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Switzerland's practitioners of alchemical madness return with their sophomore full-length, "Blut, Milch und Thränen", presenting a concoction of truly mesmerizing sonic movements.

The music contained on "Blut, Milch und Thränen" was recorded somewhat unconventionally as two separate tracks, which were subdivided into several movements to correspond with the album's gripping narrative. With regard to this narrative, Kvelgeyst recounts the tale of an alchemist, beset by visions that leads him to search for an adept who in turn shall serve as the victim in a sinister ritual, hoping to achieve unio mystica. Initially, he is pleased, as he discovers an adept soon enough in the gutters. Regrettably for him, however, he is finally confronted with the realization that he has fatally misinterpreted his visions, and it is not he who sacrifices the adept in his pursuit of revelation, but rather he must serve as the sacrificial lamb in ritual slaughter, thus enabling the adept to achieve unio mystica. This, in turn, drives the adept into utter madness, rendering him free of all his senses and forcing him to the gutters from whence he emerged.

6-panel digipak, 24x24cm Poster, plus a designed album download card.

Switzerland's practitioners of alchemical madness return with their sophomore full-length, "Blut, Milch und Thränen", presenting a concoction of truly mesmerizing sonic movements.

The music contained on "Blut, Milch und Thränen" was recorded somewhat unconventionally as two separate tracks, which were subdivided into several movements to correspond with the album's gripping narrative. With regard to this narrative, Kvelgeyst recounts the tale of an alchemist, beset by visions that leads him to search for an adept who in turn shall serve as the victim in a sinister ritual, hoping to achieve unio mystica. Initially, he is pleased, as he discovers an adept soon enough in the gutters. Regrettably for him, however, he is finally confronted with the realization that he has fatally misinterpreted his visions, and it is not he who sacrifices the adept in his pursuit of revelation, but rather he must serve as the sacrificial lamb in ritual slaughter, thus enabling the adept to achieve unio mystica. This, in turn, drives the adept into utter madness, rendering him free of all his senses and forcing him to the gutters from whence he emerged.

Suffering can be a borderline experience, opening doors to the divine. Canadian black-metal-outfit GIVRE has dedicated its fourth album to this concept. On “Le Cloître” (engl. “The Cloister”) the band continues its exploration of the atoning side of pain and the austere aspects of faith through music that goes all the way from elegiac elegance to disturbing outbursts.

This time, the lyrics are taken from the hagiographies of six saint women and explores freely their relation to god through suffering, from the symbolic poetry of Hildegard Von Bingen (1098-1179) to the disturbing and factual depictions of Marthe Robin (1902-1981). Musically, this album explores a variety of extreme genres while maintaining a suffocating and tormented Black Metal atmosphere.

CD in classic jewel case with 12-page booklet incl. all lyrics, plus a designed album download card.

Fourth press: "black on beer color" vinyl, galaxy effect

With their sophomore album Imperative Imperceptible Impulse, Ad Nauseam took a step forward in terms of composition, musical structures and sound. Music is not intended as a mere sequence of riffs that sounds well one after the other, but is now a naturally ordered structure where almost every musical event refers to the past and/or predicts the future, generating very layered and complex patterns dominated by polyphony and polyrhythms and where each instrument has its own role and is essential in the whole. The music represents a merging of many different styles, the most prominent ones being extreme death/black metal, avantgarde, jazz, post-core, doom/sludge and ambient. 

The composition process of Imperative Imperceptible Impulse has been heavily influenced by 20th century classical composers like Stravinsky, Šostakóvič, Xenakis, Scelsi, Penderecki and Ligeti, to name a few. Both the concepts of harmony and melody have been put into discussion to get a music where harmony is obtained by means of disharmony and melody by dissonances. To push this method even further, a unique tuning system has been conceived, to allow a new harmonic vocabulary and to eradicate the players from the comfort zone of the usual melodic patterns every guitar/bass player is used to.

Limited 250 copies - 2024 repress in solid white vinyl

The Belarusian quintet delivers a fast-paced, cold and pure black metal which is looking at both the classic European sound and its more contemporary interpretations. You will find loads of riffs, as well as the odd solo and melodic hook, which will relentlessly drag you toward the Darkness.