Nightmarer premiere “Death/Swansong”

NIGHTMARER are now premiering the third sinister song taken from their forthcoming debut full-length, ‘Cacophony of Terror’, which is scheduled for release on March 23rd, 2018.

To be more precise, the stream actually includes two album tracks, “Death” and “Swansong”, which the band views as one inseparable unit. Both pieces are therefore exclusively presented here:

NIGHTMARER guitarist Simon Hawemann comments: “Our track ‘Death’ marks the inevitable end of ‘Cacophony of Terror’ – it is the final stage of a battle that was never meant to be won. My inspiration for this song was all too real: I had to witness a person close to me decease over the course of several days. The riffs and sounds in ‘Death’ reflect the heavy breathing, the tortured moans, and the spasms of a dying human being – sights and sounds that are burned into my memory forever. This experience served as a morbidly twisted foundation to give death itself an appropriate soundtrack. Once it’s all over, ‘Death’ seamlessly makes the transitions into ‘Swansong’, which offers nothing else than just the relief of not having to fight any longer. One could not exist without the other, so we’re premiering both tracks merged into one today. We are thrilled to have joined forces with Alan Dubin (KHANATE/GNAW), who lent his terrifying voice to ‘Death’. His piercing screams serve as the perfect personification of the demon that lurks in the plagued mind of the album’s protagonist. Without further ado, embrace death!”

NIGHTMARER have previously released the cover-art and album details of ‘Cacophony of Terror’, which can be viewed below.

Track-list
1. The Descent (1:36)
2. Stahlwald (3:31)
3. Skinner (4:38)
4. Bleach (3:59)
5. Cave Digger (3:25)
6. Fetisch (4:46)
7. Tidal Waves of Terror (3:23)
8. Ceremony of Control (4:48)
9. Death (4:52)
10. Swansong (1:27)
Total playing time: 35:23

Chaos comes crashing in waves. Patterns emerge out of swirling energy. Darkness coalesces out of fragments into bizarre forms and strange angled shapes. What reads like a list of entries into H.P. Lovecraft’s dictionary of horrors is the nightmarish musical vision offered by NIGHTMARER on their debut album, ‘Cacophony of Terror’.

Seemingly out of nowhere, NIGHTMARER hit the extreme metal underground with their first EP, ‘Chasm’ in early 2016. This furious whirlwind of low end dissonance, devastating heaviness and majestic walls of sound took the scene by storm and the first 10″ vinyl pressing almost sold out while still on pre-order.

Conceived in 2014 by former members of bands such as GIGAN, THE OCEAN and WAR FROM A HARLOTS MOUTH, this international trio derives only the most extreme elements of their previous musical outlets and takes those into another hellish dimension.

Carving their distinctly personal and unique path into the dark matter that DEATHSPELL OMEGA, DODECAHEDRON, and ULSECT have ventured to explore, NIGHTMARER are now set to release one of the darkest and crushing albums of 2018. Enter this ‘Cacophony of Terror’ in search of extreme sonic pleasures at your own peril!

www.facebook.com/nightmarercult
www.instagram.com/nightmarercult
www.nightmarer.com

Current line-up
John Collett: vocals
Simon Hawemann: guitars
Paul Seidel: drums

VANHELGA sign with OSMOSE, prepare label debut

Today, Osmose Productions announces the singing of Vanhelga. The first fruit of this union shall be the band’s highly anticipated fifth album, Fredagsmys, which is set for international release on June 29th on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

Vanhelga are constantly expanding their creativity without losing the classic melancholic sound from Sweden that makes them unique. The last few years, they’ve written and recorded 11 tracks that fully live up to their artistic vision. Fredagsmys is the most elaborate album from Vanhelga so far.

True to their own words, their fifth full-length – and first for Osmose – is the continuing exploration of the darker sides of reality and another experiment in how to find its purest expression: using sarcasm combined with overall schizophrenic mood changes between pitch-black hopelessness and cheerful euphoria, but still keeping a level of seriousness Vanhelga has come to be a force to be reckoned with.

Vanhelga was formed in Linköping, Sweden, in 2001 by 145188, who got together with likeminded musicians in order to finally breathe life into his vision, something he had not been able to do with any previous bands and musicians he had worked with. Since then, they are known for their atmospheric and captivating live performances, sharing the stage with, Psychonaut 4, Forgotten Tomb, Harakiri for the Sky, and Kall, among others.

Through music and lyrics, Vanhelga – which, translated from Swedish, means “Profane” – explores the darker side of humanity: the one that few will admit exists, but which nevertheless is a huge part of every individual’s existence.

Vanhelga’s music can doubtlessly be classed as black metal, but that would be too restrictive a definition. Their music is cold and sinister, but with melodies and melancholic moments that can draw you in and lull you into a false sense of security before you realize, too late, that you have been caught in an ominous web of sound that sends shivers down your spine.

A statement from the band reads: “Working with an iconic label such as Osmose feels like a natural step in the right direction for Vanhelga. We are proud to release our fifth full-length Fredagsmys together with them.”

Cover and tracklisting for Vanhelga’s Fredagsmys to be revealed shortly. For more info, consult the links below.

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/officialvanhelga
www.vanhelga.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/channel/UCSK8dY_SxNOdiLbOHh9xMNg
www.soundcloud.com/vanhelga-official
www.instagram.com/officialvanhelga
www.osmoseproductions-label.com/bands

VANHELGA lineup 2018
145188 – vocals and guitars
J. Ejnarsson – lead guitars and backing vocals
R. Jönsson – bass
D. Franzén – drums

DISEMBOWEL stream IRON BONEHEAD debut

Set for international release on March 2nd via Iron Bonehead Productions for the vinyl LP format Chilean black/death cult Disembowel stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Plagues and Ancient Rites,here.

Hailing from the cult-metal hotbed of Chile, Disembowel are very much a summation of their homeland’s ancient death metal and black metal traditions. That much was violently portrayed across their Act of Invocation MCD released in early 2017 by Iron Bonehead – gnarly, ghastly, grinding, gross – but here on their full-length debut, the power-trio extend further all the extremes which made that EP such a sulfurous blast. Draped in an ominous cloud of utter doom, Plagues and Ancient Rites soon approximates its very title: scabrous and hysteric energy coursing the pitch-blackest of metals, foul and fetid textures from death metal’s deepest sewers, and a subtly ceremonial, spell-like seamlessness uniting the two. Its nine tracks compactly exude all the diabolism and devilishness for which Chilean black/death is known, and after 35 minutes, Disembowel emerge as the true Lovecraftian horrors that they are.

Disembowel have opened the portals, and their Plagues and Ancient Rites are about to commence…

Cover and tracklisting

Tracklisting for Disembowel (Peru)’s Plagues and Ancient Rites
1. Intro – Innsmouth Evocation
2. Lord Of Shadows
3. IA! IA! Nyarlathotep!
4. The Pact With The Sect Of The Sea
5. Los Antiguos Eran….Los Antiguos Son…Lost Antiguos Seran
6. Plagues Of The Ancient Rites
7. The Ancient Cult Of Cthulhu
8. En el Abismo
9. Antra Gnomorum

www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

Prophetic Metallers VERATRUM unleash their first official studio trailer

Prophetic Metallers VERATRUM have unleashed the first official studio trailer for their much-anticipated EP “Visioni”

The video covers the first studio recording session, handled by Andrea Facheris at Loft-1 Studio.

“Visioni” was mixed and mastered at Domination Studio (Necrodeath, Luca Turilli’s Rhaposody, Labyrinth) by Simone Mularoni.

Featuring guest vocal performances by Taliesin (Eternal Samhain) and Giulian (SCUORN), clarinet solo by Vittorio Sabelli (Dawn Of A Dark Age) and additional choirs by HaddaH.
Cover Artwork by Sabnock Design.

This is the first of a serie of weekly studio trailer videos unveiling more details about the making of “Visioni”.

May The Prophecy Be On Thy Side !!!

TOTALSELFHATRED set release date for long-awaited OSMOSE comeback, reveal first track

I loved Totaselfhatred’s self titled debut when it first came out a perfect DSBM album in my mind. So its probably on record some where that I was pretty damn disappointed with their 2011 follow up Apocalypse in your Heart. So I am kinda nervy to hear the new album thats coming out in April. Osmose have one song up as a teaser on their bandcamp and its not bad m but its too early to really get the flavor of the album just yet.

Here’s Solitude. Check it out and leave us a comment below on what you think

Check the press release below:
Today, Osmose Productions sets April 27th as the international release date for Totalselfhatred’s long-awaited third album, Solitude.

Perseverance through adversity, creation through destruction, strength through pain. After years of waiting, skulking, and lying near-dormant, Totalselfhatred has returned to the fray. They are here to present you five songs of our their particular brand of melancholic desolation in an audial form. Turn off the lights, wallow in the sweetness of reclusive negativity, and let yourself float freely in the soothing stream of emotion that their epitome of Solitude will provide.

Totalselfhatred was founded to create truly melancholic and desperate soundscapes and to unravel the blackened thoughts, the blessing and the curse of the inability to think either black or white nor in between. To narrate about the ability to find clarity in madness, positivity in the negativity, shelter in the dark…

To point it out clearly: Totalselfhatred is dedicated to the searching, not to the self-pity. Totalselfhatred is a symbol for resurrection through pain. A pool for the frustrated, for the desperate in life, for those living and bleeding towards a higher truth, to crush the circles of self-inflicted suffering! For I am my worst enemy…

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Totalselfhatred’s Solitude
1. Solitude MMXIII
2. Cold Numbness
3. Hallow
4. Black Infinity
5. Nyktophilia

MORE INFO:
www.totalselfhatred.net
www.facebook.com/totalselfhatredofficial

www.osmoseproductions.com
www.facebook.com/Osmose-Productions

PROFANATICA to embark on first-ever European tour next month

Legendary USBM instigators/iconoclasts Profanatica are about to embark upon their “Curling Flame Over Europe” tour. Presented by Killtown Bookings, the tour coincides with the Netherlands Death Fest, alongside such names as Emperor, At the Gates, Carcass, and Sadistic Intent among many others.

This will be not only the first-ever European tour for Profanatica, but the band’s first-ever full-scale tour. It will start in the north of Europe on the 1st of March and make its way down to NDF before continuing through central and eastern Europe, taking over Greece, and finally ending up desecrating Spain and Portugal. Joining Profanatica will be the elite Canadian hordes Rites of Thy Degringolade and Auroch.

A statement from Profanatica founder Paul Ledney simply reads: “Profanatica chose European soil for its first-ever tour.
Our plan is to destroy all that is holy. ‘Here is wisdom…'”

Confirmed dates and venues for “Curling Flame Over Europe” are as follows, followed by the official poster art:

March 1st – Copenhagen, Denmark @ Loppen
March 2nd – Tilburg, The Netherlands @ The Netherlands Death Fest – 013 venue
March 3rd – London, UK @ Boston Music Room
March 4th – Glasgow, UK @ Audio – NOTW Warm up
March 6th – Paris, France @ Backstage
March 7th – Nantes, France – Le Ferrailleur
March 8th – Brussels, Belgium @ Magasin 4
March 9th – Berlin, Germany @ Nuke Club
March 10th – Poland @ Into the Abyss Fest III – Klub Pralnia
March 11th – Banská Bystrica, Slovakia @ Rock Club Tartaros
March 12th – Prague, Czech @ Hells Bells
March 13th – Nürnberg, Germany @ Club Cult
March 14th – Budapest, Hungary @ Blue Hell Club
March 15th – Vienna, Austria @ Viper Room
March 16th – Basel, Switzerland @ Hirscheneck
March 17th – Parma, Italy @ A Journey in Darkness Festival – Titty Twister
March 18th – Athens, Greece @ Athens Temple *
March 20th – Barcelona, Spain @ Sala Upload *
March 21st – Madrid, Spain @ Wurlitzer Ballroom *
March 22nd – Lisbon, Portugal @ Le Baron Rouge *
March 23rd – Porto, Portugal @ Metalpoint *
March 24th – Zaragoza, Spain @ Centro Civico Valdefierro *

* = Profanatica + Rites of thy Degringolade only

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/profanaticausa
www.profanatica-us.bandcamp.com

OPIUM WARLORDS premiere new video

After three wilderness years with doom gods Spiritus Mortis and Lord Vicar, electronic warriors Tähtiportti, and black metal sorcerers Azrael Rising, Sami Albert “Witchfinder” Hynninen is back in business with Opium Warlords. Last November, Opium Warlords released Droner through Svart Records to international, sometimes-befuddled acclaim. And today, check out a new video for Droner track “Samael Lilith”.

Droner is the fourth Opium Warlords album, and it brings Hynninen’s uncompromising musical vision to its most sparse form. It is noisy lo-fi riff music consisting only of particles unquestionably necessary, but at the same time with a musical spectrum that is very wide and open. It is experimental and avant-garde, still with roots deep in the very heart of heavy rock music. It is concrete blues, diving to the existence and the smallest molecular spheres of minimal riffs, and what seems to be an endless repetition of them. From these rather skeletal elements, it occasionally reaches neo-classical, even medieval spheres and death-romantic chambers of apocalyptic folk. Onto all of this, disturbing lyrics are chanted by unnamed, hostile protagonists.

The lyrics come entirely from outside, already existing sources: a book written by Finnish culture radical Jouko Turkka, a ritual of Ndembu people, and a letter written by scarlet woman Marjorie Cameron. The purpose here is to create a soundtrack that pictures and reflects the contents of the textual force. The result is primitive and brooding sonic landscapes of war, ritual, and death. Gone is soothing warmth of the preceding album, Taste My Sword Of Understanding. Droner is all about nuclear war and clear, post-apocalyptic primitivity of the surviving culture. It is torturing purification through purgatory, to a new world and new form of life.

All three epic-length tracks of Droner have now been revealed to the public.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Opium Warlords’ Droner
1. Year of 584 Days (20:32)
2. Samael Lilith (20:30)
3. “Closure” (18:55)

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/OpiumWarlords

Baume French Experimental Black Metal

Baume is the brain child of Gaetan from Cepheide – read our interview with them HERE.

As any long term reader of our site knows the French have been killing it with Black metal in the last 15 years or so. Baume is no exception. A lot more raw and pained than Cepheide, Gaetan plays all instruments on this album (with the exception of some vocals and bass handled by Laurene and Hugo respectively.)

With its official release date of March 2nd 2018, its already streaming on bandcamp but you can order cds and shirt bundles from there too

Check out the album here and let me know what ya think!

AD HOMINEM set release date for new OSMOSE album, reveal first track

Osmose Productions sets April 13th as the international release date for Ad Hominem’s highly anticipated sixth album, Napalm For All.

The southern French project Ad Hominem was created in 1998 by Kaiser W., whose intention was to defy the current black metal standards. Two demos and four years later, the first full-length, Planet Zog – The End (2002), was released and proclaimed Ad Hominem as one of the most extreme black metal bands coming out of France, by combining provocative lyrics with thrashy martial vibes. The following year, the album A New Race For A New World (2003) came out through the German label Undercover Records – this time, with a session drummer – and confirmed the band’s notoriety.

The success of this second opus caught the attention of bigger labels, and three 7” splits later, Kaiser W. contracted with Avantgarde Music to release what would be a major turn in Ad Hominem’s discography: Climax Of Hatred (2005). The Italian label also released the MCD Theory: 0, which proposed the only official video clip of the band so far. Then Dictator – A Monument Of Glory saw the light in 2009 through the controversial label Darker Than Black Records. From that point, Kaiser W. raised a solid lineup and Ad Hominem became vigorously active onstage.

After a long silence, a MCD containing remixed songs from Dictator by Greek EBM project Preemptive Strike 0.1 was unleashed in 2013 by Darker Than Black, jointly titled Slaves Of God To The Gallows. Freshly signed to Osmose Productions, at long last came the critically acclaimed Antitheist, which saw Ad Hominem at its rawest and nastiest.

Now on its second album with Osmose Productions, 20 years after its creation, the most controversial French black metal project proposes a pure black ‘n’ roll album, yet more brutal than its previous one. A divine mockery, not to be missed! A return to the divine classic Climax of Hatred and Dictator albums! Hear for yourself with the title track, “Napalm For All,” HERE

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Ad Hominem’s Napalm For All
1. AMSB
2. I Am Love
3. Consecrate the Abomination
4. Napalm for All
5. Goatfucker
6. V. Is the Law
7. Imperial Massacre
8. Bomb the Earth
9. You Are My Slut
10. Vatican Gay

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/adhominemofficial

MONGREL’S CROSS reveal new track from long-awaited HELLS HEADBANGERS album

Today, Australian death/black cult Mongrel’s Cross reveal the new track “The Thirteenth Card.” The track hails from the band’s highly anticipated second album, Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court, which will see release later this summer through Hells Headbangers on CD and vinyl LP formats. Hear Mongrel’s Cross’ “The Thirteenth Card” exclusively HERE.

Hailing from the extreme metal hotbed of Australia, Mongrel’s Cross are one of the best-kept secrets Down Under. Mind you, the band – now pared down to a duo – have been quiet since the release of their Hells Headbangers debut album, The Sins of Aquarius, in 2012, but those years away from the prying eyes of the metal public have paid off in spades on Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court. Here, these hooligans take everything that made The Sins of Aquarius so grimily gratifying – the widescreen span of filthy thrashing, down-tempo war-marches, and epic metal grandeur alike – and render it all the more terrifying and triumphant through clear ‘n’ cutting production. It’s the age-old axis of form meeting content, and rarely has a metal record this cleanly produced sounded so threatening, which simply underlines the powerful panache to the band’s strong songwriting.

Taken another way, with Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court, Mongrel’s Cross step deeper into territory that’s entirely their own. Not for them the over-generalization of “Australia = war metal” nor the simplistic connotations associated with such; no, the duo are at the height of their compositional powers and are now truly a great extreme METAL entity. All the drama and danger, legendry and lawlessness, power and poison, and essential OTT abandon of this artform otherwise known as heavy metal: everything is played out with a palpably physical poetry across Psalter of the Royal Dragon. Suitably, its lyrical themes range a rich panoply of occultism – among others, such titles as “Vessel of Shar On,” “Neurian Transformation,” and “Derkesthai – Initiation (to see clearly)” should suggest plenty – making this a thoroughly engrossing experience deserving of the band’s elevated standards.

When so much metal aims so low, for such no-hope ghettoization, it’s down to true mavericks like Mongrel’s Cross to lead the intrepid to illumination. Hereby, open the Psalter of the Royal Dragon Court!

Release date and preorder info to be announced shortly. In the meantime, hear the just-revealed “The Thirteenth Card” HERE

The previously revealed “Neurian Transformation” can be heard HERE,

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Mongrel’s Cross’ Psalter of the Dragon Court
1. King of the Beasts
2. Neurian Transformation
3. The Thirteenth Card
4. Khara
5. From Transylvania to Tunbridge Wells
6. Derkesthai – Initiation (to see clearly)
7. Trail of the Serpent
8. Vessel of Shar On

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/MongrelsCross