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Back in stock - Extreme Metal and Dark music
In December 2021, AVSKRÄDE emerged from storms of old with their debut full-length for PURITY THROUGH FIRE, Det stora tunga sjuka. Hailing from Sweden, the duo dutifully reinvigorated ancient Scandinavian black metal, both from Norway as well as their native land. No more but definitely no less, Det stora tunga sjuka was traditional BLACK METAL Exclusively: pure freezing fire, nasty and rustic and primitive but not without nuance.
And so it goes, a full two years later, with AVSKRÄDE's Undergång. Whereas the duo's debut reminded of Darkthrone's "Peaceville trilogy" and Malicious-era Gorgoroth, here on their second album do they kick up the nastiness and let the (freezing) filth flow freely, nodding to such underrated Darkthrone tomes as Total Death or even Ravishing Grimness. Indeed is AVSKRÄDE's grimness ravishing across Undergång, but compared to successive disciples as early Craft and Armagedda, the duo incorporate a slight bit more melody into proceedings - at times haunting, others anxious, but always hammered with cruel efficiency. And if there's one phrase to characterize AVSKRÄDE at this point, it's "cruelly efficient"; their songwriting is stripped to the fucking bone, but every note and hit is fucking RIGHT, and their live-in-the-rehearsal-room execution is blanching in its tightness. And once again, the album maintains a richly Grieghallen-esque production for maximum authenticity. Winter is looming, so hasten its arrival with Undergång!
The release of "De Dunkla Herrarna" was delayed for over a year because Lik tried to strangle Svartedöden causing the band to be put on halt.
Now available on cd too...
One of the most imposing and revered bands in black metal's underground for the past decade, BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ have built a literally towering body of work. The band is yet another creative vehicle of Ancient Records linchpin Swartadauþuz (Azelisassath, Digerdöden, Gnipahålan, Musmahhu, Mystik, Summum, Trolldom, Daudadagr, as well as current labelmates GREVE and MUVITIUM), but it's largely BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ where the man has most built his legacy. To date, three official albums have been released - 2010's de dunkla herrarna, 2019's De fördolda klangorna, and last year's literally massive De Fornas Likgaldrar double-album, which featured over two hours of re-recorded material, recast as a whole new experience - and a literal bounty of demos, each one arguably greater and grander than most band's actual albums, that have equally put a frightening new(er) face on Swedish black metal, by turns becoming the nowadays face of the form.
Written and recorded in a handful of days, the four epic, emotive songs on offer pass the 47-minute mark
There are a lot of dreamy, expansive, spacey, cosmic passages included
atmospheric Black Metal.
There’s a lot of melody at work and blastbeats are totally eschewed
in favour of slow- to mid-paced observations backboned by drums that genuinely sound like
they were recorded in an ice cave.
This record is mysterious, authentic, ancient yet ageless cold, cold, cold BM magic from the darkest shores of Sweden.
Ascolta su SoundCloud
Winter Suicide (2007) Demo
Verzweiflung (2008) - Full Lenght
Ambient Stuff
When FLAGG burst from the void in June 2020 with their debut album, Nothing But Death, the veil of secrecy had yet to be lifted. Which mattered not, when presented with black metal of such sterling quality: both ancient and ageless, old yet new. Their attack was immediately intense, exhibiting a restlessness that's roiling and raging, always moving but always with a target in sight. Eventually, it was revealed that FLAGG hailed from Finland and was the work of selfsame multi-instrumentalist Flagg, who was a part of reanimated old Finnish cult Annihilatus, and vocalist Tyrant, whose hordes include the esteemed likes of MALUM, Infernarium, and Kalmankantaja.
With that lineup thus set, FLAGG return little more than a year later with their second full-length, Cosmic Chaos Manifest. An immediately harsher spin than its not-inconsiderable predecessor, Cosmic Chaos Manifest duly lives up to its title through a shapeshifting style of ultraviolence that retains a unique gleam, one that's paradoxically grittier for all its seemingly on-the-surface clarity. As ever, FLAGG's songwriting strikes true through a skillful balance between burning fire and nightsky melodicism, here actually sounding more richly 1990s - specifically, the oft-overlooked late '90s - than the comparatively modernist grime of Nothing But Death. But, just like that bolt-from-the-blue debut, FLAGG understand archaic expressions, the Old Language of Black Metal, where medieval atmosphere and ghostly portent informed even the most straightforward forms, rendering an air of aristocracy to that of belligerent bravado; now, they're just rendered in more restless, dizzying form.
FROSTEN is the most recent creation of prolific UK underground veteran Azrael, who also numbers such entities as Heathen Deity, Helvellyn, Torver, and now-labelmates THY DYING LIGHT among his many current endeavors. As FROSTEN, the duo of Azrael and session drummer Julian Foster play True English Black Metal. Their debut album, With Sigils and Infernal Signs, was originally released in 2020 on cassette only, and now PURITY THROUGH FIRE steps forward to unleash this blast of cryogenic fire on CD format. Almost effortlessly, FROSTEN skillfully exude a classic atmosphere of the late '90s, brimming with the stultifying violence and cold, hard gleam of early Enthroned, Setherial, and Thy Primordial but with a subtly British aspect, most especially in the oft-melodic (and tastefully so) riffing. Grim and bare it With Sigils and Infernal Signs!
One of the most fully formed black metal entities of recent times, GRANITADER burst into brilliance with their debut full-length, Der Wald zwischen den Welten. After but an EP last year, the German quintet's first full-length displays a masterful grasp of songwriting and dynamics as well as confidence and charisma to spare. GRANITADER are old souls who exude the effervescence of the new; their continually cresting surge recalls pagan touchstones like Windir, Falkenbach, or Germany's Horn closer to home, as well as Drudkh's more cinematic moments. However, the wind beneath the wings of Der Wald zwischen den Welten is the album's overarching theme: a homage to their - as well as PURITY THROUGH FIRE's - home area of Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains that are an UNESCO world heritage site, as well as older German history. Truly, it all comes together as one breathtaking blast of classically austere German black metal, but poignantly brimming with a heroic, almost-positive aspect that's simply impossible to deny. The spiraling lead-work is categorically sublime, and helps elevate GRANITADER to the top of today's pagan black metal pack. Completing this complete package is the professional & powerful production, encasing their bravado in a sheen wholly befitting of its majesty. Let GRANITADER guide you through Der Wald zwischen den Welten!
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!
re-issue of the demo Goats to Azazael, remastered for vinyl.
200x oxblood 10" (110g) in a black paper bag, innersleeve printed full-color on 220g carton (coated paper), jacket full-color printed on 350g carton, coated paper (semi-gloss), all assembled in a plastic overbag.
