CD

CD in jewel case

Carried on the brisk wind of eager rock, with foundations in black, thrash, doom and heavy metal, Astral Fortress is the 2022 album of stellar, eclectic old metal from the legendary Darkthrone.

With a seemingly endless dungeon full of heavy metal influences channelled through Darkthrone’s dynamic riff-machine, plus increasing inspirations taken from their own back catalogue, Darkthrone has become very much its own beast within the metal world. Though sprinkled with atmospheric touches, such as synthesisers and mellotron, the Darkthrone sound remains stripped to the core, primitive and organic.

Astral Fortress was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo, the same location used for the Eternal Hails album, with Ole Øvstedal and Silje Høgevold.

From their formation back in 1986, to becoming one of Norways’s finest musical exports (with a number of highly revered black metal masterpieces released in the early 1990s helping to solidify their legacy), Darkthrone has continued to evolve and challenge in equal measure, throughout their illustrious recording career spanning over three decades. And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making. 

Jewel Case CD with 8 pages booklet.

US/Georgia Death Metal blasphemers FATHER BEFOULED return with a brand new full length!
9 hymns of pure, relentless and obscure Death Metal destruction with which the band brings its formula of darkness into new threatening territories: more abrasive, more riff driven, more brutal!
For fans of Incantation, Dead Congregation, Cruciamentum, Immolation.

Standard CD Jewelcase 

4 Panel Digipak with 8 pages booklet
Austrian Black Metal formation Ellende around mastermind L.G. releases their seventh record and fourth full-length album “Ellenbogengesellschaft”.
After 10 years of existence as an international established live band and studio project their unique approach to atmospheric black metal will be forged into another milestone

Six panels digipak CD 

The quest for a complete Solar Fields reissue collection continues here at Sidereal, and this time we bring back to light the first installments in Magnus Birgersson’s unfinished tracks archive.

Origin #01, originally released in 2010, was the first compilation of Solar Fields finished unfinished pieces. A series of audio stems born in various periods of time, in this case from 2002 to 2008, then completed and refined.

Such a genesis makes the Origin series something different in the Solar Fields catalog, as the usual consistency and unity of Magnus’s studio albums is nowhere to be found here, in favor of a multi-faceted, various and fragmented approach. Every track is completely different from the other, and you never know what’s lying behind the next corner. Every note sounds 101% Solar Fields, but the spectre covered by Origin #01 was an entirely different width compared to what the Swedish producer released until that moment.

Criminally, SHADOW'S MORTUARY are still one of the best-kept secrets in the always-fertile Finnish black metal scene. The quartet formed in 2013, and patiently released two digital-only EPs - Kylmään Hautaan in 2015, and then Tulen Valtakunta in 2018 - before releasing their debut album, also titled Tulen Valtakunta, in 2018. That album was initially released on cassette through the cult Worship Tapes label, but soon did PURITY THROUGH FIRE step in to release it on a wider scale on CD format. A year later came the band's equally strong second album, Kuoleman Portit, also released by PURITY THROUGH FIRE. Across these recordings but especially the two full-lengths, SHADOW'S MORTUARY displayed righteously traditional and ever-fiery Finnish BLACK METAL - no more, but certainly no less - that possessed all the iron-clad trademarks of that idiom.

While things have been relatively quiet on their front since then, SHADOW'S MORTUARY return with a righteous fervor with Unohdettu Maa. Translated into English as "The Forgotten Land," Unohdettu Maa "stands for a vision of a place where no religions reign," the band explain, "Without its effect on human behavior and thinking. With this album, we attack towards Abrahamic religions with full force, carrying the torch of northern heritage and mysticism." Indeed do they accomplish that in a swift-yet-satisfying 32 minutes here, making their point plain and proud: melancholic melodicism, cold-fire execution, a punkish straightforwardness but never primitively so, and simply strong songs, just like the album's two predecessors. But Unohdettu Maa's true trump card comes in SHADOW'S MORTUARY's increasingly effortless ability to span the epic and the rabble-rousing, bringing forth grandeur in less cliched "epic" ways and, similarly, to sound incensed and headbanging without resorting to "party black metal" corniness. 

TERRA are one of the most intangible and enigmatic presences to emerge from within the UK underground music scene in recent times. The Cambridge-based Atmospheric Black metal group formed in 2014 and since have worked dedicatedly to carve an atypical niche for themselves with their uncompromising musicality, seeking to communicate a shared experience of existentialism. 

The band comments: "Für Dich Existiert Das Alles Nicht is the purest example of this bands determination to concentrate all of its unrelenting elements into a pressure vacuum and explode them out into new and unexpected textures that will remain with the listener in a multitude of ways. TERRA have been biding their time; sharpening their claws on the pavement they have dragged themselves through to better utilize a way to gift the most honest statement of intent imaginable."

Legendary Ukrainian black metal project Drudkh is ushering in the cold darkness and alluring decay of autumn with its brand-new offering, ‘All Belong to the Night’.
While the album is only four songs, it rages on for over 45 minutes, delivering an epic maelstrom of grandiose melodies, devastating aggression, and the cold atmospheric passages that have come to define Drudkh’s unmistakable sound.

“Björndansen” is the new album by Hagathorn, a folk project by American musician Will Ott. The material is largely derived from traditional Nordic folk songs which feature added improvisation and thematic elements to compliment the original melodies. Two of the tracks are not traditional but rather original Hagathorn compositions inspired by Nordic folklore.

The atmosphere and aesthetics of “Björndansen” are conjured with a historic sound driven by rhythms from an older era. Mystery and melodies from the past intertwine to invoke feelings of magic, ancient forests, and rural antiquity.

Comes in a 4-panel digipack with a 12-page booklet. First batch comes in black polycarbonate CD.

Drinking deep from the well of ‘90s second wave Black Metal, the masterful first utterance from Finnish newcomers PESTILENT HEX is a flawlessly reverent blend of symphonic nostalgia, modern power and ravishing grimness.