LIST’EM ALL: January Jewels
Greetings, Blessed Altar acolytes, from our chilly fortress in the cold heart of winter. How is the year treating you? Uh-huh. Good to hear. Us? Why, thank you for asking. Well, when we haven’t been cursing all our favourite releases for emerging on the thirty-fucking-first of December, we’ve been dicking around on Bandcamp hard at work, scrabbling at the cold hard soil with fevered claws in search of some underground uglies, especially for you. Others, it seems, have come up empty handed, because there’s been a godawful amount of whingeing afoot to the effect that January was a slow month. Maybe it’s a case of, as everyone’s mother used to say, ‘only boring people get bored.’ Anyway, here you go – hold out your hands – here’s fifty-seven that have been toasting our toes during the winter of our discontent. Enjoy.
Yours sincerely,
The Blessed Altar Team
(In alphabetical order)
A Pale Horse Named Death, When the World Becomes Undone (Long Branch Records)
Genre: Gothic, Doom
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Ahl Sina, Troops of Pain (Independent)
Genre: Middle Eastern, Prog
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Altarage, The Approaching Roar (Season of Mist)
Genre: Black, Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad
Streaming: Bandcamp
Astrophobos, Malice of Antiquity (Independent)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: Proua Metallist
Streaming: Bandcamp
Barshasketh, Barshasketh (World Terror Committee)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Convictors, Atrocious Perdition (Kernkraftritter Records)
Genre: Death
Recommended by: Proua Metallist
Streaming: Bandcamp
Damnation Army, Death Macabre (Independent)
Genre: Black, Thrash
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Desecravity, Anathema (Willowtip Records)
Genre: Technical Brutal Death
Recommended by: KMaN, Metal Yeti
Streaming: Bandcamp
Dødsfall, Døden skal ikke vente (Osmose Productions)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: KMaN, Proua Metallist, The Key Keeper
Streaming: Spotify
Dust Bolt, Trapped in Chaos (Napalm Records)
Genre: Thrash
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Spotify
Ectovoid, Inner Death EP (Blood Harvest)
Genre: Death
Recommended by: The Key Keeper
Streaming: Bandcamp
Embrional, Evil Dead (Independent)
Genre: Death
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Epitimia, Thread (Naturmacht Productions)
Genre: Atmospheric, Post-Black
Recommended by: Count Vlad, The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Evergrey, The Atlantic (AFM Records)
Genre: Prog, Power
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN
Streaming: Spotify
Ferndal, Singularitäten (Einheit Produktionen)
Genre: Black, Classical
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Flotsam and Jetsam, The End of Chaos (AFM Records)
Genre: Power, Thrash
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN
Streaming: Spotify
Gorgon, Elegy (Dusktone)
Genre: Symphonic Death
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Gorgon, The Veil of Darkness (Osmose Productions)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess, The Key Keeper
Streaming: Spotify
Hanormale, Reborn in Butterfly (Dusktone)
Genre: Black, Avant Garde
Recommended by: The Grim Princess, The Key Keeper
Streaming: Bandcamp
Hecate Enthroned, Embrace of the Godless Aeon (M-Theory Audio)
Genre: Black, Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, Harald, The Key Keeper, Proua Metallist, Goth Mark, Mö, The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Hermóðr, Forest Sky (Independent)
Genre: Atmospheric Black
Recommended by: Count Vlad, The Grim Princess, The Key Keeper, Proua Metallist
Streaming: Bandcamp
Imha Tarikat, Kara Ihlas (Vendetta Records)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: Count Vlad, Mö, The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Lahmia, Resilience (Scarlet Records)
Genre: Gothic/Melodic Death
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Lantern, Lost Paragraphs EP (Dark Descent Records)
Genre: Black, Death
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Lunatic Affliction, Secreta Obscura Mysterium (Kristallblut Records)
Genre: Melodic Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Malevolent Creation, The 13th Beast (Century Media)
Genre: Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, The Key Keeper, Goth Mark
Streaming: Spotify
Malist, In the Catacombs of Time (Northern Silence Productions)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: Count Vlad, The Grim Princess, The Key Keeper
Streaming: Bandcamp
Mo’ynoq, Dreaming in a Dead Language (Independent)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Mortal Scepter, Where Light Suffocates (Xtreem Music)
Genre: Thrash
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Musmahhu, Reign of the Odious (Iron Bonehead Productions)
Genre: Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, The Key Keeper, The Grim Princess, Metal Yeti
Streaming: Bandcamp
Nailed to Obscurity, Black Frost (Nuclear Blast)
Genre: Melodic Doom/Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN
Streaming: Spotify
Nightfyre, From Fortune to Ruin (This Charming Man Records)
Genre: Heavy Metal
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Spotify
Noctambulist, Atmospheres of Desolation (Blood Harvest)
Genre: Black, Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Oblivion, Oblivion (Independent)
Genre: Tech Death
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Ondfødt, Dödsrikets kallelse (Immortal Frost Productions)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: Proua Metallist, KMaN, The Key Keeper
Streaming: Bandcamp
Panopticon, The Crescendo of Dusk (Independent)
Genre: Atmospheric Black, Folk
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Phlebotomized, Deformation of Humanity (Hammerheart Records)
Genre: Death, Doom
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN, Mö
Streaming: Bandcamp
Quercus, Verferum (Independent)
Genre: Funeral Doom
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Roudansirppi, III (Independent)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: Proua Metallist
Streaming: Bandcamp
Saqra’s Cult, The 9th King (Amor Fati Productions)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Soilwork, Verkligheten (Nuclear Blast)
Genre: Melodic Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Spidergawd, V (Stickman Records)
Genre: Doom, Rock
Recommended by: Harald, KMaN
Streaming: Spotify
Strigae, I: Collision (Independent)
Genre: Atmospheric Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Svartelder, Pits (Dusktone)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Swallow The Sun, When a Shadow is Forced into the Light (Century Media)
Genre: Melodic Doom/Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad, KMaN, Proua Metallist
Streaming: Spotify
The Ossuary, Southern Funeral (Supreme Chaos Records)
Genre: Heavy, Doom
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
The Sabbathian, Latum Alterum (Svart Records)
Genre: Doom
Recommended by: Proua Metallist
Streaming: Bandcamp
Together to the Stars, An Oblivion Above (Northern Silence Productions)
Genre: Post-Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Ulvdalir, …Of Death Eternal (Iron Bonehead Productions)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Key Keeper
Streaming: Bandcamp
Veldes, Flameless (Independent)
Genre: Atmospheric Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Vredensdal, Gather, All Ye Hellions (Independent)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Wardehns, Now Cometh the Foul (Independent)
Genre: Sludge, Crust
Recommended by: KMaN
Streaming: Bandcamp
Winter Dynasty, An Ode to Winter (Infected Blood Records)
Genre: Atmospheric Black
Recommended by: Proua Metallist, The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Woorms, Slake (Sludgelord Records)
Genre: Sludge
Recommended by: KMaN, Mö
Streaming: Bandcamp
Xul ov Kvlten, Entropic Increase from the Omega Aeon (Independent)
Genre: Black
Recommended by: The Grim Princess
Streaming: Bandcamp
Yatra, Death Ritual (Grimoire Records)
Genre: Doom
Recommended by: Mö
Streaming: Bandcamp
Yawning Void, Streams Within (Independent)
Genre: Doom, Black, Death
Recommended by: Count Vlad
Streaming: Bandcamp
**Please support the underground! It’s vital to the future of our genre.
#WeAreBlessedAltarZine
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