CD

2014 will go down history as the year that Sludge got into the next level of mainstream acceptance.

I can understand why Belgian top-label Consouling Sounds signed Swedish act Snailking, for this trio’s efforts are very much in the vein of what Consouling Sounds stand for: performing extremely heavy and sludgy Doom-stuff with a gloomy basement. The band proved their worthiness in mean time through means of Samsara, their critically acclaimed debut EP.

Brussels-based act Skeptical Minds was formed in 2002, and in 2005 they released a first album, Rent To Kill, via FYB Records, the label that took, and still takes care of all (European) releases by this band. In 2010 there was a second album (Skepticalized), and throughout the past decade, there were some EP’s and some live stuff too.

Wow….for a moment I thought I was the victim of a time warp which brought me back to the late seventies, listening to a new record on dad’s record player.

It was rather evident that a label like Hells Headbangers (always having a great taste for indigestible rotten flesh…) would sign Sacrocurse. Their demo Sulphur Blessing showed the strength of this project, somewhat perfectly, quasi-shamelessly fitting to Hells Headbangers’ roster (I reviewed that stuff last year, and it had been posted on this site on September 22^nd 2013; check it out if you dare, er, I mean, if you want to).

Pray For Locust is a  Swedish metalcore band releasing with In the shadows their second full length album.  

Swedish combo Hyperborean was formed in 2000, but after the recording of some independently released demonstrational material (three demos, for your correct information), they were put to rest. In 2009 Hyperborean resurrected, and via Abyss Records they released the debut full length called The Spirit Of Warfare (on CD-format, in 2011).

The young Italian label Drown Within Records (young, because they were formed in Spring 2013) did send our headquarters the four releases they have on their roster (up till now - I think, and hope, their roster will grow proportionally), i.e. (in chronological order) Dementia Senex, Under The Ocean, Emrevoid and Sedna. All of them will be reviewed by undersigned, evidently, and I’ll start with the third one (don’t ask me why; it’s just an ad random decision), i.e.

One of the many bands called Drakkar is the one this review deals with (evidently; otherwise it would be way too stupid to have such intro and not to deal with the matter…). This Belgian act started more than three decades ago, and in 1988 they came up with a first full length, X-Rated, released via France’s New Musidisc. Shortly after, the band underwent a first break, followed by a short resurrection at the end of last century.

Despite the enormous population, India might not house so much internationally acclaimed Metal-acts. Lately, we can hear more and more stuff from out there (Zero Gravity, Dhwesha, Halahkuh, Exhumation, Dying Embrace etc.), thanks to the promotional boost offered via Transcending Obscurity, and the motivation and passion of Kunal Choksi, amongst others. But there is one Indian band that did conquer Mater Terra years ago: Demonic Resurrection.