CD

“And a magic dwells in each beginning”

Enthralled by occultism and the magic of Black Metal SECRETS OF THE MOON was originally brought forth by bassist and singer Daevas after his departure from MARTYRIUM in Osnabrück in 1995. Thanks to a tremendous discography – amongst a multitude of releases most notably spanning seven full-length albums – and countless shows performed domestically and abroad, SECRETS OF THE MOON – within the ensuing 27 years until its termination in 2022 – would go on to put its name on the map as one of Germany’s most revered dark Metal bands.

Prior to unleashing their first album Stronghold of the Inviolables in 2001 the mischievous collective managed to produce a body of work comprising two demos – Unearthed Arcana and Vanitas – Promotape 98, the notorious and never officially published Moondance Madness tape and the cult Split 7” EP with LUNAR AURORA. Although less known than their albums, these dusty relics from the dark past are no less significant. Naturally way rawer and unpolished than the studio albums, what these recordings may lack in sophistication is all made up for by the mystical charm pervading their every second.

All of these raw diamonds from SECRETS OF THE MOON’s formative period with many obscure recordings especially unearthed for this compilation on top, Darkness Shall Rise Productions now have the great pleasure to reissue in the shape of this marvellous compilation.

A new in-depth interview with Lars “Devas” Plegge and Phil “sG” Jonas was done especially for this release and the booklets also includes many never seen before pictures of the groups glorious past.

Over 130 minutes of pure BLACK METAL MAGIK!

2CD jewel-case CD with 32-page booklet.

SAOR is Andy Marshall's one-man vehicle for what he calls Caledonian Metal: an atmospheric black metal sound built from Highland landscapes and Scottish ancestral memory. Since founding the project in Glasgow in 2013, Marshall has grown SAOR from a cult curiosity into one of the genre's most distinctive voices.
‘Caledonia’ gathers five songs first heard on ‘Roots’, ‘Aura’ and ‘Guardians’ and rebuilds them from the ground up, produced by Chris Fielding. This isn't a remaster or a victory lap. Marshall wrote these songs before he had the resources or the mileage to realise them fully, and over a decade of touring has reshaped how they live and breathe on stage. The album opens with "Aura MMXXVI", a hushed procession through forests and corries that sets the record's terms early: patience, scale, and a reverence for landscape that never tips into pastiche. "The Awakening MMXXVI" answers with something more urgent, a call to old ways and older gods dressed in Marshall's most direct lyric writing on the record, the kind of song built to be shouted back at a festival crowd. "Carved in Stone MMXXVI", the album's centrepiece and lead single, carries the clearest sense of destiny and prophecy in the track list, its widescreen production giving the song's ancestral imagery real physical weight. "Hearth MMXXVI" turns inward, trading myth for something closer to memory, a meditation on home and belonging that grounds the record before its close. "Tears of a Nation MMXXVI" ends the album on its most elegiac note, mourning loss and ruin in a way that feels earned rather than performed, closing the circle the record opened with.
Guest contributions from strings, whistle, pipes and additional vocals widen the textures throughout without diluting the atmosphere, and the sequencing across all five songs traces a clear arc from landscape to legend to loss.

Back in 2021, Blodtår announced themselves with a self-titled EP steeped in black metal mysticism. The following full-length, “Det förtegna förflutna” (2023), revealed a project capable of refined structure and melodic discipline without sacrificing intensity. Now, on their third release, the Stockholm-based duo ventures deeper still.

Where earlier works balanced woodland atmosphere with icy composure, “Monark” is driven by something more volatile. Conceived in the aftermath of a personal tragedy, the album took shape with uncompromising urgency. The opening track, “Blodtår”, emerged directly from that moment, setting the tone for a work which moves through overwhelming spiritual pain toward a fragile yet undeniable light.

Musically, the folk-infused melodic language remains central – particularly across the first half – but now intertwines with passages evoking older, more archaic currents reminiscent of early Enslaved and Falkenbach. Norse-tinged motifs surface alongside the band’s established Scandinavian melancholy, while the latter half explores tonal shifts that feel brighter, though never unscarred. Beginning in darkness and concluding in illumination, “Monark” traces recurring cycles of mental collapse and resurgence with unflinching honesty.

Hailing from western Norway and Sweden, MØRKGRIM is a Norwegian/Swedish Folk-Black Metal entity devoted to occult heathen Norse traditions and the darker currents of the old ways. The debut, a concept album, is entitled "Sogur frá Norðfirði" (means "Tales from Nordfjord").
MØRKGRIM was founded in 1994 by Hrafngrímnir as a one-man Black Metal project during the golden years of the genre. Several songs were written in the early days, but never recorded, as Hrafngrímnir was active in other Black Metal bands at the time.
By 1999, he began to leave the Black Metal scene behind, feeling that the genre was losing its true soul and becoming something detached from its original spirit. He moved into other forms of music, still the old darkness never left him.
Decades later, Hrafngrímnir decided to awaken MØRKGRIM, but only if it could be done with the right spirit. He moved to a remote farm, far from modern comfort, where he still lives without ordinary modern utilities such as a flushing toilet or municipal water. There, surrounded by raw nature, silence and isolation, the first MØRKGRIM album was written and recorded. It is a tribute to raw nature, the old gods, ancient Norse magick, and the Old Ways, not as image, but as a way of life.
In 2023, Nils “Dominator” Fjellström joined MØRKGRIM. Known for his work with Dark Funeral, Aeon, In Battle, The Wretched End, Myrkskog and Nordjevel, his drumming brought a new level of violence and precision to the project.
Forged in isolation and rooted in the spirit of the early 90s, MØRKGRIM is Black Metal returned to its source with a blend of raw oldschool aggression and immersive acoustic folk/norse elements.

Limited edition CD Mediabook with a 32p booklet

Heretics of the Black Metal genre and the Kings of USBM, WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM have returned with sharpened teeth. Their new album “Estuary” carries the hallmark of their unyielding dedication to the physical craft and analog production techniques, executed with zero cut corners. After more than twenty years, the pioneers of Cascadian Black Metal have neither withered, rested, nor resorted to recycling past glories. They continue to rise with unparalleled strength, and “Estuary” is their most ferocious and genre-bending record to date.
WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM embody nature as active participants of the current, bypassing the confines of a musical landscape which trends towards homogenization. Massive percussion and seething gothic guitars wipe the listener’s psyche clear of all stagnation, transforming it into a conduit for evolution and renewal. Rich with alchemical and archetypal imagery, the record operates like eagles and wolves descending upon desolation and entropy, activating the dormant domain with magic and the lethal essence of virility.
The bulk of the album was produced and recorded at the band’s own Owl Lodge studio in Olympia, Washington, with drums tracked by Nicholas Wilbur at The Unknown (a converted former church in Anacortes, Washington).

 Here is presented the final chapter of Aäkon Këëtrëh reissue series.

“Journey Into the Depths of the Night”, originally released in 1995, is the debut demo of this obscure LLN project and is finally reissued in proper quality. Remastered, with restored photos and special etching on B side!

6 panel digipak CD with reverse cardboard.