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Back in stock - Extreme Metal and Dark music
Sgàile is the artistic endeavour of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Tony Dunn, of which Avantgarde Music released the overlooked, yet greatly crafted debut Ideals & Morality in december 2021. Two years later, the talented Scot is back with his sophomore opus, Traverse The Bealach, which he describes as follows.
“When I started the Sgàile project in 2018, and through the writing and recording of Ideals & Morality, I wasn’t sure that anyone would take to the style, or even care. This time around I knew I had a small audience that enjoyed what I was doing so I felt free to create from pure instinct.
With that freedom came focus and direction, which led me to create a concept album, a venture that I had never previously attempted. What this did was create a driven narrative that brought a maturity to the Sgàile sound.
Through the recording process, there was a feeling of refinement, taking the lessons I learned from Ideals & Morality and carefully honing them to improve the overall production. Working with Mike Lamb (Sojourner, Remina) for a second time really helped to pin down the sonic quality that I was looking for.
The story of Traverse The Bealach is that of a nomadic traveller in post-apocalyptic Scotland, trying to figure out his fate and facing the elements while travelling north, battling inner demons along the way. Thematically, the inspiration came from the events of the pandemic, our ongoing battle with climate change, and my fascination with long distance trekking.”
Ole Alexander Halstensgård, Kristoffer Rygg, Tore Ylwizaker and Stian Westerhus – went full isolation in their studio below the haunted hill, fantasizing about bygone nights of slasher, exploitation, and giallo. Three or four months went by, the band returned to the living, and sent their radiophonic workshop experiments off to the Dogs of Doom, France, where friend and fellow film freak, Carpenter Brut did a razor-sharp mix before taking it to Thibault Chaumont (Deviant Lab) for the master.
Scary Muzak, on one hand a homage to Carpenter’s themes – five out of twelve tracks are covers whereas the rest comes from the outer realms – and on the other zooming out on the aesthetics of the late ’70s and early ’80s popular culture. It is perhaps the Norwegians’ most hauntological moment, whirling up themes and moods, horrors and mysteries hidden in the foggy back alleys of your youth. Imagine the gloomy siblings of Les Humphries, Gert Wilden, and their respective orchestras, armed to their teeth with synths, pads, FX. Sometimes classy and chilling, other times amusingly smooth and sleazy, and at times outright beautiful in its suspense-filled vigour, Scary Muzak is an inspired, goblinesque addition to the ever-expanding Ulver catalogue. Interior films, remember?
Atra Vetosus, The Atmospheric / Melodic Black Metal band from Australia is back with their 3rd full length album after 3 years of silence. Their newest opus entitled: “Undying Splendour” is the follow up of their 2021 EP “Even the Dawn No Longer Brings Hope”.
Compared to the early works of the band, you can hear a solid change in style. Where the band used to lean towards the Melodic Black Metal genre, it is fair to say that since the release of Apricity in 2018 that the band has been evolving and slowly changed their musical direction towards the Atmospheric side of the Black Metal genre.
The album comes with a 24 page booklet and full artwork design. Limited to 500 copies on CD.Ars Veneficium, one of Belgium’s most prominent black metal acts is back with their 3rd full length album “The Lurking Shadow of Death”, 4 years after the release of their 2nd full length album “Usurpation of the Seven”.
With their new album The Lurking Shadow of Death it is clear that Ars Veneficium has not taken the song writing for granted and managed to overthrow their previous work once more with delivering only the best of their best on this record. From the compositions to the production to the artwork, one can undoubtedly say that this is their best work thus so far.
The lead guitars by Ronarg deliver some amazing melodies variated with some aggressive chords where the bass guitar (once again) plays some beautiful underlaying solo notes to create that extra atmosphere which is more or less the Ars Veneficium signature by now. The drum work has been delivered by no one else than Flo Musil (Theotoxin) who blasts his way throughout the album with some outstanding, highly skilled details giving the extra punch that this album absolutely deserves. The vocals by S. are more furious than before and deliver a much wider range and diversity which lifts the whole album to a new level.
With The Lurking Shadow of Death, Ars Veneficium has delivered an absolute beast of a black metal album that every fan of old school, satanic or melodic black metal would appreciate! Raging black metal filled with atmosphere, melodies and pumping energy! A must have!
