CD

Compilation of KRIEGSMASCHINE material originally issued as split releases with SZRON 2006 and INFERNAL WAR 2010. Digipack + 8 pages booklet including some previously unused artwork from the era.

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?

Hailing from the Basque country of Spain, the wretched entity called SEPULCHRAL crawled out of the coffin in 2016. Main composer, Dusk, gathered some ghouls to deliver an unrelentless form of putrid metal of death in the form of 2 demos and one EP. Now SEPULCHRAL arise from the tomb with their first full-length, packed with catchy, putrid, crusty death metal that will make you jump from your coffin!

With "Disguised Masters" released in 1999, ARCTURUS delivered a striking and for some even provocative afterthought to their previous works. The WHEN intro 'White Tie Black Noise' was followed by the new track 'Deception Genesis' and a re-recording of the classic 'Du Nordavind' before the Norwegians launched into an adventurous re-visiting of six "La Masquerade Infernale" tracks that got unapologetically treated with EBM, trip-hop, rap, ambient, and other musical means. Drawing up fresh angles onto their music, the re-imagined songs revealed the wide open mind of ARCTURUS.
 

Cacophonous atmospheres and eldritch tendrils pulls one into this marvelously eerie record and biting, scathing musicianship will hold the attentiveness of all listeners as the murk clears, showcasing a whole new realm of horrors lurking behind the veil. Gaze into The Black Mouth Of Sepulchre. See what lies beneath and hear the undying sounds of the underworld spewing through into a waking nightmare of pure death metal ecstasy.

• Ferocious Dutch death metal band 
• Stunning cover art by the masterful Paolo Girardi

Digipak CD with booklet

Five long years after their fascinating debut, Milan-based duo A Pale December deliver their sophomore album, Death Panacea. Compared to The Shrine Of Primal Fire, Death Panacea steers towards more aggressive, warring sounds. The “atmospheric black metal” label which so aptly described their debut album, is now just one of the many, partial definitions which could be used to define the band’s music.

When asked about their new opus, multi-instrumentalists Riccardo Di Bella and Ernesto Ciotola provided the following, strong statement: “While many metal albums seem to appeal to a feeling of fierceness, a call to war, an urge to fight something, we wanted to express the opposite. Death Panacea is an album about defeat and hopelessness, about the inherent futility of human strife and all our laughable attempts at masking this unescapable nature.

We wanted to praise failing and giving up, as opposed to perseverance, pride and the grinding mentality. We wanted to praise the rejects above the leaders, who naively think they can escape this race towards oblivion, and the coward above the fighting man, whose only fault was believing in the frail concept of nation and a false sense of belonging.

While distancing ourselves from these delusional sentiments, we also didn't want to fall into optimistic nihilism; the idea that the awareness of an impending void can grant any peace is simply preposterous. 

Ultimately, this is the meaning that lies behind the title of the album: death is what keeps us in check and yet is the one and only panacea to all our anguishes. In all this, one could almost find a cold comfort, knowing that the top step of the podium is eventually just a springboard to the abyss”.

Digipak CD with booklet

After two decades devoted to the dark arts within obscure black metal, Wraith (Vanquished) and Luzifaust (Kaifrun, Hostium) present a new chapter, going by the name of Vastatum.

An ancient parallelled entity born into modern existence. Rich with atmospheric maturity and an emphasis on existential impermanence, Vastatum have executed the sonic experience of passing beyond life into death’s immeasurable grasp. Thus melding the elusive soundscapes of disembodiment with the haunting distinctions of absolution. Poetic, and potent, melodic and malevolent.

Vastatum is driven by the dark innate will of creativity and the seductive allure of the occult, and Mercurial States Of Revelation is the first chapter in the band's history. A chapter written in black metal and contemplations upon human existence.

Mercurial States Of Revelation reflects upon the conceptual philosophy that since time immemorial the earth, world and existence (as we comprehend it) have been in a constant state of flux and continual transformation. Thus compelling all planetary inhabitants toward perpetual states of adaptation within a world that is rapidly evolving and transcending beyond the depths of the human species.

Through mighty riffs deeply rooted in both the classic sounds of Norway in the early ‘90s and the Cascadian tradition of the ‘00s, Vastatum find a perfect balance between the old, the contemporary and the esoteric, picturing visions of growing shadows and perishing bodies.

Definitely the most unusual release in the whole Sivyj Yar’s discography with Novgorod gusli being the main instrument.
The artist defines this album as 'neo-medieval nocturnes' and dedicates it to Yuri Mirolyubov (1892-1970), the discoverer (well, most likely, the Author) of the mysterious 'Book of Veles', literally the main influence on the Eastern European paganism revival.

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.

First release of high quality dungeon synth from Russia. MELKOR'S SPELL was born in dark winter of 2021 to create atmospheric soundscapes inspired by medieval times, worlds of J.R.R Tolkien and ancient mythologies.