Oh dear, why is it that I'm on vacation yet feel so stressed? ;)
Well, before I'm going to the next club show, cave festival and a short island vacation - and return with a shitload of stuff to write about -, let's quickly use the tiny window right now to listen to some of the newest (so far) digital-only entries into my music collection! Those are one Bandcamp-exclusive live album and the gratefully granted promos of five recent or upcoming albums and EPs:
Well, before I'm going to the next club show, cave festival and a short island vacation - and return with a shitload of stuff to write about -, let's quickly use the tiny window right now to listen to some of the newest (so far) digital-only entries into my music collection! Those are one Bandcamp-exclusive live album and the gratefully granted promos of five recent or upcoming albums and EPs:
BONGRIPPER - Live in Leipzig (2026)
Eleven fucking years! That's how long it has been since I've seen the earth-shattering riff worship steamroller Bongripper live the last time. It's really overdue to do that again. There's nothing quite like these four dudes from Chicago crushing you with their mammoth instrumental compositions of riffs, riffs, riffs, Doom, Sludge and Drone. My first encounter with them at (my also first) Roadburn 2012 still ranks among the most formative experiences for my musical taste there.
This new digital live album recorded in Leipzig last year does a great job of reminding me why. Three hits from "Satan Worshipping Doom", "Empty" and "Hippie Killer" in one hour and not one wasted minute. This band is just colossal!
This new digital live album recorded in Leipzig last year does a great job of reminding me why. Three hits from "Satan Worshipping Doom", "Empty" and "Hippie Killer" in one hour and not one wasted minute. This band is just colossal!
RAHATY - Bestial Lustmord (2026)
A band of comparable intensity, yet spewing it into a completely different direction is Rahaty from Belarus. Their debut album is an unholy hellspawn of nine short, but all the more infernal Death Metal outbursts.
"Bestial Lustmord" summons the Old School ferocity of Possessed and dials it up to a point which makes it inevitable that this very short, but all the more monstruous poisonous abomination just has to be a Sentient Ruin Laboratories release. With its somehow cavernous and chaotic, yet also crushingly brutal production it's a prime example for how authentic primitive Death Metal can still be the most deliciously tormenting fun to be had in Extreme Metal.
Smash my brain with this and feed it to the ghouls!
"Bestial Lustmord" summons the Old School ferocity of Possessed and dials it up to a point which makes it inevitable that this very short, but all the more monstruous poisonous abomination just has to be a Sentient Ruin Laboratories release. With its somehow cavernous and chaotic, yet also crushingly brutal production it's a prime example for how authentic primitive Death Metal can still be the most deliciously tormenting fun to be had in Extreme Metal.
Smash my brain with this and feed it to the ghouls!
DEATH. VOID. TERROR - To the Great Monilith 2.5 (2026)
There's nothing like being thrown right into the middle of an ongoing series, right? Exactly at part two point five that is in the case of Swiss Black band Death. Void. Terror.'s latest EP. But let's be honest: Even if I new the predecessing record, I'd probably not really dig deep into the concept, right? It's occult, liturgic, mystic stuff of some sorts. Spare me the details, just let me enjoy the atmosphere of the music!
And that music is (of course) dark, tribalistic, hallucinatory. It's also very Swiss, like a mixture of Bölzer's rawness, Samael's sinister majesty and E-L-R's mystical etherealness, but with incantatory Attila Csihar-like vocal eccentricities instead of their more beautiful dreamlike voices.
Only the first two tracks of "To the Great Monolith 2.5" can actually count as Black Metal songs, though. The over fifteen minutes long third and final track "Third Monolithic Manifest" is more like their version of Coven's "Satanic Mass" on "Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls". A droning urfaustian ritual with hardly intelligible spoken words.
While there is definitely something to the lovecraftian evil vibe it exudes, it makes the whole release feel a little unbalanced. How about a little more actual song material? Well, I guess that's why this is only an EP, heralding the next full album coming in a couple of weeks...
And that music is (of course) dark, tribalistic, hallucinatory. It's also very Swiss, like a mixture of Bölzer's rawness, Samael's sinister majesty and E-L-R's mystical etherealness, but with incantatory Attila Csihar-like vocal eccentricities instead of their more beautiful dreamlike voices.
Only the first two tracks of "To the Great Monolith 2.5" can actually count as Black Metal songs, though. The over fifteen minutes long third and final track "Third Monolithic Manifest" is more like their version of Coven's "Satanic Mass" on "Witchcraft Destroys Minds & Reaps Souls". A droning urfaustian ritual with hardly intelligible spoken words.
While there is definitely something to the lovecraftian evil vibe it exudes, it makes the whole release feel a little unbalanced. How about a little more actual song material? Well, I guess that's why this is only an EP, heralding the next full album coming in a couple of weeks...
DEATH. VOID. TERROR. - To the Great Monolith III: Rifts (release date: Sep. 25th 2026)
So here it is and we'll just continue!
One other band, which isn't Swiss but - geographically close enough - Austrian, which deserves to be mentioned in the context of Death. Void. Terror. might be the Folk Black Metallers Perchta. Because even more than on the EP the album "To the Great Monolith III: Rifts" carries an overwhelming sense of fantastic Folklore. Right from the opener "Gözdyrey" this music makes you feel as if you where hiding at the edge of a secret mountain valley, observing the strange primal rituals of an obscure Alpine cult.
One other band, which isn't Swiss but - geographically close enough - Austrian, which deserves to be mentioned in the context of Death. Void. Terror. might be the Folk Black Metallers Perchta. Because even more than on the EP the album "To the Great Monolith III: Rifts" carries an overwhelming sense of fantastic Folklore. Right from the opener "Gözdyrey" this music makes you feel as if you where hiding at the edge of a secret mountain valley, observing the strange primal rituals of an obscure Alpine cult.
Mostly dominated by a gravely crawling midtempo, layered with noises, chants and whistles, screams and fanfares, yet also featuring blastbeats and tribal rhythms, this album takes you through a strange haze of ancient tales and faint memories, obscured by mirky mountain mist.
Like a spititually charged harbinger of elemental forces the Experimental Blackened music of Death. Void. Terror. washes over you like a baptism from another exitsential plane. Diffuse but powerful.
MUTO - Muto (release date: Oct. 9th 2026)
We're leaving the Alps southbound now to explore Italy, where we meet composer and guitar player Davide Martiello, who welcomes us on his self-titled debut as Muto, which immediately takes us on a journey beyond our small human comprehension.
Muto's instrumental guitar music isn't necessarily huge in scale, but it speaks in both an untouchable primordial timelessness and a precious vulnerable fragility. The promo says that this album is for fans of Post Rock, Ambient and Jazz, yet one might also add Contemporary Classical music and a pinch of Prog Rock (can't help a certain King Crimson tune sneaking into my ear while listening to "Fermo").
But aside from all these categorization "Muto" is just a touching and elevating contemplation on the beauty of the being and passing of all things for anyone who has a soul.
Muto's instrumental guitar music isn't necessarily huge in scale, but it speaks in both an untouchable primordial timelessness and a precious vulnerable fragility. The promo says that this album is for fans of Post Rock, Ambient and Jazz, yet one might also add Contemporary Classical music and a pinch of Prog Rock (can't help a certain King Crimson tune sneaking into my ear while listening to "Fermo").
But aside from all these categorization "Muto" is just a touching and elevating contemplation on the beauty of the being and passing of all things for anyone who has a soul.
THE SPACELORDS - Uranus Omnibus Sanctus (release date: Sept. 18th 2026)
Two simple questions:
1. Do you want to rock?
2. Do you want to trip through space?
If you can answer both of them with a confident yes, you don't even need to read further, because the experienced German Space Rock trio The Spacelords - aided by Didi Holzner on organ - provides in spades!
The four excellently produced instrumental tracks on "Uranus Omnibus Sanctus" simply are everything you can wish for in a band which combines powerful Stoner Rock with Psychedelic harmonies and guitar melodies. This album doesn't intent to reinvent the wheel, but it runs a damn podium-worthy cosmic desert race.
Tonzonen Records definitely is the right label for this stuff, because if there's one thing you can do to this, it is to zone out.
1. Do you want to rock?
2. Do you want to trip through space?
If you can answer both of them with a confident yes, you don't even need to read further, because the experienced German Space Rock trio The Spacelords - aided by Didi Holzner on organ - provides in spades!
The four excellently produced instrumental tracks on "Uranus Omnibus Sanctus" simply are everything you can wish for in a band which combines powerful Stoner Rock with Psychedelic harmonies and guitar melodies. This album doesn't intent to reinvent the wheel, but it runs a damn podium-worthy cosmic desert race.
Tonzonen Records definitely is the right label for this stuff, because if there's one thing you can do to this, it is to zone out.
