With 'Skogarmaors' Obscurity forge their ninth studio album. At the first glance one might think there is nothing new in Obscurity, but with Skogarmaors there are several new elements within the band. Since their last album 'Streitmacht' Obscurity's team changed severely. The quintet from the Bergisch Land with Askar (guitars) and Isarn (drums) welcome new brothers in their ranks. Askar followed the footsteps of Cortez and Isarn took place for Draugr. Both, Askar and Isarn did a great job on the new album which is significantly influenced by them. But ingrained fans do not have to fear fundamental changes in style although there are new musical influences due to the line-up change. The 13 new songs on the upcoming album will benefit from those influences. Obscurity will stay a bastion in continuity and they only create music they do stand for. Continuity also takes its part in the place of production. The new album was recorded and produced in the holy halls of 4CN-Studios by Tim Schuldt. Stylistically the new songs reach from Death- to Viking Metal with Black Metal influences. In addition to that the bonus track is an experiment which differs slightly from the rest of the album/songs. Skogarmaors is not a concept album which is why there is such thematic diversity in the lyrics. Nordic mythology and contemporary social subjects take place in the sung words. In 2021 Obscurity hope to clink glasses with their numerous fans on the new album. The pandemic not only challenges artists but cut deeply in the daily life of all of us. Perhaps the music of the rooted in the soil musicians could heal the wounds a little.

Lindemann, the now-defunct Rammstein side project named for frontman Till Lindemann and featuring multi-instrumentalist and producer Peter Tägtgren, are bringing their upcoming Live In Moscow film to the cinema.
Live In Moscow was shot on March 20 last year at Moscow’s VTB Arena, and is described by the distributors as "the great party before the global shutdown." The film will be shown in cinemas in the UK, USA, Russia, Belarus, Ukraine and Australia on March 20, with ongoing screenings taking place in Germany and Austria over the summer. Venue details are available by registering at lindemann.film.

"German Dark Metal pioneers NACHTBLUT will release their sixth studio album Vanitas on October 2nd 2020 via Napalm Records. The listener will be drawn into the band’s musical maelstrom in a classifying NACHTBLUT manner: hard riffs, Askeroth’s incisive vocals, rousing melodies and profound, candid lyrics. Three years after the previous album Apostasie was released, NACHTBLUT returns with even more vigor and might.

On their authentic masterpiece Zeichen, the Wolves from VARG return to their roots and embark on a journey further down a new road. Forget anything you have seen or heard about them in the past few years and embrace the new album as a reboot of a band that never ceased to evolve and has gotten rid of everything superfluous. This seventh full length release marks a new era for the Wolves, haunted by wild battles, death and bloodlust - a resurrection from the fields of pagan metal, pairing razor-sharp melodic death riffs with Freki's furious vocals. Within the first seconds of the album opener breaking loose, VARG pulls the listener into the year “793” that heralded the ferocious era of the Vikings. In contrast, "Fara Til Ranar", including additional female vocals, is a melancholic, captivating saga about the Nordic sea goddess Rán, who pulls wandering sailors down into her wet grave. "Verräter", on the other hand, emphasizes the suffering and vengeance towards former allies with rapid guitar leads and ultimately the album culminates in the mighty title hymn “Zeichen”. In addition to the ten new tracks, the mediabook contains a bonus CD featuring alternative versions of each song the band recorded with renowned guest musicians from Eluveitie, Nachtblut and Equilibrium among others. Looking at the final opus, it's not surprising why VARG took four years after the publication of Das Ende Aller Lügen (which hit number 17 on the German charts) to regather their forces, and today, Zeichen shows that Freki, Fenrier, Morkai and Garm consciously took their time to realign their inner compass and are not afraid of musical and intellectual freedom.

Founded in 2007 to combine the atmosphere of brutal life in The Great War (1914-1918) trenches with raw old school black metal celebrating militarism. This album coveys the brutal winter fighting in the extreme altitude of the alps on the Italian Front of The Great War.

German Pagan Black Metallers HORN will release a new album entitled ‘Mohngang’ on May 15, 2020 via Iron Bonehead Productions

Austrian atmospheric black metal project KARG will return in 2020 with the release of their 7th full-length album, “Trakat,” on February 7th. The musical style of KARG is a furious, hysteric mixture of atmospheric black metal and a huge load of post-rock, with additional influences of grunge, shoegaze and post-punk. Those inspirations outside of black metal evolved more and more over the last few years but were present in abridged form since day one. Lyrically, KARG has always delved into more of the melancholic side of life, such as broken relationships, lost love, estrangement, drug abuse, loss or suicide thoughts and depression. In contrast to many other bands KARG’s lyrics are as equally important as its music is.

Ulgoroth is a one man depressive black metal project from Germany, founded by N. in 2012. The sound is a mixture of a raw, depressive atmosphere, sad melodies and ambient soundscapes. Lyrical themes and influences: sorrow, solitude, silence.

With a whisper of forgotten times, something rises in the Austrian mist. Rauhnåcht returns to the fray with his greatest work yet, “Unterm Gipfelthron”. Pushing the boundaries of the cold black metal sound heard on previous releases, “Unterm Gipfelthron” presents a new level of depth and evolution for the band. Furious black metal riffs, screams, and blast beats collide with victorious melodies, mystic folk instrumentation, eerie synths, and otherworldly chanting to evoke forgotten times and alpine landscapes. Elements of magical dark ambient and dungeon synth bisect these pagan battle hymns, moments of calm that both precede and follow the storms to come. This is a hidden jewel, plucked from the furthest reaches of windswept forest dreaming. With this record, Rauhnåcht continues to codify a sound all his own, and sets a new standard for future releases to follow.

Founded in 2001, German black metal instigators Helrunar have gone from strength to strength, establishing themselves as a band approaching Nordic themes with brains. Records such as "Frostnacht" and "Baldr Ok Íss" are regarded as seminal works for the country's scene before the group shook off genre conventions altogether in favour of a holistic approach to extreme music and its topics. This is manifest in 2011's double album "Sól". While their sixth full-length "Niederkunfft" (2015) marked the beginning of a new era with recourse to archaic death and doom metal pondering late medieval superstition in the face of the Enlightenment, successor "Vanitas Vanitatvm" shows yet another tack, albeit within a similar stylistic framework. Musically, front man M.D., who forms one half of the group besides drummer S.K., places "Vanitas Vanitatvm" between its predecessor and the "Sól" era. "The songs are more compact and mature, also mostly faster, and again, more black metal. Apart from that, there have been influences you might call nostalgic."