After he left Firstborn Evil at the end of last century, Jorge ‘Sacerdos Magus’ Magalhães formed Antiquus Scriptum. He had some ideas for quite some time that didn’t quite fit to the style of Firstborn Evil, so he took the decision to leave in 1998 and start his own (solo) project. After the recording of some demos, he signed to Ophiucus Records to release the Antiquus Scriptum-debut Abi In Malam Pestem in 2002.
Headhunter D.C. (‘d.c.’ is the abbreviation for ‘death cult’, by the way) are an ‘old’ band from Brazil, originally formed in 1987 (!). They were pretty active (and ‘popular’) during the first half of the nineties, with the release of two long players (on vinyl), Born…Suffer…Die (1991) and Punishment At Dawn (1993). Both of them came out via Cogumelo, the most important label from South America, at least in the early years of Extreme Metal. Then things went silent for quite a long period, though the band was still active.
A couple of years ago, the avian influenza gave me hope. Since I am an animal-friend, I am not talking about the birds that could die. No further comment, but let’s say it seemed to be a solution on the sickness called humanity, and the over-population of homo sapiens-masses…
Anyway, avian or bird influenza is also known as the H5N1-variant of influenza type-A, a virus that could have caused pretty nasty things (but it did not, for the WHO was too kind to, etc…) ;-(
If there’s one thing you cannot accuse Grave Digger of, it’s of being unproductive. Since their debut in 1984, and despite a six year hiatus that spanned from 1987 to 1993, they’ve so far released 16 full albums if you include the 1987 ‘Stronger Than Ever’ album which was released under the name Digger. So this, my friends, makes ‘Return Of The Reaper’ their 17th studio album. And between these studio albums, they’ve also released EP’s, compilations, live albums….
It is not the first time that I will review an album by a band or project from an ‘unusual’ country – think United Arab Emirates (Nervecell), Maldives (Sacred Legacy), Saudi-Arab (Al Namrood), Jordan (Relics Of Martyrs) or Iran (Margg). In my personal collection, by the way, there’s more stuff from those countries, as well as the likes of Bangladesh, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Bahrein or Lebanon.
Tim ‘Sorrow’ Yatras is one of Australia’s most active guys within the Music-scene, with activities ranging from Pop, Pop-Rock and Electro-Pop to extremer sides of aural pleasure, such as Doom and Black Metal. I won’t go over the Pop-related stuff, but heavier acts he’s involved with, and which you might know, are Pestilential Shadows, Austere, Woods Of Desolation (as session member), Germ, Battalion or Grey Waters, amongst tens of others.
I had not heard of Swiss solo-project Astral Silence, run by a guy mysteriously called Quaoar, before, but with this project there was a first contribution on a three-way split in 2009. Astral Journey, which this review deals with, is the first Astral Silence-album, and in 2013 the very same label, Kunsthauch, did release the sophomore full album, Open Cold Dark Matter. But first things first, and that’s Astral Journey.
Despite quite some years of existence - Artificum Nex were formed in 2007 - this Russian band didn’t release but one single official thing, the EP Desert Of Sins. This mini-album, consisting of four tracks, was released via one of the greatest labels from Russia, Satanath Records, in July 2013.
Sometimes it’s great to be a reviewer, and sometimes it’s rather a curse. Since I normally do stuff I might like (Black and Funeral Doom Metal, Industrial and Ambient, and some Thrash, Death, Grind, Sludge, Drone or Boogie Woogie [delete as appropriate]), I can often experience things that make me as horny as [self-censorship]. We at Concreteweb try to be as open-minded as possible. We have our specific specialities, and when something weird shows up, Tony often gets the honour to deepen into this stuff.
Vermin Womb is a new band, formed by Ethan Lee Mc Carthy, known from his activities in Primitive Man (the review on Scorn was updated on October 21st 2013), and formerly in e.g. Death Of Self, Salo, Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire etc.
