BEST OF 2014!

Another year has passed [away] and here is my classic [?!!!] Top 13 - Best of 2014!

MASTER´S HAMMER "Vagus Vetus"   Last year I was totally sure about the best album of the year, ZEMIAL´s "Nykta" was by far the best album of 2013, this year though, It was not clear for me.  By the mid of this year I had  two strong candidates in mind, and  both proved to be the best releases untill the end of the year. TRIPTYKON´s "Melana Chasmata" is great record, huge,  a dark monument, but in my opinion not as good perhaps as "Eparistera Daimones" was. Thus I chose "Vagus Vetus" by MASTERS HAMMER as the best album of 2014.  I know the album is not as good as "Vracejte Kove Na Misto", and the "plastic" sound of the drums has annoyed some listeners, but the album still has all the talent, creativity , variety and all the "weird" elements that this band always have had, and that special "magic" that allows to distinguish them far above the average... BRAVO!!!    The last place on the podium is for the amazingly obscure, chaotic, bestial and monumental "Death" by TEITANBLOOD. 

TRIPTYKON "Melana Chasmata"

TEITANBLOOD "Death"

SADISTIC INTENT "Reawekening Horrid Thoughts"

BÖLZER "Soma"

DEATHRONATION "Hallow The Dead"

AT THE GATES "At War With Reality"

ATOMIC AGGRESSOR "Sights Of Suffering"

MORTUARY DRAPE "Spiritual Independence"

SOULBURN "The Suffocating Darkness"

VARATHRON "Untrodden Corridors of Hades"

VAMPIRE "Vampire"

NECROS CHRISTOS "Nine Graves"

There were good releases this year that I enjoy and are really worth to mention here: NECROHOLOCAUST "Holocaustic Goat Metal" ORACULUM "Sorcery of The Damned" NUCLEARHAMMER "Serpentine Hermetic Lucifer" DRACENA "Ravenous Bloodlust" PROVOCATOR "Antikristus" DEAD CONGREGATION "Promulgation of The Fall" PRINCIPALITY OF HELL "Fire & Brimstone" OBSCURE BURIAL "Epiphany" MASSACRE "Back Fom Beyond" VANHELD "Relics Of Sulphur Salvation" RIGOR MORTIS "Slaves To The Grave"

I´m not sure talking about the following albums as disappointments [except for OBITUARY "Inked in Blood" which was really a big disappointment] but enven being good albums perhaps I expected more that what they actually offered me: AUTOPSY "Tourniquets Hacksaws and Graves" INCANTATION "Dirges of Elysium" VADER "Tibi Et Igni" EXODUS "Blood In Blood Out" JUDAS PRIEST "Redeemer of Souls" MAYHEM "Esoteric Warfare" HOLY MOSES "Redefined Mayhem"  1349 "Massive Cauldron of Chaos" UNAUSSPRECHLICHEN KULTEN "Baphometh Pan Shub-Niggurath"

THE GALLERY...

Satan Sitting Upon Throne

Bernard Zuber

1926

 From "La Vie Execrable de Guillemette Babin", Maurice Garçon

MARDUK - "Frontschwein"

MARDUK will release their 13th studio album "Frontschwein" in January  via Century Media. A war-themed album since 1999's  "Panzer Division Marduk". The band revealed the cover art and track listing and began streaming a new song named “Rope of Regret”. See  track listing and listen to the brand new song below:

Frontschwein
The Blond Beast
Afrika
Wartheland
Rope of Regret
Between the Wolf-Packs
Nebelwerfer
Falaise: Cauldron of Blood
Doomsday Elite
503
Thousand-Fold Death

TOTTEN KORPS!

Chilean Death Metal veterans TOTTEN KORPS are about to release their second full-lenght album "Supreme Comanders of  Darkness" and they recently unveiled the first single "The Black Flame Of The Underworld", listen at this location!

DESERTED FEAR "Kingdom of Worms" Vinyl!

The vinyl version of DESERTED FEAR´s second full-lenght "Kingdom Of Worms" is already out, the red-marbeled version is sold out, a few blue-marbeled and black vinyls are left. You can catch your copy through the band´s webshop www.desertedfear.de or on their upcoming concerts with Morbid Angel.

CULT METAL SONG!

INVOCATOR
"Excursion Demise"
Excursion Demise
1991 Black Mark

TERRORIZER!!!

FOAD Records will officially release next december “Before The Downfall 1987-1989”  a TERRORIZER double LP / CD and double digipack CD. It will include an unreleased song from the “World Downfall” studio session, an alternative take of their split with NAUSEA and all existing demos and early recordings in great sound quality. 46 songs in total. The double gatefold LP comes with a silkscreened side D, a bonus CD inside, an extra slipcase and booklet, while the double CD is packaged in an 8 panel digipack. Two booklets feature extensive interviews, loads of never before seen photos, scans of old flyers, demo artworks and more.

DETENTE - "RECOGNIZE NO AUTHORITY" REISSUE

XTREEM MUSIC will officially re-release "Recognize No Authority",  DETENTE´s debut album from 1986. The album will be released on December 15th and come in form of a 2-CD containing two bonus on CD1 with re-recorded versions of two album tracks (one being the instrumental track "Catalepsy" but here with original lyrics), made in 2010 and sung by current vocalist Tiina Teal. On CD2 there's 19 songs from the 4 band's demos recorded in '84, '87 & '89 plus two unreleased songs recorded live & rehearsal in '85 and the 2 only demos by CATALEPSY from '87 & '88. All songs comes with remastered sound and packed with a complete presentation full of band photos, flyers, lyrics and extensive liner notes from Steve Hochheiser. There will be also a limited run of T-Shirts that will be available only through the Xtreem Music webstore.  

GRAVEYARD "The Coffin Years"

GRAVEYARD will release a compilation CD entitled "The Coffin Years" through Blackseed Productions in early 2015! It will include old and new covers, bonus tracks, unreleased songs, live tracks, 7" split tracks...The band also plan to releasse a new EP on War-Anthem Records. This cover version of Darkthrone´s "In The Shadow of the Horns" will be part of "The Coffin Years".

VARATHRON "Kabalistic Invocation of Solomon"

"Kabalistic Invocation of Solomon" is the opening track of VARATHRON new album "Untrodden Corridors of Hades" to be released on November 21st via Agonia Records.