CD

Acherontas are a project from Greece, once formed as Worship by a guy called V. P. AcherontaSS. After a short while, Worship became Stutthof, and finally the project continued under the current moniker.

This mysterious one-man Post-Rock/ Post-Black Metal/ Shoegaze project was founded in 2011, and comes all the way from the Russian town of Kazan (capitol of Tatarstan, inhabiting some 1,1 million souls, and situated 797 km East from Moscow). Mysterious, because the man behind the project hides behind a shroud of anonymity. He can be found on one local social network, but even there covers his identity behind the monicker of “Constantine Horizon”.

The band started out in Austria as Last Warning and released their first two albums under this name, but later on they had to change it to The Last Warning in 2009, due to an Italian band that had the same name.

When I first listened to this album at the occasion of downloading it to my mp3-player, I could not help myself from thinking how great this band would've done in the British Goa Trance scene of the mid-'90s. Little did I know that I was to find out that the band in fact had a leading role in the genre! And damn me for not knowing the band better, because it grew to global repute thanks to composing the musical score for the movie The Matrix!

Hell? Welcome!

This project is a solo-outfit by someone called M.S.W., and under the Hell-moniker, he recorded two full lengths, all of them released on cassette format only. This third one, ingeniously called III, will be released on vinyl as well, albeit in a very limited edition of 472 copies only.

Once formed as a temporary side-project, Blake ‘Azentrius’ Judd’s Hate Meditation was supposed to be a tribute outlet to bands like Blasphemy, Von, Profanatica and Beherit. There was a three-track demo in the first half of last decennium, but then things went silent.

At the beginning of 2005, the band started out as a two-man project of Tobias (Guitar) and Björn (Bass). And as time passed by, the project grew to a 5 membered band. In March 2006, the current Line-Up of Circle Of Silence was completed by Nick (Vocals), Chris (Guitar) and Pit (Drums). The result is an aggressive (Power) Metal band with catchy songs and melodies.

Chalice is a Belgian thrash/death metal band founded back in 1998. And since then, for various reasons people have joined and people have left the band.

All those different line-ups resulted in playing different kinds of metal but there always was adrenaline, aggression, rage and hate. They themselves consider it to be a metal band combining melody, speed and aggression.

Teepee has become a label that has a gift for finding and producing some of the best psych stoner bands right at the moment. Blaak Heat Shujaa from France are one of the best, period, that I've heard yet in this genre. Musically their latest offering is still on par with the songs they've created on the previous albums though it doesn't provide any drastic change, it is quite enjoyable all the way through reminding me of the best work of Mammoth Volume, My Sleeping Karma, The Grand Astoria,…

After Eternal Throne (2008) and Ancient Wraith (2011) (both released via Cold Dimensions), Californian misanthropists Battle Dagorath return with a new epos, this time lasting for one hundred minutes! Indeed, you’re reading well; this new album lasts for an eternity.

Since I am a huge fan of the band (and by the way, multi-talented musician Christoph ‘Vinterriket’ Ziegler did perform the keyboard parts again), this isn’t but a wet dream.