Peaceville

With a seemingly endless dungeon full of heavy metal influences channelled through Darkthrone’s dynamic riff-machine, plus increasing inspirations taken from their own back catalogue, Darkthrone has become very much its own beast within the metal world. Though sprinkled with atmospheric touches, such as synthesisers and mellotron, the Darkthrone sound remains stripped to the core, primitive and organic.

Astral Fortress was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo, the same location used for the Eternal Hails album, with Ole Øvstedal and Silje Høgevold.

From their formation back in 1986, to becoming one of Norways’s finest musical exports (with a number of highly revered black metal masterpieces released in the early 1990s helping to solidify their legacy), Darkthrone has continued to evolve and challenge in equal measure, throughout their illustrious recording career spanning over three decades. And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making. 

With a seemingly endless dungeon full of heavy metal influences channelled through Darkthrone’s dynamic riff-machine, plus increasing inspirations taken from their own back catalogue, Darkthrone has become very much its own beast within the metal world. Though sprinkled with atmospheric touches, such as synthesisers and mellotron, the Darkthrone sound remains stripped to the core, primitive and organic.

Astral Fortress was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo, the same location used for the Eternal Hails album, with Ole Øvstedal and Silje Høgevold.

From their formation back in 1986, to becoming one of Norways’s finest musical exports (with a number of highly revered black metal masterpieces released in the early 1990s helping to solidify their legacy), Darkthrone has continued to evolve and challenge in equal measure, throughout their illustrious recording career spanning over three decades. And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making. 

CD in jewel case

Carried on the brisk wind of eager rock, with foundations in black, thrash, doom and heavy metal, Astral Fortress is the 2022 album of stellar, eclectic old metal from the legendary Darkthrone.

With a seemingly endless dungeon full of heavy metal influences channelled through Darkthrone’s dynamic riff-machine, plus increasing inspirations taken from their own back catalogue, Darkthrone has become very much its own beast within the metal world. Though sprinkled with atmospheric touches, such as synthesisers and mellotron, the Darkthrone sound remains stripped to the core, primitive and organic.

Astral Fortress was recorded at Chaka Khan Studios in Oslo, the same location used for the Eternal Hails album, with Ole Øvstedal and Silje Høgevold.

From their formation back in 1986, to becoming one of Norways’s finest musical exports (with a number of highly revered black metal masterpieces released in the early 1990s helping to solidify their legacy), Darkthrone has continued to evolve and challenge in equal measure, throughout their illustrious recording career spanning over three decades. And now, the ever-productive duo of Nocturno and Fenriz continue their own metallic saga with a new selection of fine, vintage sounding headbanging classics in the making. 

BLOODBATH è la titanica DEATH METAL band di Stoccolma, Svezia, originariamente formata da membri
di Katatonia e Opeth, a cui si è poi aggiunto Nick Holmes, il famoso cantante delle leggende doom gothic
inglesi Paradise Lost. La band si è formata nel 1998 dalla passione comune per l’HORROR, gli albori del DEATH
METAL e band classiche come Entombed, Morbid Angel, Cancer e Autopsy.

BLOODBATH è la titanica DEATH METAL band di Stoccolma, Svezia, originariamente formata da membri
di Katatonia e Opeth, a cui si è poi aggiunto Nick Holmes, il famoso cantante delle leggende doom gothic
inglesi Paradise Lost. La band si è formata nel 1998 dalla passione comune per l’HORROR, gli albori del DEATH
METAL e band classiche come Entombed, Morbid Angel, Cancer e Autopsy.

Spectres Over Gorgoroth (1989) and Horizons (1991)
Issued with a double-sided printed Innersleeve

Comes with printed innersleeve.
 

Tracks 1&4 - Recorded at The Academy, Winter 90/91. Original versions appear on "Gothic".

Tracks 2&3 - Recorded at The Academy, Winter 1989. Original versions appear on "Lost Paradise".
Also released as "In Dub" 12" on Peaceville for a limited period.

Track 4 - Previously unreleased version.
 

‘Den Svevende Festning’ features six tracks and over 32 minutes of raw and atmospheric Norwegian black metal, most notably containing exclusive and unreleased material recorded during the ‘Katedralen’ album sessions, in the shape of the title track (also the theme for the cover image, an old drawing of Fredriksten Fortress in Eriksen’s home-town of Halden), and ‘Ormtunge’. Side A is completed by the alternate arrangement of the track ‘Født Til Å Herske’, previously only available digitally. Side B contains a selection of live tracks from Mork’s recent shows, featuring a series of tracks from the ‘Katedralen’ opus.

Shiki, the 2022 studio album from Sigh is an opus of dark and eclectic blackened Heavy Metal, shrouded in traditional Eastern influences. 

Shiki, the 2022 studio album from Sigh is an opus of dark and eclectic blackened Heavy Metal, shrouded in traditional Eastern influences. 

Shiki, the 2022 studio album from Sigh is an opus of dark and eclectic blackened Heavy Metal, shrouded in traditional Eastern influences. 

CD edition.

A Vision of A Dying Embrace captures a night of spellbinding Doom Metal magic from an Anathema live show in Krakow, Poland, in 1996. 

Whilst still reasonably early in the career of the band, and with rhythm guitarist Vincent Cavanagh taking on vocal duties only relatively recently for the sublime ‘The Silent Enigma’ opus, the set contained a whole selection of now-established classics from Anathema’s first two studio albums and ‘Pentecost III’ EP, with epics like ‘A Dying Wish’, ‘Sleepless’, and ‘Mine is Yours’ captured in their purest and rawest form in the live setting. 

Anathema has spent the vast majority of their career making music that defies description. As part of the “Peaceville three”, along with Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride, Anathema have carved a strong legacy since their inception at the turn of the 1990s, to become a widely revered & respected band within both the metal world & beyond, as their sound & compositions progressed from doom/death metal into more rock & progressive territory with each subsequent release, becoming one of the UK’s most cherished and critically acclaimed rock bands.

The legendary Slow Death recordings by Mortem, fully re-recorded and reworked (including extra tracks), plus the original 1989 demo.

Presented as a special LP/7” package - with the demo presented on 7” vinyl format as it appeared originally - the package also includes a four page booklet with an extended biography on the history of the band, plus rare and unseen images.

Before Arcturus there was Mortem. Originally comprised of members now known from such classic bands as Arcturus, Mayhem & Thorns, Mortem was a leading act of the early Norwegian underground metal scene; their ‘Slow Death’ demo a highly inspirational work of early Norwegian extreme metal.

Formed by Marius Vold & Steinar Sverd Johnsen in 1989, Mortem was one of the first black metal bands to crawl out of the woodwork in Norway, releasing the highly coveted and brutal ‘Slow Death’ demo, with Euronymous & Dead of Mayhem acting as producer and cover artist respectively. After the release of ‘Slow Death’, the band was laid to rest with members going on to form and feature in acclaimed titans such as Arcturus and Thorns, both of which would become mainstays in the black metal scene and beyond.

This special release of ‘Slow Death’ contains the tracks newly recorded and reworked in a style more akin to the recent ‘Ravnsvart’ album material, plus also includes the legendary pioneering 1989 demo itself, with a fresh transfer from a new tape source. The new recordings also include a rendition of the old Mortem track ‘Satanas’, plus a cover of ‘Likferd’ (Funeral Fog) by Mayhem, this time sung in Norwegian. Joining the original line-up of Marius, Steinar & Hellhammer is Tor Seidemann of 1349 on bass guitar.

A Vision of A Dying Embrace captures a night of spellbinding Doom Metal magic from an Anathema live show in Krakow, Poland, in 1996. 

Presented on the vinyl for the first time (with a printed inner sleeve).

Whilst still reasonably early in the career of the band, and with rhythm guitarist Vincent Cavanagh taking on vocal duties only relatively recently for the sublime ‘The Silent Enigma’ opus, the set contained a whole selection of now-established classics from Anathema’s first two studio albums and ‘Pentecost III’ EP, with epics like ‘A Dying Wish’, ‘Sleepless’, and ‘Mine is Yours’ captured in their purest and rawest form in the live setting. 

Anathema has spent the vast majority of their career making music that defies description. As part of the “Peaceville three”, along with Paradise Lost & My Dying Bride, Anathema have carved a strong legacy since their inception at the turn of the 1990s, to become a widely revered & respected band within both the metal world & beyond, as their sound & compositions progressed from doom/death metal into more rock & progressive territory with each subsequent release, becoming one of the UK’s most cherished and critically acclaimed rock bands.

DYING BRIDE'S CLASSIC 1996 SHOW FROM KRAKOW, POLAND

My Dying Bride has been the leading light of doom metal since the debut album ‘As The Flower Withers’ was released on Peaceville Records back in 1992. Influenced by acts such as Celtic Frost and Candlemass, the British band’s heavy atmospherics have carved a huge worldwide following over the years to stand as one of the true enduring and distinguishable pillars of the genre.

'For Darkest Eyes' contains the band’s iconic 1996 performance from Krakow, Poland, featuring numerous classic doom anthems from the early career of the UK Metal Gods. The show was filmed as the band was riding a wave of popularity due to their recent breakthrough third album, 'The Angel & the Dark River' (plus their tour with British metal legends Iron Maiden in the winter of 1995), showcasing several tracks from that release such as 'The Cry of Mankind' and 'Your Shameful Heaven', as well as renditions of other established numbers such as 'The Crown of Sympathy' and 'The Forever People'.

DYING BRIDE'S CLASSIC 1996 SHOW FROM KRAKOW, POLAND

My Dying Bride has been the leading light of doom metal since the debut album ‘As The Flower Withers’ was released on Peaceville Records back in 1992. Influenced by acts such as Celtic Frost and Candlemass, the British band’s heavy atmospherics have carved a huge worldwide following over the years to stand as one of the true enduring and distinguishable pillars of the genre.

'For Darkest Eyes' contains the band’s iconic 1996 performance from Krakow, Poland, featuring numerous classic doom anthems from the early career of the UK Metal Gods. The show was filmed as the band was riding a wave of popularity due to their recent breakthrough third album, 'The Angel & the Dark River' (plus their tour with British metal legends Iron Maiden in the winter of 1995), showcasing several tracks from that release such as 'The Cry of Mankind' and 'Your Shameful Heaven', as well as renditions of other established numbers such as 'The Crown of Sympathy' and 'The Forever People'.

Gatefold