Gravetaker | Sheer Lunacy | Iron Bonehead Productions (Demo)

Release Date: 22 December 2025

Format: Vinyl LP

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Finland

Gravetaker enters the world with “Sheer Lunacy”, a debut that has the cold temperament you would expect from a Finnish duo raised on old death metal and underground tension. Lunatik and Atavistic Mouth mix their influences with a stubborn devotion to raw expression, keeping the music rough around the edges and heavy in atmosphere. The album moves with deliberate weight, never trying to charm you, simply pulling you into its dark current. Iron Bonehead Productions gives it the proper physical form, which suits the pair’s old school instincts.

“Sheer Lunacy” unfolds like a long descent. The band moves through slow, brooding passages and violent explosions without warning, creating a shifting landscape that remains unified in tone. The sound has a lot of grime and echo, as if everything was recorded inside a concrete chamber somewhere beneath frozen soil. Guitars swirl around the vocals in chaotic layers, while the drums batter forward with a stubborn pulse. The riffs stretch out and twist in unpredictable ways, giving each track its own path even when the general atmosphere remains hostile and foggy.

What makes the album stand out is the willingness to roam between hypnotic repetition, frantic aggression and bleak melody. The songs stretch comfortably into long runtimes, allowing ideas to settle in before the next storm hits. The duo do not play for easy excitement, instead choosing to build pressure slowly. When the violent sections erupt, they arrive with unfiltered madness, screeching divebombs and frantic attacks that make the calmer passages crawl with unease. The transitions carry a rough charm that suits the music perfectly.

By the time “Sheer Lunacy” reaches its final moments, the journey feels complete, not because it resolves anything, but because Gravetaker commits to the same unpolished vision from the first seconds to the last. The album rewards anyone into death metal that sounds ancient, unhinged and untouched by modern expectations. It is the type of debut that shows a band comfortable living in darkness, building an atmosphere through instinct rather than refinement.

Score: 7.0

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Hagzissa | Revelry Of A Maltreated Jade | Iron Bonehead Productions

Release Date: 19 December 2025

Format: CD, 12" Vinyl

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Austria

Hagzissa first emerged out of Austria with a strange and feral identity, a band wandering in their own corner of black metal. Their debut “They Ride Along” gave them a strong start, then they vanished from sight for years. The silence clearly did not mean inactivity, because “Revelry Of A Maltreated Jade” returns with the group shifting personnel, carrying one member out and welcoming another in, and still arriving with their crooked energy fully alive.

This EP keeps Hagzissa’s wild heart beating. The sound remains raw in spirit, shaped with that crooked fairytale aura the band always enjoyed. The riffs twist in unpredictable ways, the vocals scrape along like gravel, and the atmosphere hovers somewhere between medieval nightmare and roadside fire. There is an unhinged spark in the writing, a constant pull into strange corners, as if the band enjoys leaning toward madness without falling into chaos. The influence of traditional heavy metal is woven inside the blackened core, giving the songs a mischievous swagger that suits them well.

Across these tracks the band shows a renewed hunger. The guitars have a restless character, shifting colours often, and the drums strike with a loose but energetic drive. The vocals remain feral and theatrical, adding personality without drifting into parody. Hagzissa seems to move with more confidence this time, as if the long break and the change in lineup have sharpened their edges. The EP has an earthy charm, something handmade and rugged, produced with enough rawness to retain its bite while still allowing the melodies to rise through the smoke.

“Revelry Of A Maltreated Jade” may not be a grand statement, although it works well as a return from hibernation. Hagzissa sounds like a band that survived a storm and came back with pockets full of cursed treasures. The EP leaves a strong impression, even if it stops before showing everything the band might be capable of in the future. It is a solid offering with a vivid personality, the kind of short release that keeps the listener curious about what the next step will bring.

Score: 7.0

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Olde Outlier | From Shallow Lives To Shallow Graves | Iron Bonehead Productions

Release Date: 19 December 2025

Format: CD, vinyl LP

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Australia

Olde Outlier rises from a long underground lineage, and that history gives their first full-length a certain gravity. Beau Dyer, once the driving force behind Innsmouth and previously Grenade, returns with a fresh team that still carries echoes of those older groups through shared members. Appleton and Greenbank once handled Innsmouth material on stage, while Askew brings the same guitar instinct he sharpened in Grenade. The band might share bloodlines with the past, although what they carve out now is its own twisted corner of Australian black metal, darker and more ancient in character.

“From Shallow Lives To Shallow Graves” drops the listener into a heavy, cavernous sound that leans on long structures and steady pressure. Instead of piling on needless technical decoration, the band move with patience and grit. The music has an earthy pull, shaped by influences that lurk beneath the surface rather than scream their origins. You can hear hints of Armoured Angel and early Samael, then something more spectral, maybe a bit of Ophthalamia or early Katatonia drifting around the edges. Everything is coated in a sooty haze until the edges blur and the reference points stop mattering.

Appleton’s voice keeps the whole thing anchored. His low growls have a ghastly tone, nothing theatrical, just raw and cavernborn. Around him, the guitars stretch out with wider phrasing than Innsmouth ever used. There is more space between the notes, more open air where lead lines can twist, and the occasional use of chorused guitar gives the album a strange glow. The bass sits warm under all of it, adding a steady pulse that supports the long climbs and descents.

Across the album’s four long tracks, Olde Outlier builds something slow and engulfing. Ideas grow gradually, sometimes returning in twisted form, sometimes dissolving into new paths. The band trust repetition as a tool for hypnosis, and they know how to let time work for them. There is no rush to reach a climax. Instead, tension thickens in increments. When a guitar line rises or shifts direction, the moment carries more weight precisely because it took its time getting there.

The mix is rough around the edges, which suits the band’s personality. It has the feel of something carved out of stone instead of assembled piece by piece. Even when the band reach more melodic territory, the tone stays rooted in earth and smoke. This blend of ruggedness and distant, almost dreamlike traces gives the album a strange pull. It is dark, but not in a polished or theatrical way. More like wandering into a cave and finding old carvings on the wall, half hidden in soot.

“From Shallow Lives To Shallow Graves” demands attention but doesn’t lecture the listener. It draws you in by letting the music throb and stretch until your sense of time bends with it. The atmosphere absorbs you slowly rather than knocking you flat. For a debut, it stands on steady legs and opens a path that Olde Outlier can travel deeper into. It may not reach the heights of a future masterpiece, although it already shows a band who understand their terrain.

Score: 6.5

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Storming | Celestial Clear Moonlit | Iron Bonehead Productions

 

Release Date: October 18, 2024

Format: CD, Vinyl

Genre: Black Metal

Country: United States

Behind Storming stands one figure, Ratatosk, who channels the spirit of the early black metal underground with complete devotion. The band emerged from the American scene with a vision anchored deep in the cold roots of the genre, one that rejects modern polish and chases the sound of the forgotten. After the debut, Storming returns through Iron Bonehead Productions with the second full-length “Celestial Clear Moonlit,” a work steeped in tradition and haunted by the essence of 90s European darkness.

The album has five tracks where stretching compositions dominate. “Cleaved By Heaven,” “Starfire,” and “Over Horizons” expand like ancient chants echoing through caves of frost. The guitar tone is shredded and dry, rough enough to recall early Moonblood, with a warmth that still cuts through the haze. Ratatosk’s approach is to keep the structure direct and hypnotic, repeating riffs until they open into something ritualistic. The drumming is primitive, moving in constant motion, keeping the tension alive while the vocals swing from raspy growls to distant choral echoes, almost spectral in presence.

The use of synths deserves attention. They hover in the background, forming a mist that surrounds everything else. There’s a strange beauty in their placement, subtle, eerie, like light reflecting off ice. “A Life-Absorbing Path,” the brief instrumental, serves as a calm breath between storms, while the closing track “From The Heart Of Breath” ends the album with a drifting sense of finality, as if everything is fading into fog.

What stands out in “Celestial Clear Moonlit” is its atmosphere. It has that timeless quality of black metal made for solitude, forests, and night skies. The sound is unrefined but spiritual, capturing the heart of a genre that thrives on authenticity. Every riff, every whisper, comes across as something ancient being rediscovered. The production is intentionally raw but far from chaotic, it invites you to listen closely, to get lost in the repetition until it becomes meditative.

Storming succeeds in creating something that feels honest, atmospheric, and deeply connected to a tradition that refuses to fade. “Celestial Clear Moonlit” is not an album for casual listening; it demands immersion, patience, and a taste for the archaic. For those drawn to black metal’s earliest shadows, this is a release worth exploring.

Score: 7.0

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Deogen | The Graves And Ghosts Of Yore | Iron Bonehead

 

Release Date: 14 November 2025

Format: CD/LP

Genre: Black Metal

Country: USA

Deogen emerged from the American underground with their debut “The Endless Black Shadows Of Abyss” back in 2020, a work that gained a quiet but loyal following among those who cherish the raw and occult side of black metal. The band’s sound has always looked to the shadows of the past, embracing the early European spirit of the genre with a devotion that feels almost ritualistic. With their second full-length, “The Graves And Ghosts Of Yore”, Deogen deepens that devotion, crafting an album that could easily be mistaken for an unearthed relic from the late nineties.

This album moves within a dark, mist-shrouded atmosphere that’s ancient and grim. Guitars hum in a mid-range haze, rough yet strangely melodic, evoking a kind of spiritual ruin. The vocals, deep and echoing, have a demonic tone that matches the ghostly nature of the music’s title. There’s a deliberate restraint in the drumming, creating a sense of ritual movement. At times, faint synths and piano add an unsettling grandeur, casting the whole album in the twilight between sorrow and sorcery.

The production is strikingly vintage, almost defiant in its simplicity. It sounds as if recorded in a crypt, hollow, natural, and steeped in atmosphere. The sound works in full service to the band’s vision of an archaic black metal ceremony. Each song bleeds into the next with consistency, maintaining a balance between aggression and solemnity. The album’s middle stretch, tracks like “Of Abominations To Come” and “Clawing Into Sphere And Sun”, is particularly immersive, where melody hides beneath distortion and spectral ambiance.

Deogen doesn’t chase extremity for its own sake. Their focus lies on mood through repetition and pacing, and the result is hypnotic. It’s an album for those who understand black metal as invocation. There’s only shadowy, cold melody, and the echo of the past whispering through the riffs. “The Graves And Ghosts Of Yore” stands as a faithful continuation of Deogen’s path, unburdened by trends and guided entirely by its own grim light. It’s not made to surprise or impress, but to haunt and persist. The sound may be old, but the intent feels alive.

Score: 7.3

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Malakhim | And In Our Hearts The Devil Sings | Iron Bonehead Productions

 

Release Date: 31 October 2025

Format: CD/LP

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Sweden

Sweden has always been fertile ground for black metal, and since their formation in 2016, Malakhim have carved out their name with a steady and deliberate rise. From the first demo to the "Theion" debut in 2021, their sound has consistently grown in scope and power. Now, with "And In Our Hearts The Devil Sings", the band returns with their second full-length, presenting a vision that is at once melodic, savage, and grand in scale.

This new album is an expansion on everything Malakhim has stood for so far. The songwriting is sharp and direct, leaving enough room for atmosphere through. The tracks are fast and aggressive, carrying that Swedish black metal fire, but they also open into passages that are massive, ritualistic, and almost hymn-like. "Solar Crucifixion" and "The Firmament Submits" bring towering structures of sound, while "Angel Of The Bottomless Pit" delivers a more violent, burning approach. The title track itself is long and punishing, dragging the listener into the ritual with full force. Across the album, the balance between speed and scale is natural, making the music devastating and immersive.

Lyrically, the band taps into the idea of Yetzer Hara, the inclination of man toward evil, which fits perfectly with the suffocating aura of the album. The words don’t just accompany the music, they intensify its atmosphere, like a sermon delivered in fire and blood. The artwork by K. Pavleska and Karmazid mirrors that tone, providing imagery that matches the ritualistic nature of the songs.

Production-wise, longtime collaborator M. Norman once again gives Malakhim the sound they need. Raw enough to keep the edge, strong enough to let the melodies and layers come through. The guitars are sharp and melodic, the drums thunder and push forward relentlessly, and the vocals roar with commanding presence.

"And In Our Hearts The Devil Sings" is a powerful continuation of Malakhim’s journey. It is an album that proves the band’s strength lies in refining their core sound while expanding its scope. Where "Theion" established them as serious contenders, this album confirms they are here to stay. Malakhim has delivered a second album that is as ritualistic as it is violent, as melodic as it is destructive. It is music meant for darkness, for the stage, for the gathering of black masses.

Score: 8.0

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Tetragrammacide | Cyber-Tantric Paradigm Of Radical Sri-Vidya | Iron Bonehead Productions

 

Formed in 2012, Tetragrammacide have carved their name into the underground with a reputation for absolute extremity and sonic violence. Emerging from India’s metal scene, they have long pushed beyond conventional boundaries of black and death metal. Releases like “Typhonian Wormholes: Indecipherable Anti-Structural Formulæ” and “Primal Incinerators Of Moral Matrix” displayed their ability to create raw, suffocating soundscapes, while “Typho-Tantric Aphorisms From The Arachneophidian Qur’an” was hailed as a martial triumph of chaotic precision. Now, allied once again with Iron Bonehead Productions, they return with “Cyber-Tantric Paradigm Of Radical Sri-Vidya”, a 20-minute EP that brings forth recordings originally captured in 2017 and 2018, unleashed now in full force.

The music on this release is explosive and immediate, carrying the same firestorm intensity of “Primal Incinerators”, while being drenched in a thick aura of ritualistic violence. Across its three tracks, Tetragrammacide summon an overwhelming wall of sound where blasting percussion collides with spiraling riffs, layered with a suffocating density that demands total immersion. Vocals emerge like incantations, feral and commanding, cutting through the maelstrom as proclamations of war and esoteric doctrine.

What makes this EP distinctive is the merging of its raw intensity with psychedelic, almost surreal textures. The result feels like a battlefield drenched in spiritual warfare, where sonic chaos becomes an act of devotion. “Multi-Armed Bellicosity Of Babalon-Durga Riding On The Xeno-Beast Of Grand Apocalypse To Trigger The Outbreak Of A Pan-Dimensional Holy Pogrom” immediately throws the listener into a vortex of relentless aggression. “Techno-Tehomic Invocation Of Malignant Shadow Shakti On The World.Wide.Web. Of Internet” fuses digital-inspired chaos with their ritualistic assault, while “Astro-Theological Gomaya Initiation With The Sacred Excretion Of Hawking Radiation Emitting From The Universe’s Anus” closes the EP with a sprawling, otherworldly torrent.

“Cyber-Tantric Paradigm Of Radical Sri-Vidya” is a total sensory assault, steeped in mysticism, violence, and transcendence. With this release, Tetragrammacide continue to stand as one of the most uncompromising forces in extreme metal, offering a vision that is as destructive as it is otherworldly.

Score: 6.6

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Cruentation | Damned Fallen Angels | Iron Bonehead Productions

 

Iron Bonehead Productions brings forth the debut full-length from Cruentation, titled “Damned Fallen Angels.” Formed in the underground trenches of New England, the band is no stranger to extreme metal’s most hostile corners. With members linked to acts such as Witch Tomb, Impenitent Thief, Hirudenia, Cemetery Lights, Martyrvore, Ninnixu, and Embryonic Cryptopathia, Cruentation channel decades of uncompromising extremity into this first full-scale statement. Their earlier demos and EPs hinted at this direction, but here the group finally unveils a definitive slab of black/death chaos.

“Damned Fallen Angels” delivers 32 minutes across ten tracks, immediately plunging the listener into fire and torment. The sound is raw in spirit yet fully fleshed-out, a storm of riffs steeped in malevolence and driven by relentless drumming. Each track lashes forward with violent intent, with vocals rising like incantations from deep below. The band captures a balance between black metal’s blasphemous aura and death metal’s crushing weight, summoning a sound that is both punishing and captivating in equal measure.

Cruentation keeps the pace merciless, never allowing respite. Tracks like “Prayers And Piss” and “Snake Of Knowledge” embody the album’s violent pulse, while “Chaos And Old Night” and the title track expand the infernal scope with an almost suffocating density. Despite its brevity, the album leaves the impression of a much larger work, condensing aggression into a tightly coiled strike. By the time “Dagger In My Heart” closes the ritual, “Damned Fallen Angels” has carved its presence with undeniable force.

This debut makes clear that Cruentation’s vision is uncompromising and steeped in a tradition of true underground extremity. Their name will now be impossible to ignore in black/death metal circles.

Score: 7.5

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Azathoth's Dream | Solitary Forest Necromancy | Iron Bonehead Productions

 

    Azathoth’s Dream began as a solo project in 2023 and quickly gained attention through their debut album, “Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment.” Rooted in the haunting traditions of late 1990s French black metal, the band drew inspiration from acts like Osculum Infame, Bekhira, Winter Funeral, and Seth. Their sound also aligned with the newer wave of raw, vampyric black metal emerging in the U.S., associated with projects such as Sanguine Relic, Vampirska, and early Lamp Of Murmuur. Now expanded into a two-member entity and part of the underground collective Order Of The Broken Sword, Azathoth’s Dream continues their development under Iron Bonehead Productions with the release of their second album, “Solitary Forest Necromancy.”

 “Solitary Forest Necromancy” stays true to the project’s core influences, yet adds more dimension. The sound remains rooted in distant, atmospheric black metal with a strong sense of melodic sensibility. The overall tone is cold and mist-covered, shaped by sharp guitar lines and distant, dungeon-born vocals. The synths play a large role, giving the album a ceremonial and arcane feeling that enhances its spectral mood.

The production is raw but structured in a way that doesn’t blur the musical intent. There’s a consistent mood of isolation and spiritual withdrawal that flows from start to finish, backed by tempos that shift from slow, hypnotic marches to more urgent, wind-swept charges. At times, the synths guide the structure more than the guitars, producing a distant echo of dungeon synth’s ambience. The vocals are buried but expressive, drifting through the mix like the voice of some forgotten forest entity.

Despite being deeply immersed in familiar sonic territory, “Solitary Forest Necromancy” does not come across as derivative. The songwriting gives each piece its own shade within the greater landscape of the album, making the listening experience feel cohesive and intentional. The length is well-judged, avoiding fatigue and making the entire journey feel contained and complete.

“Solitary Forest Necromancy” is the kind of black metal that appeals through mood and devotion. There’s no need for fast changes or dramatic turns; the focus is on repetition, trance, and deep immersion in a nocturnal and woodland world. The addition of a second member seems to have brought more structure and variation into the sound without changing its essence.

Score: 7.0