VIKING CROWN: Unorthodox Steps Of Ritual Release year: 1999Label: Hammerheart Records In this day and age, it is a widely known fact that Phil Anselmo of Pantera/Superjoint Ritual/etc. fame is a fan of extreme metal, and it’ll take you mere … Continue reading Viking Cowboys from Hell?
THRONE OV BLOOD: Corrupted By Darkness Release year: 2017Label: American Line Productions Whenever I see a band use “ov” instead of “of”, I don’t start thinking about how much serious occult understanding and esoteric knowledge there must be behind it. … Continue reading Corrupted by generic darkness
DIMHOLT: Epistēmē Release year: 2019Label: self-released Bulgarian Dimholt have a career stretching back to 2003 behind them, but only two full-length albums and a couple of smaller releases to their name. Obviously, rushing things isn’t their thing, and when listening … Continue reading Dimholt’s black epistomology
So, Only Death Is Real has witnessed the first year-end, and it is time to jot down some thoughts as summary for 2019 and a plan of action of sorts for 2020. The site was created in mid-May, and since … Continue reading A year in summation: 2019
BOLG: Plague Vaccine Release year: 2018Label: Hass Weg Productions Bulgarian Bolg were formed already back in 2003, but it took them fifteen long years to finally get an album out. Prior to this album, they’ve only released one demo and … Continue reading Bolg’s black metal plague
APOCRYFAL: Crushing Black Death Release year: 2019Label: Mara Productions With an title such as Crushing Black Death, it’s impossible not to harbour quite a lot of expectations as to what an album should sound like. You’d expect black metal and … Continue reading The doomed black death of Apocryfal
IKU-TURSO: Storm Over Isengard Release year: 2019Label: Wolfspell Records/His Wounds Were it not for the title of the mini-album, Dutch-Finnish Iku-Turso would come across as shamelessly ripping off the entire style of certain classic 90’s Norwegian black metal acts. But … Continue reading Iku-Turso paying homage to Norway
Year: 2019Label: Century Media Some years ago, Norwegian black metal legends Mayhem started playing their iconic album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas live in its entirety, to much acclaim. This resulted in the live album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas Alive (2016), … Continue reading MAYHEM: Daemon
SUN DESCENDS BLACK: EP I Release year: 2019Label: self-released Some years ago, the chaotic, grinding black metal pioneered by the likes of Blasphemy already in the late 80’s/early 90’s, was all the rage, and bands drinking from that particular stream … Continue reading Grinding maelstroms of Sun Descends Black
BEAST OF DAMNATION: Dawn Of The Beast Release year: 2019Label: Black Sunset If you were there in the late 90’s and early noughties, you might remember how large parts of the black metal scene waged a war against all things … Continue reading Beast Of Damnation crushing gothic scum
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