CD

Collector's Edition in 4-panel digipack with 12-page booklet, limited to 500 copies.

Skratte was founded as a solo-project by Hevnbrann in 2012 in order to materialize his musical vision. Inspired by the coldness and brutality of Norwegian Black Metal as well as the characteristic versatility and harmonious playing of the French, Skratte combines the most diverse elements and motives in its distinct sounds.

While “Akt I” still had more of a classic, melodic Black Metal orientation with Folk elements, Hevnbrann allows “Akt II” to rise up against the boundaries of conventional Folk Black Metal, often crossing them and merging furious Black Metal with epic male vocals, Gothic Rock reminiscences, monumental acoustic arrangements and melancholic violins into a totally unique soundscape that reaches out to listeners and then draws them in relentlessly.

Thematically, “Akt II” gives a voice to the nature spirits and accompanies them on an emotional journey that takes them ever onwards, struggling and striving against the turmoil of today’s world.

Collector's Edition in Digipack with 12-page fold-out booklet with the lyrics on one side and a map of the territory on the other, limited to 500 copies.

While “Chapter One” told about a group of adventurers and their travel to distant Valdura, “Chapter Two” focuses on the arrival of Aryun and his companions in that mythical realm. Unexpectedly drawn into a long simmering conflict between the corrupt government and the resistance in Valdura’s capital Tordal, they meet the female resistance leader Tabe who informs them of the plight they just encountered.

For songwriter Erech the six songs on “Chapter Two” are the logical continuation of the music on the debut, with perhaps a bit less overall focus on straightforward melodic Black Metal and instead playing with influences from Power Metal and atmospheric Black Metal sprinkled with classic Folk songwriting. To that end, and more often than on the debut, the throaty, intoxicating voice of Circe takes center stage besides the raspy Black Metal vocals of Erech, and there she truly shines.

The creative centers of Obsequiae and Inexorum come together as one in the preeminent new force known as Majesties. To those familiar with the individual pieces that make up Majesties, the sound on debut album ‘Vast Reaches Unclaimed’ will be another striking addition to their respective oeuvres, recalling the glorious days of Wrong Again and No Fashion Records.

Evoking a time when Gothenburg was starting to unseat Stockholm as the unimpeachable city for Swedish Death Metal in the mind of the international metal scene, Majesties have that intrinsic sense of Death Metal’s rabid intensity and the effortlessly satisfying melodic ability that made albums like ‘The Jester Race’ and its immediate forbears instant classics. The mix of major key melodies and twin guitar harmonies snaking through every track ornament the vigorous riff eruptions and anguished vocals in a sheen of gleaming brilliance that proves an exhilarating triumph to behold.

Without a hint of the corruption the style experienced in a post ‘Slaughter of the Soul’ world, ‘Vast Reaches Unclaimed’ exists as a fervent reminder of what was and what again shall be. Majesties are re-animating the corpse of the true Melodic Death Metal style that both divided and invigorated the Death Metal scene of the mid 1990s and bring it into 2023 like it never left, sounding as novel and thrilling as ever

third press .................... Jewelcase edition 03/2023

With their sophomore album Imperative Imperceptible Impulse, Ad Nauseam took a step forward in terms of composition, musical structures and sound. Music is not intended as a mere sequence of riffs that sounds well one after the other, but is now a naturally ordered structure where almost every musical event refers to the past and/or predicts the future, generating very layered and complex patterns dominated by polyphony and polyrhythms and where each instrument has its own role and is essential in the whole. The music represents a merging of many different styles, the most prominent ones being extreme death/black metal, avantgarde, jazz, post-core, doom/sludge and ambient. 

The composition process of Imperative Imperceptible Impulse has been heavily influenced by 20th century classical composers like Stravinsky, Šostakóvič, Xenakis, Scelsi, Penderecki and Ligeti, to name a few. Both the concepts of harmony and melody have been put into discussion to get a music where harmony is obtained by means of disharmony and melody by dissonances. To push this method even further, a unique tuning system has been conceived, to allow a new harmonic vocabulary and to eradicate the players from the comfort zone of the usual melodic patterns every guitar/bass player is used to.

Project of Lord Vrăjitor (Warmoon Lord, Old sorcery)

Gone are the days of high adventure, but there are portals and webways that cross paths with our mundane lives. Prepare your journey to the war-torn, magical and baroque world of Argenthorns!

A new, mysterious, symphonic black metal project from the land of the thousand lakes will take you on an epic cloak and dagger adventure. Argenthorns is the solo endeavor of Mason Rofocale, multi-instrumentalist and narrator of our tale, who will recount unspeakable perils and obscure enemies. A quest was laid, and The Ravening marks the first chapter of Mason Rofocale’s occult chronicle through lands unknown!

A black metal tale told the way it used in the ‘90s, with piercing screams, fascinating keyboards and icy cold riffs, for fans of (early) Dimmu Borgir, Bal-Sagoth, Odium and Limbonic Art.

Cursebinder was born in 2019 in Kraków, Poland, combining black and doom metal influences with an eye for unrestrained experimentation. Pursuing diverse influences and drawing from post rock, shoegaze, avantgarde and progressive metal, they developed a sound entirely of their own.

ISON new album! Digipak CD with booklet

Immaculate Hearts Will Triumph is the third full length by Atmospheric/Post-Black Metal band Great Cold Emptiness. It is also the final part in "The Becoming of a Man" trilogy.

This is an album about forgiveness and companionship among friends. An album about understanding the self, and its place in the modern world, as well as the reminder that you are never truly alone. It is an album about the triumph of the heart and overcoming the most difficult stages in a man's life: him finally leaving home.