Artists – Black Lava Records

Post-rock / Post-metal from Porto, Portugal

Icosandria’s journey started in December 2021 as the solo project of Tiago Pereira, who had cut his teeth in the underground scene in various rock and metal adjacent projects. Icosandria however, is a brand new and massive undertaking to carry, expose, and deliver an emotively charged impact – a motif that fully realises itself already on the band’s imminent debut. Soon after its formation, the band expanded into involving close friends and musical collaborators, which includes Rui Moreira, Paulo Silva, Miguel Pinhal and Miguel Almeida, making Icosandria a fully fledged band instead of a mere one-man project. The band's goal is to take the dreamscapes of shoegaze / post-rock and combine with those with the intensity of metal, to transport the listener onto a novel plane of emotions.. The band’s main musical influences are the likes Alcest, Les Discrets, Deafheaven and Opeth, simply everything that evokes a feeling of melancholy mixed with nostalgia, while the main lyrical inspiration is drawn from philosophy, human afflictions, and nature, tinted with motives and experiences amassed from everyday life. Catharsis and bittersweet nostalgia are the main foundation, onto which the towers of fury and despair driven from the suffocating present are built.

Blackened Hardcore / Sludge from Viana do Castelo, Portugal

Born in 2015, reborn in 2018, THÖRNE is a heavy-sounding band from Viana do Castelo, Portugal, whose sound roots from the deepest emotions, drawing inspiration from the real-life experiences of their members and their close ones. It's in their personal struggles, doubts, and missteps that they guide their lyrics. It's their anger, fear, and sense of loss that push through their raw wall of sound. It can be harsh and brutal, calm and cathartic, but always painful, always nerve-wracking. With their first shows happening around 2015 as a trio, THÖRNE would eventually grow in their sound and lineup for the 2019 self-recorded and self-released "Octagon" EP, with the added vocals of veteran Renato Correia (Cape Of No Hope) and the new lead guitarist, César Castro. During the same year, the band presented themselves around their home country for the very first time, sharing the stage with names like Pledge, Besta, Soul Of Anubis, and OAK, and even serving as the opener for Hexis & Teethgrinder European tour in Porto.

In January of 2023, a new studio effort was released. "Those Golden Rules" was recorded at Adrift Studio by André Gonçalves (Mother Abyss, Ulfberth, The Day I Lost My Shadow), who elevated the band's sound to a whole new level. The single eventually became the band's first physical release as they became the first name in the recently created Black Lava Records roster. 2023 was also the year when the band took their music outside Portuguese borders for the very first time, and it marked the beginning of the recording of their first full-length album.

Sludge Metal / Doom from Oliveira de Azeméis, Portugal

Soul of Anubis are a power duo from Oliveira de Azeméis (Portugal), applying the ferocity of sound that goes from thrash to sludge metal, without forgetting doom and post-metal. In September 2019, the band released their second album The Last Journey, edited by Seeing Red Records. The lyrical theme of The Last Journey emerged from excerpts from the book Book of the Dead where, in Egyptian mythology, they mention prayers that reflected the path of the dead would have to travel to reach the other world. The Last Journey draws a story about the last journey to take, before going to hell or heaven, where Anubis, who carried the soul of the deads, is symbolized as the boatman on the cover of The Last Journey.

The Last Journey was recorded, mixed and mastered by Miguel Tereso at Demigod Recordings and artwork by Diogo Soares.

Sludge / Metal / Doom from Oliveira from Vila do Conde, Portugal

"Tao" is a word that has different meanings in both ancient and modern Chinese language, but is typically translated as "way" or "path" and it's also understood as the way of the universe or the path to enlightenment. For Portuguese death-metal four-piece group Crushing Sun, not only is their debut album it's also one of the most crushing and innovative death-metal releases ever released within the Portuguese borders. Originally released in 2010, the fact that "Tao" sounds so fresh, powerful and actual, clearly proves that Crushing Sun were creatively way ahead of their time.
The band's steady focus on a heavy, groovy and downright intense death-metal attack shows some similarities with the early days of Gojira, yet throughout the eleven tracks that compose "Tao", Crushing Sun also provide their personal flair and a few unexpected tricks by incorporating elements of other styles such sludge or post-metal that truly make this album worth revisiting.