When Martyr Defiled debuted with their full length Collusion, they were sort of catapulted to the top of the scene in the U.K. Also, they built up an enormous ‘popularity’ for their extreme live performances. In mean time, Martyr Defiled shared the stage with the likes of The Black Dahlia Murder, Thy Art Is Murder, Despised Icon and All Shall Perish.
Young quartet Hirsipuu hails from Finland and self-releases the eight-tracker Ihmisestä, which lasts for eighteen minutes. This means: short tracks, all of them in between two and three minutes, so expect a fist-in-the-face product that will take no prisoners. And indeed it does not.
It is not because I am chauvinistic, but normally we consider the U.S., Sweden and Germany as the most important countries when it comes to Death Metal. I think the Lowlands, i.e. Belgium and (especially) the Netherlands, are at least as influential for the worldwide scene. It was the case in the earliest years, and it has not changed.
Norway’s Den Saakaldte, named after a Ved Buens Ende-song (taken from their sole album, Written In Waters), were formed in 2006 by Michael ‘Sykelig’ Siouzios, who originates from Greece. He used to be member of one of my favourite Greek combos, Naer Mataron, before he moved over to Norway (back then he acted under the name of Morfeas), and in Norway he used to be part of Paradigma for a couple of years.
Austria’s Brewed & Canned were formed at the end of last century by two young (at least back then) brothers, Michael (g) and Max (d) Fingernagel. However, they didn’t release anything but some demonstrational stuff; three to be exactly, if I am not mistaken. Very recently, however, and finally, they were able to sign to a professional label, i.e. Germany’s young and small but impressive Death / Black label Blacksmith Records.
Kaotoxin Records are one of those labels that comes with an enormous variety in releases, though mainly Death Metal and Grindcore-based. One of the genres they are known for is the Grindcore-scene.
Earlier this year we (the Concreteweb headquarters) did receive the latest full length by German Dark Metal act Eisregen, called Todestage (the album was initially released at the very end of last year, for your information).
The Baltic countries are enormously underestimated when it comes to (Black) Metal, but there is a vivid scene out there with lots of excellent bands and projects. There are undeniable and pretty important parallels with the East-European (more specific: the Russian and Polish) and the Scandinavian (more specific: Finnish) scene, but there is something that characterises the sound from many records done in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. That is why I am (almost) always unhappily happy when I have the opportunity to listen to new stuff from out there.
Shroud Of The Heretic are a pretty young formation, formed in 2009 (Oregon-based, for your important information), and known for a pretty interesting demo, Boiled To Death. This demo was released on vinyl and CD, respectively via Blood Harvest and Craneo Negro (just like this release). In between that debut record and this new effort, Revelations In Alchemy, the band shared the stage with e.g.
Four-piece Maleficent Vigor (from the United States of Americanana) were formed about five-six years ago, and they (Danny, Mike, Steve and Darrel) have ‘the purpose to face their inner evil and spread their darksides to the unwashed masses’ (excerpt taken from the bio).
