Transcending Obscurity is a long running webzine which started out in 2005 under the name 'Diabolical Conquest'.

The new and revamped website serves as a portal dedicated to reviews, interviews, premieres and articles covering some of the best underground bands in metal today!

Visit us at http://tometal.com


PS: Transcending Obscurity also functions as a record label and distributor (with some of the lowest shipping prices in the market)!

~ Shrivatsan R (Deputy Editor)

SONG PREMIERE: Norwegian death metal trio Killing for Company are releasing the CD for 'House of Hades' on Via Nocturna.
Transcending Obscurity is currently streaming the track 'Judas Cradle' right now! Fans of Old school death metal (especially the Swedish kind) dont miss this one.

http://tometal.com/song-premiere-killing-company/

Hellenic pagan / black metal band Kawir release their most layered and dynamic album to date with 'Father Sun Mother Moon'. With an expanded lineup and better production values, the album pushes further into the pagan metal territory, while keeping the black metal attitude intact.

Review for Kawir - Father Sun Mother Moon by Shrivatsan :
http://tometal.com/review/kawir-father-sun-mother-moon/

Another day, another premiere. Chris Dahlberg brings you a brand new track from Sxuperion's upcoming 'Cosmic Void' on Bloody Mountain Records. Fans of black / death, dig in!

http://tometal.com/song-premiere-sxuperion-otherworldly-blackdeath-metal-u-s/

It's that time of the month.
Stuff covered -

APRIL HIGHLIGHT 2016!!


Discharge | hardcore punk/crust | Nuclear Blast
INHERIT DISEASE - OFFICIAL | brutal death | Unique Leader Records
MANTAR | sludge | Nuclear Blast
Debridement | brutal death | ROTTEN MUSIC
Tombs | black sludge | Relapse Records
Blizaro | doom metal | I, Voidhanger Records
Allfather | sludge | Static Tension Recordings
Eths | hardcore | Season of Mist
IMPERIAL TRIUMPHANT | black/death | Redefining Darkness Records
Mamiffer | experimental | SIGE Records
Mortichnia | black metal | Apocalyptic Witchcraft
Primitive Weapons | hardcore | Party Smasher Inc.
Surgical Meth Machine | Industrial Metal | Nuclear Blast
Schammasch | black metal | Prosthetic Records
WODE | black metal | Broken Limbs Recordings

http://tometal.com/april-2016-highlights-staff/

'Rudra Bakthi' is a strong opening statement from Drought. The EP has been released digitally and will see a CD release on Avantgarde Music this week.

Here's my review on Transcending Obscurity:
http://tometal.com/review/drought-rudra-bakthi/

Attention grindheads!

Chris Dahlberg conducts a long interview with mincecore legends Agathocles on account of their recent split release with german noisemongers Cause Of Divorce.

Plus, WOOAAARGH, the label behind the split is offering a free download for a limited time! What the fuck are you waiting for?!?!

Interview on Transcending Obscurity: http://tometal.com/interview-free-downl ... gathocles/

The enigmatic trio Vainaja mark a strong return with 'Verenvalaja', which is set be released through Svart Records on May 27th 2016.
A slab of cryptic doom / death, the album is a must hear for fans of the style.
Read my review of the album on Transcending Obscurity:

http://tometal.com/review/vainaja-verenvalaja/

Like some pure death metal? Then Evil Reborn is a band you should check out. Their debut album 'Throne of Insanity' comes out on 17th May through Satanath Records.

Meanwhile, Transcending Obscurity has the eponymous track streaming exclusively at the following location:

http://tometal.com/song-premiere-evil-reborn-evil-reborn/

As Ancst get ready to kick off their tour this week, we at Transcending Obscurity had a chat with them. The conversation deals with their latest album, the DIY scene, the socio political factors and much more

" I think that not so many people really read lyrics anymore, so its kinda nice to see some response from the crowd. People that usually dig our band are mostly fine with the topics we discuss in our lyrics. Same with the people on our shows. You know I guess people see us as a metal band but the truth is we are mostly playing hardcore shows and for a hardcore crowd. The topics we deal with on "Moloch" are not really new or shocking to an audience like this."

Full interview here:
http://tometal.com/interview-ancst-germ ... al-entity/

As the months roll on, the music videos keep on coming. Following our 2016 Music Video round up, we are back for round 2!

Featured on the article are videos from:
Aetherian (Independent)
Astrakhan (War on Music Records)
Beastwars Band (Destroy Records)
Drought (Avantgarde Music)
Endemise (Maple Metal Records)
Enthrallment (Rebirth the Metal Productions)
Grey Heaven Fall (Aesthetics of Devastation)
Inferior (Independent)
MANTAR (Nuclear Blast)
Morgue Supplier (Obscure Musick)
North (Prosthetic Records)
PLEBEIAN GRANDSTAND (Throatruiner Records)
Skin Drone (Bluntface Records)
SystemHouse 33 (Independent)
Wolf King (Independent)


Check out these 15 kickass videos and let us know what you think in the comments:
http://tometal.com/2016-video-round-part-ii/

Lord Vicar return with their third full length, 'Gates of Flesh'

"Maybe it is the result of having shorter tracks, but this album is much more accessible and the riffs are instantly memorable. Dont get me wrong, I love the first couple of albums that had some experimentation in the music. But ‘Gates of Flesh’ has the potential to become an instant classic. "


Full review here: http://tometal.com/review/lord-vicar-gates-flesh/

Transcending Obscurity is proud to present, a brand new track from Skin Drone. Also included is an in depth interview the band about their upcoming album 'Evocation'

" For me personally it’s the most fun you can have writing music that doesn’t fit standards and norms. Experimentation allows for you to fuse genres that wouldn’t normally be fused together. I know the both of us don’t restrict ourselves to only listen to metal, so incorporating those influences into Skin Drone just feels like the right thing to do. Plus, it’s always fun to try and throw your bandmate a curveball, it’s a nice way to push each other’s limits and comfort zone."

Full interview and track streaming here:
http://tometal.com/song-premiere-interview/

Preorder the album here: https://skindrone.bandcamp.com/

There's so much great local talent from my immediate local market in Baltimore. Whether you're into grind, sludge, black metal, noise rock, or avant-garde stuff, there is music in here you'll like! -Chris Dahlberg


Bands featured: Musket Hawk, Snakefeast, Corpse Light, Baklavaa, Elagabalus. Stay tuned for spotlights on even more Baltimore talent in the future!



http://tometal.com/lets-keep-local-baltimore-bands-part-i/

‘"Where Shadows Forever Reign’ reminds me of the days when black metal was still scary, and not a corpse-painted gimmick"
Eric May checks out the newest Dark Funeral album, set to release on Century Media Records June 3rd!


http://tometal.com/review/dark-funeral- ... ver-reign/

Weekend Nachos have one final record titled 'Apology' before they disband and damn, it is a fitting farewell.

"While the title suggests that this album might be a touching farewell, in reality, the music seems to suggest that the apology is more tongue in cheek. Weekend Nachos do not hold back on any of the mental aggression and this album is perhaps their strongest output to date."

Full review here:
http://tometal.com/review/weekend-nachos-apology/

'Apology' is released through Relapse Records

Jointly released by The Ajna Offensive and Invictus Productions, HEAD OF THE DEMON's second full length 'Sathanas Trismegistos' is a mesmerizing record.

"Swedish outfit Head of the Demon’s brand of black / doom metal is quite not what I expected when I got the promo. Where I expected slow, abrasive black metal, I found a strangely melodic and atmospheric take that managed to sound chilling and evil. The band’s second full length titled ‘Sathanas Trismegistos’ has a weird psychedelic quality to it, in the way the melodies crawl into the listener’s head."

Full review here:
http://tometal.com/review/head-of-the-d ... smegistos/

Canadian blackened crust trio BLACKRAT recently released their second full length 'Hail to Hades' through No Sanctuary Records


"Despite all the experimentation on the record, Blackrat have a tendency of circling back to the good ol’ blackened crust sound. This is a good thing considering how addictive and chronic headbang inducing the traditional Blackrat sound is."

Full review here: http://tometal.com/review/black-rat-hail-hades/

Lord Vicar recently released their third full length 'Gates of Flesh' and we talked to the band's guitarist Kimi Karki about it

"The album is loosely themed around sexuality, lust, Dionysian potency, and the decline of those things, the failing body and crushed spirit. I wanted to approach old cliched subjects of sex and death from a different angle. ‘Gates of Flesh’ is about human body as a glorious and crumbling temple."

Full interview here: http://tometal.com/interview-kimi-karki-lord-vicar/

The first part of my grindcore series, 'The Grindhouse Chronicles' is now online at Transcending Obscurity

#1 featuring Pink Mass, Potato Hate Explosion and Musket Hawk

Full article here:
http://tometal.com/grindhouse-chronicle ... sket-hawk/

"There were a bunch of really epic ideas that I felt always needed to be in a longer track and once I had written all tracks for the album, there were so many of these epic piece left unused, and after a series of events, I decided to get back to the album, throw a few songs out and replace them with a bombastic epic that used those epic parts as building blocks and then write bridges to make it all flow like a short track."

Peter Kotikalapudi and Chris Dahlberg interview Dan Swanö from Witherscape on their new album, out July 22nd on Century Media Records.

Interview here: http://tometal.com/interview-swedish-me ... therscape/

Tides Of Sulfur (UK) released their debut full length 'Extinction Curse' on Black Bow Records last week.

" Following in the footsteps of bands like Warcrab and The Dead, comes Tides of Sulfur. This power trio have been creating sonic mayhem since 2011 and after 5 years, the band is finally set to release it’s debut full length. Titled ‘Extinction Curse’, the album does not hold back on intensity and the result is 50 minutes of bone crushing death metal that will leave even some of the most hardened metalheads quivering in their pants."

Read the full review here: http://tometal.com/review/tides-sulfur- ... ion-curse/

Some great things come from TO. I fully support them.

Cheers! Thank you for your support

"For me it was the first of the demo tracks that I heard that was a clincher for me to join the band and bring it to a live setting. I just remember hearing the beatdown at the end, and thinking "fuck, i need to be in this band!"."

Check out a brand new track from 'Methylene Butterfly', the debut album of Powerviolence / grindcore duo Negative Thought Process.
The album comes out through Hibernacula Records on the 16th of September.


Read here: http://tometal.com/song-premiere-interv ... t-process/

Time for the monthly highlights piece by the Transcending Obscurity staff!!
The July 2016 edition features:
ADE (Italy) - Carthago Delenda Est (XTREEM MUSIC)
Blood Red Throne - Official (Norway) - Union of Flesh and Machine (Candlelight Records)
Dejected Mass (Germany) - Dirge (Independent)
DUST BOLT (Germany) - Mass Confusion (Napalm Records)
Fistula (USA) - Longing for Infection (Independent)
GROND (Russia) - Worship the Kraken (XTREEM MUSIC)
INTER ARMA (USA) - Paradise Gallows (Relapse Records)
MAKE (USA) - Pilgrimage of Loathing (Accident Prone)
Mortalized Grindcore (Japan) - 呪われた …Complete Mortality (Blastasfuk Grindcore)
Periphery (USA) - Periphery III: Select Difficulty (Sumerian Records)
Seedna (Sweden) - Forlorn (Transcending Obscurity)
Storm Of Particles (Italy) - Storm of Particles (Independent)
VANHELGD (Sweden) - Temple of Phobos (Dark Descent Records / Pulverised Records)
Verwoed (Netherlands) - Bodemloos (Argento Records)
Witherscape (Sweden) - The Northern Sanctuary (Century Media Records)

Read the full article here: http://tometal.com/july-2016-highlights-staff/

The staff here at Transcending Obscurity are really into grindcore. So much so, that we already have a third list in our Grindcore Highlights feature. This time, the list features:

Asphalt Graves - The New Primitive (Vitriol Records)
Boycott The Baptist - Bash the Bishop (Independent)
Cancerous Womb - It Came to This (Rising Nemesis Records)
GRIND OF THE DEAD - Pussy Jamz (Independent)
Nuclear Holocaust - Overkill Commando (SELFMADEGOD RECORDS)
Pigskinner - Leech (Coyote Records)
Rectal Smegma - Gnork (Rotten Roll Rex)
Sonic Poison - Harsh Punishment (Caligari Records)
Stheno - Liberty Crawls in Waste ( EveryDayHate)


Full article here: http://tometal.com/staff-grindcore-highlights-pt-3/

Australian black / death band Vahrzaw recently re-released their second full length 'Twin Suns & Wolves' Tongues' through Blood Harvest. We're streaming the album in full and also have an interview with the band discussing their future, the Australian scene and much more.


http://tometal.com/full-album-stream-in ... es-tongue/

FlightofIcarus delivers another round-up of worthy metalcore/hardcore bands.


Bands featured:
Salvation For Me
Noble Lie
Dimensions
Conscripts

http://tometal.com/flights-metalcore-ner-vol-4/

Mind-bending tech death band Coma Cluster Void interviewed on Transcending Obscurity

"Sylvia and I always search for extreme expression, and both can be found in the works of many composers of the 20th and 21st century. The music envisioned at the beginning of the 20th century were moving away more than ever from music that is just entertainment, towards a music that truly grabs the listener by the heart (and the throat). The most extreme style of metal is – at least for us – primarly death metal. "



Full interview here: http://tometal.com/interview-avant-gard ... ster-void/

‘Lathi Charge’ flies by fairly quickly, but it’s a massive burst of blasting riffs and scorching vocals that will leave you gasping for air."



Chris Dahlberg reviews Chepang's debut. Grab vinyl from Nerve Altar or Holy Goat Records or cassette from Cricket Cemetery.



http://tometal.com/review/chepang-lathi-charge/

Blood incantation's killer debut 'Starspawn' reviewed on Transcending Obscurity

"Blood Incantation opt for the old school method of attack and they’re a far cry from the cheap old school death metal imitators overcrowding the scene these days. The band manages to incorporate their own forward thinking ideas to the old school death metal template, making this one of the most interesting albums of the year so far."


Full review here:
http://tometal.com/review/blood-incantation-starspawn/

'Ich hatt einen Kameraden' is a split release featuring Minenwerfer and 1914 released on ARCHAIC SOUND.

" ‘Ich hatt einen Kameraden’ (inspired by the poem of the same name by Ludwig Uhland), is a split release that gives a good insight into this period from two bands who would have belonged to opposing sides in the war. Both Minenwerfer and 1914 talk about the Eastern front in the war by making use of black metal and blackened death / doom metal respectively, to give the horror and carnage of the battlefield an apt musical interpretation."

Full review here:
http://tometal.com/review/minenwerfer-1 ... den-split/

Label spotlight of one of the best dealers of extreme metal today - SELFMADEGOD RECORDS


Boss man Kunal Choksi interviews the label owner about running an underground label in today's digital world.

" I see it this way: people who has never bought anything no matter if it’s tape or CD will never buy it anyway even if its digital. They just want it for free no matter what. "

Also featuring:
Antigama - The Insolent (Grindcore)
Axis of Despair - Time and Again EP (Grindcore)
Cloud Rat / Drugs of Faith - Split (Grindcore)
Dead Infection - Surgical Disembowelment (Reissue) (Goregrind)
Die Choking - III (Grindcore)
Dystrophy - Wretched Host (Tech Death)
Nuclear Holocaust - Overkill Commando (Grindcore)
Pyrrhon - Growth Without End (Experimental Death)
ROT - Nowhere (Grindcore)
Terrorazor - Abysmal Hymns of Disgust (Grindcore)

http://tometal.com/label-spotlight-self ... ds-poland/

What a month September has been! Too many solid releases across the metal spectrum. It's time we tell you what we think are the best of the lot.

Featuring:
Barishi - Blood from the Lion's Mouth (Season of Mist)
Cara Neir / Wildspeaker - Guilt and his Reflection (Broken Limbs Recordings)
Cryfemal (Official) - D6s6nti6rro (Osmose Productions)
Emma Ruth Rundle - Marked for Death (Sargent House)
Grossty - Crocopter (Transcending Obscurity)
Inanimate Existence - Calling from a Dream (UNIQUE LEADER EUROPE)
Insomnium - Winter's Gate (Century Media Records)
Morrow - Covenant of Teeth (Broken Limbs Recordings)
Pain - Coming Home (Nuclear Blast)
Serpent Ascending - Ananku (I, Voidhanger Records)
Sumerlands - Sumerlands (Relapse Records)
Unyielding Love - The Sweat of Augury (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)
VRTRA - My Bones Hold a Stillness (Sentient Ruin Laboratories)

http://tometal.com/september-2016-highlights-staff/

Trap Them's latest on Prosthetic Records, 'Crown Feral' reviewed!

"Personally, I did not mind ‘Blissfucker’ when it came out and over the past couple of years, that album has only grown on me (except for maybe a couple of tracks). However, I do empathize with the ones that weren’t so fond of that album. ‘Crown Feral’ is an album that is sure to please both the nay-sayers and the fans alike. "

Full review here: http://tometal.com/review/trap-crown-feral/

Take Over And Destroy's newest self titled release on Prosthetic Records is damn addictive!

"This is probably what sets Take Over and Destroy apart from your usual metal band. These guys give the finger to traditional ideas of genres and focus on playing music that is engaging, with no regards to where the influences come from."

Full review: http://tometal.com/review/take-destroy-take-destroy/

Deckard Cain unleashes part III of his "Maladies of the Ear" series.

Featuring Celestial Grave and Obscure Sphinx

http://tometal.com/deckard-cains-maladies-ear-part-iii/

INTERVIEW ALERT!

Blood incantation's Starspawn was one of our favorite albums this year. So we talked to the band about it and here's what transpired...

"If you ever wonder why most bands don’t hang out with their fans, it’s because most people on earth (and subsequently, most metalheads) are so retarded that frozen pizza boxes actually have to tell you not to put the cardboard box in the oven – they literally need to be told that the plastic wrap needs to be removed before cooking. These are the people out there having kids, man. Additionally, the internet metal scene is total bullshit, dude, just fake and impersonal bullshit – these people are either haters, nerds or PUNISHERS"

Full interview here: http://tometal.com/interview-blood-inca ... ensations/

Cara Neir return with their fourth full length titled 'Perpetual Despair is the Human Condition'. The album drops tomorrow on Broken Limbs Recordings




"Though the influences of the band seems quite disparate, Cara Neir successfully manipulate them to create a sound that is distinctively theirs. "




Full review here:

http://tometal.com/review/cara-neir-per ... condition/