Black Metal

CEMETERY MOON Releases Two Raw Black Metal Demos

Raw black metal fanatics have a new source to satisfy their endless lust for sonic blood! Connecticut’s own CEMETERY MOON has returned on the heels of a glorious 2023 to unleash Inside the Dark Kingdom in two volumes. Each serving contains five tracks recorded at rehearsals over the course of January and February 2024. When taken together, they contain three new songs — “Temporal Bloodletting,” “The Wretched City,” and “The Black Keep” — along with seven re-recordings from last year’s self-titled debut album.
 
Apparition, the band’s lead singer and one of its guitar practitioners, elaborates on why the band decided to put these releases together:
 
“After we released the album last year, we brought on Usurper as our drummer and thus the band was finally a fully-functioning entity. These two demos give the listener a chance to hear the album material with Usurper’s drumming, and provides a taste of what’s to come with the newest songs. It also allowed us to embrace our DIY instincts and put together some material in a spur-of-the-moment fashion.”

He goes on to describe the sound of each volume:
 
“As these are rehearsal demos, the sound is decidedly raw and stripped down. However, we still took care to make sure everything could be heard and that the spirit of the music would possess anyone who listened. Volume One contains our most brutal and uncompromising material, along with our most progressive and epic song, “Temporal Bloodletting.” Volume Two is the moodier release, one that shows our penchant for introspection and exploration, while still displaying our devotion to black metal art.”
 
Finally, he concludes:
 
“More than anything, it allows us to show the world our progression as musicians and performers. All four of us brought so much to the band when we came together, and we’ve already come so far since then. If “The Wretched City” and “The Black Keep” are any indication, we’re just getting started.”
 
Both volumes of Inside the Dark Kingdom are now available on Bandcamp and all streaming services.

About CEMETERY MOON:

CEMETERY MOON began in 2015, as Apparition set out as a one-man black metal project. Over the ensuing years of stylistic development, CEMETERY MOON would expand into a fully formed band with a self-titled debut album in 2023. The band’s first few live performances overwhelmed audiences with the sheer ferocity and musicianship on display — from Apparition’s scorching vocal delivery and his dual guitar riff barrage with Langeloth, to Astoroth and Usurper’s expert-level displays of rhythmic punishment. Now with two new demos out, a second full-length in the works, and a series of shows lined up, the band seeks to continue its conquests and expand the Dark Kingdom’s borders ever further.

CEMETERY MOON is:
Apparition: Lead vocals, guitars
Astoroth: Bass
Langeloth: Guitars, backing vocals
Usurper: Drums

Links:
LinkTree

Inside the Dark Kingdom: Volume One Track List:

  1. A Voice in the Woods
  2. Only Demons
  3. Army of Darkness
  4. Limitless Contempt
  5. Temporal Bloodletting

Inside the Dark Kingdom: Volume Two Track List:

  1. The Wretched City
  2. Eyes of the False God
  3. The Bleak Universal
  4. Life’s Enduring Lie
  5. The Black Keep

ORDER OF NOSFERAT set release date for new PURITY THROUGH FIRE album, reveal first track

Today, Purity Through Fire announces March 21st as the international release date for Order of Nosferat‘s highly anticipated fifth album, The Absence of Grace, on CD, A5 digipak, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

By now, those well versed in the crimes of Purity Through Fire should be aware of Order of Nosferat. Emerging from the shadows in early 2021, the duo of Count Revenant and Anzillu released TWO full-lengths that year: Necuratul and Arrival of the Plague Bearer. And while both underground veterans are no strangers to black metal, the variety they unleashed with Order of Nosferat was most definitely OLD, in every sense of the word: undead vampiric black metal had truly arisen! Like (vampiric) clockwork, two more full-lengths followed the next year – Nachtmusik in March and Vampiric Wrath Unleashed – proving that their bloodthirst could not be sated. While 2023 was relatively quiet, Order of Nosferat “only” released a split album with Lunar Spells, showing a more nuanced and atmospheric side to their vampirism.

Now that nuanced / atmospheric shift fully blooms with The Absence of Grace, Order of Nosferat‘s fifth full-length. Utilizing a unique production style – crisp and cutting but somehow brittle, exceptionally ethereal in its effect – the duo here move a more measured pace, patiently doling out their emotive marches with both misery and mania, somehow sounding dead and incensed simultaneously. Whilst moving within the vampiric black metal idiom, it’s an unapologetically sorrowful canvas on which they paint – “bloody tears” staining everything, to invoke Castlevania – poignantly illustrating the titular The Absence of Grace. ​Order of Nosferat‘s characteristic moonlit synths brilliantly shine here, moving to the fore and melding ​seamlessly with their cresting & cathartic riffing. All the sadness and nostalgia that the duo have created so prolifically the past four years comes to a climax with The Absence of Grace! Where that cursed coffin ship sails next, only Order of Nosferat know…

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Devoured by Lurking Shadows” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Order of Nosferat’s The Absence of Grace
1. Behold the Rising Horrors
2. Floating with the Ravaged Ones
3. In This Solitude We Dwell
4. Devoured by Lurking Shadows
5. Scratch out my Face on Every Portrait
6. Under the Sinister Shroud of Isolation
7. The Absence of Grace
8. Blood Stains the Fallen Snow
9. Cruelty Bestowed Revelation
10. Remain in Everlasting Silence

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/Order-of-Nosferat-101630385169968

www.purity-through-fire.com

GRANITADER set release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut, reveal first track

Today, Purity ThroughFire announces March 21st as the international release date for Granitader‘s highly anticipated debut album, Der Wald zwischen den Welten, on digipack CD format.

One of the most fully formed black metal entities of recent times, Granitader burst into brilliance with their debut full-length, Der Wald zwischen den Welten. After but an EP last year, the German quintet’s first full-length displays a masterful grasp of songwriting and dynamics as well as confidence and charisma to spare. Granitader are old souls who exude the effervescence of the new; their continually cresting surge recalls pagan touchstones like Windir, Falkenbach, or Germany’s Horn closer to home, as well as Drudkh’s more cinematic moments. However, the wind beneath the wings of Der Wald zwischen den Welten is the album’s overarching theme: a homage to their – as well as Purity ThroughFire‘s – home area of Erzgebirge, the Ore Mountains that are an UNESCO world heritage site, as well as older German history. Truly, it all comes together as one breathtaking blast of classically austere German black metal, but poignantly brimming with a heroic, almost-positive aspect that’s simply impossible to deny. The spiraling lead-work is categorically sublime, and helps elevate Granitader to the top of today’s pagan black metal pack. Completing this complete package is the professional & powerful production, encasing their bravado in a sheen wholly befitting of its majesty. Let Granitader guide you through Der Wald zwischen den Welten!

In the meantime, see & hear the brand-new video for “Heimat” here:

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Granitader’s Der Wald zwischen den Welten
1. Intro
2. Ødensjakt
3. Heimat
4. Miriquidi
5. Nathan
6. Geister des Nordens
7. Varus feat. Baptist (Mavorim)
8. Netsche
9. Der Wald zwischen den Welten

MORE INFO:
granitader.bandcamp.com

www.purity-through-fire.com

HERALDIC BLAZE set release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut demo, reveal first track – features HJEMSØKT, SOLUS GRIEF, KVAD, UNHOLY CRAFT members+++

Today, Purity ThroughFire announces March 21st as the international release date for Heraldic Blaze‘s debut demo, Blazoned Heraldry, on CD and 12″ vinyl formats.

From moniker to visual aesthetic and especially to the sonics themselves, Heraldic Blaze are encapsulating the oft-nebulous “medieval black metal” idiom with startling aplomb. While it’s often difficult to discern exactly what medieval BM is other than a pithy “I know it when I hear it,” Heraldic Blaze leave no doubt as to their intentions.

Witness their debut demo, Blazoned Heraldry. The duo of American multi-instrumentalist Argent Pale (vocals, bass, flute) and Norwegian guitarist Peregrinus (Hjemsøkt, Solus Grief, Unholy Craft, Kvad) create a spellbinding tapestry of rustic tones and textures. In fact, on texture alone – kinda clean and clanging, yet with more than a hint of ghostly grit and almost surfy reverb – Heraldic Blaze stand out, but it’s how they utilize those textures in the service of songwriting: winding and wild, frothing up to an almost-dangerous delirium, but more often than not leaving wide-open spaces to let their medieval melodicism bend and sway with bravado and bittersweetness. And as actual flute flutters in from time to time, the sum effect, more often than not, is ALIEN – unsettling and alluring in equal measure.

While “merely” a demo recording, Heraldic Blaze‘s first work already trounces most modern works of “black metal.” Unorthodox and unbound, Blazoned Heraldry is mandatory listening for fans of Sühnopfer, Ungfell, Grylle, Heltekvad, and particularly mid-2000s Peste Noire.

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Torchbearers of Our Time” here:

 Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Heraldic Blaze’s Blazoned Heraldry
1. Torchbearers of Our Time
2. The Accolade of Truth
3. Far Shooting Apollo
4. A Sovereign Spire
5. The Knight’s Folly
66. Scourge of the Sycophant

www.purity-through-fire.com

AD MORTEM set release date for PURITY THROUGH FIRE debut album, reveal first track

On March 21st internationally, Purity ThroughFire is proud to present Ad Mortem‘s highly anticipated debut album, In Honorem Mortis, on CD, A5 digipack, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.

If there’s one certainty in these uncertain times, it’s that Purity ThroughFire will continue to raise the banner of nowadays German black metal: proud and pure in its expression, honoring the past whilst not being shackled to it, and evincing a professionalism that doesn’t sacrifice true underground spirit. Their latest executioners are Ad Mortem, who’ll be familiar to those who caught their Purity ThroughFire-released split with standard-bearers Mavorim in that very uncertain year of 2020. While their split-mates are true titans of today’s Teutonic black metal scene, Ad Mortem proved to be a poignant counterpart, evincing an undeniable physicality that remained hook-heavy and hummable.

Now they’ve returned to fulfill their still-substantial potential with the debut album In Honorem Mortis. Here, Ad Mortem dispense with any subtlety and go for the throat quickly and calculatingly. While the eight hymns comprising their debut album hover around the five-minute mark, everything on In Honorem Mortis sounds irrepressibly urgent. Mind you, the quartet’s songwriting isn’t categorically “all speed, all the time” – their shifting of gears, from strength & honor gallop to pistons-pumping blast, is as fluid as it comes – but their execution of such puts Ad Mortem in rarefied territory: seamlessly flowing, even swinging, making their martial thrust all the more mesmerizing. Of course, the German tongue makes their black metal bite harder, and wrapped in polished-yet-powerful production, the gleaming chrome one witnesses on In Honorem Mortis is but the blade of their sword about to deliver its fatal blow. Bow before Ad Mortem and feel their sweet release!

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Von hohen Himmeln” here:

Cover artwork, courtesy of Northem Art, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Ad Mortem’s In Honorem Mortis
1. Von hohen Himmeln
2. Größer als das Leben
3. Labyrith
4. Der letzte Feind
5. Urgewalt
6. Auf kalten Gräbern
7. Todesstreben
8. Death & Beyond

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/AdMortem666 

www.purity-through-fire.com

THE ROTTENING set release date for PERSONAL RECORDS debut EP, reveal first track – features members of INTESTINAL, FORNHEM+++

On April 5th internationally, Personal Records is proud to present The Rottening‘s highly anticipated debut EP, Seeds of Death, on CD format.

The Rottening are a Swedish death metal band that started in 2021 when members from the band Intestinal wanted to shred with each other again. They were joined by the frontman of the black metal band Fornhem, and the band took shape. In fact, The Rottening are named after Intestinal’s second (and final) album! After the well-received Ode to Rot demo, the band got together to record their debut EP, Seeds of Death, and the result could not be more pummeling.

No more but definitely no less, the concept behind Seeds of Death is pure Swedish HM-2 death metal, and who better to do so than an actual group of Swedes! Taking primary influence from the almighty Dismember, The Rottening crush and gallop forth like an everflowing stream, wholly indecent and obscene in their massive killing capacity. You may’ve heard Seeds of Death before, but only in pieces. This DEATH METAL after all, and undeniably Swedish, but The Rottening make it re-reborn in blasphemy in a mere 21 minutes: an override of the overture worth overriding again, and again, and again!

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

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

Tracklisting for The Rottening’s Seeds of Death

1. Ode to Rot

2. Starless Void

3. Silence of Your God

4. Maleficarum

5. Seeds of Death

MORE INFO:
therottening.bandcamp.com 

www.personal-records.com
personal-records.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/personalrecords666
Instagram.com/personalrecords666

HERESIARCH set release date for new IRON BONEHEAD album, reveal first track

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces April 12th as the international release date for Heresiarch‘s highly anticipated second album, Edifice, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

For over 15 years now, New Zealand’s Heresiarch have patiently crafted a body of work that has come to transcend their early influences. Though lineups have shifted during that time, led by founding vocalist N.H. and enhanced by guitarist C.S. in 2013, Heresiarch have wisely taken their time with recordings and prized quality over quantity. The band’s debut album, Death Ordinance, arrived in 2017 after a trio of savage short-lengths. A new rhythm section took root following that album’s release, and a couple splits in the ensuing years honed their doomed ‘n’ barbaric sound into something more molten and ominous.

And now arrives that megaton payload of devastation, Heresiarch‘s second album, elegantly titled Edifice. If there were any doubts that the band were but yet another toneless ‘n’ tired “war metal” troupe, the New Zealanders trounce any and all trepidation with exceptionally seismic songwriting. Here on Edifice, the parameters of Heresiarch‘s sound – death metal muscle, black metal atmosphere, grindcore aggression – are all in devastating harmony, creating a hydra-headed beast that betrays a wealth of true-yet-twisted ideas. More than just safely evading easy categorization (which is often mere doublespeak for “pleasing all constituents”), the quartet lay bare a landscape of texture titanic in its heft and foreboding in its effect, seamlessly winding through minefields both sonic and psychic and eventually culminating in a grandiose two-part finale in the equally compellingly titled “Hubris and Decline” and “Militate Pyrric Collapse.” For sure, Heresiarch sound as martial as ever, but the lava now flows in palatably unique ways, all without compromising their core aesthetic. Indeed, one could say they’ve finally found order through chaos.

The possibilities of life’s destruction are endless for those who wander before Heresiarch‘s Edifice.

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

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Heresiarch’s Edifice
1. Forged Doctrine
2. Manifest Odium
3. Noose Above the Abyss
4. Gloryless Execution
5. Tides of Regression
6. A World Lit Only By Fire
7. Swarming Blight
8. Mystic and Chaos
9. Hubris and Decline
10. Militate Pyrrhic Collapse

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/heresiarchband

www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

LVME set release date for new NOEVDIA album

LVME join the NoEvDia ranks with their second album, Of Sinful Nature, to be released internationally on February 16th.

LVME steadfastly uphold the essence of traditional black metal while boldly broadening their musical scope. Of Sinful Nature presents five expertly crafted tracks that defy conventions. This album is an intense black metal sermon, marked by a fluid fusion of complex riffs and surprising twists – a powerful expression of raw, unbridled, and rebellious energy.

Of Sinful Nature stands out with its authentic production quality – a real treat for those familiar with the feral force of an analog drum kit. The album’s production harks back to the organic sound of earlier decades, enriched with the grit of all-analog mastering.

Once you immerse yourself in Of Sinful Nature, you’ll be swept away by its commanding presence for 45 minutes. This album is an experience to be embraced and surrendered to, a celebration of black metal and its conquering spirit.

Full stream to be revealed the day of release. Cover and tracklisting is as follows:

Tracklisting for LVME’s Of Sinful Nature
1. The Venomous Fire [9:36]
2. Strix Rêverie [5:45]
3. Without Light nor Guide [9:13]
4. Into Ashen Stone [10:43]
5. Obenaus und Nirgends an! [9:28]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/lvmebm 

www.noevdia.com

America’s CRUCIFIER set release date for new IRON BONEHEAD album, reveal first track

Today, Iron Bonehead Productions announces April 12th as the international release date for the highly anticipated third album of America’s Crucifier, Led Astray, on CD and vinyl LP formats.

One of the longest-running entities in the American underground, Crucifier was formed in 1990 by vocalist/drummer Cazz Grant. While myriad lineups would come and go – and the band’s eventual debut album, Stronger Than Passing Time, wouldn’t be released until 2003 – Crucifier have kept consistent to their blasphemous, blackened death metal style steeped in the truly ancient and most underground ways.

Now, two years after their weird & wild Say Your Prayers mini-album, Crucifier align with Iron Bonehead once again for the release of their third full-length, Led Astray. Taking the wandering yet fully locked-in songwriting of that mini to its ultimate conclusion, Led Astray is a masterclass in memorable, METAL riffing and twisted rhythmic thrust. As is their signature, Crucifier sound positively primal here but never primitive; while these nine screeds of blasphemy might confuse or insult normcore listeners, there’s an extremely considered & calculated delirium behind their blackened devilry. As such, the “tight looseness” that’s characterized Crucifier‘s work to date gets sharpened to an enviable degree as these nine labyrinths surge and storm with a paradoxical / perverse sense of class. Credit the latter largely to the jaw-dropping dual lead-work across Led Astray: an element that’s been bubbling in the Crucifier cauldron for years, but which really reaches a superlative level here. Of course, Grant’s vocals are as diabolic as ever, seemingly coming from every direction and hackle-raising in their articulation.

Crucifier hereby have delivered a modern classic of blackened death metal in Led Astray! 

In the meantime, hear the brand-new track “Smite…”

Cover and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Crucifier (USA)’s Led Astray
1. Smite…
2. Feed the Furnace
3. In Hircine Splendor
4. Biers of Catholic Bones
5. With Cornu and Peccant Breath
6. Trafficking with the Devil
7. Serenaded by the Angels’ Shrills
8. Harbingers of Apollyon
9. An Endeavour of Rats

MORE INFO:
www.thetruecrucifier.bandcamp.com 

www.facebook.com/IronBoneheadProductions

Dutch black metallers Verwoed premiere new track 

Today, Dutch black metallers Verwoed premiere the new track “The Madman’s Dance”. The track is the second to be revealed from the band’s highly anticipated second album, The Mother, set for international release on March 29th via Wolves of Hades and Argento Records. Hear Verwoed‘s “The Madman’s Dance” in its entirety here:

The journey of the Dutch enigmatic Verwoed has been one in continuous synergy with sonic exploration and innovation. This blazing entity returns with a much-anticipated fourth release and second full-length album, an awe-inspiring and utterly immersive experience in creative profundity by the title of The Mother. 

The past has already witnessed the virtuous way Verwoed contemplated and traveled through unfathomable aural stratospheres brimming with feeling, intensity, and a sense of visceral commitment. The Mother perceives the Utrecht project as taking a step further in the direction of the abyss, an epic of splendor and imposing nature, bursting with emotion in the form of striking riffs that offer an electrical pallet of eclectic, evocative, and utterly cathartic songwriting. 

Aided by a superbly captured production, the sonic quality of The Mother is drenched in dynamics with an organic power felt in the deepest depths of the dark night of the soul. Such character is overflown through a musical tapestry that is both complex and emotionally resonant, whether by the incredibly enticing and pulsing drumming performance, driven with and by a sense of variation and symbiosis, or the fervorous sensation purveyed by the electric traits aforementioned and the passionate and brutally ardent vocals, offering a visual representation of the poignant scope contained within each track.

To be released by Wolves of Hades and Argento Records on March 28th, The Mother invites the listener to a mesmerizing and innermost experience, a monument to introspective realms, a prayer of blood and fire conveyed with raw momentum.

Also hear the previously revealed “The Child” HERE at Wolves of Hades‘ Bandcamp. Cover artwork, courtesy of Joost Vervoort, and tracklisting are as follows:

Tracklisting for Verwoed’s The Mother

1. A Prayer of Blood and Fire [4:04]
2. The Mother [9:32]
3. Seven Trumpets [1:55]
4. The Child [6:55]
5. The Madman’s Dance [8:14]
6. A Choir of Null and Void [4:39]
7. Death in a Rosary [8:25]

MORE INFO:
www.facebook.com/verwoed

www.wolvesofhades.myshopify.com