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2024 reissue on Osmose

Gatefold cover with kingsize booklet (16 pages!) - Double galaxy vinyl  300 copies

Almost four years after the acclaimed Vsesvit, Ukrainian one-man atmospheric black metal band Severoth is back with a new studio album. Multi-instrumentalist Illia Rafalskyi took some time to gather his thoughts and introduce his latest work as follows.

“Originally, By the Way of Light was intended as the spiritual successor for Vsesvit. I started working right after Vsesvit was finished, I wanted to create something powerful, energetic but yet light and bright. Something which will inspire people to be better versions of themselves. And to remember that there is always hope.

Music was mostly composed and recorded at my home studio in Dnipro, Ukraine. Actively crafted from 2021 up until 23th february of 2022. And intended to be released somewhere in 2022. But on the 24th of February my family and I woke up at 4 am from the sounds of distant explosions… That is when the Russian invasive full-scale war against Ukraine started. And our lives changed forever… 

For a full year since then I haven’t created a single note for this album and my mind was far from music, with exception of the second song, “Sons Of Steel Will”, for which I wrote lyrics in September 2022, inspired by the events of that period.

Later in 2023, after more than a year of ongoing war we moved to a safer place and I was able to finish the album. So, I’ve spent around half a year working and re-working the material. In the summer 2023 drums and missing vocals were recorded. Music and lyrics I wrote myself. Lyrics are in Ukrainian, but translations in English are featured in the booklet. The cover art and all inner illustrations were done by my wife Julia (UD).

I’m glad I have had the opportunity to finally finish this album and share it with the world.”

200 copies Limited edition

Italian long-standing black metal pioneers Funeral Oration are back with their third album. Originally formed in 1989 in Taranto, Apulia, the band released their debut album Sursum Luna in 1996 on Avantgarde Music before dissolving the following year. Twenty years later, in 2017, guitarist and keyboardist Luca La Cara and singer and lyricist The Old Nick brought Funeral Oration back from the dead to release their sophomore album Eliphas Love in 2019, again via Avantgarde Music.

Five years have passed already, and the time has come for a new chapter. Antropomorte sees La Cara and The Old Nick banding with bassist Iblis (Handful Of Hate) and drummer David Folchitto (Stormlord and many others) to craft seven hymns of old-style, essential black metal from the ‘90s. As Funeral Oration describes it, Antropomorte is “a desperate litany of decadence and mystical delirium. Marcia funebre per il genere umano.”

Once again we deal with poetry, occultism and antichristian sentiment thanks to lyrics directly inspired when not directly translated from poets and artists from different ages. “Amor Obsessio” is a direct translation made by The Old Nick from ”La morte embaumée” by M. Rollinat (1883), “Cloaca Cattolica” (“Catholic Sewer”) is inspired by true events occurred in Varazze in 1907, “Il Serpente Della Genesi” (“Serpent from the Genesis”) is another translation from “Lilith” by R. de Gourmont (1892) and so is “Notturno Sepolcrale”, translated from “Ténèbres” by A. Samain (1895). “Stregheria”, on the other hand, is a direct quotation of Salvator Rosa’s “La strega”, from 1646.

Collectors edition, one off pressing, digipak CD with booklet

Italian long-standing black metal pioneers Funeral Oration are back with their third album. Originally formed in 1989 in Taranto, Apulia, the band released their debut album Sursum Luna in 1996 on Avantgarde Music before dissolving the following year. Twenty years later, in 2017, guitarist and keyboardist Luca La Cara and singer and lyricist The Old Nick brought Funeral Oration back from the dead to release their sophomore album Eliphas Love in 2019, again via Avantgarde Music.

Five years have passed already, and the time has come for a new chapter. Antropomorte sees La Cara and The Old Nick banding with bassist Iblis (Handful Of Hate) and drummer David Folchitto (Stormlord and many others) to craft seven hymns of old-style, essential black metal from the ‘90s. As Funeral Oration describes it, Antropomorte is “a desperate litany of decadence and mystical delirium. Marcia funebre per il genere umano.”

Once again we deal with poetry, occultism and antichristian sentiment thanks to lyrics directly inspired when not directly translated from poets and artists from different ages. “Amor Obsessio” is a direct translation made by The Old Nick from ”La morte embaumée” by M. Rollinat (1883), “Cloaca Cattolica” (“Catholic Sewer”) is inspired by true events occurred in Varazze in 1907, “Il Serpente Della Genesi” (“Serpent from the Genesis”) is another translation from “Lilith” by R. de Gourmont (1892) and so is “Notturno Sepolcrale”, translated from “Ténèbres” by A. Samain (1895). “Stregheria”, on the other hand, is a direct quotation of Salvator Rosa’s “La strega”, from 1646.
 

Album preview

The past has already witnessed the virtuous way Verwoed contemplated and traveled through unfathomable aural stratospheres brimming with feeling, intensity, and a sense of visceral commitment. “The Mother” perceives the Utrecht project as taking a step further in the direction of the abyss, an epic of splendor and imposing nature, bursting with emotion in the form of striking riffs that offer an electrical pallet of eclectic, evocative, and utterly cathartic songwriting.”
- FFO: The Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Watain

Album preview

The past has already witnessed the virtuous way Verwoed contemplated and traveled through unfathomable aural stratospheres brimming with feeling, intensity, and a sense of visceral commitment. “The Mother” perceives the Utrecht project as taking a step further in the direction of the abyss, an epic of splendor and imposing nature, bursting with emotion in the form of striking riffs that offer an electrical pallet of eclectic, evocative, and utterly cathartic songwriting.”
- FFO: The Devil’s Blood, In Solitude, Watain

Reissue of a timeless masterpiece originally released in 1998.
BLACK SWAN is an unfairly underrated Finnish band and "When The Angels Of Twilight Dance" is a magnificent Symphonic Black Metal album made of amazing riffs, fantastic melodies, perfectly placed keyboards and excellent songwriting.
Digipak Cd edition with 8-page booklet limited to 300 copies

One of the best debuts ever, “Humanitas Vincuntur” is a real blast to the past.
Classic Swedish 2nd-wave Melodic Black Metal deeply influenced by Dissection and Sacramentum.
Evil and ferocious vocals, furious blast beats, cold atmosphereric interludes, mixed and mastered to bring all the traditional, raw, and sinister energy back to the surface.
Digipak Cd edition limited to 300 copies.

Since 2011, ÚLFARR have stood for uncompromising, antisocial UK black metal - or, under their own banner of Cumbrian Black Metal. Helmed by Dominus, AKA Hrafn - who counts the equally prolific THY DYING LIGHT amongst his activities, as well as fellow labelmates NEFARIOUS DUSK and MORTE LUNE - ÚLFARR released a handful of demos, a couple splits, and most uniquely, a couple live albums before their debut mini-album, Hate & Terror - The Rise of Pure Evil, in 2019 and then another mini-album, The Ruins of Human Failure, two years later. Most recently, they released a split album with fellow UK horde MALFEITOR. Across these caustic recordings, ÚLFARR stoked the fires of old - namely, classic Craft, Darkthrone, Mayhem, One Head One Tail, and Death Cult.

Now ÚLFARR return with a revamped lineup and a revamped sound on their long-awaited debut album, Orlegsceaft. Joining Dominus here are erstwhile Exvoidxist / Forvitnast vocalist Játvarðr, HELVELLYN's Burns on bass, and MALFEITOR maiman Nosdrahcir on drums. As no doubt forecasted by its title, Orlegsceaft is written almost entirely in Old English, and most suitably do ÚLFARR shift gears toward a grim & ancient style of black metal. Whereas their sound of yore spit forth a hateful primitivism both punkish and headbanging, this older & bolder ÚLFARR take that hate toward more desolate and hypnotic ends; atmosphere is heightened, ghoulish and GRIM in aspect. In effect, Orlegsceaft undeniably sounds OLD(e), like a long-lost recording from 1995 given undead life through ghostly means. It's still recognizably ÚLFARR, but their attack cruises more cooly here and the vocals of Játvarðr raise the hackles with full-throated terror. And fucking RIFFS forever!

Against the modern world, more than ever, ÚLFARR take UKBM back to the dark ages with Orlegsceaft.

In December 2021, AVSKRÄDE emerged from storms of old with their debut full-length for PURITY THROUGH FIRE, Det stora tunga sjuka. Hailing from Sweden, the duo dutifully reinvigorated ancient Scandinavian black metal, both from Norway as well as their native land. No more but definitely no less, Det stora tunga sjuka was traditional BLACK METAL Exclusively: pure freezing fire, nasty and rustic and primitive but not without nuance.

And so it goes, a full two years later, with AVSKRÄDE's Undergång. Whereas the duo's debut reminded of Darkthrone's "Peaceville trilogy" and Malicious-era Gorgoroth, here on their second album do they kick up the nastiness and let the (freezing) filth flow freely, nodding to such underrated Darkthrone tomes as Total Death or even Ravishing Grimness. Indeed is AVSKRÄDE's grimness ravishing across Undergång, but compared to successive disciples as early Craft and Armagedda, the duo incorporate a slight bit more melody into proceedings - at times haunting, others anxious, but always hammered with cruel efficiency. And if there's one phrase to characterize AVSKRÄDE at this point, it's "cruelly efficient"; their songwriting is stripped to the fucking bone, but every note and hit is fucking RIGHT, and their live-in-the-rehearsal-room execution is blanching in its tightness. And once again, the album maintains a richly Grieghallen-esque production for maximum authenticity. Winter is looming, so hasten its arrival with Undergång!