Year: 2025Label: self-released Although Finnish Altar Of Despair have been at it for a while already, ever since 2018 in fact, to the best of my knowledge this is their first release in a physical format. The band, still unsigned, … Continue reading ALTAR OF DESPAIR: Severance
Year: 2026Label: Bestial Burst Finnish Annihilatus have a long history behind them, but not a very long discography. Since their inception in 1999, the group have released only three albums, a mini-album and some sundries. One obvious explanation might be … Continue reading ANNIHILATUS: Exterminate
Year: 2026Label: New Approach Records The ever-amorphous, ever-unpredictable Absolute Key return with another album that sees them shift form. Experimentalism has always remained a core element of the Finnish one-man project, but within that loose context, they’ve explored a width … Continue reading ABSOLUTE KEY: Facets Of War
Year: 2026Label: Zoharum Where the previous Wieloryb album we reviewed – Ritual (here), also released on CD recently by Zoharum – was a massive affair, God’s Final Breath is much more accessible in just about every way. The least of … Continue reading WIELORYB: God’s Final Breath
Year: 2026Label: Zoharum Once again, I am on the outer fringes of my musical expertise, and actually well beyond it. This is no uncommon occurrence when a new batch of promos from Polish Zoharum lands in my mailbox. Which, as … Continue reading POPSYSZE: Powięź
Welcome to the second issue of the ODIR newsletter. I’ll take this soapbox to vent about something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately. I’ve found it incredibly disheartening how even in the music underground people are increasingly embracing AI … Continue reading ODIR Newsletter #2: April Anomalies
Year: 2021/2026Label: Antyscena/Zoharum This is a massive album. No beating around the bush: Polish Wieloryb’s Ritual in Zoharum’s expanded edition is massive to the point of being ludicrous. With three bonus tracks, this edition has a running time of almost … Continue reading WIELORYB: Ritual
Year: 2026Label: Long Live Evil I wonder… is there a jab in a certain direction in the title of this album? Might Alla Xul Elu have some twisted turns of phrase to direct against some former co-operation partners? Ah, fuck … Continue reading ALLA XUL ELU: No Masters
Year: 2026Label: Awakening Records/Futhark Records Here’s a group with an unfortunate name – Metal Archives knows three other artists named Cultist plus a small throng of alternate spellings, Discogs knows six Cultists, some with releases antedatring the current Cultist. Especially … Continue reading CULTIST: Spiritual Atrophy
Year: 2026Label: self-released I’ll be honest, I almost skipped this album in my promo queue because the name of the band sounded silly. I know, that’s a stupid reason to ignore a band, but when you’ve got hundreds and hundreds … Continue reading FUNERAL PILE: Summoning
Only Death Is Real 