The latest chapter in the Age of Agony story is called "Raven Black". The Hungarians' new EP consists of 5 death metal war anthems. Both musically and lyrically, they are close to what the mighty Bolt Thrower has released before. But you don't have to accept them as cheap copies, because they certainly aren't. It's just that the vibe is very similar, you know. "Regicide" kicks off the CD and brutally storms with pounding bass drums, catchy guitar melodies and otherworldly solos. I especially like the mood of the solos and the grumpy grunts there. "Invasion" follows the sonic carnage with rawer-sounding groovy riffs and dynamic drum parts. In this track, the overall effect was much more abstract, perhaps due to the meditative solos peppered with special sound effects. The title of the third composition is "The Battle of Kings". It's a well-measured, mid-tempo tune with brooding solos and lots of drumming footwork. The title track "Raven Black" comes fourth. It is the longest song on the over 25 minutes EP. And interestingly, it turned out to be the most varied in all respects. There are many tempo changes and the guitar riffs have also been made more heavy or let's say groovy. Around the middle of the song, the echo effect on the vocals became very cool as well. By the way, it ends with really beautiful medieval acoustic guitar melodies. The last track of the CD is "Corvinus". I think this became the most atmospheric song of the EP and those writhing solos turned out to be simply fantastic. The sound of the material became maximally raw, maybe too much, but in today's super-polished sounding music world, this is clearly a positive rather than a negative result. The demanding cover artwork and all graphic designs were created by Grafit és Hamu. Needless to say, they turned out flawlessly and to the point. If you like old fashioned death metal, then this material should be in your collection!!!

If I say that Blizzard from Hungary was founded in 1995, then I have already answered what type of black metal they play, haven't I? Well, true to their name, they prefer icy black metal, the Norwegian kind, especially Immortal's "Blizzard Beasts" record. Harsh riffs, merciless tempos and bloodthirsty vocals characterize the horde's latest material. But in addition to all this, the eight new compositions, with more than 41 minutes, are not only about speed, but also try to lead the listener towards atmospheric, almost ambient-like soundscapes. The sound production is devastating, but also crystal clear. Everything sounds very thick, but it also retains the coldness as it should. In the songs of "Disengaged from Life", the lyrical world steeped in darkness and the Nordic influence are perfectly mixed, so everything is given for a savage black metal album. For me, maybe only the arrangements of the songs "Corpus Christi" and "Shards of a Mirror" deviate a little from the usual black metal stuff, because these songs became much more experimental than the others, which is not bad at all. From the previous album "Les Litanies de Satan", released 15 years ago, only drummer Frostdemon remains. He was joined by Renfield (vocals), Typhon (lead guitar), Psna (rhythm guitar) and Andro (bass). These five members are in perfect harmony and have put together an incredibly good material, you can experience it yourself by ordering the CD at any of the links below. I really hope we don't have to wait 15 years for their next album!!!

"Influx of Hatred" is a split CD release that brings together two maximally obscure bands from the depths of the underground spheres. Poland's Cadaveric Possession presents "The Rise of Eschaton", a 5-track stuff, which was recorded, mixed and mastered in Kraków in January 2020. The music created by Slav (guitar, bass, vocals) and Ketzer (drums) comes from that old vibe that is eternal. Their mix is catchy and very dark at the same time. It combines the trademarks of black and death metal. Let me also mention that their music and sound production is very enjoyable, even if it is far from perfect, although I don't think this was their main intention at all. So all in all, their almost 22-minute repertoire turned out very well. Sweden's Aggressive Mutilator continues the split with their "Den svenska rebellen" material. Their 8 songs represent some sort of punk- and rock'n'roll-influenced black metal, which can sometimes be quite chaotic or simply tragic. This formation is also a duo starring Mikael Holm (guitar, vocals) and Micael Zetterberg (drums, bass). As is usually the case with Swedes, their music is full of interesting guitar melodies and the inevitable d-beat parts. It's also interesting that they added a lot of melancholy to their almost 18-minute stuff. In short, it's really not a typical black metal material, if you ask me. So, in terms of mood, this is a fairly diverse split release. In the booklet you will find the lyrics, member photos and all useful information from both recordings.

Cult ov Black Blood is a black metal formation from Poland, founded in 2015, and "Abhorrence ov God" is nothing but a compilation CD of the band's early demos, namely "Awakening the Archadaemon" (2017), "The Ancient Curse" (2018) and "Penetration ov the Holy Vulva" (2018). These demos were recorded by Baptizer ov Blood and Goatsemen (bass, vocals) and Black Demon ov Vengeance (vocals, guitars, drum programming), although there was a guest drummer Grief on "The Ancient Curse" demo. The CD starts with 11 songs from the third demo "Penetration ov the Holy Vulva". It sounds very morbid and basement-like, as the band's name and nicknames would suggest. So what you can expect is a very raw sound production with under-produced sound quality. Next comes the 9 songs from the second demo "The Ancient Curse". This demo sounds a bit better, but don't expect drastic changes in their well proven necro formula. The CD ends with 7 songs from the first demo "Awakening the Archadaemon". It's a pretty sick demo for sure. There are a total of 27 tracks on the CD, of which 6 songs are covers by bands such as Archgoat, Beherit and Sadomator. Only die-hard fans of the band should order this nearly 71-minute long CD, as it's definitely not for everyone. I don't know if there will be a sequel to Cult ov Black Blood, as Black Demon ov Vengeance passed away on November 24th, but the band's debut album "Apocalyptic Banner ov Abaddon" was released this June by Rex Diaboli, so give it a listen if you're a Cult ov Black Blood fan!

Death Trap Productions and Hunug Records from Hungary recently came out with a rather interesting CD release, including two demos from the long-disbanded Pécs-based death metal band Cultic Pulp. The Hungarian band from the early 90s played quite good music, so I really enjoyed listening to their demos. The five songs from 1992's "Crush Conformity" demo kick off the CD. The demo has a decent sound, maybe only the bass guitar sounds a little annoying in places, which can be considered as a victim of the mixing. The trio's crypt-sounding compositions are very well composed, you can hear that they are proficient in what they did back then. Both demos have the same lineup, which is: Attila Bánfai (vocals/bass), Norbert Varga (guitars) and Gábor Szabó (drums). The track titles of the first demo are: "Kitchen Massacre", "Corpse Drowned", "Overdose of Love/C.C." (If I understood correctly, this song is a Carnal Carnage cover), "Digged Out of the Family Tomb", "Epilogue...". The second demo comes from 1993 and was also the last material of the trio. The demo called "Adrastea" sounds much more necrotic and if the first demo still had a lot of thrash metal influence, this demo focuses more on death metal, although there are still abstract acoustic parts here and there. This demo consists of 4 songs namely "Crush Conformity", "Dead", "Digged Out of the Family Tomb" and "Again and Forever". But as a bonus, we can also find the '93 version of the "Epilogue" song plus a live track called "My Sins Deepen Me" from the same year. In short, there are many rarities here and at the same time it presents the band both from the studio and from the stage. This 46-minute CD edition is a real gem and rarity, which also comes with an 8-page booklet, with a new cover art & layout, some photos, lyrics, covers of old demos, concert posters, flyers, etc. In a word, with this CD material we can take a kind of time travel to the early messengers of death metal of the Hungarian underground – Cultic Pulp!!!

Demonic Lust is a hellish duo from Valparaíso, Chile. Its members are Impure Desire (guitars, bass & vocals) and G. Nekromancer (drums). The music they cultivate is, of course, black metal, that kind of dark, occult and satanic. But by no means do they create in the style of modern black metal bands, on the contrary, in the spirit of the originally evil and unpolished hordes formed around the middle of the eighties and the beginning of the nineties. This CD is a compilation of their first two demos, "Demo MMXIX" and "Demo MMXXII". The more than 21-minute CD contains a total of 8 songs. All songs were recorded at Demonic Lust's Ritual Chamber in 2019 and 2022 respectively. The atmosphere of these recordings is rather cryptic, but I think that was the main intention and they managed to achieve this perfectly. They storm with black anger and spread blasphemy. My absolute favorite tracks are "Unholy Vengeance", "The Heretic Call" and "Crush the Impostor". By the way, the last song on the CD, "Heavens Above", is a Necroplasma cover. It has a completely different atmosphere than their own songs, but since it's a cover, there's nothing wrong with that. The booklet states that you can only get this CD through the band, so please email them at the address below if you think this is the music you are looking for!!!

The given CD contains Deprived of Salvation's latest EP, entitled "When Stones Bleed", as well as the band's 2021 EP, namely "Era of Disdain". The Hungarian band perfectly mixes Scandinavian death and black metal in its repertoire. The first song of the new EP, "The Heart of the Abyss", here and there reminded me quite a bit of the atmosphere of Necrophobic's "Tsar Bomba". In general, I feel a strong influence of At The Gates on their new material, and of course not only because of the specific HM-2 guitar sound. On the other hand, they were also strongly influenced by the last records of the Canadian northern hyperblasters Kataklysm. So we're talking about a modern melodic death metal approach that even has keyboard arrangements. The five songs of the "When Stones Bleed" EP sound quite good, the proportions between the instruments are balanced. The sound of the 2021 EP has become much weaker, but its three compositions still provide interesting musical information. For the perfect sound comparison, there's the song "The Era of Disdain", which appears on both EPs. If you're really addicted to the HM-2 sound, you'll definitely like this nearly 27-minute stuff one way or another. So grab your CD directly from the band or label as it's limited to 300 copies.

Destruction had a very productive year in 2022, both in terms of the release of the new record called "Diabolical" and other reissues. If I count correctly, three box sets were released and "The Butcher Strikes Back" demo '99 finally got a proper reissue amongst other ordinary reissues of old stuff as well. The current box set focuses on the band's early material and is limited to 666 copies. I have the regular version as the other two versions are only sold in Germany, due to the included original bullet from Schmier's personal belt collection. This regular version consists of four super killer looking 12" splatter vinyls, four CDs and three MCs, a 32-page A4 sized booklet, a 16-page A5 sized booklet and a patch, all housed in a deluxe gold foil stamped case bound box. I really enjoyed reading Mike, Tommy & Schmier's stories about the beginnings of the band, their influences and visiting one of the most important metal shows of their lives. The attached images in the A4 booklet are simply priceless. The A5 booklet contains rare interviews, articles and flyers that appeared in underground magazines from 1984-1985. Some are written in German, some in English, generally a pretty good read. By the way, this box set was released on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of Destruction, thus combining the first demo "Bestial Invasion of Hell" in 3 formats (LP/CD/MC), the first EP "Sentence of Death" in 2 formats (European and American versions on vinyl and the European version on CD), the first full live concert as "Black Mass in Altenessen" in all three formats, and the notorious Hell demo "Satanic Death" on CD and MC. Since the demo and EP have been successfully re-released by High Roller Records several times before, I'll focus more on the live stuff and the Hell rehearsal demo. "Black Mass in Altenessen" was recorded at Jugendhaus Emscher in Altenessen on December 1, 1984. It consists of 11 sequences and the tracklist is as follows: "Total Desaster", "Mad Butcher", "Satan's Vengeance", "The Ritual", "Mike Shreds", "Tormentor", "Antichrist", "Death Trap", "Black Mass", "Black Death" and "Mad Butcher" (Encore). The sound is good, if you ask me, especially considering it was recorded on a cheap tape recorder at the time. Various glitches and technical issues occur during the live performance, which is also fine if it's a band's first full live concert. As you can see, the tracklist combines almost all the songs from the first demo and EP, as well as some tracks from the first full-length album "Infernal Overkill". Quite an impressive set of songs! It's a pity that "Black Death" fades out after 5 minutes and the encore version of "Mad Butcher" fades in right from the start, but us old-school fans all know why, don't we? Other than that, this is the most valuable piece of the box for me! A nice unearthing for sure! The other interesting thing is the Hell rehearsal demo, which finally got an official release after many bootleg versions. It consists of four songs, namely "Hell", "Satan's Hammer", "Death" and "Die for Metal", and lasts over 10 minutes. It's pretty noisy raw stuff to be honest. The song structures are simpler and contain fewer melodies than any other Destruction song. But since this was basically an experiment in exactly this musical field, it's easy to say that their mission was successfully accomplished. Oh, and there's another hidden gem at the end of the "Bestial Invasion of Hell" demo (only on LP and CD versions), four rehearsal recordings from 1984, namely "Death Trap", "Invincible Force", "Total Desaster" and "Antichrist". Awesome addition! Overall, I am very happy to own this box set and encourage other fans of the band to invest in this awesome anniversary box too!!!

Destruction's line-up has changed quite a bit in recent years and this LP is the first one without founding member Mike. Well, it's an unfortunate fact, but it didn't affect the band's creative and musical output at all. The new album of the German thrash metal pioneers, which has been operating as a quartet since 2019 again, is titled "Diabolical". In addition to the short intro song, the new LP includes 11 tracks of their own and a cover song, all in nearly 48 minutes. Let's start with the sound. Well, V.O. Pulver brought his tried-and-true level, properly mixing the new songs and ensuring they correctly blow the listener's mind. Randy, who already helped out the band live in 2015, has been a permanent member since 2018. His drumming fits Destruction's style perfectly, so his performance is flawless. Damir has been a steady part of the thrash team since 2019, but for the first time we heard his incredible solos on the "Under Attack" album in 2016. After Mike left, Martin Furia took his place. It should be known about him that he previously worked as a guitar technician for the band, he comes from Argentina and plays guitar in such Belgian thrash & death metal acts as Bark and Furia. I can honestly say that the first joint work of the refreshed quartet turned out better than I thought. Although I only trace this back to the last 20 years, since the atmosphere of classic albums clearly cannot be surpassed. The title track and "State of Apathy" could already be heard in 2021. Both are killer songs, but the new record is full of other well-crafted thrash pieces like "No Faith in Humanity", "Repent Your Sins" or "Servant of the Beast". Schmier brings his dizzying screams and hard as concrete bass parts. Overall, the album is crushing, but mostly sonically, as the variety of riffs isn't very impressive, at least in my opinion. I mean, if the new melodies don't stick in my head after a few listens, there's something wrong, right? Of course, it could also be the problem with me, ha-ha-ha... All in all, there's definitely something missing from their newer records that was magically there in their early materials, music- and chemistry-wise. The album's final track is "City Baby Attacked by Rats", a tribute to the legacy of the legendary punk rock band GBH. The cover and the booklet itself were designed by Gyula Havancsák, with whom Schmier & Co. has been working together for quite some time. Needless to say, they turned out great. Oh and one more thing I personally didn't like about the current CD version is the digisleeve packaging. It's not necessarily the band's fault, rather their new label, Napalm Records, is behind it, but I think it's pretty lame, especially at the price they sell it for. Okay, so the "Diabolical" album is here, taste it now and draw your own conclusions! Obey and thrash till death!!!

"The Butcher Strikes Back" is a very cool and highly recommended Destruction compilation released by Dutch Vic Records. It contains a total of 12 tracks. The first three songs "Bestial Invasion", "The Butcher Strikes Back" and "World Domination of Pain" are from the extremely rare comeback demo from 1999. This demo was primarily intended to secure a new record deal for the band, so it was not widely distributed at the time. Two of the three songs appeared as bonus tracks on the limited 2CD edition of the "Metal Discharge" album in 2003, but since 1999 the three demo songs together have only appeared on this special compilation release. And for me, this is the most valuable part of the current compilation, so big thanks to Vic Records for making it available again. Then there are two covers, "Shellshock" by Tank and "We Are the Road Crew" by Motörhead, the first was previously only available on the Japanese CD version of the "D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N." album, while the second appeared on the limited digibook CD version of "Inventor of Evil" album along with the next track, which is "The Alliance of Hellhoundz (Schmier version)". These six songs made up the first part of the CD and the second part contains six more live cuts from the "Alive Devastation" live album. They are: "Machinery of Lies", "Bullets from Hell", "Tears of Blood", "Invincible Force", "Bestial Wacken Incident" and "Bestial Invasion". The CD runs over 49 minutes and is a killer addition to any Destruction collection! The 16-page booklet includes a rad interview with Schmier, conducted by Pim Blankenstein in April 2020, lyrics to the first 6 songs, some great photos and Joachim Luetke's original cover art pimped up by Liné Hammett. There are some small typos in the booklet, but they are not serious. I own both the CD and vinyl versions, but let me say right away that the CD version dominates in terms of sound, the vinyl somehow didn't do so well. Also, we have 11 songs on the vinyl version, "Bestial Wacken Incident" is not on it. Plus, the song "The Alliance of Hellhoundz (Schmier version)" is written on the back cover as the first song on the B-side, when it's actually the last song on the A-side. Anyway, this is an awesome release, so all the Destruction fanatics out there should try to get their hands on this gem!!!

Well, since this album was released back in 2012, we can definitely call it a "blast from the past" review. I got this CD from Attila (Fekete Terror Productions) and since it's a great release and I haven't written about it yet, I thought I'd give it a spin and give my opinion here. The 10-song "Mayfly" is the debut full-length release from Hungarian Effrontery, which contains 52 minutes of sophisticated death metal with symphonic elements. The recording line-up for the album was as follows: Zsolt Lédeczi (vocals), Péter Lipák (guitar, bass & vocals), Gábor Czene (guitar) and Zsolt Filák (drums), although some guest musicians also left a nice mark in the songs. The technical side of the band reminded me a lot of Psycroptic, but the melodies are a completely different story. Then the combination of the symphonic elements with those deep death growls reminded me of a band called Garden of Shadows from the past. Despite the previous comparisons, I still find that Effrontery's music is very special and does not belong to the usual melodic death metal movement. Their members are very experienced both musically and technically, and I feel that classical music has a great influence on the structure of their repertoire. The album sounds crystal clear and balanced, making it very enjoyable to listen to. In 2017, they released their second album, "Seven Years of Agony", which if I'm not mistaken was a digital only release and was never released in physical format. It's a bit of a shame, because it's also a great album. Effrontery is still active, so I hope to hear new music from them in the near future. In the meantime, visit their bandcamp page and listen to both of their albums!!!

The second LP of Catalan Exessus forges the modern sound and musical currents of the 21st century with the thrash metal heritage of the eighties. The Spanish quartet of Iván Exe (vocals/guitar), Ferran Montasell (guitar), Gerard Colomer (bass/backing vocals) and Víctor García (drums) pretty much focuses on grooves, catchy sing-alongs and crushing sound production. It is certain that these components are important, moreover, the musical abilities of the members are at their peak, but nevertheless I feel the lack of unique ideas and hooks. In addition, the more than 70-minute album with its 13 songs is not stylistically homogeneous at all. I mean, it's quite confusing when the album starts with a great, dynamic thrash metal track, but then suddenly we're bumped into some soft, almost non-metal tune with clean vocals and pop choruses. Nevertheless, when they play some heavy stuff, it reminds me more of Xentrix, especially if we look at Iván's vocal style. For the next material, I advise them to focus their writing skills on building something with a less wide combination of styles and less experimentation. In this way, a single cohesive force would bind their songs together and they would sound more unified. Anyway, this is just my personal opinion, because the members' idea of the initiative could have been the opposite from the beginning. In a word, we have a professional sounding release with songs that are too varied for me, but maybe not for the fans of the band. For me, the best or flawless part of "Asynapse" can be seen on the cover and other visual designs of Pau Pujadas. He did a perfect job, unlike the band itself!!!