LAKI & JÄRJESTYS: Kuka lystin kustantaa? Release year: 2021Label: Hellstone Records Finnish oi! has always been something of a rare commodity. The scene itself is small but resilient, but home-grown bands tend to be quite few, and many of them … Continue reading Law, order and brickwall oi!
NIGHTSIDE: The End Of Christianity Release year: 2001/2020Label: Sound Riot Records/GoatowaRex Finland’s history with black metal is both long and illustrious – already during the earliest days of what was to become known as the second wave of black metal, … Continue reading Nightside’s call to war
BLACK BEAST: Nocturnal Bloodlust Release year: 2019Label: Primitive Reaction Formed already in the early noughties, Black Beast from Finland released just one EP and one split in the years following their inception. Between 2006 and 2019 things were very silent … Continue reading Bloodlust of the black beast
IKU-TURSO: Pakana Release year: 2020Label: Wolfspell Records Last time we bumped into Finnish-Dutch Iku-Turso, named after a sea monster in Finnish national epic Kalevala, was with their Storm Over Isengard mini-album. That album saw them go into full 90’s Norway … Continue reading Into the heathen foray
PURTENANCE: Buried Incarnation Release year: 2020Label: Xtreem Music Finnish Purtenance are without doubt part of the legends of original Finnish death metal. Formed in 1991, they released their classic debut Member Of Immortal Damnation the following year and, like so … Continue reading Incarnations of Purtenance
PHANTASMAL: Ansaan syntyneet – Ansaan kuolleet Release year: 2019Label: self-released During the noughties, there evolved in Finland a somehow quite distinct form of extreme metal which was neither black, death nor doom, but instead a weird amalgamation of all of … Continue reading Phantasmal trappings
NECROPSY: Exitus Release year: 2020Label: Xtreem Records Necropsy are one of the often overlooked chapters of Finnish death metal, one of those bands there’s a big chance you don’t know unless you’ve really done some digging into the scene. The … Continue reading Necropsy taking it slow
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
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
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