I was quite surprised, but I did listen two or three times to Reverie’s debut album Bliss before I noticed that the members involved are younger than twenty years of age! What a maturity they do inherit; it’s truly remarkable! There were two demonstrational recordings before, but I am pretty sure that there is much more professionally recorded material to come. But let’s not run too fast, and focus on the first-things-first principle.
On June 8th 2015 Concreteweb did upload my review for Transmissions, a split in between Finnish act Moonkult and Hungarian one-man combo Solus. With certainty the latter was the best out of two on the split, at least to my humble (and totally subjective) opinion. I did have one remark (which did eventually influence my score) and that was the inferior sound quality.
Solitvdo are an Italian one-man act which I hadn’t heard of before. Apparently there was one single demo before, and Immerso In Un Bosco Di Querce is the first full recording. The material was released on tape in September 2014 via Eremita Produzioni, and on CD (digipack) in December 2014 via Naturmacht Productions. And for sure this material fits to the label’s roster, known for integrity and introspection, nature and purity, translated into a black-edged aural square.
Drawn Into Descent are a new band from the city of Mechelen (Flemish part of Belgium), formed after the demise of Galgenveld.
I have to admit that I was not that eager to listen to this album, if only because of the band’s name, The Hell. I did actually expect some infantile would-be act with more ego than writing capabilities. Yet seen the label(s) involved, this could be something quite different as well. The choice of those labels releasing an album by a band called this way, would it prove me wrong?
Infra are a project from Portugal consisting of members involved with e.g. Corpus Christii, Alchemist or Göatfukk, and the trio released two pieces via mighty Californian label Nuclear War Now! Productions gathered as Initiations On The Ordeals Of Lower Vibrations.
Lago are a band from Phoenix, Arizona, formed in 2010 and, in their milieu, known for the rather ‘popular’ EP Marianas (released at the very end of 2010). After some line-up changes, the band started writing on new material, and step by step new stuff got into form. Eventually, the band released their first album, called Tyranny, yet in a limited and underestimated promotional edition (CD-format), and that’s when and where Blood Harvest shows up, giving this strong material a new chance, though this time being on vinyl.
When I got in touch with French top-label Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions in very early Summer 2014, I went to my (permanent?) record shop in Leuven to search for some of this label’s ‘older’ stuff. Amongst this material: the album Regarde Les Hommes Tomber by French act Regarde Les Hommes Tomber. In the vein of pretty much all stuff on Les Acteurs De L’Ombre Productions, I was truly impressed by that debut album.
The Haunting Presence are a new outfit by Ghastly Apparition, the guy behind the mighty project Nocturnal Blood (FYI: you can find a review undersigned wrote on Devastated Graves – The Morbid Celebration, released as well via Hells Headbangers, which was posted on November 26th 2010; check the Archive-section).
In their five year of existence, German act Porta Nigra did release a couple of mini-releases, one full length, and they contributed on one of the Elemental Nightmares splits. Now the duo returns with the second full album, Kaiserschnitt, a Decadent Dark Metal album that lasts for more than three quarters of an hour.
