About This Blog

This blog is for unsigned Metal bands and bands on small labels. Whilst setting up my promotions company, I noticed that a lot of sites don't cover demo bands and bands just starting out. Hopefully this small corner of the internet will have redress the balance, ever so slightly


Sunday, 21 September 2014

Agonie + Apocryphal

I’ll start this weekends update with a link to a cover version. I’m a big fan of Italian outfit Chiral and here’s their cover of Watain’s Stellarvore




Agonie - Mammon

As a teenager in the 80s, some of my favourite bands were German:  Accept, Warlock and Scorpions. Since then, I’ve not spent a lot of time on the German scene, bar a few bands here and there.

So let’s begin a new venture into discovering more German bands with Agonie, a new Black Metal band from Lower Saxony, which ironically is in the north of the country.

Agonie only formed last year, originally as a one man band. And although they’ve since expanded into a full band, they still have that feel of someone creating music in their bedroom. The production is slightly on the raw side, but this only enhances the icy feel of the music and the pure hatred of the vocals.

Normally bands tend to put their strongest song at the beginning, but I think this demo gets stronger and stronger as it progresses and by the time I got to the finale of the appropriately titled Ende, I was completely won over and also gutted that the demo was over.

I always like to find a band at the very beginning of their (possible) career because it’s a good feeling seeing how they develop. I think with Mammon, they have a very good debut and I hope it’s a solid platform for them to move onto bigger things

This debut is available for a bargain 3 Euros + postage and is released on September 30th and is available for pre-order now.




Apocryphal

Apocryphal are a good old fashioned Death Metal band. No frills, no bullshit, just Death Metal ,with bits of Doom, and deep guttural vocals.

Even before you go and check these guys out, you’ll know exactly what they’ll sound like. And sometimes that’s a really good thing, as you’re not going to be disappointed by someone’s review when they’ve incorrectly described how a band sounds.

Starting with last years Embrace Of Death, which you can download for free via Bandcamp, you get 3 tracks. One at 2 minutes, 1 at 3 minutes and the epic Bane Of Essence, which clocks on at around 6 and a ½ minutes.

The reason I put the running times in, is because on their new album, Ritual Entombment, almost everything is in epic sized chunks, including the colossal 13+ minutes of Swallowed Into Perpetual Madness.

The formula between demo and album is pretty much the same. Maybe with the guitars a little fuzzier and the grooves a little more… well, groovier. The addition of synths, also adds a nice new texture. Whatever improvements they’ve made, it’s still the same old Death Metal, just a bit shinier.

My only criticism is that some of the new tracks are a bit overlong. My attention span started to wane before all three of the longer tracks ended. So maybe clipping everything back to around the six minute mark maybe a better option.

Both releases are available as free downloads from the bands Bandcamp site. So you’ve no excuses for not downloading them.






£1 Non-Profit Cds - Pre Order

These are the cds I’ve been working on the past week or two and now everything is almost ready

Each cd has a professionally printed doubled sided inlay and is housed in a slim cd case. Cds are home burnt CDRs with catalogue number on the cd as shown in the picture.



Each cd is just £1 + postage

Eyes Of The Martyr - India Groove Metal 2 track single
Necrocosm - USA Melodic Death 3 track demo re-issue
Nefarious Dusk - UK Black Metal 2 track single
Slaughter Throne - UK Black Metal 2 track single

If you buy all 4 cds, you get a free Sixsixsix Music sampler + a free badge



Postage prices are as follows (Each cd weighs about 60 grams)
UK
1 CD = £1
2 or 3 CDs = £1.30
4 to 7 CDs = £1.75

Europe
1 CD = £3.40
2 or 3 CDs = £4.00
4 to 7 CDs = £5.50

Rest of World
1 CD = £4.25
2 or 3 CDs = £5.40
4 to 7 CDs = £8.50

Please email me if you'd like to pre-order the cds. The inlays are now being duplicated and should be ready within 2 to 7 days



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