Preorders

1993'S PIONEERING SECOND STUDIO ALBUM OF ATMOSPHERIC & PROGRESSIVE DOOM ROCK FROM THE GATHERING. PRESENTED ON MID-PRICE CD.

The Gathering is a Dutch alternative rock band founded in 1989 by brothers Hans & René Rutten & vocalist Bart Smits. The early incarnation of the band featured a much more death & doom metal based style than the more atmospheric rock & experimental music which they became known for over the years, having enjoyed a highly successful career globally to date. The band recorded 2 demos initially before making their studio debut with ‘Always…’ (1992).

‘Almost A Dance’ was the second studio album by the band, released originally in 1993 on Foundation 2000 Records. The album was produced by Tom Holkenborg who became famous as Junkie XL. On this album, The Gathering left death growls & their death-doom influences aside, in favour of a more progressive rock/metal sound with clean vocals & a strong foundation for what the band would continue to evolve into, which is clearly apparent in the guitar arrangements & sublime soundscapes created.

This edition of 'Almost A Dance' is presented on mid-price CD format, including an eight page booklet with full lyrics.

Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993 & with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest & most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’. 2025 also saw Sigh remaking their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album for a release on Peaceville as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw The World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’.

Featuring the line-up of Mirai Kawashima, Shinichi Ishikawa & Satoshi Fujinami, Sigh created arguably their darkest work to date with third album ‘Hail Horror Hail’ in 1997; an epic of nightmare-inducing soundscapes & lyrics concerning topics such as murder & mortality. With at times more melodic compositions compared to its predecessors & a more traditionally metallic experience than some of the material witnessed on the cult ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ EP released not long before, Sigh continued to embrace deeply atmospheric & symphonic elements, along with what was now becoming an increasingly experimental added dimension to their art, in creating this at times unnerving horror masterpiece.

Continuing with Peaceville’s re-issues of Sigh’s classic early ( & until now, hard to find ) works, this edition of ‘Hail Horror Hail’ contains a new master created by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, featuring a new transfer from the original DAT source.

The release also includes a bonus disc containing rough mixes of album tracks, plus other rarities, along with a new interview with main-man Mirai Kawashima conducted by Dayal Patterson of Cult Never Dies, with his thoughts & reflections on the album, the recording process & the influences surrounding its creation.

Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993 & with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest & most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’. 2025 also saw Sigh remaking their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album for a release on Peaceville as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw The World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’.

Featuring the line-up of Mirai Kawashima, Shinichi Ishikawa & Satoshi Fujinami, Sigh created arguably their darkest work to date with third album ‘Hail Horror Hail’ in 1997; an epic of nightmare-inducing soundscapes & lyrics concerning topics such as murder & mortality. With at times more melodic compositions compared to its predecessors & a more traditionally metallic experience than some of the material witnessed on the cult ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ EP released not long before, Sigh continued to embrace deeply atmospheric & symphonic elements, along with what was now becoming an increasingly experimental added dimension to their art, in creating this at times unnerving horror masterpiece.

Continuing with Peaceville’s re-issues of Sigh’s classic early ( & until now, hard to find ) works, this edition of ‘Hail Horror Hail’ contains a new master created by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, featuring a new transfer from the original DAT source.

The release also includes a bonus disc containing rough mixes of album tracks, plus other rarities, along with a new interview with main-man Mirai Kawashima conducted by Dayal Patterson of Cult Never Dies, with his thoughts & reflections on the album, the recording process & the influences surrounding its creation.

DOUBLE DISC EDITION OF SIGH’S CLASSIC THIRD ALBUM OF SINISTER & ATMOSPHERIC BLACKENED METAL, NOW ON PEACEVILLE. WITH NEW AUDIO MASTER, BONUS CONTENT & INSERT CONTAINING AN INTERVIEW WITH MIRAI KAWASHIMA.

Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993 & with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest & most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange & the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’. 2025 also saw Sigh remaking their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album for a release on Peaceville as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw The World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’.

Featuring the line-up of Mirai Kawashima, Shinichi Ishikawa & Satoshi Fujinami, Sigh created arguably their darkest work to date with third album ‘Hail Horror Hail’ in 1997; an epic of nightmare-inducing soundscapes & lyrics concerning topics such as murder & mortality. With at times more melodic compositions compared to its predecessors & a more traditionally metallic experience than some of the material witnessed on the cult ‘Ghastly Funeral Theatre’ EP released not long before, Sigh continued to embrace deeply atmospheric & symphonic elements, along with what was now becoming an increasingly experimental added dimension to their art, in creating this at times unnerving horror masterpiece.

Continuing with Peaceville’s re-issues of Sigh’s classic early ( & until now, hard to find ) works, this edition of ‘Hail Horror Hail’ contains a new master created by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony, featuring a new transfer from the original DAT source.

The release also includes a bonus disc containing rough mixes of album tracks, plus other rarities, along with a new interview with main-man Mirai Kawashima conducted by Dayal Patterson of Cult Never Dies, with his thoughts & reflections on the album, the recording process & the influences surrounding its creation.

Begun in 2004, BARDITUS is a studio & live project of Uwe Nolte, from the cult Orplid. In 2021, after nearly two decades since the first two initial EPs, Nolte revived the project together with Anti-Christian from Stern des Bundes. While Orplid's sound is somewhere between neofolk and neoclassical, with themes ranging from Germanic paganism and Greek mythology to the Christian symbolism of the early Middle Ages and natural romanticism, here with BARDITUS do the duo explore a sound somewhere between paradigmatic neofolk and black metal - or even "acoustic black metal," if you will. And while in Orplid the occidental bastion was defended with the quill, BARDITUS take up the sword and unconditionally profess heroism and love. Now BARDITUS raise that sword highest with their long-awaited debut album, Nibelungentreue. Comprising 14 songs in nearly an hour, Nibelungentreue is everything - and much more - adherents could've hoped for in a BARDITUS full-length. Presaged by 2023's Dein Schwert mini-album, BARDITUS' debut album exudes a parallel passion and power that will be readily recognizable to fans of Orplid, with the pastoral-on-the-surface acoustics joined in their soon-to-be-bubbling-over frenzy by sharp shards of rowdy pagan black metal. And while the latter isn't as prevalent here as on its short-length predecessor, Nibelungentreue's more Spartan soundfield is imbued with even-greater depth: in addition to verses written by Nolte himself, a text of the contemporary poet Rolf Schilling is set to music, and guest performances include Ian Read of the esteemed Fire & Ice and Freya Aswynn, who is a Dutch-born writer and practitioner whose influential works on runes, magic, and a women-centered form of Germanic neopaganism have significantly shaped the modern pagan community worldwide. BARDITUS thus collide bathos and pathos, and harness their most power when the intensity dips - solitude and repose reverberating within the soul of the ancients. Erwache!

34 years after its original release on tape in 1991, this revered recording that put UNANIMATED on the map to become one of Sweden`s greatest melodic Black/Death Metal bands alongside NECROPHOBIC and DISSECTION, will eventually get its well-deserved stand-alone release on 12″ vinyl.

Stillamentum marks Gorrch’s long-awaited return, as well as the first collaboration between the duo and Avantgarde Music. Stillamentum is a full-length album steeped in claustrophobic intensity, dissonant chord structures, and relentless sonic tension. From punishing tremolo riffs and blasting drumming to cavernous production that evokes suffocating atmospheres, the record channels the band’s obsession with sound as ritual and catharsis. Gorrch push further into darkness with an unwavering commitment to raw emotion and existential dread, crafting a labyrinth of shadows and pain.

An EP of primal gothic elegance, Blood Consumer is atmospheric of a kind cloaked in velveteen mists and swirling chilled fog, with a spiked gauntlet of riffs that will catch the ear of fans of their primary bands. ♱VELVET CROSS♱ was conceived by Splatterpvnk as a solo project in the Winter of 2022, but over time expanded to involve Saidan sticksman and Vampirska mastermind Hundosai (actually, I am not sure that many people know Hundosai is Vampirska , so here you go!) – PLUS, two more dread entities of arcane fortune to create a full band capable of realising the vision in flesh. And what vision.