Necroblood’s sound reveals a band at the height of its creative prowess. Song dynamics and catchy riffery both advance the material beyond mere competence. Fans of analog format will love the band’s issue in vinyl, and such format is highly recommended for fans of this type of underground death metal.

The band does not lack in genuine ideas on ‘Winter’, and fans of Fen will support this new album as fervently as they’ve supported milestone efforts such as ‘Epoch’.

It is with great pleasure that I introduce Finnish black/death metal band Cemetery Winds and their album ‘Unholy Ascensions’, a band and a release in desperate need of some buzz.

All must bow down to Harvest Gulgaltha’s ‘Altars of Devotion’, or suffer indignation by the scourge of wearing the nameplate, I am Trendwaste.

Pillorian’s ‘Obsidian Arc’ is an enjoyable listen, and presents a band refreshing the melodic black metal style in 2017 to my pronounced enjoyment.

Let’s face it, ‘Morbid Blood’ won’t be topped easily, and ‘Force of Profanation’ may not follow it up with increased tenacity and quality, but ‘Force of Profanation’ proves Ravencult is here to stay.

Kosmokrator might not have entirely pioneered this style, but they provide fitting tribute and lasting legacy to the genre with ‘First Step to Supremacy’. File this under 2016’s most underrated.

I am fan first, journalist second, and Árstíðir Lífsins’ ‘Heljarkviða’ is the best black metal album I’ve heard from Iceland since Misþyrming’s ‘Söngvar elds og óreiðu’, and the best black metal album I’ve heard for years before that.

Cara Neir’s ‘Perpetual Despair is the Human Condition’ packs a wallop, and sounds like genre-bending magic typical of label Broken Limbs Recordings.

Kjeld and Wederganger feature instrumentation all positively enhanced by modern production values. Like a fresh smearing of blood on snow and ice, everything is conspicuous.

Perhaps in large part to the astounding musical output the guys on Death Fetishist are responsible for, the band fails to make something really worth loving on this, their full-length album, ‘Clandestine Sacrament’.

‘Takitum Tootem!’ either shows an exciting new direction for The Ruins of Beverast, or it aptly explores a theme with two songs before it presents black metal of a new innovative form on their next album.

The members of Vircolac make music for its own sake, and a mainstream audience of Vircolac fans is still quite hard to imagine bearing fruit, but should black/death metal reach into the stratosphere with no turning back, expect Vircolac to be at the forefront of it all.

While slightly melodic and less dissonant than ‘Taman Shud’, ‘Mute Books’ is a worthy edition to Auroch’s discography, even if ‘Taman Shud’ may perhaps remain their most compelling album to listen to.

Another record worth spinning, with very few people listening (or reading, for that matter), bop along before you make that much needed visit to Third Eye Temple’s webstore for a worthy split comprised of fun blackened thrash metal goodness.

‘Emissary of All Plagues’ is not the best album Revel in Flesh has ever done, but as implied, the band does pull off another quality run at Swedish death metal. For fans of Swedeath, this is still good news.

Necromorbid attempts a homage to musical accompaniment fitting for a Black Mass. With the garrison of fallen angels opened and the fallen angels freed from their restraints, heaven is torn asunder in a sky turned bloody crimson, corpses of cherubim lining the earth for miles and miles.

‘Utter the Tongue of the Dead’ is largely comprised of imaginative and innovative music, without the songs morphing endlessly unto cessation, aimlessly galloping from one trodden tempo to a blast section and back.

Sadly overlooked by some fans in favor of bands with more hype and marketability, Ruins does not rely on publicity to achieve its impetus – create good black metal.

Even in black metal, where musicianship is sometimes overlooked in favor of hype and gimmickry, there should be no doubt that these guys are more than simply competent musicians. ‘Mors Secunda’ is the culmination of vision, hard work and dedication to the craft.

‘The Embodiment of Hate’ is unique, aggressive, and heavy as a monolith, so prepare for big hooks and chugging rhythms playing this.