The band was formed during the second wave of black metal in the early 1990s by Khorzon and Messiah (RIP 2017) and was one of the first bands of this genre in Poland. Their career began with two demos: "An Eternal Curse of the Pagan Godz" and "Bogowie Zapomnienia" and their debut album, "Imperium" released in 1996. During this period, the band played a few shows.
Subsequent albums included "Zeta Reticuli" (2001), "Nocturnal Arkonian Hordes" (2002), and "Konstelacja Lodu" (2003), as well as several split albums. After this period, the band went silent for several years.
Second decade of XXIst century brings a new lineup. ARKONA returned in 2013 with the album "Chaos.Ice.Fire" After recording this album, once agin band's lineup was reorganized, resulting in completely new musical ideas.
In 2015, the band joined forces with the French label Debemur Morti Productions, releasing the groundbreaking album "Lunaris" the following year. During this time, the band toured actively. In 2019, ARKONA released another album, "Age of Capricorn" on the same label, confirming the band's peak form. ARKONA continued to perform extensively at clubs and select festivals, and also created their eighth album, "Stella Pandora" which was released in September 2024, also on Debemur Morti Productions.
In their lyrics, ARKONA explores themes of paganism, anti-Christianity, as well as transience and death. The band has never been involved in any political ideologies and has never addressed the

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When there was still the Highlandgames in Halle (Saale) at the racecourse, I heard the mystical sounds for the first time during a visit to the event. This fascinated me so much that a year later (2009) I decided after a visit to the Games again: "I want to hear that more often". What is more obvious than to learn the instrument itself. So - researched on the Internet, textbook, sample CD and Practice Chanter ordered - and off we went. Of course, that was not as easy as I thought, after all, the Scottish bagpipe is not one of the instruments you learn by the way.

In February 2011, in the newspaper, I read about an open day at a club in the Harz that deals with Scottish culture and music. There I met people who also shared the fascination for the Scottish culture and music scene.

From now on, I drove regularly to Gernrode or Quedlinburg and soon found a comrade from Allstedt. Because in the long run the one-hour drive was too much, we decided to relocate our training evening to Sangerhausen. For this we were provided by the district folk high school, the necessary premises.

Since 2011, I drove annually for one week to bagpipe school in Breuberg and also attended some workshops.

Here I would like to thank all teachers, friends and judges from the music scene for their help and patience.

Furthermore, we practiced diligently on Tuesdays in the district folk high school Sangerhausen. After a newspaper article, interested parties came forward ever

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Enisum born as one man band founded by Lys in 2006. They come from Susa Valley which is near Turin. Being the first black metal band of the region they have invent their very own style which they call Arpitanian Black Metal. Their project name comes from the mountain Monte Musinè in Susa Valley.
Enisum songs talks about landscapes, cohabitation between man, nature and desolation.
Over the years Enisum has played in many Festivals (Ragnarök Festival, Dark Easter Metal Meeting, Dark Troll Fest, Schlichtenfest, Barther Metal Open Air, Sinister Feast, De Mortem Et Diabolum, Aaargh Festival, Silent Scream, Fortress Fest, Wolfszeit Fest, Northern Discomfort Fest, Metal Embrace Fest, Black Hole Fest, Samhain, etc.). As well as several tourings at the Mainland of Europe.

The new album Forgotten Mountains was released by Avantgarde Music in February 2023.
2025 they celebrate the 10th anniversary of their cult album „Arpitanian Lands“.
In March 2026 they'll release their new album 'Autumn Embrace'.

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Fejd formed in 2001 when folk music duo Patrik and Niklas Rimmerfors joined forces with a third of the members of the Swedish Grammy nominated metal act Pathos. Their paths had crossed many times before in various Metal constellations, but this time it was time for something different.

The Rimmerfors’ interest in Swedish medieval folk music dates back to 1995, when Patrik began studying music and became more interested in exploring the new musical territories he’d uncovered along the way. However, the brothers’ musical backgrounds, as well as those of their band mates, found their roots in heavy metal.

At the time, the Rimmerfors brothers merely played folk music with medieval undertones, performing on contemporary instruments, but together with their childhood friends, they transformed it into a refined band possessing the best of both worlds: the foundation and weight of heavy metal in a symbiotic relationship with the typical melodic language and melancholy of Nordic folk. Fejds’ Nordic medieval folk now offered a haven where people could escape to another world and even another time.

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GJALLAR was launched in early 2023 to honor the masterpieces of FALKENBACH and make them accessible live. Tracks from all creative phases and albums will be presented. GJALLAR is an association of five musicians from Leipzig, Dresden and in between.
It's time to celebrate a debut for “Falkenbach live”... On the Dark Troll 2025 !

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GROZA (“storm”, “terror”) is a black metal band from Bavaria, Germany. Their sound is driven by emotion, anger and sadness, combining searing melodies, raging blast beats and melancholy induced clean guitar passages into a melodic, dynamic blend.
Founded as a one-man project by singer / multi-instrumentalist P.G. in 2016, the band gradually grew towards a full band in the following two years, culminating in the self-release of their first effort - “Unified In Void” (2018) - which almost instantly gained attention and interest, leading to the signing to AOP Records shortly after. After 3 years of writing and intense live activity followed the release of the 2nd full length album “The Redemptive End” (2021), that was met with critical acclaim and overwhelming reception of fans alike, entering #78 of the German album charts consequently.
Between releases, the band has extensively presented their craft live on stages all across Europe during various club shows, festivals and full-fledged tours across Europe. To date, GROZA has played 120+ shows in over 20 countries. Continuing to do so in the fall of 2024, the band will again tour Europe in support of the new album.
“Nadir” was recorded during the spring of 2024.

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HAVAMAL was formed in 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden. The members came from different musical background, but shared the goal to create the symphonic yet brutal and melodic sound that is HAVAMAL. Inspired by norse mythology and viking culture, HAVAMAL started writing the first songs, and after a few successful local shows, the debut EP “Call of the north” was recorded and self-released. The debut EP received overwhelmingly good reviews from all around the world, and have been featured on various radiostations and magazines. Although HAVAMAL has been compared to bands such as Amon Amarth, Kalmah, Children of Bodom, Brymir, and more, the sound is unique and easily recognized. In June 2019 HAVAMAL released the full length debut album "Tales from Yggdrasil" through Art Gates Records, and it immediately received great reviews and attention all over the world. After touring Sweden, HAVAMAL established it self as a rock solid live act delivering more than just a musical experience! After the release of "Tales from Yggdrasil", HAVAMAL soon started writing the material for the much awaited second full length album, and in May 2021 "The Shadow Chapter" was released, once again through Art Gates Records. This album was a great success, and received reviews from all over the world, claiming this the best and most epic work up to this date. After successful touring Europe for two years, while writing new material, HAVAMAL is finally ready to release the next chapter of the saga in 2025! At

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Heimdalls Wacht are back!
– a sign, a lament, a warning...
of what once was and will never be again!
Heimdalls Wacht are back and hurling the sonic manifestation of their vision of underground metal into this world gone mad.

Acoustic world-weariness! Screaming despair! Overwhelming rage! Dreamy melancholy!

In this sense, the music, lyrics and concept manifest deep-seated feelings, a discomfort with the dreary zeitgeist and the spiritual monotony of the masses. All the while looking with contempt upon a superficial consumer society that only strives for external happiness and fails to recognise inner wealth.

Culture – decline – decay – tragedy – contempt – rebellion – lostness in the modern world... All these are aspects that can be found in the concept of Heimdall's Watch.

The neo-romantic art project is based on the analogy that Heimdall awakens from his long slumber as a ragged figure and looks upon this new world, which is no longer his, with incomprehension, melancholy and anger. In terms of content, HW has therefore dealt lyrically with themes such as nature, lost cultures, paganism itself and the problems of a modernised world with reductionist materialism. In recent years, an interest in occult themes and cross-cultural spirituality has been added. In doing so, they also take up genuinely romantic themes, with a focus on German Romanticism and, above all, the natural philosophical concepts of Ludwig Tieck, the abysses

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Helgrindur – The Embodiment of Pagan Metal from Solingen
Helgrindur, the emerging metal formation from Solingen, has made a name for itself in the German metal scene, known for its raw energy, epic stories, and musical depth. Having built a steadily growing fanbase through relentless live performances on major stages such as Ragnarök Festival, Aaargh Festival, and Mahlstrom Open Air, the band now makes a striking return in 2023 with their self-titled second album, Helgrindur.

This new work showcases Helgrindur at the peak of their creative prowess. While their debut album Von Einst laid the foundations for the band’s current success, Helgrindur elevates their sound and thematic depth to a completely new level. The album’s blend of Pagan Metal, infused with elements of Death and Black Metal, is delivered with masterful precision and emotional intensity that is unparalleled.

Helgrindur transports listeners into a world of ancient myths, heroic battles, and dark legends. The powerful riffs and aggressive vocals create a compelling synergy with epic melodies and atmospheric interludes. This combination of intensity and epicness makes the album a standout highlight in the genre. According to a review on Metal.de, Helgrindur captivates with its “dark yet epic atmosphere,” and the songs “avoid excessive bombast, while remaining compelling and intense throughout.”

The press is also enthusiastic about Helgrindur. A reviewer from Totentanz Magazin

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We are Obscurity - onwards into the battle!!!

Hammer-forged from the hardest steel of the Bergisch Land, cast in fire, formed upon the anvil of metal, hardened by the water of the Wupper river. A battle axe, so deadly and sharp - made of the same material as the world-famous blades of Solingen …

This is how you could describe the birth of Obscurity in Velbert (Bergisches Land) in early-1997. Five brave warriors though musically inexperienced, but full of bellicosity, with sparse beard growth and united in their passion for heaviest metal - formed a force named Obscurity.

Three of the five founding members Agalaz, Ziu and Dornaz are still active in the band and they still stand for what Obscurity figurative means. They say about themselves: We love to make music we like, music we can trust in and not this kind of music that somebody will dictate us to make! Our music is from metal heads to the metal heads. Already in the year 1997 they said: We make Battle-Metal, not more and not less! The music they make combined influences of Black-, Death-, Viking up to Heavy Metal music.

Obscurity is one of the first bands of the German death-/vikingmetal-scene and growed up to the spearhead and most important blade of this kind of the German metal music. Over the years they have recorded eight studio-albums that have already been fired on the metal-scene, but also in concerts the Bergisch Lions are a powerful force. They proved it at countless festivals and c

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ONDFØDT started in April 2013 when founding members Owe Inborr and Mikael Kåll decided to start a new raw black metal project.
They spent a couple of days in the studio and soon Ondfødt’s first EP entitled “I” was released independently.
The release of the EP turned out to be a success and it didn’t take long until all copies were sold out. Ondfødt immediately started to work on new material and signed a deal with Immortal Frost Productions for the release of their debut album.

After the release of the first EP Ondfødt recruited three new members:
Bassist Dario Vujocevic, Drummer Simon Bondegård on Drums and Guitarist Juuso Englund.
During the recordings of Ondfødt’s debut, Simon Bondegård, unfortunately, had to leave the band and Vocalist Owe Inborr jumped inas a replacement during the recordings.

In 2017 vocalist Owe started to write new music for their upcoming album “Dödsrikets Kallelse”.
In 2018 Ondfødt entered Wolfthrone Studios for the second time and started the recordings. This time they got vocalist “Mathias Lillmåns” from “…and oceans, Finntroll” to guest as vocalist on the track “No Ere Jo Satan” which they later made a music video of. The album got released on CD, Vinyl and Digitally in early 2019.

After the recording of “Dödsrikets Kallelse” in 2018 Owe started again to write new material for the third album
“NORDEN” and together with guitarist Juuso they shaped a new sound f

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Founded in November 2024.
First EP, ‘Cryptic Saturnalia,’ released in November 2025.

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Originally started as a solo project, the incredibly passionate Illia Rafalskyi has gathered several session musicians around him to start playing live concerts in 2018, of which only a handful have been played so far. His six full-length albums to date are second to none and basically leave no other way not to like this Slavic atmospheric black metal. With a cover of “A Distant Flame Before the Sun”, Severoth can also be found on a tribute album for the Austrian forefathers of atmospheric black metal, Summoning. So what more could you want? Severoth's appearances are more than rare, especially in Western Europe.

SEVEROTH is one man project from Ukraine. The music of SEVEROTH reaches the point where atmospheric forest black metal meets the ambient soundscapes, taking the listener into infinity of unknown. Now Illia Rafalskyi gathered fellow musicians to bring the magic of Severoth live.

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Skyforger is a Latvian pagan metal band formed in 1995 by three musicians — Peteris, Edgars, and Imants — who previously played in the doom metal group Grindmaster Dead. Inspired by their ancestors' history and folklore, they set out to explore Latvia’s rich cultural heritage through powerful and evocative music. As frontman Peteris puts it: "We used to sing about foreign knights, but as I read more, I realized that our own Semigallians were just as fierce warriors. It became clear that we had to explore our own Latvian history."

Over the past 30 years, Skyforger has won the hearts of fans in Latvia and beyond with their unique fusion of traditional Latvian folk and heavy metal, as well as their captivating stage presence. The band has performed in more than 35 countries, including: Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, England, Wales, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Portugal, Spain, France, Italy, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Hungary, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Malta, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, and the USA.

Skyforger is Latvia’s best-known heavy metal export and is widely regarded as one of the leading pagan metal acts in the world.

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Spere is a two-piece founded by members of the German Black Metal institutions Horn and Halphas – with the goal of creating minimalistic, energetic, low-frequency black metal laced with Doom and classic Metal influences. After the debut album, Spere shifted heavily towards a synthesizer-driven sound, incorporating unusual stilistical electronic elements with a deep drive into their realm of Black Metal.

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Deep in the dark forest, where the trees whisper and the forest floor hums with legends, they live – the trolls. A noisy, merry and devilish horde that lives for song, partying and mischief. They call themselves TROLD – and they don’t come sneaking around!

TROLD is not just a band – it’s a living fairy tale. Forged from bark, blood and booming tones, they rise from the earth with instruments in their arms and laughter in their hearts. It’s folk metal with horns on both foreheads and hands – epic tales served with a twinkle in their eyes and foam in their beards.

Every concert is a forest festival, where the audience doesn’t just watch, but becomes part of the story. The music ranges from the heavy and dramatic to the foolishly festive – and everything in between.

Now it’s time for the next chapter. A new record has been forged over the trolls’ campfire.

This time, the horde stands stronger and closer than ever. With communal songs, evil roars of laughter and quirky tales, they lure you further into the darkness – and right into the arms of the trolls.

TROLD is thunder, fables and celebration – a quirky fairy tale told in the language of the forest.

They will make noise. They will laugh. And you will be carried away!

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Since 2018, Tylangir have been creating their own soundscape somewhere between archaic folk, brutal metal and the mystical atmosphere of ancient Valais legends. Their music is more than just sound – it is a ritual. With guttural vocals in the Valais dialect, aggressive guitar riffs and a wide range of folk instruments such as bouzouki, flute, harp, dulcimer, frame drum, rattles and animal horns, a fascinating sound universe unfolds.

The lyrics are based on dark, often pagan folk tales from the Swiss Alps – legends in which the boundary between nature and the spirit world is blurred. Tylangir reinterprets these traditions and translates them into a musical interplay of light and shadow: from raw power to meditative fragility, from driving blast beats to fragile, floating melodies.

Tylangir concerts are a special experience – hypnotic, gripping. Between archaic ecstasy and metallic hardness, they draw their audience deep into the world of legends, as if an ancient, animistic spirit were speaking through the amplifiers.

Following their first EP, their debut album Ur-Chraft was released in 2022, followed by three epic audio dramas. In 2024, the band released three new singles; in early 2025, their first music video, Johanneli Fii, was released, marking the next step in the visual narrative of their alpine mythology. Through numerous concerts in Switzerland, Tylangir has built up a solid fan base and is now ready to take its unique sound abroad.

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Epic Pagan/Folk Metal from Dutch soil.
Stormy elemental forces meet danceable rhythms, hard neckbreakers and sublime melodies. An energetic mix of epic Pagan Metal and the classic, catchy Folk Metal, crawls under your skin and gets you moving, whether you like it or not! With their ''The House Spirit'' EP they have already played on many stages in Europe and now with their new album "Een Verloren Verhaal" a new chapter in the band's history opened. The new songs from their concept album released in February will pull you deep into a long forgotten story. A story of human, mother nature and an ancient giant tribe trying to protect their ancient empire. Be captivated by ancient lines from a weathered book, written in a forgotten language. With their rousing live show and the new songs in their luggage, Vanaheim now brings this story to you... are you ready?

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It hardly gets more Swedish 90`s than Vinterland`s one and only full-length album, “Welcome My Last Chapter”. Along with bands like Dissection, Unanimated, Sacramentum and others, Vinterland laid the foundation for the melodic black metal sound that came to inspire and influence both contemporary and subsequent bands. Even to this day, this timeless masterpiece finds its home with new generations of metal fans, who are enchanted by the icy atmosphere that the album conveys.

Back in 1994 Tomas Nyqist, founder of No Fashion Records, got hold of their demo tape and saw the potential. Vinterland inked a deal with No Fashion that now had become a part of House of Kicks. A rented cabin in the woods of Kvicksund, Sweden now became their second home and the work of “Welcome My Last Chapter” was in progress. In November of 1995 Vinterland entered Unisound Studios with Dan Swanö and a piece of Scandinavian black metal history was born.

Vinterland formed in 1992, in Kvicksund, Sweden, by D.Bragmand and P.Skjoldhammer. After some line-up changes the trio was complete when A.Jonsson became their full time drummer.

They did a reunion in 2011 with two highly successful at Maryland Deathfest and Wave Gotik Treffen. In 2026 they will be celebrating 30 yrs of their legendary album and are once again ready to bring you back to an era where it all began.

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Where harsh vocals meet shimmering guitars, transience is clothed in sound. The four-piece post-black metal band Weltenbrandt has dedicated itself to melancholic, deeply emotional sounds, whose black metal nuances often play with light-footed post-metal influences.

Fragile instrumental parts, often supported by piano melodies, and German-language vocals lend the tracks atmospheric depth, which is contrasted by frenzied blast beat interludes and elegiac guitar runs.

Weltenbrandt was founded in 2018 by Bernhard Zieher and released their debut EP ‘Schöpfung’ in 2018. Since their live debut in April 2018, the band can already look back on many performances with bands such as Austere and at festivals such as Transcending Visions, Mammut Festival and Wolfszeit. Their second album, TRANSZENDENZ SCHATTEN ROMANTIK, was released in 2024. For fans of emotional black metal.

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We, XIV Dark Centuries, see ourselves as a band strongly ideologically rooted in paganism. We have always been reluctant to jump on short-lived musical trends.
The name XIV Dark Centuries reflects our view that the 14 centuries that have passed since the Christianization of Thuringia are dark. We revere nature and the Germanic gods, which, alongside the history of our ancestors, their lives and deeds, have been the main themes of our texts to date.
Our style could be described as Pagan Thuringian Metal. This description highlights the three strongest influences and characteristics of our music – paganism, our home region of Thuringia, and metal. Put more simply, our music consists mainly of black, death, and heavy metal with folk melodies, partly with melodic riffs and partly with heavy riffs, accompanied by sophisticated drumming. The lyrics are performed in a manner typical of the genre, with growls, screams, and, of course, clear, hymn-like vocals.
Active under this name since 1998, we have released 1 demo, 1 MCD and 6 CDs so far. Formerly we worked with the labels CCP Records and Perverted Taste, but the last 2 albums were released by Einheit Produktionen, a small label from East Germany, which gives the band all the
freedom they need to create their releases musically and artistically.
From the beginning we always saw ourselves as a live band. The biggest gigs so far were at the Summer Breeze Festival, the Rock Harz Festival, the Wave-Gothic-Treffen (W

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Founded by Kacper Bartkowiak (bass/lyrics/b.vocals) and Eryk Lange (guitars) in Poland in the summer of 2022. ZØRZA has from the very beginning set out to play black metal that often goes far beyond the black canons of the genre. For the first time in 2023 on the well-received and self-released (EP) IEI. As a result, band joined the Polish record label Godz ov War Productions. And the second time in 2024 on the album Hellven, which was a milestone for the band.

Through hypnotic haunted melodies along with melancholy and raw emotions ZØRZA crafts an oneiric journey to a forgotten realm where the line between the real world and the mystical blurs. Atmosphere is everything in this music. Songs with profound lyrics about frozen worlds, werewolves and death teeming with metaphors, allegories and symbolism take the listener to the world where countless other tales await discovery.