Metal 411 Items

Re-issue of Year OF NO LIGHT's album 'Ausserwelt'!! Year OF NO LIGHT's lengthy, sprawling compositions of towering walls of guitars and sombre synths irradiate a sense of dire solemniand spiritual gravity, and couldn't be a more fitting soundtrack for such grim medieval scenarios. But there is also the element of element of absolution transcendence in the face of death. Year Of No Light sound dense, rich and lush and yet somehow starved and deprived. “There's a thread running through all of our albums”, the band comments, “an exploration of the sensitive world that obeys a certain telos, first fantasized ("Nord") and reverberated ("Ausserwelt"), then declaimed as a warning ("Tocsin"). The deeper we dig, the more the motifs we have to unveil appear to us. Yes, it's a bit gnostic. This album is invoked after the Tocsin, it's the epiphany of the Fall”.

Wytch Hazel’s stellar 2016 debut Prelude confirmed these Lancastrian apprentice wizards to be Britain’s most promising new hard rock band. Two years on, that promise comes to abundant fruition on II: Sojourn, an album that moves Wytch Hazel on from the innocence and exuberance of the debut to a darker, more profound and complex place, carefully wrought into optimum shape by the band’s singer, guitarist, songwriter and mastermind Colin Hendra. The most crucial influence fully expresses itself via Les Paul guitars in sweet twin harmony through cranked Super Lead Marshalls. In the parallel universe where the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal happened 600 years early, Wytch Hazel are the band of choice for the discerning Plantagenet headbanger.

Wretched Soul is a modern sounding British Blackened Heavy Metal outfit formed in the historic city of Canterbury. Following periods of relentless gigging around the UK, the band has honed an exciting and unique sound all its own, with their potent melding of Death, Thrash, Black and Traditional Heavy Metal offering brutality and melody in equal measure. The cornerstone elements of melody, aggression and conviction allow Wretched Soul’s music to resonate with a vast cross-section of fans, regardless of any specific sub-genre preferences. Described by Zero Tolerance Magazine as "refreshingly difficult to categorise", they have also been hailed by Terrorizer Magazine as "one of the UK's most promising underground Thrash bands.” Appearances at Bloodstock Festival and Incineration Festival has gained the band a healthy and loyal fan-base.

Recorded by Christophe Dexters at House Rott Child in Herk-De-Stad, Belgium, mixed and mastered by Jack Shirley at Atomic Garden, East Palo Alto, CA, this album is the strongest we’ve recorded so far and it’s the perfect closure for the De Doden Hebben Het Goed trilogy.

Wolves In The Throne Room will be releasing the sorrowful and grand self-titled debut album by Cascadian funeral doom band Vouna through their own Artemisia Records. All music on Vouna was composed and all instruments performed by front-person and fellow native to the Pacific Northwest Yianna Bekris, previously of Vradiazei, Eigenlicht, and Sadhaka. This debut evokes the devastating and beautiful journey of becoming the last person on Earth. Razor sharp tremolo picked guitars cut through the heart like a knife. Mournfully sung vocals and cinematic melodies are combined with crushing doom drumming, while layers of primitive ’90s digital synths conjure a lush and rugged soundscape. The music is inspired and influenced by Finnish funeral doom, Eastern European black metal, and Greek folk music, a must-hear for fans of My Dying Bride, Skepticism, Shape Of Despair, and similar acts.

You can probably feel it already. Amid the shimmering haze of dusk. In the marrow of your bones. The darkness is getting darker. Malevolent forces are on the prowl. The wasteland is beckoning. Uncle Acid is on his way home. A disorientating journey through Kevin Starrs (AKA Uncle Acid)’ wonkiest dreams, Wasteland glides majestically from punchy and direct psych-rock anthems like "I See Through You" and "Shockwave City" to the viscous, somnambulant ooze of the eight-minute "No Return" and the twinkly-eyed bad trip of the album’s mesmerising title track. Recorded at the legendary Sunset Sound studio in Los Angeles, Wasteland boasts the kind on irresistibly raw and exuberant sound that only the greatest bands can generate. Yet more confirmation that Uncle Acid exist in their own musical universe, Wasteland is also a powerful cautionary tale: one rooted in the alien landscapes of Starrs’ imagination, but with a very clear connection to the deranged chaos of today’s political world. As humanity cheerfully circles the plughole, Dystopian visions and present-day horrors have become more-or-less interchangeable, making Wasteland’s ghoulish surrealism a lot more pertinent and disturbing in the process. While most musicians seem content to chase their own (or other people’s tails), Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats remain proud and resolute individualists and Wasteland is simply their most powerful and memorable spurge of creativity to date. Masterfully echoing the magical atmospheres of heavy music’s turbulent past while sounding entirely unlike anything else available to human ears, this is what happens when the shadows come to life and suffocating darkness, Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats style, is the only show in town.

Vinyl LP pressing including digital download. 2018 release from the hardcore outfit. Recorded with producer Will Yip at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, PA, Time & Space marks Turnstile's Roadrunner Records debut and follows their 2015 breakthrough, Nonstop Feeling. Time & Space features additional vocals from Sheer Mag's Tina Halladay on "Moon," while Diplo offers added production to "Right To Be." Comprised of Brendan Yates (vocals), Franz Lyons (bass/vocals), Brady Ebert (guitars), Pat McCrory (guitars), and Daniel Fang (drums), Turnstile has gripped listeners and press around the globe with their, "... melodic riffs, bright-eyed spirit, and riotous sets... " as noted by The New Yorker. NPR revered Turnstile as, "... freewheeling and heavy... with shout-along choruses and grooves that do more than just open up the pit," with The Washington Post adding, "... The unabashed funkiness of Turnstile feels so invigorating." Noisey declared, "... (Turnstile) has positively exploded, moving from exciting prospect to one of the most talked about bands in hardcore," while Stereogum asserted, "Right now, the biggest band in hardcore might be Turnstile... ." Thrasher Magazine wrote "These guys are powerful," with GQ agreeing, "Turnstile is more than a good hardcore band-they've got a whole movement behind them."

Treedeon 2017 is a thunderous riff-machine taking the next step and cultivating the ground that they’ve been breaking over the past years. 7 new tracks deeply-rooted in Sludge, Noise, and Doom, while incorporating unexpected melodies in the overall massive sound. No heavier band on the planet right now.

Gaia is one of the most acclaimed and popular songs taken off the "Wildhoney" album. It became one of the keystones in doom metal and evokes the lyrics of a classic melody.
The band, led by visionary guitarist, singer and songwriter Johan Edlund have been at the forefront of doom and rock innovation since the early 90s, deeply influenced by Pink Floyd and paying the pertinent tribute here with their own interpretation of “When You´re In”. With revamped artwork and layout, Alone Records gives Gaia it's first vinyl treatment ever.