CD

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.

Here at Sidereal we take our commitment to Solar Fields very seriously.
This effort is now taking us towards one of Magnus Birgersson’s beatless albums, namely Altered - Second Movements.
Originally released in 2010 on a limited CD run and never reissued since, Altered is a reworked and beatless version of the album Movements, released one year before (and reissued by Sidereal in 2018). Such close connection can be seen in each track title, too, which clearly reminds of their original Movement version.
Altered is one of the many examples of Solar Fields ability to paint different moods, always maintaining a strong, recognizable personality. A darker, yet dreamy atmosphere permeates these eleven tracks, which wil find their way to wax for the first time ever.

Hailing from Poland and making their public debut with the demo Ancient Darkness Triumphant in 2020, TEUFELSBERG are a band out of time. The modern "black metal underground" is a vacant void to be shunned, spit upon; for the trio, the elder ways of black metal militancy reflected in the Polish underground during the glorious '90s are to be proudly upheld. And upheld they did with a successive split with comrades MINNESJORD last year, once again through the auspices of SIGNAL REX, in the process building their own dead Christ commune.

And now, TEUFELSBERG fortify it further with their full-length debut, Ordre du Diable. No great changes have been made, thankfully - cold and grim is their march, rendered in raw-yet-clear tones that remarkably retain an era-authentic vibe - but the trio's songwriting has undoubtedly advanced, moving at many speeds and effortlessly evincing a focus that's fiery and finessed in equal measure. Further, their integration of synths is subtle and tasteful, coloring Ordre du Diable in rich hues of velvety purple emanating from deepest black. More simply stated, TEUFELSBERG deliver a record that could've easily come out in 1995: that same mysticism is alive and well here, and DEAD.

Opening with a fug of crypt-dwelling ambience, and the distant howls of the bloodthirsty Wampyre, building through riff and atmosphere towards a clearer skied climax in the more epic medievalism from Ages of Blood. A perfectly ascendent split with euphoric trajectory from the raw to the radiant, balanced by the pivotal Beulenpest who features in both projects.