Month: September 2023

GAEREA release secret track with tormentous video clip

Would you submit yourself to human torture to go beyond your limits to expressing art?
Voluntary suffering for the greater goal in pursuit of artistic excellence is what one of the members of cathartic black metal band GAEREA (PT) went through for the visualisation of ‘Dormant’.

The video (recorded by the great Claudio Marino, distinguished for working with giants like BEHEMOTH, WATAIN, SHINING) simply can’t be classified as a music video to give visualisation to the song. It’s an 8 minute excruciating compilation of being waterboarded, trapped in a cycle of unending pain, with each passing moment feeling like an eternity, time becomes the cruellest enemy.

‘Dormant’ is a ghost track, a song only available on the (sold out) Media book from their recently released album “Mirage”. Out of billions of people, a mere group of just 1349 holds ownership of this exceptional track.

But no more.

To mark the start of their US tour with WOLFS IN THE THRONEROOM and BLACK BRAID in October 2023, the band is releasing ‘Dormant’ for all fans to let their minds wander freely and share their suffering.

GAEREA comments: “Complementing the song’s aural journey, the video art installation accompanying “Dormant” delves into the anguish and struggle for survival. The visuals depict the main character, trapped and enclosed in a tormenting world, as water relentlessly pours over his body, simulating drowning and suffocation. This immersive and visceral experience offers a harrowing glimpse into the protagonist’s fight for life, evoking a range of emotions and challenging viewers to confront their own mortality.”

Video directed by Claudio Marino
The track ‘Dormant’ is a bonus track taken from the previously released album “Mirage”. Details of the album and tracklisting can be found below.

Track-list
1. Memoir (8:17)
2. Salve (5:26) [WATCH]
3. Deluge (6:31)
4. Arson (8:54)
5. Ebb (5:32)
6. Mirage (6:38) [WATCH]
7. Mantle (5:17) [WATCH]
8. Laude (6:26) [WATCH]
9. Dormant (Bonus track) (7:46) [WATCH]
Total: 1:00:47

Behind black shrouds of obscurity and desolation, the men of GAEREA deliver their odes in cascading maelstroms of aggression and beauty. Emerging from the age of pandemic to whatever awaits humanity next, the Portuguese horde remains on the frontlines of the next generation of extreme metal. With an EP and two albums to their name, GAEREA has rapidly distinguished themselves from the thousands of bands toiling away in the underground. Brewing their cauldron of sound from a recipe of pounding black-metal blast mixed with a touch of harrowed, reflective longing, many devotees of the darkened arts have flocked to their banner. With the emergence of third full-length album Mirage, those numbers are sure to grow. 

Underground metal itself is a strange and cyclical beast. Trends come and trends go. But at no point in the genre’s history have we borne witness to what happened to the world in 2020. GAEREA met this challenge by releasing their second album, the aptly titled Limbo, to excellent world reception. In the meantime, they found the total suspension of interactive life as it was previously known to be the perfect breeding ground for further creation and making. As the troupe’s main songwriter elaborates, “I lost two precious years of my life, years that I would rather have spent touring and growing as an artist. But they were crucial for us, these years, because not too many bands stayed relevant and productive. The pandemic gave us the time to make the best release we could. All the promo-shoots, interviews, videos, we all had time to prepare for everything. Mirage was the product of a sudden inspiration. The basic parts were written over about two weeks.”

Such a stunning admission goes to show that art is fickle, and the artist is merely a vessel through which the sweet sorcery we call music may flow. It can mute itself to frustrating silence – or it can explode into being regardless of all consideration. For this band on the rise, it is most certainly the latter. Sizzling with ambition from day one, GAEREA may present one unique face to their audience, masked and enshrouded, but the truth is they have not remained changeless. “We are not the same band who recorded Limbo,” he insists. “We are more eager to take on the world. If the pandemic taught us anything it is that nothing is certain.”

This lack of certainty plays heavily into newest creation Mirage. As its name suggests, the inability to trust what our senses are telling us could be construed as one of the album’s central themes. Rather than constrict their art to mythological references or anti-religious tropes, GAEREA instead plumb the depths of the human experiences of isolation and suffering. “The concept, the subject, of each song is everyone, you, me . . . if people were alone together in Limbo, in Mirage they are truly alone. Nobody is truly real until they are alone.” 

If existential dread could be turned into sound, GAEREA have carved their own philosophical path through its stygian tunnels. It isn’t Satan, demons, death, or even suicide that is waiting for us there. “What if people finally reached their goal,” he posits, “to end their suffering, and instead of dying they find themselves in a new reality, lost in a big city they were once a part of – they don’t know if anyone else is still alive. They are alone inside their own world.” This theme of being alone in a world full of familiar scenes, unable to end things and unable to reach anyone else, might well terrify the listener more effectively than any glimpse into the imagined hellscapes of our nightmares. Being isolated in your own world is the real nightmare, and GAEREA strum the chords of this horror with nuance and a miserable grace. 

Boasting a superior production that threads the needle between clarity and causticness, GAEREA unwaveringly admit their loyalty to countryman and producer Miguel Tereso of Demigod Recordings. “Miguel is fantastic,” enthuses the band’s primary composer. “He comes from a brutal death metal background. I thought if this guy can pull off a punchy, modern, but still authentic production with a slam / death metal band, I wonder what he can do with a band like GAEREA. He has a vision for a sound, and that is what I really like. He is not a black metal fan, but it’s this very external set of ears and eyes from a guy who really knows his craft, and he brings all of that to our sound.” The fruits of this union are quite evident, as the turbulent moods of the title track are so wonderfully tossed between tension-building moments, and the explosive payoffs which set GAEREA apart from so many who try but come up short. 

Tormented leads and building riffs sit atop some seriously explosive drumming, waxing and waning, on “Arson,” a tempest of moods and one of the album’s centrepieces. Emotion, at times sounding triumphant in brilliantly wrought guitar leads, is skewered by vocals that bustle with shattering despair. The dichotomy is magnificent to behold. GAEREA’s composer makes no mistake. “I want to hear the throat on the album, and if we are a vocals-driven band, I don’t want to over-process them during the recording. Striking that balance is one of the beauties for me in this record.”

In a world that increasingly elevates the shallow and the narcissistic, GAEREA pursues an artistic struggle of inward isolation, honest self-examination, and a dogged refusal to bow to the void that awaits. Thus, the persistence of their shadowed visages, draped in the masks which codify their anonymity while also creating a reliable extreme metal brand that fans can appreciate, especially in the live setting. “GAEREA are truly ourselves when we put these masks on, and we transcend into something different, and primitive,” he asserts. “It still makes total sense, and this band would not be a band anymore if we ever dropped the masks.”

As GAEREA prepares the release of Mirage, the world has resumed functioning, and as it lurches onward into its bleak future, one could stipulate that the pressure may be on to continue its rise amid the clamor of this renewal of activity. Does this challenge intimidate GAEREA? “We want to do better, but I don’t feel any pressure because we are in very good hands with the people we work with. We are building a strong team that really cares for us, stage-wise, promotional-wise, website and sales-wise. We are building a very structured confident teams that aims for the same goals we do. What I truly care about is continuing our ever-growing concept of the band GAEREA, and not becoming sterile, and I would not want people to be unaffected by our music. In the end we’re trying to express something within ourselves, and I don’t want it to be too complicated.”

The beauty of GAEREA lies in the directness and simplicity found within their florid tapestry of extremity and aggression. Whether it is in the less-polished aural dynamite of their self-titled EP, or in the lustrous textures of Mirage, GAEREA is building a mighty edifice of underground metal. With talons dipped in the inky blood of black metal and scraped across the flesh of human suffering, GAEREA is leading a charge into the future of darkness, and all those who find beauty and power in the dark side of existence would do well to take heed. 

WE ARE GAEREA.

Recording Studio: Demigod Recordings
Producer/Sound engineer: Miguel Tereso
Mix/Master: Miguel Tereso (Demigod Recordings)

Cover artwork: Saros Collective

Socials: 
Instagram
Facebook
Twitter

Shop:https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/GaereaMirage
Download/stream: https://orcd.co/gaerea-mirage

AZATHOTH’S DREAM set release date for IRON BONEHEAD debut, reveal first track

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces December 8th as the international release date for Azathoth’s Dream‘s striking debut album, Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment, on vinyl LP format.

Azathoth’s Dream are a brand-new entity hailing from the United States. On one hand, the one-man band’s sound is undeniably late ’90s French vintage, maintaining a similarly necrotic-yet-aristocratic mysticism not unlike Osculum Infame, Bekhira, Winter Funeral, and very early Seth. On the other, one could liken Azathoth’s Dream to the uprising of raw vampiric black metal in the U.S., spearheaded by Sanguine Relic, Vampirska, early Lamp of Murmuur, and Geist of Ouachita among others. Either way, one listen to the aptly titled Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment and one will be indeed bewitched by the band’s melancholic-yet-feral spell…or duly repulsed by it. There’s no other way; just like those stratifying days of the 1990s, you either understand this as BLACK METAL – and stand with it – or you stand against it. It matters not to Azathoth’s Dream: the empty castle’s drawbridge is down, and one need only enter if the spirits are willing.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “A Millennia Perished” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Azathoth’s Dream’s Nocturnal Vampyric Bewitchment
A1 Malignant Faith
A2 Instatiable Sanguine Thirst
A3 The Grave
A4 The Moor
A5 Extinguish the Light
B1 Ritual Exsanguination
B2 A Millennia Perished
B3 Winter Dawn
B4 Phantasm

More info click here

Aussie Death Metallers CEMETERY URN premiere new track

Today, Australian death metal barbarians Cemetery Urn premiere the new track “Suffer the Fallen”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fifth album, Suffer the Fallen, set for international release on October 27th via Hells Headbangers. Hear Cemetery Urn‘s title track “Suffer the Fallen” in its entirety here:

By now, Cemetery Urn require no introduction. Pillars of Australia’s now-legendary extreme metal scene, for nearly 20 years have these barbaric death metallers pursued their strict ‘n’ staunch vision of absolute ultraviolence – and ultraviolence with poise and daresay class. Though lineup shuffles have always been a part of the band’s picture, through it all, erstwhile Abominator founder Andrew Gillon (guitar, sometimes-bass) has steered their turbulent ship and rendered four equally punishing full-length tomes: each one immediately recognizably Cemetery Urn, but each one subtly expanding their sound with no compromise and no quarter. That seven years separated their second and third albums and five years have passed since their fourth matter not; dread deeds are always bubbling within Gillon’s cauldron, and he’s now assembled another deadly lineup, resulting in another deadly LP.

Titled Suffer the Fallen, Cemetery Urn now see the arrival of drum god Brandon Gawith (Eskhaton, Hobbs Angel of Death, Vahrzaw), bassist Joel Westbrook, and fellow Abominator founder Chris Volcano on vocals. Wasting no time, Suffer the Fallen kicks in and proceeds to scorch all and sundry. Once again, Cemetery Urn exude their trademark poise and, yes, CLASS; pulverizing and often operating at unsafe speeds, the quintet still put proper songwriting at the forefront, and color it with a payload of devilish details and deft shifts in tempo and texture. To the uninitiated, Suffer the Fallen will stun and likely sound overwhelming, but those who already drink deeply of the extreme arts will perhaps be surprised at how lithe Cemetery Urn‘s characteristic barbarism has become. Sharpening that attack to an enviable degree is the clear ‘n’ cutting production courtesy of Adam Calaitzis at Toyland Studio, resulting in a fortuitous first partnership. Same goes for the stark cover artwork courtesy of scene legend Mark Riddick – Suffer the Fallen indeed!

Given Cemetery Urn‘s deep roots in the Australian scene and their preceding history, both in Abominator and Gillon’s late-days work in the influential Bestial Warlust, it’s with no small amount of fanfare that original vocalist Damon Bloodstorm – of course, former frontman for both Bestial Warlust and Abominator – is resurrected from the grave on the vinyl-only bonus track “Mass Graves of Blood,” an unreleased track from 2007 which also features original bassist Squiz and thus marks the final time that the original Cemetery Urn lineup was together. Altogether, eight tracks in 35 minutes of pure Australian Barbaric Death Metal: Suffer the Fallen and none survive!

Also hear the previously revealed “Damnation is in the Blood” HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ official YouTube channel. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Cemetery Urn’s Suffer the Fallen
1. Damnation is in the Blood
2. Kill at a Distance
3. Savage Torment
4. Embers of the Burning Dead
5. Room of Depravity
6. Suffer the Fallen
7. Compulsive Degradation
8. It Will End in Death

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/cemeteryurn

www.hellsheadbangers.com

NÔIDVA set release date for new PURITY THROUGH FIRE album, streaming now – features members of SACRIFICIUM CARMEN and RIIVAUS

Today, Purity Through Fire sets October 27th as the international release date for Nôidva‘s highly anticipated second album, Lappish Shatanism, on digipack CD format.

In 2020, Nôidva arrived with the full-length Windseller. A then-brand-new entity, the Finns featured members of labelmates Sacrificium Carmen and Riivaus. Although detectably Finnish black metal in sound and style, Nôidva uniquely focused on Laplandish shamanism – and now they return to further flesh out that vision.

Tellingly titled Lappish Shatanism, Nôidva‘s second album bears many of the same traits as its predecessor: a mysticism both magickal and more so folkloric, and a melodicism that stirs the more courageous side of one’s spirit rather than immediate and irrevocable bloodlust. However, despite featuring the same four-piece lineup, Lappish Shatanism heads toward rougher, daresay-rowdier territory – more earth and dirt rather than the atmospheric undercurrents of Windseller – with that rowdiness rendering their folk affectations all the more austere and severe. Still, Nôidva reveal themselves to be astute practitioners of tradition, poignantly imparting a favorably late ’90s aspect in form and feel; whether one wants to qualify it as “pagan” black metal matters not when faced with such stellar quality. Leads prominent but parceled out, Lappish Shatanism is thus a work of undeniable passion – never belabored, but refreshing as it is reverential. The past is still alive across Lapland!

In the meantime, hear the brand-new title track “Lappish Shatanism” here:

 Cover artwork, courtesy of Mara Hiltunen, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Nôidva’s Windseller
1. Korpikutsu
2. Fall of the Axis Mundi
3. Natural Oneness
4. Dryads of the Virgin Forest
5. Supranormaali Transsendentaali
6. Hidden Hate of the Northern Shamanism
7. Pohjolan Hymni 
8. Lappish Shatanism

MORE INFO:
www.noidva.bandcamp.com

IKU-TURSO set release date for new PURITY THROUGH FIRE mini-album, reveal first track – features members of ORDER OF NOSFERAT+++

Today, Purity Through Fire announces October 27th as the international release date for Iku-Turso‘s highly anticipated new mini-album, Ikuinen Kirous, on CD and A5 digipak formats. The 12″ vinyl LP version will follow later in 2023.

Forming in 2017 and soon releasing their debut album, The Great Tower, that same year, Iku-Turso have quietly become a force in the ever-fertile Finnish black metal scene (vocalist Lafawijn hails from the Netherlands). The band includes members with a vast array of underground experience, spanning all sorts of extreme metal styles, and a couple of members currently retain membership in labelmates Order of Nosferat. As such, Iku-Turso‘s sound is far from strict “Finnish black metal” that’s come to be the definition the past couple of decades. Rather, the band cast their gaze back to the cold, dark days of mid ’90s Scandinavia, and render it with a (darkly) dramatic flair.

And so it comes to its fullest fruition with Ikuinen Kirous, Iku-Turso‘s latest offering and first for Purity Through Fire. Like a long-lost relic on Wounded Love or Samoth’s Nocturnal Art Productions, Ikuinen Kirous reaps a windswept drama both mystically sensual and scabrously alien. Continuing to maximize the addition of keyboardist F.Nightside (as well as his occasional clean vocals), Iku-Turso blanket their dungeonic surge with an aristocratic air that’s somewhere between funeral fog and orchestral bombast, never quite going into full-on sympho-BM mode nor necessarily shying away from its most plausible elements. Above all, the bands songwriting stays within the epic-yet-linear, building upon themes in the olde way whilst never forgetting that it’s black METAL – riffs, riffs, RIFFS. And then, 37 minutes later and Ikuinen Kirous has come to completion, feeling far vaster than that compact runtime (but one ideal for full vinyl immersion). Iku-Turso are coming to a church near you!

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Adinkra” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Iku-Turso’s Ikuinen Kirous
1. Nkotimsefuopua
2. Ebenezer
3. Adinkra
4. Een Zucht Van Verdriet
5. Gauss
6. Noirthoren
7. Thornspawn Chalice



MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/ikutursobm

ONE MASTER set release date for new ETERNAL DEATH album, reveal first track

Today, Eternal Death announces November 24th as the international release date for One Master‘s highly anticipated fifth album, The Names of Power, on CD, cassette tape, and limited-to-100 double-vinyl boxset.

After six long years of lycanthropic reclusion, One Master are ready to unveil a new full-length recording: The Names of Power. Taking its title from the ancient occult idea that if one learns the true name of a deity, access to its power can be obtained, the theme of the album is on the power of language, with each song being focused on its use in a different context: religion, heresy, a cult, solitude, the universe, and modernity.

Comprising six songs over 55 minutes of music, The Names of Power is the long-running band’s first double LP. Active on the recording front since 2002, One Master here keep to their well-worn path of traditional black metal, but more so make the album their diverse release to date, incorporating more mid-tempo sections, atmospheric dirges, and even some acoustic guitar. It’s both unmistakably One Master yet surprising all the same – and no compromise either way.

The Names of Power is also the band’s first full-length with their “Mark IV” lineup, with band founder Valder on guitar and vocals, long-running member Black Wolf on guitar and bass (who writes and plays all of the leads and solos), and the first full length with Eponymous on drums.  Although he joined after the album was recorded, new bass player Grave Dog (having been long affiliated with the band, providing artwork since Reclusive Blasphemy) is part of the band’s lineup moving forward.  This being the band’s first recording at Sonic Environments with Jeff Weed (with mastering still provided by Will Killingsworth at Dead Air Studios), the album’s production allows the band to shine more than any prior record. “Crystal clear and bloody raw” is perhaps a close approximation of that production.

To mark this momentous occasion, the release of The Names of Power is set to coincide with One Master‘s second performance at the esteemed Messe des Morts festival in Montreal, with a full East Coast / Midwest tour currently being organized by Ripping Headaches for Spring 2024. Long the embodiment of New England black metal, One Master have returned to resume their throne.

Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “The Forbidden Names” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for One Master’s The Names of Power
1. The First Names [7:52]
2. The Forbidden Names [6:29]
3. The Secret Names [10:36]
4. The Solitary Names [6:42]
5. The Celestial Names [8:20]
6. The Final Names [14:33]


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/onemasterUSA

www.eternal-death.com
eternaldeath.bandcamp.com

HEILUNG Announce AFAS show in Amsterdam (NL)

HEILUNG will be bringing their oracular ceremony to the AFAS Live venue. Having released their critically acclaimed third album ‘Drif’ in August of 2022, the collective will make their mystical appearance in Amsterdam for the first time ever on the 21st of September 2024.

Tickets will be on sale from Wednesday, September 27 @ 10:00 A.M. CEST, and can be found HERE.

The band will be playing songs from their entire discography, including ‘Drif’, which came out last fall. The album is available on vinyl, CD, cassette and as a digital download through the Season of Mist store.   

Tracklist:
01: Asja (05:17)
02: Anoana (04:57) [WATCH]
03: Tenet (13:05)
04: Urbani (02:55)
05: Keltentrauer (08:26)
06: Nesso (07:54)
07: Buslas Bann (05:03)
08: Nikkal (03:04)
09: Marduk (08:34)
Total Running Time: 00:57:55

Since its inception in 2015, the enigmatic ritual collective HEILUNG has been paving melodic paths to the past with their unique and mystifying sound. Evading all conventional genre tags and the confines of any specific labels, the group aptly self-describes their sound as “amplified history,” emphasizing their ability to connect modern society with the rudiments of humanity’s beginnings through music. HEILUNG once again journeys back in time with its new chapter, ‘Drif;’ however, unlike previous offerings that centered around prehistoric northern Europe, album number three will explore other great rudimentary civilizations outside of Europe.

“All the songs on ‘Drif’ have their own stories,” adds HEILUNG throat singer and one of the band’s three composers, Kai Uwe Faust. Each has its place and sense of belonging, with inspiration not only from Northern Europe, but from the ancient great civilizations,” explains the band. “We took the ancient surrounding advanced civilizations in account, because our ancestral Nordic civilizations did not just pop up, exist and disappear in isolation. Already in the Bronze Age, we found silk on German land that was imported already from the far, far East 3000 years ago. From the Viking age, we found beads that were brought there from present-day Syria high up in the Northern mountains.

“Centrally important concepts, still in extensive use today, like the number Zero and all the mathematical universes deriving from it, the use of iron and the general concept of settling all originate from traditional high civilizations outside the north and still fundamentally changing our ancestor’s world.

“With singing these primordial songs we want to give tribute to these cultures, reconnect to the beginnings and remember that we all, from East to West, from past to present, are connected through the exchange of ideas and inspiring each other.”
Meaning “gathering,” ‘Drif’ serves as more than merely a gateway that bridges history with modern day society, but is also a statement of the strength in unity and togetherness, which will come as no surprise to those who have experienced HEILUNG’s live ritual, in which every ceremony starts with a reminder that “we are all brothers.” “‘Drif’ means ‘gathering,’’ explains HEILUNG. “A throng of people, a horde, a crowd, a pack. In symbiosis with the album title, ‘Drif’ consists of a flock, a collection, a gathering, a collage of songs, that much like little flames were seeking towards each other, to join, to bond, to create, and be greater together.”

While HEILUNG features authentic and archaic instrumentation that ranges from rattles and ritual bells to human bones and throat singing, their captivating brand of music is far from primitive. Producer and founding member Christopher Juul implements subtle electronic elements that elevates the musical atmosphere and provides a more in-depth and layered soundscape.

“This album has very clearly dictated its own path. Our attempts to tame it were repeatedly fruitless, and once we came to this realization, the creative flow surged forward with immense force. So much so that sometimes it felt like the songs wrote themselves,” the band adds.

HEILUNG’s success has been unprecedented, achieving milestones in its few short years of existence that many do not see in a lifetime. The collective already had rapidly been growing a buzz upon the self-release of their first full-length, ‘Ofnir,’ in 2015, but their dizzying upward trajectory really took off from the moment they set foot on the stage at Castlefest in 2017 for the now-legendary debut of their live ritual. Luckily for those who were not fortunate enough to bare witness to this magical event, the full ceremony was captured on film, having since been viewed by tens of millions of fans across the globe.

As HEILUNG trekked across Europe and brought their mystifying experience to new audiences, talk of this new band and their stunning ceremony made way to Season of Mist label owner Michael Berberian, who quickly offered the band a record contract after seeing their undeniable musical impact for himself.

By 2019, HEILUNG launched their second full-length record, ‘Futha,’ which contrasted the masculine and battle-heavy themes of their debut with a feminine counterpart that celebrated fertility and female energy. Upon the first week of the record’s release, it graced the Billboard charts with coveted numbers, debuting at #3 on the Heatseekers Charts and #4 on the Billboard World Music Chart, placing on a total of seven Billboard charts while meeting critical-acclaim from the press on a global scale. Having already made its way around Europe, HEILUNG announced its first ever North American tour for the start of 2020, which sold out entirely within 72 hours of ticket on-sale. The band later returned to the United States and performed their live ritual for a sold out audience of 10,000 people at the historic Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver, CO (USA), further solidifying their early legacy status.

By this time, the band’s music started to appear in places outside the confines of music venues, videos, and vinyl. From hit television series like ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Vikings’ to video game giants like ‘Conqueror’s Blade VII: “Wolves of Ragnarök’ and ‘Senua’s Saga: Hellblade II’ to the blockbuster Robert Eggers film ‘The Northman,’ HEILUNG’s music has risen far above the underground and has transcended into a greater world. Even a global pandemic couldn’t slow down HEILUNG’s success; it only strengthened them and gave them the gift of time to complete work on album number three, ‘Drif.’

According to Greek philosopher Pythagoras, three is a divine number, signifying harmony, wisdom, and understanding. He also believed it to be the number of time – past, present, future; birth, life, death; beginning, middle, end. Purposefully or not, ‘Drif’ embodies this philosophy, putting forth a divine work of art that ties together the beginning of civilization with the modern world today. Make no mistake, HEILUNG still does not represent any modern political or religious ideology, but rather delivers a humbling reminder of where we came from. “Remember, we are all brothers. All people, beasts, tree and stone and wind, we all descend from the one great being that was always there, before people lived and named it, before the first seed sprouted.”

Lineup:
Kai Uwe Faust
Christopher Juul
Maria Franz

Links:
www.facebook.com/amplifiedhistory

Shop: https://heilung-usa.travelling-merchant.com/

VALDRIN set release date for new BLOOD HARVEST album, reveal first track

Today, Blood Harvest Records announces November 24th as the international release date for Valdrin‘s highly anticipated fourth album, Throne of the Lunar Soul, on CD, double-LP vinyl, and cassette tape formats.

No longer one of the metal underground’s best-kept secrets, Valdrin began picking up momentum with the 2018 Blood Harvest release of their second album, Two Carrion Talismans – epic, shapeshifting blackened death that was both timeless and fresh – and then eclipsed that achievement two years later with third album Effigy of Nightmares, also released by Blood Harvest, whereby the band dove deeply into the bluish purple depths of ’90s melodic black metal. To hear comparisons to Vinterland, Sacramentum, and Sweden’s Dawn wasn’t mere hyperbole; it was assertive truth, as commanding as Valdrin‘s songwriting mastery. Which is to say nothing of the band’s ongoing Ausadjur Mythos, a fantastical tale begun with their Beyond the Forest debut album and which forms the lyrical basis of all since.

Now, continuing that tale is Valdrin‘s most epic record yet: Throne of the Lunar Soul. At 11 songs in 74 minutes, LP#4 is truly a “double album” in the old-school sense – no fat or extraneous wank, only labyrinthine songs threaded together in a manner most suiting to their Ausadjur Mythos. As founding vocalist/guitarist Carter Hicks explains, “Centuries after the cataclysmic events of Beyond the Forest, Valdrin returns to his homeland, Ausadjur, in a distant realm at the center of the multiverse. There, he awaits judgment for failing in his mission to quell an insurrection of evil in the Orcus underworld, which festered beneath the forlorn planet Earth. However, a strange aura of celebration permeates the air of Ausadjur upon the return of Valdrin and his newly recruited horde, and all does not seem well in the celestial kingdom of balance.” 

Suitably, Valdrin here nod to various points of their now-rich past while also pointing the way forward for ever-effervescent splendors that seem so authentically encased in 1997 that they sound impossibly fresher than anything around, “thawed” some 25 years later. With increased emphasis on dynamics as well as dramatic acoustic breaks & embellishments, the quartet leave no stone unturned in their arsenal, but each “stone” is crucial in its placement and serves a vivid purpose, such as the sometimes-subtle/sometimes-overt touch of mystical synth. Of course, Valdrin can still race and rage with the best of any black and/or death metal band past or present, but even when the slipstreaming spires of sound threaten to become dizzying, the narrative of Throne of the Lunar Soul becomes that much deeper and more intense: not every story has a clear path, nor does it stay at the same pitch and meter. But rarely do stories ever get this grandiose and engaging. Valdrin possess some strange (or at least elusive) magick, and in Throne of the Lunar Soul have they delivered a modern CLASSIC.

Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Seven Swords (in the Arsenal of Steel)” here:

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

Tracklisting for Valdrin’s Throne of the Lunar Soul
1. Neverafter
2. Golden Walls of Ausadjur
3. Seven Swords (In the Arsenal of Steel)
4. Paladins of Ausadjur
5. Sojourner Wolf
6. The Hierophant
7. Vagrant in the Chamber of Night
8. Holy Matricide
9. Throne of the Lunar Soul
10. Two Carrion Talismans
11. Hymn to the Convergence

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/valdrinausadjur

www.bloodharvest.se
www.facebook.com/bloodharvest

Belgium’s HERZOG set release date for AMOR FATI debut, reveal first track – features Déhà

Today, Amor Fati Productions announces November 24th as the international release date for the striking debut album of Belgium’s Herzog, Furnace, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

Herzog is a new black metal entity hailing from Belgium, formed by Asgeir Amort years ago but never brought to life. A distilled version of their black art, working with shapes that should not go together, but they do so through a craftsmanship worth a thousand working devotees.

Taken under the wing of producer & madman Déhà and accompanied by drummer Hochofen, Herzog offer a unique form of black metal which cannot be compared to anything or anyone in the scene. “Complex, but transcendent” might be scratching the surface of Asgeir Amort’s craft: flawless riffing, possessed drumming, and unworldly screams which will take you on a dark journey through the mind of the creator.

Black metal being the foremost main weapon of the band, Herzog doesn’t shy away from the darkest of death metal sometimes, or even pushes you to a corner to make all your inner emotions implode. A debut album shattering a lot of veterans: this is Furnace.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Haunted Tesseract” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Herzog (Belgium)’s Furnace
1. Loss of Utopia
2. Acheminement
3. Melted Tesseract
4. Oath of Weakness
5. The Craftsmen
6. All Rites
7. Oath of I
8. Oath of Us

www.amor-fati-productions.de 
www.amorfatiproductions.bandcamp.com

RITUAL CLEARING set release date for ETERNAL DEATH debut album, reveal first track

Today, Eternal Death announces November 17th as the international release date for Ritual Clearing‘s highly anticipated debut album, Penitence, on vinyl LP format.

Ritual Clearing have returned, building off of the cold depravity of their 2020 demo and now unleashing their debut full-length effort, Penitence. Continuing their unholy alliance with Eternal Death, this new record showcases six epic tracks of dark, brooding black metal. The band’s noble influences they displayed across that well-received first demo – Bathory, Sacramentum, and Lord Belial – have been built upon and refined here, revealing riff labyrinths not unlike the cult ’90s work of Sorhin but further fleshed out by bouts of nearly hardcore-punk mania and especially a raw hideousness not unlike their American brethren in the Black Twilight Circle. Still, Ritual Clearing and clearly their own masters, and the alternately linear / darting depths of Penitence open wide to devour the listener in hypnotic, harrowing splendor. Still as melodic-yet-cutting as ever, it’s not surprising that the album was written during the grim landscape of the global plague; there’s an undeniable sense of dread across Penitence, laced with a resigned melancholia (sickly) colored by opportunely timed acoustics. Fucking RIFFS for days, Ritual Clearing provide this offering as the overture to a sick and dying world.   

Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Burn” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Ritual Clearing’s Penitence
1. Burn [8:15]
2. Penitence [3:40]
3. Cold, Forever [6:53]    
4. Deathfog [5:15]
5. Void [6:46]
6. Mensis [7:42]


MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/ritualclearing

www.eternal-death.com
eternaldeath.bandcamp.com