Disinterred - DEMO MMXIII

Some monstrously aggressive Death Metal from Belgium, The demo's free, so even you're not that into Blast Beats, extreme grunts and fast-paced death metal riffing, giving this band a go won't cost you more than a couple of minutes, time you used to waste on updating your facebook status, aimlessly browsing youtube's ever growing repertoire of ludicrous videos or even watching 3 american girls shitting in a cup.

Septic Apes - Slaughterhouse Tapes II

I have to admit that i'm not really fond of bands like Septic Apes, bringing a simplified and shallow blend of doom, stoner and sludge, . The reason for posting this band and the release of their latest Ep Slaughterhouse Tapes II is solemnly based on my fascination with the first song 'Vampire Counts'. Give it a spin (or rather a click) and hopefully you'll understand my reasoning.

Shallow Grave - Shallow Grave

Instead of fruitlessly trying to capture the essence of this band in text, i will leave it up to their own self-description:

Formed in New Zealand in 2009, Shallow Grave are a cancerous blight upon the rapidly degenerating Auckland landscape.
Apocalyptic visions of nameless cults and chemical-fueled Lovecraftian insanity are channeled through mutilated riffs, horrendous screams, twisted psychedelia and sonic experimentation. Shallow Grave triumphantly ride the saddle of the rapidly-encroaching new Dark Age.

the only thing i can crudely add to the above is:
Think Neurosis' Times Of Grace meets Ramesses' Possessed by the rise of Magik.

Sunken - Sunken

It's always exhilarating to find a interesting new band in your country, especially in a country as small as Belgium. Sunken are a Doom metal Bass/Drum 2-piece from Wallonia.

First off, i have to admit that the recording quality of this demo (and also their previous ep 'Damaged') are plainly abysmal, the bass guitar should have been pumped up to a higher level, especially in the lower frequency spectrum, and the drums sound like your average DIY black metal band, which is not a virtue for a doom metal band. Luckily the music itself is quite enjoyable, when they find the courage to put a lot of pace in their songs they sound quite a lot like Black Cobra or even a slower Lightning Bolt. When they descend into the slower depths of doom however, the resemblance to the older work of OM is unmistakeable. I feel like this is a band that requires a live presence to impress audiences, and i will keep my eye out for any upcoming gigs to give them an honest chance to blow my brains to pieces.

Ether - Human Error

kicking off an album with an excerpt off of one of the best films ever made should be considered as a herald for a great and lush new album. Ether are an Atmospheric Metal band from Fort Lauderdale US and have made an imprint in the local heavy music scene by sharing stages with bands like Weedeater and Cough.

As for the album (Human Error), i am usually able to pinpoint a couple of closely related genres to any new Heavy band i come across, but in this case i found myself producing such a big cluster of genres that it would be more appropriate to encapsulate all their various influences and label them as an Atmospheric Metal band. When listening to the album it feels like Ether are trying their very best to keep introducing new sound colors, in an effort to escape from being trapped in the same songstructural cadence. The sound colors applied range from repetitive sludge riffs, to post-rock interludes and melancholic post-metal climaxes. They even went so far as to introduce classical strings to further bolster the independence of their songs. Although these intentions are shared with a lot of bands that fail in their efforts, Ether have convinced me that they're not one of them, the song structures as well as the individual melody's are intelligent but not to complicated to break an audience's attention span. all of this combined with an excellent recording quality (and an excellent drummer) make for an impressing release that should appeal to any heavy music enthusiast.

Agnes Vein - Soulship

Agnes Vein are not a newcomer to the European heavy sludge scene, and have shared stages with  leviathans such as Om, Electric Wizard and Conan. On the 1st of May they will grace us with their third release called 'Soulship'.

This overtly talented 3-piece hailing from Greece have managed to deliver a musical tale that breathes beauty and putrefaction at the same time, which may sound like a band just playing melodic passages entwined with sudden avalanches of sludgy mayhem, but there's obviously more to it than just that. In fact the processes themselves that take you through these shifts in musical timbre are the touches that make this an album that should draw your undivided attention. I have to admit that the album is tricky in that way, sometimes way up there in quality, but sometimes a bit derivative. But overall the former prevails, which makes for a dark and impressive album.

Csejthe - Réminiscence

Csejthe (Lucifer only knows how to pronounce this)  is a Black metal 3-piece from Quebec delivering an unrelenting black metal entity in the vein of their greatest influence Burzum. An other adhesive for their songs is their fascination with the Hungarian countess Elisabeth Bathory whom allegedly murdered hundreds of girls during her time of reign.

With their second album Réminiscence, Csejthe have managed to create an album that is rife with musical references to the Norwegian black metal scene, with Burzum being the main focal point. Although this reverence of a small number of bands is clear in their artwork and advertisements, their overall tone is of a broader spectrum, drawing comparison to many American black metal bands like Xasthur, Krallice, Wolves in the throne room , Nachtmystium and maybe even Ash Borer.

Csejthe is one of those bands that provides an attentive listen not because they sound so new and unique, but because they remind any self proclaimed black metal connaisseur of the times where black metal was a small ruthless club, a time where it could still be called a scene and a time where burning churches filled the moonlit sky with flickering crimson light.