Metal 208 Items

Earth Recordings are extremely proud to announce the release of ‘Shirley Inspired’. July 2015 will see Shirley Collins celebrate her 80th year – an age that would seem frankly ridiculous for a woman as spritely as her, had it not been for all she’s achieved. From her seminal field-recording trip to America to her lauded musical career; from her role as historian and protector of the folk tradition, to the very fact that this record can exist – more than half a century after her career began – all of these things are testament to the breadth of her influence.And so we arrive at ‘Shirley Inspired’. It would be almost lazy to the talk about the resurgence of folk music or the ‘new folk’ sound – the recordings found here are so much more than that. This is the very essence of folk – songs handed down from person to person, interpreted by modern musicians – as a way of keeping these songs alive.

From Horten, Norway emerges the black metal band Nidingr – a band that’s been in the scene all the way since 1992. Since then, Nidingr has released 1 demo and 3 albums and played on the biggest metal festivals all over the world. Nidingr is a band that let themselves grow naturally over time and when they release an album it’s in good belief that it’ll be a great contribution to the top tier world of metal music.
They are now releasing their fourth album on Feb 10th 2017, titled “The High Heat Licks Against Heaven”. An album drenched in Norse mythology, and names from the younger and older Edda appears throughout in the lyrics. The album drifts in the middle of black and death metal, but with the Norse theme it creates a unique and fresh breath of sound. To put it mildly, this is a brutal and honest metal record. The album was being worked on intensely for two years, where they took a deep dive into the old English translations of the older and younger Edda from the 18th century. They are continuously striving towards authenticity and shapes the music partly around the theme and the text material, which in broad terms talks about the great and classical themes like death, afterlife, war and the many majestic personalities from the mythology.
The songs are characterized by heavy riffs in a glassy but dirty sound, with at times some melodies with melancholic atmospheres, steady tempo with an almost marching undertone. The vocals hang on in the top of the sound wall with a drive, power and quality one rarely hears. With Cpt.Estrella Grasa on vocals, Teloch (Mayhem, Gorgoroth, God Seed) on guitar, Destructhor (Myrkskog, Morbid Angel) on backing vocals (guitar), Myrvoll on drums and SIR (Gaahls Wyrd, Trelldom, God Seed) on bass, the music is shaped to a monolith of an album in an unmitigated an authentic style.

The masterful progressive sludge metal outfit Intronaut (usa) released their fifth album in 2015. This long sold out piece of underground art now makes a quick comeback in a limited-to-999 copies edition on double purple vinyl, wrapped in a gatefold jacket.

After the mind blowing success of Witchcraft's Legend (2012), mastermind Magnus Pelander outdid himself once again with the band's 2016 offering Nucleus. Combining what made it's predecessor the modern classic it quickly became as well as elements of the band's earlier days makes Nucleus a melancholic, raging, fragile, melodic and at times noisy masterpiece filed somewhere between classic rock, doom and ambient music.

With a renewed line-up (Rage Widerberg on drums and Tobias Anger on bass) the band sounds more hungry and powerful than ever. In combination with the thrilling, yet very down-to-earth production by Pelander, Philip Gabriel Saxin and Anton Sundell, Nucleus throws you in dreamy sonic landscapes that will mesmerize and haunt you alike.

Svart Records are proud to re-release Nucleus on black-, green- and Svart exclusive purple/turquoise marble vinyl on May 19th.

New supergroup that consists of guitarist Mike Crain (Retox), bassist Justin Pearson (The Locust, Head Wound City and Retox), drummer Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer and Fantômas) and vocalist Mike Patton (Faith No More and Fantômas).

As with a choice few truly great bands, the first self-financed cassette recording by Cathedral - made available in October 1990 - was a pioneering underground masterpiece in its own right; the sound of a young band exploring its newfound chemistry, finding confident variations on a flawless list of influences and cultivating a sound and style that would prove hugely inspirational throughout the 1990s and beyond, being a major influence on everyone from Electric Wizard through to Reverend Bizarre.
Where most demos are little more than a dry run for the first album, "In Memoriam" still has its own distinct and important identity in the Cathedral canon. The debut LP that followed, "Forest Of Equilibrium", has a sombre, devout, melodic and mystical grandeur all of its own - but 'In Memoriam' has a far murkier, earthier, more deathly intent. Creepy, cryptic and bowel-looseningly heavy, it represents the first time that the doom metal stylings of Trouble, Saint Vitus, Pentagram and Witchfinder General had been rendered in a new, more extreme metallic form. At the beginning of the new decade, it was really only Cathedral who were proud to assert the influence of true doom metal - a perennially unfashionable genre, but especially in a turn-of-the-decade metal scene so obsessed with speed, technicality, brutality and modernity.

An official reissue of the 2017 double album by Caligula’s Horse, originally issued on Inside/Out Records.

Caligula’s Horse are among the vanguard of the new generation of progressive rock artists. The Australian band has been often compared to the likes of Opeth, Haken and Porcupine Tree, and original copies of In Bloom on vinyl have already reached high prices on the collector’s market. The Svart reissue comes with a gatefold jacket and the 1000 copy pressing is split into two color variants, the more serene clear vinyl option and the more expressive blue and green marble edition.

The Rifts is the 3rd album of Swedish duo A Swarm of the Sun and was originally released in 2015. The Rifts is sombre and brooding, heavy and melancholic, crushing and fragile in equal measure: a bleak and beautiful journey through the battered inner landscapes of the heart and soul: a dolorous tale of lost hopes, dreams falling apart, final moments of clarity and redemption... and appositely reflecting the current state of the world 5, years after its release – isolation. The Rifts is the sonic manifestation of a heavy black cloud of abstract yet overwhelming feelings, thoughts, hopes and fears-- a collection of intimate reflections on a very specific, profound and personal struggle which needs to stay somewhat untouchable and diffuse, as further verbal explanations would be divesting this immense work of art of its sheer and raw emotional impact. What initially was a handful of piano sketches, nine song titles, a few lines of lyrics and a notebook full of script-like visual references slowly evolved into something much more dense and layered. Karl Daniel Lidén (The Old Wind, ex- Terra Tenebrosa) was added to the lineup on drums, and he also recorded the album. The sessions culminated with the recording of the pipe organ. The result is absolutely massive, overwhelming, cinematic and pummeling; a sinister foreboding of the emotional truths at the core of this tremendous album. A Swarm Of the Sun is Erik Nilsson and Jakob Berglund. In 2007 the debut EP The King of Everything was released, followed by the critically acclaimed full-length album Zenith in 2010. The Rifts was written and produced by the band and recorded by Erik Nilsson, drums performed and recorded by Karl Daniel Lidén at Studio Gröndahl, mixed and mastered by Magnus Lindberg (Cult of Luna, Refused, Pg.lost). Further contributing musicians are Anders Carlström (The Isolation Process) on bass, Anna Carlsson on vocals, Minna Heimo on pipe organ and Robin Bergh (Aoria) on vibraphone. All artwork and videos directed and produced by the band's own Jakob. Why are we releasing this, 5 years later? Because everyone here at Pelagic agrees that in the nebulous world of post-metal, The Rifts is one of the 5 best albums ever made. We're honored to add this masterpiece to our catalogue.

Limited 200 copies silver vinyl. Die-cut cover sleeve. Black metal remains a musical chimera. From its fiery beginnings this extreme style proved to be as diverse as productive. German sons of this northern spawned darkness often display a penchant for bold aggression and directness as embodied by ENDSTILLE and NEGATOR. These virtues are also embraced by DER WEG EINER FREIHEIT. Yet the band does not simply follow heavily trodden paths. Adding fragile moments of psychedelic meandering, these Germans have also been compared with WOLVES IN THE THRONE ROOM or DEAFHEAVEN. An extra dose of melancholy points towards their named influence IMPERIUM DEKADENZ and there are far more details to be discovered within the many layers of their harsh but strongly melodic new masterpiece 'Stellar'. Recorded at Ghost City studios, the Germans third full-length is now ready to hit the world with irresistible force. Get ready and brace for a massive black impact! Recommended if you like: Wolves In The Throne Room, Endstille, Deafheaven, Imperium Dekadenz.

Received a 7.9 rating from Pitchfork. In their brief career, Australia’s Impetuous Ritual has already been recognized as one of the mightiest death metal entities in the underground today, alongside such likeminded acts as Portal (with whom Impetuous Ritual shares two members) and Mitochondrion. From their leveling, jaw-dropping live performances to the devastating, ultra-brutal, occult-driven style showcased on their Relentless Execution of Ceremonial Excrescence debut album, no death metal on the planet captures the vibe, attitude and aesthetic of Impetuous Ritual. With their anticipated follow-up to Relentless Execution, the band takes their sound even further into the depths of horror and depravity. Limited to 500 copies.

An official reissue, with the original gatefold jacket and the original large booklet reproduced. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with side D etched. Sweden's Tribulation have been one of the most innovative bands working in metal in the new millennium. Their third album The Children Of The Night (2015) saw the band leap even further from their death, black and thrash metal origins and add hints of psych rock, prog and classic rock into the mix. Pitchfork called it "a sprawling, compulsory tale that doesn't turn dull. [...] There is no way to arrive at a consensus artist who will satisfy everyone, but The Children Of The Night comes close."

Svart Records presents, in conspiracy with Century Media, an official reproduction of the original 2015 double LP, that has already become a rarity.

CHAOS A.D.: EXPANDED EDITION includes a newly remastered version of the original album along with 17 bonus tracks. Among the highlights are a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Symptom Of The Universe” that was originally issued as a B-side, plus nine scorching live versions of album tracks like “Territory” and “Biotech Is Godzilla.” Also featured are several unreleased instrumental tracks that the band used during rehearsals for “Clenched Fist” and “Propaganda.” Three years after Chaos A.D., the band returned with Roots, an album that was deeply influenced by Brazilian rhythms, which were incorporated into tracks like “Itsári” and “Ratamahatta.” Since its release in 1996, the album has sold more than two million copies worldwide.

2022 repress on swamp green vinyl

Wear Your Wounds is the product of years of Lo-fi solo recordings by Converge founder Jacob Bannon. On this release he is joined by guest musicians Kurt Ballou (Converge), Mike McKenzie (The Red Chord, Stomach Earth, Unraveller), Chris Maggio (Sleigh Bells, Trap Them, Coliseum), and Sean Martin (Hatebreed, Cage, Kid Cudi, Twitching Tongues). Together they have created a powerful album that is unlike anything they have ever individually worked on. The album is contains ten emotional songs that call to the slower, more epic leanings of Converge, as well as his previous work in Supermachiner. Bringing to mind the multi-layered approach of Swans and early Pink Floyd, while being as vulnerable as influences Sparklehorse, Songs: Ohia, other like minded artists. Wear Your Wounds live will feature Bannon joined on stage by musicians Mike McKenzie (The Red Chord, Stomach Earth, Unraveller, Chris Maggio (Trap Them, Coliseum, Sleigh Bells), Adam McGrath (Cave In, Zozobra, Nomad Stones), and Sean Martin (Hatebreed, Cage, Kid Cudi, Twitching Tongues).

North America version of this 2016 release from Germany's SUN Worship. Four tracks in 36 minutes of uncompromising black metal. North American pressing comes packaged in a gatefold mini-LP jacket with insert and limited to 500 copies.

The duo of Godflesh, Justin K Broadrick and Ben Green, augmented by Machines, are seen as a pivotal entity in the world of 'heavy' music, impacting entire cultures of heavy music since the bands inception in 1988. It is regarded as a cultural icon, and its impact can be felt across generations of 'heavy' music, both mainstream and underground. It is credited as being one of the first bands to cross old British industrial music with down tuned primitive minimal metal, accidentally pioneering the 'industrial metal' sound, yet the band has so much more to offer than what that term displays.

The subtly-monikered Witch Vomit from Portland, OR offered Thee obscure gem of the 2016 Death Metal underground with their A Scream From The Tomb Below full length. Many took note, and now 20 Buck Spin offers the first bloody taste of a new partnership with the band in the ‘Poisoned Blood’ MLP.

Offering four new tracks + intro over 20 minutes, put simply, ‘Poisoned Blood’ is one of the most brutal recordings to come out of the Northwest in recent memory. Ranging from blasting Deathgrind, foul Finnish obscurity and liquified cannibalistic necromancy, the riffs on this MLP bubble up like slimy green rot leaking from crypt walls.

Though the core membership of Witch Vomit also perform surgeries for barbaric persecutors Torture Rack, and the two bands share a propensity for blasting storms of seared flesh chunks and glistening old guts, Witch Vomit is mixing its mashed bone stew with a wider array of viscera, melting brains with ancient violence and intensity.