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Picture Credit: Phallosopher Phallosopher - (I) Release Date: March 19, 2021 Label: Inverse Records Format: CD / Digital Length: 29:40 Genre: Blackened Death Metal Origin: Tampere , Finland Jesse Heikkinen  is a very busy musician in Finland's metal scene. The ex-guitarist of The Aeon , member of Hexvessel , and sole musician of Iterum Nata has now created a new solo project called Phallosopher. On the first album "(I)", Heikkinen  describes the struggle of finding spiritual and personal freedom in a world defined by dichotomies. In the neverending fight between binary oppositions, such as ideologies or the basic tension between creation and annihilation, Phallosopher is yearning for a harmonic and peaceful path. Peace and harmony via Black and Death Metal, you might ask? Well indeed, it is not the most obvious path to go but let us have a closer look. Phallosopher mastermind Jesse Heikkinen  describes Black Metal as an instrument for self-liberation and getting rid of s...

Picture Credit: Hell-Born Hell-Born - Natas Liah Release Date: January 26, 2021 Label: Odium Records Format: Vinyl / CD / Digital Length: 47:19 Genre: Black Metal Origin: Poland Two weeks ago, Hell-Born had their appearance in the MangoWave News when their single 'Blakk Metal' was released. And here we are now, listening to the first Hell-Born album for over ten years. Let us hence out on our winter coats and prepare for some Old School Black Metal from Poland. What defines "Natas Liah" predominantly is a brutal combination of orthodox Black Metal and mid-tempo Bay Area Death Metal. Thus, fans of early Darkthrone, Beherit, and Morbid Angel should be able to raise their horns and bang their heads together to this. And fans of Behemoth? Absolutely! I must say that similarities to 90s Behemoth are very present. And that is no big surprise, regarding that Ex-Behemoth members  Baal and Les  are responsible for the sound together with Diabolizer  on the drums. And the fact...

Picture Credit: Ewigkeit Ewigkeit - 23 Release: January 23, 2021 Label:  Death to Music Format: Digital Length: 20:58 Genre:  Melodic Death Metal / Blackened Death Metal Origin:  Brighton ,  England A new release by Brighton's Ewigkeit predominantly means one thing: you press play and wonder "what has James Fogarty come up with this time?". Four months ago, a Prog Doom EP came out and before that, Ewigkeit provided us with Progressive Black Metal . So, what is it we have to expect from Fogarty  this time? Well, the cover artwork and the EP's titls "Depopulate" give us the first hints: this release is all about the pandemic and some of its consequences. Did I say 'Pandemic'? I meant 'Plandemic, of course. Yes indeed, on his new EP Ewigkeit concerns the utterings of those who deny the danger of COVID-19 or those who even say that the whole thing was either not real or that it was part of a bigger plan. In Germany we call those conspiracy theoris...

Picture Credit: Kira Kira - Peccatum et Blasphemia Release Date: October 09, 2020 Label: Ossuary Records Format: CD / Digital Length: 45:25 Genre: Black Metal / Blackened Death Metal Origin: Opoczno , Poland "Peccatum et Blasphemia" is Latin for "Sin and Blasphemy", and it is the name of the sophomore album by Opoczno's Kira. The band could as well call themselves Opoczno's Finest, as they are a collobaoration Nameless  ( Nomad / Ex- Ethelyn ), Groshek  (Nomad / Peacemaker ), and Msyth  (Ethelyn / Deathstorm ). The release features nine tracks that follow the intro 'Opening the Gates of Hell'. Nomen est Omen! The two terms that fit the music on "Peccatum et Blasphemia" the best are either Blood-Soaked Black Metal or Permafrost Death Metal if you ask me. Kira's combination of Black and Death Metal merges the greatest and most intense features of both genres. Brutal riffs groove like a swinging meat hook and lead into ice cold staccati....

Picture Credit: Hierarchy Hierarchy - Hierarchy Release Date: January 01, 2021 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 54:19 Genre: Blackened Death Metal Origin: New York , USA Originally founded in 2002, New York's Hierarchy has gone through some changes. The contemporary line-up of the band is Vernon Boward III  aka   Lucithor  (guitar, bass, drum programming, backing vocals) and Michael Goguey Jr  aka Tabotan  (lyrics, guitar). As a duo, Hierarchy are beginning the new year with ther first proper longplayer which contains almost one hour of intense Blackened Death Metal. Apart from some mid-tempo excoursions, Hierarchy go full throttle on their instruments. The brachial riffs resemble the sounds of heavy war machinery and their turrets. Hierarchy are definitely not planning to take prisoners here. Each of the thirteen tracks on the album is a raw jamboree for the headbangers. Yet, the song structures are far from being plump or simple. Each track cont...

Picture Credit: Silenced Minstrel Silenced Minstrel - Volume 5 Release Date: October 31, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 50:07 Genre: Black Metal Origin: Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia Silenced Minstrel is the one-person army consisting of Kuala Lumpur's Saiful Nizam Shukor . The artist from Malaysia founded the band in 2016 and has since then released album after album. As you might have assumed, this is the fifth album by Silenced Minstrel on which the solo artist is digging through the burning depths of hell. On the surface this is pure and raw Black Metal. Riffs and rhythms rage forward like blizzards. Yet, the guitar sound is not the typical Immortal-like sound of bone-chilling cold, but resembles the blood-thirsty Bathory atmosphere instead. From time to time you can hear complex sound structures climbing up the raw Black Metal scaffoldings like on a circular staircase. Further influences are atmospheric pieces of Gothic Metal and Blackened Death Metal machine gun at...

  Picture Credit: Brzask Artwork: Andrzej Jagielski Brzask - Brzask Release: May 31, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 16:21 Genre: Blackened Death Metal Origin:  Szklarska Poręba , Poland Brzask are a five-piece Blackened Death Metal band from Szklarska Poręba in Lower Silesia. Brzask is Polish and means "Dawn", as far as I can tell. The quintet has recently hit the European Black and Death Metal world with their selftitled demo - a digital release containg three songs and an opulent intro. The demo is defined by rough sound, freezing Black Metal leads and a massivively grooving Death Metal backbone. Despite not being too melodic, Brzask follow the roots of bands such as Dissection, Bathory and Emperor. While the first two tracks set a clear focus on rough and intense Blackened Death Metal, the final song has a certain impact by Northern Folk Metal or at least Melodic Death Metal. Picture Credit: Brzask "Brzask" is atmospheric, but not too atmospheric...

  Picture Credit: Church of the Dead Church of the Dead - Church of the Dead Release: July 31, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: CD / Digital Length: 32:32 Genre: Blackened Death Metal / D-Beat Origin: Helsinki , Finland Apparently, Helsinki's Church of the Dead have so far only released several EPs and Singles in their eight years of existence. But now, it is finally time for the selftitled debut album. Church of the Dead are Tommi Makkonen  (drums), Antti Poutanen  (bass), Kride Lahti  (guitar), and Jussi Salminen  (vocals). Together they recorded eight tracks for everyone who is uncomfortable with the hot weather of this summer as much as I am. The music on Church of the Dead's brings together the unholy trinity of brutal music. Black Metal atmosphere as cold as the fimbul winter influences gory Death Metal and merges with brachially thrashing D-Beat. The sound is raw but well defined and the songs show some nice variety. My personal favourite is the horror sc...

Picture Credit: Yevabog Yevabog - King of the Worms Release: July 01, 2020 Label: selfrelease Format: Digital Length: 14:14 Genre: Blackened Death Metal Origin: Seattle (Washington) , USA Joel Hackett  has spent quite some time playing in several bands. Once he decided to create a project in which he could completely and freely express himself and his musical ideas. That's how Yevabog was born. In late 2019 Hackett  began writing, composing, recording, mixing and mastering. The outcome of this work is a four-track EP, Yevabog's debut "King of the Worms". The music of Yevabog is set somewhere between the areas of Black and Death Metal. Blood-sodden drum beats mercilessly go their way while bass, guitars and synths create imposant pictures of darkness and cold. The lead guitar adds beautiful Black Metal-like staccati which emphasize the frozen atmosphere of the hoarse vocals. A feature I enjoy a lot are the choral-like voices in the background creating a feeling of the ...

Photo Credit: Requiem's Sathana Requiem's Sathana - Requiem's Sathana Release: April 10, 2020 Labe: Cianeto Format: CD/Digital Length: 40:25 Genre: Black Metal / Blackened Death Metal Origin: Novo Hamburgo , Brazil Requiem's Sathana were founded in 2017 and mostly consists of members from Bloodwork and Dyingbreed . The band's approach is to create musicked hailstorms of ice cold needles. Merciless and elemental Blackened Death Metal fires towards the eardrums as the seltfitled debut commences. But Requiem's Sathana have a lot more potential than just hacking down dark legions with ultra speed. After the devastating orcan of the first track 'Legion' Requiem's Sathana add plenty of Prog elements to their ice cold and brachial music. Photo Credit: Requiem's Sathana CLICK HERE TO LISTEN Requiem's Sathana play massively intense Black and Death Metal without sounding hackneyed. That is not only due to the influence of Prog Metal and Doom Metal (es...