IP021 Negative Plane Stained Glass Revelations CD 12.90 Euro
The long awaited second full length album from NEGATIVE PLANE. Evocative, occult, eerie and transcendent. This is the soundtrack to Gothic horror. Reminiscent of the atmosphere created by classic horror such as 'The Pit and the Pendulum' and the darkness of both HP Lovecraft and Edgar Allen Poe. Layout and artwork by Timo Ketola.
IP030 Negative Plane Et In Saecula Saeculorum CD 12.90 Euro
Despite their rather limited discography of yet, Negative Plane are one of the very best US black metal bands out there, with a fresh take on all the classic sounds of the genre's past, from Bethlehem to Mayhem, from Hellhammer to Mercyful Fate to Venom and even Necrophagia. Though Et in Saecula Saeculorum is their sole album to date, it is superior to what many of their contemporaries have accomplished even after long careers. For this former Florida act, atmosphere and songwriting are the two critical components. Nameless Void has an excellent vocal style which crashes and collides off through the resonant, dark melodies and sinister drumming, and he is not afraid to dowse the already menacing tones with added effects to make them even more cavernous or carnivorous...like some high priest to an Elder God, invoking the formless shapes of nightmare into our reality.
IP049 Tribulation The Formulas of Death CD 14.90 Euro
The long awaited second full length album from the Ghosts of the North. It has been a long wait between 'The Horror' and 'The Formulas of Death' and there has been a lot of maturation and development within the ranks of Tribulation. While 'The Horror' went straight for the jugular in terms of it's aggression, intensity and snappiness, 'Formulas...' is a considerably more measured and developed affair, reflecting the band's interest in the arcane and the occult as interpreted through their musical expression and prowess.Those expecting 'The Horror' part two will have to search elsewhere. 'The Formulas of Death' is much, much more...
IP050 Possession - 1585 – 1646 CD - 9.90 Euro
Belgium’s Possession are moving from strength to hideous strength. They began precociously with their 2013 demo (His Best Deceit), took forward steps with their 2014 EP (Anneliese — reviewed here), and have made even more progress with their second EP, 1585-1646. Equal parts morbidly atmospheric and rifftastically raging, it’s an unholy union of black, death, and thrash metal that’s well worth adding to your musical arsenal. The four songs on the EP are conceptually linked. As in the case of Anneliese, the band have taken as their subject matter the true story of a young woman who lost her life at the hands of religious zealots. Here, the misfortune befell a French woman named Adrienne D’Heur; the EP is named for the years of her life. According to The Font of All Human Knowledge, she was arrested by the French Inquisition, tortured in an effort to compel her into confessing that she had entered into a pact with the Devil (she refused to confess), and was then burned to death.
IP054 Sepulchral Temple - Sepulchral Temple digipack CD - 9.90 Euro
Sepulchral Temple’s self-titled debut EP was originally unleashed on 12” vinyl by Iron Bonehead Productions last year but is poised to raise its ugly head from the catacombs once more with a CD release via Dublin’s Invictus Productions on 24th November 2014. Sepulchral Temple is a three piece hailing from the UK that plays deep, cavernous, sepulchral death metal along the lines of Sheol, Cruciamentum, Incantation and Grave Miasma. There are four tracks which you could whittle down to two as each main track also features a brief outro. This is powerful, crushing, and highly authentic death metal that belies the fact it’s also a debut. It’s a release that most definitely deserves a listen and leaves the listener craving more from the band. This type of Death Metal has recently been experiencing its most productive phase in decades but it’s a case of the more the better provided they can all deliver death metal to this very high standard. Brilliant.
IP057 ZOM Flesh Assimilation CD - 11.90 Euro
It’s strange to think that not all that long ago, death metal and black metal seemed like two forces in diametric opposition. Both movements revolutionized “metal”, with the first wave of death pushing technicality, grotesque imagery, and the least commercial aspects of thrash to their limits. Meanwhile, the second wave of black metal, inspired by Hellhammer, early Mercyful Fate, and Venom (as well as English anarcho-punk like Discharge and Crass) eschewed Guitar Grimoire shredding techniques in favor of sonic chaos and nihilistic screeds against humanity. Now that bands like Deicide, Cannibal Corpse, Morbid Angel, Immortal, and Darkthrone have either moved on to reunions, “classics” acts, or entirely different entities altogether, thank the Elder Gods that bands like Ireland’s ZOM, claiming the mantle of “blackened death metal,” have eschewed that early tribalism to effortlessly meld the technicality and brutality of death with the fury of black metal on their first full-length, 'Flesh Assimilation'.
IP058 Bölzer SOMA CD - 9.90 Euro
The follow up to the earth shattering 'Aura' release as finally arrived. Expanding again on what was built upon with 'Aura', 'SOMA' takes the listener on an aural journey of atavistic exploration.
IP067 Malthusian Below the Hengiform CD - 9.90 Euro
Few bands can match Malthusian’s meteoric yet justified rise to prominence within death metals underground. Malthusian’s music has its root’s firmly planted in cavernous death metal but they combine it with doom, black metal and other elements to create an infectious, all-encompassing, claustrophobic type of hate-filled, venomous death. Below the Hengiform features three tracks – The Gasless Billows, Slouching Equinox and Forms Become Vapour. I have no problem whatsoever with the production on their demo but on this Malthusian have managed to achieve bigger and better production without losing any of the sinister atmosphere from their debut. This is a release that requires very little description – it destroys from start to finish - it’s really as simple as that and you’d be a fool not to snap it up on its release.
IP068 Antiversum Total Vacuum digipack CD - 9.90 Euro
Antiversum are from Zurich, Switzerland. Band’s members are also involved in numerous other projects, with names such as Blakk Old Blood, Deathcult, Asag, Goatfukk, none of which I’m familiar with — yet. The comparisons with Bölzer are inevitable, both because of the bands’ shared nationality and also because of certain similarities of style. The music is highly atmospheric black/death, with the band churning out a dense, poisonous fog of morbid riffs driven by attention-grabbing drum-and-cymbal assaults. The vibrating haze of sulfurous murk generated by the riffs is cold, hostile, and malignant, and the eerie cosmic melodies suggest that this impenetrable haze is populated with alien entities.
