Review by Jason Guest 
German label World Terror Committe feature regularly in these pages, and for good reason (click here for a list of our reviews). If you want to find out more about W.T.C., you can vist their website or give them a listen over on Soundcloud. In the meantime, we’ve got two more releases from the label. The first is a demo – though you wouldn’t think it given the quality – from Germany’s Dysangelium, and the second is Fire & Brimstone, the old school-charged full length from Greece’s Principality Of Hell. Come, let wrath make us deaf…
Dysangelium – Leviaxxis (Demo 2014)
Release date: 24 July 2014
The second demo from Germany quintet Dysangelium (and first for me) is incredible. First, the production is far and above better than the spate of lo-fi (for authenticity’s sake, of course) abominations that flood the underground. Dark and atmospheric without being murky, the three tracks are given the voluminous aural space required to imbue them with all the menace that they deserve. Savage riffs, battering drums, and a monstrous vocal, a band with such an authoritative command over the idiosyncrasies of black metal and a distinct ability to make them all their own, with an album in the works, Dysangelium is a band to keep a close eye on.
8 out of 10
Track listing:
- ‘Til Only Thy Light Is Left
- Obelisk of the Sevencrowned Son
- Chaomega
Principality Of Hell – Fire & Brimstone
Release date: 18 August 2014 That album cover and the opening title track’s “Black Fucking Metal!” refrain scream Venom worship. Throw in an unhealthy dose of Sodom, Celtic Frost and Bathory, a chainsaw bass, sharply distorted guitars pumped through cranked amps, thudding drums, a punk-tainted gruff vocal, and a raw and energetic and barely-rehearsed feel to the tracks and you have what countless bands are doing. But for Greece’s Principality Of Hell, originality is of no concern, just pure diabolical black metal. Their revival of the early/mid 80s black/thrash spirit is about as authentic as you can get without hitching a lift with Doc Brown back to the plastic era that lauded fakes and phoneys and blasting it to bits yourself. Of course, there are moments when it gets a bit tired but these are far outweighed by the album’s galloping might. Along with an impressive cover of ‘Strike of the Beast’ by Exodus, with tracks such as the sacrilegious ‘The Bleeding Nun’, the high speed ‘We Ride At Night’, the colossal ‘Leviathan’, and the ominous ‘The Hand of the Hangman’, Principality of Hell’s fistful of metal is firmly clenched, tightly focussed, and devilishly devastating.
7.5 out of 10
Track listing:
- Fire & Brimstone
- Codex Inferno
- The Bleeding Nun
- We ride at Night
- Leviathan
- The Witches’ Coven
- Hellfire Legions
- The 9th Seal
- The Hand of the Hangman
- Strike of the Beast (Exodus cover)
