It is with great pride that we announce the signing of a very original French act, Les Chants du Hasard. The project of sole member Hazard (all instruments and vocals), LES CHANTS DU HASARD will debut on I, Voidhanger Records with their eponymous album, an experimental work featuring a mix of classical music and black metal without any guitar, bass or drums, only orchestral instruments. “Musically speaking, the album is influenced by orchestral works and operas from composers like Mussorgsky, Prokofiev and Strauss,” Hazard explains. “I thought a lot about how to articulate it with black metal; especially the vocals, which I wanted in the vein of Ulver, Emperor and Ved Buens Ende. Lyrics are written in the form of Les Chants de Maldoror from Comte de Lautréamont, a French author from the 19th century.” With a wonderful and fitting cover painting by Jeff Grimal, LES CHANTS DU HASARD’s debut will be out early June as a limited digipack with booklet. Here’s a taste of the band’s unique style:...
We are really proud to announce our collaboration with Yhdarl for the release of “Loss”, the band’s new full-length album! A duo from Belgium and France fronted by Déhà (Clouds, Maladie and Imber Luminis, among the others) and Larvalis (session for Todesstoss), YHDARL are known for crushing all music boundaries between suicidal, depressive, doom, noise and drone black metal. Larvalis, insane female black metal singer, holds the keyboards and vocal duties; Déhà plays all the instruments, sings and takes care of the professional recordings, mixing and mastering. Five years (and five losses) in the making and comprised of 3 long songs topping more than 40 minutes, “Loss” is not another underground release by YHDARL, but a true milestone in their already impressive discography, an extremely violent and aggressive piece of suicidal black metal art showing the duo’s talent and benefitting from the contributions of numerous guests: Old (Drohtnung) on ritual noises, choirs and voices; Daniel Neagoe (Eye Of Solitude, Clouds), Todor Krasimirov and Yavor Dimov (Dimholt) on screaming vocals. A fascinating album cover has been drawn by the illustrious Maxime Taccardi (Artworks) and will soon be revealed together with an excerpt from the album, which is scheduled for a late Summer...
Midnight Odyssey “Silhouettes Of Stars” 2-CD Out May 19th, 2017 To worthily celebrate their 10th anniversary, Australia’s cosmic black metal champions MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY have compiled “Silhouettes Of Stars”, a 2-CD special release featuring a vast amount of unreleased material recorded by Dis Pater since 2007: from the original online-only recordings, dubbed “The Darker Rebellion” demo, to outtakes from each MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY album session. The compilation also includes the Emperor cover “Cosmic Keys From My Creations & Times” and, for the first time on CD, the singles “Magica” and “The Night Has Come For Me”. “Over these past 10 years, there has always been leftover material,” explains Dis Pater, MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY’s sole member. “Usually I can take parts of these songs for future use, but sometimes, a piece of music is written that is so indicative of the album it was going to be on, that I can’t change it or use it further down the line. And so it sits collecting cosmic dust, waiting for the one day that I might find a use for it. ‘Silhouettes Of Stars’ features many of these songs. A great deal of restraint has been taken not to change these older songs, not to adjust them to be more like what MIDNIGHT ODYSSEY sounds like now.” Wrapped in a new painting courtesy of Dis Pater himself, “Silhouettes Of Stars” comes as a jewel case double-CD accompanied by a luxurious booklet complete with lyrics and track-by-track annotations. It’s a monumental evaluation of the underground career of a true atmospheric black metal master, but also a window into the future, and one that will allow...
Divine Element “Thaurachs of Borsu” CD Out on May 19th, 2017 A comeback that has been slowly brewing since a few years now. DIVINE ELEMENT was the first band of SPECTRAL LORE’s multi-instrumentalist Ayloss and vocalist Antonis, releasing their ambitious debut album back in 2010. Afterwards, the band paused operations and Ayloss took his brand of sprawling, epic metal songwriting to a more atmospheric turn with his solo project, yet the call to continue the story of DIVINE ELEMENT had always been strong within. Reuniting again and using for this recording the services of renowned technical death metal drummer Hannes Grossmann (Alkaloid, Blotted Science, Ex-Obscura, Ex-Necrophagist), “Thaurachs of Borsu” is the first chapter in many future ones to come, under a new and ambitious conceptual undertaking, the combination of metal with fantasy literature and world-making. “Thaurachs of Borsu” is based on the same-titled novel written by Ayloss, which will be unveiled not long after the album release (to be followed by short stories from Antonis) set on a medieval fantasy universe envisioned by the band. The album chronicles the passage of a soldier through various levels of consciousness about the reality of war, human society and the fabric of the cosmos itself, as the gritty and daring warriors of his nation, Borsu, fight to regain their ancestral homeland from a much more powerful enemy. Musically, “Thaurachs Of Borsu” ties together several styles of metal to serve the higher purpose of epic storytelling, although takes notice to never fall into the typical clichés of “soundtrack metal”, keeping an old-school approach mostly centered around death and black metal of the heavy,...
Lo-Ruhamah “Anointing” A5-Digipack CD out May 19th, 2017 Initially based in Missouri, USA but now situated internationally, LO-RUHAMAH have been active since 2002 and debuted in 2005 with an eponymous EP, which was followed by 2007’s astounding full-length, “The Glory of God”, an influential album that focused on the tensions of opposites found within the spiritual and mystical life. The album left a lasting impression by incorporating textured instrumental and delayed, reverberated approaches into its sound. The ambitious depth and complexity of LO-RUHAMAH’s debut was timely in the underground, but its demanding themes and protracted length left it a polarizing album for some music critics and fans. In the 10 years of near silence since then, they have perfected a musical language that plunges into avant-garde and esoteric black metal, as well as into a frantic and gasping death metal, and this informs the band’s mesmerizing new work, “Anointing”. In this album, LO-RUHAMAH take threads from direct spiritual experiences involving the dissolution of reason and the human mind, enlightenment, desperation, self-destruction, will, visionary experiences, cosmic ruination, and the lines between humanity and divinity. These concepts are approached with often hallucinogenic imagery and language, echoing and refracting alternate states of consciousness. Graced by Elijah Gwhedhú Tamu‘s amazing cover painting, depicting a stark vision of spiritual volition and frenetic movement, “Anointing” removes the arbitrary line between death metal and black metal with uncommon creativity and passion, experimenting with the juxtaposition of mind-boggling bass lines, serpentine guitar riffs, and a vocal performance that alternates between growls and schizoid howls. A dance of religious ecstasy and hellish pain. LO-RUHAMAH is: Harry Pearson –...
Nephilim’s Howl “Through The Marrow Of Human Suffering” CD Out on May 19th, 2017 Spawned two years ago from the Finnish black metal underground, NEPHILIM’S HOWL is undoubtedly a unique entity. Mostly organized in long tracks, their mid-tempo black metal utilizes stark yet scorching riffs, with great emphasis on pernicious atmospheres, a viscous sound gloating on its hypnotic qualities, and an outstanding vocal performance based on anguished, natural howls that seem to have more in common with punk and blues than with the typical black metal screeches. At times melancholic, but never verging on depressive/suicidal black metal, the band’s debut “Through The Marrow Of Human Suffering” is heavy, hazy, bleak and profound. It embraces the listeners in its asphyxiating coils, slowly dragging them down towards unfathomably dark existential abysses. And yet, it is a majestic fall, a dramatic descent to death realms underlined by epic riffs, ripping melodies, gut-wrenching guitar solos, the effective use of a synth, and the oppressing pulse of doomy rhythms interspersed with eruptions of sheer black metal violence. “Lyrically, ‘Through The Marrow Of Human Suffering’ is about existential contemplation, manifested with intense imagery and a vivid language,” explains VJR, NEPHILIM’S HOWL guitarist. “It focuses on individual’s place among the ages, the sensation of withering away like the glory of times past, but also thriving on the strength to be found from all of it in reflection to our history, piercing through what keeps us from our potential. The name of the band was chosen to reflect the trinity of beasts, men and gods, notably the founding themes present in mythological tales throughout the ancient past,...
Today the always excellent NO CLEAN SINGING metal blog is premiering a song off FELL RUIN‘s upcoming full-length debut, “To The Concrete Drifts”, out on March 17th: http://www.nocleansinging.com/2017/02/09/an-ncs-premiere-fell-ruin-spy-fiction-folds-in-ready-streets/ Titled “Spy Fiction Folds In Ready Streets”, the track has been described as “a multifaceted, stylistically kaleidoscopic journey… and a very dark one (…) It builds from a strummed guitar melody and a mid-paced rhythm that’s introspective, brooding, and beguiling. But the the music soon takes a more aggressive and more desolate turn as the guitars begin to seethe and then jab, the vocals entering the fray with caustic proclamations of acid and blood, moving between ravenous shrieks and ugly growls.” CD out on March 17th via I, Voidhanger Records (tape via Graven Earth...
Today we were supposed to start shipping our 3 new releases (Todesstoss, Lorn and Tome of the Unreplenished), but according to the factory there’s been an issue with the Todesstoss CDs, and that is affecting the release of the other titles as well. The factory is trying to get back the parcel that was already on our way, then they will fix the problem quickly and will re-send everything to us. If it isn’t possible for them to get the parcels back, that means that we will get the it in next couple of days/early next week, and we will immediately start shipping the Lorn and Tome Of The Unreplenished CDs. We will keep you updated. In the meantime, we apologize for the inconvenience, and thank you all for your patience and support. Luciano / I, Voidhanger...
We’re proud to announce the signing of one today’s finest Finnish black metal bands, Verge. Featuring musicians that play or have played with other esteemed underground acts like Charnel Winds, Saturnian Mist and Funerary Bell, VERGE have already released a couple of fascinating full-length albums. Their third and most mature release is titled “The Process of Self-Becoming” and will be out on I, Voidhanger Records this Spring. “The album concept is loosely based on philosopher Sören Kierkegaard´s theory of existence stages”, the band explains, “and each song has been written from a particular subjective existential stance and the crisis it inevitably faces.” Stay tuned for more details. (photo by Maija Lahtinen...
LOCUST LEAVES “A Subtler Kind Of Light” CD/LP CD out March 17th Vinyl out late April Coming from Greece, LOCUST LEAVES have been an elusive entity for a very long time. “A Subtler Kind Of Light”, the band’s first full-length album to be released professionally, is just the pinnacle of an underground trajectory spent far from the spotlights, cultivating an ecumenical vision of metal that along the years has spawned many quality recordings. Each of them has contributed to cement the nature of a progressive and highly creative project, an entity more interested in exploring new ways of expression than passively adhering to genre conventions or bog-standard styles. Featuring a couple of illustrious guests, drummer Vorskaath (Zemial Official) and guitarist Ayloss (Spectral Lore), “A Subtler Kind Of Light” is graced by Nick K.’s passionate, spine-chilling vocal performance and by the astonishing talent of multi-instrumentalist/songwriter Helm, also author of the enigmatic album cover and inside artwork. This is the core of LOCUST LEAVES, a duo of alchemists at ease with filtering the savagery of black-thrash metal and the suffocating grip of doom through the emotional, dramatic crescendos of progressive metal and the atmospheric qualities of ambient music. The lyrical concept behind “A Subtler Kind Of Light” reflects the depth and complexity of the music, amounting to the difficult search for true identity and the necessity to confront society’s rules. “The album is about transmutation,” explains Helm, “it’s about becoming who you’ve always known you had to be – and running against the manifestation of Empyrean law in the process: The Creator, overseeing the Pillar of All Names on which we...
FELL RUIN “To The Concrete Drifts” CD Out March 17th Hailing from Michigan, USA, FELL RUIN debuted in 2015 with “Devices”, a promising EP through which they started refining a personal metal formula that was described as “a potent combination of black metal, progressive metal, and heavy, grinding doom — ominous, perilous, and mesmerizing”. “To The Concrete Drifts”, FELL RUIN’s sophomore release and first full-length album, is an ever evolving metal soundscape of dark, surreal narratives that sets the bar even higher thanks to gigantic structures, acoustic interludes, unexpected bursts of death metal, guitars like broken glasses cutting flesh and bone, and an omnipresent black-doom aura wrapping everything up and almost crossing the borders with sludge metal. FELL RUIN’s songs liquefy under scorching black metal riffs, in an unrestrained progression into the fray. Crawling towards insurmountable peaks of vehemence, they congeal around melancholic, compassionate melodies, suggesting a definitive abandon to the billows of living. With “To The Concrete Drifts”, FELL RUIN have spawned a cathartic construct, an epic, existential lore centered by avant-garde architects creating their grand design and succumbing to the trials, tribulations and adversities faced in the pursuit of transcendence. FELL RUIN is: August Krueger – Drums Jeff McMullen – Bass Robert Radtke – Guitars Brian Sheehan – Vocals Cover and art direction by Brian Sheehan/Legerdemain Art. Jewel box CD, 16-page booklet complete with lyrics. TRACKLIST 1. Respire (01:25) 2. The Lucid Shell (09:50) 3. Spy Fiction Folds In Ready Streets (08:03) 4. To Wither The Golden Rose In Bloom (07:42) 5. …And Choke On Nocturnal Breath (10:05) Total time 37:05 Premiere coming...
CELESTIAL BODIES “Spit Forth From Chaos” CD Out on March 17th, 2017 “In the beginning, there was nothing but the energy of chaos. Absu and Tiamat slept, and dreamed their darkest dreams. And all was good until their dark dreams began to spawn the cosmic gods. Tiamat and Absu were disgusted by these abominations. Their wailing disturbed Tiamat’s and Absu’s sleep. Absu and Tiamat agreed that these worthless abominations must be destroyed…” With such a premise – a cosmic war between monstrous deities from an ancient, mythological past – it doesn’t come as a surprise that Celestial Bodies‘ debut, “Spit Forth From Chaos”, is one of the most intense, hallucinating and mind-shattering sonic experiences ever put on record. A duo based in The Netherlands and comprised of members from NIHILL and Dead Neanderthals, CELESTIAL BODIES are exactly the fruit of their unholy union. From Nihill they inherited the pitch-black and noise-drenched sound, as well as a conceptual approach with deep roots in gnosticism and occultism, while from Dead Neanderthals they borrowed the avant-garde sensibility and a free-jazz nature built on improvisation. The result is “Spit Forth From Chaos”, a blasphemous and cacophonously disturbing blend of anti-cosmic black metal and raw noise, propelled by an imperious drumming that breaks through the gates of perceptions, tossing the listener into a nightmarish, sense-altering dimension where everything is Chaos, and Chaos is everything. Available as a 4-panel digipak CD, strictly limited to 300 copies. Cover art by Seldon Hunt (Neurosis, Isis, Jesu, etc.) TRACKLIST 1. The Final Covenant (3:33) 2. The Nazarene Bastard Crowned (1:54) 3. Burning Trident (4:00) 4. Destroyer Of Aeons...
