Metal 331 Items

Limited edition for Record Store Day 2018!

Tearing down the barriers of extreme metal limitations, Code have taken a daring plunge into the unknown following their urge for further unhampered expression, and have delivered a dynamic progressive post-rock album that is sure to cause a stir.

Upon recovering from being steamrolled over by the onslaught of Satan’s Satyrs’ new album, The Lucky Ones, one’s likely to wonder just what exactly it was that just hit them. A punky, sleaze rock groove (perhaps even a whiff of ’70s glam) meets NWOBHM melodic fury, Blue Cheer mass and volume, and Ozzy’s dramatic charisma condensed into a sound all its own, perhaps. At its core is an unstoppable, unpretentious exorcism of rock ’n’ roll exuberance.

A significant difference on this album from the band’s previous releases is the addition of second guitarist Nate Towle, which expands the band’s steamrolling capacity tenfold. Bassist / vocalist Clayton Burgess (Electric Wizard), Towle, guitarist Jarrett Nettnin and drummer Stephen Fairfield convened at the Richmond, VA studio of Windhand guitarist Garrett Morris, working in fits and starts over several months, first quickly capturing the raw energy of a band firing on all cylinders, then fine-tuning the sounds and experimenting to get everything massive. Likewise, Burgess’ lyrics show new levels of achievement.

The twin guitar assault begins from the very first beat of the album and never relents until the last second of the nine track, thirty-five minute album. Opener “Thrill of the City” wastes no time launching into soaring harmonized riffs and swaggering rhythms setting the scene for a debauched good time. The title track, perhaps the most personal song on the album, is also the most unabashedly melodic. “Trampled By Angels” pits a swinging T Rex-vibe against dizzy, noisy guitars and lyrics about a pioneer of fetish photography using his medium to express forbidden desires to the world. Likewise, the whole album is a vibrant, brash and loud expression of defiance against convention that refuses to be ignored.

Since their 2008 debut Ritual IX, the ensemble known as Dark Buddha Rising has mastered its craft album by album, show by show. Ominous riffing, colossal doom, swirling psychedelia, repetition, repetition, repetition. The recipe is carved in stone, yet it leads to different endings—or bottomless shafts. Tension, tension, tension, lunacy. Inversum, their fifth studio full-length, is the opening of the Third Cycle of Dark Buddha Rising. It acts as an initiation for the new members V. VATANEN (guitar, vocals) and J. SAARIVUORI (keyboards), and is the first release through Neurot Recordings. Most of all, Inversum is the first album recorded, produced and mixed by the band themselves in the depths of the Wastement, the asylum of eternal feedback. The process that led to the manifestation of the Inversum, heavily guided by both intuition and determination, takes the band’s musick further down its chosen path. Inversum is a monument built upon the foundation of their past work and is sculpted with the initial principles of Dark Buddha Rising to celebrate the Black Arts of Psychedelia. Hold tight. The winds are gathering.

“The Moon Lit Our Path”; the crushing second album from TEMPEL. A dynamic, epic and organic monument of instrumental metal for appreciators of Mastodon, Enslaved, Isis and the pummeling riff.

High Roller Records, black vinyl, ltd 300, insert, Mastered for vinyl by Patrick W. Engel at TEMPLE OF DISHARMONY in October 2021.

High Roller Records, reissue 2023, black vinyl, ltd 250, insert

Re-edition (with different sleeve colors) of this cult French Grind/Noisecore hammer originally released on F.O.A.D. in 2015 and sold out very quickly! Total discography of this terrifying unit hailing from France… V.N.A. (Violent Noise Attack) was the side-project of a crew of friends from the late 80ies French scene formed by members of the Thrash band Nomed, Patrick from the highly missed label “Thrash Records” (that released Exit 13, Carbonized, Sorcery, Sentenced, Vital Remains etc) and local HC bands/zine editors. Their debut demotape “Final execution”, the split 7″ with Agathocles and the song on “1984, the fourth” Comp. LP have been always seen as some of the most intense and devastating expressions of the early short-song Grind/Noisecore era, worshipped by the most deranged noise extremists all over the world. Try to imagine a mix of Sore Throat, Napalm DEATH’s b-side of “Scum” and Fear OF GOD and you get the idea of the brain-drilling mayhem these maniacs were able to deliver, with a studio production that was fairly above the average level of the period. This LP collects all their existing recordings, mastered from sources directly provided and licensed by band members.. 90 Songs of absolute ear blasting horror! Side A includes their demo (1988), the split 7″ with Agathocles (1989) and a couple of unreleased studio tracks. Side B has all never heard before stuff: a rehearsal, a full live set and even a sound-check! Comes with a 4 page insert featuring liner notes, photos, original artworks and flyers. This record is entirely dedicated to VNA’s members André Lemesle and Patrick Blondeau that both passed away few years ago.. R.I.P.!

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.

Siberian Meat Grinder is a crossover gang from Russian frozen hell, mixing raging hardcore thrash with many different genres from black metal and rap to stoner rock. Destroy the heretics and traitors in the name of the Bear-Tsar!