MERCYFUL FATE: 9 Release year: 1999Label: Metal Blade Records No one in their right mind denies the merits and importance of Danish Mercyful Fate during their initial run in the eighties. During that period, the group led by iconic frontman … Continue reading Mercyful Fate’s Ninth Circle of Hell
LÄHDÖN AIKA: Alku Release year: 2019Label: self-released There’s a definite hardcore element to Finnish Lähdön Aika’s sound, despite them often being labelled as doom metal or sludge. In fact, I think there’s more hardcore than either of the two aforementioned … Continue reading No serenity for Lähdön Aika
DISCREANT: Community Standards Release year: 2019Label: Stadin Rec With thirteen tracks and a running time of ten minutes, and a name starting with “Dis”, it’s pretty easy to guess what’s contained on Community Standards, the first proper release of Finnish … Continue reading The hardcore standards of Discreant
CARCASS: Reek Of Putrefaction Release year: 1988Label: Earache Records Trailblazing UK goregrinders Carcass had an interesting evolution during their first three albums, going from the lo-fi bass-buzz maelstrom of their debut to the at times quite intricately technical death metal … Continue reading Reek Of Carcass
Despite a career spanning a decade, several albums and connections to cult Finnish act Slugathor, doom-laden death metal entity Desecresy have never ascended from the murky depths of the deep death metal underground. With a new album, Towards Nebulae, being … Continue reading At the threshold of Desecresy’s dark cosmos
INCANTATION: Onward To Golgotha Release year: 1992Label: Relapse Records In the days before convention set in and artists started looking too much to the icons of their own scenes for inspiration, there was a beautiful amount of diversity in death … Continue reading Incantation leading us onward to Golgotha
I’ve recently been reading John M. Alexander’s book The Man In Song, which is basically – as the foreword by country singer Larry Gatlin puts it – “yet another Johnny Cash book.” The novel idea in Alexander’s book is to … Continue reading Five essential, overlooked Johnny Cash gems
DESECRESY: Stoic Death Release year: 2015Label: Xtreem Records Finnish Desecresy have always fascinated me for a number of reasons. One of them is how seldom you see their name mentioned considering they’re celebrating their 10th anniversary this year and have … Continue reading Exploring caverns of cosmic darkness with Desecresy
WARMOON LORD: Burning Banners Of The Funereal War Release year: 2019Label: Wolfspell Records Everything about Finnish one-man project Warmoon Lord and their (his) debut album reeks of pure, unadulterated and unashamed nostalgia. Everything. From how the digipak looks to how … Continue reading Nostalgia for middle-aged black metallers with Warmoon Lord
INCANTATION: Upon The Throne Of Apocalypse Release year: 1995/2019Label: Relapse Records As the liner notes of the 2019 re-release of Incantations‘ third full-length output detail, the material on the album is in essence a demo of what eventually became US … Continue reading Once again unto the apocalypse with Incantation
Only Death Is Real 