CD

"Even at their crucible, Cemetery of Scream was a force unto themselves. Original, dark and not afraid to experiment best sum up the bands humble beginnings. It’s always nice when you can listen to a band, put them in a category and do so without pointing out who they sound like if not a few resemblances to early My Dying Bride.
"Melancholy" finally finds new life again as a digipak CD and first time release on (double) vinyl

Digipak CD with 12 pags booklet

hardcover digibook, ltd 

Great grim black metal, a mixture between early Immortal and early Burzum

Calculating and cruel, steeped in an ambiance of controlled fury, the nine tracks offer a jarring journey through the haunted recesses of the mortal mind. They are violent and hypnotic, but also bring out the occasional demented melody to keep things unpredictable. The lyrics - manic demonological verses that read as the album sounds - are roared, chanted, moaned and snarled with equal parts conviction and possession. All combined, this results in a soundscape which, whilst firmly rooted in the death metal tradition, is thoroughly imbued with a theatrical vibe and spiritual depth more associated with black metal. The Broken Seal is a unique fusion of musical worlds, concocted to plague the reality of flesh.

Ladoga is a call of a modern man to his roots. It’s an attempt to look at the life of the ancient man through the prism of the legends and today’s cultural paradigm. The man who is physically same yet so diffident in mind.
It’s a journey from nowhere to nowhere. It’s about a fate of a person in the eternity of the existence

It was but the autumn of 2019 when Marras burst from the void, fully formed, with their widely celebrated debut album, Where Light Comes to Die. Although a then-brand-new entity, the black metal this Finnish formation conjured forth exuded an ageless wisdom - which is not surprising given that the Marras' members hail several highly respected bands.

Now, as this cursed epoch continues on, Marras swiftly return with their second album, Endtime Sermon. Indeed aptly titled, Endtime Sermon sonically encapsulates the haunted (and haunting) sensations of these incredibly dark days: mania, depression, hopelessness, fear, longing, DEATH. That the expanded sextet can take these varied-yet-related sensations and brew them into black metal of a most quintessentially Finnish aspect and make each track a new-yet-unified experience is something special, and further proof that the Marras of Where Light Comes to Die was no fluke. If anything, Endtime Sermon spans delirious violence and stoic mysticism with equal aplomb, all joined together by a through-thread of the (darkly) cinematic, but the message remains the same: there still is no light, and these are the endtimes whether we accept the fact or choose to ignore it.

Windfaerer's Breaths of Elder Dawns is the black/folk metal quintet's latest and most elaborate output in its more than a decade of existence. As the band from New Jersey puts it, “Breaths of Elder Dawns explores themes of hope, kinship, destruction of the natural world, shattered illusions and longing for the numbing comfort of death. It is a journey of mourning through the ruins of abandonded dreams and aspirations. This record is an homage to a romantaicized past as much as it is a rejection of its glorification.

As with previous Windfaerer releases this record was a collaborative effort. Each member brought their own influences, perspectives and compositions and forged them into the spirit of the band. Extensive attention to detail was paid to all of the sonic elements—from the mic placements to the string orchestrations—in an effort to create a towering and expansive sound. Sorrow-laden melodies spiral through rugged, mountainous song structures in a synthesis of vulnerability and power. Breaths of Elder Dawns is a journey through aesthetic desolation and saudade. Here, the light of the sun exposes the anguished disfigurement of the soul”.

Reissue 2021

VOUNA is the project of multi-instrumentalist and composer Yianna Bekris. With her second full-length album “Atropos”, she unveils a towering and singular doom metal wonder in a unique visioning reminiscent of My Dying Bride, Paradise Lost, and Evoken. Upon the thick foundation of doom, multiple musical textures intertwine into her sound: atmospheric black metal, dungeon synth, darkwave, film scores, and rebetiko. It is through these woven sonic tapestries that Bekris creates vivid atmospheres expressing the myriad emotions surrounding death, mourning, and suicidal ideation. “Atropos”, named for the Greek fate who cut the thread of life thus determining the final fate for mortals, not only conveys the inevitability of death, but also explores its contrasting and dynamic nature through immersive compositions representing despair, loneliness, anxiety, peace, and dignity.