NARGAROTH is the sole vision of Rene “Ash” Wagner, forged in Saxony in 1996 and driven by nearly three decades of raw, uncompromising German black metal. Apocalyptic Steel is a record that refused to stay buried. Tracked in a single weekend at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California, in September of 2014, the album sat forgotten on a hard drive in the United States while Era of Threnody took priority. Years later, the recordings resurfaced. Drums were re-recorded in Las Vegas, vocals and mixing completed at AMP Studios in Duisburg, and 12 years after its first sessions, the album is finally here. This is not a vault curiosity. It is NARGAROTH at its most direct: nine tracks of filthy, unadorned metal built on the attitude of old JUDAS PRIEST, ACCEPT, DEICIDE and OBITUARY. From the predatory menace of “Twisted Steel” to the band-name-studded battle cry of “Metalheart”, from the unflinching historical weight of “Dresden” to the aching G