Today, reanimated Quebecois black metallers Miserere Luminis premiere the new track “Le Sang des Rêves”. The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s long-awaited comeback album, Ordalie, set for international release on June 24th via Sepulchral Productions. Hear Miserere Luminis’ “Le Sang des Rêves” in its entirety here:
Nearly 15 years after the release of the debut album of their collaborative project, Gris’ Icare and Neptune as well as Sombre Forêts’ Annatar are back with a long-awaited second Miserere Luminis album! Despite the very long time between the two albums, fans of the band will find there everything that made their first opus so striking: dissonant and atmospheric guitars, complex song structures, tortured vocals, and that ever-present flair for the dramatic! Dark and beautiful at the same time, Ordalie will take you through a journey unlike any other, crafted by legends of Québec’s atmospheric black metal scene…
Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Miserere Luminis’ Ordalie 1. Noir fauve 2. Le sang des rêves 3. La fêlure des anges 4. Les couleurs de la perte 5. De venin et d’os
Today, Greek black/death cult Hate Manifesto reveal the new track “Chains of the Oppressor pt II.” The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated second album, ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ, now set for international release on June 9th via Helter Skelter Productions (distributed & marketed by Regain Records). Hear Hate Manifesto‘s “Chains of the Oppressor pt II” in its entirety here:
One of Greece’s best-kept secrets, Hate Manifesto formed in 2003 but, so far, have an extremely sparse discography. However, what they lack in quantity, they more than double-up on in quality. To Those Who Glorified Death, their debut album from 2017 – which Helter Skelter rereleased on a worldwide scale in early 2018 – displayed the shockingly extreme force with which Hate Manifesto could create their whirlwind of martial black/death. In 2019 came the aptly titled Herald of Triumph EP, which fully displayed the armament of their potential. Comprising four fierce ‘n’ fiery tracks in a swift ‘n’ decisive 17 minutes, Herald of Triumph was full-on shock & awe – CRUSH, KILL, DESTROY – with Hate Manifesto‘s chosen weapons being the iron-fisted surge of black metal and the muscular swarm of death metal, all rendered in rich, devastating tones. Of course, none of this should’ve come as a surprise given that the band is yet another work of the extremely prolific W.S.P., who also numbers such Helter Skelter cults as Caedes Cruenta, Black Blood Invocation, and Walpurgia among many others.
Now W.S.P. returns Hate Manifesto to the front with the full-length ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ, and he’s joined by drum-god Simon “Bloodhammer” Schilling (Marduk, Eucharist). Picking up the pieces left behind by Herald of Triumph – or rather, the wreckage from the battlefield – ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ (“Apostate” in English) is an immediately obliterating spin. Across eight songs in 38 minutes, the duo continue to create a martial sort of black/death that’s strict, cruel, and caustic. Is it “blackened death metal” or even “deathened black metal”? Appellations matter not when faced with this sort of iron-fisted attack, for its strength lies in the songwriting: W.S.P.’s riffs flow like acidic mercury, and Schilling’s drums race with deft dynamics. Indeed, for however harsh and austere Hate Manifesto‘s aesthetic is here, there’s a remarkably streamlined sensibility that lends infinite memorability to ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ – and repeatability, as you’ll be compelled to press “play” and submit to their onslaught again and again. And when the rare burst of guitar solos come in? MADNESS!
Simultaneously classic and modern, Hate Manifesto continue their campaign of cruelty with ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ!
Continue the march with the previously revealed “Poison Infliction” HERE, also at Regain Records‘ official YouTube channel. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Hate Manifesto’s ΑΠΟΣΤΑΤΗΣ 1. Inauguration of Triumphal Ascension 2. Extinction Ordained 3. Poison Infliction 4. Purging the Seeds of Pestilence 5. Sworn to Hatred 6. Decimation Order 7. Deconstructing the Assemblage of Deception 8. Chains of the Oppressor pt II
On June 24th internationally, Sepulchral Productions is proud to present Sacrenoir‘s highly anticipated debut album, Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines.
Two pioneers of the Québec black metal scene, Athros (Brume d’Automne, Forteresse) and Monarque (Monarque, Forteresse) revisit the very early days of black metal on Sacrenoir’s raging debut album. Falling in somewhere their respective bands and old Darkthrone and Gorgoroth or even Bathory, Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines is cold, raw, classic black metal, the likes of which has seldom been heard within the Québécois scene. For fans who will never get enough of that early ’90s sound, this is an album you cannot afford to miss!
First track premiere to be revealed shortly. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Sacrenoir’s Comme des Revenants Parmi les Ruines 1. Mille nuits ont passé 2. Portail vampirique 3. Étouffés par les flammes 4. The blade of Satan 5. Épuration 6. Le puits du diable 7. Aux portes de l’enfer 8. Vers d’autres mondes 9. Parmi les ruines
Black Metal legends TSJUDER are ready to release ‘Prestehammeren’ to the world! ‘Prestehammeren’ (which means The Priest’s Hammer) is taken from their new album “Helvegr”, which will be released worldwide on June 23, 2023 via Season of Mist.
TSJUDER is releasing ‘Prestehammeren’ in a form of a visualiser video, envisioning the concept of this raw, aggressive, and uncompromising song. The new track is available here:
TSJUDER comments: “This is Prestehammeren. The second track on our forthcoming album Helvegr. Torture and Revenge!”
Pre-orders for “Helvegr” are available HERE, while the album can be pre-saved HERE. (Some vinyl’s are already sold out)
The album will be released on various physical formats, such as cd digipack and coloured vinyl, but also limited edition clamshell box (cd) and LTD vinyl box. These limited edition come with a bonus album “Scandinavian Black Metal Attack” in which TSJUDER pays a special ode to BATHORY.
Artwork: Jonas Svensson and Laura Nardelli
Track-list: 1. Iron Beast (3:37) [WATCH HERE] 2. Prestehammeren (4:01) [WATCH HERE] 3. Surtr (6:59) 4. Gamle-Erik (3:46) 5. Chaos Fiend (4:02) 6. Gods of Black Blood (5:19) [WATCH HERE] 7. Helvegr (7:36) 8. Faenskap og Død (3:08) 9. Hvit Død (2:52)
Since their inception in 1993, Oslo’s TSJUDER have been responsible for some of the most hate-filled ferocity perpetrated under the banner of TRUE NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL.
The band’s unholy fire was initially lit when founding members NAG (vocals/bass), BERSERK (guitar) and DRAUGLUIN (guitar) grew weary of playing death metal and sought out engorged levels of extremity to sate their increasingly profane ambitions. The time was ripe to inaugurate a ceaseless campaign committed to an uncompromising strain of brutally raw black metal, influenced by the primal thrash blasts of Sodom, Kreator, Destruction, Sarcófago and early Sepultura; black metal first wave trailblazers such as Bathory and Hellhammer; and, most vitally, Mayhem’s seminal Deathcrush, and Darkthrone’s game-changer, A Blaze in the Northern Sky.
Assuming the TSJUDER name, a moniker plundered from a mythical, murderous Northern tribe, various embryonic line-ups gathered around the all-conquering core of Nag and Draugluin, laying the fearsome foundations for what was to follow with two demos – Ved Ferdens Ende and Possessed – recorded between 1995-96. But it was with 1997’s EP, Throne of the Goat, that the black metal underground really began to sit up and take notice, the release establishing TSJUDER’s reputation as a blasphemous bulldozer hellbent on crushing the insipid and nostalgic in relentless blizzards of sub-zero riffage, punitive blast beats and blood-curdling screams.
Recordings for an inaugural full-length in 1999 were lost to a computer virus, but from the scavenged remnants of these sessions would emerge the Atum Nocturnem demo, an obnoxious foretaste of the group’s debut album, Kill For Satan, an international breakthrough slathered in slime-encrusted sacrilege. That damnable release saw the aptly-named ANTI-CHRISTIAN open his TSJUDER account, the drummer blasting a succession of gateways though the underworld, pulverising a punitive march to the band’s malevolent maelstroms. Demonic Possession (2002) and Desert Northern Hell (2004) sustained the band’s focus on death, devils and destruction, while ratcheting up the production levels on a barbaric brace of flesh-strippers conjuring a landscape of frost-bitten wastes and foul abyssal realms. With the music press busy dishing out plaudits, the band’s burgeoning confederacy of fanatics were becoming desperate for some TSJUDER live action. Heeding the clarion, the band embarked on a full European tour with fellow countrymen Carpathian Forest. They also recorded a pair of gloriously powerful live performances in 2005, in Norway, which would subsequently be documented on the group’s NorwegianApocalypse DVD.
TSJUDER would take a deserved hiatus in 2006, with members finding other musical outlets for their creativity; Nag launching heretical black metal outfit KRYPT; Draugluin and Anti-Christian doing time with the thrashier TYRANN.
But it wouldn’t be long before the irresistible call of TSJUDER would exert itself once more. The band reconvened, reenergised and eager to make up for lost time, returning to live performances in 2010 before finally unleashing the mighty Legion Helvete (2011), a typically uncompromising comeback interspersed with pronounced Motörhead influences on punkish hyper-blasters such as ‘Slakt’. It would be another four years before TSJUDER issued the merciless Antiliv (2015), a snarling lycanthropic howl of a record, heavy-loaded with vindictive black’n’roll swagger and lashings of buzzsaw guitar.
TSJUDER quickly set about creating the follow-up to Antiliv, but musical differences and protracted disputes led to a parting of the ways, with Anti-Christian bowing out after an impressive 20-year tenure with the group. Undaunted, Nag and Draughluin enlisted doyen tub-thumper JON RICE to provide the requisite drum artillery and continued to work on new recordings – fine-tuning guitar tones and sharpening mixes.
Then COVID-19 struck, the pandemic further stymieing the album’s release as the world tumbled from its fragile axis. But humanity is now benignly settling into its most chronic phase of perpetual abnormality and TSJUDER are steeled again to hoist their inverted cross above the barricades of conciliation. Their latest opus, Helvegr, is a devastatingly savage offering, one which fully adheres to the band’s eternal credo of “NO FUCKING COMPROMISE”.
Recording Line-up: Nag – Bass & Vocals Draugluin – Guitars & Vocals Jon Rice – Drums
Guest musicians: Guitar solo on ‘Gamle Erik’ by Pål Emanuelsen Guest vocals on ‘Gods of Black Blood’ by Seidemann (1349)
After the departure of Anti-Christian, Jon Rice and Eivin Brye has shared the drum duties on TSJUDER ‘s live performances.
On June 24th internationally, Sepulchral Productions is proud to present Miserere Luminis‘ long-awaited comeback album, Ordalie.
Nearly 15 years after the release of the debut album of their collaborative project, Gris’ Icare and Neptune as well as Sombre Forêts’ Annatar are back with a long-awaited second Miserere Luminis album! Despite the very long time between the two albums, fans of the band will find there everything that made their first opus so striking: dissonant and atmospheric guitars, complex song structures, tortured vocals, and that ever-present flair for the dramatic! Dark and beautiful at the same time, Ordalie will take you through a journey unlike any other, crafted by legends of Québec’s atmospheric black metal scene…
First track premiere to be revealed shortly. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Miserere Luminis’ Ordalie 1. Noir fauve 2. Le sang des rêves 3. La fêlure des anges 4. Les couleurs de la perte 5. De venin et d’os
The Brazilian black metal underground stalwarts of MYSTIFIER will return to Europe in June and July 2023 for a run of festivals and club shows! The ‘Primitive Black Magic Dynasty tour’ will kick off on June 10th at the Nada Festival in Beja (PT) and the rampage ends at the Cassiopeia venue in Berlin (DE) on the 23rd of July. A full list of dates can be found below.
MYSTIFIER 10 Jun 23 Beja (PT) Nada Festival 11 Jun 23 Stockholm (SE) Klubb Fredagsmangel 13 Jun 23 Kassel (DE) Goldgrubbe 14 Jun 23 Munich (DE) Backstage 15 Jun 23 Abtenau (AT) Neudegg Alm 16 Jun 23 Oberhausen (DE) Helvete 17 Jun 23 Amsterdam (NL) Occii 18 Jun 23 Charleroi (BE) MCP Apache 19 Jun 23 Bristol (UK) Dareshack 20 Jun 23 Glasgow (UK) Audio 21 Jun 23 Newcastle (UK) Trillians Rock Bar 22 Jun 23 London (UK) Underworld 23 Jun 23 Thessaloniki (GR) Eightball 24 Jun 23 Athens (GR) Temple 26 Jun 23 Bilbao (ES) Gaztetxe Zorrotza
27 Jun 23 Madrid (ES) Sala Silikona 28 Jun 23 Zaragoza (ES) Sala Utopia 29 Jun 23 Barcelona (ES) Espai Zowie 01 Jul 23 Erba (IT) Centrale Rock Pub 02 Jul 23 Bologna (IT) Freakout 03 Jul 23 Liestal (CH) A_Way 04 Jul 23 Toulouse (FR) L’usine a Musique 05 Jul 23 Paris (FR) Le Klub 06 Jul 23 Hengelo (NL) Innocent 07 Jul 23 Hamburg (DE) Bambi Galore 08 Jul 23 Fredericia (DK) Metal Magic Fest 09 Jul 23 Copenhagen (DK) Beta 11 Jul 23 Oslo (NO) Vaterland 12 Jul 23 Gothenburg (SE) The Abyss 13 Jul 23 Malmo (SE) Plan B 15 Jul 23 Torgau (DE) In Flammen Festival 16 Jul 23 Dresden (DE) Chemiefabrik 17 Jul 23 Prague (CZ) Modra Vopice 18 Jul 23 Zagreb (HR) Mocvara 19 Jul 23 Hodmezovasarhely (HU) Lowland Festival 20 Jul 23 Vienna (AT) Escape Metal Corner
21 Jul 23 Bratislava (SK) Pink Whale 22 Jul 23 Crispendorf (DE) Chaos Descends Festival 23 Jul 23 Berlin (DE) Cassiopeia
MYSTIFIER will be touring in support of their latest album ‘Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia’, which was released in 2019. The album is now streaming via the official Season of Mist YouTube channel HERE.
Track-list 1. Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia (4:34) 2. Weighing Heart Ceremony (5:05) 3. Witching Lycanthropic Moon (5:27) 4. Akhenaton (Son Mighty Sun) (4:48) 5. Six Towers of Belial’s Path (4:14) 6. Demoler las Torres del Cielo (en nombre del Diablo) (4:12) 7. Soultrap Sorcery of Vengeance (5:26) 8. (Introcucione d’la Melodia Mortuoria) Thanatopraxy (6:14) 9. Al Nakba (666 days of War) (5:03) 10. Chiesa dei Bambini Molestati (5:02) Total: 50:05
Brazilian act MYSTIFIER was formed by lead guitarist and bassist Beelzeebubth, drummer Lucifuge Rofocale, guitarist Behemoth, and vocalist Meugninousouan in Salvador, Bahia in 1989. The band created an aggressive, fast, and malignant sound within the classic black metal style, which makes them veterans of their scene.
A first demo tape, which was entitled ‘Tormenting the Holy Trinity’ came out in November 1989 and secured the band several shows all over Brazil. The 7″ debut single ‘The Evil Ascension Returns’, as well as a second demo entitled ‘Aleister Crowley’, led to widespread underground recognition for MYSTIFIER in 1990.
MYSTIFIER‘s debut full-length, ‘Wicca’ was already released worldwide in 1992 and the Brazilians managed to cement their reputation with each following record and accompanying tour. ‘Göetia’ hit the streets in 1993, ‘The World Is So Good That Who Made It Does Not Live Here’ followed in 1996, and ‘Profanus’ came out in 2001. In the wake of the deluxe box ‘Baphometic Goat Worship’ (2008), MYSTIFIER performed at the NWN Festival ll in Berlin, Germany and several other festivals around the globe.
As time went by, MYSTIFIER underwent some radical line-up changes. Vocalist Leandro Kastyphas was replaced by the exceptional Diego Sorcerer Do’Urden from INFESTED BLOOD, and drummer Alex Rocha (POISONOUS) handed his sticks over to Edward WarMonger (formerly of MEDICINE DEATH), who brought much experience and maturity to the group’s compositions.
Having wrecked stages throughout South and North America, Europe and other places with several sold-out shows during the ‘Bloodshed Rituals’ tour in support of ROTTING CHRIST, MYSTIFIER are now proudly presenting their newest offering ‘Protogoni Mavri Magiki Dynasteia’!
Crude and rude but not without a sense of regal refinement, the band’s Deciphering Torment Through Malediction debut album storms right out of the gate and leaves little to the imagination: this is all-caps BLACK METAL forged in the fires of old and tempered with the patience of longtime zealots. Each song of this 40-minute work combines cold, somber melodies with raw, visceral aggression in an unapologetic homage to the early waves of black metal. No matter the tempo – rippingly fast, folklorish downshift, hypnotic pulse – Black Sorcery keep proceedings orkish and medieval, such as they were back in the glorious times of Sombre, A.M.S.G., and Drakkar Productions. Form meeting content, their lyrical expression revolves around the themes of torment and mutually-assured destruction in the form of curses wrung from a severe disdain towards all human life, and butchered rituals performed in the heat of pure resentment, resulting in one’s own self-destruction: the ouroboros of esoteric failure and abysmal ruin. And all these ripped-raw tones are rendered all the more powerful with mastering courtesy of Enormous Door.
No more but definitely no less, Black Sorcery‘s Deciphering Torment Through Malediction is pure black metal for pure black metal people!
Hear for yourself with the brand-new track “Erinyes Slough” here:
Cover artwork, courtesy of Maegan Lemay, and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Black Sorcery’s Deciphering Torment Through Malediction 1. Intro 2. Gasping for Light Under a Petrine Cross 3. Final Meditations on Despair 4. Erinyes Slough 5. Gomorran Virtue 6. Sordid Rote 7. Heinous Rites 8. (Endgame Thought Process) 9. Seven Veils
Today, Argentinian black/death cult Infernal Curse premiere the new track “Black Mass Shepherd”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s long-awaited third album, Revelations Beyond Insanity, set for international release on June 23rd via Iron Bonehead Productions on vinyl LP format. Hear Infernal Curse‘s “Black Mass Shepherd” in its entirety here:
Hailing from the oft-overlooked scene of Argentina, Infernal Curse are a study in patience and defiance. Forming in 2008, early on, the band’s sound was strictly within the blown-out blackthrash characteristic of South America’s most-underground metal, culminating in the clattering ‘n’ chaotic Awakening of the Damned debut LP in 2012. However, it was with the Iron Bonehead-released mini-album The End Upon Us in 2014 where Infernal Curse truly found their stride. Reigning in the chaos for a more pulsing form of barbarity, the power-trio were as violent and virulent as ever, but pushed the still-overwhelming physicality into the beyond. Amazingly, they then pushed beyond The Beyond with 2016’s Apocalipsis full-length, again released by Iron Bonehead. Bestial metal taken to its psychedelic extremes, Apocalipsis presented a paradox between profundity and crudity, forever elevating Infernal Curse above the mongrel hordes mindlessly battering away to the same well-worn, black/white/red-all-over Blasphemy tropes.
That album no doubt proved to be an apex for Infernal Curse, and thereafter did the band stick to EPs and splits – and even then, three years on from Apocalipsis. Now, at long last, Infernal Curse deliver their third album, Revelations Beyond Insanity. Once again, the Argentinians both embody and defy the bestial metal paradigm, and harken back to the earliest expulsions from mid ’80s South America. After its eerie church-organ intro, Revelations Beyond Insanity kicks in with one of the most SAVAGE guitar/bass tones in many years; swirling and deliriously effected, all strings chundering forth from their fingers congeal into a crumbling cathedral of nightmarish enormity. That drummer Bestial Offensor follows suit with a loose & lively tornado of DD Crazy-style controlled chaos should not be surprising: South American touchstones like Bloody Vengeance, Immortal Force, and especially INRI and Sexual Carnage are recast in a manner both world-eating and ceremonial. Yet, for Infernal Curse, even when plumbing the depths of primitivism, a haunting throughline elevates their approach above base barbaric physicality and into the realm of rigorous mind-expansion – that that Beyond explodes into a kaleidoscope of feral atavism at the heart of the psychedelic experience. Or, simply dispense with fancy words altogether and submit to the overwhelming onslaught of Revelations Beyond Insanity: Infernal Curse have returned to the full-length front to reclaim their throne.
Also hear the previously revealed title track “Revelations Beyond Insanity” HERE at Iron Bonehead‘s Soundcloud. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Infernal Curse (Argentina)’s Revelations Beyond Insanity 1. Intro / Revelations Beyond Insanity [4:32] 2. Black Mass Shepherd [3:21] 3. Voidearth / Rites of Blood and Steel [7:00] 4. Church of Perversity [4:46] 5. Thy Eternal Tribulation [4:42] 6. Aeon of Extinction [4:46]
Today, Belarusian enigma Pa Vesh En streams the entirety of its highly anticipated fourth album, Martyrs. Set for international release on May 19th via Iron Bonehead Productions, hear Pa Vesh En‘s Martyrs in its entirety here:
Forming in 2017, the mysterious Belarusian entity known as Pa Vesh En promptly built a formidable discography, all under the aegis of Iron Bonehead. But after nine total records during its first three years of existence (including two albums) which explored the fringe elements of DSBM, it was 2021’s full-length Maniac Manifest where the otherwise-unnamed mainman began to open up his black metal to wider, wilder possibilities. Still emphatically embodying the sound of total and utter emptiness, Pa Vesh En showed a startling violence that only deepened his characteristic chasm of uncomfort.
Suitably, silence followed for once, but surely Pa Vesh En was restless behind those shadows, brewing his most unsettling record yet – and so it arrives with Martyrs. Split into three acts, Martyrs bears some aesthetic/thematic resemblances to the shocking French-Canadian film of the same name, but as the opening gambit of “A Vigilian Impending Murk” and “The House of Pain” quickly proves, Pa Vesh En is operating on an entirely different wavelength. That wavelength surely carries forward the undulating violence of its predecessor – rippling, roiling, and nearly bestial, with just as much (if not more) muscle to spare – but as Martyrs plays on and that violence begins to reverberate upon itself, ghostly textures arise from that murk and take on new, undead life. Are they synths? Church bells? Actual disembodied voices? Who can say, really… Truly, Pa Vesh En has taken to that far-more-Alpha surge brazenly displayed on Maniac Manifest, but here deftly (and densely) layers his creations with a swarm of sounds that seemingly come from every direction, which becomes all the more disorienting and disturbing when the tempos begin to accelerate and disintegrate at will. And survive long enough into Martyrs and one will hear the Belarusian loner’s melodicism rend the saddest notes from a still-bleeding heart…and an ethereal female voice bringing the album to a climactic close.
If one’s conception of Pa Vesh En is still based upon the band’s earlier works, then Martyrs will provocatively – and irrevocably – rearrange those coordinates, and those of your very soul.
Cover and tracklisting are as follows:
Tracklisting for Pa Vesh En’s Martyrs Act I – Vigilia 1. A Vigilian Impending Murk 2. The House Of Pain 3. In The Torment Cell
Act II – Liturgy 4. The Revenant’s Overture 5. Among A Stir Of Echoes 6. Following The Pestilent Maiden
Act III – Emanation 7. When The Lights Out 8. The Carnival Of Eerie Souls 9. Le Fantôme De Cette Madame
Psychedelic/avant-garde black metal outfit HENGET are now streaming their debut album “Beyond North Star” in advance of the release date! The new offering will be unleashed on May 19, 2023 via Season of Mist but can already be listened to in full tonight at 19:00 CEST via THIS LINK. The link may be freely spread throughout your channels.
The album is still available in various formats HERE. The album can be streamed/downloaded on various digital platforms HERE.
HENGET comment on the stream: “Here it is then, the full album stream of our debut album ”Beyond North Star”. It has been artistically and spiritually really intense and exciting journey from the moment of inception to this day. We hope that something from all of this will be transferred to you as well with the complete album. Let the walls between the realities crumble and may the metaphysical North Star descend upon our foreheads.“
The cover artwork and further album details for “Beyond North Star” can be found below.
Track-list: 1. Dive (4:35) 2. I Am Them (4:01) [WATCH] 3. Henkivallat (4:31) [WATCH] 4. The Great Spiral (5:52) 5. Beyond North Star (5:19) [WATCH] 6. Lovi (5:09) 7. Nouse (3:52) 8. The Chalice of Life and Death(4:23) Total: 37:42
The creation process has always been a very fascinating riddle isn’t it? After all, there’s no strict formula. Some spent weeks, months or even years meticulously working on every tiny detail over and over again until it feels perfect while others just have to let it all out, no matter how it all comes out, it just has to. And no, no matter how hard you try, you can’t force it. You just can’t. You need to have that vision, that unstoppable yearning to turn your dreams into reality.
King Aleijster de Satan has long stopped asking himself all those questions. Although he’s only thirty-four years old, the Tampere based Finn is a bullet-proof veteran of the black metal scene: he used to run and sign bands for Saturnal Records. He also ran the Blackvox studio from 2013 to 2020 where he recorded multiple bands. Purely on the musical front, besides being the long-time standing frontman of Saturnian Mist he also because various experiences, in Arvet among others. But with the industrial rumblings of King Satan, he’s learnt to expand his mind and look over all those useless fences to see what lied beyond. In the end, it’s all about being free both as an individual and as an artist, to go where your instincts and muse take you, no matter what.
And nothing encapsulates more this quest for freedom than HENGET. As a matter of fact, it lies at the very center of it as most of the music AND lyrics were on purpose improvised on the spot. Ever tried to capture lightning in a bottle? King Aleijster de Satan and his comrade Jesse Heikkinen just did with HENGET first album, Beyond North Star, Heikkinen having proved to be quite a versatile artist since dabbling with ‘progressive esoteric folk’ with Iterum Nata, the equally ‘out there’ Hexvessel or The Abbey.
“When I got in the studio to do the vocals, I only had various notes, sometimes hastily written on a small piece of paper and more or less some kind of loose structures to go with it. Most of them I gathered in between 2016 and 2019 after, let’s say experimenting quite a bit. I admit natural psychedelics and other shamanic methods influenced me a lot to reach another level of consciousness, besides my long interest towards the occult and mysticism. Those weren’t meant to get lost into but instead to be used as mere tools to help me opening new doors in my brain, a bit like a shaman would do when engaged in a ritual to reach a trance like of state. That’s also why I booked a two weeks session just for the vocals: I needed that amount of space to really dive in my subconscious. Overall, that was one of most intense recording experience I ever had but I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone because the toll you have to pay once it’s done is pretty heavy.”
Originally, the pair planned to unite in Saturnian Mist but then, Jesse “had to move to another city and it made things too complicated. But we still wanted to work together as he is probably the best songwriter I know. And since I had this idea for this other thing where I knew I wanted to push the limits and go over the edge in terms of songwriting, I needed somebody of his calibre.” “Indeed, Aleijster approached during summer 2021” confirms the multi-instrumentist. “He had a quite clear vision of what kind of concept he wanted to do lyrically speaking for a long time. It did coincide with my own desire to express something personal yet aggressively, an urge I hadn’t felt in a long time. Based on his background, we agreed this should happen within some kind of black metal frame but without still paying attention to much conventions or rules. I was given free rein to do whatever I felt like and I quickly realized I wanted it to be quite intuitive while making sure the music would be as crazy as possible, like some typhoon swallowing everything in its path… So using mostly vintage instrumentation, I recorded most of the music by myself in my own studio, pushing the button ‘rec’ and then totally letting myself go, following Aleijster ‘automatic writing’ method and ending up with some pretty interesting result.”
There’s something strangely seductive about the eight tracks included on Beyond North Star, as if the listeners were invited to enter some alternative and colourful place, dangerous and scary yet always otherworldly. Some may argue that all along you will most likely cross there the ghosts of Dødheimsgård, Arcturus or King Crimson. But Aleijster remains pretty reluctant to label it but “if we really need to, I guess it’s avant-garde black metal.” After hesitating with Henkivallat (‘spiritual realms’), which they ended up using as a songtitle instead, the name HENGET was chosen because of its double meaning as it can be translated both as ‘life’ but also ‘spirits’, “a perfect name for an occult band”. Beyond North Star is a “loose” concept album, like one long journey, even if the songs are not exactly tied up together. Something the 70’s prog rock loving Jesse is quite happy with while its title is a reference to that actual spiritual journey the listeners are about to undertake. One they will never forget.
Three ambitious music videos in total have been shot already to promote the album and HENGET has gathered a full line-up in order to start playing live. Saturnian Mist drummer Ville Rissanen was the first one to be asked, soon followed by Lasse Launimaa, a teenage years friend of Jesse who also plays in cult symphonic black metal band Thyrane on keyboards.
Recording studio: Space Junk Studio, Tampere, Finland (Drums) Beyond North Star, Salo, Finland Studio Sampolaaris, Tampere, Finland (Vocals)
Producer / sound engineer: Produced by Jesse J. Heikkinen & King Aleijster de Satan Sound engineering: Kimmo Nyyssönen (Drums), Jesse J. Heikkinen, King Aleijster de Satan
Mixing studio and engineer: Beyond North Star Studio & Jesse J. Heikkinen
Mastering studio and engineer: Wavecrawler Audio & Teemu Iso-Kulmala
Line-up: King Aleijster de Satan – Vocals Jesse J. Heikkinen – Guitars, additional keys Lasse J. Launimaa – Keyboards Ville J. Rissanen – Drums
