purity through fire

TO CONCEAL THE HORNS set release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut, reveal first track

Today, Purity Through Fire sets March 1st as the international release date for To Conceal the Horns‘ striking debut album, Purist, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

To Conceal the Horns hail from Finland, and formed in 2018. Despite being a new entity, Vexd – the mainman behind the band, handling all vocals and instruments save drums as well as recording – played in Ghost Brigade for many years and, more recently, in the now-disbanded Alghazanth. But as To Conceal the Horns, Vexd takes a wholly different route: completely cosmic black metal, as vast and daunting as the solar system itself.

The Kun Luovon EP, the first To Conceal the Horns recording, arrived at the beginning of 2019 and duly revealed this aesthetic. But it was the Transformaation yöpuolta EP a month later where that aesthetic truly took flight: a massive 19-minute track, with an ambient remix just as long, here did Vexd unfurl a dense-yet-spacious landscape of infinite blackness. Now, with the consequent debut full-length, To Conceal the Horns show their grandest hand.

Simply but elegantly titled, Purist is stark, austere, but exceptionally sumptuous. The skyscraping surge is undeniably rooted in the most mystical recesses of the ’90s black metal memory, recalling the dazzling depths/heights reached by the early works of Limbonic Art, Covenant, and Norway’s Troll but with an astral identity all its own. Indeed, To Conceal the Horns‘ acute/astute balance between cosmic wonder and woodland wander places Purist in a more modern context without diluting any of its classicist foundation. Likewise, the album’s clear ‘n’ cutting contours emit a palatably gleaming sheen, where the layers are subtle but defined, and none of the inherent aggression is neutered. Above all, Vexd’s songwriting itself is of a sterling standard, his cosmic keys the creation of a man transfixed by the stars and with the talent and resolve to capture it in sonic form.

The past is always alive within the Purity Through Fire stronghold, but with To Conceal the Horns‘ Purist, a trip to the negative void of space awaits!

Begin the star(k) trek with the new track “The Rite of Purification” here:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for To Conceal the Horns’ Purist
1. Ataraxy – Intro
2. Realm of Averiandur
3. Wanderer in Time
4. The Rite of Purification
5. Musta Usva
6. Vapaus – Interlude
7. Death Horizon
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/toconcealthehorns

GREVE set release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut album, reveal first track – features members of BEKËTH NEXËHMÜ, MUSMAHHU, AZELISASSATH+++

Today, Purity Through Fire sets January 31st, 2020 as the international release date for Greve‘s highly anticipated debut album, Nordarikets Strid, on CD format.

As prefaced by Nidingsdåd utav det uråldriga EP released earlier in 2019 by Purity Through Fire, Greve exclusively play classic, second-wave Swedish black metal – which should come as no surprise considering it comes under the banner of Ancient Records linchpin Swartadauþuz (Azelisassath, Bekëth Nexëhmü, Digerdöden, Gnipahålan, Musmahhu, Mystik, Summum, Trolldom, Daudadagr), here joined by vocalist Lik of Bekëth Nexëhmü renown. Much like most/all of Swartadauþuz’s projects are blessed with an intrinsically ancient sound, authentic and austere as the age-old classics from which his imagination sprung, so too does Greve with a breathtakingly spectral ‘n’ stargazing style of black metal mysticism.

That aforementioned EP was a two-song (and all-too-short) display of their mystical mastery, but at last arrives Greve‘s first full-length, Nordarikets Strid. Taking those same tantalizing rudiments of Nidingsdåd utav det Uråldriga but spreading them across an eight-song/41-minute landscape, the duo’s canvas here is dense yet spacious, racing yet floating, dreams both darkest and most majestic, bringing 1996 to the present like so few records can. Indeed, it’s Atmospheric Black Metal Art (Exclusively) for dreamers and lone wolves alike, a monument by which to launch journeys to the stars and/or into the self: verily, cosmic keys to Greve‘s creations and times. But even within such staunchly structured/strictured classicism resides a wealth of breathtaking songwriting that further adds to this ever-enduring idiom rather than simply picking at the bones of its carcass. Or, but one need only say that Nordarikets Strid is MAGICK willed into sonic form.

Black metal of this ilk may’ve largely died long ago, but Greve‘s sumptuous swell across Nordarikets Strid stands strong, its vision boundless, its appeal timeless. The past is most definitely more alive than ever!

Witness that present for yourself with the brand-new track “Offerbål till Gudarna” HERE:
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Greve’s Nordarikets Strid
1. Intro
2. Vid Dödens Tröskel
3. Nordarikets Strid
4. I Svarta Solens Magi
5. Det Gamla Rikets Ruin
6. Ur Nordiskt Vrede
7. Offerbål till Gudarna
8. Outro
MORE INFO:
www.ancientrecords.se

K.F.R mainman reveals GRIIIM: sets release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut, special video featuring MÜTIILATION’S Meyhna’ch

Today, Purity Through Fire sets October 31st as the international release date for Griiim‘s shocking debut album, Pope Art, on limited digipack CD + DVD set.

Although a seemingly new name, Griiim is another horrifying manifestation of multi-discipline artist Maxime Taccardi, musically known for his polarizing work in K.F.R. Here with Griiim, he presents a different but equally nightmarish face, one that stares back at you with eerily hateful tension, a reflection of the face staring at him.

A staggeringly dense and sprawling work, Pope Art is as much about sensation – diseased, decaying, but utterly “new” its oldness – as it is about music. As such, Griiim is born from the urban decay of society, a musical nightmare taking influences from the most depraved black metal to the darkest corners of industrial, electro, ambient, and rotten hip-hop. With Maxime Taccardi’s characteristically challenging touch, Griiim is meant to be the sonic equivalent of the filthy streets and asphalt areas of his native Paris, France. Composed and recorded by entirely by Taccardi, Pope Art is crucially completed by a visual BAD TRIP divided into 12 parts, which he likewise directed, filmed and edited entirely himself. Just like the album’s musical component, it’s meant to be watched in the dark at maximum volume…

It is very unlikely, if not impossible, you will hear nor especially see an album like Griiim‘s Pope Art this year, or next, or the year after or… Guest performances by Mütiilation’s Meyhna’ch and Obskuritatem’s O simply grind the filth deeper into the earth, waiting for its eventual (and HORRIFYING) excavation. Beware…

In the meantime, see & hear the eerie video for “The Church of Negation,” featuring the aforementioned Meyhna’ch of Mütiilation here:
Cover art, courtesy of Taccardi, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Griiim’s Pope Art
1. Intro
2. Welcome to My Nightmare
3. My Name is Max
4. God is Love But I’m Hate
5. The Church of Negation (feat. Meyhna’ch)
6. Solitude in Heaven
7. Šizofrenija (feat. O)
8. As Long As You Hold the Knife
9. Guiding the Flesh
10. Speech
11. As Long As You Hold the Knife Part II
12. A New Kind of War
13. I Ain’t Going Down
14. I’m Upset (Epilogue, feat. Kristen)
MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/MaximeTaccardiArtworks
www.deviantart.com/priestofterror