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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.

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.
 

Silver hotfoil everywhere. Strictly limited! NO REPRESS PLANNED. 300 copies and that's all.

 Highest quality of Heavy Death Doom metal from some of the most famous members from the Norwegian scene! 

Swedish black/death metal outfit Dawn returned from the chaos of the 2000s a year ago and have been steadily moving toward releasing new material since. In support of this, the band will be re-issuing its entire discography through Century Media in 2014.

Formed in 1990, DAWN quickly evolved from the pure death metal found on their first demos into a more complex, melodic, epic and atmospheric style that culminated in the masterpiece, Slaughtersun - Crown Of The Triarchy (1998). Along with DISSECTION, UNANIMATED and EUCHARIST, DAWN is considered to be one of the most underrated acts that merged death and black metal during the mid 90's.

Super jewelcase

Regular black vinyl. Gatefold cover sleeve, inner jackets features lyrics. Includes a folded 24"x24"-size single-sided poster.

Pagan black metal band formed in 1991 in Wrocław, Poland.

Graveland’s style has changed from raw black metal on the early albums to a more epic sound which is inspired by Hammerheart-era Bathory. Lyrically, on the early works Rob Darken was inspired by Celtic beliefs, now he’s Wotanism-orientated and calls his music “epic pagan metal”.