The Netherlands have spawned a great deal of acts with quite an original sound and different points of view on how to come up with dark and Satanic music. And Apator - formerly known as Quorton and Zaag, among other names - has possibly invented the darkest form of hate music thought possible - and its only studio demo (after an endless list of home-made recordings) Guilty Of Down-Syndrome is the best he has done. Apator's vocal hate is not really black metal when first encountered, but it is more dark and Satanic than the majority of bands walking around this world, and is therefore more black than most black metal bands! Sadly, it was one of his last demo's. His follow-up Sieg Geil could have been his magnum opus, but since it contained only a few songs, it could never live up to Guilty Of Down-Syndrome. Armed with a guitar with one string, a whole bunch of pitch-shifters, delay-effects, and lyrics that are politically incorrect in oh so many ways, sole mastermind Apator has given the scene the perfect music to cut its flesh to - and believe me, a lot of people have done just that! Be warned, most of you will still not understand any of it!

Devil Cult is without doubt one of the darkest things ever to emerge from the Dutch black metal scene – and I have seen a lot of this scene come and go! This sure beats the hell out of all those regular 'evil' black metal bands all over the world, that are convinced that they have what it takes to be ranked at the top of the genre, yet bore people with more plastic discs and mp3's sounding similar to a multitude of other releases. Domini Inferi is very different! People familiar with the In nomine Domini Inferi material and the brilliant split 7" ep, will know what I mean. And I guess they will probably like Devil Cult even better. Hellchrist Xul has pushed the boundaries of his band a step further, and offers a pitch black and aggressive, but also very versatile album, that easily steps from noise to Hellhammer to dark industrial to Beherit and back again. But whatever the main musical influence may be, it all comes down to pure darkness in honour of Satan! The album is finished off with yet unrivaled visual blasphemy; both the photographs and the videoclip added to the cd are pure evil! I am sure a lot of 'black metal fans' won't be able to grasp most of it, but I am sure that accessibility was not a reason for this music to be created… Some things just have to come into being! And a lot of times, like it is the case with Devil Cult, they are the most worthwhile! Just released, but already a classic!

There are hordes of people in the underground that claim that there is no room for synthesizers in real black metal, and that these bands exist mainly for the mainstream masses. While in a lot of cases they are (sadly) proven right, there are definitely exceptions around. I think Eternal Frost's debut demo - and as it turned out, its only demo - called Christial Holocaust is one of them. The intro and the four tracks on this demo are as cold and dark as you can get. They are well played, well structured, and produced in a way a lot of bands without keyboards could be jealous of. Inspired by Norwegian acts of that time, they have chosen a style that combines the cold open chords of Norwegian black metal with relatively simple, but very effective melodies and sounds. It is too bad, this band never got around to recording a full-length album, and show the underground that it is possible to use synthesizers in a good way. It has given us, without any doubt from my side, the best synthesized black metal of the Netherlands.

After having been around for what seems like ages, and having delivered two rehearsal demo's during that time, Tartaros finally got around to recording its first and final studio release in 1997. Sadly, this band has disappeared from existence not long after the release in 1999. But it was worth all the postponing and waiting, since Tartaros' Darkened Destiny is one massive album that cannot be ignored by anybody. There are only four tracks on this album, but that doesn't mean the experience will be over in the blink of an eye. These five men mastered the art of creating lengthy, yet never boring songs, and did this with a production that takes you back to the scene of the early 1990's. When it was finally released, only 500 pieces of vinyl were pressed, and it was never re-released on cd, which makes it quite hard to find, but certainly worth any effort you put in finding it... Oh, and for anybody's information, this sure beats the crap out of the Norwegian band Tartaros!

Black September is another new black metal band from the Dutch soil, featuring a former Landstorm member and a group of 'anonymous's... People familiar with more than Dutch black metal will now know what this demo deals with, and can decide whether to look for it or not. Musically, this is mostly fast old-style black metal with an underground production; low in high frequencies, rich in background noise. For those with a heart for it, this is a good example of black metal fueled with political overtones, comparable to a band like Kristallnacht.

Deinonychus, which had always been the child of Dutch multi-instrumentalist Marco Kehren, has released its self-titled fifth cd, filled with dark metal, weaving elements of gothic and black metal into his own unique melancholic style. Although my personal favorites of Deinonychus are the earlier works The Silence Of December and After The Rain Falls An Empty Sky Remains, I quite enjoyed Marco's newest product. Besides his usual additional keyboardist J. Bartels, Marco has been accompanied by William Sarginson (ex-The Blood Divine, ex-Cradle Of Filth, ex-Extreme Noise Terror and December Moon) on drums. After the release of the album Staff Glover (bass) and Mark Royce (keyboards, ex-Entwined) joined the band, which will make it possible to see Deinonychus on stage in the future. Quality dark gothic metal from Holland.

I received this demo cdr from the hands of musicians Klaas and Martijn during a Mayhem concert, with the remark that it sucked! I listened, and found out the Dog In Pain delivers what it promises. This tribute (dedicated to band member Max who killed himself in 1997) contains 25 songs of nihilistic noise (black?) 'metal' in chaotic rehearsal quality. Much of it is even improvised material, but somehow manages to enjoy me nevertheless. The Fuck You Song, Zo Fris Als Een Hoentje, Free Varg Vikernes (a song even Vikernes himself hated!) and the Mayhem cover Deathcrush are the most 'outstanding' songs of this unconventional release. Certainly not something for the average black metal fan of today - you will have to be really weird to cope with Dog In Pain. I bet most of the people cannot swallow this!

Funeral Winds founding man Hellchrist Xul has resurrected his band Inferi as the solo project Domini Inferi, releasing this extreme demo-cd January 2002 as its first sign of chaos. The music has changed to perhaps the extremest form of black metal - that of early Beherit. In about 18 minutes eight songs of heavily distorted Satanic music burst through your eardrums, including the great VON cover Veinen. This will not be everybody's musical preference, but it is mine, and I can only hope the upcoming songs will be even more extreme.

This demo is the debut of the political black metal band Hamergilde, that was founded in 1997 as a duo, and which expanded after the release of this demo. It opens with Wagner's Die Walkure plus additions, and continues with four black metal tracks on side Blut, which remind me a lot Absurd's Asgardrei. Side Ehre consists of more moody music, more like the later works of Burzum and a band like Halgadom. Although production isn't always great, the music is okay and convincing, the lyrics are most of the time in German, and the message of the cassette is pretty clear, though not always liked by the metal public. But I don't care what that mostly idiot scene thinks anyway. It's hard-to-obtain stuff - just keep watching the scene closely, and maybe you'll get lucky.

IO is a gothic black metal band, that definitely gets an A on design: the semi-transparent cover looks really stylish. The music of the band is pretty good, even though most gothic black I heard left no traces of its existence in my head. A little over 25 minutes of atmosphere packed into four tracks, and musicianship that is better than most young black metal bands achieve. This is pretty doomy and melancholic, with hints of Katatonia, Dimmu Borgir (Stormblåst) and Opeth, and probably a lot more I don't recognise (my knowledge of this type of moody metal is limited). The songs are built up well and all have their own face, which keeps this record from growing boring. Critique? Well, the clean vocals need practise, some experimentation with singing harmonies would do the music good for instance, and the drums are a bit too soft to keep your attention. The last point is perhaps not that bad, because it keeps the music calm and sad. I think that, in its own niche of doomy black, IO is quality work, and even people into CoF can find solace here. Underground black metal it's definitely not!

Finally there is a new release by Israthoum to enjoy - I admit: my old band - and it sounds both new and pleasantly familiar. It is good to see that the band still has its own unique recognisable sound, that it’s still well-inspired and creative, and true to the Satanic side of black metal. Eight tracks of high quality black metal, that combines sharp melodies with solid black metal guitar chords, and the occasional keyboards for atmospheric addition. Like heard on the last cd Black Scenery Avatar, the keys are not placed at the centre as a lead instrument, but hover in the background, doing much more for the music than you might expect. Nice to know is that next to the grim voice of lead singer Israth, there is this guest appearance of Kvohst, the talented singer of <Code> and superhero vocalist on Dødheimsgard’s Supervillain Outcast. Also appearing as guest guitarist is Martin of Rotterdam based death metal band Abode Of The Blessed and mediteranean clan of Melechesh. Just buy it, and you won’t be disappointed!

I have been waiting quite some time for this demo to be released! In 1989 Malignant spread its first demo Demoniac Ceremony, and only in 1999 a second (rehearsal) demo was recorded, aptly titled The Return. Now they have really come back with four excellent underground black metal tracks. Its sound is extremely raw, and far away from the mainstream scene, and its cassette format seems to become extinct, since cyber-black has emerged with its mp3's and cdr's. Totaler Krieg is what it suggests: total war in controversial black metal shape.

The American label Regimental Records has recently discovered the Netherlands as a well of unsigned metal bands. Cirith Gorgor, Onheil, and Martyr were all given the chance to release some of their material. Martyr re-released their third demo cd with them. Since their demo mcd Resurrection Of Our Prophecies Martyr hasn't changed its course and still bring fast melodic metal in the vein of Abigor, and in lesser extent Marduk, not unlike country and label mates Cirith Gorgor. The six tracks on the album are tightly played (and contain some echoes that need, and I quote: "powerful stereo equipment to be experienced"... allrighty then, let's not get carried away here) and well-written structures (courtesy of guitarist Haat). Lyrically Martyr can be found in the misanthropic death-to-humanity corner - I guess, death metal then!... "The gods are harmless if not powerless so to speak..." Through religion the gods bring more death to this globe than all misanthropy and nihilism added up - but that's always food for rich discussions!

I know it is fairly useless to review demo's that have been spread in extremely limited editions such as 20 copies, like this one, since none of you will ever witness its music, but frankly I don't care and review them anyway! Two solo-projects were put on this highly obscure tape. First up is Morbid Wrath with its Angelrape contribution. This noisy black / death metal project reminds me a lot of early Beherit and Blasphemy (those were the days), containing seven songs that are quite hard to tell apart at first. This is the ultimate music to scare off people that have / want nothing to do with black metal - underground, sick, brutal, Satanic, and obscure! The b-side contains four songs by Crucifixation, packed together as The Grind Of Christian Bones, a now-dead project comparable to Abruptum - slow, unstructured, screamy, ritualistic black noise. Though both bands are produced with a sound to make your brain burst out of its skull, this represents the black metal underground of today, in times where polished death metal has taken over most of black metal's popularity, or kids swear only by the major (Scandinavian) bands... Don't bother searching for this demo, since my guess is that it's no longer available. Although I learned later that a re-release on cdr does exist.

Soulwinds is the second release of the band Necrofeast, that debuted in 1996 with their dark cd Necrofeast, but had remained silent ever since. In the years that have passed, a lot of things changed for the band. The only surviving member of the debut is Dagon - who is also active in the band Black Art and several side-projects - who has joined forces with ex-Welter and Grendel musician Krieger. Together they have filled a cd with music that crosses the Austrian Summoning with their very own folky industrial style, and bits of electro / dance. Furthermore, I can recommend this cd for the cover version of the great Countess song Bloed In De Sneeuw alone, of which Dagon and Krieger have made their own interpretation.

This cassette demo - nice to see some people still using this ancient music carrier - is Nevelrijk’s second outing, after having participated on the split cd Total Black Onslaught Of Death. The six tracks on this demo are not that different from those on the split cd - they’re fast, drum-computer driven, aggressive, low-budget, and underground black metal from the unholy Netherlands, done by the musician calling himself Nevelgeest. Heidens Bloed is limitedly released by the Dutch Wolfsvuur label in 200 copies, and contains six underground tracks. I feel this band still might need some more time to develop its own identity, but is already far away from hopeless.

In 1998 the cult black metal band named Inverted Pentagram fell apart, and like a Phoenix from its ashes rose Omnihierophantom - the Luciferian avantgarde dark metal band from the south of the lowlands. A fascinating album of quite experimental but catchy blackish metal, that reminds me of Arcturus and Sigh - though less orchestral and more stripped to its Luciferian essence. Frontman Necrosadist (known from a lot of projects dating back into the eighties) and musicians Guido van de Schoor and Danny Dreessen have been perfecting the music on this album since 1992 and finally came up with this well-produced piece of art. A must for the underground, something worth checking out for all others!

Perdition is the second studio demo of the band Perditor, and provides what was promised on the rehearsal promo cassette Death Torture: extreme black metal. The sound of Perdition is good but raw, and the overall demo reminds me of a band like Conqueror from Canada, and it shows that this small country's black metal scene will not die, now that death metal has (finally) taken away hordes of trend followers. The pressure is now off and real black metal can rear its ugly head again - and this is one band, I think, musically qualified to keep the flames of the underground burning.

Sammath is a band that I kind-of lost after the release of their Strijd album, which I felt was their strongest up to date. But now they strike again with Triumph In Hatred on the German label Folter Records. On it the band has left behind a lot of the obvious death metal influences I felt were too prominent on their previous releases Verwoesting and Dodengang (although I will now have to listen to them again in retrospect, having heard this album). Somehow this reminds me of a well produced cross between Immortal's Battles In The North and Blizzard Beasts, but with a more up-to-date approach in musicianship and quality riffing (which is very fine with me; they were the last defining albums of an Immortal now gone to ruins). With its great artwork, that feels oddly nostagic, it feels good to say that I have once again been pulled back to this band's aggressive sonic warfare.

Even though this four-track demo cd is 'only' a rehearsal, you can hear that - when provided with a real studio - this band has the potential to deliver quality industrialized black metal. Styxian Industries originates from the town of Gouda, and consists of four guys and one girl. Together they have managed to make their music not too cold and industrial, but emphasize instead on the riffs they play. I think that the music itself can already hold its own without the industrial extra's, which are mainly brought forward as rhythmic support. Because it is a rehearsal, I will not delve too deep into productional flaws, but I do hope that on a future release they will bring the vocals more to the front... And I have already heard that they are preparing and/or recording one right now! By the way, a nice and unexpected bonus were the fridge magnet, button, and keyring of the band I received with the cd. Now that's promotion!

This is actually the re-release of a limitedly released 2005 demo, but since I don’t have that one I will review it anyway. Again limitedly released, in 100 cassette copies this time, here we have the debut of the death black metal band Terdor. The Combat Action Of 5 October 1944 is divided into two parts, with a total of ten tracks of low-budget death black metal. I’ve been told by vocalist Lafawijn that the band started out as a death metal outfit, but changed into a black metal band, still obsessed with warfare - not an uncommon theme in both genres. By now the band has already unleashed a split demo with Gheenstenland and a full length called Axis Panzerzug Anno November 1942 (again another nice intriguing title). I haven’t yet heard those releases, but this is an okay demo for a debut.

As far as I’m concerned Urfaust is one of the best black metal bands walking around on this miserable ball of mud. With its hypnotising sound and originally strange but always magnificent vocals, there is not a single release of Urfaust not capable of getting my mind away from the mundane. Even though this mini-cd only has three songs to offer, this is another one of those pieces that are a must for everyone with a real interest in underground black metal; hell for everyone with an attraction to dark music. And it is nicely put on a black plastic disc, instead of a normal silver one.

It is seldom that I come across something rare being this enjoyable. Vril is a little known project that sounds more like solid old school death metal than modern black metal. Whenever the band's playing slow, it sounds like early 1990s death metal, but when the tempo accellerates we hear the obvious black metal influences; and no death grunt can hide that from view... With the Wewelsburg on the cover, the black sun emblem in the logo, a release referring to the Thule Society, and a band name like Vril, one can suspect the actual ideological coverage of the music. Vril claims not to have racial motives for using the aforementioned items, but is driven by a more spiritual approach. However, since there is only very limited information on this band, I will not submit more than I have done. To get a more elaborate review, I urge the band to come forward with more information.