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

Today, Blood Harvest Records announces October 28th as the international release date for Universally Estranged’s highly anticipated second album, Dimension of Deviant Clusters, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats. 

One of the most exciting new hordes Blood Harvest has come across in recent years, Universally Estranged shocked and awed last year with their debut album, Reared Up in Spectral Predation. Widely acclaimed and blowing most minds who heard it, the mysterious one-man entity created sci-fi-drenched death metal of a most malign and mesmerizing order…and now he returns, little more than a year later, with an even more intimidating record.

Tellingly titled Dimension of Deviant Clusters, Universally Estranged‘s second album lays forth an equally psychedelic landscape perhaps less Technicolor than its predecessor but arguably one more focused and fearless. For sure, the dazzling/disorienting bleeps ‘n’ bloops hinted at on the first album go full tilt here, singeing the synapses while tighter and more coiled song constructions surge forward with crushing clarity, all before going in impossibly angular directions which feel more like a fever dream rather than (un)conventional death metal. Dimension of Deviant Clusters is thus an album of stark contrasts: on one hand, some of Universally Estranged‘s biggest (or, at least, most engaging) hooks, brought forth by seamless flow and exceptionally tight execution; on the other hand, a total MINDFUCK where riffs implode, backwards, and lazers shoot from every direction and tempos just tumble where they may. But, lest this all sound like a mess on paper, the mainman makes it all work lysergically, alchemically well, slam and skronk coming together and unveiling infinitely more possibilities for cosmonauts smitten with that first full-length. And if this is your first trip with Universally Estranged? Prepare to drop out, and drop in…deep, deep, deeper.

Science fiction becomes reality, and it’s bonkers to behold. Death metal’s DNA gets mangled once again, emerging more hideous and heightened than before, with Universally Estranged‘s Dimension of Deviant Clusters.

Begin mangling your mind with the brand-new track “Corrupted Mind Palace” here:

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

Tracklisting for Universally Estranged’s Dimension of Deviant Clusters
1. (Prelude)
2. Psychic Laceration
3. Devoured From Another Time
4. Between the Lacunae
5. Dimension of Deviant Clusters
6. Memory of Death
7. (Interlude)
8. Corrupted Mind Palace
9. Universally Estranged

MORE INFO:
www.universallyestranged.bandcamp.com

www.bloodharvest.se
www.bloodharvestrecords.bandcamp.com
www.twitter.com/BloodHarvestRec

French black metallers Caïnan Dawn premiere new track

Today, French black metallers  Caïnan Dawn premiere the new track “Apnea”. The track is the first to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Lagu, set for international release on September 30th via Osmose Productions on CD format; the vinyl LP version will follow later this year. Hear Caïnan Dawn‘s “Apnea” in its entirety here:

Contemplate – the infinite waves of your soul will let themselves be caught up,
a journey where the sky will be nothing more than a memory.
Dive into this watery vastness, and immerse yourself.
Then he will reveal himself, the deeply conscious being.
Welcome in the drown – an endless slide where the abyssal depths await you for eternity…


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

Tracklisting for Caïnan Dawn’s Lagu

1. Nun [2:16]
2. Myctophidae [6:08]
3. Y’ha-Nthlei [6:25]
4. Okeanos [6:34]
5. Atlantis [8:10]
6. Septima [7:26]
7. Apnea [6:28]
8. Lagu [4:39]
9. Profundum [7:29]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/cainandawn

www.osmoseproductions.com

Modern vampiric black metal kings WAMPYRIC RITES stream new SIGNAL REX album

Today, modern vampiric black metal kings Wampyric Rites stream the entirety of their highly anticipated second album, The Wolves Howl to the Moon. Set for international release on August 26th via Signal Rex on CD and cassette tape formats – the vinyl LP version will follow later this year – hear Wampyric Rites‘ The Wolves Howl to the Moon in its entirety here:

Wampyric Rites hail from the ever-rising Ecuadorian black metal underground, and have had a major hand in shaping its prominence and notoriety across countless short-length releases since 2019. However, it was last year’s full-length The Eternal Melancholy of the Wampyre where Wampyric Rites displayed the full gait of their potential: classic (and unapologetic) vampiric black metal deeply rooted in the idiom’s earliest days whilst evincing a spectral aura all their own. The duo may belong to the Pure Raw Underground Black Metal Plague, which includes now-labelmates Winterstorm and Ründgard, but Wampyric Rites truly had found the cosmic keys to their creations and times.

Eclipsing that feat is their brand-new second album, The Wolves Howl to the Moon. Immediately, the record sounds like Wampyric Rites – shimmering surge, velvety synths, hysteric shrieks across a dungeon deep – but the attack soon takes on deft dynamics, skillfully balancing robust physicality (often, headbangingly straightforward) and stained-glass sensitivity. The latter element is perhaps the boldest move here, as a variety of synth sounds – medieval organ, stargazing swirl, or even just the faintest daubing upon ripped-raw guitar – often play a prominent role in each of the album’s five component songs. Yet, it’s never done in a gaudy or gimmicky manner; it’s but another layer to lose oneself in, as the songwriting itself allows the mind to wander and palpably experience the landscape as The Wolves Howl to the Moon. What’s more, Wampyric Rites incorporate shockingly beautiful acoustics, albeit sparingly, making their seemingly strictured canvas far vaster than otherwise suggested by vampiric BM standards. 

All told, The Wolves Howl to the Moon sets new standards for (true) vampiric black metal. Wampyric Rites stoke the fires of the imagination, and seemingly are only getting started.

Cover artwork, courtesy of Ainul Iblis, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Wampyric Rites’ The Wolves Howl to the Moon
1. The Ancient Tyrant Returns from the Deep Forgotten Crypts [8:10]
2. Rites Under the Fullmoon [6:06]
3. Amidst the Fog of Eternity [2:47]
4. The Wolves Howl to the Moon [9:58]
5. Captive in a Desolate Castle [8:25]

MORE INFO:
wampyricrites1.bandcamp.com

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

NARGAROTH sign to Season of Mist

Season of Mist are proud to announce the signing of German Black Extreme Metal legend NARGAROTH. 

In conjunction to the news, all back-catalogue will be available on digital and CD on October 21, 2022. The release of vinyl will be announced at a later time. Pre-order the albums HERE.
Instead of sending in a written comment, frontman Ash took the liberty of creating a personal video message which can be found here:

Upcoming NARGAROTH shows:
24 Sept 2022 – Mexico Metal Fest, Monterrey – MX 
29 Apr 2023   – Black Hole Fest IV, Wetzikon, CH 

For more information about NARGAROTH, please visit their socials down below.

https://www.facebook.com/officialnargaroth
https://www.instagram.com/nargaroth.official
https://nargaroth666.bandcamp.com/
https://www.youtube.com/user/NargarothChannel

Line-up

ASH (vocals)
BELIATH (guitars)
Pre-order:https://redirect.season-of-mist.com/nargaroth-reissues

HADOPELAGYAL set release date for AMOR FATI / VÁN debut album, reveal first track

On September 19th internationally, Amor Fati Productions, in conspiracy with Ván, is proud to present Hadopelagyal‘s highly anticipated debut album, Nereidean Seismic End. Amor Fati will handle the cassette tape version while Ván will handle the CD and vinyl versions.

A duo hailing from Germany’s ever-fascinating and -evolving black metal scene, Hadopelagyal are the personification of feral frequencies drawn together to drown the listener in a free-flowing hypnosis of horror. At once animalistically primitive and superlatively consciousness-expanding, the body of work Hadopelagyal have created across their 2018 debut demo and successive splits with Thorybos and Kosmokrator have hinted at a garish grandiosity that could bloom to obscene lengths. Now, that moment has arrived with Nereidean Seismic End.

Hadopelagyal‘s first full-length recording, Nereidean Seismic End is presciently titled: the ripped-asunder vacuum of violence that exists here begins as the bitter end but also allows for infinite immersion, forever devouring itself like the very Ouroboros. Strings and drums certainly exhibit musical qualities – this is recognizably black metal, after all, albeit of a fucked-up and fuck-you variety – but the manner in which they’re used and the paths they take are utterly unorthodox and most definitely psychedelic in the most horrific definition. Surges sprint across a trajectory both parallel and perpendicular; angularity is bent backwards, and then further. Howling abyssal voice melds/melts with distortion both cruel and cool; forever there is a swarm of sound, and yet the perpetual levitation leaves a massive amount of space within that vacuum.

“Appealing in us and widely released from getting placed in vacant definitions, there is resulting pantophagy,” state the band, “bounded by the energies which are at work in us, which are exempted from expression through hollow words and not attempted to be depicted concretely. Our compound exists for what is shaking and flowing in us, naturally grown and born by efforts of disposition in infinity. Doomed in utter vagous cacaesthesia, a haemathermal burning thirst for things that are to be figured out tacitly, which may also wait eternally to get breathed into life and get a name, because raining from the heavens, they will presumably never meet us at all. We vomit what is in our limbs and inhale from our depths what we allow to lead us. Where you sink to ashes in purgatory, ashes that don’t wear out as long as something pulsates in you, where malacophonous umbrages claim the toxic climax, where the masks fuse and you consider yourself lost in pandemonism, until the mythical labtebricole creatures fly….” Here, there is Hadopelagyal‘s Nereidean Seismic End.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Blades Drawn from the Iron Marrow of the Sunken Dead” here:

Tracklisting for Hadopelagyal’s Nereidean Seismic End
1. Depravity Shall Triumph [7:19]
2. Intertidal Terrorrealm [6:08]
3. The Morning Carried a Feeble Sun, a Solitary Sphere of Embers [4:24]
4. Blades Drawn From the Iron Marrow of the Sunken Dead [7:31]
5. In Dragging Incandescence [5:01]
6. Pitiless Stars in the Clasp of Putrefaction [5:03]
7. ἄπειρος καὶ ἐρῆμος ἐστιν ἡ θάλασσα [5:40]

MORE INFO:
www.hadopelagyal.bandcamp.com

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

Long-running Italian black metallers Abhor premiere new track

Today, long-running Italian black metallers Abhor premiere the new track “Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated eighth album, Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi), set for international release on September 23rd via
 Iron Bonehead Productions. Hear Abhor‘s title track “Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi” in its entirety exclusively here:

Abhor are a veritable institution of Italian black metal. Formed in 1995 in the northeast of Italy, the band began with a passion for black metal music and the study of esoteric arts. Less like a band and more like a congregation, Abhor represent a form of global art that embraces musical art, visual art, and literal art. Their first musical manifestation came in 1998, with the first demo tape In Tuo Honori Preparatum. From there, Abhor were off and running, subsequently releasing six albums with a variety of labels, doing honorable underground work. Within their ranks came many musicians, including members of compatriots Evol. But, arguably, Abhor reached their apotheosis with their seventh album (and first for current label home Iron Bonehead), Occulta religiO. Released in 2018, this veritable blazing-purple torch conveyed a bewitching mysticism and beyond-the-veil secrecy that showed the band at their most masterful, even at this mature stage.

And, although four years have passed since that momentous event – and a split mini-album with fellow Italian occultists Abysmal Grief in 2019, also courtesy of Iron Bonehead – Abhor continue their deeper-into-the-catacombs ascent with the devilish Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi). Truly titled, Sex Sex Sex brings a spooky sensuality to Abhor‘s trademark style of olde-worlde black metal. With both Hammer Horror organs to the fore and a macho headbanging stomp, the Italians create a canvas of arcane mysteries and ancient metal might, foregoing so much of the fluff that’s characterized post-“second wave” black metal and striking true(r) to the sound of the Old Gods: Celtic Frost, Mortuary Drape, Varathron, Samael, and even very earliest Mayhem. It’s more of “no more, but no less” Esoteric Horror Black Metal, but still suffused with an undeniable energy and electricity, even when creeping slowly through those catacombs. It’s an immediately recognizable sound that’s neither regressive nor progressive, and Abhor conjure it with enviously effortless zeal.

Unshackle thyself from the morals and mores of the modern world and return to more sinister and sinful times with Abhor‘s Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi)! 

The first sin can be found with the previously revealed “Evil Mentor” HERE at Iron Bonehead‘s Soundcloud. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Abhor (Italy)’s Sex Sex Sex (Ceremonia Daemonis Antichristi)
1. The Curse of the Twins
2. Ceremonia Daemonis Anticristi
3. At the Edge of the Circle
4. Ode to the Snake
5. Ritual Satanism
6. Evil Mentor
7. Beelzebuth [Mystifier cover]
8. October 31st, 2010
9. The Call
10. Violet Coven

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/abhor666




Ancient Greek black metallers Medieval Demon premiere new track

Today, ancient Greek black metallers Medieval Demon premiere the new track “Baptismal Blood”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated fourth album, Black Coven, set for international release on September 16th via  Hells Headbangers on CD format; the vinyl LP version will follow later this year. Hear Medieval Demon‘s “Baptismal Blood” in its entirety exclusively here:

By now, Medieval Demon should require little introduction. Formed in that fateful year of 1993, Medieval Demon remained one of the cultest entities of the immortal Greek black metal scene, releasing a handful of demos during the mid ’90s and then their lost-classic debut album, Demonolatria, in 1998. Not long after, the band receded into the shadows, in vampiric slumber, until awakening from the crypt in 2018 with the majestic comeback album, Medieval Necromancy, through longtime fans Hells Headbangers, followed two years later by the equally acclaimed Arcadian Witchcraft.

Continuing that enviable momentum compared to most “old” bands who tiredly rehash long-faded glories, Medieval Demon light another new full-length torch with Black Coven. Just as its esteemed predecessors sounded like those glorious ’90s never ended, so, too, does Black Coven burn with an authentically eldritch fire by those who truly LIVED IT. Much as canonical Hellenic black metal always prized heavy metal classicism at the heart of black METAL, Medieval Demon once again synthesize such with equally-classic horror and high drama, making Black Coven arguably their most widescreen record yet. The production, in kind, gives robust crunch to that heavy metalized songwriting, along with highlighting the band’s always-captivating synth work. Indeed, the album sounds EXACTLY as it should for something titled Black Coven: the ancient spirits are legion, and unbound!

As founding drummer/keyboardist/composer Lord Apollyon explains, “For the composition of Black Coven, there were used methods and practices of the ancient Greek theory of music, which were also used to the Middle Ages – in the name of Satan. Composition in black metal presupposes to live in real time the process that includes all the elements involved in this kind of black art. We moved into an isolated village inside the forest, a place where ancient Greek sorcery and death magic was born. Ritualism and ancient black metal are parts of our eternally black souls.”

Specifically, opening track “Where Witches Dwell and Labyrinths Confuse” was written as tribute to the deceased Andrea Meyer of Norway’s cult Aghast. Likewise, the unabashed use of saxophone was in tribute to founding Greek forebears Necromantia, who entered the crypt of time eternal last year. And of course, the influence of Italian gods Goblin is never far away from Medieval Demon, even if that influence is more spiritual rather than literal. Any way you cut it (and try not getting mesmerized by the choirs here!), Black Coven is cinematic black art at its very finest. Last word, then, to Lord Apollyon: DEATH TO THOSE WHO BETRAY THE SECRET CULT!”

Also hear the previously revealed title track “Black Coven” HERE at Hells Headbangers‘ official YouTube channel. Preorder info can be found HERE. Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Medieval Demon’s Black Coven
1. Where Witches Dwell and Labyrinths Confuse [5:48]
2. Black Coven [8:21]
3. Nocturnal Sacrilege [5:49]
4. Sylvestris Deus (Protector of the Forests) [4:01]
5. Baptismal Blood [5:27]
6. Katavythisis [5:00]
7. The Grave Dwellers [6:38]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/MedievalDemonOfficial

www.hellsheadbangers.com


WHITE RUNE stream HAMMER OF HATE debut at – features members of SIELUNVIHOLLINEN, EHRE+++

Today, uprising Finnish black metallers White Rune stream the entirety of their highly anticipated debut album, Dawn of the White Rune. Set for international release on August 19th via Hammer of Hate, hear White Rune‘s Dawn of the White Rune in its entirety here:

Although a brand-new entity, White Rune are a duo of Sielunvihollinen frontman Ruttokieli on vocals, guitar, bass, and keyboards and his drummer brother Soldau, also currently of Ehre. In 2021, they exploded into being with two shockingly accomplished demos, The Spell of Winter Holocaust and The Eternal Fires of Cleansing, showing a new face to Finnish black metal by, paradoxically, harkening back to old times.

And now that face is fully revealed with the full-length Dawn of the White Rune. Indeed consolidating White Rune‘s considerable strengths, the band’s aptly titled debut album bursts forth with an effervescence that’s undeniable – and undeniably unique, within the wider sphere of Finnish black metal. With vampiric organ to the fore but thankfully eluding the mawkish excess of “vampiric black metal,” White Rune proceed to wind and wend through an ever-surging storm of mysticism and malevolence. Their violence is real and the passion palpable, but there’s a deft touch to their dynamics here; nightsky splendor and astral awe are always present, no matter the tempo, and actual lead guitar plays an equally central role in conveying the emotions coursing through Dawn of the White Rune. And while comparisons to contemporaneous countrymen Faustian Pact, Vargrav, and Mooncitadel are certainly valid, more accurately could White Rune here harken back to the late ’90s works of Darkwoods My Betrothed, Thyrane, Alghazanth, Trollheims Grott, and even …And Oceans, thereby bringing the lineage full circle like the Ouroboros itself.

To celebrate this momentous occasion, Hammer of Hate will also release a compilation titled The Spell of Eternal Fire, bringing together both White Rune demos. In the meantime, open thine eyes and witness the Dawn of the White Rune!

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for White Rune’s Dawn of the White Rune
1. Brought by the Touch of Death
2. The Iron Claws of Satan
3. White Rune Rising
4. Soulstorm
5. Death at Sundown
6. Echoes of Torment
7. Crimson Lament
8. The Ravenous Part 1 – Altar of Defeat
9. The Ravenous Part 2 – Torn Kingdom Come

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/WhiteRuneBM

Kvlt.fi

PAINGIVER sign with MEMENTO MORI, prepare debut album

In their endless quest to push and support current underground acts that perpetuate the odor of vintage death metal, Memento Mori are extremely thrilled to announce a new signing: Paingiver, from the United States.

Founded in 2020 by the brothers Sam and Zach Bigby in Houston, Texas, Paingiver is a crushing new band that delivers all the grit of riff-centered, charnel, and bone-shattering death metal with a textured and grimly dark approach and a massive sound, influenced by Grave, Morbid Angel, Bloodbath, Incantation, Blood Red Throne, Bolt Thrower… Eldritch Death Metal domination!

Memento Mori will unleash the CD version of their debut full-length in the first half of 2023. Further details to follow in the coming months. For more info, consult the links below.

MORE INFO:

www.facebook.com/paingivertx
www.paingiver.bandcamp.com

www.memento-mori.es

VATHR set release date for EDGED CIRCLE debut mini-album, reveal first track

Today, Edged Circle Productions announces September 16th as the international release date for Vathr‘s striking debut mini-album, Dead & United, on 12″ vinyl and cassette tape formats.

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!

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Crimson Cold Curse here:

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