The Haunting Presence - The Haunting Presence [EP] (2015)

Let's get down to the brass tacks (which is a term I think means to get down to the cold hard facts), Hells Headbangers is the most consistent label to be putting out albums abundant in savagery, filth and sleaze. These sounds take form prominently in the genres of death, black, doom and heavy metal. So far this year, Hells Headbangers has something close to twenty releases as of this posting (April 08, 2015), all of them persistently good, all of them keeping the din of the metal underground brightly lit and all of them repulsive in their own right.

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The Haunting Presence has taken my auditory-meatus hostage, submitting the canals of my eardrums to the hymns of barbarity and decay and its intrusion is a welcomed presence. I'm going to forgo all the buzz words in my lexicon to describe this EP, in fact, I'm going to forgo all the words in my lexicon to describe this release, instead I'll leave an embedded link to the album right here:

The Haunting Presence (listen/download/buy)

Misþyrming - Söngvar elds og óreiðu (2015)

Iceland just might be the most consistent hotbed for churning out bestial sounding black metal. The same way New Zealand and Canada have been without a doubt the birthplace of some of the most venerable and savage sounding bestial death metal, a la; Revenge, Diocletian, Antediluvian, Mitochondrion, Vassafor, Witchrist, Blasphemy, Heresiarch, etc. etc…

Iceland, with a population that is said to be less than the sheep residing there, has been at the top of this gnarled and barbaric totem pole. The proverbial totem pole of bestial black metal. As of late, the island of hard to pronounce volcanoes and delicious hotdogs has seen recent releases from Carpe Noctem, Svartidauði, Wormlust, Sinmara, Mannveira and now the debut by Misþyrming… Which infallibly will be seen in many year-end lists us dweebs like to make, including my own.

All facets of 'Söngvar elds og óreiðu' point to a tumultuous listen; blistering riffs that morph from eviscerating to mesmerizing all the way to riffs that show some panache! Take the song "Söngur uppljómunar"for example, it starts off with a wonky riff reminiscent to something Negative Plane or Peste Noire might do and then unravels into unabashed viking riffing akin to something Kampfar would write. See for yourself.


This album is up for 'Name your price' on Bandcamp (which is by far my favorite way of purchasing music these days), it gives you the chance to pay what you feel is worth it, and if you can't even afford a dollar, type in 0$ for a free download.

Misþyrming (bandcamp/download)