Metal Bandcamp is 5 years old!

Hip hooray, today Metal Bandcamp turns five years old. Since 2011 we have published 1340 reviews featuring a diverse selection of the best metal available on Bandcamp.

Hip hooray, today Metal Bandcamp turns five years old. Since 2011 we have published 1340 reviews featuring a diverse selection of the best metal available on Bandcamp. There are additional, more or less interesting, numbers I could rattle off but I won't (though you can look here if you're curious about the number of pageviews Metal Bandcamp gets). Instead I'll go all the way back to the first five posts, and do a "where are they now" style roundup.

Thanks to all our readers, and of course all the contributors. We wouldn't have made it this far without you.


The first post featured Wiht's The Harrowing of the North, which is no longer available on Bandcamp. A few years later the band split up, but in 2015 they reformed and started gigging again. And in July 2015 a new song "Edgar the Atheling" appeared...

Artwork by Kelly Nelson

In the second post I covered what turned out to be one of my favorite albums Shadows, by Embers. A fantastic band with their own visual identity due to the artwork by bass-player/vocalist Kelly Nelson. Last year Embers split up before they had a chance to record any new material, so there's no newer music from them to feature here. But here's their part of a 2009 split with Book of Belial featuring two songs; the epic "Wrath", and the violin driven "Awakening" which was also included as a bonus track on Shadows

Artwork by Samantha Muljat

Next up was Turbid North and the "awesome Alaskan mountain metal" of Orogeny. Last year they released the followup Eyes Alive which was reviewed very favorably by Andy Synn in his enthustiastic roundup of Turbid North's discography over at No Clean Singing.

Artwork by Michael Sturrock / Rockwork

The fourth post featured the "raw technical death metal" of Giant of the Mountain's Mother Hydra. In 2014 Moon Worship, their second full-length appeared and it's basically more of the same; technical/progressive death metal with an endearingly raw production.

Artwork by Emily Campbell and Arthur Zdrinc

The fifth post featured another favorite, the supremely well-titled I Am Mortal, But Was Fiend by Sioum. In the post there was mention of drummer Arthur Zdrinc's bout with a tennis elbow (and a hope for his speedy recovery). I'm guessing this was one of the reasons it took more than a while before Sioum could release the followup to the album. But after a successful Kickstarter campaign this year the appropriately titled Yet Further saw light of day. While not as immediately accessible as the previous album, Yet Further has started to grow on me, and it's nice to see the band is back on the tracks again..

Embers - Shadows

The esteemed Full Metal Attorney reviewed reviewed Embers' fantastic album Shadows, and his words are the only ones you really need: Picture the last smoldering remnants of a great fire, a destructive force depleted by exhaustion

Art by Kelly Nelson from Embers

The esteemed Full Metal Attorney reviewed reviewed Embers' fantastic album Shadows, and his words are the only ones you really need:

Picture the last smoldering remnants of a great fire, a destructive force depleted by exhaustion. At times, it crackles, threatening resurgence, and new fires ignite in the distance, burning and killing with the capriciousness of nature. Now imagine the soundtrack to that scene.

The image he conjures matches perfectly with lyrics like the one to "Dreams".

Into the new dawn, I come alone into the world
A light in my eye dances with the shadow in my heart
Pondering I sit in silence while wings flap unseen in the morning mist

Listen to "Dreams" and the rest of the album below. Embers did not add the lyrics to their Bandcamp, so I collected them in a pdf file which you can download here.