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For the last two decades, Portuguese Black Metal have been carving its unhallowed dagger in the heart of the Underground with a myriad of entities devoted to the darkest, most ignominious edges of such Sacred Art. One of the most emblematic and infamous hordes spawned from that cluster of void were satanic mercenaries Infernüs. Handling its heinous path for almost 20 years, the group have summoned an array of demos dating back to the early 2000s, vicious onslaughts that hatched a cult status to the band and left a trail of chaos and destruction in the cauldron of the Underground of said times. After a last 2007 recording and a series of memorable live rites, Infernüs vanished towards an unfathomable slumber, a silence which left a cloud of uncertainty on the minds of devotees of the group’s malignant fire and one which in 2016 ceased to persist after an astounding return, on a special occasion. Emerging from the infernal pits of Hell, Infernüs engraved its trail of blood and putrid flesh at the Invicta Requiem Mass I, a distinct ritual with fellow Portuguese nefarious ensemble Mons Veneris. Recorded for posterity, the ceremony cast on a bleak October night in 2016 was a memorable primeval assault which presented the band in full strength with its imperial blast of madness and diabolical fervor for delight of a pack of rabid adherents under the spell of its infernal hounds. During the 45-minute strike, the Portuguese titans have gathered a roast of new anthems of satanic fanaticism and dreadful hymns from the dark past that painted the walls in blood and brought forth the fire and death worship of pure unprecedented sacrilegious might. The blast of every expelled word endorsed a frenzy of devilish and chaotic possession from the blazing crowd, a reaction and assent that attested the charisma of the arrangements, combined with a rhythmic display of power and skill, the dynamic backbone to such psalms’ strain and potent edge and one which is here captured with outright power and vibrancy. The ungodly hymn Cristo em Chamas stands as a highlight of an infernal performance and evening of boundless, blasphemous Black Metal, a profane sermon attesting the strength and craft of the Portuguese scenery and one of its most charismatic forces. Released on a joint conspiracy between Harvest of Death and Purodium Rekords on a 12” LP edition, limited to 300 copies (100 white vinyl, 200 black vinyl), Live at Requiem Mass I stands as an uncanny testament to the revenge of the bloodlust behemoth Infernüs, a night of absolute worship to the Black Arts, carved for the next thousand years of darkness and ruin.

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!

Digipak CD with 12 pages booklet

Ysyry Mollvün is a conceptual project created by Zupai Ulen in 2012. In November 2015, Antonio Sanna (Downfall Of Nur) met Zupai and offered to be the producer. As time passed by, Sanna got involved in the crating of this project, composing arrangements for acoustic guitars and native instruments such as the charango, sikus, flutes and percussions. The band’s name comes from the words “river” in the Guaraní language, indigenous people from South America (Ysyry) and “blood” in the language of Selk'nam people, the indigenous tribe from southern Argentina (Mollvün).

Ysyry Mollvün tells the story of K'aux, a being that was once a human who was educated by the Selk’nam gods to teach the tribe what was necessary to outlive in the harsh conditions of the extreme south of the world. K'aux betrayed his oath and did not pass on what he learned, and for this reason he was condemned to lie forever, neither dead nor alive, in the center of the earth.

A thousand years later Espíritu del Monte, the god who punished K'aux couldn't understand what happened to the other deities since, except for the god of death (San la Muerte), they were no longer on this earth. All had changed, the people who lived on this earth were more, the flora and fauna that had inhabited no longer existed and everything that was for thousands of years was longer as it had been. Because of this, el Espíritu del Monte decides to wake up K'aux so that he can see with his human's eyes what happened and what must be done so that everything goes back to what once was.

It is never easy to follow up with another album, especially considering the impact made by the complex wild flight of musical fantasy of "La Masquerade Infernale". ARCTURUS elegantly solved this conundrum by releasing the comparatively more straightforward third full-length, "The Sham Mirrors" in 2002. This does not mean that the Norwegians had lost their appetite for experiments. The vocals by Garm (ULVER) are more soaring and wide-ranging than ever on this release, while main man Steinar "Sverd" Johnsen keeps adding classic prog rock excursions to his repertoire. Yet, the guitars are more often set to a more conventional metal mode on "The Sham Mirrors". Still complex, still avant-garde, ARCTURUS clearly consolidated their compositions on "The Sham Mirrors" and while still using many sonic elements, those rather serve each individual song than try to stick out.

Following their early EPs "My Angel" (1991) and "Constellation" (1994), ARCTURUS finally released their debut album "Aspera Hiems Symfonia" in 1996. The Norwegians derived their name from the brightest star of the Northern hemisphere and were obviously influenced by the massively expanding black metal scene of their homeland. Already featuring such well-known protagonists as ULVER's Garm and MAYHEM's Hellhammer, the line-up on "Aspera Hiems Symfonia" saw Samoth replaced by excellent guitarist Carl August Tidemann and outstanding ULVER bass player Hugh "Skoll" Mingay also joining the band. Despite their audible black roots, ARCTURUS clearly begged to differ by daring to experiment and adding an avant-garde twist with strange sonorous vocals complementing those piercing shrieks, Sverd's cinematic keyboards, the technical guitar solos, and more elements that to this day mark the band from Oslo as progressive innovators.

Turkey may seem an unlikely land for Death Metal of supreme quality to hail from (at least for those who are not yet aware of its brooding underground scene), yet it is home to many of the finest acts of the genre historically and currently.

One of these heavyweights are DIABOLIZER whom have returned from the depths to follow their 2016 EP with a debut full length. Blisteringly heavy from the very onset with a ruthless set of tight guitar work, technical yet old school atop a mountainous array of blasting drum work with such ferocity that all temples will shake in the sonic fury of DIABOLIZER.

The rupturing vitriol of the vocals is equally daunting with the full band delivering such a precise and extreme example of Turkish Death Metal that happily lives up to the legacies of the scene, unsurprisingly as the whole band features in a plethora of other superb bands too.

This cavernous and punishing album punches in with a full 47 minutes of superior Death Metal artistry that conjures Lovecraftian visions with tormenting brutality and uncompromising quality that will severely injure all whom do not approach this monolith of creatively diverse and utterly obliterating music carefully.

LP in galaxy effect, oxblood with green. Printed innersleeve

Info: se sei un sottoscrittore del "Circle of Wax" di Avantgarde Music, questo album sarà incluso nel bundle #3 (Febbraio)

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”.

Limited to one-press only, 300 copies

Info: se sei un sottoscrittore del "Circle of Wax" di Avantgarde Music, questo album sarà incluso nel bundle #3 (Febbraio)

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.

Blue vinyl - official 2022 reissue