After three EPs, Canadian raw black metal unit Antihuman Kutte returns with their debut full-length album titled "Apokalyptik Sorcery & Warkraft". It consists of 12 noisy militant-sounding anthems devoted entirely to wartime themes in just over 24 minutes. The red translucent cassette contains 6 songs per side, with the band's rather sick logo printed on one side. I would describe Antihuman Kutte's music as some kind of relentless northern black metal, partly reminiscent of Impaled Nazarene due to the militarized tone and harsh screaming vocals. Their songs are connected by intros that evoke all kinds of hellish warfare. Overall, the material has an end-of-the-world vibe that is all too relevant these days. It's a soundtrack to the apocalypse, if you will. Let me mention all the song titles here: "Apokalyptik Sorcery & Warkraft", "Antizionist", "Atomic Lightning Bolt", "Eye of the Sniper", "Becoming (The Will to Kill)", "Omega Tide", "Bloody Wolf Teeth", "Bayonette", "Winter Warfare", "Chemical Mist", "Military Witchkraft" and "Hammer of Eternal War", which will give you an even more accurate description of what to expect there lyrically. The sound production is quite necrotic and cellar-like, as if everything is happening somewhere far away. The awesome looking cassette has a plain but fairly thick colored J-card and the cover image is sick too. Need more? Better order this tape before it's too late!!!

Dead Soul Alliance is a 2-piece band from Ottawa, Ontario. They have been around since 2010 and "Spiralling to Lunacy" is their second full-length album to date. The kind of death metal that W.D. (vocals, guitars, bass) and E.H. (drums) create is completely old fashioned, with plenty of catchy melodies and significant atmosphere. Their new album is just over 31 minutes long, and interestingly, their music sounds more like the death metal of Scandinavian bands than of Canadians. Just listen to the sound of the guitars and you'll immediately understand what I'm saying. This super limited cassette edition contains 5 songs on side A and 4 songs on side B. The colorful J-card contains all the lyrics, member photos, recording information and an awesome cover art by Mörtuus. I have to say that their music made a good impression on me and after several listens I like their material even more. So until they come out with new material, it will be very interesting to listen to all their previous stuff. As this cassette edition is limited to 50 copies, you'll want to hurry to get your hands on one, and note that the CD edition is already sold out. In short, I definitely recommend everyone who likes melodic and atmospheric death metal in the Swedish way to check out the music of Dead Soul Alliance!!!

Gabriel from Nihilistic Holocaust was kind enough to send me some promos, this is one of them. This cassette edition, otherwise limited to 100 copies, features two Finnish bands. Infected Priest featured on the A-side with 8 songs from the "...Of the Flesh" EP (2023). After the short intro, the five-piece band, i.e. Wellu (vocals), Ville (guitar), Pekko (guitar), Joni (bass) & Santeri (drums), starts shredding with short but well-composed death metal songs. Some of their songs also have an early Carcass-like grindcore feel, although I don't detect any blast beats there. Their sound production is very cool and kind of old-school. Vocals are divided into growling and screaming types. If you ask me, their music is quite varied, sometimes even melodic, plus you have to consider that the maximum length of the songs is 2 minutes, so they did a very good job for such short tracks, ha-ha... By the way, their EP is more than 11 minutes long. The B-side is reserved for the membership of the Human Target. They are also a five-piece band, namely Heikki (vocals), Tommi (guitar/backing vocals), Samppa (guitar), Jeekki (bass/guitar) & Anssi (drums). They present 5 songs from their "Human Target" EP (2023). The death metal they perform is quite typical, and their production is less proportionate and intriguing, but it's still worth listening to. They try to keep it old school throughout, which is great. Their material lasts almost 13 minutes, but the production is still quite chaotic for me. The cassette comes with a fairly thick black and white J-card that contains all the necessary information about both recordings. Get it direct from the bands or Nihilistic Holocaust!!!

The Hungarian thrash metal unit called Militia originally started as a studio project in 2008, but became a full-fledged band in 2019. The blackened duo's first EP titled "Nightmares in the Church" was released in the same year. Their second and most recent work is entitled "Psalms of the Crimson King". It consists of 8 songs. Khrul (all instruments) and Blasphemy (vocals) are solely responsible for the almost 25-minute material, but NorrskeN also helped them with the lyrics. Their music is mostly based on thrash metal riffs, but I found a lot of death metal and even progressive influences, and the church-sounding keyboard parts reminded me a lot of King Diamond's "Conspiracy" record. What I immediately liked about their stuff is the sound of the guitars, which are quite razor sharp, a bit reminiscent of Kreator's "Terrible Certainty". The sound production is excellent and has improved quite a bit since the debut EP. Blasphemy's vocal style is close to a mixture of John Tardy and Martin Missy, although the former should be imagined specifically in a black/thrash style. When their music is fast and maximally thrash metal induced, I would compare them to Hypnosia, but when they experiment with other genres, it becomes quite unique and intriguing. Just listen to songs like "Conspiracy with the Crimson King", "The Dark Pilgrim" or "The Gospel of Revenge". They turned out really good. It's not your usual thrash metal stuff, that's for sure. The 8 songs are repeated on both sides of the beautiful gold-colored cassette, supported by a gold case. The booklet is made on thick paper, it has a great cover art by Balázs Pénzes (Grafit & Hamu), apt layout by Zsolt Benkõ and all the lyrics. Since only 50 copies were made, I recommend that anyone interested act quickly. After two EPs, I think it's time for Militia to release a well-deserved full-length album, I'm personally looking forward to it!!!

Mortiferoth is an underground death metal entity that was formed back in 2015. "...To the Abyss" is their latest work, originally released in 2023 on vinyl by Hail Shitar Records. Now, thanks to the French underground label Nihilistic Holocaust, this 5-song EP has been released on cassette, a single-sided black tape with a sticker. The band defines their music as "thrashing apocalyptic death metal in the old school way". Well, they definitely are, but I'd classify them more as obscure death metal with a blackened edge, mainly because of the additional vocals. The EP was recorded by Jose Cabrera (guitars & vocals), Brian Hobbie (bass) and Steve Miller (drums & vocals). The almost 25-minute long material starts with the intro "Unholy Frequencies". It actually has some pretty annoying frequencies, ha-ha-ha..., but that's the way it should be. This is followed by "The Vatican's Elite", a pure death metal massacre in the old school style. By the way, this is the longest track on the EP, with over 7 minutes of crushing brutality, lots of tempo changes and great vocal arrangements. The third piece is called "Cosmic Winter". This song was already on their demo released in 2022. This is a mid-paced death metal cut with punchy double bass attacks. "Decay" is a faster song with great hammer blasts and some really catchy thrash metal riffs, it was also featured on "Demo 2022". The last song, "Retaliation of the Ancient Sorcerers", is all about groove and heavy riffs. It has short bomb blasts and cool solo parts, and is the second longest tune on the EP. The cassette is accompanied by a color J-card featuring Dick Lucas' excellent cover painting and all the useful information about the recording. I don't know what the limitation of this cassette release is, but if you like old school death metal, hurry up and get your hands on a copy as soon as possible!!!

French Oldskull, as their name suggests, specializes in a killer mix of old school thrash and death metal. Since they formed in 2005 and released a demo called "Death and Metal" in 2009, this tape is their second material to date. "The Defeat of Humanity" EP consists of six well-constructed songs that also have great production. Oldskull's lineup on this cassette release is: Seb (vocals), Manu (guitar), Nico (guitar), Yan (bass) and Herve (drums). The quintet did a fantastic job on their more than 28 minutes of material, which appears on both sides of the tape. I wouldn't say they play super unique music, but they have a lot of good ideas, that's for sure. Of course, if someone wants to know which bands their music is close to, I would mention these classic bands first: Bolt Thrower, Grave, Massacra, Protector and Gorefest. All these had a great influence on their music. The members of Oldskull also made sure that their songs always had a good amount of great melody and catchy hooks, so the previously mentioned influences only very rarely come to mind. Their label Nihilistic Holocaust also did a great job releasing this stuff on cassette, which was limited to 150 copies anyway. The lavish looking silver cassettes have been professionally duplicated and feature a fairly thick full-color J-card. In short, I hope they come out with something new soon, because I think this EP is pretty decent, which I definitely recommend to both thrash and death metal fans!!!

This Hungarian black/death metal entity was born in 2011 under the codename Paragon Zero. After two EPs and a single, their debut full-length album was finally released in February this year. This long-awaited record is called "Hexikon" and consists of 10 songs. The material of "Hexikon" includes all the almost finished compositions written during the 2020-2021 pre-production sessions together with the late Péter "P" Bonnyay (guitar). His guitar playing also appears on selected tracks, preserved in good quality from the early demo recordings. Thus, in 2023, these rough demo recordings were completed by the remaining members, i.e. András "A" Gergely (guitar/bass), Vivien "WN" Brányi (guitar) and Zsolt "Z" Lédeczi (vocals), with the additional contribution of Gravel S (lead guitar/backing vocals), Marielle Montagnon (bass), Tamás Galántay (drums) and István Kosovics (spoken words). Big thanks and respect to them for completing this album in memory of their friend, bandmate, songwriter and main visionary. Now let's focus on the music itself. Their combination of black and death metal is very atmospheric. It is maximally based on melodies and harmonies. Their approximately 59-minute repertoire is clearly not about speed, but about the right soundscape of the songs. Musically and sonically, they are very close to the Scandinavian approach, which is fine. Their melodies are mostly cold and simple, but they captivate the listener with their brooding atmosphere and eerie soundscape. Side A of the cassette contains six songs, while side B contains four songs. There is only one small difference compared to the CD version, and that is the placement of the Hobo Blues Band cover tune. On the cassette, it is the 6th song on side A, while on the CD it is the last one, i.e. the 10th track. This cassette edition is limited to 50 copies and comes with an A4-sized J-card containing lyrics and photos. A must for all Paragon Zero fans!!!

Scablord from Toronto, Canada is known for their super raw combination of goregrind and brutal death metal. It is fueled by two maniacal gore merchants, namely Scablord (larynx lacerations) and Alexander "Wurm" Erhardt (instrument butchery). "Posthumous Flagellation" is their third full-length album, previously released in digital format on April 29th, 2023, but now on a beautiful translucent blue cassette, strictly limited to 25 copies. Their new material contains 18 audio chapters full of gore and sick horror, with 9 songs per side. The cave-like sound production is truly eerie, but effective at the same time, and definitely scares off the unprepared listener, but that's exactly the goal in this kind of genre. The nastier the songs sound, the more successful they are in the blood-soaked spheres of the underground. And let's be honest, Scablord's nearly 23-minute repertoire fully meets these requirements. They combine their songs with various sick intros, sometime from horror and gore movies, giving their stuff the perfect creepy feel. The variety of riffs is simply amazing, even in this somewhat limited genre of music (or call it anti-music if you want), as you can run into really punchy grooves, slam-like brutality, grinding atmospheres, but all this with the ancient attitude and feeling, nothing super technical, you know. This cassette release comes with a simple but rather thick colored J-card that includes the brutal cover photo and song titles. Since it was produced in fairly limited quantities, act quickly and order it at any of the contacts below.

Well, don't be fooled by the band's hackneyed name, as this Hungarian power trio released very good material during its existence. Tremor was founded in Budapest in 2000 and released its first 4-song demo entitled "Elveszve" in 2001. It's a very strange fact that this first demo is missing from this special and really cool three-cassette collection. Although if I look at the design of the cassettes and the cover, maybe this was the right way, since everything was based on the colors of the national flag. Thus, the 8 songs of "Homályba menet" EP from 2003 were dubbed onto a red cassette. The nearly half-hour long material presents rough thrash metal with aggressive vocals, in the style of Mille Petrozza and Tom Angelripper. The first song, "Add meg..." is definitely my favorite of this stuff. Musically, there are some similarities with Mille's horde, although their music is much more brutal and has some black metal influences. But if I had to narrow it down to a few bands, I would mention Kreator, Sodom, Necronomicon and Absu. Their lyrics are in Hungarian and talk about rather obscure and occult topics. The second cassette is white and contains Tremor's best material, "Thrashtamentum" EP from 2005. Fast, very extreme and unique in every possible way. I think this material sounds the best and most interesting of all, and also represents the true essence of the band. It contains a total of six songs in about 22 minutes. Four tracks with Hungarian lyrics, these are "T-error", "Nem leszel törvény", "A nyugtalan", "Földjeim embere térdre (Gaia)", and as an experiment, English lyrics were paired with the latter two, which became "The Restless" and "Man of My Lands, Kneel (Gaia)" respectively. The trio's 2008 and only full-length album, "A falakon belül", was reproduced on green cassette. It consists of nine carefully composed and elaborated songs in about 38 minutes. These songs are less chaotic or crazy than anything they've done before, but it's an evolution and the material has gotten really good. Their sound production became much cleaner and therefore less aggressive. While listening to this album, Moby Dick's name popped up in my mind most of the time, especially their "Kegyetlen évek" record, but the guitar playing sometimes also reminded me of Coroner. The line-up of the band on these materials is Norbert Balogh (vocals/guitars), Sándor Lichtmann (bass) and Tibor Dobó (drums). Tremor is such a great thrash metal band that it's really a shame they broke up in 2009. The 3 cassettes come in an exclusive triple box with a large color J-card and a black and white 20-page A5 fanzine. Awesome release and a must have for all Tremor fans worldwide!!!

Vivisect formed in Trenton, New Jersey in 2019, and this cassette release is nothing more than a compilation of their previously released tracks. The nearly 22-minute, completely sick death metal stuff presented by the quartet takes us back to the 90s, when death metal was considered underground. So their line-up on these four tracks is as follows: Dan Sclavi (vocals/guitar), Randy Cavanaugh (lead guitar), C.G. (bass) and M.W. (drums). Musically, there's a killer mix that reminds me a lot of early Autopsy, Death, Obituary and Incantation records. Their music is not about complexity, but rather about the true essence of the death metal underground. That being said, they paid a lot of attention to the production, because these songs sound really good. I really enjoyed listening to all their tracks, they are definitely a great band and hopefully they will release a full album soon. The song titles are "Prison Planet" (from the 2019 single), "Order of the Solar Temple" and "Rat Torture" (from the 2020 EP), and last but not least "Extraterrestrial Proliferations" (from the 4-way 2020 split). The "Barbaric Death" cassette is limited to 200 copies and comes with a professionally printed color J-card that I can honestly recommend to all old-school death metal fans worldwide as it is definitely worth the investment. Get the tape directly from the band or contact Nihilistic Holocaust!!!