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Black/Gray Galaxy

 
Tracks 1 to 3 were originally released as the Troops Of Unfeigned Might 7".
Track 4 was originally released on the split 7" with StarGazer.
Track 5 was originally released on the split 7" with Morbid Upheaval.
Track 6 was originally released on the If You Can't Eat It Or Fuck It... Then Kill It! (A Tribute To Carnivore) compilation CD.
Track 7 was originally released on the split 7" with Der Stürmer and Mudoven.

Oxblood Vinyl

Everyone else can pretty much give up right now. With Hornets of the Pogrom, the infamous Arghoslent have outstripped the competition to such a degree that it's almost unfair. Anyone who's heard these guys' prior two masterpieces, 1998's Galloping Through The Battle Ruins and 2002's Incorrigible Bigotry, already knows this band is capable of delivering some of the best death metal out there. But on Hornets of the Pogrom, Arghoslent step it up to a whole different level entirely, and I can honestly say that I'm floored by the results. If any album was ever worth a six year wait, this one is.
 

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.

Crystal clear and black marbled 12" vinyl (33rpm) in gatefold with double sided insert.
Limited to 250 copies worldwide!

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.

Black 12" vinyl (33rpm) in gatefold with double sided insert.
First pressing 500 copies worldwide.

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.

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.