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