CD

CD in deluxe Digipak with 8-page booklet

There are few funeral doom bands out there that manage to express sorrow and despair in such a majestic and beautiful manner as SHAPE OF DESPAIR. The Finns’ latest full-length is a product of their environment, enveloping the listener in cold, eternal darkness like a lonely Finnish winter. And much like the long, funereal winters of their homeland, the atmosphere in ‘Return to the Void’ is bleak but ethereal. The funeral doom icons do not merely offer a soundtrack to one’s agony, but also demonstrate the beauty that can often be found in misery.

For fans of FUNERAL, MOURNFUL CONGREGATION, BELL WITCH, AHAB, EVOKEN.

Noircure is the musical endeavor of multi-instrumentalist Raffaele Galasso from Apulia, Southern Italy. Albeit born in 2021, Noircure comes after years of experience and hard work in a number of different underground projects, managing to be both something completely new and perfectly self-aware as well.

Galasso describes his latest one-man band as follows: “Noircure was born in 2021 as the result of blending two of my great passions: atmospheric black metal and certain shoegaze and new wave sounds. I recorded, mixed and mastered Kyrie inspired by these musical atmospheres, favoring improvisation in the recording phase, preferring "natural" sounds over production editing and trying to limitate effects as much as possible. I wanted Kyrie to personify a living entity capable of communicating a wide range of emotions in the most direct way possible. In order to do this, I tried to recreate all the sounds that I had figured out in my head only with my guitar and without the use of synths”.

The result is an honest, breathtaking album, plunging into the depths of blackgaze, where guitars are paramount, accompanied by a wide range of vocal styles, adding some Mediterranean vibes which make Klimt 1918 come to mind. If the likes of Alcest, Lantlôs and Sadness are part of your everyday music digest, Noircure will surely leave its mark.

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.

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.

Six panels digipak CD

Sgàile is the solo project of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Tony Dunn, a venture that was a long time in the making due to Dunn’s commitments with other bands such as Falloch, Cnoc An Tursa and Saor. “For almost a decade, I had concentrated on playing other people's songs, singing other people's lyrics, and not feeling that I had an identity of my own. The name Sgàile means "ghost" or "shade" in Gaelic, and this was born from the fact that I didn't quite "fit in" with the Scottish Black Metal scene that these bands were an integral part of”.

In August 2018, Dunn parted ways with Saor in an amicable manner. It was then and there that “I decided to really concentrate on putting out a body of work that I could put my own name to and be proud of”. Sgàile was officially born. Ideals & Morality was conceived, composed and recorded in most of its parts in late 2019/early 2020. At this point Mike Lamb (Sojourner, Light Field Reverie) was brought on board for the mixing and mastering. “He had a look at the quality of the recordings, and gave me a great deal of advice, so much that in late summer 2020 we decided the best course of action was to re-record all of the guitars and bass from scratch. So in essence, Ideals & Morality was recorded twice”. 

Musically and lyrically, Sgàile’s debut is an emotional record. “It is a record that I feel is both melancholy and quite dark in places, but uplifting and inspiring in others, as during the recording sessions I felt like I was in quite a low place at times mentally, but the actual writing process itself lifted my spirits. I feel that the album certainly has the potential to both haunt and elate in equal measure”. Lyrically, it's almost a stream of consciousness of various aspects of Tony’s psyche, dealing with his love for Scottish mountains (“The Summit”), the feeling of becoming a parent (“Instinct”) or even the experiences of the past decade (“Facade”). Every song comes from its own background, making Ideals & Morality a multifaceted experience. “The album is almost like a peek at what goes on inside my head. My ideals and my moral compass are what have guided me on my path as an artist since being thrust into the music industry and will stick with me through the rest of my journey, wherever that may lead”.

First Album from this Atmospheric Appalachian Black Metal Band.

Digipack with 8 pages Booklet limited to 500 Copies

REISSUE ON THEIR NEW LABEL OSMOSE

CD in Digipak with 20-page booklet.

An early progenitor of funeral doom, Norway's FUNERAL have returned with ’Praesentialis in Aeternum’, their first new album in nearly a decade! The quartet bring forth a soul-rending offering that is rife with agony and pain, providing a fitting soundtrack for the times. Crushing, mournful passages and soaring lead breaks amplify its sorrowful atmosphere, and are certain to rive the heart, mind, and soul of listeners.

For fans of: EVOKEN, AHAB, MOURNING BELOVETH