“When the inscrutable beings who rule over the promo sump shackled me to New Zealand’s Bulletbelt, I approached with caution. Formed in 2009, Bulletbelt has operated on a (mostly) biennial release schedule of bog-standard black/thrash albums a la Skeletonwitch. Their line-up has been in a constant state of flux, regularly churning through both vocalists and guitarists, a fact that didn’t exactly inspire much hope for my latest ball and chain.” Bulletbelts to spare.
“Blindfolded and Led to the Woods is a quartet from Christchurch, New Zealand, having gone through a rebirth with 2021’s excellent Nightmare Withdrawals. Previously a humor-based deathcore band, the act saw new beginnings with their third full-length, embracing a caustic blend of dissonant, technical, and progressive death metal with a much more surreal and punishing palette promising avant-garde realms and scenic vistas alike.” Out to the woodshed.
“A little over a year ago, New Zealander Harrison McKenzie dropped his debut full-length album as Olde Throne. It was a tight 39 minutes of harsh, cold atmospheric black metal delving into the horrors of An Gorta Mór, the Great Hunger, which took place in Ireland between 1845 and 1852 (better known, outside Ireland, as the Irish Potato Famine). Uncompromising and bleak, An Gorta Mór was a strong debut from the then-one-man project. For Olde Throne’s sophomore effort, McKenzie is joined by ex-Tainted drummer Quentin Forster and, together, the two Kiwis traverse the Irish sea, alighting In the Land of Ghosts,” Atmo-boo.
![Verberis – Adumbration of the Veiled Logos [Things You Might Have Missed 2022]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Verberis-Adumbration-of-the-Veiled-Logos-01.jpeg.webp)
“I’ve probably banged on before about how much I love Ulcerate. Luckily for me, mastermind Jamie Saint-Merat has his fingers in quite a few other death metal pies. Verberis is one of them. The wordily titled Adumbration of the Veiled Logos takes the twisting disso-death that was the band’s staple, and ramps the atmosphere up to 11.” That’s a lot of ulcers.
“What does New Zealand have to do with Ancient Sumeria? Not a damn thing, but then again, the Brits didn’t play much of a role in the conquests of Alexander the Great and no one batted an eye when Maiden wrote a track about him. So the subject of choice for Nin-an-ak, an ancient Sumerian goddess of kink and war, doesn’t require much justification. Not as much as the name postcards from new zealand, anyway, nor their preference for not using capitals. And definitely not as much as the genre this promo came tagged with: post-sumerian-chamber-death-prog-core.” Dead tongues, dead letters.
“I’m not gonna lie, I grabbed this one based on the band name alone. While I don’t consider myself to be a hardcore gamer, I’ve still played enough to have the name End Boss give me an immediate feeling of nostalgic mental arousal. The name makes me want to head to the nearest merchant to stock up on healing potions, buffing elixirs, and specialty arrows before listening. But who am I kidding? I’m lazy. You know perfectly well that I Instacarted the hell out of that shit.” All your head are belong to us.
![Blindfolded and Led to the Woods – Nightmare Withdrawals [Things You Might Have Missed 2021]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/Blindfolded-and-Led-to-the-Woods-Nightmare-Withdrawals.jpeg.webp)
“Blindfolded and Led to the Woods, is a band from New Zealand with a bit of a storied past. Originally starting off as a humor-centric deathcore group with bizarrely titled offerings like Armed to the Teeth with Jellybeans or My Vaseline Diaries, the song “Atop the Wings of a Magpie” changed everything. Dissonant interplay, ominous tempos, speedy riffs, and even a guest spot from Nile’s Karl Sanders replace mindless breakdowns and Psyopus-inspired wankery. Nightmare Withdrawals may not be their debut, but it’s their breakout album, and for good fucking reason.” Deliverance to quality.
“I’d be willing to put down money that The Temple is or contains a piece of Ulcerate. This New Zealand duo consists of P.K. on guitar, bass, and vocals (Paul Kelland? Sure sounds like him) and J.W. on drums (former Ulcerate vocalist James Wallace?), and to make matters worse, the self-titled debut was mixed and produced by J. Saint Merat. But this feeling of limbo, that maybe it is or maybe it isn’t, is what The Temple dwells in.” Crouching temples, hidden tech-death.
“The epic and atmospheric, fantasy-inspired black metal stylings of Sojourner continue to go from strength to strength, with 2018’s very good outing, The Shadowed Road, matched by last year’s Premonitions, which – if not actually better – was, as Eldritch Elitist said in his List, “a far more consistent effort” than its predecessor. But, wherever Sojourner’s travels take them next, they will be going there without New Zealand bassist, Mike Wilson, who has set off into the back metal wilderness for a sojourn of his own, with his new solo project Miasmata.” Participation atrophy.
“New Zealand’s devastating speed metal trio Stälker have deemed it appropriate to drop a new album on our laps this week.” Stälk the cradle of glove.
