Wallfahrer are hailing from Germany and started as a two individuals band, but later evolved into one man band, namely Wallfahrer, who is handling vocals and all instruments. This is already band’s sixth full length opus containing seven songs, one being instrumental interludium between the storm. The title of the album means Cabinet Of Bones in English. I always said German language fits perfectly to metal music, especially black metal. All of the songs are in German. The music of Wallfahrer can be described as melodic black metal with plenty of aggression especially in all out war first opener Wanderer In Der Schatten(Wanderer in Shadows). The song is blast beat warfare with atmospheric slower mid tempo with epic melodies in the middle of the song. All of the songs are quite long, but are not boring in any way. Lyrics are personal and deal with oneself and also relationship to nature and inner self, loneliness, depression… Vocals are harsh but you can understand what is being sung, voice reminds me a bit of early Mystic Circle or maybe it’s only me. My personal favorites on this one are epic Festung Einsamkeit(Fortress Loneliness) and Wir Waren Das Volk(We Were People). This is quality black metal blending melody, atmosphere and blasts, so enjoy it because I recommend this one.
South America has such vast and great underground scene unexplored enough by us Europeans and I love some of the great bands I discovered digging through underground and finding something I enjoy and like. Plaguestorm are hailing from Argentina and were formed in 2014. This is basically two guys band with Sebastian Pastor handling bass, guitar and drumm programming, and Alex Richichi handling vocal duties. What do we have here? This is band’s third full length opus and it contains eleven songs of pure energy. It has been out for couple of months but there is always time for mentioning good music, eh? The music of Plaguestorm somehow divides them from rest of melodic death metal scene because of their songwriting and diversity in song structures. The guitar work is epic, full of nice melodies and atmosphere, somehow bleak, yet it drives you to go on and find strength in yourself for continuing and fighting on. Lyrics are in English and deal with some personal stuff, also through the lines there are couple of issues that need to be addressed in today’s world. Here I must totally deliver a massive praise to the vocal lines. They are so diverse, from standard death metal aggressive growling to beautiful exquisit clean melodic vocal lines and also some black metallish screams here and there, and these vocals in combination with music left me jaw dropped and made me love this record so much and pressing me on to learn more about this band and listen to earlier opus. Personal favorites on this one are: The Void, How Could She Know? and Empty Eyes. I really, really enjoyed this one and I recommend it.
This is out for couple of months now, but it doesn’t matter, it deserves to grace the pages of this zine. Olympus are hailing from Esssex, UK and as far as I know, this is their first e.p. containing four songs. Olympus play melodic death metal with quite an energy and superb melodic parts in the overall more aggressive song structures. The record starts slowly and atmospherically, but quickly evolves into beautiful melodies, aggressive growling vocals and lyrics that evolve around theme of cosmic horror, at least I understood them that way, kinda Lovecraftian vibe comes to mind while listening to this one. Instrumental intro titled as the e.p. is shorter one bordering a little over three minutes, but other three songs are longer, more epic and I enjoyed Emperor and Out Of Reach, also Revenant quite a lot. If you are into quality melodic death metal with epic song structures this one is really a gem for you. I can’t wait for the full length album. This is a strong debut release.
