THEOTOXIN reveal second track from new AOP RECORDS album – also to tour with ARCHGOAT and WHOREDOM RIFE in November/December

Today, Austrian black metallers Theotoxin reveal the new track “Towards the Chasm.” The track is the second single from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Fragment : Totenruhe, set for international release on October 28th via AOP Records. Hear Theotoxin‘s “Towards the Chasm” here:

With the intention of creating supreme black metal art, Theotoxin ascended from the catacombs of Vienna in 2016 and consists of experienced individuals exclusively. The brand-new album Fragment : Totenruhe will be their second strike under the banner of AOP Records and a worthy successor to the 2020 album Fragment : Erhabenheit. 

Marking a total number of four full-lengths since the founding days, Theotoxin stand for longevity, continuity, and ongoing advancement. Theotoxin are a guarantor for intense live performances and deliver an unprecedented show with deep-yet-aggressive atmosphere. With plenty of live appearances and a tour through Europe accomplished so far, the band is eager to spread their black chants even further. 

With a history of devastating small clubs and open-air stages alike, Theotoxin will conquer new territory along with Archgoat and Whoredom Rife in November and December 2022. Full list of dates as well as tour poster follow after the jump.

Also see & hear the previously revealed video for “World, Burn for Us” HERE, also at AOP Records‘ official YouTube channel. Cover art, courtesy of Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal /  m.p.soszynski / SAROS Collective, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Theotoxin’s Fragment : Totenruhe
1. World, Burn for Us
2. Catastrophe in Flesh
3. Towards the Chasm
4. Demise of the Gilded Age
5. After Thousands of Years
6. Perennial Lunacy
7. …Of Rapture and Dissolution
8. Totenruhe
9. Frontschwein [Marduk cover]

Tour dates with Archgoat & Whoredom Rife
23/11/2022 Viper Room, Vienna, AT
24/11/2022 Futurum, Prague, CZ
25/11/2022 Reithalle Strasse E, Dresden, DE
26/11/2022 Braincrusher In Hell, Hirschaid, DE
27/11/2022 Metropool, Enschede, NL
28/11/2022 De Kreun, Kortrijk, BE
29/11/2022 Turock, Essen, DE
30/11/2022 Live Music Hall, Weiher, DE
01/12/2022 Mergener Hof, Trier, DE
02/12/2022 Goldgrube, Kassel, DE
03/12/2022 Schüür, Luzern, CH
04/12/2022 Slaughter, Paderno, IT
05/12/2022 L’Amperage, Grenoble, FR
06/12/2022 Le Ferrailleur, Nantes, FR
07/12/2022 Petit Bain, Paris, FR
08/12/2022 Effenaar, Eindhoven, NL
09/12/2022 De Mortem Et Diabolum, Berlin DE
10/12/2022  Kwadrat, Krakow, PL
11/12/2022   Hydrozagadka, Warsaw, PL

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/theotoxinofficial

www.aoprecords.de

Finnish Black Metallers CELESTIAL GRAVE stream new THE SINISTER FLAME album

Today, Finnish black metallers Celestial Grave stream the entirety of their highly anticipated second album, Vitriolic Atonement. Set for international release on September 23rd – the autumn equinox – via The Sinister Flame, hear Celestial Grave’s Vitriolic Atonement in its entirety here:

Since their public unveiling in 2016 with the hideous & haunting Burial Ground Trance demo, Finland’s Celestial Grave have been steadily perfecting a craft that already arrived fully formed. While the band’s brand of black metal does bear some semblance to certain sectors of their native land’s long-running and -esteemed scene, Celestial Grave largely unshackle themselves from “Finnish black metal” and locate a muse that’s uniquely focused and fiercely personal. Such was the case with the epic four-song Secular Flesh debut album in 2019, and now, three years later, that case is even stronger with their second album, Vitriolic Atonement.

“Vitriolic Atonement is a sonic and visual exploration of the dreadful yet beautiful aspects of life and death,” they begin. “It was a comprehensive work for us, where not only the music and lyrics but also the artwork were really central from the start.”
 
Indeed, lose thyself in the hypnotic layers of that cover art and you’ll begin to understand the experience that awaits within Vitriolic Atonement. In a most disarming fashion, Celestial Grave here sound both bolder and more brittle – robust lead lines painting melancholy and might in equal measure, the execution seemingly more scattered and strident, the songwriting tending toward the anthemic yet upended by haunting twists of texture – whilst not losing that mesmerizing personality that made its predecessors so compelling. As such, Vitriolic Atonement is a full-album experience that’s paradoxically more approachable and more alien: allow that wounded melodicism into your soul, all enticingly come-hither, and then witness the swirlingly obsidian rot spread.
 
“Vitriolic Atonement goes through different sacraments and rites,” they conclude. “Inhale and take in the aspects of darkness, death, and the beyond that are in reach on this mortal plane. Give in, admire its beauty, and come to terms with it. Prepare for the inevitable, because the beyond will be something no mind nor soul can fully comprehend.”

Aforementioned cover art and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Celestial Grave’s Vitriolic Atonement
1. Eucharist [5:57]
2. Cadaverous Solace [6:03]
3. Clemency [7:55]
4. The Abyss Exhales [3:34]
5. Exaltation [5:32]
6. Radiant Tides Below [5:03]


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/celestialgrave

www.thesinisterflame.com
www.facebook.com/thesinisterflame

HAIL CONJURER premiere new video – features members of HOODED MENANCE, RIDE FOR REVENGE+++

Today, Finnish enigmas Hail Conjurer premiere the new video “Earth Penetration” . The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated sixth album, Earth Penetration, set for international release on September 23rd: Signal Rex will handle the cassette tape version while Bestial Burst will handle the CD version. See & hear Hail Conjurer‘s “Earth Penetration” video in its entirety here:

Hail Conjurer is the sole province of prolific underground veteran Harri Kuokkanen, renown for Hooded Menace, Ride For Revenge, and Horse Latitudes. Under the selfsame nom de plume Hail Conjurer, he creates ugly and idiosyncratic black metal born from ancient fires and dark desires, and since the band’s birth in 2017, he’s explored this unique muse across a grand total of five full-lengths, four demos, two splits, one collaborative album, and a digital single. Truly, Hail Conjurer is a dark and dank headspace like no other. 

Always feverish in his creativity, Hail Conjurer returns to the album front with his sixth, Earth Penetration. Indeed earthy and penetrating – or perhaps virile (and vile) enough to actually penetrate the earth in a manner most sexual – Hail Conjurer here erects a murky-yet-spacey landscape of elevated crudity. For sure, the bass-heavy black metal that’s the band’s stock in trade is a doomy one, but not “doom” by strict definition; rather, ancient touchstones like very earliest Samael, Goatlord, and especially Barathrum get minced and mangled with an auteur’s touch. It’s rude and ritualistic, mind-expanding and body-defiling, and the synth/organ-led spaces are alluringly creepy beyond compare. Sin and sensuality have a new definition with Earth Penetration.

Hear the previously revealed “Come Alive” HERE at Signal Rex‘s official YouTube channel. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Hail Conjurer’s Earth Penetration
1. The Sin And The Sweat [7:33]
2. Aghast [6:21]
3. Rebellion of the Flesh [2:49]
4. Blood on the Stone [2:47]
5. Come Alive [4:36]
6. Winter Death [4:54]
7. Earth Penetration [5:11]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/hailconjurer

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex

PESTLEGION stream new OSMOSE album – features SODOM’s Tom Angelripper as guest

Today, Teutonic black metallers Pestlegion stream the entirety of their highly anticipated second album, Sathanas Grand Victoria. Set for international release on September 30th via Osmose Productions on CD format – the vinyl LP version will follow later this year – hear Pestlegion‘s Sathanas Grand Victoria in its entirety here:

The German black metal kommando Pestlegion was founded in 2012. They released the CD-EP March To War in 2014, the debut album CD Dominus Profundum in 2017, and the 7″ vinyl EP Entsage Gott in 2018.

With Sathanas Grand Victoria, Pestlegion return with a grim black assault on all that is holy. Their 2022 album destroys all hope for a better future by focusing on the essence of human life and efforts; it concentrates on death itself, the final victory of the seducer of mankind. The four German maniacs composed eight songs which lead into a dark and lost existence, surrounded by fear and infernal thunder. Pestlegion soundscapes are wide and dynamic but primitive and analogue at the same time.

Mixed and mastered by Sodom drummer Toni Merkel and backed up by Tom Angelripper’s vocals, Pestlegion clearly show that they deeply stick in the old-school beginning of black metal but propel the genre to a new and ghastly highlight, compounding darkness, speed, brutality, and atmosphere to a sheer cacophony…supporting everything which sounds unholy or even dead.

Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Pestlegion’s Sathanas Grand Victoria 1. Intro
2. We Deny Thy Name
3. The Portal
4. Into The Golden Valley
5. Ketzer Reim
6. Sathanas Grand Victoria
7. Adjuration Of The Elder Gods
8. Entsage Gott
9. The Warlock’s Curse


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/pestlegion

www.osmoseproductions.com

Der Weg Einer Freiheit about to kick-off European tour

Ready, Set, Go!
The German black metal experimentalists of DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT are all fired up to start their European tour! This Friday it will all kick-off at the Slaughter Club in Milano (IT) and continues to wreak havoc throughout 5 more countries until a final curtain in Strasbourg (FR) on October 1st.

Special guests during all confirmed dates are label mates REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER and the recently signed black metal outfit BIZARREKULT!

DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT
+REGARDE LES HOMMES TOMBER +BIZARREKULT
16.09.2022 IT Milano, Slaughter Club
17.09.2022 IT Bologna, Circolo Dev
18.09.2022 AT Vienna, Viper Room
19.09.2022 DE Munich, Backstage
20.09.2022 DE Stuttgart, Im Wizemann
21.09.2022 CZ Prague, Futurum
22.09.2022 DE Dresden, Beatpol
23.09.2022 DE Jena, F-Haus
24.09.2022 DE Trier, Mergener Hof
25.09.2022 DE Hamburg, Knust
26.09.2022 DE Kassel, Goldgrube
27.09.2022 DE Aschaffenburg, Colos-Saal
28.09.2022 FR Lille, Black Lab
29.09.2022 CH Aarau, Kiff
30.09.2022 CH Fribourg, Le Nouveau Monde
01.10.2022 FR Strasbourg, La Laiterie

DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT Festivals 2022
29.10.2022 BE Hasselt, Samhain Festival

DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT will be playing in support of ‘Noktvrn’,  which was released via Season of Mist on November 19, 2022. The album is available the Season of Mist shop on CD digipak, Deluxe CD + DVD box, Vinyl and Cassette HERE. Listen to the full album HERE. The cover artwork of ‘Noktvrn’ was created by Max Löffler and can be found below together with the track list.

Tracklist:
1. Finisterre II (01:52)
2. Monument (06:46)
3. Am Rande der Dunkelheit (08:18)
4. Immortal (06:50)
5. Morgen (07:00)
6. Gegen das Licht (11:13)
7. Haven (05:45)
Total: 0:47:44

For more information on the band, please find their page HERE

Line-up
Nikita Kamprad: guitars, vocals
Tobias Schuler: drums
Nico Rausch: guitars
Nico Ziska: bass

Guest musicians: Dávid György Makó

Links:
www.derwegeinerfreiheit.de
www.facebook.com/derwegeinerfreiheit
www.instagram.com/derwegeinerfreiheit
www.derwegeinerfreiheit.bandcamp.com
www.youtube.com/user/derwegeinerfreiheit
www.twitter.com/dwef_official



WOODS OF DESOLATION drop first track and reveal new album!

Australian black metal project WOODS OF DESOLATION come bearing great news. The release of their first single, which is the track title of the upcoming full-length album: “The Falling Tide“. This full album treat of WOODS OF DESOLATION will be released upon the world on December 9, 2022. 

Check out the new track ‘The Falling Tide’ here:

Pre-save the album “The Falling Tide” HERE and pre-order HERE

WOODS OF DESOLATION  furthermore reveal the cover artwork and album info, which can be found below. 

Tracklist The Falling Tide: 
1. Far From Here (7:02)
2. Beneath a Sea of Stars (7:23)
3. Illumination (5:01)
4. The Falling Tide (6:32) (WATCH)
5. The Passing… (3:45)
6. Anew (6:39)
Total Duration (36:22) 

WOODS OF DESOLATION was formed by multi-instrumentalist D. in 2005 as a means for personal expression through music. Firmly built upon this ethos, a series of demo recordings garnered attention and a solid following within underground black metal circles worldwide. Continually evolving and working with different guest musicians in pursuit of new artistic territory, D. began to showcase his talent for crafting melancholic, yet at times uplifting, melodies on the debut album Toward The Depths (2008), further refining it on the Sorh EP (2009) and the influential sophomore full-length Torn Beyond Reason (2011).

In 2014, WOODS OF DESOLATION released the critically acclaimed third full-length As The Stars, receiving strong places on Decibel’s “Top 40 Albums of 2014” and Stereogum’s “50 Best Albums of 2014” list. This album saw D. further introduce a wider array of musical influences, such as post rock and shoegaze, into his unique take on black metal, becoming one of the main protagonists in what would become the burgeoning genre of post black metal. Additionally, lyrical themes were expanded beyond what had come before – nature, life, sorrow – now personally exploring the metaphysical aspects of spirituality and the afterlife.

In the intervening years that followed, D. created and worked on two new black metal projects REMETE & UNFELLED, simultaneously writing and developing material for the next WOODS OF DESOLATION full-length. In 2021, finally ready, D. teamed up with Vlad (DRUDKH, WINDSWEPT) on drums & keys to record the long-awaited follow-up to As The Stars, slated for release via Season of Mist. This forthcoming album sees the musical palette of D. and WOODS OF DESOLATION continue to grow, exploring higher peaks, deeper depths, all the while maintaining honest artistic expression, unfettered and free – remaining ever faithful to those principles that lead the way all those years ago.

Lineup:
D. – Instruments & Vocals
Vlad – Guest Drums & Keys

Links:
www.facebook.com/woodsofdesolationofficial
www.instagram.com/woodsofdesolationofficial
www.woodsofdesolation.bandcamp.com 

Shop: https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/WOD-TFT
Pre-save: https://orcd.co/wod-fallingtide

Old Norwegian black metallers Vathr premiere new video

Today, “new” old Norwegian black metallers Vathr premiere the new video “March of the Dead”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated debut mini-album, Dead & United, set for international release on September 16th via Edged Circle Productions. See & hear Vathr‘s “March of the Dead” video in its entirety here:

Vathr is a new band, but also an old one. True, it is a new formation hailing from Bergen, Norway, but the members behind the band hold a fiery past forged in the ancient days of the notorious early ’90s scene. But rather than namedrop and create perhaps-unrealistic expectations – much less rely on past laurels, for that matter – the members of Vathr instead want to burn down the past and build a better, more monolithic future.

Indeed, they accomplish exactly that with the short & sweet mini-album Dead & United. At three songs across 20 minutes, Vathr map out a soundworld parallel to Bathory’s immortal Blood Fire Death, but teasingly reveal provocative new paths splintering off it. With a stellar mix & mastering courtesy of C. Korsvold at Cloud City Studios, Bergen, Dead & United swirls and stomps with a seductive atmosphere, stoic and heroic at every turn but never rushed nor never belabored. It moves the way it moves, how it wants to, enveloping the listener in an invigorating iciness truly steeped in the tundra of ancient Norway. Vathr may sound familiar, but only because their black metal authentically hails from the darkest past.

To restate the obvious, Vathr awaken the ancient spirit with this first step into the fire. For fans of Blood Fire Death-era Bathory and early Nordic black metal – and this is but a foretaste of the band’s even-grander debut album forthcoming from Edged Circle!

Also hear the previously revealed track “Crimson Cold Curse” HERE at Edged Circle‘s Bandcamp, where the mini-album can also be preordered. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Vathr’s Dead & United
1. March of the Dead [6:09]
2. Messiah (Heaven Nor Hell) [5:27]
3. Crimson Cold Curse [8:19]

MORE INFO:
www.edgedcircleproductions.com

DEAD VOID stream ME SACO UN OJO / DARK DESCENT debut

Today, Danish death metallers Dead Void stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Volatile Forms. Set for international release on September 15th – Me Saco Un Ojo Records will handle the vinyl version while Dark Descent Records will handle the CD version – hear Dead Void‘s Volatile Forms in its entirety here:

After some silence since their magnificent demo, Dead Void return from the depths to bestow a crushing debut LP upon us. Drawing in on doomy yet certainly not-meek atmospherics, the sheer monstrous tone of which will pin you to the wall, it is clear this is something unwieldy. Murmuring bass seeps through buzzing guitars in a manner that sounds profoundly unwelcoming, while the daunting vocals and crashing drums give no alleviation from the bludgeoning force. While the hostile and claustrophobic sounds of the record cannot be ignored, equally impactful are the grooves which hit like a hammer of pure malice when carefully spliced with the caverns of eerily contorting death metal. When the pounding drums break through the guitars, they have a real hard tone, while the seeping filth of the strings is not overshadowed. Clearly, the three demos and spacing between have allowed the band to develop into the best version of themselves, as on this debut album, we hear a refined-but-unpolished and inhospitable cut of truly awesome music take form.

Moving forth, the hooks, the grooves, and the expanses of doom and desolation all conjure something inescapable and dread-tinged while the malignant hammering of pure old-school violence is not lost or forgotten, as warped riffs and blastbeats meet gutturally spewed vocals and occasional lead oddities. Contrasting often-nuanced moments with an assault of bestial ferocity, there is no predictability or obvious pattern – rather, a chaotic and honest approach to all of the songs. These tracks move in a lumbering fashion with organically composed structures while not feeling formulaic or running in circles with the same idea. Dead Void fantastically curate their most vile elements into a cohesive and ultimately expansive experience that takes the promise shown on the demos to unfathomable new heights. This is not simple or easily pigeonholed death metal to follow a tiny niche; this is barbarity, extremity, and atmospherics in death metal contorted to a whole new template of their own, which isn’t followed easily, but this defining debut album certainly makes the vision clear, for those who seek it in the murk. 

Mark the day, for it shall be your last, when you hear Dead Void‘s definitively obliterating debut album. Additionally, catch their album launch show at Loppen in Copenhagen on August 26th. (text by Jørgen Sven Kirby, Nattskog webzine)   

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Dead Void’s Volatile Forms
1. Atrophy [9:41]
2. Entrails of Chaos [6:16]
3. Sadistic Mind [8:03]
4. The Reptilian Drive [9:00]
5. Perpetually Circling the Void [11:01]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/thedeadvoid

www.mesacounojo.com
www.mesacounojo.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/mesacounojo

www.darkdescentrecords.com
www.darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com

SARCOPHAGUM stream NUCLEAR WINTER debut EP – features members of GOLGOTHAN REMAINS

Today, uprising Australian death metallers Sarcophagum stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut EP, Conduits to the Underworld. Set for international release on September 12th via Nuclear Winter Records, hear Sarcophagum‘s Conduits to the Underworld in its entirety here:

Sarcophagum spawned to life in the early half of 2021, during the time of the plague, as a side-project of Golgothan Remains members past and present. Their purpose? To provide a channel to explore new ideas and sounds in a studio-only setting. The dark death metal realm remains their primary influence, and the forthcoming debut EP, Conduits to the Underworld, is just the first taste of further impending death to come.

And what a taste it is: malevolent, martial, mesmerizing. Truly, this is twisted ‘n’ terrorizing death metal seemingly sent from a sepulchral cosmos, both impossibly massive in suffocating scope whilst eerily atmospheric, almost airy in its serpentine swirl. As such, Sarcophagum sound familiar and foreign simultaneously; death metal is undoubtedly the template, but the pieces binding it together are of a strange (and scourging) material. Each of the record’s three tracks emit epic sensations and yet almost race by with a palpitating swiftness, creating an engaging headfuck – Conduits to the Underworld, indeed!

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Sarcophagum’s Conduits to the Underworld
1. Pits of Hate [5:04]
2. Netherengines [4:43]
3. Between Two Worlds [6:41]

www.nuclearwinterrecords.com
www.nuclearwinterrecords.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/martyrdoomproductions

MONS VENERIS stream new SIGNAL REX album

Today, Portuguese underground legends Mons Veneris stream the entirety of their highly anticipated fifth album, Inversados d’Um Abismo de Podridão. Set for international release on September 11th via Signal Rex on CD and cassette tape formats – the vinyl LP version will follow later this year – hear Mons Veneris‘ Inversados d’Um Abismo de Podridão in its entirety here:

For those who know and truly understand actual underground black metal, Mons Veneris require no introduction. For nearly 20 years now, this shadowy and insanely prolific Portuguese cabal have pursued a uniquely vile vision with an unquenchable thirst. From hammering primitivism to medieval melancholy, volcanic drone to chaotic oblivion, nods to the French Black Legions to frequencies far outside of metal, there’s never any guarantee of how Mons Veneris‘ vision will manifest itself – only that they’ll explore a darkness few have the constitution to tread.

And so it goes with their fifth album, Inversados d’Um Abismo de Podridã, which is intended as a homage to the original wave of Portuguese proto-black metal – namely Black Cross, Filii Nigrantium Infernalium, and Summum Malum – and thus is their native tongue invoked here. Mons Veneris full-lengths come when they come, always with countless EPs, splits, and demos in between, but rarely are a summation of what’s come before; for example, see the unsettling experimentalism of 2016’s Sibilando com o Mestre Negro, comprised entirely of classical guitar and violin. And while 2020’s Mistérios Satânicos Disformes Infernais featured two half-hour improv-heavy compositions, Inversados d’Um Abismo de Podridão sees Mons Veneris pursuing more song-based chunks of coruscating violence and primal-scream therapy. In other bands’ hands, such a return to more palatable “songs” would spell insufferable normalcy, but Mons Veneris are not like other bands. Each of the album’s eight songs shimmer with harrowing hues of disgust, dread, and disease; sometimes they headbang, sometimes they’re hummable, and sometimes they implode upon themselves; but most of all, they CHALLENGE the listener to withstand – to withstand not only the “noise” presented, but more so the NOISE within one’s soul, that calls unfalteringly and seductively, truth and taboo devouring each other like the Ouroboros. Or, simply know that Inversados d’Um Abismo de Podridão was not made for you.


No other words needed: this is Mons Veneris. A more righteous and rigorous exploration of black metal’s original unorthodox impulses one will not find nowadays.

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Mons Veneris’ Inversados d’Um Abismo de Podridão
1. Crueza Lúgubre
2. As Garras do Velho Escrito
3. Urna da Virgem Desalmada
4. Sê a Minha Morte
5. O do Fosso da Vida
6. Satanás Impera
7. No Trono do Desconhecido
8. Discípulo do Mal

www.signalrex.com
www.facebook.com/signalrex