An Incipient End of Summer Roundup

Tags

A Sad Sadness Song, AFM records, Against PR, Agonia Black Vomit - Cosmosatanic Wisdom, Alpha Tiger, An Assfull Of Love - Monkey Madness, Antiversum - Cosmos Comedenti, Asagraum - Potestas Magicum Diaboli, Astarium - Drum-Ghoul, Atlases - "Medusa", Bewitcher, Black Lion Records, Blood Harvest, Blood Tyrant / Departure Chandelier - split, Bloody Times - Destructive Singles, Bludy Gyres - Echoes of a Distant Scream, Boersma Records, Bombarder - Bez Milosti, Bombarder - Speed Kill, Bool - Fly With Me, Candlelight / Spinefarm, CANKER - Earthquake, CARDINALS FOLLY - Deranged Pagan Sons], Caverna Abismal Records, Centuries of Decay, CIRCUS MAXIMUS - Havoc in Oslo, Cognizance - "The Foreboding Impasse", Cognizance - Illusory, Cosmic Void Ritual - The Excreted Remains of the Sabatier System, Coven - The Advent, Crafteon - Cosmic Reawakening, CREMATORY - Live Insurrection, Cult Of The Horns - Chapter I. Domination, Darkenhold - Memoria Sylvarum, Darkflight - The Hereafter, DAWN OF DISEASE - Ascension Gate, Devil Creations - Hell's Exit, Dig Me No Grave - Immemorial Curse, Dimman - Guide My Fury, Dirkschneider - LIVE – Back To The Roots – Accepted!, Draghkar - World Unraveled, Eden's Curse - Revisited, Eihwaz Recordings, Ektro, END OF GREEN - Void Estate, Ensepulcher - No Sanctity in Death, EXIT EDEN - Rhapsodies in Black, Fighter Records, Fleshpress - Hulluuden Muuri, FORGED IN BLACK – SINNER SANCTORUM, From North, From the Hellmouth / Mutilatred, Frontiers music, Frontiers records, Gloomy Grim - Fuck The World, Goathorned Productions, Grift - Arvet, GrimmDistribution, hell's headbangers, Hidden Marly Productions, High Roller Records, HORRIFIED - Allure of the Fallen, HOSTILIAN - Monolith, Humanity Zero - Withered In Isolation, Hypochristmutreefuzz - Hypopotomonstrosesquipedaiophobia, ICE WAR, Ignominious - The Throne and the Altar, Inspirus Records, Inverse Records, Invictus Productions, Iris Divine - The Static And The Noise, iron bonehead, Jack Starr's Burning Star - Stand Your Ground, Kashgar, KHAZAD-DUM - Garmadh, Krucyator Productions, KRYPTONITE, KULTIKA - Pursuance, Kuudes Silma - Pelko, KVLT, LASCAR - Saudade, LEIDER - Alloys, Long Branch Records / SPV, LUCIFER'S CHALICE - The Pact, LYZZARD - Savage, Madlife - Precision in the Face of Chaos, Mascharat, Metal Carnival Records, Mist Of Misery - Shackles of Life, Mitochondrion - Antinumerology, Mordenial - The Plague, Mouldered - Chronology Of A Rotten Mind, Napalm Records, Necroheresy - Asylum, Necromante - The Magickal Presence of Occult Forces, Necrophile - Awakening Those Oppressed, Nemecic - The Deathcantation, Nine Records / Topillo Records, Nocturnes Mist - Diabolical Baptism, Non Serviam Records, Nordvis Produktion, Northern Plague - Scorn the Idle, NOVAE MILITIAE - Gash’khalah, Nuclear War Now! Productions, Oculus - The Apostate of Light, OMINOUS SHRINE - Ο Δρόμος Της Αποθεώσεως, Oracle - Beyond Omega, Oraculum - Always Higher, Ovakner - Ar/Lume, Pagan Altar - The Room of Shadows, Paratra - Genesis, Paroxsihzem - Abyss of Excruciating Vexes, Pest Records, Planet Eater - Blackness From The Stars, Plastic Head, Plastic Tones - Wash Me With Love, PRAISE THE FLAME - Manifest Rebellion, PURTENANCE - Paradox of Existence, PUTRID OFFAL - Anatomy, QUIET RIOT - Road Rage, Ram-Page - The Grave Of Seven Billion, Raptore - Rage n' Fever, Redefining Darkness / Seeing Red Records, Runespell - Unhallowed Blood Oath, Sable Beldam - Cryptic Void, Sandor Valy - Young Dionysos, Satanath Records, Seance records, Serious Black - Magic, Shade Empire - Poetry Of The Ill-Minded, Shadow Kingdom, Shepherd / Death By Fungi, Skein - Deadweight, SLAUGHTBBATH - Contempt, Slice of Sorrow - Execution, Soman Records, Stallion - From The Dead, Steamhammer / SPV, SUMMON (U.S.) - Dark Descent of Fallen Souls, Suns Of Sorath - Flowers of the Lily, svart records, Symbol of Domination, Taphos Nomos / Uroun - R.I.P., Temple of Mystery, THE HIRSCH EFFEKT - Eskapist, THE NEW ROSES - One More For The Road, THE NIGHTS, third eye cinema podcast, TRAVELIN JACK - Commencing Countdown, Unholy Prophecies, Urarv - Aurum, Various Artists - Death, Vulture - The Guillotine, War and Damnation, War Is War!, Werewolf Records, Witches Brew, WORLD TRADE - Unify, Worm - Evocation of the Black Marsh, Wrath of the Tyrant, Wrath of the Tyrant Records, Xanthochroid - Of Erthe and Axen Act I, XENOKORP, Xtreem Music, Zornheym - Where Hatred Dwells And Darkness Reigns

Holy crap, this one’s the motherload.

A few weeks back, I gave a heads up to our Facebook followers that releases were dropping across the virtual desk by the metric tonne, and warned with a twinkle of bemusement that if they kept coming in at the rate they had been, this month’s Roundup was going to be a monster.

And sure enough.

At the time of writing these lines, there are over 110 albums, EPs and a handful of singles under review this month, with the potential if not likelihood that we’ll see a few more arrive before we close out and finalize (hell, there are already a handful of October-range releases on schedule for next month’s post…)

In short…yeah, this is the big one, Weezie.

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Jumpin’ Jehosaphat! Stop Jerking around with those unjustifiably Jejune Review sources…it’s time for another Judiciously perspicacious June Roundup!

Tags

Agonia records, Amentia - Scourge, Amputated Vein Records, Art of Propaganda, ASHCLOUD - Kingdom of the Damned, Avantgarde Music, ÆRA - Of Forsworn Vows, BAD KARMA - Death Has No Calling Card, BARBARIAN, Beastmaker - Inside The Skull, Black Bow Records, Black Lodge Records, Black Plague Records, Blaze of Sorrow – Astri, Caverna Abismal Records, Cimmerian Shade Recordings, COFFEINNE - Circle of Time, Comatose Music, Comity - A Long Eternal Fall, Convulsive Oaths, Cryptic Wanderings - You Shall Be There..., CULT OF ERINYES - Tiberivs, De Tenebrarum Principio, Death Portal Studio, Deity, Delirious, Direwolves - The Great Year, Disharmony - The Abyss Noir, Disorder - Fuego Negro, Divinity - The Immortalist, Eisenwald, Ektro, Eleine, Fellwarden – Oathbearer, Fighter Records, Fila Sophiae, Forever Plagued, Freiheit - Безумие. Ненависть. Смерть, Frontiers music, Funeral Tears - Beyond The Horizon, Future Faces - Revolt, Ghost Toast - Out of This World, GrimmDistribution, HATE - Tremendum, hell's headbangers, Humangod - Real Me, INGLORIOUS - II, Inverse Records, Invictus Productions, iron bonehead, Iron Bonehead / Parasitic / Vault of Dried Bones, Kafirun - Eschaton, Karkaos - Chidlren of The Void, Khatano / Kundorez - Czech Madness, KING SATAN - King Fucking Satan, KOBRA AND THE LOTUS - Prevail I, KVLT, Lava Invocator - Mork, Lød - Folder, Lucifer's Dungeon - The Dark Army Raises, Macabre Demise - Dead Eyes Stench of Death, Morbid Skull Records, More Hate Productions, MRTVI - Negative Atonal Dissonance, NADIMAC - Besnilo, Nagaarum - Homo Maleficus, Napalm Records, Narthraal - Screaming From The Grave, NGC Productions, Nicumo - Storms Arise, NITROGODS - Roadkill BBQ, Nordland - European Paganism, Nordvis Produktion / Bindrune Recordings, Obscure Abhorrence Productions, Opus Diaboli - Black Light Of Destruction, ORDEM SATANICA - Monte da Lua, PAGANIZER - Land of Weeping Souls, Panopticon - Kentucky, PATHOLOGY, Perpetual Rage - Empress Of The Cold Stars, Pimeydentuoja - Hellcrowned, Post Pulse - Halls Of The Damned, PRISON OF MIRRORS - Unstinted, Psychosomatic Cowboys - From Here To Hell, Pure - J'Aurais Du, Qrixkuor - Incantations From the Abyss, RED MOON ARCHITECT - Return Of The Black Butterflies, Rienaus - Saatanalle, Rise Above Records, Roctum - Nothing To Do With Hell, ROYAL HUNT - 2016, Satanath Records, Sator Malus - Dark Matters, Saturnal Records, Seance records, Seer (Canada) - Vol. III & IV: Cult of the Void, Shadow Kingdom, SHADOWFLAG – THE DELUSION MACHINE, Signal Rex, Signal Rex / De Essentia Diaboli, SKELETHAL - Of the Depths..., SNAKECHARMER - Second Skin, Social Arsonist - Duality of Perception, SPEEDCLAW - Iron Speed, Sphera Noctis Records, Steamhammer / SPV, Summon - Aesthetics of Demise, SVARTSYN - In Death, Symbol of Domination, TARLUNG - Beyond The Black Pyramid, Televisio, The Ritual Productions, The Sarcophagus - Beyond This World's Illusion, third eye cinema podcast, Throatruiner Records, Throatruiner Records / Gps Prod, Throatruiner Records / Translation Loss Records, Thus Defiled - A Return To The Shadows, Tough Love Records, Transcending Obscurity Records (India), Ungraved Apparition - PULSE_0, URSINNE - Swim With The Leviathan, VANDEN PLAS - The Seraphic Live Works, Vesicant - Shadows of Cleansing Iron, WARRANT - Louder Harder Faster, Weregoat - Pestilential Rites of Infernal Fornication, While They Sleep - Les Fleurs Du Mal, Wild Kingdom, Wode - Servants of the Countercosmos, Xtreem Music

Well, this has been an interesting month.

A Terrifyingly Turkey-filled Thanksgiving Roundup

Tags

A Sad Sadness Song, Angela Martyr - The November Harvest, ANNISOKAY - Devil May Care, Avantgarde Music, Azooma - The Act of Eye, Blood Harvest, Callidice - Scarlet, Cerebral Fix - Disaster of Reality, Church of Disgust - Veneration of Filth, Cimmerian Shade Recordings, Clavis Secretorvm, CONDENADOS - The Tree of Death, CULTES DES GHOULES - Coven, Dawnbringer - XX, DIABULUS IN MUSICA - Dirge For The Archons, Doomed - Anna, Draugsol - Volaoa Land, DRESCHER - Erntezeit, DRESCHER - Steinfeld, Dunkelheit Produktionen, Earth and Pillars - Pillars I, Eggs of Gomorrh - Rot Prophet, Ektro, Enemy Of Reality - Arakhne, FM - Indiscreet 30, FREEDOM CALL - Master Of Light, Frontiers music, FYB Records, Ghoulgotha / Ruin - Churning in Vertebraes / Becoming Disease, GLENN HUGHES - Resonate, GRAHAM BONNET BAND - The Book, HAMMERFALL - Built To Last, hell's headbangers, HMS Keelhaul - Anchord, Hugh Myrone - Drift Stage Vol. 1, Ignis Gehenna - Baleful Scarlet Star, Insulters - Metal Still Means Danger, Inverse Records, Invictus, KAIRON Irse! - Ruination, LASCAR - Absence, Laster - Ons vrije fatum, Long Branch Records, Luciferian Light Orchestra - Black, Maligner - Demon, Memento Mori (Spain), MORDSKOG - XIII, Motelli Skronkle - Juna, Murg - Gudatall, Napalm Records, Nero One Records, Nordvis Produktion, or Evil Ways Instead of Love, Panzerfaust - The Lucifer Principle, Paria - Knochenkamp, PRETTY MAIDS - Kingmaker, Ranger - Speed & Violence, Revelations of Rain - Akrasia, Rivette - In Vertigo, ROTH BROCK PROJECT, Sadokist - Thy Saviour's Halo Held by Horns, Sakset - Lahja, Seance records, Shadow Kingdom, Shambles (Thailand) - Realm of Darkness Shrine, Signal Rex, SIRENIA - Dim Days of Dolor, Sokea Piste - Valmiiseen maailmaan, Solitude Productions, Solitude Productions (Russia), Sorguinazia, Spectral Apparition - Manifestation, Spinefarm Records, Steamhammer / SPV, Suffer Yourself - Ectoplasm, Svart, svart records, third eye cinema podcast, Thron, Transcending Obscurity Classics, Uncoffined (UK) - Ceremonies of Morbidity, Unholy Prophecies / Equinox Discos, Vault of Dried Bones, Vault of Dried Bones / Iron Bonehead, Versifist - Cipher, VIRTA -HURMOS, VOID MEDITATION CULT - Utter the Tongue of the Dead, W.T.C. Productions, Warlord UK - Maximum Carnage, Werewolf Records, WITCHTRAP - Sorceress Bitch, Xtreem Music (Spain)

I don’t think I need to say a word, after what went down last Tuesday.

A Spooky Seasonal Cornucopia of Considerable and Copious Concuspiscence that is the October Roundup

Tags

Abigail (Japan) - Intercourse and Lust, Absentia Lunae - Vorwarts, AFM records, ALUNAH - Awakening The Forest, Animus Mortis - Testimonia, Art of Propaganda, Artist Station- eOne, Ascension - Deathless Light, ATMF, AUDREY HORNE - Pure Heavy, Bethlehem - Hexakosioihexekontahexaphobia, CAVALERA CONSPIRACY - Pandemonium, Crazy Lixx, Crone - Gehenna, DALTON - Pit Stop, Doomed and Disgusting - Satan's Nightmare, Enemy Of Reality - Rejected Gods, F.Y.B. Records, Fides Inversa - Mysterium Tremendum et Fascinans, Forced Kill, Fräkmündt - Landlieder & Fromdländler, Frontiers records, GORMATHON - Following The Beast, Hard Action, Harvest Gulgaltha - I, Helldorados - Lessons In Decay, Ill Omen - Enthroning the Bonds of Abhorrence, Invictus Productions, Jess and the Ancient Ones - Castaneda, KONTRUST - EXPLOSITIVE, Latitude Egress - To Take Up the Cross, LIV KRISTINE - Vervain, Lordi - Scare Force One, Lyriel - Skin And Bones, Massacre records, MEGAHERZ - Zombieland, NACHTBLUT - Chimonas, Napalm Records, No Remorse Records, Nuclear War Now!, Nuclearhammer - Serpentine Hermetic Lucifer, Oraculum (Chile) - Sorcery of the Damned, Pestilential Shadows - Ephemeral, Prophecy productions, Revenge (Canada) - Attack.Blood.Revenge, Seance records, Sleep of Monsters - Produces Reason, Sol Invictus - Once Upon A Time, Sunset Mob, svart records, The Black Mass, The Deathtrip - Deep Drone Master, The House of Capricorn - Morning Star Rise, The Prophecy 23 - Untrue Like A Boss, third eye cinema podcast, Thomsen - Unbroken, Thy Darkened Shade - Liber Lvcifer I: Khem Sedjet, VEGA - Stereo Messiah, W.T.C. Productions, WALPYRGUS

Holy crap, it’s the motherlode.

After an extended summer’s worth of half-length Roundups necessitated by a virtual dearth of releases, this month has swung straight to the opposite end of the pendulum, with more stuff to cover than readers have seen since quite early in the year.

Even to the moment I’m writing these very words, new releases are positively pouring in from one label or individual band contact after another, leading to further and further revisions and extensions to this rather spooky seasonal roundup.  As it is, I already have a fair sized batch of releases earmarked for the November iteration thereof…

So rather than getting into the eerie and unearthly uncanniness of this spectral season of Samhain, what say we get into the spirit of things, putting the old behind us and forging forward into the new?

Avaunt!

A singular if not downright strange September Roundup

Tags

A Sadness Song (a division of ATMF), AFM records, Alternative 4 - The Obscurants, ÆVANGELIST - Writhes in the Murk, Blood God - Blood Is My Trademark, California Breed, CRIMSON SHADOWS - Kings Among Men, Evergrey - Hymns For The Broken, Frontiers records, hell's headbangers, iron bonehead, J.B.O. - Nur die Besten werden alt, LONELY KAMEL - Shit City, Madmans Esprit - Nacht, Massacre records, MEDEN AGAN - Lacrima Dei, MOONLAND feat. Lenna Kuurmaa, Napalm Records, Necroholocaust (Canada) - Holocaustic Goat Metal, NO REGRETS RECORDS (a division of No Remorse), Nucleus Torn - Street Lights Fail, Oberon - Dream Awakening, OCTOBER 31 - Bury the Hatchet, Pestilential Shadows - Ephemeral, Prophecy productions, Sacrilege Records, Seance records, STEAK - Slab City, STRIKER - City Of Gold, STRYPER - Live at the Whisky, svart records, THE LURKING CORPSES - Workin' For the Devil, The Moon And The Nightspirit - Holdrejtek, THE ORDER OF ISRAFEL - Wisdom, The Sabbathian - Ritual Rites, third eye cinema podcast, Woodtemple - Forgotten Pride, WORK OF ART - Framework

Well, here we are again, with the first strains of Fall wafting their way into view…then vanishing again…then back again…whoops, now it’s clearly Indian summer, complete with near 90 degree temperatures, intense humidity and a whole hell of a lot of sweating.  What the hell?

Any way you slice it, September is always a really f***ed up month.

And so it is perhaps appropriate that we come to what may be the most bizarrely disparate collections of music we’ve been given to review in some time, from upbeat AOR and Christian metal to some of the darkest corners of the black metal subgenre, ones that venture where even seasoned fans hesitate to tread.

Do I really need to say it?  Because it’s one of those.

Hang in there, it’s going to be one hell of a bumpy ride.

Music Review: Thee Magickal March Roundup

Tags

AFM records, Agonia records, Beast Within - Adversity/Servitude, Beläten, Blitzkrieg Baby - Kids' World, Blood and Sun - White Storms Fall, Brainstorm - Firesoul, Cemetery Fog - Shadows From The Cemetery, CENTURIAN - Choronzonic Chaos Gods, CENTURIAN - Of Purest Fire, Chasse-Galerie, Circle (ex-Falcon) - Leviatan, Circle - Kumiluoti, CONAN - Blood Eagle, Csejthe, D-A-D - 30 Years Of Hits, Ektro records, Erebus Enthroned - Temple Under Hell, Forever Plagued, Forteresse, Frontiers records, Hatriot- Dawn Of The New Centurion, Hell - Trilogy, hell's headbangers, HIGH SPIRITS, Invictus Productions, iron bonehead, Iron Savior - Rise of the Hero, L.R.S.- Down To The Core, Landskap - I, Légendes, Loinen, Massacre records, Monarque, Moribund records, Napalm Records, NERVOSA - Victim of Yourself, Noctooa - Adaptation, Nocturnal Breed - Napalm Nights, NoiseArt Records, Ormgard - Ormblot, Pact - The Infernal Hierarchies, Penetrating the Threshold of Night, pesanta urfolk, Possession (Belgium) - Anneliese, Pretty Maids- Louder Than Ever, Sargeist - Feeding The Crawling Shadows, Scythia - ...Of Conquest, Seance records, Septuagint - Negative Void Trinity, sepulchral productions, Sinbreed -Shadows, Skelethal - Deathmanicvs Revelation, Storm Warrior- Thunder & Steele, svart records, Teitanbood - Death, The Ajna Offensive, The Golden Grass, third eye cinema podcast, TROLLFEST - Kaptein Kaos, W.T.C. Productions, Wormreich - Wormcult Revelations, X_X - X Sticky Fingers X

Welcome to Spring!  Well, almost, and if you don’t count the wildly whipping changeability between relative warm weather and bitter cold snaps at the drop of a hat…didn’t that damn groundhog predict an early end to Winter?  Just can’t trust anyone these days…

Holidaze Roundup – a new year dawns…the old year yawns.

Tags

A Pesanta Urfolk Imprint, AFM records, Alcest - Shelter, Baxter Stockman - Punter, Boston - Life, DBUK - The Red Cross Is Giving Out Misinformation, Eisenwald, Ektro records, Fluisteraars - Dromers, Frontiers records, Graveborne - Through the Window of the Night, Hell / Amarok - Split LP, hell's headbangers, Hope, I Shalt Become - Louisiana Voodoo, Kinit Her - Hyperion MLP, LEGION OF THE DAMNED - Ravenous Plague, Love, Mantar - Death By Burning, Moon (Australia) - The Nine Gates, Moribund records, Mother Susurrus - Maahaavaa, Nocturnal Fear / Seges Findere - Allied for the Upcoming Genocide, OCTOBER 31 - Meet Thy Maker, OCTOBER 31 - The Fire Awaits You, pesanta urfolk, Prophecy productions, Rattus - Turta, REO Speedwagon - Live at the Moondance Jam, Royal Hunt - A Life to Die For, Saadi Saati (SS-0°1), Satan's Host - Virgin Sails, Satanic Warmaster - Nachzerer, Seance records, suspicious activities, svart records, third eye cinema podcast, Thrall - Aokigahara Jukai, Truth Corroded - The Saviours Slain, Vardan - ...Dreaming …Living My Funeral

As your family and friends proceed to make merry and pass around the turkey and the pumpkin pie, we’re going to take a few minutes of your time as we review a few holiday offerings spanning everything from traditional metal and AOR standbys to neo-folk and black metal…or in other words, business as usual.

As noted in one of my earlier DVD reviews, this is a strange time of year for releases.  Labels and manufacturers realize you’ve probably already spent your holiday cash and are likely saving the bigger guns for sometime in the new year, so there tends to be less new material available for your eager hands to sort through.

Despite that, we still have a good twenty something platters to spin and lay down the verdict on for you, so put on your Santa hat, kick back with some spiked egg nog and crack out the Bailey’s Irish Creme, because we’re not letting a little thing like the biggest holiday of the year stop us, right?

Here comes a big steaming plate of goodies…dig in!