It’s my second year of celebrating the best of the bands who do everything themselves. I may have dropped it down to forty from fifty, but I still feel thoroughly enthusiastic about the underground. And so should you.
The undeniable winner was Lxs Jugadxs’ Demo 2015. I’ve been a big fan of theirs since I first heard the 2013 Demo, but 2015’s demo brought everything together in spectacular fashion.
Fleshing out the top five are Peasant, Lamantide, Choking, and Cavernlight. Given how very different these bands are, it’s testament to how diversity has strengthened the heavy underground.
Last year’s caveat still applies: I think I’ve done my due diligence and only included independent bands, but if I’ve made a mistake, let me know and I’ll modify things. At the very least I’m certain that all releases were independent at the time of review.
Every band here deserves your support. Enjoy them at maximum volume.
1) Lxs Jugadxs – Demo 2015
Grindcore – 2015/07/21
Originally reviewed in July
Try before you buy: La Nube Negra
2) Peasant – Go to Hell
Blackened heavy metal – 2015/04/20
Originally reviewed in June
Try before you buy: Wretched Codex
3) Lamantide – Carnis Tempora: Abyssus
Post-hardcore – 2015/10/26
Originally reviewed in December
Try before you buy: Immortalis Lapis
4) Choking – Choking
Blackened sludge metal – 2015/05/15
Originally reviewed in July
Try before you buy: Labyrinthine
5) Cavernlight – Corporeal
Droning sludge – 2015/04/07
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Upon the Threshold of Reason, Embracing Our Corporeal Forms
6) Woundvac – Disgraced Convert
Grindcore – 2015/09/08
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Disgraced Convert
7) Boak – Boak
Powerviolence – 2015/06/03
Originally reviewed in November
Try before you buy: Who is the Animal Here?
8) Unyielding Love – Demo 2015
Experimental black metal – 2015/09/29
Originally reviewed in December
Try before you buy: Swelling Absence
9) Carnero – Carnero
Hardcore – 2015/05/29
Originally reviewed in June
Try before you buy: La scelta del corpo
10) Ironic Reversal – Dysgenic
Progressive death metal – 2015/10/15
Originally reviewed in October
Try before you buy: Consume
11) Boar Worship – Boar Worship
Sludge metal – 2015/07/08
Originally reviewed in October
Try before you buy: Two
12) Shaidar Logoth – Chapter II: The Ritualist
Atmospheric black metal – 2015/03/01
Originally reviewed in June
Try before you buy: Drink Thine Wretched Wine
13) Invertebrate – Regression/Devolution
Powerviolence – 2015/03/26
Originally reviewed in May
Try before you buy: Fuck Punk, Fuck Grind, Drive Scion
14) Kriegszittern – Frostbite
Death metal – 2015/08/16
Originally reviewed in August
Try before you buy: Primitive Instinct
15) Cartilage – It’s Necrotic
Death metal – 2015/06/14
Originally reviewed in August
Try before you buy: Dialect of the Dead
16) KharmA – SubReal
Death grind – 2015/02/06
Originally reviewed in February
Try before you buy: Obliterados
17) Concealed Blade – Demo 2015
Hardcore – 2015/02/17
Originally reviewed in April
Try before you buy: Don’t Get Caught
18) Fractal Generator – Apotheosynthesis
Atmospheric death metal – 2015/07/21
Originally reviewed in August
Try before you buy: Paragon
19) Deathblow – The Other Side of Darkness
Thrash – 2015/04/21
Originally reviewed in April
Try before you buy: The Other Side of Darkness
20) Barghest – Into Weeping Firmament
Black metal – 2015/07/03
Originally reviewed in July
Try before you buy: Neo-Promethean
21) Dowrr – Demo Tape
Metallic hardcore – 2015/08/10
Originally reviewed in August
Try before you buy: Misfortune
22) Steel Chains – Demo 2015
Post-punk – 2015/02/14
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Hard to Follow
23) Sermos – (husk)
Death metal – 2015/07/04
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: The End of Flesh
24) Bleed the Pigs/Thetan – Split
Grindcore – 2015/02/27
Originally reviewed in March
Try before you buy: Justified
25) Vishwanath – Portals to the Inanimate
Progressive metal – 2015/02/18
Originally reviewed in July
Try before you buy: Perception
26) Devoid – II
Droning sludge – 2015/06/09
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Excavation
27) Blutbad – Abandonment
Harsh noise – 2015/09/19
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Ritual
28) Ēōs – Ēōs
Drone doom – 2015/01/01
Originally reviewed in March
Try before you buy: Umwelt
29) Zombie X Incest – The First Violent Step
Powerviolence – 2015/09/12
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: How is punk dead when powerviolence is still alive?
30) The Horn – Volume 14
Black metal – 2015/12/02
Originally reviewed in December
Try before you buy: Spell 174
31) Sovereign – Deceptum
Crusty black metal – 2015/06/04
Originally reviewed in October
Try before you buy: Colourless
32) Brain Famine – Exploding Paranoid Universe
Deathgrind – 2015/10/19
Originally reviewed in November
Try before you buy: Hallucinating Contagion
33) Krvshr – Church Burner
Sludge metal – 2015/05/25
Originally reviewed in July
Try before you buy: Highlander
34) Tales from Beyond – Putrid Realm
Death metal – 2015/05/17
Originally reviewed in May
Try before you buy: Psychosis
35) Leash – Demo 2015
Crust – 2015/10/19
Originally reviewed in November
Try before you buy: Revelation
36) Verheerer – Archar
Black metal – 2015/09/12
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Archar
37) Tuer – Ivresse & Enfer
Grindcore – 2015/09/25
Originally reviewed in November
Try before you buy: Odyssée Ethylique
38) Evenstate – Inside
Progressive metal – 2015/07/25
Originally reviewed in August
Try before you buy: Chosen One
39) Monolith – Legacy of the Opium Eater
Death metal – 2015/09/12
Originally reviewed in September
Try before you buy: Seemingly False Fantasies
40) Sombre – Flora and fauna, Feast Upon My Flesh
Blackened noisey sludgeviolence – 2015/08/03
Originally reviewed in December
Try before you buy: Humans of Earth