While it’s questionable whether the band haven’t left behind one set of stereotypes only to embrace another, what isn’t questionable is that Imperium Dekadenz have produced an awesome album that is one of the best that the black metal genre has to offer so far this year.

Hellbound readers, please welcome aboard Natalie Zed! Natalie was our big grand prize winner back in January, taking home more than 50 CDs + and shortly after she received her huge box ‘o CDs, Ms. Zed asked us over at Hellbound HQ if we’d be interested in running reviews of her winnings if she did postcard sized reviews of the albums. How could we say no?

So, without further adieu, here is Natalie’s first installment in what Hellbound likes to refer to as “Postcards From Natalie Zed”…

Germany’s Semen Datura have returned with their latest full-length album Einsamkeit. It’s an eclectic archive of black metal-influenced noise that isn’t afraid to go in some unexpected directions. With the band avoiding familiar pagan or satanic imagery in favour of pursuing the “intellectual aspect” of “this art” (as stated in the liner notes), Einsamkeit opts for more minimalist and bleaker pictures of isolation amidst crushing metallic vibes.

By Navjot Kaur
Venturing into the turbulent realm of Celtic meets traditional black metal (streaked with essential melody) is Primordial. None too surprising, as the group’s re-released debut album, Imrama, translates roughly into “voyage” or “rowings about.” In a country like Ireland, where English has become the mainstream language, the band asserts its roots by sticking to Irish lyrics, a steely individualism that is equally palpable in the music they’ve continued to churn out for the last 23 years. Steering into the present, the band put out a twelve-track re-release of …

However unsettling his crimes, however indefensible his comments and views, Varg Vikernes is one of the most creative forces in Norwegian black metal and Belus ample proof of his talent.

Azimuths to the Otherworld is an album that demands to be taken in from start to finish. It asks the listener to engage with its many atmospheric layers as they appear.

Listening to the new Rotting Christ over and over, I like it, but I want to like it more than I do. Aealo is powerful and dramatic, sometimes violent, eerie, complicated or just plain straight-ahead catchy – a black-death fusion of metal and eastern folk. But there’s something that doesn’t quite click, or at least hasn’t yet.

Pure Fucking Mayhem is a film painted by various interviews of both the prominent and unknown, where much is discussed on the personalities of Mayhem’s infamous band members who have made a significant impact to Norwegian Black Metal.