Helveteskval - Hjärnspöken (EP) [2024]

Artist: Helveteskval

Album: Hjärnspöken
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/GEYe8PhczGo 
Country: Sweden
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Impious Nation  

2. Tombs Of Dead Flesh  

3. Schizophrenic Symphony  

4. Reign In Infamy  

5. Sverige '90

Witness: -[*]-

White Tower - Night Hunters [2024]

Artist: White Tower

Album: Night Hunters
Year: 2024
Genre: Heavy Metal / Speed Metal / Thrash Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/bVapxHoy1uo / https://www.facebook.com/WhiteTowerMetal/
Country: Greece
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Blood

2. Total Evil

3. Night Hunters

4. Knife in the Back

5. Banshee

6. Tear Up the Night

7. Warmonger

8. Early Warning

9. Masters of Menace

10. Enforcer

11. Malice and Lust

Witness: -[*]-
Damn, listening to this album from White Tower makes me feel like I dropped a tab of Purple Microdot and took a trip back to 1983. These guys have managed to capture all of the best aspects of early 80s metal and wrapped it in a modern production to create an authentically nostalgic collection of songs that kick ass. I love death metal but to me, the early 80s before the Sunset Strip and hair metal ruined the scene this style was my first true passion. 

 

Inverted Cross - Eternal Flames of Hell [2024]

Artist: Inverted Cross

Album: Eternal Flames of Hell
Year: 2024
Genre: Black Metal / Speed Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/fM_nhtdRlco / https://invertedcross666.bandcamp.com/music
Country: Spain
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. March of the Fallen  

2. Attack with Hellfire  

3. Under an Evil Presence  

4. Invoke the Goat  

5. Into the Crypt of the Necromancer  

6. Suffer to Live  

7. Black Leather Hordes  

8. Trapped Underground  

9. Eternal Flames of Hell 

Witness: -[*]-
Killer retro blackened Spanish speed!

Scars - Sin [2024]

Artist: Scars

Album: Sin
Year: 2024
Genre: Heavy Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/xh4jd2x8b7c / https://www.facebook.com/scarsnorwegianmetal/
Country: Norway
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Call it Sin  

2. Hypocrite  

3. Way Down Low  

4. Final Call  

5. Vikings Land  

6. Living Lies  

7. Shoot the Sun  

8. Never Look Back  

9. In Desperation  

10. It Still Kills

Witness: -[*]-

 

Phantom - Cyberchrist [1993]

Artist: Phantom

Album: Cyberchrist
Year: 1993
Genre: Power Metal / Speed Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/XwzVCAyJr8o / https://www.facebook.com/evilizemetal
Country: United States
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Well of Souls

2. Six Feet Under

3. Big Daddy

4. Cyberchrist

5. Graveyard Shift

6. Psycho Zoo

7. Queen of the Damned

8. Blind Man's Sight

9. Alive and Well

10. Preying with the Mantis

11. Last Man Standing

12. Say Your Prayers

Witness: -[*]-
I purchased Phantom's debut album Dead Or Alive back in 1987 and I liked it but it wasn't one of my favorites. Fast forward to May of 2024 and I came across this album 31 years after its release I listened to it and thought to myself, "Where was this at 35 years ago? I would've jammed it repeatedly." As it stands I still think this is kind of a cool collection of songs so I wanted to share it for other old-school power metal fans to check out. 

Phantom - Dead Or Alive [1987]

Artist: Phantom 

Album: Dead Or Alive
Year: 1987
Genre: Power Metal / Speed Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/koMhVn71WyQ
Country: United States
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Dead or Alive

2. Under the Gun

3. Punish the Sinners

4. The Stand

5. Black Widow  

6. Take Me Down Slow

7. Dead of Night

8. Turbocharged

Witness: -[*]-
I found this album in my local record store back in '87 and purchased it and King Diamond's Abigail album at the same time. It doesn't need to be stated which album would go on to be considered a classic and which one would fade into obscurity. That doesn't make this a bad album though, I thought the 1st side showed potential at the time.

Radiation - Reactor Collapse [2024]

Artist: Radiation

Album: Reactor Collapse
Year: 2024
Genre: Thrash Metal / Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/nxTTVC4W3hA / https://witchesbrewthrashes.bandcamp.com/radiation
Country: Slovakia
Quality: 192 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Tales of the Ancient Ones  

2. Planetary Exodus  

3. ...of Doomfire  

4. Taken by Void  

5. Open the Gates  

6. Beyond the Edge of Time  

7. Birth of the Shadowkind  

8. Reactor Collapse

Witness: -[*]-
I came across this album a couple of days ago. After listening to it I understand that this style has been done countless times before and the production is different from what I prefer but I really appreciate the raw and aggressive jam session style of their thrash and wanted to spread the Radiation.

Grave Ghoul - Living Dead Flesh [2024]

Artist: Grave Ghoul

Album: Living Dead Flesh
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/1Q5NLZG27e4 / https://www.facebook.com/Grave-Ghoul
Country: United Kingdom
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Grotesque Pleasure  

2. Skin Splitting  

3. Dr Butcher  

4. Scalped  

5. Living Burial Ground  

6. Limitless Methods of Mutilation  

7. Make Them Die Slowly  

8. Shambling Eyeless Corpses  

9. A Puzzle of Body Parts  

10. The House of Dead Flesh  

11. Cremated / Incinerated (Mortician cover)  

12. Dis-organ-ised (Impetigo cover)  

13. Twisted Mass of Burnt Decay (Autopsy cover)

Witness: -[*]-
I don't know much about Grave Ghoul's music but I do know that the dude doing everything in this band also does it all in Seven Doors too and that shit's really good so I expect this to be as well.

 

Oxygen Destroyer - Guardian of the Universe [2024]

Artist: Oxygen Destroyer

Album: Guardian of the Universe
Year: 2024
Genre: Black Metal / Death Metal / Thrash Metal
Web: https://brutalthrashingkaijumetal.bandcamp.com/ / https://www.facebook.com/KaijuConjuringDeathMetal
Country: United States
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Guardian of the Universe (The Final Hope)

2. Drawing Power from the Empathetic Priestess

3. Shadow of Evil

4. Thy Name Is Legion

5. Eradicating the Symbiotic Hive Mind Entity from Beyond the Void

6. Nightmarish Visions of the Devil’s Envoy

7. Awaking the Malevolent Destroyer of the Heavens and Earth

8. Banishing the Iris of Sempiternal Tenebrosity

9. Exterminating the Ravenous Horde of Perpetual Darkness and Annihilation

Witness: -[*]-
I have been aware of Oxygen Destroyer for a few years now but hadn't listened to their stuff because I was thinking that they were more of a sludgy doomy-sounding band but that is not the case at all and I really like this album. Additionally, they are from the Pacific Northwest, one of my favorite regions for US death metal.

Exhumation - Master's Personae [2024]

Artist: Exhumation

Album: Master's Personae
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/VdP5WCkwCEQ / https://exhumation.bandcamp.com
Country: Indonesia
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. In Death Vortex  

2. Pierce the Abyssheart  

3.  Funereal Dreams  

4. Chaos Feasting  

5. The Martyr's Lament  

6. Thine Inmost Curse  

7. Perilous Tongue  

8. Thy Mighty Locution  

9. Mahapralaya  

10. The Scenic Desolation

Witness: -[*]-

Exhumation - Eleventh Formulae [2020]

Artist: Exhumation

Album: Eleventh Formulae
Year: 2020
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/hSu_t6jxq1U / https://exhumation.bandcamp.com
Country: Indonesia
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Mors Gloria Est

2. Inferno Dwellers

3. Formulae I: Malediction Bells

4. Grandeur Dawn

5. Vicious Ecstasy

6. Arcane Dance

7. Formulae II: Ironheart Rapture  

8. Ominous Chants

9. Blood Trails

10. Perdition Spells

11. Formulae III: Eleventh Vessel

Witness: -[*]-

Rusted Crown - Gateways of Purgatory [2024]

Artist: Rusted Crown

Album: Gateways of Purgatory
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/fTPoSDRbLzg / https://rustedcrown.bandcamp.com
Country: Brazil
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Under Control  

2. Vultures  

3. Rise of Undead  

4. Death White  

5. Rigor Mortis  

6. Warfire  

7. The Dying King  

8. Gateways of Purgatory

Witness: -[*]-
This is 1-man does it all death metal from Caetité, Bahia, Brazil and it is also an album CarlG has been promoting pretty heavily here recently. 

Amputate - Abysmal Ascent [2024]

Artist: Amputate

Album: Abysmal Ascent 
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/_t40LRJy7uY / https://www.facebook.com/amputateofficial/

Country: Portugal / Switzerland
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. I Am Genocide  

2. Abysmal Ascent  

3. Malevolent Manifestation  

4. Cavernous Temple of the Absurd  

5. Hybrid Organism  

6. Extractive Monolith  

7. Sepulcro  

8. Venomous Prophecies  

9. Visceral Dominion  

10. Perpetuum

Witness: -[*]-
Abysmal Ascent is the newest album from Amputate and the follow-up to their stellar 2022 release Dawn of Annihilation. I admittedly haven't listened to this album much yet but I am in the process of making up for that now. 

Amputate - Tortura Macabra [2016]

Artist: Amputate

Album: Tortura Macabra
Year: 2016
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/JWmMApp0AAQ / https://www.facebook.com/amputateofficial/
Country: Portugal
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Amputate

2. Tortura Macabra

3. Dismemberment in Delirium

4. Necrofornication

5. Corpse Full of Sperm

6. Putrefying Stench

7. Brutalized

8. Chainsaw Surgery

Witness: -[*]-

Perversity - Spiritual Negation [2024]

Artist: Perversity

Album: Spiritual Negation
Year: 2024
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/esS4vMHQDJs / http://www.perversityband.com/
Country: Slovakia
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Feasting (Intro)

2. The Mouth of Abyzou

3. Patron of Hate

4. Your Flesh Is My Temple

5. Spiritual Negation

6. Venom Divine

7. Wrath Manifest

8. Exaltation of the Morningstar

9. Fate Weaver

10. Epitome of Diabolization

Witness: -[*]-
This is the newest release from the long-running Slovakian band Perversity. I have a few releases from over the years but really haven't listened to them much since Infamy Divine from back in 2014. I do like this album though and I think it represents a strong comeback. 

Perversity - Idolatry [2017]

Artist: Perversity

Album: Idolatry
Year: 2017
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/AyhkNkvISrs / https://perversity-map.bandcamp.com
Country: Slovakia
Quality: VBR

Tracklist:
1. Blackmoon Offerings

2. Inter-Sectioned

3. Bloodletting Covenance

4. Discreated But Reborn

5. Altar of the Swine

6. Necrobeast

7. Sadistic Rites

8. Ibex Cult Orgy

9. Aphotic

10. Womb of Abhorrence

Witness: -[*]-

Perversity - Beyond the Reach of Heaven [2008]

Artist: Perversity

Album: Beyond the Reach of Heaven
Year: 2008
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Web: https://perversity.bandcamp.com / https://www.facebook.com/perversityband/
Country: Slovakia
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Primitive Personal Blasphemy

2. Temple of the Worms

3. Anoint for the Devil

4. Gods for Us (...Are Enthroned)

5. Irresistible Destruction

6. Apocalypsis

7. Reach of Heaven

8. Legion of the Blessed

9. Scholars of Emptiness

Witness: -[*]-

In Thy Dreams - Highest Beauty [2001]

Artist: In Thy Dreams

Album: Highest Beauty
Year: 2001
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/ple5yQRZCKc / https://www.facebook.com/inthydreams
Country: Sweden
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. The Highest Beauty

2. Surrealistic Insanity

3. Hatred

4. Spirits Forge

5. Control

6. Selfpity Human

7. Lower Regions

8. Razor-Sharp

9. Weeping Twilight

10. pon Your God

Witness: -[*]-
In Thy Dreams was a band that came late to the Swedish melo-death heyday and I feel they somewhat faded into obscurity but I liked them and first became aware back in 97 on Stream of Dispraised Souls, Their next album The Gate of Pleasure was my favorite and then this album was also very good for my tastes but it would be their last. This is my CD rip.

In Thy Dreams - The Gate of Pleasure [1999]

Artist: In Thy Dreams

Album: The Gate of Pleasure
Year: 1999
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/lMeqhMPBbX8 
Country: Sweden
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Into Infinity

2. A Man of Dreams

3. Deadly Desires

4. Master of Lies

5. Blinded

6. Probing Insanity

7. Indoctrinated Lies

8. Fleeing Illusion

9. Forgiven Sins

Witness: -[*]-
This is my favorite but their last album was also very good for my tastes back at that point in time. My friend had this CD and he recorded it onto HQ Maxell tape for me and I used to play this in the car all of the time back then. The other two are my own CD rips but this one isn't, still "classic" nonetheless. 

In Thy Dreams - Stream of Dispraised Souls (EP) [1997]

Artist: In Thy Dreams

Album: Stream of Dispraised Souls
Year: 1997
Genre: Melodic Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/4nhzgUvThw4
Country: Sweden
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Fateless

2. Glistening Truth

3. Fleeing Illusion

4. Dreams Within

5. Stream of Dispraised Souls

Witness: -[*]-
I stumbled across this band back in 97 with this EP and thought to myself, "damn this is top-notch!" but the production was weak on this CD and the sound volume was too low, so you had to crank the shit out of it to be able to bang your head. It doesn't matter though because the songs were brutally melodic and killer for me. 

Antagonist - Vorwärts [2024]

Artist: Antagonist

Album: Vorwärts
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal / Hardcore
Web: https://youtu.be/8QT9j88nspI / https://opos-records.com/antagonist_che
Country: Switzerland
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Vorwärts  

2. Die Last  

3. Hinterhalt  

4. Kranke Scheisse  

5. In meiner Welt von Morgen  

6. Kleben geblieben  

7. Hast du Angst?  

8. Liberty

Witness: -[*]-
I don't know much about this band except that I found this rip a few months back and have been listening to it a bit in the car and I am really liking this album a lot. Killer stuff! 

Fearmonger - Horrific Forms [2024]

Artist: Fearmonger

Album: Horrific Forms
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal / Grindcore
Web: https://fearmongerhki.bandcamp.com/ / https://www.facebook.com/fearmongerhki
Country: Finland
Quality: 320 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. The Cosmic Void  

2. Hell Becoming  

3. Fear Reigns  

4. Harrowing Images  

5. Curse From Above  

6. Whispers  

7. The Eldritch Truth  

8. Echoes  

9. Violent Stillness

Witness: -[*]-
I first heard Fearmonger last year on their Singularity release and was surprised to see they are already back with a new album. If you are not familiar check'em and see if you like them. 

Cryptic Hatred - Internal Torment [2024]

Artist: Cryptic Hatred

Album: Internal Torment
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://cryptichatred.bandcamp.com/ / https://www.facebook.com/cryptichatred/
Country: Finland
Quality: 192 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Death Is upon You

2. Breeding of Evil

3. Chasm of Void

4. Homicidal Intentions

5. Mesmerized by the Malignant Gaze

6. Tomb of Desecration

7. Mauled to Flesh

8. Beyond Hatred

9. The Passage

10. Internal Torment

Witness: -[*]-
Following up on 2022's Nocturnal Sickness Cryptic Hatred has quickly become my favorite band in death metal. This young foursome now has two insanely solid releases since their formation in 2019. With Internal Torment the riffs, the bottom end, the vocals, the production, everything is perfect for my tastes on this album. Since starting The Death Chamber I have spent most of my free time searching for new music and creating posts for the site. One of the downsides of this is that I typically don't do a lot of repeat listening to newer albums because there is too much new material to review every year but this year there have been a few albums that I keep going back to and Internal Torment is very much at the top of the list for me, this is easily my AOTY.

200 Stab Wounds - Manual Manic Procedures [2024]

Artist: 200 Stab Wounds

Album: Manual Manic Procedures
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://evilgreed.net/collections/200-stab-wounds / https://200stabwounds.bandcamp.com
Country: United States
Quality: 192 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Hands of Eternity

2. Gross Abuse

3. Manual Manic Procedures

4. Release the Stench

5. Led to the Chamber / Liquified

6. Flesh from Within

7. Defiled Gestation

8. Ride the Flatline

9. Parricide

Witness: -[*]-
200 Stab Wounds is one of my favorite newer American bands and I have thoroughly enjoyed everything they have released so far. For me, Manual Manic Procedures is very close to contending for AOTY but it will most likely end up at the #2 spot for 2024 (see Cryptic Hatred). The songs on this album are well constructed with a heavy groove, killer leads, tight drum work, and a pristine production that works perfectly for these tracks. Like Cryptic Hatred, this is only their 2nd LP so I am very interested to see the growth of both bands in the future.

Gutless - High Impact Violence [2024]

Artist: Gutless

Album: High Impact Violence
Year: 2024
Genre: Death Metal
Web: https://youtu.be/dx-dB8ID31Y / https://gutlessmelbourne.bandcamp.com
Country: Australia
Quality: 192 Kbps

Tracklist:
1. Bashed And Hemorrhaging  

2. Beyond The Catacombs  

3. Scalpel Obsession  

4. Avalanche Of Viscera  

5. Galvanized  

6. Carved Into Existence  

7. GORE GOD  

8. Viral Infection

Witness: -[*]-
Gutless is a 4-piece band from Melbourne, Australia and with High Impact Violence they stomp through 8 tracks of grisly, visceral death metal in just over 26 minutes. The production on this album is more raw and muddy than I typically prefer but it works well for these tracks adding to their putrid charm. Listen & support if you like what you hear.