Year: 2026Label: Century Media Seven years ago, Norwegian black metal pioneers Mayhem released their sixth studio album, Daemon (review). The album saw them abandon the decidedly progressive and experimental territory they’d explored on previous albums Esoteric Warfare (2014) and Ordo … Continue reading MAYHEM: Liturgy Of Death
If you were Finnish and into black metal around the turn of the millennium, most likely you were familiar with Thyrane. And if you were from anywhere else, odds are you never heard of them, let alone heard them. Such … Continue reading From the Vaults #24: Black Harmony
Year: 2026Label: The Circle Music If you’ve studied your black metal history, the combination of Greece and Magus should bring to mind a legendary character within the genre. I am, of course, referring to Magus Wampyr Daoloth, a scene legend … Continue reading THE MAGUS: Daemonosophia
I’ve waxed poetical about the mythical days of yore, when not every nugget of information was available online and us teens of the 90’s would buy albums solely based on the album cover, title and the track names. See for … Continue reading From the Vaults #22: Into The Woods Of Belial
Year: 2026Label: Schwarzdorn Production There’s something oddly familiar about this album, I thought on the first listen. But I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was. Going to Metal Archives and checking the members of the German-turned-Norwegian black … Continue reading ASARU: V.O.I.D.
Year: 2025Label: Out Of The Dungeon Finnish Geatkihaukr opt for a heavy dose of obscurity in their black metal. The name itself is entirely mysterious, and the font used in the booklet will give anyone who tries to decipher especially … Continue reading GEATKIHAUKR: Varjaeger
Year: 2025Label: Prophecy I’ll be honest: prior to this album, I’d heard maybe one song by Hexvessel, so this review isn’t exactly based on an in-depth knowledge of their past discography. But then again, up until recently, the band played … Continue reading HEXVESSEL: Nocturne
Finnish The Chamberlain’s debut album Draconian Magick (review) came pretty much like a bolt out of the blue in early 2025. We admit, perhaps to our own detriment, that here at ODIR we’d never even heard of them. All of … Continue reading Talking elitism and appeal with The Chamberlain
Year: 2025Label: self-released Whilst listening to MetaForm, Bulgarian Dimholt’s new album, I returned to my review of their previous album Epistēmē (here). I find that most all I wrote in the review still applies to the band, and describes quite … Continue reading DIMHOLT: MetaForm
Year: 2025Label: Inverse Records Already for decades, Finland has been a veritable breeding ground of black metal. Where in the 90’s Finland never really achieved the status our neighbours to the west did, despite having a couple of absolute primogenitor … Continue reading VALONTUOJA: Tulesta syntynyt
Only Death Is Real 