CD

Norway's ILDFAR are something of an enigma. The band formed all the way back in 1994, by vocalist / multi-instrumentalist Favn, but left behind only one demo in 2003. However, upon reactivating in 2018, ILDFAR began blazing a trail of ancient-days Norse black metal with a quick succession of albums. So pure, so cold, this trio of records landed on such esteemed labels as Northern Silence and Wolfspell, but now under the banner of PURITY THROUGH FIRE, ILDFAR are prepared to blaze a new "old" trail.

Witness Der ligger et land. Immediately, ILDFAR's fourth album distinguishes itself with the much-more-measured mid-tempo pace and, most strikingly, largely clean vocals. However, before any worries of a slackening of black metal ethos arise, one need only listen to Der ligger et land to understand that Favn is picking up the torch left behind by Isengard's Høstmørke and expanding the (old, icy) canvas in compellingly new ways. To be sure, there's plenty of ILDFAR's previous, strictly-Norse fire here - just the recording alone evokes a solemn nostalgia for those forgotten realms - but Favn is stretching apart those sensations in a manner that's mystical, mesmerizing, and AMAZING. ​Also to be sure, there've been other sympatico souls who've likewise reinvigorated Isengard's template - ​namely, the axis of LIK, Lönndom, and Ehlder as well as Sweden's stalwart Grift - but ILDFAR's songwriting here is noticeably more melodic, utilizing clean(er) guitars to stunning effect, and overall textures that suggest stargazing rather than forest-roaming. 

Whatever way you arrive at Der ligger et land, it's guaranteed you'll be possessed to press "play" over and over again, luxuriating deeper into those textures and finding ever more new details with each spin. In short, ILDFAR have delivered an unsuspecting masterpiece.

CD in Jewel case with 20-page booklet.

NARGAROTH is the sole vision of Rene "Ash" Wagner, forged in Saxony in 1996 and driven by nearly three decades of raw, uncompromising German black metal.
‘Apocalyptic Steel’ is a record that refused to stay buried. Tracked in a single weekend at Trident Studios in Pacheco, California, in September of 2014, the album sat forgotten on a hard drive in the United States while ‘Era of Threnody’ took priority. Years later, the recordings resurfaced. Drums were re-recorded in Las Vegas, vocals and mixing completed at AMP Studios in Duisburg, and 12 years after its first sessions, the album is finally here. This is not a vault curiosity. It is NARGAROTH at its most direct: nine tracks of filthy, unadorned metal built on the attitude of old Judas Priest, Accept, Deicide and Obituary. From the predatory menace of “Twisted Steel” to the band-name-studded battle cry of “Metalheart”, from the unflinching historical weight of “Dresden” to the aching Germanic longing of “Requiem Germania”, this is an album that has nothing to prove and wastes nothing on pretense.
Recorded fast, recorded dirty, and finished on its own terms.

For fans of DARKTHRONE, MAYHEM, ACCEPT, MOTORHEAD, DEICIDE.

"This time we entered the studio with the clear intention of creating a landmark album for the band." It's a noble and challenging mission statement from Hellenic black metal troop Yoth Iria, and one that has amply succeeded in the form of Gone With The Devil, the Attica quartet's stellar third album. Their trajectory has been on a steep ascent since crafty 2021 debut As The Flame Withers and 2024's hypnotic Blazing Inferno, but there has audibly been a concerted determination to develop and expand in sinister new directions.
The daemonic avatar Yoth Iria was first explicitly summoned on Rotting Christ's legendary debut Thy Mighty Contract in 1993. Bassist/lyricist Jim Mutilator formed that band as Black Church in 1984, before also becoming a founder member of cult Athenian BM heroes Varathron for their first five years. Renewing the otherworldly atmospheres and occult ravishment for a new era, Yoth Iria functions almost as the third panel in an apocalyptic triptych of Hellenic black metal excellence.
There's a thrilling balance of ancient and modern, good and evil, harmony and dissonance, advancing Yoth Iria as a hungry contender for extreme metal's big leagues - an ever-improving unit with a glorious future. Appropriately, however, Gone With The Devil is best summed up with a line already coined by the band to describe their ongoing body of work: "Every note tells a story of rebirth, tradition, and the relentless pursuit of musical transcendence."

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

Madrid's AVERSIO HUMANITATIS follow-up 2020's white-hot "Behold the Silent Dwellers" with another stunning slice of unrelenting, modernist and oft-dissonant Black Metal.

Third full-length "To Become The Endless Static" finds the band on devastatingly intense terrain: a hammer-blow of astounding riffing, warped leads, riotous drumming and ultra-committed vocals all wrapped in an oppressive atmosphere as serious as your life.

Ravenous Swedish Death Metal! Heavy, raw, melodic and mercilessly dark!

Hailing from Stockholm, Sweden, the breeding ground of Entombed, Dismember and Unleashed, Xorsist carry the city’s Death Metal legacy with conviction.

Rooted in the raw buzz saw tradition of early ’90s Swedish Death Metal yet sharpened with modern bite, the band have steadily risen through the underground with “Deadly Possession” (2022) and “At the Somber Steps of Serenity” (2023).

While their earlier recordings honored the path that defined the classic Stockholm sound, “Aberrations” marks a decisive step forward, eclipsing everything that came before it and presenting a clearer, more defined expression of the band’s musical vision.

With this new chapter, Xorsist continue to carry the Swedish Death Metal torch into darker territory!

REISSUE 2015

The most overlooked forefathers of Swedish Death Metal! Recorded in the early 90’s at the legendary Sunlight Studios!

Recorded in the early 90’s by Tomas Skogsberg at the legendary Sunlight Studios. The CD version comes with an extra disc with over one hour of previously unreleased material, remastered by Nightside Audio.