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..

Wiht - Edgar the Atheling

Welcome to the blog. What you are reading now is an updated version of the inaugural post on Metal Bandcamp. Originally this post featured Wiht's only full-length album The Harrowing of the North, but alas the band removed

What you are reading now is an updated version of the inaugural post on Metal Bandcamp. Originally this post featured Wiht's only full-length album The Harrowing of the North, but alas the band removed it from Bandcamp after they split up a few years later (Devouter Records gave the album the vinyl treatment, and if you're curious you can stream it on their Bandcamp page). According to The Obelisk on The Harrowing of the North Wiht

culls together heavy sludge tonality and foreboding atmospherics to tell the story of William the Conqueror’s quelling of a Scottish rebellion in the late 1060s. With no vocals.

In 2015 Wiht reformed and started playing shows again, and in the summer they released a new song "Edgar the Atheling" which you can listen to below. The new song is a continuation of sorts of their debut, as the band explains:

The Harrowing of the North told the story of the raids from the point of the view of William the Conqueror, this next piece of music we are doing follows on from that but tells the story of the raids from the point of the view of rebels.