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.
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