Ivan Tibos.

La-Ventura

I have to admit: I’ve never been a ‘fan’ of this Dutch band. Holland is known for its huge so-called ‘female fronted’ scene, i.e. Gothic, Symphonic or Epic oriented (Heavy) Metal with a female singer, and more than once this country exceeds the international colleagues / competitors easily. In many cases, the Netherlands indeed are spectacular country (I won’t start enlist a selection of bands, because whatever…), but La-Ventura did never please my ear drums or grey cells at all (cf. a full length and an EP during the first decennium of this century).

Heretic’s Dream

The Italian quartet Heretic’s Dream did record this full length at Apex House Studio (production, engineering and mix) with assistance of e.g. Steve Russell, whom I do know from his studio assistance with Metalcore-oriented acts specifically.

His contribution led to a clean, rather polished and modern sound for sure, which fits to the musical approach of Heretic’s Dream. Translated: modern, poppy material…

Blacksoul Seraphim

Only recently received, even though originating from the end of last year (so are many releases, so WTF…).

Objective info: Alms And Avarice was recorded at Black Coffee Sound by Clay Neely (Elder, Black Pyramid, Killslug) during last year’s summer.

Half-and-half, subjective versus objective info: Doom stuff with a chilly atmosphere and powerful sound, balancing in between tradition and experimentalism.

Sardonis / Eternal Elysium

This split-album isn’t just some cheap re-release. It was originally released on 10” vinyl edition in 500 copies, and now it gets re-released with a bonus track done by each band involved with the split. Again in 500 copies only, by the way…

Actually, this material was (re-) released to celebrate SardoniS’ Japanese tour and so on, but who cares, besides a handful of Japanese Sludgers?...

Kongh

One of the most innovative and mind-blowing Doom-acts from Sweden is, without any doubt, this band: Kongh. Their new piece, Sole Creation, was recorded at the Teknikkompaniet studio with Peter Lundin; mix and mastering have courtesy of Cult Of Luna’s Magnus Lindberg (check out the review on this band’s newest release as well, updated on Concreteweb on 10/02/2013).

Illnath

Female grunters aren’t that unusual anymore, but one of the most impressing and most beautiful ones (there are many, and since I do profoundly adore 1. beautiful woman and 2. beautiful Metal, I am but a lucky human entity) is Mona Beck. She first impressed me on Illnath’s former album, Third Act In The Theatre Of Madness, which gave me a double-bind felling.

Ulcer

It might be hard to accept, and one won’t believe it, but Ulcer aren’t a band from Sweden. In fact, they hail from Poland.

The band was formed in 2006 and there was a self-released debut full length in 2007, called Serpent Trinity. There was supposed to be a split-EP earlier this year with Graveyard, but I’m not sure this piece of vinyl had actually been released in mean time.

Paganizer

Carve: Stillborn Revelations And Revel In Human Filth is not a new Paganizer-album, as the smartest amongst us would have guessed, probably. In fact this is a re-release compilation, dealing with both albums recorded and released under the Carve-moniker.

Weapons To Hunt

Weapons To Hunt are the ‘sequel’ to Infinited Hate, featuring former and current Sinister and Supreme Pain members. This first album, by the way, comes with session bass parts performed by Erwin Harreman, member of, and please hold on, don’t be afraid: Sinister / Supreme Pain. …a somewhat incestuous collegiality.

Tiamat

Sweden’s Tiamat started during the second part of the eighties as a unique Death Metal formation (originally as Treblinka; despite the badly-chosen name, I did love this act a lot!), combining the typifying Swedish school (i.e. the Sunlight-sound!) with some own-faced elements. The experimentation became more and more important throughout the years, and as from Wildhoney (Century Media, 1994) they did indeed develop a sound that was both original and unusual.

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