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Six panels digipak CD

'Masks of the Magi' Trilogy, opus II

THE OUTSIDER 

The dreams die and the firmament drowns. Amidst the ashes of a dead forest rises a solitary kingdom. These towers breathe the blackest of magic…

Old Sorcery is a dungeon synth / black metal project from Lahti, Finland, born in 2017 from the ever-creative mind of Juuso “Vrajitor” Peltola (Warmoon Lord, Argenthorns, Vrajitor’s Tenebrarium and many more), which is now in the middle of a trilogy of releases shared between labels Out Of Season and Avantgarde Music.

The Outsider is the second part of this fantasy concept, which here blends dungeon synth with the more atmospheric and escapist part of black metal.
Over 70 minutes long, The Outsider is a real journey through fabled lands and mysteries unknown.

Comes in a 4-panel digipack with a 16-page booklet. First batch comes in black polycarbonate CD.

Montreal's MISERERE LUMINIS have explored a stridently emotive and richly-layered strand of anguished Black Metal since their 2008 formation.

Extraordinary new album "Sidera" finds the band completing the journey set by 2023 predecessor, "Ordalie": weaving impassioned Black Metal, cinematic soundscapes and contemplative textures into a deeply moving set of songs which blend heartfelt sorrow with a fierce will to exist.

Gatefold sleeve, double LP in opaque blue vinyls

Russian blackgaze duo Olhava is back with their sixth studio album. Memorial continues the path opened by Sacrifice. After the burning, there is stillness. Time spent among what remains. Ashes settle, memory lingers, and the question is no longer how to begin again, but what can finally be released.

Memorial moves through remembrance toward letting go and acceptance — a quiet reconciliation with what cannot be carried further. It speaks from a single, unpersonified voice: a shared human state shaped by loss, exhaustion, love, and the fragile will to endure. At its center stands a forest hut: not a physical place, but a retreat of the mind. A solitary structure in the woods, an escape from the collapsing outer world, where everything decays, familiar bonds loosen, and people drift apart and return changed. The hut becomes a memorial itself — an obelisk in the forest, a burial site for former lives, a place one returns to alone to contemplate what remains.

Gatefold sleeve, double LP in trans. orange vinyls

Russian blackgaze duo Olhava is back with their sixth studio album. Memorial continues the path opened by Sacrifice. After the burning, there is stillness. Time spent among what remains. Ashes settle, memory lingers, and the question is no longer how to begin again, but what can finally be released.

Memorial moves through remembrance toward letting go and acceptance — a quiet reconciliation with what cannot be carried further. It speaks from a single, unpersonified voice: a shared human state shaped by loss, exhaustion, love, and the fragile will to endure. At its center stands a forest hut: not a physical place, but a retreat of the mind. A solitary structure in the woods, an escape from the collapsing outer world, where everything decays, familiar bonds loosen, and people drift apart and return changed. The hut becomes a memorial itself — an obelisk in the forest, a burial site for former lives, a place one returns to alone to contemplate what remains.

Limited edition on Digipak 

Russian blackgaze duo Olhava is back with their sixth studio album. Memorial continues the path opened by Sacrifice. After the burning, there is stillness. Time spent among what remains. Ashes settle, memory lingers, and the question is no longer how to begin again, but what can finally be released.

Memorial moves through remembrance toward letting go and acceptance — a quiet reconciliation with what cannot be carried further. It speaks from a single, unpersonified voice: a shared human state shaped by loss, exhaustion, love, and the fragile will to endure. At its center stands a forest hut: not a physical place, but a retreat of the mind. A solitary structure in the woods, an escape from the collapsing outer world, where everything decays, familiar bonds loosen, and people drift apart and return changed. The hut becomes a memorial itself — an obelisk in the forest, a burial site for former lives, a place one returns to alone to contemplate what remains.

Eighth album by the legendary Handful Of Hate, once again a fierce demonstration of how black metal should be done. Violent, dark, unsettling!

Eighth album by the legendary Handful Of Hate, once again a fierce demonstration of how black metal should be done. Violent, dark, unsettling!

Black  vinyl

3LP triple-gatefold sleeve incl. a huge 24-page 12” booklet including an in-depth interview with Tomas „Samoth“ Haugen and many never seen before pictures.
An double-sided A2 poster will be added to every vinyl too.

Revealing Emperors’ dark past…

Founded by Samoth and Ihsahn in 1991, EMPEROR became widely acclaimed for their innovation and sophistication. They unquestionably rank among Black Metal’s most seminal bands. Throughout their exceptional career, they released landmark albums that will forever belong to the genre’s canon. Given EMPEROR’s status and popularity, it may then come as a surprise to some that this legendary band was a side-project of the Norwegian duo. This is especially true given that, at the time that EMPEROR was established, Samoth and Ihsahn’s main band was THOU SHALT SUFFER.

Although quite a short-lived entity and bound to forever dwell in the shadows of its members’ celebrated offshoot, the material which had spawned under the name THOU SHALT SUFFER is notable and worth being paid attention to. Even though the three recordings which comprises of a five-track-rehearsal, the EP Open The Mysteries Of Your Creation, and the demo Into The Woods Of Belial that the horde managed to unleash in 1991, are no less dark than what EMPEROR came up with subsequently, THOU SHALT SUFFER weren’t a Black Metal band, but were sworn to Death Metal of a distinctly tenebrous nature. Like many Norwegian bands, including IMMORTAL, ENSLAVED, BORKNAGAR, and HADES ALMIGHTY – who began as Death Metal acts under different names in the late 1980s and early 1990s before shifting towards Black Metal, Ihsahn and Samoth, aided by various members, (most infamously Ildjarn on bass), cut their teeth in a Death Metal outfit. It is sonically somewhat comparable to the earliest period of DARKTHRONE, PARADISE LOST, SENTENCED and the like when all of them still played Death Metal, and with some hints of CARCASS, which are especially audible in the fast parts, THOU SHALT SUFFER put to tape some great Death Metal darkness of lasting quality.

Despite the members being very young at the time the recordings were done, the tracks are proficiently composed and competently performed. They frequently shift between doomy, mid-tempo, and fast sections that are accompanied by Ihsahn’s morbid growls, which have nothing in common with his high shrieks that he would later be known for. This, plus some obscure keyboards on top, which adds a sombre layer to the compositions, the band were able to turn their music into a mandatory feast for devotees of dark Metal.

Darkness Shall Rise is very proud to present this re-release, which features the three recordings that THOU SHALT SUFFER had released during their short lifespan. As usual, we went to great lengths to turn this re-release into something out of the ordinary. Not only was all the music mastered for vinyl to achieve the best sound by Patrick W. Engel, but we didn’t spare any effort to create a thick booklet featuring old pictures, of which many are unpublished, and a lengthy interview with Samoth. Also for this release, the band has opened their vault and for the VERY FIRST TIME EVER, obscure material prior to THOU SHALT SUFFER has been exclusively featured. Namely XERASIA with rare rehearsal tracks from 1990, EMBRYONIC rehearsal tracks, and the official EMBRYONIC demo The Land of The Lost Souls from 1990.