Austrian Metal News – Vol. 1

It’s a bit strange to write a review of a material released three years ago, and after I’ve reviewed Vol. 2 prior to this release. Meanwhile, what we have here is Austrian Metal News – Vol. 1, a sampler which provides a great overview of the vivid Austrian metal scene. Thus Volume 1 concentrates on the Black/Death Metal genre, featuring 16 new songs (17 tracks, as Vnzvcht appears on both “Intro” and “Outro”) by Austrian bands or projects. For some of the bands/projects presented here, this sampler is their first release on a physical medium, while other acts are already established and have several albums out. What they all have in common is that they all released at least one new song during 2021 and on this compilation they’re represented with their best one.

Now a few words on each of the 16 acts who take a part on this sampler. First song is an intro of the already mentioned Vnzvcht with a short torturing track called, “Sprung in den Leichenfluss” (translation; Jump into the corpse flow). It deals with Anti-Christian themes, and is the work of just one man. The same obviously applies for “Sprung in den Leichenfluss (Outro)”, which serves as a perfect sampler closure. Next band is Aeon Of Ashes, a post modern melodic death metal band, that heads the sampler with a song of their published in 2021 “The Realisation”. Aussichtslos comes next with “Spiegel” (eng. Mirror) which is a black metal track that is taken from band’s 2022 LP. “Awakening” is the track from yet another black metal act, this time a women project, Black Anthem. This particular song comes from their self-titled 2021 EP. Cruciatus Infernalis present a song from their latest full-length Untot. It’s a fantastic piece of diverse black metal that will please most fans of the genre. Dea Artio is a project of just one man, Kvein which we wrote a few words about here. It’s the longest song on this sampler, eight and a half minutes of mystical and atmospheric black metal. Next comes Flammenkvlt, a (post) black metal band from Salzburg. “A Song against the Void” is another piece of varied and well-written black metal. The five-piece Black Metal band Gha’agsheblah is represented with a song “Sons Ov 200”, taken from their 2022 debut album. This occult black metal quintet borrowed their band name from the Hebrew and it naturally therefore deals with the themes of the Old Testament. Cool, but complex and demanding black metal. “Away” is a track from Infected Chaos, a death metal combo from Tyrol. It sure sounds refreshing and calling for some serious headbanging. Nàire hails from the town of Linz, and they successfully blend some atmospheric sounds with elements of sludge and crust punk. Already on this single track, “Epoch”one can sense this colourful bouquet of predominantly dark and dystopian themes and nice atmospherics, which are so essential for this kind of crust/sludge/death metal. Perditus is another black metal project founded in 2017. He delivers an exclusive and previously unreleased track for this sampler, “Die Kälte schreit Vergänglichkeit”. Perditus brings up the darkest and worst things of human existence with his music. Scion of Darkness are a death metal quartet from Klagenfurt. Their track “Abomination” is taken from the 2020 album Dawnpath. It might be worth the effort to look for this full-length, as I think it’s worth exploring a bit further. “My forlorn Tale” is a diverse and varied track featuring the elements of black/death & thrash metal. It’s the result of efforts from the Vienna-based duo going under the moniker of Sheogorath. Vergeblichkeit is a gothic & black metal one-man project. “Wundentum Geheiß” is a melancholic track taken from the highly-acclaimed 2021 album, Die Almosen der Wunde. Winter’s Breath is another one-man project from Floridsdorf, Vienna. “Cursed” is an atmospheric/symphonic lengthy epic black metal track. Withdraw is a child of Witege, one man responsible for all instruments and vocals on “Falsche Zeit” (Wrong time), a track taken from Two Worlds EP; a split with Bál, released a couple of months prior to the release of this sampler. A nice closure to this diverse yet extreme metal sampler with bands from promising and growing black/death scene in Austria.

I know many fans dislike this kind of sampler compilations, but I think it’s cool, and such a sampler can serve as a testimony of time on the flourishing Austrian metal scene in the beginning of 2020s! No matter if you are a longtime connoisseur of the great Austrian Metal scene or a scene stranger, surely you will discover some pearls. Enjoy!

Click on the link here to find out more about each band and this CD sampler https://runningwildproductions.bandcamp.com/album/austrian-metal-news-vol-1