Preordine

THE EPIC NEW STUDIO ALBUM FROM THE LONG-STANDING JAPANESE METAL PIONEERS, INCLUDING GUEST APPEARANCE FROM OPETH'S MIKAEL ÅKERFELDT.

Japanese metal pioneers Sigh formed in 1989/1990. Their genre-classic Black Metal debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ arrived in 1993, & with a subsequent journey through the strange & the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & ideas throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed on the 2022 album (& first for Peaceville Records), ‘Shiki’. This was followed by the remaking of their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw The World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’ (2025).

Considered as somewhat of a natural evolution, yet an even more diverse leap over the already compositionally & dynamically accomplished ‘Shiki’ opus, Sigh returns with ‘Goh-ka’; a new highlight of atmosphere, technical mastery, & meticulously arranged epics of metallic grandeur.

Main-man Mirai Kawashima notes this as being as equally personal an album as ‘Shiki’, both musically & lyrically. From a musical perspective, if you were to place the main ingredients of Celtic Frost, Voivod, Black Sabbath, horror movies & Japan into a cauldron & stir it, you will get ‘Goh-ka’. Numerous additional spices such as psychedelic rock, prog rock & classical music are also evident over the album’s close to one-hour duration.

The primary theme permeating the album is Kuso-zu; a series of Buddhist paintings or illustrations depicting the nine stages of a human body's decomposition after death, created to encourage meditation on the impermanence of life, the inevitability of death, & the detachment from physical beauty & worldly attachment. It openly shows the harsh reality that no matter how beautiful you are, you’ll be dead & rot sooner or later. And Kuso-shi is a poem based on these paintings. The artworks on the cover & in the booklet of ‘Goh-ka’ are therefore Kuso-zu themselves.

Among the additional contributors to the album, Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth notably delivers a special guest guitar solo on the track, ‘Unputenpu’.

This edition of ‘Goh-ka’ is presented on digipack CD format, including a 12 page booklet.

Japanese black metal legends Sigh formed in 1989/1990. The genre-classic debut ‘Scorn Defeat’ followed on Euronymous’ Deathlike Silence Productions in 1993, and with each subsequent release, Sigh grew to become one of the country’s greatest and most revered metal exports. With a journey through the strange and the psychedelic, incorporating a whole eclectic mix of genre styles & experimentation throughout their career, Sigh has remained a vital creative force in the avantgarde field whilst maintaining their old school roots, as witnessed with the stellar 2022 album, ‘Shiki’. 2025 also saw Sigh remaking their ‘Hangman’s Hymn’ album for a release on Peaceville as part of the band’s 35th anniversary celebrations, in the shape of ‘I Saw the World’s End: Hangman’s Hymn MMXXV’.

With the ongoing early line-up of Mirai Kawashima, Shinichi Ishikawa, and Satoshi Fujinami, ‘Scenario IV: Dread Dreams’ was the band’s fourth studio album, originally surfacing in 1999. This was also notably the final title in partnership with Sigh’s then-label, Cacophonous Records. Delving evermore into the experimental side of music to conjure an interlinked gallery of twisted soundscapes; ‘Dread Dreams’ became more of a journey into the realm of psychedelia and rock over black metal, with this Zappa-inspired odyssey acting as somewhat of a direct pre-cursor to what was to follow with the celebrated ‘Imaginary Sonicscape’ opus.

‘Dread Dreams’ was once more recorded at Shinjuku On Air Studio with J. Yamada, with a selection of guests including Damian Montgomery of Ritual Carnage lending lyrics plus guest vocals, along with King Fowley (Deceased), and Killjoy (Necrophagia) supplying additional song lyrics. Cover art came courtesy of renowned artist Joe Petagno (Motörhead, Autopsy).

Continuing with Peaceville’s re-issues of Sigh’s classic works, this edition of ‘Dread Dreams’ contains a new master created by Patrick Engel at Temple of Disharmony.

The release also includes a new interview with main-man Mirai Kawashima conducted by Dayal Patterson of Cult Never Dies, with his thoughts, influences and reflections on the album and its challenges.

This edition of ‘Dread Dreams’ is presented on limited marble vinyl.

FEN are climbing to a new artistic height by coming down to earth with their eighth full-length "Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth". The East Anglian trio has turned to their 'roots' in every sense, by distilling the true essence of what constitutes their sound through everything that they have learned and added in the last two decades. While the previous album, "Monuments to Absence" (2023), was deliberately arranged dense, fast and intense, FEN decided to leave breathing space on this album to allow more time for themes and ideas to exhale and unfurl. Of course, there is still much sonic aggression but channelled differently as large parts of "Mourning Earth" were recorded live to allow an organic nature to flow, and to permit the natural rhythms of the pieces to develop. Lyrically, FEN sum up their basic idea behind "Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth" in their own poetic words: "The morning mists clearing over the boggy expanses of the fens to reveal another grey, gloom-laden day of sorrow and regret. And at twilight, the slow, sad realisation that tomorrow promises only more of the same – tormented by the half-heard whispers of the spirits bound to the soils, our pain continues. And we can only endure." With "Elemental Part One: Mourning Earth", FEN have reached a new pinnacle in their exciting career and achieved a perfect balance between their black metal foundations and post-black metal innovations. FEN take their listener on a journey to grim bogs, languid waterways, and dismal fogs over bare rock – yet on the other side waits a sense of surcease to the endless existential ennui within.

From the mind of Gore Metal pioneer Matt Harvey, LEFT TO DIE pays homage to Chuck Schuldiner's revolutionary Metal band, DEATH. 

Initium Mortis, the upcoming new album from LEFT TO DIE, sees the DEATH-inspired supergroup—including original DEATH members Terry Butler (OBITUARY) and Rick Rozz (MASSACRE)—joining Harvey (EXHUMED, GRUESOME) and Gus Rios (GRUESOME) to capture DEATH's deep, die-hard-only catalog.

Featuring tracks like Arcangel, Witch of Hell, and Legion of Doom expertly executed in the now, Initium Mortis is a must-have for DEATH fans and collectors alike.   

"For Initium Mortis we wanted Death fans who had never heard these demo songs to hear them with good production," says Harvey. "Most of these early demos were poor quality, often recorded on a boom box, so by the time someone got a demo through tape trading it was almost inaudible!
We think these tracks are a good representation of the birth of Mantas/Death. This is ground zero - where it all started: three 15 year-old kids creating Death Metal history, and even within these choice cuts from the demo days you can hear the evolution of the music."

"Left To Die went from a thought to doing a full US tour in about 3 months! Pretty remarkable if you ask me," says Butler. "We wanted to play the early material for the fans that weren't able to see the first albums in a live setting. There are many young fans at our shows that are hearing the foundation that DEATH stands on to this day live for the first time! With Matt channeling the best Chuck Schuldiner out there and Gus playing the material perfectly and respectfully we hit the road and haven't looked back."

Ultimately, LEFT TO DIE celebrates a seminal band and the camaraderie of the genre's most extreme corner of music. "First off I would like to thank Gus, Matt and Terry for making Left To Die happen. It's been an honor and pleasure working with them for the past few years and beyond," says Rozz. "It's really cool to be able to hear these tunes from 1984 properly! Old-school Death fans are going to dig this release. Cheers & Peace."

180g black vinyl in a classy package.

The Italic spirit returns… Winter Medieval Black Metal from the Mounts of Sibylla!

2-LP on Silver, second pressing.
 

The Italic spirit returns… Winter Medieval Black Metal from the Mounts of Sibylla!

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Formed in Kraków in 2019, Cursebinder set out to dissolve the lines between extreme metal and just about anything else. The self-produced demo EP (2020) announced the intention; the debut full-length Drifting (Avantgarde Music, April 2023) delivered on it, with forty minutes of haunting atmosphere, nuanced guitar work and shifting rhythms that earned the band a reputation for music impossible to pin down and difficult to forget.

Three years later, Psychohazard is a force with no shape and no mercy. The second full-length by Cursebinder hits harder and cuts deeper than anything they’ve done yet. Their latest release sees the band push for a more introspective, organic and life-affirming direction, circling the existential clash between the urban rat race and the human desire for love and connection.

At its center is raw human experience with all its contradictions; its veins overflow with a burning desire to look ever closer at the intangible forces that drive our lives. The band smashes their way through eight tracks of demolishing riffs dissolving into hazy atmospheres, jazz-inflected drift surfacing from the dark and layered rhythms drenched in pure psychedelic rage, baring their souls to those willing to listen. 

Their commitment to the ideas, unrelenting emotional power and the intensity of their live shows spill all over this record. So does everything else.  Unpredictable, elemental and intimate, Psychohazard is an invitation to ask the questions we’ve been avoiding.

Formed in Kraków in 2019, Cursebinder set out to dissolve the lines between extreme metal and just about anything else. The self-produced demo EP (2020) announced the intention; the debut full-length Drifting (Avantgarde Music, April 2023) delivered on it, with forty minutes of haunting atmosphere, nuanced guitar work and shifting rhythms that earned the band a reputation for music impossible to pin down and difficult to forget.

Three years later, Psychohazard is a force with no shape and no mercy. The second full-length by Cursebinder hits harder and cuts deeper than anything they’ve done yet. Their latest release sees the band push for a more introspective, organic and life-affirming direction, circling the existential clash between the urban rat race and the human desire for love and connection.

At its center is raw human experience with all its contradictions; its veins overflow with a burning desire to look ever closer at the intangible forces that drive our lives. The band smashes their way through eight tracks of demolishing riffs dissolving into hazy atmospheres, jazz-inflected drift surfacing from the dark and layered rhythms drenched in pure psychedelic rage, baring their souls to those willing to listen. 

Their commitment to the ideas, unrelenting emotional power and the intensity of their live shows spill all over this record. So does everything else.  Unpredictable, elemental and intimate, Psychohazard is an invitation to ask the questions we’ve been avoiding.