Transylvanian Tapes: Defecrator, Hallucinator, and Brume

By Craig Hayes. This is the third in a continuing series of posts highlighting releases from Oakland, California-based label Transylvanian Tapes. I first encountered the label back in 2013, when the decidedly fetid and pile-driving death metal

By Craig Hayes.

This is the third in a continuing series of posts highlighting releases from Oakland, California-based label Transylvanian Tapes. I first encountered the label back in 2013, when the decidedly fetid and pile-driving death metal found on Caffa’s bruising debut, Day Of Disease, caught my ear. Since then, Transylvanian Tapes has issued a bunch of impressive cassette and digital releases. So let’s dive into some more of that riotous noise.

Cover art by Zachary Lopez

The last marshalling of recent releases from Transylvanian Tapes was a doom heavy affair. Releases from Beira and Devoid made an appearance in Vol. 3 of this series, as did the formidable debut from doom titans Chrch. However, this time round we’re kicking off with a couple of releases that are far filthier, infinitely more diabolic, and both deliver their ungodly sermons at whirlwind speed.

First up is Northern Californian trio Defecrator, who certainly score high on the black-hearted villainy card with their debut, Tales of Defecration. There’s certainly no hand-wringing or worrying about whatever enlightened rules heavy metal has to adhere to this week in Defecrator’s sound or aesthetic. There’s just scorn and bile. And a marked hatred of you, and me, and seemingly every-fucking-thing.

If the sacrilegious and bestial roar of uncompromising bands like Archgoat, Proclamation or Blasphemy is something you enjoy, then you’re likely find that Tales of Defecration fits the bill too. There are three brain-battering and hellbound hymns from the twisted minds behind Defecrator on the release. As well as cover of “Condemned to Hell”, originally performed by veteran Finnish troublemakers Impaled Nazarene. Essentially, Defecrator just ram black and death metal down your throat with swarms of jagged riffs, turbo-speed percussion, and throat-slit growls intoning more-evil-than-evil prose on Tales of Defecration. So, you know, if you're seeking subtlety and grace, look elsewhere.

In all, Tales of Defecration is one seriously fucking ugly debut. And I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. It’s a murderous and decidedly coarse release too. And it's ruthlessly vitriolic.

Next on the list of horrible noise to emerge from Transylvanian Tapes’ grotto at breakneck speed is the debut from Hallucinator. The band’s Primeval Power demo is chock full of blistering metal that's similar in tone and velocity to the pitch-black thrash of bands like Desaster and Deströyer 666, or O.G fire and brimstone henchmen Aura Noir.

Primeval Power features plenty of scorching black metal and hyper-aggressive thrash, and there's even some Hammer Horror keyboards throw in, just to amplify the eeriness. Everything is delivered at a lightning-fast pace. It's all bleeding-raw, and sawtoothed round the edges. And full-throttle tracks like “Mad Reaper” and “The Hiss in the Skull” are a raucous reminder that sometimes the most unrefined and strident metal is also the most enjoyable of all.

Primeval Poweris ragged as hell. But all that unhinged and unbridled energy shows a lot of promise for Hallucinator’s future endeavours.

San Francisco-based trio Brume bring some damn tasty bluesy and fuzzy metal to the table with their five-track release, Donkey. The band’s debut features abundant stoner swagger, and plenty of spliff-friendly doom. All of which isn't too dissimilar to the kind of slow-baked psychedelic metal that bands like Witch Mountain or Windhand have produced.

Certainly, Brume frontwoman Susie McCullan’s voice has the same entrancing magnetism and power that we've heard from Windhand’s Dorthia Cottrel, and Witch Mountain’s ex-vocalist Uta Plotkin. The rest of Brume are no slouches either. Drummer Jordan Perkins-Lewis pounds the skins and cymbals with gigantic concussive strikes on Donkey. While guitarist Jamie McCathie dishes out gargantuan Sabbathian riffs that rumble and reverberate for an age.

Transylvanian Tapes have released a number of doom albums so far, and Donkey is right up there alongside Chrch’s Unanswered Hymns as the best of the bunch. Brume might not reinventing the wheel with Donkey, but the album crashes and smashes with enough aplomb and creative thunder to awaken the Gods. It's gloriously heavyweight and enthralling music. And kudos to Donkey producer Ryan Massey, because this album sounds massive.

[Most of the links points to the band's own Bandcamp pages. For the tape releases go to the Transylvanian Tapes page.]

Transylvanian Tapes: Swamp Witch, Cease, and Cloak

By Justin C. Half a year ago, right here on Metal Bandcamp, I wrote about a bunch of first-rate releases from Oakland, California-based label Transylvanian Tapes. Included in that post was mention of Agglomeration XXIV

By Craig Hayes.

Half a year ago, right here on Metal Bandcamp, I wrote about a bunch of first-rate releases from Oakland, California-based label Transylvanian Tapes. Included in that post was mention of Agglomeration XXIV, the latest bile, doom, and cough-syrup crust release from Oakland miscreants Bädr Vogu. I mention Bädr Vogu again, because the band’s misanthropic punk/metal racket is well worth tracking down. But also because that same punk attitude combined with underground metal’s noxious noise is right there on recent Transylvanian Tapes releases from Cloak and Cease, and it's definitely there on Swamp Witch’s latest ten tonne mind-fuck, The Slithering Bog.


The Slithering Bog follows on from Swamp Witch’s grimy and grim debut Gnosis, which was a similarly downtuned trawl through tripped-out and tar-thick sludge. Like Gnosis, The Slithering Bog also has a heavyweight crust of distortion surrounding its subterranean sound. And there are plenty of deep ‘n’ dark chasms of amp-melting, psychedelic doom to get lost in on The Slithering Bog as well. Best of all, The Slithering Bog has a filthy psychoactive aura throughout––one heavy on the negativity and nastiness––and that has a lot to do with Swamp Witch laying out their tunes in an ultra-heavy, slow-motion fashion. It’s all deliberate. Menacing. And like sonic kin such as Noothgrush, Indian or Grief, the result is gruelling, festering, and ultimately, wretched. No surprise then that The Slithering Bog is highly recommended.

Artwork by Joey Camello

Humanity, the 2014 Transylvanian Tapes debut from metallic hardcore band Cease, is also hulking, heavy, and smothered in distortion and dirt. However, Humanity’s contents are delivered at a far brisker pace, and are indebted to Entombed’s buzzsaw approach. Humanity duly features brute blasts of hardcore-injected and HM-2 hammering punk and (death) metal. So, if you’re a fan of the punk/metal bludgeon of Nails, Black Breath, or similar crossover roughnecks, you’re guaranteed to appreciate Cease’s modus operandi, and the depths of their viciousness. Also, Cease have followed up Humanity with a bulldozing self-titled demo released in January this year. Get ‘em both. Now.

Artwork by James Hammontree

Where Cease and Swamp Witch bring a bruising wall of noise, Bay Area punks Cloak deal in spiky shards of sound on their debut, Succumb. There’s a lot of old-guard worship to be found on Succumb, with Cloak digging into the roots of black and death metal on songs that rumble in parts, and slice coldly (although definitely not cleanly) in others. Succumb is lo-fi, Deathcrush lo-fi, and it features similarly blown-out vocals and tracks that are brittle and jagged with sawtooth edges in equal measure. Atmospheric melodies add to all the villainy, and with four songs delivered in 20-minutes, there’s more than enough bleeding-raw basement black metal on Succumb to get under your skin and perk your interest in hearing even more.

Transylvanian Tapes: Bädr Vogu, Naught, Xenotaph, and Swamp Witch.

Written by Craig Hayes.

Right off the bat, there are two very good reasons why you should pay a visit to Transylvanian Tapes’ Bandcamp page. First is the fact that the label’s based in Oakland, California, which is obviously going to perk the interest of anyone searching for underground metal that reeks of squalor and decay. Second is that Transylvanian Tapes released Caffa's Day of Disease back in 2013, and that was an album that featured a wonderfully crusty and putrid mix of black, doom, and death metal. That’s two big ticks for Transylvanian Tapes already, but I happened to stop by their Bandcamp page recently, and found another four reasons you’ll want to check the label out immediately.


Number one, is Bädr Vogu. The Oakland-based “blues crust” band released a fantastically grimy and grunty debut, Exitium, back in 2011; and you can find that on the band’s Bandcamp page to sate your thirst for dirty and destructive audio delights. For Transylvanian Tapes, Bädr Vogu bring the same thunderous sludge/doom/death/crust assault on their latest release, Agglomeration XXIV. The Bandcamp version features two tracks, “Traitor” and “Anathema of Time”, but there’s three more tracks available on the B-side of the physical tape release. Those B-side tracks are taken from the band’s 2012 split LP with Seattle grindcore band Wilt, and you can find those tunes on Bädr Vogu’s own Bandcamp page to download too. If you’re a fan of band’s like Noothgrush, Eyehategod, or Grief, then you’re going to love the hate that oozes from Agglomeration XXIV. This is filth and forlornness spewed out by gutter punks wielding pulverising guitars, with zero hope for the future in sight here. It’s just bestial blues and cough-syrup crust piling on the negativity and brutality. Obviously, this is essential. Buy it. Now. (And grab Exitium and those split tracks while you’re at it).

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

The second reason to check out Transylvanian Tapes comes from the other side of the world. In this case, Iceland’s Naught. The band bring the same level of crushing crust as Bädr Vogu, but Naught also tap into a tar-pit of catacomb doom on their debut EP, Tómhyggjublús. The Ep’s three lengthy songs, "Í Paradís", "Tómhyggjublús", and "Hold er Mold", provide one long, slow, and grinding funeral rite. We’re talking mammoth riffs, tortured vocals, and pounding percussion -- somewhat in a similar vein to Asunder, on occasion -- and it all makes for an overdose of hatred and torment. There’s traces of subterranean death metal here too, and Tómhyggjublús is bleeding-raw, which only makes things even more emotionally and sonically devastating. Tómhyggjublús definitely marks Naught as a band to keep a very close eye on.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Third on this Transylvanian Tapes' list, is Californian black metal band, Xenotaph. The band’s four track EP, Vitae Iactura, is hugely impressive, especially because it’s only Xenotaph’s debut recording. There’s second-wave necro worship to be found here, with atmospheric melodies and villainous vocals all adding plenty of intense energy to chip away at the nerves. Extra points to Xenotaph for not being afraid to stretch things out too. Three of Vitae Iactura’s tracks head past the seven minute mark, but there’s no sense of the band repeating themselves here. Vitae Iactura feels supremely confident, and Xenotaph deserve to be. There’s accomplished songwriting and musicianship on display here, and it’s all been extremely well produced, to amplify that all-important, ice-cold wickedness. (Also, as an ill-omened bonus, Vitae Iactura’s last track, “Descending”, is a sinister synth sojourn. Just to really get under your skin).

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Last in my Transylvanian Tapes discoveries is, Swamp Witch. The band’s Gnosis EP was originally released back in 2011, but the Bandcamp re-release also features a remix of the EP’s three tracks by DJ Dreemz. We’ll get to what that DJ Dreemz brings in a second, but what you’ll find on the original tracks is howling, psychotic sludge that's been liberally dosed with cruddy psychedelia. Boiling away in the background of Gnosis is cosmic doom, albeit in very twisted form, and that slowly seeps into the up-front suffocating sludge. Everything is slathered in suffocatingly evil vibes, making for a heavy-ass brew of dementedness, with buckets of bile poured on. In other words, Gnosis is trip gone very, very wrong. About as wrong as it can get. That’s where DJ Dreemz comes in, to really drag the psychological punishment out. Dreemz takes those core tracks and slows things right down, adding scratches and samples to contort the tracks even further. Swamp Witch are utterly mad, but then, that’s also what makes Gnosis so utterly brilliant.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Note: The budget conscious metal connoisseur can find Naught - Tómhyggjublús as a Name Your Price download on their Bandcamp page.

Dave's Demo Roundup Vol I.

By Dave Schalek.

By Dave Schalek.


Very little is known about Pennsylvania’s Dumal, a black metal outfit playing semi-melodic, war themed black metal with a crunchy guitar tone and rasped vocals. The drums sound a bit weak, but the catchy, riffy guitar playing more than makes up for the relative lack of depth. This four song demo was originally released on cassette, although calling a release limited to 10 copies hardly constitutes a “release”. Well, that’s what Bandcamp (and this site, for that matter) is for. Recommended.




Cold, barren, and grim, Italy’s Orhorho play stripped down, rather thin black metal with a rotten atmosphere, deep vocals, and a fuzzy background anchored by an audible bass. This three song demo of untitled tracks is thematically based around an ancient African occult princess is the debut from Orhorho, a duo with connections to Gottesmorder. Orhorho vary their delivery with tempo changes, moments of hypnotic drone, and surprisingly dynamic songwriting. A few tribal elements creep into the third song, a standout track, and Orhorho are worthy of investigation.




New Zealand has a way of churning out rancid blackened death metal with bands such as Diocletian, Witchrist, and Heresiarch leading the way. Add Trepanation to that list with Hideous Black Abyss, their debut demo. Consisting of very powerful blackened death metal with muted, high pitched rasps, Hideous Black Abyss nicely straddles the line between black metal, death metal, and even grindcore and crust with a very fast approach and short songs. A swirl of riffs and blastbeats are backed up by a very powerful, bottom heavy production that gives the whole affair a thick layer of miasma.

Cover art by Jose Gabriel Angeles

Oakland’s Caffa are treading the ground laid down by Hellhammer and early Sodom, a standard that’s now held high by bands such as Coffins, Teitanblood, and countless others. Caffa combine the deep heaviness of their influences with some dynamic songwriting and a few tempo changes, enough to distinguish themselves from countless other bands. Released by Transylvanian Tapes, Day of Disease is deeply heavy and is sure to satisfy fans of the early, primitive days of death metal.




Day of Disease from Caffa immediately led me to browse a few other releases from Transylvanian Tapes, and this demo from Fiend immediately stood out. An all out blast of thick, heavy grindcore with guttural vocals, this seven song demo clocks in at about seven minutes and demands multiple hits of the repeat button. Nihilistic and caustic, Fiend, from Fresno, California, should be the next big thing if there’s any justice in the world. Wow.

Craig - Ten Triumphs From 2013

Written by Craig Hayes.

I can’t speak for the other contributors here at Metal Bandcamp, but my motivation for being here is pretty straightforward. I’m here to write about great bands that we all get to enjoy thanks to Bandcamp’s success, and I’ve certainly ended up with another huge catalogue of fantastic releases from spending endless hours lurking on the site in 2013.

That leaves me with a pile of bands I could highlight in my final post this year, but rather than repeat myself, I’ve plucked ten triumphant releases I haven’t had the opportunity to write about in 2013. Before you dig into the list, I wanted to pass on my thanks. Metal Bandcamp obviously doesn’t exist without its loyal readers, and it’s been a privilege to write here this year and have my name appear alongside fellow scribes who are vastly more knowledgeable and articulate than I’ll ever be here.

Cheers to you all, and, of course, tip of the hat to Metal Bandcamp overlord Max for allowing me to ramble on and on and on this year. Merry Anti-Christmas. I hope 2014 is filled with more sonic mayhem for you all, but before it continues, here’s a few ear-splitting delights from 2013.


Seizures - The Sanity Universal.

I might as well start with an album I only acquired recently thanks to another A+ recommendation from my compadre (and occasional Metal Bandcamp contributor) Dean Brown. Californian band Seizures make a hellish racket combining incandescent metallic hardcore with flashes of experimentalism and math rock. Of course, the clue to what you’ll find is in the band’s name, and The Sanity Universal is seizure-inducing, all round.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Stallion - Mounting the World.

German trio Stallion travel back in time to the exact point where heavy metal injected that extra dose of velocity to see a slew of speed metal steeds race ahead of the herd. Mounting the World is a stampeding six-string gallop across old school pastures, and best of all, it kicks ass like a fittingly testosterone fuelled beastie.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Hawkeyes - Poison Slows You Down.

Featuring a four guitar line-up, Hawkeyes set to exploring acid and space rock with down-tuned abandon on Poison Slows You Down. Deep cosmic doom abounds on the album, with mammoth and monolithic tunes that dig deep into tone and texture channeled through flaming amps. Tune in, drop out, and plummet into the psychedelic abyss.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Blackrat - Whiskey and Blasphemy.

Canadian trio Blackrat released a lo-fi burst of blackened thrash and punk with Whiskey and Blasphemy this year. Expect cut-throat vocals and buzzsaw riffs, all backed by the kind of raw and hell-hammering intensity that’s only ever found in the most perfectly putrid pits of the underground.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Kröwnn - Hyborian Age.

Kröwnn’s Hyborian Age was one of many, many enjoyable and promising demos I stumbled upon this year. The Italian doom trio wielded hefty riffs, drew its lyrics from fantasy authored works, and the band’s methodical trawls brought all the requisite weight and psychotropic pummel.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Caffa - Day of Disease.

Cover art by Jose Gabriel Angeles

I don’t know who first tipped me off about Caffa’s Day of Disease, but if it was you, I owe you a debt of thanks. Day of Disease was an absolutely fetid crawl through trenches of sonic excrement, with the kind of blackened doom and death metal that’ll leave a stain, and more importantly, a horrendous stench on your soul.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Druidus - Bestial Crust Demo MMXIII.

Druidus’s Bestial Crust Demo MMXIII was about as caustically raw as you could hope for, with the iniquitous sonics and devilish thematics situated right up front. Death metal met black metal at the altar of unholy worship on the demo, leading to a frenzied and uncompromising fight to draw first blood.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Thrawsunblat - Thrawsunblat II: Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings.

Magnificently epic black metal featured on Thrawsunblat’s Thrawsunblat II: Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings this year. Replete with varying strains of black and folk metal interweaving throughout, and spilling over with heart-swelling melodies, Thrawsunblat II: Wanderer on the Continent of Saplings was, pretty much, perfection.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

An Autumn For Crippled Children - Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love.

An Autumn For Crippled Children are a three-piece experimental black metal band from the Netherlands, and if there was any justice in this world, Try Not to Destroy Everything You Love would be sitting high atop all those end of year lists in ’13. It was a magical, majestic, and wholly breathtaking album, filled with melodic waves of beautifully understated orchestral flourishes.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]

Young Hunter - Embers at the Foot of Dark Mountain.

Psychedelic drone, alt-country, and stoner and indie rock all mixed with doom metal on Young Hunter’s Embers at the Foot of Dark Mountain EP this year. Vast clouds sweeping down over dustbowl vistas featured, with a steely precipitateness decelerating into bucolic, tumbling laments. Young Hunter’s 2012 debut, Stone Tools, was an impressive debut, and Embers at the Foot of Dark Mountain signals even more awe-inspiring landscapes set to be explored in the future.

[Go to the post to view the Bandcamp player]