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Throughout the "Suns of Perdition" tetralogy, Panzerfaust has managed to expand upon their distinct sound and infuse it with a clear vision and intensity. In the third act of the tetralogy, the band takes listeners on an incredibly immersive, yet harrowing journey to an outer darkness, documenting mankind's descent into collective madness and forcing listeners to face the mirror of a hideous reality, in all of its glorious terror, horror, and disgust.

The music contained on "The Astral Drain" is incredibly captivating and immediate, whilst retaining a strong sense of atmosphere. In particular, the intensity of the performances is truly something to behold. While many contemporaries may drift toward increased tempos in order to artificially create a sense of intensity, Panzerfaust have achieved songwriting brilliance in ensuring that every moment on "The Astral Drain" is filled with passion and purpose. This is all the more impressive as much of the material seems purposefully composed at a more mid-tempo, allowing for these songs to be embellished with stunning details in melody, primarily provided by guitars, vocal arrangements, effective ambient sections as well as incredibly precise and deep percussion work. Specifically, the drums manage to provide a solid foundation to these monolithic tracks, while offering stunning compositional diversity and creativity. Furthermore, the band's boldness in vocal performance and delivery enhances what would already be a captivating listening experience. As such, it is the fantastic compositional detail placed on each element throughout this record that elevates "The Astral Drain" to stand as Panzerfaust's most accomplished and ambitious work to this date, certainly warranting repeated listens.

The band's ability as songwriters are on full display here, as each song refuses to fall back on genre conventions, instead of allowing the music to develop organically, with movements in each song seeming to convulse and develop into new sections that drive the music forward. This is an impressive compositional achievement, as the shifts in musical form occur naturally, belying the fact that great effort was placed in the fluidity of the music, something that is often ignored in more "progressive" extreme metal.

As pertains to production, the band has managed to infuse these songs with depth and a strong sense of atmospherics that never drains out the main instruments. Produced by Greg Dawson at BWC Studios in Kingston, Ontario, and mastered by Sergei Lazar at CDM Records, Moscow, the sound of "The Astral Drain" is stunningly organic, whilst retaining clarity in all instrumental elements, an impressive accomplishment when considering the audible layers on display throughout the album. The production is warm and entrancing, perfectly fitting the compositions of the record.

Despite - or perhaps due to - this compositional and conceptual boldness, "The Astral Drain" is a profound black metal record, filled with sonic despair and darkness.

***ON LIMITED SEA BLUE CLOUDY VINYL!!! The second split release of the year from 20 Buck Spin sees the return of Terminal Nation for the first time since the crushing Holocene Extinction album released in the bleak pandemic summer of 2020. Joining them on the split is Japan’s ultra heavy kingpins Kruelty, fresh off tour dates in both the U.S. and Europe after releasing the furious A Dying Truth and Immortal Nightmare in 2020.

Reinforcing the fact of being one of the heaviest bands on the planet, Terminal Nation offer three new tracks on the A side, declaring all out war on the imperial masters pulling the world’s strings. The darkness of death metal and Bolt Thrower’s tank march matched with the ferocious power of the hardcore breakdown, the songs are teeming with a nation’s rage on the brink of boiling over into full blown chaos.

Kruelty similarly have found the sweet spot where hardcore meets old school steamrolling death and doom metal. “Suppression” and “Under Your Pressure” reveal some of the bands most punishing, structure-leveling riffs and bloodied beatdowns to date.

Additionally each vocalist from Terminal Nation and Kruelty also appear with guest vocals on a track from the other with Tatami of Kruelty appearing on Terminal Nation’s “Sacrificial Capital” and Stan Liszewski of Terminal Nation appearing on Kruelty’s “Under Your Pressure.” Heaviest split of 2022? Easily…

Drawing frequent comparisons to mind-altering progressive death metal acts, Artificial Brain have distinguished themselves from their peers through an emphasis on rich, melancholic melodic figures, contextualizing the harmonic and emotive qualities of black metal within a more aggressive death metal framework. Dissonance is threaded through elegiac, otherworldly chordal structures; saturnine tremolo melodies float along in the high registers of the instruments; guitars and bass traverse distinct paths before locking into harmonic orbit. These elements, anchored by blast beats and bellowing guttural vocals, create a sense of contrast that has come to characterize the band’s sound over the past decade. 
Artificial Brain, the group’s final recording with original vocalist Will Smith (Afterbirth), is the terminal instalment in a trilogy that includes 2014’s Labyrinth Constellation and 2017’s Infrared Horizon. Smith’s lyrics on this eponymous album take a retrospective look at the sci-fi mythology developed on the previous records, using these ideas to explore themes of isolation, madness, and the inexorability of nature. Rounding out the recording is an impressive roster of guest performers, including death metal legends Mike Browning (Nocturnus A.D.) and Luc Lemay (Gorguts) as well as long time collaborators Paulo Paguntalan (Miasmatic Necrosis) and Colin Marston (Krallice).

Here at Sidereal we take our commitment to Solar Fields very seriously.
This effort is now taking us towards one of Magnus Birgersson’s beatless albums, namely Altered - Second Movements.
Originally released in 2010 on a limited CD run and never reissued since, Altered is a reworked and beatless version of the album Movements, released one year before (and reissued by Sidereal in 2018). Such close connection can be seen in each track title, too, which clearly reminds of their original Movement version.
Altered is one of the many examples of Solar Fields ability to paint different moods, always maintaining a strong, recognizable personality. A darker, yet dreamy atmosphere permeates these eleven tracks, which wil find their way to wax for the first time ever.

Hailing from Poland and making their public debut with the demo Ancient Darkness Triumphant in 2020, TEUFELSBERG are a band out of time. The modern "black metal underground" is a vacant void to be shunned, spit upon; for the trio, the elder ways of black metal militancy reflected in the Polish underground during the glorious '90s are to be proudly upheld. And upheld they did with a successive split with comrades MINNESJORD last year, once again through the auspices of SIGNAL REX, in the process building their own dead Christ commune.

And now, TEUFELSBERG fortify it further with their full-length debut, Ordre du Diable. No great changes have been made, thankfully - cold and grim is their march, rendered in raw-yet-clear tones that remarkably retain an era-authentic vibe - but the trio's songwriting has undoubtedly advanced, moving at many speeds and effortlessly evincing a focus that's fiery and finessed in equal measure. Further, their integration of synths is subtle and tasteful, coloring Ordre du Diable in rich hues of velvety purple emanating from deepest black. More simply stated, TEUFELSBERG deliver a record that could've easily come out in 1995: that same mysticism is alive and well here, and DEAD.

Opening with a fug of crypt-dwelling ambience, and the distant howls of the bloodthirsty Wampyre, building through riff and atmosphere towards a clearer skied climax in the more epic medievalism from Ages of Blood. A perfectly ascendent split with euphoric trajectory from the raw to the radiant, balanced by the pivotal Beulenpest who features in both projects.

 A grand, dolorous meeting of unclean spirits, Memories from the Fullmoon Forest of Melancholy, in Memoriam Vrolok 1991 – 2021 compiles six exclusive songs across 50 filthy minutes from the bloodthirsty likes of WAMPYRIC RITES, DUNGEON STEEL, VAMPIRSKA, Ecuador’s sorrowful, the mysterious CRÎSSÄEGRÎM, and the brand-new AURAE LUNAE. The occasion for this malfeasance is to celebrate the death of Ecuadorian warrior Vrolok, known in the underground for his work in WAMPYRIC RITES and DUNGEON STEEL – may this compilation provide the soundtrack for his spirit to unshackle itself from the bonds of earthly reality!

V/A - Memories from the Fullmoon Forest of Melancholy, in Memorian Vrolok 1991 - 2021 - CD

Limited to 200 copies!

- Compact Disc Audio with white base

- Jewel Box standard with black tray

- Booklet for Compact Disc 4-page printed on 180g matte paper

Furious violent black / death metal, tracked live for extra rawness

Fantastic cover art executed perfectly by Italian master Paolo Girardi

Furious violent black / death metal, tracked live for extra rawness

Fantastic cover art executed perfectly by Italian master Paolo Girardi

Guitarist and singer Heljarmadr (Dark Funeral) expressed his thoughts: “Flame Of Hephaestus” is the first single from our new album Lycaon. We feel that it is a good representative for the album and it carries an intensity that kinda connects it with our last album Väsen. It serves as a natural bridge, if you will.

Flame Of Hephaestus brings us back to our early days, when we were including more influences from Greek mythology, alongside the ancient Scandinvian cult. It is therefore also quite suitable that Lycaon was mixed and mastered in Greece. Mixed by Terry Nikas and mastered by George Nerantzis”.

The Flame Of Hephaestus artwork was created by Italian artist Roberto Toderico, while the B-side, ”Stella Polaris”, is a single exclusive instrumental track, written by guitarist Maugrim. This is his first contribution for Grá as a composer.