Metal 213 Items

Abrams ups the ante with the moody, heavy, psychedelic rock venture of their forthcoming LP, 'In the Dark.'Initially seeking to fuse melodic hooks with dissonance, Abrams began in 2013 in Denver, Colorado, with guitarist/vocalist Zach Amster and bassist/vocalist Taylor Iversen. Later joined by drummer Ryan DeWitt, Abrams has released an EP and three studio albums all to critical acclaim. With each release the listener can hear the band evolving and maturing to what it has become today. A band dedicated to compelling songwriting, and energetic live performances, Abrams ups the ante with the moody, heavy, psychedelic rock venture of their forthcoming LP, 'In the Dark.' Adding Patrick Alberts (Call of The Void) to the lineup, 'In the Dark' is Abrams' first release as a four-piece, following behind 2020's 'Modern Ways.' With the pandemic cancelling all touring plans for Modern Ways, Abrams immediately got to work demoing 25 plus songs for their next release. Given the world was in lockdown, Amster took a deep dive to learn the ins and outs of home recording in order to refine song structure, with a hyperfocus put on vocal hooks. There was a goal set to have as complete and polished songs as possible prior to entering the studio in Summer of 2021 with Producer/Engineer/Collaborator Dave Otero (Khemmis, Cattle Decapitation) at Flatline Audio who was the last piece in shaping the final soundscape. The new collection is a fine-tuned 45-minute sonic journey detailing the angers, fears, frustrations and joys inherent in living in a world gone mad. With cinematic guitar riffs, brooding leads and addictive vocal hooks, Abrams conjures a mature, polished and intensely passionate craft, urgent but not at all rushed. There are hints of early AmRep mixed in with the larger sounds of 90's alt heroes Failure, Quicksand and Hum. Combine that with the heaviness of recent Mastodon and stoner psychedelia of All Them Witches and you get 'In The Dark". For fans of Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, All Them Witches, Cave...

For principal songwriter and frontman Neige, Alcest has always been a gateway to the otherworldly, a means of exploring his spirituality. An elemental two-piece, completed by long-serving drummer and creative confidante Winterhalter, their forthcoming sixth album »Spiritual Instinct« finds Neige at his most personal. “This time I had something urgent to put on the table,” he explains. “It is a very cathartic record - something needed to get out of me. It’s darker than usual, and heavier.”

The impossible has become possible...AQUILUS returns! The enigmatic, atmospheric metal band became one of the most whispered-about secrets in the metal scene, following the quiet release of their debut album “Griseus” in 2011. A 2013 vinyl release rocketed the band into public consciousness, and “Griseus” slowly amassed a following of devoted fans, climbing its way to being voted #1 album of the decade on MetalStorm. For eight years, an epic, sophomore masterwork was-in-the-making. So legendary, in fact, that fans hardly believe it exists. The opus grew so furiously, the decision was ultimately made to split the work into two parts, culminating with the release of the first album – “Bellum I”. “Bellum I” showcases the band's rare amalgam of authentic classical, European folk, and black metal influences, alongside Aquilus's unique multi-instrumentation and compositional complexity. Metal influences, ranging from early Metallica to the early works of Solefald, Opeth, and Katatonia, combine with the classical romanticism of Rachmaninov and Chopin. “Bellum I” also continues Aquilus's signature blend of acoustic elements with an assortment of acoustic guitars and pianos to violins, mandolas, fipple flutes, balalaika, gusli, and bowed psaltery – recalling the aurae and dexterity of emotive film composers Bernard Herrmann and Thomas Newman. Hailing from Melbourne, Australia, Aquilus's music is composed and produced by one person – Horace Rosenqvist – recorded in collaboration with session musicians. The amount of detail poured into each note is immeasurable. Years of dedication were undertaken to produce the finest works. “Bellum I” is a stunning tribute to perfection. A testament to the beauty and chaos of creation.

Octagon is the eighth studio album by Swedish extreme metal band Bathory. It was released in October 1995, through Black Mark Productions. It continues the retro thrash metal style of the previous album, Requiem. It was reissued in 2003, with the first two tracks combined and "Winds of Mayhem" outro added.

Under the Sign of the Black Mark is the third album by Bathory. It had a major influence on the black metal genre, specifically the Norwegian black metal scene that emerged in the early 1990s. The song "Woman of Dark Desires" is a tribute to the band's namesake, Elizabeth Báthory, and has become one of their most recognized early tracks. "Enter the Eternal Fire" was the band's first epic, reaching nearly seven minutes in length, and presaged the turn towards what would become known as Viking metal which Bathory would take on their next three records.

Limited to 2600 copies for Record Store Day 2022 on splattered vinyl. Pressed on 180g.

180g vinyl re-press including poster.

On vinyl for the first time. Circle II Circle was formed by Zak Stevens after his departure as lead singer from Savatage after recording four albums. The writing for the debut "Watching in Silence" began in mid-2001 when Zak and Jon Oliva entered D.O.W. studios in Tampa to start some rough demos of their early ideas. Most of the songs included in the album were co-written with either Jon Oliva and Chris Caffery (both from Savatage). It should be no surprise that this sounds a lot like Savatage, considering who’s in the lineup. With the epic arrangements, moody passages, and Zak’s soaring vocals, it could have had ideas for a new Savatage album, being very much in the vein of "Dead Winter Dead" or "Wake of Magellan". The same kinds of vocal melodies, the same kinds of arrangements, the same types of lyrical themes. If you really dig the mellower bits on the last Savatage albums, you need to get this. After this record's release (afm, 2003), the entire band other than Stevens quit and eventually went on to join Oliva in Jon Oliva's Pain. The other 3 Circle II Circle albums were released under AFM in the following years, and the other 3 under Ear/Edel.

Confessions OF A Traitor offers raw emotion through the medium of an energized and confronting sound. Honest and passionate, the band members wear their hearts on their sleeves. Coat shares this through emotive lyrics that venture to some of the darkest places they have endured.

NYC's resident misfits Couch Slut have played a veritable strain of drug-fuelLed, incendiary noise rock since 2013. Led by Megan Osztrosits' infernal roar and subversive, vitriolic lyrics, the quintet returns with their fourth full-length opus You Could Do It Tonight, just in time for America's only holiday that matters...4/20.

Recorded amidst the filth of NYC with Uniform's Ben Greenberg (Drab Majesty, Portrayal of Guilt, Metz), Couch Slut subverts the paradigm and ups the ante in every imaginable way across nine vignettes of perverse, true-to-life storytelling layered over the band's singular, dragged-through-the-mud songcraft. This is a depraved style of noise rock that will scare the living shit out of you. With ten full years of pain and suffering under its proverbial belt, Couch Slut sounds more urgent, threatening, nasty and despondent than ever. The perfect soundtrack for 2024.

Prepare your mind, body, and the deepest recesses of your soul: the black gates that Dark Buddha Rising opened a decade ago with I, open further in 2018: as the band's brand new II LP ; continues to traverse spiritual planes, opening up a vortex with their sonic, and follow calls from beyond.

Deafheaven’s new album, Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, finds them working with old friends again. The Jack Shirley-produced and Nick Steinhardt-art directed (of Touché Amoré) collection gets its title from Graham Greene’s novel The End of the Affair, referencing a moment when someone is looking for love, in all of its
imperfection and simple beauty. This sentiment is carried throughout the hazy, yearning romanticism of the record with song titles and words as sumptuous as the sounds around them. Clarke describes the composition of Ordinary Corrupt Human Love beginning with “small seeds of healing, repair, and rebirth,” and like each subsequent Deafheaven album, this record is, in fact, a revelation.
Defeat has inspired some of our best art. If you survive something terrible, you surface on the other side, walk toward the light, and come back to life. If you’re an artist, this kind of new self-knowledge can lead to creating something universal and remembered, something that can live longer than you do. While Deafheaven have managed to cross over this road in the past, they’ve nailed the feeling wholly with Ordinary Corrupt Human Love, a feeling that comes with experience and wisdom.
Yes, everybody deals with hurt, everybody’s been the cause of their own implosions, and everybody has the capacity to overcome and love again. Deafheaven have found a way to externalize all of this, and in making their most complete record to date, they turn it into a balm and a cathartic exorcism.

While their previous release, 'Configuracao do Lamento', captured the group as they delved deep into their own musical world of diverse and discordant characteristics 'Metaprogramacao' takes this blend to entirely new extremes. In a narrative where songs melt and dissolve into one another, electronic pulses blend into the power of rhythmic and percussive fabrics frantically woven to imprint this 'future-primitive psychic scenario' into the songs. Difficult to describe or pigeonhole - yet, all the elements which characterize the band's punk and aggressive aesthetic are present (even if in unpredictable and surprising ways) - barrages of delay and noise, wailing guitars, dancing frenzied rhythms - all culminating in a wild psychedelic journey that's bound to reach one's mind through the body while inebriating both.