Pig's Blood + Goatcraft + Verbum

A triple dose of extreme metal at Warsaw's Hydrozagadka.

Formed from members of grindcore outfit Abaddon, black/death horde Prezir, and blackened crust fiends Protestant, the Milwaukee band Pig's Blood plays a particularly violent brand of death metal that harks back both to the American old-school and Archgoat-style war metal. Having debuted with a demo in 2015, their discography now includes two studio albums and the 2023 EP Command More Blood, their most recent release. Pig's Blood are signed to the prominent Polish label Godz ov War.

The Slovak black/death metal Goatcraft was formed in 2012, but didn't release a full-length debut until 2020's Spheres Below, which came out through the country's In League with Satan Productions. Far from aiming at sonic reinvention, Goatcraft's sound echoes genre classics in the vein of Mayhem, Kreator and Bathory, escaping banality with skillful composition and bleakly dissociative production.

Little is known about the Chilean metal outfit Verbum, as the four-piece has been notoriously elusive about who they are, adding a crucial element of mystique to their exeptionally squalid, blackened take on death-doom. They released their debut demo Processio Flagellates in 2016, since following it up with the 2022 LP Exhortation to the Impure.