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Eight years after the acclaimed Slow Motion Death Sequence, Norwegian experimental visionaries Manes return with To Burn Is To Shine, their sixth full-length album and the beginning of a new chapter in a career defined by fearless artistic evolution. Since their inception in Trondheim in 1992, Manes have consistently refused to remain confined within stylistic boundaries. Emerging from the early Norwegian black metal underground with the cult debut Under Ein Blodraud Maane, the band soon embarked on a remarkable transformation that culminated in the landmark Vilosophe, an album that would become one of the defining statements of avant-garde metal. Throughout the following decades, Manes have continued to blur the lines between metal, dark electronica, alternative rock, trip-hop and experimental music, developing a sound that remains unmistakably their own.
To Burn Is To Shine also features contributions from several distinguished guests, including Ana Carolina Skaret (Mourning Sun), Eskil Blix (Djevel, Vemod), Marita Hellem (Enevelde), Rune Folgerø (Atrox, Drontheim) and Tom Christian Engelsøy (Drontheim), while Vegar Larsen (Whoredom Rife) performs drums on two tracks. The striking visual identity of the album has been created by New York-based designer Michael Houtz, whose handcrafted artwork extends across the physical editions and accompanying merchandise.
Rooted in a sombre, tragic and epic expression of Doom-infused Melodic Black Metal, “Cursed Songs from the Garden of Twilight” carries a style hard to link to other specific bands. THE SCARS IN PNEUMA (brought forth by Lorenzo Marchello, ex-Kolony Records) blends stunning melodies and dramatic atmospheres, interweaving them within structures balanced between slow/fast-paced rhythms and haunting interludes, resulting in a continous unfolding of compositional details. Cavernous growling vocals float above the instrumental flow, enhancing the stream of emotions in intensity.
Rooted in atmospheric black metal and post-depressive black metal, “A Caress of Autumn for All the Lost” refuses to remain confined within genre boundaries. Balzarini continuously shifts between textures and dynamics, allowing songs to unfold through subtle transformations rather than predictable contrasts. Instead of relying on the conventional loud-quiet formula, each composition develops organically, revealing unexpected turns while maintaining a remarkable sense of cohesion. Throughout the album, delicate melodic brushstrokes occasionally recall the melancholic elegance of fellow Italian visionaries Novembre, enriching an already expansive emotional palette.
The result is a work enveloped in an autumnal melancholy that permeates every note. Its atmosphere is fragile yet piercing, intimate yet expansive, balancing moments of despair with glimpses of fragile beauty. Every transition feels purposeful, every melody carefully placed, allowing the album to flow naturally from beginning to end without sacrificing intensity or emotional depth.
Rooted in atmospheric black metal and post-depressive black metal, “A Caress of Autumn for All the Lost” refuses to remain confined within genre boundaries. Balzarini continuously shifts between textures and dynamics, allowing songs to unfold through subtle transformations rather than predictable contrasts. Instead of relying on the conventional loud-quiet formula, each composition develops organically, revealing unexpected turns while maintaining a remarkable sense of cohesion. Throughout the album, delicate melodic brushstrokes occasionally recall the melancholic elegance of fellow Italian visionaries Novembre, enriching an already expansive emotional palette.
The result is a work enveloped in an autumnal melancholy that permeates every note. Its atmosphere is fragile yet piercing, intimate yet expansive, balancing moments of despair with glimpses of fragile beauty. Every transition feels purposeful, every melody carefully placed, allowing the album to flow naturally from beginning to end without sacrificing intensity or emotional depth.
- limited to 50 copies
- booklet
- A3 poster
After the lucky "Usurp The Throne", well-reviewed and extensively played on tour, UBUREN are back with a new harsh, unrelenting strain of black metal full of the usual viking metal edge. Once again, in the new batch of songs their sound sits cold and atmospheric, raw and haunting, built on tremolo-driven riffing in the best tradition of the second-wave black metal. Nonetheless, the underlying melody is never completely lost, highlighting melancholic passages that give the songs a Majestic weight.
Formed in 2010 in Sandnes, Rogaland, Uburen took shape around a shared obsession with Norse mythology and old Norwegian culture — a mutual ideology of resurfacing viking folklore through music built to be felt as much as heard. Following a lineup change in late 2019, Uburen entered the studio with new drummer Wrage Steinarson for what would become 2023's "Usurp the Throne" — an eight-track opus marking a new highpoint for the band. Cold, atmospheric and uncompromising, the album stood as Uburen's most fully realized record up to that point. The new opus, "Dødsdans I Aske", promises to raise the bar even higher.
Limited to 50 copies
w insert and poster
For over two decades, ISKALD have stood among the leading names in Norwegian melodic black metal. Now performing as a five-piece, the band expands its trademark northern sound with its most ambitious and immersive work to date.
Built as a conceptual journey, "Curse of the Mind" unfolds through four interconnected chapters linked by ritualistic invocations, exploring themes of psychological torment, inner conflict, fragile hope and ultimate sacrifice. Framed within a stark, Norse-inspired vision of Helheim, the story is mythological in setting but deeply psychological at its core. Helheim is not merely a place, it is the shape taken by inner darkness. The true battlefield is the mind itself.
The album unfolds in four movements, connected by four ritual Invocations.
