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Back in stock - Extreme Metal and Dark music
From moniker to visual aesthetic and especially to the sonics themselves, HERALDIC BLAZE are encapsulating the oft-nebulous "medieval black metal" idiom with startling aplomb. While it's often difficult to discern exactly what medieval BM is other than a pithy "I know it when I hear it," HERALDIC BLAZE leave no doubt as to their intentions.
Witness their debut demo, Blazoned Heraldry. The duo of American multi-instrumentalist Argent Pale (vocals, bass, flute) and Norwegian guitarist Peregrinus (HJEMSØKT, SOLUS GRIEF, KVAD, UNHOLY CRAFT) create a spellbinding tapestry of rustic tones and textures. In fact, on texture alone - kinda clean and clanging, yet with more than a hint of ghostly grit and almost surfy reverb - HERALDIC BLAZE stand out, but it's how they utilize those textures in the service of songwriting: winding and wild, frothing up to an almost-dangerous delirium, but more often than not leaving wide-open spaces to let their medieval melodicism bend and sway with bravado and bittersweetness. And as actual flute flutters in from time to time, the sum effect, more often than not, is ALIEN - unsettling and alluring in equal measure.
While "merely" a demo recording, HERALDIC BLAZE's first work already trounces most modern works of "black metal." Unorthodox and unbound, Blazoned Heraldry is mandatory listening for fans of Sühnopfer, Ungfell, Grylle, Heltekvad, and particularly mid-2000s Peste Noire.
Post-black metal duo Olhava is back with Sacrifice, a new studio record, almost two years after the release of their acclaimed album Reborn.
Clocking in at the megalithic length of eighty-six minutes, Sacrifice is a collection of long, mesmerizing and melancholic anthems for longing souls which will carve deep into the feelings of any blackgaze fan.
As Olhava themselves describe it, “Sacrifice is the necessary step for one to be Reborn. It’s the ultimate point of no return. Everything one used to value will turn to ash and be forgotten. For only by stripping ourselves of everything we know and have can we truly separate our Self from our Ego. Only by burning ourselves can we enjoy peace among stars. But the end is also the beginning. Beginning of new values, a new self built from dust”.

Since 2005, Greece's SAD have been a madly prolific bastion of pure 'n' cold black metal. Their canon is vast and varied - VERY relatively so, given that this is all-caps BLACK METAL after all - with the longstanding duo of instrumentalist Ungod and vocalist Nadir exploring the darkest corridors of their souls every step of the way. They did so across a half-dozen albums for such esteemed labels as Drakkar, Obscure Abhorrence, and Old Temple among others as well as a dozen splits, but then joined forces with PURITY THROUGH FIRE in 2020 for the release of their seventh album, Misty Breath of Ancient Forests, and again in 2023 for Black Metal Craft.
Proudly remaining in the PURITY THROUGH FIRE stronghold, SAD return with their ninth(!) album, Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening. While its title might be something of an aesthetic misnomer - this is NOT bestial metal, thankfully - Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening does keep intact the nastiness of Black Metal Craft, making for a complementary record to its cantankerous predecessor. SAD here are characteristically unconcerned with anything in "black metal" during this millennium, still harkening to the glorious late '90s heyday of Sombre Records or the aforementioned Drakkar and yet tempered with the wisdom & resolve surely established by a band who've been around 25 years now. No more but definitely no less, Fullmoon's Bestial Awakening is raw & ripping orkishness shot through with a touch of the melancholic but all stirred malevolently, where hypnotic speed - cruise, gallop, headbang, or any combination thereof - often rights itself into something somewhat regal or at least triumphant. And just like that not-inconsiderable predecessor, SAD's ninth full-length similarly stretches toward the epic, encompassing eight songs in 55 minutes of righteous obsidian splendor. Cold, old, and still no surrender!
Limited edition, gatefold colored vinyl + sleeve with UV spot overprint
Pressed on blue marble heavy vinyl. Comes with a download card. Side D contains no music but features a black screen print. Colors on final records may vary to a degree from the mockup.
"The Purging" is a madness overdose, a harrowing album that redefines the limits of abyssal Black Metal, poisonous Hardcore, creepy Noise Rock and Avant-Garde insanity.
This reissue comes in a Digipack packaging with original artwork encased in a slipcase with new artwork crafted by Dehn Sora. An exclusive "tarot" card is included with all copies. Audio content is identical to the Trust No One Recordings version.
Repress on grey/black marbled vinyl, housed in gatefold 350 gsm coated sleeve. Includes double sided insert printed on 140 gsm matt paper and A2 poster printed on 150gsm art-paper.
An EP featuring DsO's track from the Crushing the Holy Trinity compilation. Vinyl version.
The LP comes in Gatefold Cover, black flood inside and an A2 poster of the coverartwork.
3rd press
Remains of a ruined dead cursed soul, The original album was called "Evil, the gestalt of abomination" and was supposed to be released in 1992. Due to label issues it finally saw the light in 1999 with the actual tittle... Rough and not perfectly executed, it represents the really start of Mutiilation.
Reprint, 500x marble (transparent red/black) 12" (140g) in a black poly-lined innersleeve, gatefold jacket printed on 350g carton, coated paper, all assembled in a plastic overbag.