“Lately, I’ve been thinking more about the past. Back in 1992-1993, I’m not exactly sure what my goal was—or how many screws I had loose in my mind—but I do vividly remember being an obsessive, music-addicted young alien in the wastelands somewhere near Europe completely fixated on the things I loved. At the top of that list was metal music—especially its sickest and most extreme forms, which thrilled me the most.
Every day, I would go to extreme lengths to discover new underground bands, reaching out to every person, band, and label I could find. Calling that era a bootleg tape hell wouldn’t be an exaggeration. Over the years, my relentless passion for extreme metal naturally led to music journalism, magazine publishing, and even promoting local shows. Pretty extreme, right?
Jokes aside, as the world transitioned into the digital age after the millennium and the press moved online, I founded Extreminal (Extreme-in-All) in 2002 with my close friends Fatih and Cenk. We officially launched it in early 2003, and especially thanks to Chris Forbes and Cenk’s unwavering dedication and the collective efforts of all of us, Extreminal is, as of 2025, the longest-running online magazine dedicated to underground and extreme metal—without any ideological or musical compromise from the true underground metal scene.
My goal was to keep underground metal and its extreme forms alive as the scene started weakening and fading in the early 2000s. Along with other true metal maniacs around the world who run real underground music publications, I believe we’ve helped preserve underground metal culture in the digital world while staying true to its roots.
Over the years, I’ve found myself in every kind of obscure corner of life. Whether it’s the exhaustion of navigating this nihilistic void we call existence or the countless screws I’ve lost along the way—ones I can no longer find around me—I realize there’s still one thing I haven’t lost: my obsession with truly sick and deranged metal music.
That’s why I’ve built a ranch for you—a sanctuary to discover true extreme metal music for the insane, surrounded by grotesque, rotting human failures and a decayed society that has alienated us through corrupt politics, genocide, hunger, pandemics, and the ever-looming fear of war. This is a ranch for the true underground metal listeners who’ve been in the shadows of a declining civilization.
Welcome to Grinder’s Skinwalker Ranch from Hell—you’re all invited! “
Discordant Meditation – Tragic Creature (N/A, 2025)
I first discovered this band last year when I listened to their compilation recording online. That’s how I got introduced to them. In the American underground music scene, making this kind of music is becoming increasingly difficult. This band is part of that world and delivers some truly psychotic riffs and well-developed songwriting.
Their sound blends European and American death metal influences, featuring technical riffs enriched with both experimental and traditional touches. The songwriting is dynamic, and the drummer’s touch and skill are truly impressive—everything flows naturally.
What you have here is an old-school death metal album infused with experimental psychotic techno riffs, classic technical death metal drumming, and an overall diabolical death metal essence. If your heart and ears are open to this, you might have found exactly what you need. Dig it!
Shrieking Demons – The Festering Dwellers (Transcending Obscurity, 2025)
It’s been a while since I got a promo in my inbox from Italy. This is probably the first Italian underground death metal band I’ve listened to in months. Shrieking Demons is a relatively new band, having formed in 2021, but its members are seasoned old-school extreme metal music musicians who have played in numerous bands within the Italian underground scene.
The album presents familiar doomy death metal compositions with a unique twist, offering a variety of unconventional riffs and intros. The song titles and overall concept blend transcendental spiritualism, the supernatural, and horror elements. If you listen to this album for too long, you might start seeing entities from other dimensions speaking Latin-like dialects summoned into your room. Those of you reading this who are a bit unhinged already know what to do. Dig it!
Faithxtractor – Loathing and the Noose (Redefining Darkness Records, 2025)
I’ve known and listened to this nihilistic band since their early days, though their name has always struck me as odd. The band’s core multi-instrumentalist, Ash, has been active in the American underground metal scene for many years, playing in and touring with numerous bands. Faithxtractor has been one of his main projects for a long time, and with this album, he continues doing what he knows best—delivering death metal his own way.
This is a fluid death metal album adorned with diabolical and sickly structured riffs. If you enjoy seamless compositions blending old-school New York death metal with European death metal influences, this is a door worth knocking on.
Pyre – Where Obscurity Sways (Osmose,2025)
Pyre is one of the rare death metal bands to emerge from Russia. Their style is old-school death metal, but I wouldn’t go as far as calling them a worship band of any particular group, as some people do. They are often compared to Autopsy, but I don’t find that comparison entirely accurate—they don’t sound overwhelmingly like Autopsy. Their guitarists have their own touch and songwriting approach.
The album’s sound is extremely clean; you don’t have to strain to hear each part clearly. The songwriting mostly follows a mid-range tempo, with doomy lead guitar solos and riffs occasionally making an appearance. The vocals lean towards upper-lung growls, and from what I can tell, the lyrics aren’t excessively provocative.
I had arranged an interview with the band about 5–6 years ago and sent them my questions, but I never received a response. They’re lucky to be here again, to be honest! If you enjoy mid-paced doomy death metal, you might want to give these Russians a shot.
Obscura – Sonication (Nuclear Blast, 2025)
Starting to yawn during the first track wasn’t exactly a great sign for the band. Overall, this album feels pretty generic, with an overly inflated sound. Heavy use of keyboards has been incorporated to make the production sound more polished and powerful.
While the guitarists can play solos across a wide range, I didn’t find them particularly creative since I’ve heard similar ones countless times in various technical death metal and progressive metal bands over the years. Compared to their early days when they were essentially feeding off Necrophagist’s plate, they’ve leaned more into atmospheric and symphonic elements on this album. You’ll hear plenty of Cynic, Death, and Muhammed Suiçmez-inspired riffs scattered throughout.
Personally, I didn’t enjoy the compositions or the album as a whole. But if you’re into overhyped, ultra-clean production and copy-paste technical progressive guitar work, this is definitely worth checking out.
Degraved – Premonition of Blasphemy ( E.P.-N/A, 2025)
Seattle’s Degraved has released a new EP, and once again, they’ve managed to put it in front of me. These guys have been pretty active since the pandemic. Their 2023 EP was in a similar vein.
If you’re wondering about their style, here’s how I’d describe it: It’s highly likely that they rehearse in the lowest basement chamber of a funeral home that was demonically summoned and subsequently shut down in the 1930s—and they probably do this by time-traveling back to 1990.
The deep growl vocals are fun, but he could use some extra power, as they sometimes feel a bit weak. If you’re a craving zombie and enjoy seasoned morbid death metal straight out of a 1990 basement rehearsal room, this EP is for you. (Hey underground music labels, take a look over here!)
Concrete Icon – Voracious Streams (Memento Mori, 2025)
Finland has always been an intriguing place for death metal. Since the 1990s, the country has produced a wide range of bands, from old-school doomy death metal to more modern and experimental styles. The band you see above has been active since 2007, and over my long years in music journalism, a few of their albums have landed in front of me before. From what I remember, they’ve reached a fuller and more professional level in both songwriting and sound with this album. Their style isn’t exactly in line with most Finnish death metal bands—they play a cleaner-sounding death metal with high-pitched riffs and groove elements. In short, they stick to the kind of music they enjoy, though the overall sound is a bit generic.
Throughout the album, they don’t try to reinvent or redefine anything, which some listeners might misinterpret as a negative. But honestly, these guys just seem to be playing the death metal they love, and there’s nothing structurally off about their songwriting. The compositions flow well, even if the riffs are a bit generic.
If you’re into American and European death metal, you might enjoy blasting this while cursing at life—whether in your car or stuck behind a slow-moving suburban train.
Pissgrave – Malignant Worthlessness (Profound Lore Records, 2025)
These maniacs, who play death metal straight out of the dark backstreets of Philadelphia, had been silent since 2019. But with their new album—featuring yet another grotesque cover—dropped into my inbox, they’ve once again flooded my life like a bleak ray of nihilism and obscurity.
It seems like they’ve picked up right where they left off in 2019, but this time, their guitar sound is slightly stronger and more defined. The riffs have even more psychotic ups and downs, and their signature full-on scratching composition style is still dominant throughout the album.
A Pissgrave album wouldn’t be complete without sheer aggression and gore-driven content, and this one is no exception. Old-school gore-grind-infused, full-throttle death metal is something I always need in my life, so naturally, within my personal hierarchy of needs, this album sits at the top. And lastly- don’t forget to bring these savages to Europe!
Hierarchies – Hierarchies (Transcending Obscurity, 2025)
Existentially tormented guitar riffs, avant-garde jazz-inspired notational gaps, and sudden pitch and rhythm changes seem to be the core elements shaping this band’s overall sound. Their style is technical death metal, but they’ve also labelled themselves as avant-garde—likely due to the characteristics I just mentioned.
A few riffs even took me back to the mind-bending masterpieces of the late Steeve Hurdle(R.I.P.) and Luc Lemay’s Obscura. The pitch shifts present in that album can also be found here. I suppose the closest comparison for this band would be a continuation of Gorguts – Obscura. That said, I’m making this comparison mainly for old-school death metal fans to instantly get the idea—because in reality, Hierarchies doesn’t sound too much like Gorguts; they’ve clearly tried to carve out their own style.
Personally, I wasn’t blown away, but it’s nice I’ll give them a few more chances over time. Fans of technical avant-garde underground death metal should find plenty to enjoy here.
Tormentor Tyrant – Excessive Escalation of Cruelty (Everlasting Spew, 2025)
Tormentor Tyrant is a relatively new underground project from Finland, and this is their first full-length album. The band consists of members from Corpsessed and Cataleptic, and they play full-throttle European-style death metal.
The riffs are mostly built around mid-to-fast-paced rhythm guitars, while the vocals are aggressive and raspy growls—I actually liked what the vocalist was going for on this album. It’s not the most innovative underground death metal release, but I couldn’t find any reason why a death metal fan wouldn’t enjoy it.
Maybe if they had brought in a completely unhinged lead guitarist, the album could have been even more fun.
Revenge – Violent.Strife.Abominate (SOM, 2025)
Revenge has been silent since 2020, but it seems J. Read has decided to break that silence with his sonic nihilistic compositions. The primitive aggression he has been promoting since 2001—built on dark, deep-production, sick riffs, and vicious vocals—continues exactly where it left off in the 2020 album.
The chaotic guitars and drums are much better orchestrated in this album, and you can feel it in every track. The drums, in particular, stood out as my favourite part—I think it’s the best drum work across all his albums. The vocal variations, which I assume shift according to the lyrical content, are also really well-executed.
Primitive, nihilistic, destructive, and insatiable. I’m sure this album will satisfy his fans.
Mortuaria – The Collection E.P. (N/A, 2025)
Mortuaria is a brand-new band from Maryland, USA. They seem to have decided to follow in the footsteps of old-school American and European gore death-grind bands. Their songs flow well and are built on classic groovy old-school riffs.
There isn’t too much grind influence here; instead, the tracks rely more on mid-paced death metal riffs and groove-driven drumming. The closest comparisons I can make are Mortal Decay and Impaled. They also use Carcass-style dual vocals, which adds to the old-school vibe.
Overall, their sound leans more toward classic European and British death metal. If you’re curious, keep an eye on them—if they continue on this path, I’d expect their future full-length album to take you straight back to 1991’s England and the Netherlands.
Gored Embrace – In The Presence of Malevolent Soul (Iron Fortress Rec., 2025)
Gored Embrace is a band from Chicago, Illinois, that has been active for the past five years. So far, they have released two singles and two demos. On this first full-length album, you’ll hear compositions rooted in American death metal, featuring mid-to-fast-paced riffs and drumming, and they’ve generally done justice to this style throughout the album.
The main downside I noticed is a lack of energy in the songwriting, particularly in the low- and mid-tempo tracks, where the riffs tend to become repetitive. This affects the overall flow of the songs.
Other than that, this is 90% classic Midwestern American death metal—think early Broken Hope and Vile. Those familiar with this style will definitely check it out.
Putred – Megalit el Putrefectiei (Iron Fortress, 2025)
It’s not every day that an album from Romania lands in front of me. While there are underground metal scenes in every Balkan country, many bands struggle to gain recognition due to limited resources, recording opportunities, and touring possibilities. Overall I know, Romania isn’t a bad place for metal music.
Putred has been quite active since 2020, releasing singles and demos along the way. This is their second full-length album, and their style leans toward slow- to mid-tempo old-school death metal. The songwriting is average but contains some fundamental flaws—the drum accents and guitar work don’t sync up well, which affects both the musicianship and the album’s overall quality.
With better production and drum recording, this could have been a stronger release. However, some of the riffs and vocals stand out in a positive way. Recommended for fans of old-school gore-infused doomy death metal.
Disrupted – Stinking Death (2025)
Disrupted has been playing classic raw Swedish death metal for over a decade. If you check the band members’ backgrounds, you’ll see they’ve been involved in various projects within Sweden’s underground scene. The last album I listened to from them was Morbid Death (2015), followed by their 2020 release, and now this one.
Not much has changed—this is pure old-school rhythmic Swedish death metal. Every riff, bass tone, drum hit, and guitar tone screams classic Swedish death metal, and they deliver it in a tight, energetic, and engaging way. You’ll hear the same stylistic approach across the entire album—there’s not a single track that deviates from this formula.
More lethal thrash and death metal riffs or a more aggressive vocal approach could have made the band sound even more deadly, but they seem to have deliberately avoided that, staying fully committed to Swedish death metal traditions.
If you’re looking for dark, cemetery-dwelling, funeral-haunting Swedish death metal, this album has all the good, and clichéd elements you’d expect.
