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Reissue 2025

Comes with king-size, multipages book and this edition in "Andromeda" colors effect

t’s about time to reveal all the faces of the night! Moonlight Sorcery will release their first full-length album entitled Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle on September 29th. Expect nothing but an ice cold blizzard that will conquer your castles, crumble your towers and withhold the daylight forever!

Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle is a perfect combination of the atmosphere from Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity and the rawness of Nightwind: The Conqueror from the Stars, the band’s two EPs released in 2022 and early 2023.

Moonlight Sorcery wants to raise the bar, and these new nine songs have even more melodic hooks and shreddy guitar work. Frozen synth walls further develop the Finnish trio’s unique sound, a vibe you cannot find in any other black metal record.

Horned Lord Of The Thorned Castle follows a specific narrative, and its nine compositions tell a single tale, with every song starting where the previous one left off. “Basically, our debut could be a single 44-minute song”, the band said. Yet, the pleasure of learning such a tale is yours. Prepare, wanderer, to meet the Horned Lord of the Thorned Castle!

Mixed and mastered at Unisound by legendary producer and musician Dan Swanö

Gatefold sleeve, clear vinyl, limited 200

Nortt fifth album

Media Condition: Mint (M) 
Sleeve Condition: Mint (M)

Debut album of Post Punk/Black Metal project AVES, Cold?Grey, Solitude and melancholy. If you like Amesoeurs or Lantlôs don't miss FEATHERS!

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Il ritorno degli ARCTURUS: una delle band più influenzalli della scena norvegese

cd digipack

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.

Having grown out of the Norwegian Death Metal band MORTEM, ARCTURUS emerged under the irresistible influence of Oslo's creatively bursting and fast rising underground black metal scene officially with the two-track 7" "My Angel" (1991). With then-guitarist and formidable keyboard player Sverd and MAYHEM drum-beast Hellhammer at its core, vocals were first contributed by Marius Vold, who also sang on the legendary THORNS demo "The Thule Tape". While still very much influenced by death metal, the addition of doom-laden slowness and eerie keyboards already pointed into a far blacker cosmos. On the four tracks of the original 1994 "Constellation" EP, ULVER's Garm had taken over the vocal duties and Samoth from EMPEROR had joined the band on guitar. Yet, ARCTURUS already went off the (in reality quite wide-ranged) black metal norms mainly due to Sverd's keyboard arrangements that were pre-shadowing the trademark theatrical or circus-like style the Norwegians adopted on their following albums.
 

On their sophomore full-length "La Masquerade Infernale" (1997), ARCTURUS took their musical experimenting three ambitious steps further. The Norwegians succeeded in wedding a devilish concept loosely based on the characters of Faust and Mephistopheles with an eclectic range of surreal sound elements into an album that is rightfully considered a prime example of what later came to be known as avant-garde metal. From quoting Edgar Allan Poe in operatic paraphrases by frontman Garm (ULVER) or the additional high notes from the unmistakable I.C.S. Vortex (BORKNAGAR) via the spaced-out electronic samples, classical instrumentation, and an even increased use of psychedelic guitar riffage alongside more "traditional" black and death metal elements. Brilliant guitarist Knut Magne Valle replaced Carl August Tideman, which brought stability to this position of the band's line-up. ARCTURUS aimed dangerously high with "La Masquerade Infernale" – but remarkably pulled off the extremely difficult feat of forging such widely differing elements into a wildly fascinating, over the top listening experience that has stood the test of time and surely deserves to be labelled a "masterpiece".

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.
 

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Edizione statbdard in digipack / digipack edition

Gli Empyrium ritornano con un nuovo album dopo dodici anni di silenzio alternato a poche comparse (compilation, live album ecc)
Questa versione è un hardcover book di 48 pagine in 777 copie
Sarà disponibile anche in normale digipack a prezzo standard (per queste non serve preordine)

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2014 CD Digipak re-issue.
Includes bonus track "Heimwärts (Live In Bochum 2012)" and extended booklet.

The album is parted into three chapters:
Heidestimmung (track 1-6)
Waldpoesie (track 7)
Wassergeister (track 8-12)

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reissue 2014
 

2014 CD Digipak re-issue.
Includes bonus track "Many Moons Ago (Live In Bochum 2012) " and extended booklet.

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