Country: Netherlands / Greece (The project operates in the Netherlands, but its creator Elias Negrin is Greek.)
Genre: Gothic Metal • Doom Metal • Dark Metal • Melodic Heavy with neo-classical touches
Release: 2026
For fans of: Katatonia, Swallow the Sun, Insomnium, Agalloch, Paradise Lost, melodic dark metal, ritualistic atmosphere, concept-driven gothic/doom works.
There are records you listen to and they simply pass by. There are others you appreciate for the production or the playing. And there are some rarer ones that you don’t “listen” to — you live them. Thesmophoria by Under The Shadows is exactly that: a return to the source, a work that carries decades of creation, trial, error, nocturnal ideas, people who passed through and left a mark.
Elias Negrin didn’t appear yesterday. He has been writing music in the darkest corners of metal, goth and neo-classical folk for over thirty years. Under The Shadows is the moment he turns back, not to reminisce, but to rebuild from scratch. The tracks on the record are not “new compositions”. They are material born in rehearsals, studios, after-midnight sessions, where ideas were tried, torn down and reborn. What started as a personal project passed through the hands of many collaborators, each with their own texture, and ultimately became a single ritualistic work.
“Thesmophoria” is not a debut. It’s a return to the core. It is art as forged through time, with all the experience, the anxiety, the shadows and the need to create that never stopped. It’s a new chapter built on everything that came before, but with a clarity that only time can give.
The album works like a ritual. It’s not a simple collection of tracks. It’s a journey: ascent, descent, catharsis. A modern Thesmophoria.
“Persephone Rising” opens the door. It doesn’t show off. It builds atmosphere. The guitars of Negrin and Dimitris Koskinas work as textures, not as riff machines. Marco Rodriguez’s drums give it a ritualistic character. Eric Castiglia’s voice rises like a prayer. From the very first moment you understand that this record won’t let you listen to it casually.
But the point that won me over completely is The Harvest Requiem. Here we get into rhythms exactly to my measure. Fast, aggressive, with an epic core that grabs you by the scruff of the neck. The track doesn’t “play”. It attacks. And the band delivers an amazing performance.
“Eugenics” shifts the landscape again. Folk darkness, goth/doom atmosphere, mystical composition. One of the most beautiful tracks on the record, with that sweet, subterranean sorrow you cannot help but feel.
“Hand Werpen (Antwerpen)” feels like opening an old story and turning it into a metal epic. Castiglia’s vocals alternate like two different souls fighting inside the same body. Doom, darkness, an explosion at the end. One of those tracks that leave you with your mouth open.
“Hexagon Of Shadows” brings the aggression back to the front. Giannis Koskinas’s bass clears the way, the guitars cut like blades and Dimitris Koskinas’s solo is one of those you don’t forget.
“Nightwalker” is the big monster of the record. Mid-tempo, massive, dark, with folk touches and a choral aura that wraps around you. A track you don’t listen to — you walk it.
“Green Anaconda” closes the album with a threat. Speed, intensity, power. As if it’s telling you “everything you heard before was only the beginning”.
The CD edition also includes all four tracks from the EP “I Before You” as bonus — a generous and perfectly fitting addition.
“Thesmophoria” is a creator returning to his core after decades. And for those who don’t know Negrin, it’s worth listening to the works of Julian’s Lullaby too — that’s where it becomes clear where this whole aesthetic begins.
Bandcamp: https://undertheshadowsmetal.bandcamp.com
