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Ascended Dead return like abyss winds surging skyward from the ninth circle of Hell. New album Evenfall Of The Apocalypse heralds the dawn of the final march to extermination via barely-controlled death metal chaos and form-destroying necromancy.

Ascended Dead play death metal the ancient way with an intrinsically malign pedigree and methodical cruelty scarcely heard nowadays. Flesh-peeling intensity at warp-speed, technically-frenzied leads that cut straight through bone and a relentless annihilating force that rarely ceases long enough to take a breath. Yet amidst this fiery conflagration a wholly deliberate and fanatical attention to detail and craft remain undeniable, allowing the pandemonium a distinct structure and memorability.

While the band has more than enough skill and ability to perform a darkly acoustic piece like “Passage To Eternity,” a rare moment of respite, repeated spins through Evenfall Of The Apocalypse only serve to perpetuate Ascended Dead’s inexorable place at the vanguard of violent real death metal, carrying the banner into the future.

Snorlax was born in unexpected circumstances during an experimental recording session in mid-2017 at Black Blood Audio in Brisbane, Australia. Recording engineer Brendan Auld stumbled upon the sound and found the voice of Snorlax while trialing new recording techniques. Following the stream of ideas and sounds that ensued, the result was what later became the unmastered release of The Splintering Demo. Having only played drums for a few short years at that point, Brendan's expectations were low, yet the release grabbed the attention of many black metal enthusiasts including Caligari Records, Jef Whitehead of Leviathan and even made #2 on a 2017 Decibel Magazine list of "Must Listen Underground Demos" compiled by the late Trevor Strnard of The Black Dahlia Murder.

Honing in on the Snorlax sound even further in 2020 with the release of II via Brilliant Emperor Records, more death metal-inspired elements began creeping into the foreground and soon the label "blackened death" was attached to project.

Jumping forward to 2023, Snorlax is set to release its third composition, mysteriously titled The Necrotrophic Abyss. Much like II, this full-length release clocks in at just under 30 minutes, delivering a concise, ruthless display of sonic violence and despair. This album is presented as a concept, with an overarching story that flows throughout, each song a chapter depicting a world so vile its own death is forced by the hands of nature. In the second half of the record Brendan introduces some new voices and layers of collaboration as the planet is laid to waste for eons resulting in a desolate baron abyss only creatures of the undead have a chance of surviving. The album closes with a slight glimpse of hope as the story eludes to an unlikely rebirth of evolution and a potentially inhabitable future after all.

This dark narrative is painted only by the lyrics, the music never loosening its grip, staying trve to the perpetual paralysis proclaimed on track 1 of the Snorlax first release. 

Claustrum is an old school death metal trio born someplace between Trieste and Gorizia, in north-eastern Italy, featuring members from Grime, Affliction Vector, Fierce and Dromme, all brought together by a feral passion for the death metal of old. Drawing their inspiration from sci-fi, horror, authors like Poe and Lovecraft and the misery of human existence, in their debut, self-titled album Claustrum delivers some crypt-reeking, disturbing death metal, heralding the impending Apocalypse.

The Latin word Claustrum stands for a thin sheet of gray matter that connects to cortical and subcortical regions. It is considered the most interconnected structure within the telencephalon, that allows for the integration of multiple cortical stimuli, such as visual, acoustic and tactile. It is commonly considered the area of ​​the human brain where the soul resides.

But Claustrum is also an enclosed space, a fence, a prison. As the band explained: “Claustrum to us also means separation from the rest of the world. The record was born during a period of confinement due to the pandemic and for this reason it is above all an outlet, something authentic and spontaneous with which to release negative energies that have been compressed for too long. That's why during this separation for us it was paramount to rely on certainties. And those certainties are liturgies written by Autopsy, Asphyx, Death and Incantation”. 

• Four panels digipack Limited to 200 copies
  
  Includes unlimited streaming of Salt via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Four panels digipack Limited to 200 copies

Includes unlimited streaming of Echoes On A Windswept Plain via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Much as its cover art forecasts the contents ahead, I Helvetes Forakt effortlessly transports the listener to wintry, alluringly desolate landscapes, working as much atmospherically as they do aggressively. More than ever, Nattverd embody the cryogenic majesty of classic Norwegian black metal, conjured during the glorious 1990s but by no means tethered to that past. If anything, the quintet have their sights set on the distant future, patiently pushing their sound forward to icier heights (and depths) whilst maintaining their distinct poise and personality.

Horror of the Zombies is the second album by American death metal / grindcore band Impetigo. It was released in June 1992 and was a major influence in the grindcore and goregrind scene. ‘Horror of the Zombies’ has a much more structured and varied approach then debut album ‘Ultimo Mondo Cannibale’.  The songs are longer and the production on this album is thick and full. The music is still very much old school death metal. Impetigo are influenced by such bands as, Massacre, Autopsy, Repulsion, Master, and Autopsy on this album. This re-release has expanded liner notes by Stevo, 2 extra live songs, different artworks and many rare pictures in a 24 page booklet. A truly gore masterpiece, everything about it reeks of a B grade zombie movie

Mythos’ ’Pain Amplifier’ album is shredding, Finnish death black Metal of the highest calibre. Featuring former Belial guitarist Jukka Valppu, Mythos burst onto the scene almost out of nowhere with one of the heaviest albums in extreme metal history. Mikko Laurila's vocals sound almost as if he literally vomited them forth, and the music is tight and surprisingly catchy considering the ultra brutal nature of the whole thing. Pain Amplifier was the only full-length from this band, this is a fitting monument to the annals of Death Metal history especially with the flowing melodicism of black metal. Originally released in 1995, recorded a Tico-Tico Studio in Kemi, Finland by Ahti Kortelainen (Impaled Nazarene, Sentenced, Wintersun). Special liner notes by Luxi Lathinen (journalist for the Metal Crypt since 1999) and new booklet design.

October Tide was a side project formed by two members of Katatonia with their style not at all far removed from that fine group. Melancholic, sorrowful mid-paced metal, with death metal vocals laid over the top. Jonas Renske performed the vocals on 'Rain Without End' like he did on all early Katatonia albums, intense, deep and very atmospherical. The October Tide line-up during ’Rain Without End’ was: Fredrik Norrman: Electric, acoustic and bass guitars and Jonas Renske: Drums, electric and acoustic guitars and all vocals.  This special re-issue has both the original recordings and mix from Unisound from 1995 AND the re-mastered by Dan Swanö, Winter 2007- 2008 version songs. 14 tracks in total.

What would be the combination / hybride  of Infernal Majesty and Blasphemy, two leading and intense extreme metal bands from Canada. And both are responsible for mile-stone albums in their genres. Well, when ex Infernal Majesty vocalist Brian Langley (also ex-Aggression, Canada) and guitar player Marco Banco (known as ‘The Traditional Sodomizer of the Goddess of Perversity’ from the cult Blasphemy album Fallen Angel of Doom....) joined to form band called Tyrants Blood, you will get close. This blasting death / black / trash metal band featuring Blasphemy / Infernal Majesty ex members released three full length albums and a handful of splits and ep’s. Vicrecords now re-issued the initially limited edition self-released third album ‘Into the Kingdom of Graves’ originally from 2013. Cover-art by Paolo Girardi (Firespawn, Aeon, Inquisition and Manilla Road) and liner notes by Brian Langley. Guest bass and mixed and produced by Martin Meyer (ex-Aggression, ex-Disciples of Power). Drums recorded by Terry "Sho" Murray (Infernal Majesty, 3 Inches of Blood).

For their new album, bassist/vocalist Dylan Desmond and drummer/vocalist Jesse Shreibman exploded Bell Witch's bounds. Like 2017's lauded “Mirror Reaper”, “The Clandestine Gate” is a single 83-minute track -- a composition that pulses and breathes on a filmic timeframe. It constitutes the first chapter in a planned triptych of longform albums, collectively called “Future's Shadow.”

While traces of organ and synthesizer hovered over “Mirror Reaper” and Bell Witch's 2020 collaboration with Aerial Ruin, “Stygian Bough Volume 1”, “The Clandestine Gate” drew those instruments closer to the center of its compositions. The band reunited with their longtime producer Billy Anderson as they began negotiating these new compositional weights. On “The Clandestine Gate”, Bell Witch's twinned voices build off of the chantlike textures of previous records while steering toward more developed melodic lines, structured harmonies, and rhythmic death metal growls.

The immense gravity of a work like “The Clandestine Gate”, which features exclusive stunning cover art by Jordi Diaz Alama, allows ideas to simmer in a way that feels profoundly and somatically intuitive -- not just a philosophical exercise, but an embodied truth. By slowing down both their creative process and the tempo of the music itself, Bell Witch digs even deeper into their long-standing focus: the way life spills on inside its minuscule container, both eternal and fleeting, a chord that echoes without resolution.

New double live album including 2x studio bonus tracks