Taphos: "Come Ethereal Darkness"

No victim to trend or riffless nightmares

We're really being spoiled with the amount of gruesome Danish death metal coming out these days. With bands like Phrenelith, Undergang, Deiquisitor and Sulphurous causing a teeth-rattling ruckus, it's amazing there's even still more room in hell for another contender - The mighty Taphos.

Sunken: "Departure"

Bombarded by cosmic rays, Sunken scour the farthest corners of Earth to bring the best that atmospheric black metal has to offer.

The days of Arescet are long gone, with the band having more than a few years ago transformed into what we see and hear before us today: Sunken. A nautical leviathan of black metal. It has been quite the wait since the band's demo debut The Crackling of Embers, but the wait has been well worth it.

Compulsory: "Gnosis"

An obscure gem from the cassette-age

When Gnosis came out in 1994 as Danish death practitioners debut demo, their style of specialised weirdening death metal was perhaps a bit late to the ball. After all, off-kilter death metal classics like Considered Dead and Piece of Time had already been out for a few years at this point. However, Compulsory's demo isn't without its own flair.

U.D.S.: "Too Fast for Love"

Thuggish grindcore beatings

Self-proclaimed practitioners of goreviolence, U.D.S. curate their brand of ghetto grindcore with all knobs turned to maximum. They're not too fancy to not include a bunch of pitch shifted vocals to go with their devastating low-end grooves either!

Gestapolis: "Amagerland"

Amagerbro grindcore warmachine!

With grindcore it's no good to just claim something as being no-holds-barred, unrelenting, or extreme, because that's basically just the name of the game. There are other factors to take into account instead, otherwise you would just be describing every grindcore band ever.

Demon Head: "Thunder on the Fields"

Bluesy Heavy Rock Thunder from Denmark

With exceptional and prominent bands praciticing the style like Horisont, Kadavar, Witchcraft, Graveyard and many, many more, the sort of proggy sound of 70's-tinged hard rock is back in full vigour. Add to this roster the Danes in Demon Head, and you've got yourself a fully fledged 'scene' with a lot going on.

Defilementory: "The Dismal Ascension"

Restless power erupting in sun-fire torrents

Though three years between releases isn't all that much, it felt like forever when it took so long for Danish technical death metal practitioners Defilementory to release their debut album after the phenomenal Infatuated With Deformity EP from 2011. What originally made them stand out was the prominent bass work, and the fact that they so finely balanced their levels of brutality and technicality in a mix which was both impressive and extremely enjoyable.

Theory: "The Art of Evil"

Far away from the usual dime-a-dozen prog bands of today

On a personal note, the only progressive metal band that ever truly spoke to me is Symphony X, and even so it is probably their power metal side that speaks the loudest. Oddly enough, I'm a huge fan of 70s and 80s prog rock, but the vast majority of progressive metal just hasn't appealed that much to me.

Deus Otiosus: "Rise"

Unadventurous, yes, but highly addicting

Deus Otiosus from Denmark showcase just how important real songwriting chops are in metal. Death metal truly isn't just death metal - It takes riffs, devotion and skill. From the release of their critically acclaimed debut album Murderer in 2010, the seasoned group have toured extensively before signing with Deepsend Records. For those unfamiliar with the band, their prime objective has always been returning to the roots of thrashy death metal with a modern sound and approach. The individual members' involvement in various other prolific Danish metal bands has yet ensured a tormentingly high quality of ruthless content.

Iotunn: "The Wizard Falls"

The next big thing in Danish metal

Coming from out of nowhere with just a five track EP, Iotunn are by now causing major waves within the Danish metal community, and playing numerous shows both locally and abroad. Born from the love of progressive music as a 70s prog rock band, their origins serve them well in their current incarnation where tradition and forward-thinking go hand in hand.

Eldjudnir: "Angrboda"

Danish underdogs surprise with immense value in a crowded market

Black metal in general has changed a lot over the years, this goes without saying. Where the raw, cold sounds of Mayhem ruled the 90s, the drawn out, foggy compositions of Wolves in the Throne Room rule today. In Denmark, bands like Solbrud and Sunken loom at the front, while Eldjudnir lurks in the background. Eldjudnir is the project of one Jakob Sture, who is also involved in the esoteric blackened death metal band Apparatus, the grindcore ensemble Gestapolis and blackened hardcore group LLNN.

Sunken: "The Crackling of Embers"

Funerary encounters keeps the genre fresh in a uniform atmosphere

Despite some early but quite substantial lineup changes, Denmark's Sunken succeeded in releasing a 26 minute demo of atmospheric black metal with The Crackling of Embers within the same year of their creation. A quick release like this could indicate two things; A rushed writing and recording process, or a result of the fervor of a newly started band eager to write and perform.

Eudaimonia: "Hymn to the Dying World"

Ambiguous performance in black metal, atmospheres and moods

The Danish one-man effort Eudaimonia, while not entirely beyond categorization, is a project of highly diverse compositions. At a point you think you've gotten to know the band and its sound with all its facets of ambience, atmospheres and black metal-esque fluctuations, only to get thrown off by the addition of other foreign elements, forcing you to reevaluate you thoughts of Eudaimonia. As such it is a band that avoid pigeonholing.

Defilementory: "Infatuated with Deformity"

Two bass-driven death metal monstrosities

Defilementory is a band that has been lurking in the shadows of the Danish death metal scene only for a little while. While their 2010 EP Gory Defilement resulted only in a limited following, their 2011 demo Infatuated with Deformity is a bold statement on the state of brutal death metal. When I saw them warming up, along with Castrensis - another great Danish brutal death metal band, for Putrid Pile in Copenhagen they stood out as a talented bunch. The Danish quartet have a very precise way of conveying every delicate little detail within their music, even if it seems weird using a term like 'delicate' with this type of music.

Deus Otiosus: "Godless"

Immense riffs take the helm on this blasting death metal sophomore album

With a rather convincing debut album - Murderer from 2010 - Deus Otiosus from Denmark proved that between the five members, they harbour immense and lethal potential for death metal. On their second album, Godless from 2012, continues on and diplays an ongoing contempt for life as they celebrate the end of humanity and godless extermination of civilization.

Denial of God: "Death and the Beyond"

Striking compositions, outside-the-box thinking metal

Superficially the black metal genre has long been affiliated with anti-christian, anti-religious, satanic and blasphemic themes, concepts and iconography. While undoubtedly symbolic of the artists' disgust with society, it's an element that has had a tight grip on the scene for many years, and pentagrams and inverted crosses continue to embellish album covers to this day. Other than their name and blasphemic logo, Denial of God from Denmark have successfully distanced themselves from this trend, dealing instead with subjects like the spirituality in death.

Den Sorte Skole: "Indians & Cowboys"

Den Sorte Skole stand out through the complete dedication to their craft - This is REAL DJ'ing!

Every so often an act pops up that is so tenacious, different and well-crafted that you can do nothing more than stare in awe at what you've come across. Den Sorte Skole from Denmark are one such act, and though they've only been around in this incarnation since 2004, their legacy is already mindblowing. They started out as pioneers of Danish mash-up DJ'ing, captivating audiences with unlikely combinations, but ultimately evolved into the form we see before us today: The duo that sample their way through the history of music.

Deus Otiosus: "Murderer"

Their capable hands show the true potential of death metal in a modern setting

In the Danish metal scene death metal has long been a powerful force with most of the highly popular bands belonging to that genre. With bands like Iniquity, Illdisposed, Dominus, Konkhra, Exmortem, Panzerchrist, Corpus Mortale and more, there's a rich history of varied groups to be explored. Deus Otiosus is a veritable supergroup of Danish talent ready to pick up the mantle with their 2010 debut Murderer.

Various Artists: "8-Way for Destroy the Music"

Living life on the edge of music

In many ways music has become progressively more aggressive over time. There will always be individuals who seek to push the boundaries, and others asking if we have finally hit rock bottom. With genres like powerviolence and grindcore is it even possible for music to be more extreme without seizing to be music? The bands featured on this split are certainly pushing the limit with their individual mixes of grindcore, noise and droning industrial. They call it noisecore, and the term says it all for this 8-band split album.