CD

The high priests of sinister doom return with “Evil Remains”, their sixth album and first for Hammerheart Records!

“Evil Remains” is a hook-laden Heavy Metal thrill-ride into Nosferatu nights! Back after a six year break with the black magic fully recharged, Castle has delivered a juggernaut of riffery in a hook laden mix of doom and psychedelictinged classic metal. Adding to the atmosphere of majestic doom, Elizabeth Blackwell’s haunted, full-blooded vocals are electric witch hymns of death and madness; ‘Hear my warning, heed my call’ indeed.

Recorded at Raincity Recorders in Vancouver B.C. by producer Jesse Gander (Anciients, 3 Inches Of Blood, Brutus) “Evil Remains” sonically balances the warm and fuzzy with the bombastic power of an alternate universe stadium rock band. Bassist/vocalist Elizabeth Blackwell and guitarist/vocalist Mat Davis bring their unique female and male vocal attack and scorching, serpentine riffs to dizzying new heights. Rounded out by drummer Mike Cotton’s thunderous precision, “Evil Remains” delivers a metallic knock out punch from the first to the last note of its eight pummeling tracks.

Written over a five year period - beginning in Castle’s then home town of Joshua Tree, California after a year-long tour for their previous album, “Deal Thy Fate” - the songwriting culminated this past year with pre-production sessions taking place in the band’s new twin home bases of San Francisco and Vancouver. Since storming out of San Francisco with their 2011 debut, “In Witch Order”, Castle has toured relentlessly, playing close to 700 shows on three continents. The live ritual resumes this September across Europe with North American dates to follow.

With “The Apophatic Wilderness”, Verberis reveals an image of man cast into the house of Abaddon. Three formidable compositions totalling 41 minutes proceed from 2022’s “Adumbration of the Veiled Logos”, recounting an entanglement of hubris, submission, worship, and ruin.

As with the past two releases, “The Apophatic Wilderness” was recorded by the constellation of DA with JSM, NH, and MP. This time, the essence of germanium transistors and magnetic tape imbues the sonic spectrum and provides an aura of vintage viscerality.

While collaborating once more with Ars Alchymiae and Magnus Lindberg, further control was relinquished to achieve a final product reaching beyond the capacities of the band’s core alone. In this respect, mixing was by the hands of Richard Behrens, whereas layout and typography came forth from an open grave.

Take heed in the apophatic wilderness.

Band: SpellBook Album: Deadly Charms Country: USA Label: Cruz del Sur Music

Rare, swiss weird project - avantgarde thrash

Disc: VG (quite a few scratches but plays perfectly)

Inlays: NM

Seconda stampa, ora in digipack con libretto

Pioneering French dark atmospheric music since 1996, Dark Sanctuary is back with their eighth album, Cernunnos, the first in fourteen years. Following the EP Iterum released in 2022, it marks the group's return to the front of the stage.

Cernunnos is an ancient Gaulish god who embodied the biological cycle of nature, simultaneously reflecting life and death, germination and decay, like the deer, the animal that represents him, who loses its antlers in winter to recover them in spring. This title perfectly symbolizes the history of Dark Sanctuary after these years of artistic break and this rebirth.

Composed during the year 2022, the 11 songs of this album make it one of the most varied that Dark Sanctuary have made so far, oscillating between what has characterized the band for two decades and new musical horizons. Both dark and emotional, Cernunnos is a new milestone in the history of the group.

Mixed and mastered by Øystein G. Brun at Crosound Studio in Bergen

Cover Artwork by Valnoir/Metastazis

Crust is a band from northwestern Russia founded back in 2014.
Themusic this trio creates is a varied blend of styles but can be broadly defined as blackened doom sludge. Their lyrics mostly touch issues such as the degradation of morality in contemporary society, the shift in values, the vices of human nature, miseries and misfortunes that are usually not few and far between in people’s lives.
Dissolution is the fifth studio record by the band, where they demonstrate more black metal tendencies than before, though melodic guitar arrangements, dark atmospheres and post-metal elements are definitely still present. The lyrical theme that unites most of the songs is still the acceptance of inevitable death as the only way of mental and spiritual liberation.
Crust is a hell’s locomotive fueled by the agony of sinful souls, that knows no stopping and is constantly moving forward to new music discoveries.

Audio preview CLICK HERE