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Since 2005, Greece's SAD have been a madly prolific bastion of pure 'n' cold black metal. Their canon is vast and varied - VERY relatively so, given that this is all-caps BLACK METAL after all - with the longstanding duo of instrumentalist Ungod and vocalist Nadir exploring the darkest corridors of their souls every step of the way. They've did so across a half-dozen albums for such esteemed labels as Drakkar, Obscure Abhorrence, and Old Temple among others as well as a dozen splits, but then joined forces with PURITY THROUGH FIRE in 2020 for the release of their seventh album, Misty Breath of Ancient Forests.
Indeed, that album was aptly titled, for it saw SAD delivering their most ancient work in many moons. But the Greek duo are ever surprising, and nearly four years later do they emerge from the shadows with the fully-fuck-off Black Metal Craft. It's no accident that the album is titled such, as it reasserts the purity at the very heart of the SAD aesthetic and strips it to the fucking bone with ghoulish violence. Raw and rippling, here SAD somehow inject the melancholic melodicism of its Misty predecessor and then stir the maelstrom to a swirling boil, remaining hypnotic and locked-in whilst managing to gallop forth from time to time in a manner most regal. Put another way, Black Metal Craft could serve as a love letter to the late '90s heyday of Sombre Records or the aforementioned Drakkar, so old & cold its aesthetic (and, again, unapologetic its title). PURITY THROUGH FIRE is thus the most fitting stronghold for SAD's eternal black metal craft!
For 15 years now, BERGRIZEN have been standard-bearers for the new wave of Ukrainian black metal which honors the old. The work of one Myrd'raal, BERGRIZEN have released five studio albums and even a live album, nearly all of which have been released in some manner by PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Just this autumn, the band released a stopgap album in Orathania, largely comprised of ambient and dark folk with fierce-yet-fleeting moments of black metal. Now, born in the hardest days, BERGRIZEN deliver their all-new (and all black metal) album, Die Falle.
For 15 years now, BERGRIZEN have been standard-bearers for the new wave of Ukrainian black metal which honors the old. The work of one Myrd'raal, BERGRIZEN have released five studio albums and even a live album, nearly all of which have been released in some manner by PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Just this autumn, the band released a stopgap album in Orathania, largely comprised of ambient and dark folk with fierce-yet-fleeting moments of black metal. Now, born in the hardest days, BERGRIZEN deliver their all-new (and all black metal) album, Die Falle.
Criminally, SHADOW'S MORTUARY are still one of the best-kept secrets in the always-fertile Finnish black metal scene. The quartet formed in 2013, and patiently released two digital-only EPs - Kylmään Hautaan in 2015, and then Tulen Valtakunta in 2018 - before releasing their debut album, also titled Tulen Valtakunta, in 2018. That album was initially released on cassette through the cult Worship Tapes label, but soon did PURITY THROUGH FIRE step in to release it on a wider scale on CD format. A year later came the band's equally strong second album, Kuoleman Portit, also released by PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Across these recordings but especially the two full-lengths, SHADOW'S MORTUARY displayed righteously traditional and ever-fiery Finnish BLACK METAL - no more, but certainly no less - that possessed all the iron-clad trademarks of that idiom.
While things have been relatively quiet on their front since then, SHADOW'S MORTUARY return with a righteous fervor with Unohdettu Maa. Translated into English as "The Forgotten Land," Unohdettu Maa "stands for a vision of a place where no religions reign," the band explain, "Without its effect on human behavior and thinking. With this album, we attack towards Abrahamic religions with full force, carrying the torch of northern heritage and mysticism." Indeed do they accomplish that in a swift-yet-satisfying 32 minutes here, making their point plain and proud: melancholic melodicism, cold-fire execution, a punkish straightforwardness but never primitively so, and simply strong songs, just like the album's two predecessors. But Unohdettu Maa's true trump card comes in SHADOW'S MORTUARY's increasingly effortless ability to span the epic and the rabble-rousing, bringing forth grandeur in less cliched "epic" ways and, similarly, to sound incensed and headbanging without resorting to "party black metal" corniness.
A brand-new entity that sounds positively/negatively OLD, AVSKRÄDE hearken to the most ancient days of Scandinavian black metal, both in Norway and their native Sweden. The duo delivered a demo earlier in 2021, but now arrive from the coldest, purest past with a 36-minute full-length titled Det stora tunga sjuka. Right from the album's opening seconds, there's no mistaking that AVSKRÄDE play nothing but traditional BLACK METAL Exclusively. From the classic "Peaceville trilogy" of Darkthrone to Malicious-era Gorgoroth on to the early works of Sweden's Craft and Armagedda, Det stora tunga sjuka invokes a nostalgia for grim, glorious times. Indeed, to arrive at its rustic sound, the band recorded the album during primitive conditions in the very north of Sweden, where it is cold and dark most of the time - something they endeavored to transfer to the music itself. And accomplish that they did, as Det stora tunga sjuka is authentically vintage black metal, even down to the Grieghallen-esque guitar tone. HAIL DEATH!!!
Formed in 2010, HELVELLYN are part of the Cumbrian Black Metal orbiting around the incredibly prolific P.G., who currently numbers labelmates THY DYING LIGHT, NEFARIOUS DUSK, ÚLFARR, and MORTE LUNE among his many endeavors. Joining him in HELVELLYN are other equally prolific members of the UK metal underground whose credits also include THY DYING LIGHT as well as Heathen Deity, Volition, Skiddaw, and Absinthropy among many others.
Now, after a handful of short-length releases, HELVELLYN arrive with their debut album, The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly. No more but definitely no less, The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly is a compact summation of the HELVELLYN aesthetic during the past decade, but sharpened to ice-cold perfection. Theirs is a deliberately (and proudly) traditional style of black metal set somewhere around 1995; the paradigmatic works of earliest Dodheimsgard, Gorgoroth, and especially Darkthrone as well as later gatekeepers like Armagedda and Sweden's Craft keep the parameters pure and cold. Indeed, to say The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly could've come out on Malicious Records back in the mid '90s should be viewed as the highest of compliments, so cryogenically authentic is HELVELLYN's attack here. Those who know, KNOW, for this is The Lore of the Cloaked Assembly!
Forming in 2017 and soon releasing their debut album, The Great Tower, that same year, IKU-TURSO have quietly become a force in the ever-fertile Finnish black metal scene (vocalist Lafawijn hails from the Netherlands). The band includes members with a vast array of underground experience, spanning all sorts of extreme metal styles, and a couple of members currently retain membership in labelmates ORDER OF NOSFERAT. As such, IKU-TURSO's sound is far from strict "Finnish black metal" that's come to be the definition the past couple of decades. Rather, the band cast their gaze back to the cold, dark days of mid '90s Scandinavia, and render it with a (darkly) dramatic flair.
And so it comes to its fullest fruition with Ikuinen Kirous, IKU-TURSO's latest offering and first for PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Like a long-lost relic on Wounded Love or Samoth's Nocturnal Art Productions, Ikuinen Kirous reaps a windswept drama both mystically sensual and scabrously alien. Continuing to maximize the addition of keyboardist F.Nightside (as well as his occasional clean vocals), IKU-TURSO blanket their dungeonic surge with an aristocratic air that's somewhere between funeral fog and orchestral bombast, never quite going into full-on sympho-BM mode nor necessarily shying away from its most plausible elements. Above all, the bands songwriting stays within the epic-yet-linear, building upon themes in the olde way whilst never forgetting that it's black METAL - riffs, riffs, RIFFS. And then, 37 minutes later and Ikuinen Kirous has come to completion, feeling far vaster than that compact runtime (but one ideal for full vinyl immersion). IKU-TURSO are coming to a church near you!
Compilation of the songs from the Split CDs with Oprich (2005) and Velimor (2006).
In 2020, NÔIDVA arrived with the full-length Windseller. A then-brand-new entity, the Finns featured members of labelmates SACRIFICIUM CARMEN and RIIVAUS. Although detectably Finnish black metal in sound and style, NÔIDVA uniquely focused on Laplandish shamanism - and now they return to further flesh out that vision.
Tellingly titled Lappish Shatanism, NÔIDVA's second album bears many of the same traits as its predecessor: a mysticism both magickal and more so folkloric, and a melodicism that stirs the more courageous side of one's spirit rather than immediate and irrevocable bloodlust. However, despite featuring the same four-piece lineup, Lappish Shatanism heads toward rougher, daresay-rowdier territory - more earth and dirt rather than the atmospheric undercurrents of Windseller - with that rowdiness rendering their folk affectations all the more austere and severe. Still, NÔIDVA reveal themselves to be astute practitioners of tradition, poignantly imparting a favorably late '90s aspect in form and feel; whether one wants to qualify it as "pagan" black metal matters not when faced with such stellar quality. Leads prominent but parceled out, Lappish Shatanism is thus a work of undeniable passion - never belabored, but refreshing as it is reverential. The past is still alive across Lapland!
Hateful and melodic Black Metal by IDEALISM. The debut album, "Philosophize With a Hammer", is dedicated to war against all modern, embracing the traditions and love towards the northern lands. Nothing more, nothing less.
Hailing from the always-fertile Finnish black metal scene, NACHTGNAWER are a power-trio who include among their ranks concurrent members of labelmates LICHT DES URTEILS, SACRIFICIUM CARMEN, CORAXUL, RIIVAUS, and NÔIDVA among others. Following a demo last year (which PURITY THROUGH FIRE reissued earlier this year), NACHTGNAWER now unveil a special EP featuring fellow Finnish comrade WOLFSEER. United in vampyric blood, Unholy Vampyric Supremacy isn't so much a regular split release between the two entities as it is a collaborative record. The tracklisting alternates tracks between the two, with NACHTGNAWER delivering black metal and WOLFSEER ambient, but the way the seven-song/18-minute EP plays out creates a haunting (and, at times, jarring) fever dream. For his part, WOLFSEER has years of experience in dark ambient and dungeon synth under other monikers, but here does he deliver shamanistic soundscapes that seemingly reverberate from centuries away. NACHTGNAWER are as nasty as you'd expect, given their considerable pedigree, but temper their traditional Finnish filth with copious amounts of cryogenic melody and a busier, more restless approach to songwriting. Sparse their discography may be so far, but NACHTGNAWER are no doubt on the march... If you want blood, Unholy Vampyric Supremacy's got it!
Comes with matt finish and UV spotlack!
RED VINYL
6 Tracks of raw black metal in the vein of Satanic Warmaster, Horna, Baptism and Sargeist.
Ltd 250
Split LP lim. 250
A-Side
Band: Atra Mors
EP: Aeons of Death
Atmospheric Black Metal from Finland! Project of the October Falls mastermind. Take from the second Album "Eternal Wanderer of the Night Sky" To be released as Luxus Digipak with embossed goldprints.
This split album brings together two entities - one quite prolific, the other brand-new - in the oft-overlooked UK black metal scene. ÚLFARR's name should be more than familiar to those who follow UKBM as well as the crimes of PURITY THROUGH FIRE, for mainman Dominus released the band's debut album through the label in late 2019. Now joined by vocalist Jatvardr, the reinvigorated ÚLFARR quickly whip forth a cold fury on their four exclusive tracks here. Like the '90s never ended, the duo staunchly stick to traditional black metal - no more, but definitely no less - and still come recommended for maniacs of classic Darkthrone and early Ancient. MALFEITOR follow next with four exclusive tracks of their own. The band is the work of one Nosdrahcir, who also numbers the equally-new Wretched Malediction among his current endeavors. Here, MALFEITOR exhibit a comparable grimness, but work with a more measured pace as well as a melancholic melodicism. While making the UK their home, the band's stylistic location would most certainly be Finland, of which PURITY THROUGH FIRE has had a sizable hand in fostering, as exemplified by MALUM, SARKRISTA, GOATS OF DOOM, SACRIFICIM CARMEN, KRYPTAMOK, RIIVAUS, LICHT DES URTEILS, AESTHUS, and many, MANY others. Raise the banners for UKBM!
UHRITULET is the work of one V P, who handles all vocals, instruments, and recording. Much like labelmates SARKRISTA but in reverse, UHRITULET are Finnish by geography but German in sound - specifically, the martial nastiness of olde-worlde Teutonic standard-bearers Luror and Hellfucked. Uhritulet is the band's first public recording, comprising six strident songs in 32 minutes. Pure & proud BLACK METAL, no more but definitely no less, UHRITULET's debut album strikes a blow to modernity, harkening to clandestine days of the '90s underground; the recording alone, a cold & cruel rawness akin to the French Black Legions, feels palpably physical and cannot be faked. Hooks are minimalist but maximally executed, with V P marching forward with a melancholy endemic to his homeland, and a barely concealed / simmering-to-a-boil anger guiding those hooks onward to spiritual victory. As the record plays on, Uhritulet surprises, both within the strictured-yet-textured songcraft but also the mystical synths that crop up during the album's final two songs, "Yhtenä Heistä" and "Yön Soihduissa," closing the record in climactic fashion. Folkloric filth against the modern world, UHRITULET have arrived to ruin your day with Uhritulet!
Gatefold DLP plus Bonus (The Hordes of Cain)
With a past that stretches back to the late '90s and a patient path that began in 2013 with a moniker change, Brazil's THE KRYPTIK burst forth into brilliance when they aligned with PURITY THROUGH FIRE. In the autumn of 2019 came their acclaimed second album, When the Shadows Rise, a startlingly immersive gem of symphonic black metal, and many finally took notice. A year late came the 40-minute Behold Fortress Inferno, which poignantly expanded on their vast canvas despite "only" being a mini-album. Between these two records especially, THE KRYPTIK proved that "symphonic black metal" need not be a dirty word; with no outside influence from the nowadays "black metal" scene, the duo dependably practiced their mystical arts and erected a grand citadel of sound - an atavistic awakening of when all was simply BLACK METAL, heedless of appellations.
And so it goes with THE KRYPTIK's massive third album, A Journey to the Darkest Kingdom. Truly titled, the seven-track/70-minute A Journey to the Darkest Kingdom reveals the duo's grandest vision yet: neo-ancient symphonic black metal drenched in the dark waters of the cosmos, a castle of crystalline ice whose spires reach into boundless space. The band's ebon flow continually crests and cascades, synths swirling all about and with utterly magickal effect. The production here in this Darkest Kingdom is clear and sharp - all murk excised for maximum immersion, gorgeous swell, and pulsing violence - altogether sounding incredibly vintage and era-authentic yet somehow fresher than most nowadays black metal recordings. But, that magick largely resides in THE KRYPTIK's songwriting, as each song is an epic in its own right and then are all threaded together as one fever dream: melodicism, majesty, and malice in perfect balance. Thus, A Journey to the Darkest Kingdom follows logically in THE KRYPTIK's continuum whilst pushing their creativity to even-more-breathtaking heights. Have they delivered a classic on par with Witchcraft, The Sad Realm of the Stars, or even Stormblåst? Only time shall be the judge...
