Hybridized: waiting for their debut EP + promotional video for "House of Nightmares"!

Good news from Rome Caput Mundi!
The Roman groove/thrash metal band Hybridized (with Marco Patarca and Andrea Scarinci of Discordant Hemispheres' fame... do you remember them on these pages?) have announced that their debut EP "Mental Connections" will be out on 2nd March 2018. It contains three tracks in which there is a sound heavily influenced by bands like Pantera, Megadeth, Lamb of God and Slayer.

Aegrus - "Thy Numinous Darkness" (Saturnal Records, 2017)

Band: Aegrus
Title: Thy Numinous Darkness
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 20th October 2017
Time: 53 min
Rating: 92/100













Finland is always a guarantee in fact of black metal, and this is confirmed again by this duo of demons called Aegrus. They released some months ago an ultra-awesome sophomore album by the title of "Thy Numinous Darkness" under the diabolical auspices of Saturnal Records, a label specialized on Finnish black metal and co-owned by Zetekh, also known for his militancy into the occult black metal band Saturnian Mist (their last album "Chaos Magick" is very recommended!) and to be the mastermind of the industrial/EBM project King Satan, produced the same aforementioned album.

Agonia Black Vomit - "Cosmosatanic Kingdom" (Symbol of Domination/Murdher Records, 2017)

Band: Agonia Black Vomit
Title: Cosmosatanic Kingdom
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 20th June 2017
Time: 42 min
Rating: 59/100













I confess: I decided to review the sophomore album of Agonia Black Vomit mostly because they comes from Rome Caput Mundi like me! Another reason is that Agonia Black Vomit is really a fantastic name, so, before to listen to this "Cosmosatanic Kingdom", I expected a blasting massacre of nuklear proportions able to kill all your fuckin' neurons! Instead, this CD released by the Belarussian label Symbol of Domination along with Murdher Rec (from Rome, too) show a strange and interesting approach to conceive the black metal music, also if it isn't so effective, as you'll read very soon.

Moribund Records: somber news from Italy + scheduled re-release of the Profezia's third album!

Yesterday I received a somber news from the historic US black metal label Moribund Records regarding Marco de Rosa, the singer/guitarist/bassplayer that, in the old and recent past, played in many black metal bands from Italy like the Opera IX, Profezia, The True Endless, Skoll, Darkness and others.

Midnight - "Sweet Death and Ecstasy" (Hells Headbangers Records, 2017)

Band: Midnight
Title: Sweet Death and Ecstasy
Genre: Heavy/Black/Speed Metal with Punkish vibes
Year: 20th October 2017
Time: 32 min
Rating: 83/100












Midnight are BACK! After the "Shox of Violence" compilation (reviewed by me some months ago) and the curious charity release "I Don't Need Society" destined to help the victims of the Hurricane Harvey by donating all the profits of this EP to the Red Cross, the Cleveland one-man sleazy squad Midnight recently released the long-held third album "Sweet Death and Ecstasy" obviously through Hells Headbangers Rec. No other bullshits and let's go already to discover this new full-lenght!

Lilyum: the final hour!

FUCK, FUCK and FUCK AGAIN!

Just 2 days later my review about the 7th full-lenght of Lilyum, I knew from the FB profile of their leader Kosmos Reversum that he has decided to put an end to them. This is a real shame not only because this announcement arrived so abruptly (for me, at least) but also because Lilyum was (yeah, I use already the "past" form!) one of the better bands of the Italian black metal scene, after leaving to us 7 albums within 8 years (from 2009 to 2017), showing always a very good creativity.

Suicidal Causticity - "The Human Touch" (Amputated Vein Records, 2017)

Band: Suicidal Causticity
Title: The Human Touch
Genre: Brutal Death Metal
Year: 9th June 2017
Time: 43 min
Rating: 86/100













The first issue (that was released, if I am not mistaken, in August 2008) of Timpani allo Spiedo was about 6 Italian bands. One of them was Subhuman, a Tuscanian and talented death/thrash metal band with Italian lyrics, that impressed me a lot with their debut EP "Delirio n°1", that included even a Faith No More cover titled "Surpise! You're Dead!!!". Well, the band here reviewed, Suicidal Causticity, comes from the same region of Subhuman (Tuscany) and they consist of a member (the bassplayer Dario Lastrucci) and an ex-member (the guitarist Elia Murgia) of Subhuman but, beyond these connections, these two bands are completely different. Said that, I received 4 months ago the physical CD of the second album of Suicidal Causticity through their manager, Filippo, and I have already say that this "The Human Touch", released by the Japanese label Amputated Vein Records, is a real fuckin' blow to the teeth!

Angel Witch: short Italian tour between 22nd and 24th February 2018!

As all we know, the NWOBHM movement was officially born when the legendary UK journalist Geoff Barton wrote on Sounds magazine a live report about a London gig with three emerging heavy metal bands called Iron Maiden, Samson (when these last ones had still into their line-up a very young Bruce Dickinson) and Angel Witch, in which Geoff, indeed, coined the term NWOBHM, an acronym for New Wave of British Heavy Metal.

Well, Angel Witch, the UK masters of an heavy metal with occult vibes à la Black Sabbath, will play in my country, Italy, between 22nd and 24th February 2018. Precisely, the dates are the following:

Lilyum - "Altar of Fear" (Vacula Productions, 2017)

Band: Lilyum
Title: Altar of Fear
Genre: Black Metal
Year: 29th August 2017
Time: 47 min
Rating: 81/100













Wow, this "Altar of Fear" is the fifth release by Lilyum reviewed on these pages! For who that know nothing about them, Lilyum is a prolific black metal band from Turin (one of the most beautiful cities of my country also because it's very artistic and full of gigantic squares, the mighty Piazza Castello in primis!) able, in the past, to release amazing albums as "Crawling in the Past" (rating: 94/100) but also some wrong steps like the disappointing "Nothing is Mine" (62/100), always offering a sound with creative ideas. Founded in the now far 2002 even as a groove metal band (!), Lilyum, since 2009, are mainly composed of the mastermind Kosmos Reversum and Lord J.H. Psycho, also if some albums were recorded without the contribution of the latter. Throughout the years, these two maniacs have been helped by other two people very known into the Italian black metal scene: the singer Xes (Infernal Angels, and active in Lilyum between 2011 and 2015) and the hyper-active Sicilian session drummer Frozen, now became a full-time member of this band (and it was finally time, I say!). You have to consider that the previous album, "October's Call", was recorded with a line-up reduced only to Kosmos Reversum and Xes, so this 7th full-lenght called "Altar of Fear", released by the Ukrainian label Vacula Productions, see the the welcome return of both Lord J.H. Psycho and Frozen (without him, Lilyum use a drum-machine in every case) and, in addition, since Xes is out, the vocals of the same Lord J.H. Psycho are finally back to torment your dreams! So, let's go to discover this new effort, that Kosmos Reversum sent to me 5 months ago circa in physical CD (said frankly, the physical copies are and will be always better than the digital ones, now a classic for the reviews).