Anthelion (幻日) - 沐血再臨 (Bloodshed Rebefallen) [2007]

Artist: Anthelion

Title: Bloodshed Rebefallen

Genre: Sympho-Black Metal

Country: Taiwan
Year: 2007

Track List:

1. Snake Corpse
2. 零 / Sin of Aeon
3. 無懼 再臨 / Without Trepidation
4. 墓海 / Grave Ocean
5. 血嫁 / Bloody Matrimony
6. 蟄伏 冰封幻蛻 / Hibernation Glaciation Exuviation
7. 夜殲炙獄炎 / Bloodshed in the Dark of Burning Hell
8. 破魂錄 / The Tome of Broken Souls
9. 神敵 / The Evil Adversary

Like Nathrzeim, Anthelion are playing a "Western" kind of symphonic black metal, even though they're from Taiwan. The lyrics, however, are in Chinese for the most part. There aren't many metal bands in Taiwan (definitely much less than in Singapore, for example), but there seems to be a small but thriving melodic black metal scene. It probably started with Chthonic, whom I'm not a fan of - but there are other bands that worth attention, including Anthelion. "Bloodshed Rebefallen" is quite good for a debut LP.

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Vielikan - "A Trapped Way for Wisdom" [2010]

Artist: Vielikan

Title: A Trapped Way for Wisdom

Genre: Technical Death/Doom Metal

Country: Tunisia
Year: 2010

Track List:

1. The Beginning of all Remorse
2. A Shelter of Flesh in the Void
3. Zero Affection
4. Black Marsh
5. A Vertiginous Fall
6. A Trapped Way for Wisdom
7. Celestial Autumn

"Brought together around 2002 first as Death Awakening, Ethereal Travel afterwards, the first draft of this project did never really stand firmly due to the changes of line-up, ceaselessly provoked by Fedor.
After an encounter with three other ambitious musicians (Khalil, Mehdi and Tarek) the band concretely took shape in November 2008, choosing Vielikan for name. It then started making these songs obviously quickened by a Death Metal spirit yet somewhat tempered by small chunks of a Russian folklore..."

While I don't hear much influence of Russian folk music on this album, the name of the band is indeed in Russian (but written in a Polish manner for some reason). And the name of their vocalist, Fedor... well it doesn't sound very Arabic to me. Musically, it's quite good progressive death metal (as far as I know, they reject the label "technical reath metal") with apparent doom metal influence. They've been compared to Nocturnus and Augury (a relatively well-known death metal band from Jordan which I haven't listened to yet). The cover art for "A Trapped Way for Wisdom" is a bit unusual in technique, and well reflects the overall atmosphere of the album.

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Anatta - "Eternal Truth Is Anatta" [2011]

Artist: Anatta

Title: Eternal Truth Is Anatta

Genre: Symphonic Heavy/Power Metal

Country: Thailand
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Eternal Truth
2. Anatta
3. I Am I
4. Racing With the Time
5. Angels
6. Wings oF Forever Dream
7. World Unity
8. Glory Land
9. New Dimension
10. Melody & Symphony

Another Bangkok-based band which is similar to Orient Ende in terms of sound, named after a Buddhist concept which I don't fully understand. They call their style "hybrid metal" - perhaps referring to the electronic elements in their music - but to be honest, it's just heavy/power metal with keyboards. What I've said about Orient Ende can be said about Anatta too: for a debut self-released album it's fine, but the vocal work could be better. The album is streamable @ their bandcamp page, but to download it you have to pay 9$ (which is quite expensive, even though I understand that they're from a not very rich country, and they have released this album on their own expense...)

Orient Ende - "The End of Oriental" [2009]

Artist: Orient Ende

Title: The End of Oriental

Genre: Symphonic Metal/Rock

Country: Thailand
Year: 2009

Track List:

1. You Have to Back Where You're Came From
2. Tragedy of Adore
3. The End of Oriental
4. Letter from the World

Female-fronted symphonic rock/metal from Bangkok. For a debut demo EP it's fine, even though the music isn't very original, and I don't like the vocalist's voice at times (however, I think she did a good job on the title track). Would like to hear a full-length album from them, if they ever will release one.

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Nervecell - "Psychogenocide" [2011]

Artist: Nervecell

Title: Psychogenocide

Genre:Death Metal

Country: United Arab Emirates
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Anemic Assurgency
2. Upon an Epidemic Scheme
3. All Eyes on Them
4. Amok Doctrine
5. Psychogenocide
6. Imprint
7. شنق - Shunq (To the Despaired...King of Darkness)
8. The Taste of Betrayal
9. Driven by Nescience
10. Nation's Plague

This band is actually quite well known and praised as the best death metal band in their whole region, and since I already have posted a lot of Asian metal bands, I think they deserve to be on here too. Nervecell were formed in 1999 (according to other sources, in early 2000) in Dubai, but the band members are originally from Lebanon, Jordan and India - which isn't surprising since Dubai is a city of immigrants for the most part; most other metal bands in the UAE (which are very few) have a lot of non-Emirati members as well. Their music is standard death metal, nothing really outstanding or groundbreaking in there, but nevertheless it's quite good by any standards. As for the download links - it wouldn't be hard to find them in google, I think.

Zaraza - "Slavic Blasphemy" [1997]

Artist: Zaraza

Title: Slavic Blasphemy

Genre: Industrial Death/Doom Metal

Country: Poland/Canada
Year: 1997

Track List:

1. Zakazany
2. Every Day is a Funeral
3. Necessary
4. Cell of Skin
5. Zaraza

Like in case with Demilich, this Polish/Canadian band has managed to record one of the most interesting yet underrated experimental releases of the 90s. Zaraza was started in 1993 in Montreal by Jacek "Doomhammer", a newly arrived Polish immigrant, and Grzegorz "Haus ov Doom", a local industrial artist which has Polish roots too. They've released 2 CDs before disbanding in 2005; now all their music is officially available for free and highly valued among the collectors of early industrial metal. The band's name means "plague" in Polish (to a Russian-speaker this word sounds rather funny than scary, though).

The band members describe their style as "born out somewhere in the void between SWANS, old Laibach, Winter, Unholy, Skin Chamber, Napalm Death, Godflesh, etc." I'd say "Slavic Blasphemy" reminded me of "The Machine" by Dead World - albeit not quite as dark and misanthropic, but less repetitive and with higher level of songwriting. According to the legend, after the release of "Slavic Blasphemy" the members of Zaraza were unable to eat due to spending all their available money on recording. No idea if it's true or not, but the album is well-produced by the standards of its time, and certainly worth listening to.

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Phobonoid - "Orbita" [2013]

Artist: Phobonoid

Title: Orbita

Genre: Industrial Black/Doom Metal

Country: Italy
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Phobos
2. Ex
3. Vuoto
4. Lo spettro di Deimos
5. Omega
6. Magnete
7. Deimos

Excellent new one-man project from Italy, which released only one short EP so far. Here's a detailed review of it, which is probably better than anything I'd write about it by myself:

""Orbita", the remarkable debut of Phobonoid, a one man band coming from Italy. "Orbita" is a conceptual and cinematic journey about the end of the civilization on Mars, witnessed there by Phobos where he also meets his brother Deimos, on the already destroyed surface of Mars...

Soundwise, "Orbita" sounds like if black space metal band Darkspace and industrial doomsters P.H.O.B.O.S (curiously this band has nothing to do with Phobonoid) were melted into one. The beats are clearly industrial as they are performed by a digital drum and the sound of the guitar brings the best of two worlds: black and doom metal. The voice whispers and hisses in the background, enhancing this dreary and menacing atmosphere..."

Cruentus (IT) - "In Myself" [1996]

Artist: Cruentus

Title: In Myself

Genre: Technical Death Metal, Progressive Metal

Country: Italy
Year: 1996

Track List:

1. Trip into the Absolut Vacuum
2. Reborn from the Infernal Ashes
3. Genocide
4. Seeking the Truth
5. Save Your Tears
6. Under the Same Sky
7. Contitioned Mind
8. ...in an Endless Spiral
9. In Myself
10. Paths in Memory

The 3rd and the last Cruentus I've listened to, and definitely the best out of all 3 bands under this name. "In Myself" is a ~65 minutes-long concept album, which is better to be listened "in one shot". They've released only this album and several demos during 1992-1999, which all didn't get much publicity. It's a pity, because they're a very good band, deserving to be on the same level with bands like Nocturnus.

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Cruentus (PL) - "Event Horizon" [2003]

Artist: Cruentus

Title: Event Horizon

Genre: Industrial Black Metal

Country: Poland
Year: 2003

Track List:

1. Industrial Beat Machinery
2. Absolute Dominium
3. In The Name Of Lust
4. Universal Dementia
5. Pale Textures Of Reality
6. Silicon Dreams
7. Paranomia
8. Digital Glow
9. Synthetic Voices Of Wonder
10. Juxtaposing The Patchworks
11. Dread Rock (Archetype Energii)

There are at least 4 bands under the name Cruentus, and this one is from Poland. Aesthetically, they got everything right, but musically... well, it isn't bad, but there certainly is a lot of better industrial black metal releases. However, the band obviously had a lot of potential - too bad their second release ("Terminal Code") turned out to be exactly the kind of "modern metal" I dislike. The quality of production on "Terminal Code" is much better than on this album, but that's all. However, if you like Mnemic, Sybreed, and later albums of Fear Factory, you might find "Terminal Code" interesting too.

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Cruentus (NP) - "Asantusta Aatma" [2005]

Artist: Cruentus

Title: Asantusta Aatma

Genre: Black Metal

Country: Nepal
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. Asantusta Aatma
2. Beneath the Bleeding Moon
3. Circle of Fear
4. Shadow of Darkness
5. Massacre of the Holy Ones
6. Bless Me with Thy Pain
7. Unknown Warrior

This album has received quite low ratings from most reviewers, and I wonder why. Surely it's just standard black metal, nothing particularly innovative or "exotic" in there (except for the use of Nepali languae in the title track), but it isn't bad at all - especially for a country, which has hardly a dozen active metal bands. Unfortunately, there's not much info about the band - looks like they've recorded only one album and then disappeared...

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