollständigkeit noch auf Objektivität, aber ich glaube, das versteht sich bei diesem Thema von selbst.
Saturday, December 23, 2023
DIE BESTEN, OBSKURSTEN UND THRASHIGSTEN DEATH METAL- VIDEOS PART I
Sunday, December 17, 2023
INTERVIEW ECOCIDE
"We always stayed in touch, supported each other's endeavors, and maintained a friendship which laid the foundation for the eventual reunion."
When I heard some time ago that the Dutch death metal outfit Ecocide had reunited, I was very pleased. Now, ten years after the already awesome debut album "Eye of wicked sight", the band has released a great second album with "Metamorphosis", which enriches the strengths of the debut with experience and the resulting focus. Read for yourself what the band has to say about the break and the new album.
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Wednesday, December 13, 2023
INTERVIEW FROSTSHOCK
The newcomers from Frostshock are currently stirring up the underground with their self-titled debut album (read the review HERE). A good reason to find out more about the band's background and their excellent, explosive death/thrash mixture. The bandmembers, who likeable don't take themselves so deadly serious, are delighted and grateful for the recognition they are currently receiving. But read for yourself.
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Tuesday, December 5, 2023
INTERVIEW DEPRESSION
"I'm sure that if we should ever call it quits, the friendship will remain."
Some time ago, I rediscovered the Depression albums in my personal collection and listened to them again very intensively up and down. If that's not a good reason to take a closer look at this German veterans of the scene, which have been playing great, goovy death/grind since 1989. This year also saw a split release with Swedish death metallers Repuked on vinyl and CD. I spoke with band founder, drummer and guitarist Kai and vocalist Ron.
Saturday, December 2, 2023
REVIEW FROSTSHOCK "FROSTSHOCK"
Frostshock have been around since 2020 and have released an insanely strong album with their self-titled debut. They were able to prove their live qualities together with bands like Sodom at this year's Turock-Fest in Bochum. Fortunately, a friend of mine was among the visitors, so I heard about Frostshock by word of mouth, because the four musicians don't have a label behind them that could do any major advertising, the album is completely self-released. Given the outstanding quality of the music, pretty much any label from the heavier genre should have been able to get involved, but perhaps it was a conscious decision to do everything themselves, more on that in the upcoming interview with the band.
Friday, November 24, 2023
INTERVIEW ASCHENVATER
More or less by chance I came across Aschenvater from Saxony, Germany, who create great, primal death metal that should make fans of bands like Asphyx and Hail of Bullets extremely happy! I talked to singer Oliver and guitarist Marko about the not too long band history, the great EP "Landungsfeldmassaker", German lyrics, Martin van Drunen, Bolt Thrower and the influence of the Warhammer universe.
Friday, July 14, 2023
INTERVIEW MIGHTIEST
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Mightiest from Freiburg in the legendary Black Forest was founded in 1994 and I always liked the melodic-symphonic aspect of the band, which never became cheesy, which was often the case with many bands in the past. That is a kind of unique selling point, to play melodic-symphonic black metal, which is still rough, hard and unpolished. I can think of Emperor, with whom the band was often compared in the reviews of "Recreation of the shadowlands". Of course in the early interviews Burzum, Darkthrone and Mayhem were mentioned as influences, the early Dimmu Borgir with "For all Tid" or "Stormblast" certainly didn't pass the band without leaving traces, I think.
Thursday, July 13, 2023
REVIEW SICKENING GORE "DESTRUCTIVE REALITY"
Friday, May 26, 2023
REVIEW ANGUANA "SUMAN"
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
INTERVIEW HAMVAK
"Hamvak allowed me to break free from the musical boundaries I had previously felt."
Hamvak is one of the most promising bands of the German underground. The debut album " Maelstrom of abhorrent incantations" (review here) is a true monster of a musical work that pulls you inevitably and without mercy into the abyss. I spoke with Dávid Vadkerti-Tóth, the factotum and mastermind behind Hamvak.
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When did you form Hamvak and under what circumstances? According to Metal-Archives Hamvak is the successor band of Solus, who were much more atmospheric. What was the reason for the end of Solus and the beginning with Hamvak? Do you see Hamvak as the successor band of Solus, or did someone just put it down that way at Metal Archives?
Tuesday, May 16, 2023
INTERVIEW RÄUM
At the Dark Dungeon Festival in the medieval castle in idyllic Anthisnes, the first band to play on the black metal evening was Räum from Liège, which left the hungry crowd satisfied and certainly found more than a few new fans. One more reason to ask the ambitious band (review of their debut album see here ) a few questions.
Wednesday, May 10, 2023
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.
Tuesday, May 2, 2023
Tuesday, April 25, 2023
BERICHT DARK DUNGEON FESTIVAL (ANTHISNES, WALLONIE / BELGIEN)
Da ich ja schon länger ein Interview mit den Freiburgern von Mightiest geplant habe, und diese auf dem Dark Dungeon Festival (14.-15. April) in der Burg Avouerie in Anthisnes am (Black Metal-) Freitag spielten, bot sich ein Besuch im wallonischen Ort geradezu an. Die tolle Besonderheit an dem zweitägigen Festival ist der Veranstaltungsort, der für die passende räumliche Atmosphäre sorgen soll. Während der Freitag mit drei Black Metal-Bands aufwartete (Räum, Mightiest, Enthroned), spielte am Samstag wohl die internationale crème de la crème der Dungeon Synth-Szene. Leider hielten mich familiäre Verpflichtungen vom Besuch des Dungeon Synth-Tages ab, so dass ich am Samstag morgen wieder die Heimreise antreten musste. Auch wenn ich mich mit dieser Musik nur wenig auskenne und nur einige Mortiis -Alben (als auch sein Nebenprojekt Vond) mein Eigen nenne, hätte mich das Ganze doch sehr interessiert. Headliner des Samstags waren übrigens Depressive Silence aus Freiburg, deren Line-Up - wer hätte es gedacht - natürlich deckungsgleich mit Mightiest ist.
Monday, April 17, 2023
REVIEW RÄUM "CURSED BY THE CROWN"
At the Dark Dungeon Festival, which took place in a medieval castle in the small town of Anthisnes, the first band I saw were the Belgians from Räum, before Mightiest, one of the best, and unfortunately also most underrated black metal bands in Germany, and finally Enthroned, the Belgian black metal kings, took over. The band name alone struck me as unusual as a German, "Raum", without the umlaut, means room in German. And also purely visually the four musicians didn't look much like black metal. In this respect I guessed a post-black metal act, most of which I honestly find quite boring and stale. Fortunately, however, it behaves differently, Räum play rather very partly very fast, hard, often traditionally designed black metal, which in some moments even reminds of Marduk.
INTERVIEW TANKARD (ENGLISH)
„They also only boil with water!“
When the Frankfurt thrashers Tankard visited the Groove Bar in Cologne-Wahn for the second time towards the end of March, it was a good opportunity for an interview with frontman Gerre. Due to an unforeseen delay, and the fact that both Gerre and myself didn't feel like doing an interview under time pressure, we decided to make a second attempt a few days later via video link. Read here what the likeable frontman has to say about the lyrics of the last album "Pavlov's Dawgs", the Corona pandemic, the social skills of metal fans and his, even after all these decades unbroken enthusiasm for metal and new albums.
Monday, April 10, 2023
INTERVIEW TANKARD
„Die kochen auch nur mit Wasser!“
Als gegen Ende März die Frankfurter Thrasher von Tankard bereits zum zweiten Mal die Groove Bar in Köln-Wahn beehrten, bot sich dies als gute Gelegenheit für ein Interview mit Frontmann Gerre an. Aufgrund einer nicht vorhergesehenen Verzögerung, und der Tatsache, dass sowohl Gerre als auch meine Wenigkeit keine Lust auf ein unter Zeitdruck geführtes Interview verspürten, entschlossen wir uns, das Ganze einige Tage später per Videoschaltung nachzuholen. Lest hier, was der sympathische Frontmann über die Texte des letzten Albums "Pavlov's Dawgs", die Corona-Pandemie, die soziale Kompetenzen von Metal-Fans und seine, auch nach all den Jahrzehnten ungebrochene Begeisterung für Metal und neue Alben, zu sagen hat.
Sunday, April 9, 2023
REVIEW NEKRARCHON "GEHINNAM"
Today I would like to present an album that, in my opinion, has unfortunately never received the attention it deserves. We are talking about the only album of the Greek black metal band Nekrarchon. Out of nowhere in 2014 the debut album "Gehinnam" was released by the German label FDA Records, which specializes in old-school death metal, and unusually there was no previous demo, no EP, no split release. Maybe part of the disregard was due to the label, don't get me wrong, FDA Records is an absolutely great label that has only good to top releases across the board, yet black metal in particular is not something you associate directly with this label. But be that as it may, the album named after a ravine near the biblical Judah, in which child sacrifices were made to the god Moloch, is a hidden gem to be discovered.
INTERVIEW DEFECTED DECAY (ENGLISH)
„We did a lot of tapetrading, you sat around the campfire in the evening and people came from Velbert, Living Death for example, and Assassin from Düsseldorf.“
After Daniel, the singer of Defected Decay, contacted me in June last year for a review of the great second album "Troops of Abomination" (review here), we arranged an appointment for an interview on location in beautiful Hattingen. The weather threw a spanner in the works of the originally planned date, but two weeks later, on a weekend at the end of January, the time had come. So I set off by car to the Hattingen, which I can only warmly recommend to anyone who likes cosy half-timbered towns. Even on the way there, the last few kilometres of the journey seemed familiar, and that's right, this is also the way to Witten, or rather to the Muttental, where you can hike and also mountain bike very well on the traces of former mining. Singer Daniel and instrumentalist Dirk turned out to be nice and conversational guys, we talked a lot about Defected Decay, their other musical playgrounds like Suffersystem as well as about the metal history in the Ruhr area. We conducted the interview in Daniel's living room and were very nicely provided with drinks by his wife, thanks again for that!
At Daniel's house, I first examined the CD collection and a few cassettes, which led us to the topic of demotapes.
Saturday, April 1, 2023
INTERVIEW DEFECTED DECAY
„Wir betrieben viel Tapetrading, man saß abends am Lagerfeuer und es kamen die Leute aus Velbert, Living Death zum Beispiel, und Assassin aus Düsseldorf.“
Nachdem mich Daniel, der Sänger von Defected Decay, im Juni vergangenen Jahres kontaktiert hatte für ein Review zum tollen zweiten Album "Troops of Abomination" (Review hier), verabredeten wir einen Termin für ein Interview vor Ort im schönen Hattingen. Beim ursprünglich angedachten Termin machte uns das Wetter einen Strich durch die Rechnung, aber zwei Wochen später, an einem Wochenende Ende Januar, war es dann so weit. Ich machte mich also mit dem Auto auf ins beschauliche Hattingen, das ich nur allen, die gemütliche Fachwerkstätte mögen, wärmstens empfehlen kann. Schon auf dem Hinweg kam mir die letzten Kilometer Anfahrt bekannt vor, und richtig, hier geht es auch nach Witten, besser gesagt ins Muttental, wo man auf den Spuren des früheren Bergbaus sehr gut wandern und auch Mountainbiken kann. Sänger Daniel und Instrumentalist Dirk entpuppten sich als nette aufgeräumte Gesprächspartner, die einiges über Defected Decay, ihre anderen musikalischen Spielwiesen wie Suffersystem als auch über die Metal-Historie im Ruhrpott zu berichten wussten. Das Interview führten wir in Daniels Wohnzimmer und wurden sehr nett von seiner Frau mit Getränken versorgt, vielen Dank nochmals dafür!
Bei Daniel zu Hause begutachte ich erst einmal die CD-Sammlung als auch einige wenige Kassetten, was zum Einstiegsthema Demotapes führt.