Behold the new masters of darkness! SEPTICFLESH kindly invite you to join “The Great Mass”. The Greeks’ seventh full length is a new symphonic masterpiece that constitutes a quantum leap in the art of amalgamating orchestral music with Heavy Metal. These songs are audible evidence of guitarist Christos Antoniou finishing his studies of classical composition with academic honours and distinction. “The Great Mass” sounds nothing like the nowadays all too common application of ordinary soundtrack themes to hard music.

An uncompromising sibling extreme metal trio from Brazil, Krisiun’s savage lyrics, punishing riffs, and unmitigated velocity helped make them one of the more punitive metal ensembles to emerge in the 1990s. Heavily influenced by bands like Slayer, Sodom, and Morbid Angel, the band employ a vicious, straight-ahead death metal style that was crystallized into pure fury on career-making outings like Apocalyptic Revelation (1998), Conquerors of Armageddon (2000), and The Great Execution (2011) that brought many imitators out of the woodwork. 2018’s Scourge of the Enthroned charted in Belgium, Germany, and Switzerland. Following two long tours and the global pandemic, Krisiun returned in July 2022 with Mortem Solis.

Hailing from Porto Alegre and taking their name from the lunar basin Mare Crisium (“sea of crisis”), the band was founded in 1990 by brothers Alex Camargo (bass, vocals), Moyses Kolesne (guitars), and Max Kolesne (drums) — Camargo uses his mother’s maiden name. A pair of demos (1991’s Evil Age and 1992’s Curse of the Evil One) and a self-released mini-album (1993’s Unmerciful Order) helped the band build a strong local following, resulting in a deal with small Brazilian label Dynamo, which put out the group’s merciless debut long player, Black Force Domain, in 1996. It was picked up for wider distribution by Gun Records, which also issued the group’s acclaimed sophomore effort, 1998’s Apocalyptic Revolution, the latter of which turned heads at major metal player Century Media, who scooped the band up and put out album number three, Conquerors of Armageddon, in early 2000. The label proved to be a loving home for the group, who were now taking their sonic onslaught across the globe, sharing stages with contemporaries like Vader, Belphegor, and Rotting Christ, and releasing a string of workmanlike, but undeniably brutal albums like Ageless Venomous (2001), Works of Carnage (2003), Bloodshed (2004), Assassination (2006), and Southern Storm (2008), the latter of which included a fiery cover of fellow countrymen Sepultura’s “Refuse/Resist.” 2011 saw the band issue their eight studio long player, the massively potent Great Execution, which garnered heavy praise from the extreme metal community, as did 2015’s more doom-leaden Forged in Fury. Clocking in at a taut 38 minutes, 2018’s Scourge of the Enthroned marked a return to the Gatling gun riffage and visceral attack of their debut. The album won praise from the metal press internationally, and was their first to chart in Europe.

Following two long tours and the global quarantine caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, Krisiun finally got the opportunity to record in late 2021. They entered Family Mob Studio in São Paulo, Brazil and produced nine songs themselves. They sent the files off to Mark Lewis in Nashville, Tennessee, who mixed and mastered the set. Titled Mortem Solis, it boasted sleeve art by Marcelo Vasco. The video single “Serpent Messiah” was issued in June, followed by the album release in July. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi

Melechesh is a black metal band that originated from Jerusalem and Bethlehem. Ashmedi started the band as a solo project in 1993. In the following year, guitarist Moloch and drummer Lord Curse were added to the line-up. The bands’ goal was to create a type of Black Metal incorporating extensive Middle Eastern influences (both musical and lyrical), or in the band’s own words: “Mesopotamian Metal”.

Ex Deo was formed in 2008 as an artistic project Maurizio Iacono was really interested in and as it caught on, it became more of a band. However, Iacono said in an interview that Ex Deo will not be as active as Kataklysm is. “Ex Deo is more of a prestigious type of band. We’re not going to tour intensively for it, we’re not going do as much as we do for Kataklysm. Kataklysm is a world-warrior band, you know. It’s on the road constantly and more in touch with social aspects. This (Ex Deo) is more something artistic, you know.”-frontman Maurizio Iacono

The band Inquisition was formed in 1988 in Cali, Colombia by Dagon. The band started as a thrash metal act, and in 1994 evolved into raw black metal.

In 1996, Dagon left Colombia and moved back to the United States to continue Inquisition and search for a new drummer. That same year Dagon met Incubus, who joined the band on drums and the creation of their debut full length album began. This line-up has remained stable for more than fifteen years and is now seen as the classic Inquisition line-up.

INQUISITION style of black metal involves slow, deep and dark riffing combined with sudden tempo changes to faster sections based around blast beats and high-speed riffing; at times adding melodic solos. The classic Inquisition sound incorporates a combination of early era thrash metal-influenced riffing with darker and more chaotic black metal, primarily involving fast, tremolo picked minor-key guitar riffs, thus creating the trademark “Inquisition sound”.