Gorgoroth (NOR) – Antichrist PIC-LP

Black Metal

Negros Manifestos de Ordem Venusiana, a split LP presented on noble vinyl, to honor the ancient ways.

Indeed, both hordes wholly honor the ancient ways, and understandably are two of the mightiest and most respected hordes in Portugal’s nowadays raw black metal scene.

Negros Manifestos de Ordem Venusiana is something of an intergenerational pairing, however, as MONS VENERIS have been prolifically polluting the underground since 2003 while ORDEM SATANICA, by comparison, started their near-equally prolific onslaught in 2014.

Nevertheless, as representatives of the Portuguese Black Metal, here on Negros Manifestos de Ordem Venusiana do both hordes create provocative portrayals of their unique darkness and despair.

ORDEM SATANICA are on Side A and unfurl three haunting and medieval tracks, roaming the castle with that spectral rawness they’ve truly made their own the last few years.

MONS VENERIS are on Side B and offer an epic, side-long track that roams the rawest dungeons, spanning punkish bash and hypnotic hysteria alike, torrents of noise to ruin your soul.

Black Metal

Nebelburg was the solo project of Asvaaraz of Grabgesang.

He recorded 3 demos, but only the first one Verdammnis was released to date in 1994.

Black Metal

Titled Outojen Tornien Varjoissa, FAUSTIAN PACT’s full-length debut is the grand culmination of all the gloriously bewitching work they brewed across that trio of demos. Exploding with an effervescence that’s addicting and undeniable, their swords-aloft attack surges and swells, crests and cascades. At the forefront are stained-glass synths whisked from a time – and a fantastical landscape – far, FAR away, sumptuously underlining their heroic/romantic style of black metal deeply steeped in a nostalgic past. Across the album’s 41 minute (fantastical) landscape are spread lyrics of splendorous mythology, swords & sorcery, vast forgotten realms brought to life through wily, wanderlusting black metal betraying a noble melodicism. FAUSTIAN PACT are thus a unique balance of contrasts: orkish energy vs. mystical atmosphere, dungeon rawness vs. castle-top aristocracy, obsidian darkness vs. gleaming light. So, whether 25 years ago or 2500, removed by a reality or two, Outojen Tornien Varjoissa is timeless BLACK METAL MAGICK – dark medieval times have at last arrived!

Black Metal

Originally released as cassette by Mahamvantara Arts Records earlier this year, RÜNDGARD’s first public recording is one literally out of time. Mainman Lord Valtgryftåk is a prolific veteran of Chile’s increasingly potent black metal underground, concurrently handling the likes of Pyreficativm, 13th Temple, Gryftigæn, and Winterstorm among others. And while a number of those bands and satellite entities belonging to the Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague are indeed the rawest of the raw, with RÜNDGARD does he delve into ancient times, medieval majesty, and grim splendor somewhere between the earliest Nordic works and contemporaneous Polish ones.

Recorded during two periods over the course of MMXX/MMXXI and now featuring a mix & master by Rudrah Studios, Stronghold of Majestic Ruins suitably evokes its namesake both sonically and thematically. Empirically, the recording evokes the ancient passages and memories of a distant land submerged in mist and an interesting story behind ruins. As Lord Valtgryftåk explains, “Originally, this entity is directly related to those archaic dimensional Valdivian forces that still inhabit our realms, those forces from the past written in blood and guarded by solemn towers and fortresses that still remain alive.” And truly, that past comes alive across the album’s succinct-yet-expansive 25-minute runtime, maintaining a faithful respect for the old traditions and the sound of glorious times with an interesting melodic register at the same time very organic. No record-collector-nerd “raw black metal” here: only authentic ancient vintage!

For those nostalgic for forgotten realms and archaic ages, RÜNDGARD returns from a deep slumber with the fortifying Stronghold of Majestic Ruins!

Black Metal

From the cold northern terrain of Canada arises a new presence in the underground black metal sphere. TREMBLING VOID skulks into the recently flourishing landscape of one man black metal recording acts and announces his menacing existence like a broken buzz saw. It’s hard to ignore this dark entity.

Black Metal

Building upon that grand fortress is a four-song/22-minute mini-album likewise truly titled: The Oath of the Black Wolf. Here, ORGREL have gone a-hunting, their ’90s black metal classicism stalking and striking with a hunger only hinted at previously. Still, fueled by this fire they may be, the Italians across this mini manage to maximize their epic side, with the predecessor’s flat-yet-full soundfield now becoming slightly more chromatic in the process. Lead lines portend dark truths, ever building in tension and then grandeur, but the record’s swift-yet-satisfying runtime reveals the darkest, most intrinsic truth: black metal doesn’t need to “become” anything when it already IS. Hail The Oath of the Black Wolf!