ANAAL NATHRAKH In The Constellation Of Black Widow (Candlelight) cd 14.98
Anaal Nathrakh isn't just "extreme" metal. It's extremely extreme metal. And only an extremely extreme metal band could manage to combine all the stuff that AN do, ferinstance just in the vocal/vokill dep't, everything from necro black metal shrieks to death metal grunts to, yes, clean majestic melodic singing too. And the vocals are only ONE of the insane things about this album. We can't really classify this UK band, they're part hyperspeed grindcore blurr, part black metal mayhem, part power metal majesty (but that part is buried and rotting under even more blasting black/death brutality). Let's just say our extreme metal needs have always been met by a session of Anaal Nathrakh abuse, and THIS album is definitely doing the trick as expected... A dense, chaotic, utterly over the top assault of very very extreme, very very metal. Yet amidst all the intensity, Anaal Nathrakh somehow can cram in a catchy chorus or melodic hook (or weird electronically glitched out part) alongside each ultra distorted, utterly outrageous throat-torn scream or chunk of crushing grind frenzy. Fans familiar with their last few albums know the score. For those new to Anaal, we could say maybe imagine old Carcass mixed with Watchmaker mixed with Immortal mixed with something with actual singing, sometimes. But nothing you can imagine will really quite prepare you... you've been warned. The liner notes say it best: "We will fucking kill you."
MPEG Stream: "In The Constellation Of The Black Widow"
MPEG Stream: "I Am The Wrath Of Gods And The Desolation Of The Earth"
MPEG Stream: "More Of Fire Than Blood"

ANAAL NATHRAKH Passion (Candlelight) cd 15.98
The return of this grinding extreme black metal duo, another blast of sonic sickness that offers up everything we've come to expect from these guys, insanely furious riffing, impossible blasting programmed beats, throat shredding vokills, twisted, convoluted arrangements, seemingly continuing in their quest to create the sickest, blackest, buzziest metal ever. But weirdly enough, for as heavy and black and buzzy things are this time around, there's also a lot of other weirdness going on, which seems at odds with their core sound. But you know how we are - the weirder things are, and the less they make sense, somehow the more the record in question hits the spot. So Anaal Nathrakh circa now, are mixing in lots of clean vocals (something they began doing back on Hell Is Empty... or thereabouts), dramatic and almost operatic, giving much of the music here a Borknagar or Code vibe, not to mention, even the heaviest bits here are surprisingly melodic. Plus there's twisted stretches of effects drenched tunefulness, some downright psychedelic flourishes, midtempo grooves, industrial ambience, tripped out electronics, all woven into the band's core black buzz, and while on the surface, it could seem like weirdness for weirdness sake, it actually sounds more like those various not-strictly-black elements were borne out of vastly improved songwriting, cuz goddamn these songs are catchy, the riffs are killer, and none of that weirdness sounds at all out of place. Sure, a lot of the time it doesn't sound as much like Anaal Nathrakh as it does Khold or Code, but often those moments splinter into some blurry black blast that couldn't be anyone else.
As much as we loved their debut Codex Necro way back when, this new one, as different as it is, might just be catching up...
MPEG Stream: "Volenti Non Fit Iniuria"
MPEG Stream: "Drug-Fucking Abomination"

ANAAL NATHRAKH Passion (Candlelight) lp 24.00
NOW ON VINYL!!
The return of this grinding extreme black metal duo, another blast of sonic sickness that offers up everything we've come to expect from these guys, insanely furious riffing, impossible blasting programmed beats, throat shredding vokills, twisted, convoluted arrangements, seemingly continuing in their quest to create the sickest, blackest, buzziest metal ever. But weirdly enough, for as heavy and black and buzzy things are this time around, there's also a lot of other weirdness going on, which seems at odds with their core sound. But you know how we are - the weirder things are, and the less they make sense, somehow the more the record in question hits the spot. So Anaal Nathrakh circa now, are mixing in lots of clean vocals (something they began doing back on Hell Is Empty... or thereabouts), dramatic and almost operatic, giving much of the music here a Borknagar or Code vibe, not to mention, even the heaviest bits here are surprisingly melodic. Plus there's twisted stretches of effects drenched tunefulness, some downright psychedelic flourishes, midtempo grooves, industrial ambience, tripped out electronics, all woven into the band's core black buzz, and while on the surface, it could seem like weirdness for weirdness sake, it actually sounds more like those various not-strictly-black elements were borne out of vastly improved songwriting, cuz goddamn these songs are catchy, the riffs are killer, and none of that weirdness sounds at all out of place. Sure, a lot of the time it doesn't sound as much like Anaal Nathrakh as it does Khold or Code, but often those moments splinter into some blurry black blast that couldn't be anyone else.
As much as we loved their debut Codex Necro way back when, this new one, as different as it is, might just be catching up...
MPEG Stream: "Volenti Non Fit Iniuria"
MPEG Stream: "Drug-Fucking Abomination"

ANAAL NATHRAKH The Codex Necro (Earache) cd 15.98
Available again! And now with 4 bonus tracks from Anaal Nathrakh's Peel Sessions, recorded on John Peel's show in December of 2003, with members of Napalm Death in the band!
Thank God (or Satan) that this record is as good as it is, because of all the trouble we had to go through to get it (this was several years ago mind you, when this disc first came out way back near the millennium)! We became aware of British black metal act Anaal Nathrakh from first seeing ads for this album in Terrorizer magazine (the UK's metal version of The Wire), then Terrorizer named it record of the month, and then one of the top 40 records of 2001! Yet no metal distributors in the United States had ever even heard of Anaal Nathrakh. Not even the band themselves could help us out, and the one distributor that did offer the album only had TEN COPIES. Our tiny little store wanted at least twice that many.
But, many frustrating conversations and unproductive emails later, we finally got The Codex Necro in stock and are happy to report that it is as heavy, as weird and as completely cool as we had hoped. And now several years later, the world is finally hip to Anaal Nathrakh, enough that this here disc finally got a deluxe reissue with bonus tracks. The formula is blasting black metal mayhem of course, but A.N. up the intensity a notch as well as mixing in all sorts of fucked weirdness: bizarre ambient electronic soundscapes, creepy cloying melodies buried in the mix, strangely hypnotic vocal chants, light speed fuzzed out blast beats, found sound interludes, and totally processed and INSANE vocals, from growling guttural bowel-shaking grunts to maniacal high pitched, electronically fucked-with shrieks. Plus the riffs are ultra catchy, and the guitars are so distorted and recorded so hot, it feels like demonic claws are being scraped across your ear drums. Take the raw, "necro" sounds of Nordic black metal pioneers Darkthrone and give them the bombastic force of the best-produced, over-the-top Cradle of Filth stuff, and you're thinking Anaal Nathrakh. When they say necro, they mean it. And they say it a lot. Like in the liner notes: "Anaal Nathrakh plays Fucking Necro Exclusively!...Fuck Everything".
MPEG Stream: "The Supreme Necrotic Audnance"
MPEG Stream: "When Humanity Is Cancer"
MPEG Stream: "Submission Is For The Weak"

ANAAL NATHRAKH Total Fucking Necro (Rage Of Achilles) cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
What could be more 'necro' than the debut album "The Codex Necro" from the truly disturbed, demented and totally necro UK black metal outfit Anaal Nathrakh?? You know, the ridiculously-hard-to-find black metal masterpiece we raved about last year? Well, how about their demos? Thus this disc is appropriately titled, as it contains both of AN's early demo tapes, plus some equally necro bonus tracks. If you loved "The Codex Necro" like we did, you'll be happy to know that "Total Fucking Necro" is just as good -- in fact some folks think it's better. It's a bit less bizarre than their full length, being much more melodic and traditional in the Norse style. Which is not a bad thing. There's definitely some major Mayhem worship going on here (witness the TWO Mayhem covers) as is evidenced by the distinctly "De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas" sound. But even then, their very own cult-necro-blackened weirdness is quite present as well. Demos, side projects (Frost, Mistress): it seems these guys are necro geniuses and can do no wrong -- we await their upcoming "When Fire Rains Down From The Sky" ep with grim delight...
NB. And for those of you who dropped the ball first time around, we've just managed to get a few copies of "The Codex Necro" back in as well!
RealAudio clip: "Anaal Nathrakh"
RealAudio clip: "Necrodeath"

ANAAL NATHRAKH When Fire Rains Down From the Sky, Mankind Will Reap As It Has Sown (Earache) cd ep 12.98
Available again! And now with 3 bonus tracks from AN's BBC Rock Show Session, recorded in March 2005!
A new half hour, six-song blast of total fucking necro mayhem from these UK metal maniacs. A blast it is, a worthy follow up to their godlike The Codex Necro album that was one of our favorite records from way back in 2002. On this ep, the duo of VITRIOL and Irrumator seem to have shed the overtly weird bits that made The Codex Necro so instantly distinctive, production-wise. No studio fuckery, no space-y ambience, no found sounds, no samples. Just 100%, furious, lightspeed, grim black metal. Which is just fine -- the songs and performances speak for themselves in sinister tongues, without the need for sound fx to tweak things further. This is simply some seriously sick, blazing fast, dark and damaged black metal indeed, with insane blast beats, all sorts of off-kilter stops and starts, maniacal leads, and last but not least, a litany of ghostly howls, anguished screams and cries of utter and abject fury -- some of which are provided by guest cult black metal vocalist Attila Csihar (of Mayhem, Aboyrm, and Tormentor infamy)! We also like the fact that there are photos of the band members on the inside and they look like librarians! Necro librarians that is.
MPEG Stream: "Cataclysmic Nihilism"
MPEG Stream: "Never Fucking Again"

ANATA Under A Stone With No Inscription (Wicked World) cd 14.98

ANCESTORS II (Youth Attack) 7" 9.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We didn't think it was possible, but with their second record, Ancestors have managed to get louder, heavier, more distorted, noisier and weirdly enough groovier. Short and not at all sweet, a bunch of songs jammed onto a 7" (or a cassette if you swing that way), a relentless blown out blast of blackened ultra distorted metallic punk. Or black metal. More likely somewhere right in between.
Not to be confused with THE Ancestors, the stoner rock outfit, Ancestors have a rich punk rock pedigree (Charles Bronson anyone?) but since the old days the sound has moved way further into the black, think Bone Awl, Akitsa, Ash Pool, Malveillance, Zarach'Baal'Tharagh, that sort of relentless blackened crusty metalnoise, furious and frenetic, a wall of chaotic crush infused with blast beats and buzzing riffs. Record number two is so ferocious, it's a wonder it can remain musical, but it does, BIG time, in fact, it's weirdly way more musical than the first record, more melodic, with more of a groove, more slow parts, but that only makes them sound that much more fucked up and brutal.
Hissing white hot distorted fury, the riffs crumble and melt, the drums pound and thrash struggling not to get swallowed up by the churning blackness, and then the vocals, holy fuck, they are SICK, ultra distorted, processed, some sort of inhuman howl / shriek / gurgle, like Abruptum meets Popeye meets Merzbow, but sometimes so warped it almost sounds like it's not in fact a voice, but some sort of malfunctioning synth. Amidst all this blown out noise drenched damage, the guitars occasionally explode into awesome blasts of super technical and angular post punk squiggle, but all blackened up. There are also hooks and catchy melodies, and the songs slow down to offer up a CHUG, or a fragmented groove, before bursting back into action, overall, the whole record manages to sound way more polished and refined, without losing an ounce of vitriol.
The record even finishes off with a weirdly gorgeous bout of midtempo moodiness, but the band manage even with that, to make it sound abrasive and caustic and catchy as fuck.
Beautiful packaging, the 7" comes in a super abstract full color sleeve and insert, printed inner sleeve, very little in the way of information, pressed on thick white vinyl, LIMITED TO 333 COPIES!!! The tape is also limited, and features the same abstract full color artwork, and the same dearth of info...

ANCESTORS II (Tour De Garde) cassette 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
We have ONE copy left of this otherwise out of print cassette...
We didn't think it was possible, but with their second record, Ancestors have managed to get louder, heavier, more distorted, noisier and weirdly enough groovier. Short and not at all sweet, a bunch of songs jammed onto a 7" (or a cassette if you swing that way), a relentless blown out blast of blackened ultra distorted metallic punk. Or black metal. More likely somewhere right in between.
Not to be confused with THE Ancestors, the stoner rock outfit, Ancestors have a rich punk rock pedigree (Charles Bronson anyone?) but since the old days the sound has moved way further into the black, think Bone Awl, Akitsa, Ash Pool, Malveillance, Zarach'Baal'Tharagh, that sort of relentless blackened crusty metalnoise, furious and frenetic, a wall of chaotic crush infused with blast beats and buzzing riffs. Record number two is so ferocious, it's a wonder it can remain musical, but it does, BIG time, in fact, it's weirdly way more musical than the first record, more melodic, with more of a groove, more slow parts, but that only makes them sound that much more fucked up and brutal.
Hissing white hot distorted fury, the riffs crumble and melt, the drums pound and thrash struggling not to get swallowed up by the churning blackness, and then the vocals, holy fuck, they are SICK, ultra distorted, processed, some sort of inhuman howl / shriek / gurgle, like Abruptum meets Popeye meets Merzbow, but sometimes so warped it almost sounds like it's not in fact a voice, but some sort of malfunctioning synth. Amidst all this blown out noise drenched damage, the guitars occasionally explode into awesome blasts of super technical and angular post punk squiggle, but all blackened up. There are alos hooks and catchy melodies, and the songs slow down to offer up a CHUG, or a fragmented groove, before bursting back into action, overall, the whole record manages to sound way more polished and refined, without losing an ounce of vitriol.
The record even finishes off with a weirdly gorgeous bout of midtempo moodiness, but the band manage even with that, to make it sound abrasive and caustic and catchy as fuck.
Beautiful packaging, the 7" comes in a super abstract full color sleeve and insert, printed inner sleeve, very little in the way of information, pressed on thick white vinyl, LIMITED TO 333 COPIES!!! The tape is also limited, and features the same abstract full color artwork, and the same dearth of info...

ANCESTORS s/t (Youth Attack) lp 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
One of our favorite records of 2007, originally released only on cassette and long out of print, is finally available again on vinyl. Limited to only 333 copies...
Holy shit! All we can say is look out Bone Awl. You'd never know it from the strange cover art, an abstract photo of pens and books and a family photo, or the name, or the indie like scrawled liner notes, but this is some of the fiercest, heaviest, most damaged off kilter and ultra raw black metal we've heard in forever. Well, since Bone Awl actually, or maybe Ildjarn. But music this raw and punky and fucked up, is only barely black metal anyway, they sound a bit like a supercharged Brainbombs, or maybe the Violent Students playing black metal. This is in-the-red, overblown, crusty blackened garage stomp. Filthy and pounding. The drums are so hot, they make the tape distort. The vocals are an inhuman snarl, the guitars are just a dizzyingly dense tangle of white noise and black buzz. The tempos are relentless and occasionally, the guitars and drums lock into a weird four on the floor techno style pound, albeit dripping with amp buzz and blown out guitar, before launching back into a full on black crust speaker smash assault. Fans of all things raw and distorted beyond recognition will go apeshit. And all you Bone Awl obsessives might have just found a new band to love...

ANCESTORS s/t (Northern Sky Productions) cassette 4.50
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Holy shit! All we can say is look out Bone Awl. You'd never know it from the strange cover art, an abstract photo of pens and books and a family photo, or the name, or the indie like scrawled liner notes, but this is some of the fiercest, heaviest, most damaged off kilter and ultra raw black metal we've heard in forever. Well, since Bone Awl actually, or maybe Ildjarn. But music this raw and punky and fucked up, is only barely black metal anyway, they sound a bit like a supercharged Brainbombs, or maybe the Violent Students playing black metal. This is in-the-red, overblown, crusty blackened garage stomp. Filthy and pounding. The drums are so hot, they make the tape distort. The vocals are an inhuman snarl, the guitars are just a dizzyingly dense tangle of white noise and black buzz. The tempos are relentless and occasionally, the guitars and drums lock into a weird four on the floor techno style pound, albeit dripping with amp buzz and blown out guitar, before launching back into a full on black crust speaker smash assault. Fans of all things raw and distorted beyond recognition will go apeshit. And all you Bone Awl obsessives might have just found a new band to love...

ANGANTYR Kampen Fortsatter (Eisenwald Tonschmiede) cd 14.98
Finally back in stock! Originally released on the same label that has brought us some of the most crucial underground black metal of the last few years (Xasthur, Nortt, The One, Blodulv, etc.), now reissued as a super swank, letter-pressed digipak, the debut release from this amazing Danish outfit, who specialize in that sound we love so much: ultra grim, ultra frigid, buzzing mostly midtempo black metal, a la Graveland, Nargaroth, Woodtemple, with high end fuzz-drone distortion, mosquito-like minor key melodies, simple galloping drum beats and that from-hell, paint peeling death rasp, all smeared into a buzzing mesmerizing blackened blur. Makes Sense when you realize this is the same guy who is also in Make A Change... Kill Yourself and Holmgang. Totally hypnotic and drone-y. Halfway through there's a gorgeous ten minutes of muted, melodic ambience, as dreamy and subtly beautiful as any of our favorite drone records. Followed by a truly bizarre melodramatic piano driven ballad, that's interrupted sporadically by ultraviolent squalls of sandblasting black metal buzz. Weird. And quite cool!
MPEG Stream: "Portene Abnes"
MPEG Stream: "Intethedens Larm"
MPEG Stream: "I Der Knaeler I Ynk"

ANGANTYR Sejr (Det Germanske Folket) cd 14.98
Record number two from this amazing Danish black metal one man band, the one man being the same fellow responsible for Make A Change... Kill Yourself and Holmgang. Ultra grim, ultra frigid, buzzing mostly midtempo black metal, with high end fuzz-drone distortion, mosquito-like minor key melodies, simple galloping drum beats and that from-hell, paint peeling death rasp, all smeared into a buzzing mesmerizing blackened blur.
Fucking awesome! Comes in a swank full color digipak.
MPEG Stream: "Portene Abnes"
MPEG Stream: "Intethedens Larm"
MPEG Stream: "I Der Knaeler I Ynk"

ANGANTYR / NASHEIM split (Northern Silence) cd 14.98
Those unfamiliar with the Danish black metal band Angantyr, might be surprised to find out that the man responsible for Angantyr, is the very same man who sonically slit his wrists and bled out the brilliantly depressive Make A ChangeÉ Kill Yourself discs, as well as being the dark soul who conjures up the grim old school buzz of Holmgang.
And while our black and broken hearts may belong to Make A ChangeÉ Kill Yourself, out head banging, spike encrusted, grim kvlt souls bow before the buzzing black Lord Angantyr. Here, Angantyr forms a sinister sonic alliance with mysterious Swedish duo Nasheim, and the two offer up some seriously awesome blasting and frosty grimnessÉ
Angantyr offer up three tracks, nearly a half hour of classic Scandinavian style old school black metal, furious bursts of scalding blackness, as well as loping midtempo Burzumic dirges, massive swaths of washed out buzz, harsh howled vocals, mournful minor key melodies draped over spikey blackened crags, plenty of MACKY's miserablism finds its way into Angantyr's mysterious black world which is a very good thing. The final track is live, and super lo-fi, but ultra intense, thrashing and brutal, you can almost hear the sweat and blood, and fire and brimstone. So great.
Nasheim counter with a single 25 minute track, an epic journey through a buzzing black soundworld, beginning with simple swooning folky strum, the tranquility shattered by a black wall of sound, a thrashing buzzing burst of gnarled guitars, hyperspeed drumming, and strange strangled howls, before retreating once again to a gentle little sonic glade, which is immediately laid flat by a colossal riff and an avalanche of pounding drum crunch, which gives way to a killer extended blackpsych jam, sounding almost like Opeth, with arpeggiated acoustic guitar under a relentless buzz, a killer melodic lead, and a loping waltz-like tempo. The rest of the record veers back and forth between variations of both, lurching at one point into a strange, almost Amrep sounding part, before resuming its epic journey, all soaring majestic guitar harmonies and chaotic drumming, finishing off with a stretch of almost Viking sounding blackness. It's sort of hard to describe such a massive and sprawling slab of sound in such a small space, needless to say, the black and buzz obsessed will not be disappointed. So many parts, so many styles and various shades of black, all deftly arranged into a single symphony of depressive buzz.
MPEG Stream: ANGANTYR "Arngrims Haevn"
MPEG Stream: NASHEIM "Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma"

ANGANTYR / NASHEIM split (Northern Silence) lp 25.00
We listed the cd version of this amazing black metal match up a while back, and now we have the super limited vinyl version. Ultra deluxe like most Northern Silence releases, and limited enough that we probably won't be able to get more once these are gone...
Those unfamiliar with the Danish black metal band Angantyr, might be surprised to find out that the man responsible for Angantyr, is the very same man who sonically slit his wrists and bled out the brilliantly depressive Make A ChangeÉ Kill Yourself discs, as well as being the dark soul who conjures up the grim old school buzz of Holmgang.
And while our black and broken hearts may belong to Make A ChangeÉ Kill Yourself, out head banging, spike encrusted, grim kvlt souls bow before the buzzing black Lord Angantyr. Here, Angantyr forms a sinister sonic alliance with mysterious Swedish duo Nasheim, and the two offer up some seriously awesome blasting and frosty grimnessÉ
Angantyr offer up three tracks, nearly a half hour of classic Scandinavian style old school black metal, furious bursts of scalding blackness, as well as loping midtempo Burzumic dirges, massive swaths of washed out buzz, harsh howled vocals, mournful minor key melodies draped over spikey blackened crags, plenty of MACKY's miserablism finds its way into Angantyr's mysterious black world which is a very good thing. The final track is live, and super lo-fi, but ultra intense, thrashing and brutal, you can almost hear the sweat and blood, and fire and brimstone. So great.
Nasheim counter with a single 25 minute track, an epic journey through a buzzing black soundworld, beginning with simple swooning folky strum, the tranquility shattered by a black wall of sound, a thrashing buzzing burst of gnarled guitars, hyperspeed drumming, and strange strangled howls, before retreating once again to a gentle little sonic glade, which is immediately laid flat by a colossal riff and an avalanche of pounding drum crunch, which gives way to a killer extended blackpsych jam, sounding almost like Opeth, with arpeggiated acoustic guitar under a relentless buzz, a killer melodic lead, and a loping waltz-like tempo. The rest of the record veers back and forth between variations of both, lurching at one point into a strange, almost Amrep sounding part, before resuming its epic journey, all soaring majestic guitar harmonies and chaotic drumming, finishing off with a stretch of almost Viking sounding blackness. It's sort of hard to describe such a massive and sprawling slab of sound in such a small space, needless to say, the black and buzz obsessed will not be disappointed. So many parts, so many styles and various shades of black, all deftly arranged into a single symphony of depressive buzz.
MPEG Stream: ANGANTYR "Arngrims Haevn"
MPEG Stream: NASHEIM "Sovande Mjod Vill Jag Tomma"

ANGELIC PROCESS, THE Weighing Souls With Sand (Senor Hernandez / Roadburn) 2lp 26.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
The sadly now defunct dronedoombliss duo's swansong, available as a super deluxe double lp for a very limited time...
What can we say that we haven't already said about this dynamic dronedirgedoom duo? Seriously, have a look at any of the other reviews we've written about The Angelic Process, and see us gush like crazy, what's not to love? Gorgeous swirling black ambience, massive crushing metallic pummel, soaring majestic melodies, the sound somehow heavy and brutal, but washed out and gauzy, a thick My Bloody Valentine haze draped over everything, voices drift amidst the buzz like paper angels dropped into a roaring fire. Everything glistening and sparkling, glimmering and shimmering, then roaring and grinding and washing over you like some suffocating black tide.
All of their records are fantastic, each feels and sounds like a continuation of the one before it. As if they were all movements in some metallic black hole symphony, with each record, each movement, offering up its own subtle twist on the AP's black buzzing sound world. This latest might be the most sonically varied of the bunch. It's been out for a while now, but we had been working our way through the older titles first.
The overall sound like the others is warped and warbly, a slow crawl though an alien world, like every note and melody is being twisted and bent, tangled up into shapes that confuse and confound, the distortion so thick and viscous it seems to be able to alter the natural order, to use gravity as just another effect, ton-of-bricks downtuned guitars don't fall forward like an avalanche, they seem to drift like billowy black clouds somehow, slabs of low end fall upward, guitars slither in reverse, vocals twist inside out, a gorgeous multidimensional swirl of sound, that occasionally coalesces into a roiling propulsive thunderstorm of blissed out doom. Songs grow from whispers into roars, a black doom Godspeed, but the heavy parts aren't just heavy, they're unearthly, unreal, melodies are pulled apart into sparkling notes that spin and soar, dancing atop a churning miasma of crush and crunch. The sound is an impossible blend of light and dark, evil and good, beauty and utter and complete horror. Like Katatonia broadcast through a wall of clothes dryers, doom metal performed by a symphony of leaf blowers tuned to drop-D, pop songs composed using cement mixers filled with gold bricks, a DJ spinning My Bloody Valentine over diSEMBOWELMENT, Winter remixed by Tim Hecker, all nestled amidst dreamy drifts of hushed shimmer and soft focus ambience.
We could go on and on and on and on and on and on.... needless to say, an absolutely essential slab of blissed out dreamdronedoooooooooooooooooooooooooom...
MPEG Stream: "The Promise Of Snakes"
MPEG Stream: "Million Year Summer"
MPEG Stream: "The Resonance Of Goodbye"

ANGMAR / ALCEST Aux Funerailles Du Monde / Tristesse Hivernale (Northern Silence) 2lp 18.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Folks have been chomping at the bit for this one and now it's finally here. A double lp collecting older demo material from French black metal horde Angmar and AQ faves, and current black-metal-bliss darlings Alcest. And after the most recent Alcest full length, the barely metal Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, and with the first ep being out of print and unavailable, a new Alcest record, even if it's an -old- new record, is enough to get the AQ black metal faithful, all in a frenzy...
Angmar, who we have yet to feature on the AQ list but who we most definitely dig, offer up a handful of demos and rehearsals spanning the years 1998-2003. All the usual adjectives apply, this was long before the band streamlined their sound, so these tracks find the band raw and grim and frosty. Cold buzzing riffage, blast beats and some seriously creepy atmospheres. Every track a relentless burst of black fury, primitive and lo-fi, but all the more intense and blackened for it. The tracks are sprinkled with gorgeous bits of lilting folkiness, short stretches of dark ambience, one whole track of creepy shimmer, a gloomy piano / guitar duet, but it's the blasting buzz that define these guys, and they do it well, burning a black mark on the pale flesh of all that is holy with their beastly racket. Awesome stuff.
But Alcest is really the reason everyone wants this so bad, and rightfully so. Neige might not be a household name, unless you live with a bunch of black metalheads in France, but it sure should be, and probably will be soon, as Neige is the man behind Alcest, the equally brilliant Ameseours, as well as a member of weirdo black buzzers Peste Noire. The Alcest lp half of this split double, is one sided and features a 2001 demo in its entirety. And for those of you whose only exposure to Alcest is Souvenirs D'un Autre Monde, you just might be shocked to discover that Alcest were indeed a real buzzing black metal outfit at one time. This demo definitely proves it. It also demonstrates, that even way back then, Neige had a melodic flair that could just not bee denied. The insane thing is that all of this music was written when Neige was all of 15 years old. Holy shit. What were we doing at 15? Definitely not composing legendary slabs of grim melodic black metal. But that's precisely what this is, an epic slab of buzzing blackness, run through with irresistible pop melodies, streaks of jangle and shoegazey bliss, but all merely as filigree for a seriously intense black metal buzz. Howled vocals, furious blasting rhythms, jagged black riffs, all woven into long stretches of midtempo moodiness, epic and minor key, and grim grim grim. But amazingly, without ever losing that mysterious melodiousness that would come to define Alcest's constantly evolving sound.
Gorgeously packaged. Super thick, full color deluxe gatefold sleeve, pressed on nice thick vinyl. And extremely limited. ONLY 500 COPIES PRESSED, each record hand numbered on the spine. We got about 30 and it's unlikely we'll be able to get more...

ANGMAR / THE TRUE ENDLESS Unholy Virtues / The Dirty Raw Experience (Bestial Burst) cd 7.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
**SALE **SALE* *SALE**
Killer underground black metal battle to the death between the Finns and the Italians, released on Finnish cult metal label Bestial Burst. Angmar, from Finland (not to be confused with the French Angmar, who shared a split with Alcest recently) offer up some fuzzy plodding blackness, dirgey and primitive, ultra lo-fi and buzzy, with simple drumming, and super anguished vocals. A sort of buzzing black thrash with some old school Celtic Frost moments here and there.
The True Endless from Italy counter with their own black blast, some serious buzzing black Mayhem worship. Lightning fast swirls of thick fuzz guitar, manic riffing and blurry blast beats. Two tracks of completely blown out Norwegian style classic blackness, bookending a gorgeously depressive doomic dirge, with sludgy guitars, plodding glacial drumming and howling guttural vocals.
Slightly sexist (sexy?) aside: The True Endless also feature on bass, Soulfucker, quite possibly the hottest corpsepainted lady we've ever seen!
MPEG Stream: ANGMAR "Stone Christ Semen"
MPEG Stream: THE TRUE ENDLESS "Who Stopped The Time?"

ANGST SKVADRON Flukt (Agonia) cd 14.98
A couple years back we flipped for a record by the oddly monikered Angst Skvadron, a side project from one of the guys in Urgehal and Beastcraft, but unlike those more traditionally black hordes, Angst Skvadron trafficked in something more proggy and spacey and psychedelic, still sort of black metal, but mostly something else entirely. Armed with a battery of vintage synths and Mellotrons, Angst Skvadron whipped up what was probably our favorite weirdo whatthefuck sort of black metal record of 2010. The strange thing was that that record, Sweet Poison, was in fact their second album, and somehow, the debut had disappeared before we ever got a chance to list/review it. Thankfully, both have now been reissued, Sweet Poison, which is reviewed again elsewhere on this week's list, and this one, Flukt, which we're finally able to review after all these years.
Originally released in 2008, Flukt definitely hints at what would come on Sweet Poison, and while not nearly as far out as the follow up, it is sort of the perfect gateway from the more grim black buzz of Urgehal and Beastcraft, to the tripped out black prog of Sweet Poison. Flukt is still essentially a black metal record, but it's a weird one. Lots of woozy guitars, tangled melodies, strange vocals, the vibe is super Voivod-y much of the time, mathy and melodic, a bit sci-fi for sure, and way proggy. The record is rife with strange moments, the disembodied lo-fi guitar drift that closes "Silent Light, Alien Night", the creepy horror movie theremin melodies all over "A Song To The Sky", there's the awesomely titled "The Asteroid Haemorhoids And The Drunken Sailor", a super distorted chugfest, rife with cool sixties style exotic melodies, that sounds like some sixties spy movie, black metallized, or the woozy acoustic guitar laced lope of "Slaves Of Mental Distortion", which finishes with some warped sliced and diced sampling. There's plenty of rad psychedelic leads, and loads of atmospheric weirdness, but all of that is woven into some killer buzzing blackness, minor key and midtempo, striking a perfect balance between classic black buzz and warped blackened weirdness.
MPEG Stream: "Silent Light, Alien Night"
MPEG Stream: "A Song To The Sky"
MPEG Stream: "Negativitetens"

ANGST SKVADRON Sweet Poison (Agonia) cd 15.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Trondr Nefas, aka T.B., is probably better known in black metal circles for fronting Norwegian heavyweights Urgehal and Beastcraft, among others, but odds are that might be about to change with Angst Skvadron, a blackened bastard offspring, that while still black metal is so much more.
This is record number two from this post black metal trio, whose sound, if we had to describe it, would be something more like post space black prog. And were this easier to get, don't doubt that this would have been a shoo-in for Record of The Week. For some of us it's already Record Of The Year!
Employing the usual instruments, but with an incredible arsenal of vintage and classic keyboards and synths, even a Mellotron, to add all sorts of texture and weirdness to their grim black sound. Did we mention ghostly female vocals? Yeah, these guys are a strange proposition, but have maybe catapulted themselves right to the front of the line, that line being our favorite new black metal bands.
Just take record opener "Valium Holocaust" (great title), opening with a cloud or reverbed piano rumbles, before launching into a lumbering midtempo dirge, equal parts Ved Buens Ende, Khold and Voivod at 16 rpm, the guitars warped and crumbling, the riffs woozy, the rhythm peppered with toiling bells, and laced with little glimmering tangles of melody, and super melodic basslines, and of course some haunting female vocals, that make the track either sound like some black metal Argento soundtrack, or some blackened version of Hundred Sights Of Koenji, gorgeous and creepy and far out and spacey and totally mesmerizing.
The whole record is so close to NOT being black metal. The riffs are gnarled and not at all typical, sounding almost grungy at times, like a way more grim black Skin Yard, which is definitely a good thing.
There are moments of blackness for sure, but even then, the band seem dead set on subverting any sort of true kvlt cred they might otherwise be developing, by twisting the songs all up, whether it's adding Mellotron strings, and creating weird carnivalesque slowcore, or adding all sort of strange crooning vocals, or taking an otherwise black blast beat, and transforming it into a mathy stutter. The slow atmospheric bits are incredible, not just randomly quiet for a minute or two like most BM bands, these are fully formed bits of minimal moodiness, with lush tangled melodies, ghostly harmonies, thick wheezing organs, often giving way to spaced out blackened krautrock, all clean guitars, hazy clouds of reverb, rubbery Joy Division basslines, some full on whatthefuck post industrial lumber and crunch, with thick buzzy bass riffs, and streaks of static and hiss, all wound around some incredible black metal grooves, some of the best riffs we've heard in ages, that in other hands could be the basis for perfect pop songs, but here just infuse the blackness with a weirdly irresistible pop element, that helps make these songs totally weird, totally catchy, and completely genius.
The record finishes off with an unlikely three song salvo, some warm almost sunshiney softly strummed minimal pop, all brushed snares, soaring strings, major key melodies, a lush gauzy dream pop dronescape, that gives way to possibly the most mathy and convoluted track on the record, all super tangled riffage, octopoidal math rock drums, serpentine basslines, super heavy and harrowing, with tortured super effected tripped out vocals, culminating in heaving doomic crush, before finally finishing off with the weirdly melodic title track, a wistful minor key dirge, all clean chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, strings and flutes (or at least the Mellotron version), gorgeous and dreamy and softly psychedelic, an appropriately unlikely finish to one of the most unlikely 'black metal' records in recent memory. And quickly becoming our favorite...
MPEG Stream: "Valium Holocaust"
MPEG Stream: "Aerophobia"
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Karma"
MPEG Stream: "The UFO Is Leaving"

ANGST SKVADRON Sweet Poison (Agonia) cd 14.98
This killer slab of spaced out proggy black metal weirdness, finally reissued and available again!!
Trondr Nefas, aka T.B., is probably better known in black metal circles for fronting Norwegian heavyweights Urgehal and Beastcraft, among others, but odds are that might be about to change with Angst Skvadron, a blackened bastard offspring, that while still black metal is so much more.
This is record number two from this post black metal trio, whose sound, if we had to describe it, would be something more like post space black prog. And were this easier to get, don't doubt that this would have been a shoo-in for Record of The Week. For some of us it's already Record Of The Year!
Employing the usual instruments, but with an incredible arsenal of vintage and classic keyboards and synths, even a Mellotron, to add all sorts of texture and weirdness to their grim black sound. Did we mention ghostly female vocals? Yeah, these guys are a strange proposition, but have maybe catapulted themselves right to the front of the line, that line being our favorite new black metal bands.
Just take record opener "Valium Holocaust" (great title), opening with a cloud or reverbed piano rumbles, before launching into a lumbering midtempo dirge, equal parts Ved Buens Ende, Khold and Voivod at 16 rpm, the guitars warped and crumbling, the riffs woozy, the rhythm peppered with toiling bells, and laced with little glimmering tangles of melody, and super melodic basslines, and of course some haunting female vocals, that make the track either sound like some black metal Argento soundtrack, or some blackened version of Hundred Sights Of Koenji, gorgeous and creepy and far out and spacey and totally mesmerizing.
The whole record is so close to NOT being black metal. The riffs are gnarled and not at all typical, sounding almost grungy at times, like a way more grim black Skin Yard, which is definitely a good thing.
There are moments of blackness for sure, but even then, the band seem dead set on subverting any sort of true kvlt cred they might otherwise be developing, by twisting the songs all up, whether it's adding Mellotron strings, and creating weird carnivalesque slowcore, or adding all sort of strange crooning vocals, or taking an otherwise black blast beat, and transforming it into a mathy stutter. The slow atmospheric bits are incredible, not just randomly quiet for a minute or two like most BM bands, these are fully formed bits of minimal moodiness, with lush tangled melodies, ghostly harmonies, thick wheezing organs, often giving way to spaced out blackened krautrock, all clean guitars, hazy clouds of reverb, rubbery Joy Division basslines, some full on whatthefuck post industrial lumber and crunch, with thick buzzy bass riffs, and streaks of static and hiss, all wound around some incredible black metal grooves, some of the best riffs we've heard in ages, that in other hands could be the basis for perfect pop songs, but here just infuse the blackness with a weirdly irresistible pop element, that helps make these songs totally weird, totally catchy, and completely genius.
The record finishes off with an unlikely three song salvo, some warm almost sunshiney softly strummed minimal pop, all brushed snares, soaring strings, major key melodies, a lush gauzy dream pop dronescape, that gives way to possibly the most mathy and convoluted track on the record, all super tangled riffage, octopoidal math rock drums, serpentine basslines, super heavy and harrowing, with tortured super effected tripped out vocals, culminating in heaving doomic crush, before finally finishing off with the weirdly melodic title track, a wistful minor key dirge, all clean chiming guitars, simple spare drumming, strings and flutes (or at least the Mellotron version), gorgeous and dreamy and softly psychedelic, an appropriately unlikely finish to one of the most unlikely 'black metal' records in recent memory. And quickly becoming our favorite...
MPEG Stream: "Valium Holocaust"
MPEG Stream: "Aerophobia"
MPEG Stream: "Fucking Karma"
MPEG Stream: "The UFO Is Leaving"

ANIMUS Poems For The Aching, Swords For The Infuriated (Ars Magna Recordings) cd 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Similar to our neverending quest for the ultimate in demented and damaged black metal weirdness, we are also constantly on another quest, a search for the darkest, deepest, most depressive, massive, emotional, suicidal, bleak, utterly hypnotic, droney and transcendental blackened BUZZ. We sometimes do find it, but then it's not too long before we need more, and so we begin the search again. Sometimes it's harsh high end and brittle upper register shimmer, other times it's murky low end chest rattling rumble. But we tend to lean toward the fuzzy and lo-fi, the super thick, the dense and foggy, smeary smudgey and washed out. A black metal that instead of borrowing from Burzum (sigh) or Darkthrone (yawn) finds sonic inspiration in My Bloody Valentine, or M83 or even in Jeck or Basinski or Hecker or Fennesz. A buzz that is just not guitar distortion, but is instead a glacier, or a wall, or a swirl, some sort of densely striated monolith, each layer a fuzzy piece of the larger dream like whole. Past masters of the BUZZ, who were able to satiate our hunger, include Velvet Cacoon, Xasthur and Make A Change... Kill Yourself, and on the more doom drenched BUZZ side of things, slower but no less BUZZy, Celestiial, Skepticism, Corrupted even Boris.
Then there are the non metal, but still incredibly heavy masters of the BUZZ, Hjarnidaudi, Nadja, Asva, The Angelic Process...
We could go on and on and on. Needless to say. The BUZZ, and thus the drone that is inherently part of it, is critical, crucial, without the BUZZ, music, nay life! Would have no meaning.
So thus we have the latest in a long line, a member of a mysterious sect known only as Keepers Of The BUZZ. Sworn to their sacred duty, passed down from generation to generation.
Animus is the name used by a young man from Israel, who has chosen the vessel of Animus, with which to protect the BUZZ. And to protect this sacred sonic disruptor, he has fashioned one of the most amazing records of ultra bleak, super personal, fuzzy and muddy, blown out and blissed out (in sound only, certainly not in mood) dirgey midtempo black metal we have heard in ages. Lilting melancholy riffs and simple drum machine rhythms are buried under a super thick wash of murky ambience, a bit like the warm fuzz of M83, but with all the sparkle and shine scrubbed off, leaving a burnished blackened gloom, hugging the lurching riffs like a dense morning fog, every element sounding muffled and distant. But this isn't really lo-fi at all. The sound here is dense and thick, heavy and strangely lush, The all encompassing and mysteriously overpowering BUZZ is draped over all of the other elements, the drums and fuzzed out riffs, drifting and pulsing, throbbing and beating, always nestled snugly beneath the surface, only the distorted howls come close to piercing the black sonic veil. Soundwise, Animus remind us of Thergothon and Skepticism, but where as those bands trudge at a truly funereal pace, Animus tends toward the midtempo, a relentless drone drenched black metal, harsh and harrowing, mournful and miserable, but so absolutely and stunningly beautiful.
Essential for all worshippers of the BLACK BUZZ!!!
MPEG Stream: "One"
MPEG Stream: "Two"
MPEG Stream: "Three"

ANNIVERSARY CIRCLE Saturated Feathers (Sun & Moon) cd 13.98

ANTAEUS Blood Libels (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) cd 15.98
Another blackened jewel in Norma Evangelium Diaboli's elite black metal crown. Rapidly becoming the only label that really and truly matters in black metal, NED has unleashed upon the world, some of the best (and is some cases, only) recordings from Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, Katharsis and now French black horde Antaeus. Even way back in 2000, when they released their brilliant debut, appropriately titled Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan, it was easy to tell there was something special (and strange) about these guys. At their core, they were pure black metal, very Mayhem influenced for sure, but that record was peppered with weird ambient interludes and fucked up not entirely black metal parts, they were true enough for the grim BM hordes, but their sound hinted at something much weirder, which of course hooked us.
So here we are, nearly 7 years later, and Antaeus have embraced that weird fucked up side, and ended up positioned perfectly along side their black sonic brethren on NED. And it is a perfect fit. Not as weird and post rocky as Deathspell, not as harsh and buzzy as Katharsis, somewhere right in between, closest sonically probably to Funeral Mist, with their blend of ultra creepy ambience and ultra dense, impossibly fast and heavy buzz. And that's the thing, some of this stuff sounds IMPOSSIBLE! It's so fucking fast, but so intricate and complicated at the same time. Furious and thick and dense and incredibly lightning fast. Dizzying bursts of black buzz that constantly threaten to completely splinter into jagged black shards.
All the while, within and between the blasts of bleak grimness and the soul shearing fury, are lots of awesome midtempo grooves, super catchy riffs that lope along all waltzy and seasick, super catchy and memorable, before exploding back into lightspeed motion. Also here and there are long stretches of processed guitars and black ambience, with creaking atmospheres, deep drones and strange keening harmonics.
A super weird, super grim expanse of totally black brilliance. Could very well be one of THE black metal records of the year. Only a few weeks to discover something more heavy or more black. Seems unlikely.
Gorgeous packaging too (as with all NED releases). Black digipak, with bloody hands reaching for the sky, the bands logo, some dripping blood and a crown of thorns sort of tangle, all printed over the top in a barely visible reflective varnish. Includes a big booklet, also gorgeously laid out, with lyrics, printed vellum, and some truly gruesome band photos.
MPEG Stream: "Rot"
MPEG Stream: "Cyklik Torture"
MPEG Stream: "Colliding In Ashes"

ANTAEUS Blood Libels (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) lp 16.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Another blackened jewel in Norma Evangelium Diaboli's elite black metal crown. Rapidly becoming the only label that really and truly matters in black metal, NED has unleashed upon the world, some of the best (and is some cases, only) recordings from Deathspell Omega, Funeral Mist, Katharsis and now French black horde Antaeus. Even way back in 2000, when they released their brilliant debut, appropriately titled Cut Your Flesh And Worship Satan, it was easy to tell there was something special (and strange) about these guys. At their core, they were pure black metal, very Mayhem influenced for sure, but that record was peppered with weird ambient interludes and fucked up not entirely black metal parts, they were true enough for the grim BM hordes, but their sound hinted at something much weirder, which of course hooked us.
So here we are, nearly 7 years later, and Antaeus have embraced that weird fucked up side, and ended up positioned perfectly along side their black sonic brethren on NED. And it is a perfect fit. Not as weird and post rocky as Deathspell, not as harsh and buzzy as Katharsis, somewhere right in between, closest sonically probably to Funeral Mist, with their blend of ultra creepy ambience and ultra dense, impossibly fast and heavy buzz. And that's the thing, some of this stuff sounds IMPOSSIBLE! It's so fucking fast, but so intricate and complicated at the same time. Furious and thick and dense and incredibly lightning fast. Dizzying bursts of black buzz that constantly threaten to completely splinter into jagged black shards.
All the while, within and between the blasts of bleak grimness and the soul shearing fury, are lots of awesome midtempo grooves, super catchy riffs that lope along all waltzy and seasick, super catchy and memorable, before exploding back into lightspeed motion. Also here and there are long stretches of processed guitars and black ambience, with creaking atmospheres, deep drones and strange keening harmonics.
A super weird, super grim expanse of totally black brilliance. Could very well be one of THE black metal records of the year. Only a few weeks to discover something more heavy or more black. Seems unlikely.
Gorgeous packaging too (as with all NED releases). Black digipak, with bloody hands reaching for the sky, the bands logo, some dripping blood and a crown of thorns sort of tangle, all printed over the top in a barely visible reflective varnish. Includes a big booklet, also gorgeously laid out, with lyrics, printed vellum, and some truly gruesome band photos.
MPEG Stream: "Rot"
MPEG Stream: "Cyklik Torture"
MPEG Stream: "Colliding In Ashes"

ANTAEUS / KATHARSIS split (Norma Evangelium Diaboli) 7" 11.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Been a little while since we've heard from either of these legendary black metal hordes, one French, one German, but who share much in common sonically, and if you're anything like us, you probably saw the names Katharsis and Antaeus on the same record and already decided this was essential and hurled it into your cart, and you know what? You would be RIGHT. Two new killer blasts of frenzied and gloriously fucked up blackness, both bands offer up something slightly different, but still plenty in keeping with their sound respective sounds.
Up first is Katharsis, or at least that's the side we listened to first, and it DESTROYS!! A blurred expanse of relentlessly buzzing guitars and buried blast beats all murky and muted, a swirling sort of blackness, hovering beneath a creepy deep voice, intoning, testifying, speaking in tongues (?) before the band explodes into a super fast, ultra furious squall of swirling buzzing black metal fury, the vocals really loud and way up in the mix, gargling and growling and slipping into wild falsetto shrieks, doused in reverb and delay, there is also some super surprising poppiness that surfaces during the bridge, super melodic bits all tangled up with the thrashing flailing buzz beneath it, as well as some awesome crazed super shredding guitar leads. Definitely weird, but still completely amazing. Dying for a full length more than ever.
Antaeus have been MIA even longer than Katharsis, and their track, while still pretty ruling, sounds like it could be a demo, or rehearsal, or outtake, but because of that, it gives the song a seriously fucked up and freaked out vibe. After a mysterious blackened industrial drone intro, the band launches into a super fast, almost looped sounding blast, the drums sounds like a machine, except for the strange flurry of fills, the guitars super brittle and buzzy and backed off in the mix, the flurries of lightning fast kick drums are WAY up in the mix, along with the vocals, so much so that it almost sounds like just vocals and drums, with a backdrop of swirling distant buzz. Not as epic and crushing as their records proper, but still plenty heavy and buzzy and black.
Housed in a beautiful printed heavy cardstock sleeve, inside there's a fold out poster sized insert with artwork and liner notes, and the record itself is pressed on some of the thickest vinyl EVER.
ALREADY OUT OF PRINT, so these are the last copies we'll likely be able to get!

ANTEDILUVIAN Through The Cervix Of Hawaah (Profound Lore) cd 13.98
It's kinda tough to pin down these Canadian black/death metal crushers, their sound straddles a bunch of different metal subgenres, whether it's grim blasting blackness, or furious downtuned death, or even weird crusty gloomy mathiness, they weave all of those into a sick, primitive, raw heaviness that definitely pushes all of our buttons, regardless of classification. To these ears they're definitely closer to black metal than anything, most of the tracks are progged out super complex blasts of furious frenzied riffing and blasting drum pummel, the vocals though are distinctly death metal, an impossibly deep demonic gurgle croak, but, this is not all tranced out blackness, the band are super dynamic, the songs super intricate, dizzying so at times, with stuttering start/stop arrangements giving way to churning slo-mo ultra doom creeps, which give way to furious blurred blasts, all of which speaks to the band's death metal roots. Ultimately who really cares what we call it, the important thing is that this is some of thee most gnarled and twisted blackened heaviness that we've heard in ages, and amidst these squalls of detuned death and blown out blackness, lurk some crazy catchy riffs, and some surprising melodies, all blurred into a roiling, churning, dizzying, mathed out blackdeath blowout. Another Profound Lore winner.
MPEG Stream: "...Through The Cervix Of Hawaah"
MPEG Stream: "Intuitus Mortuus"
MPEG Stream: "Scions Of Ha Nachash (Sceptre Of The Burning Valley)"

ANWECH My Frozen Dream Slept Too Eternally (Fog Of The Apocalypse) cd 14.98
Weirdo black metal obsessives no doubt remember Italian band Leaden, whose awesomely titled album, Monotonous Foghorns of Molesting Department, we raved about a while back. Not only were the songs called things like "Black Apartment Of Depression" and "When Out Seems To Vanish", but the music was a stumbling confusional mix of blackened doomy slowcore and lurching murky black fuzz, that managed to be more droney and hypnotic than blasting and buzzing, but so weird and unique that we just couldn't get enough of it.
So when we discovered the guy from Leaden had another band, we knew we had to track it down. This isn't that new, but it's the firs time we've managed to get enough to list. And while it doesn't really sound much like Leaden, it is just as weird, but in a whole different, maybe even more brilliantly fucked up way.
My Frozen Dream Slept Too Eternally is only 4 songs, but they're all long, and there's so much packed into each. It would be worth it even if it was just one song, the opener, "Strongest Nocturnal Silence" is the black metal gloom pop what-the-fuck jam of the year. Of any year. Beginning with a simple doomy, almost Sabbathy riff, the drums join in, simple and stripped down, and then the vocals, holy shit. Somewhere between the Ethel Merman like warble of Urfaust and a doped up Axl Rose. A raspy harsh falsetto croon, draped over a warm thick doomy black groove that is equal parts black metal, slowcore and slooowed way down punk rock. The end result is something haunting and creepy and off kilter and amazingly moody and evocative. When the track shifts to the 'chorus', it's a hook that will stick in your head forever, the lurching riff, the anguished vocals. And we're only 5 minutes in. The track shifts gears and suddenly it's just a guitar, unfurling a mournful melody, the notes dripping in effects, drifting over space-y Tangerine Dream style synths, until a distorted guitar comes back in adding a layer of woozy swirling riffage, then the track builds and builds, the guitars getting more psychedelic and frenzied, the synths more dramatic and tense, and suddenly it's some sort of spaced out epic, Godspeed versus Hawkwind by way of Abruptum and Urfaust, the vocals come back in, and finally, the track explodes into a blast of about as black as it gets here, minor key doom-ed black metal, rife with super movie melodies, that minus the vocals and some of the buzz, could be some sort of dark post rock record.
Wow. Like we said, that song alone would be worth the price of admission, but there are three more long ones to go, and they hardly tread the same ground.
The next track starts off all churning downtuned chug underpinned by stumbling double kick, an almost Khold style groove, with some strange murky synthesizers than transform the track into something much more moody and unhinged, the vocals adding their own bit of anguished mystery, the track veering all over the place, the synths shifting the mood from punkish pound to swirling dizzying doom psych and back again. The next track is another punkish jam, with those disembodied keyboards that make this sound like Burzum covering Khold covering Nuit Noire. Shifting repeatedly from loping melancholy dirge to blurred buzz to lumbering moody dirge.
The final track is total blackened post rock. The guitars tangled and minor key, a swirling layer of ghostly keyboard over the whole thing, the vocals, a raspy mournful howl, the melodies constantly shifting and swirling, the song slipping into post punk groove, then dirgey doom metal pound, then black metal blast, but always twisted up by those vocals, and the off kilter keyboards, and the thing is, it may be damaged and demented, but beyond simply being 'bizarre', the sound is intense and emotional, epic and melancholic, dark and weirdly beautiful, while still managing to be heavy, buzzy, totally freaked out, fucked up and so fantastic.
MPEG Stream: "Strongest Nocturnal Silence"
MPEG Stream: "Misanthropic Sensation Far Away From The Light"

AOSOTH III (Agonia Records) cd 15.98
The return of French black metallers Aosoth, with what many are proclaiming to be black metal record of the year. And we have to say we're ready to agree. Obviously, as long time aQ list readers no doubt already know, we love French black metal, as probably do many of you. Deathspell, Blut Aus Nord, Diamatregon, Antaeus, Hell Militia, Otargos, Peste Noire, Spektr, S.V.E.S.T., Mutiilation, Wolok, and of course Aosoth belong to that elite group. This is record number three, originally a side project of Antaeus vocalist MkM, who seems to have maybe been downgraded here, as only the other two guys get their pix in the booklet, while MkM is credited with "audio propaganda", which we can only assume are vocals, and the vocals here are appropriately fierce and fucked up and awesome, and are no doubt still delivered by MkM.
But it's the music that's mindblowing, impossibly relentless, insanely heavy, gnarled and ultra complex, taking the sort of avant blackness of Deathspell, and rendering it in a form much more raw and low fidelity. The riffs are black tangles, the drums insane blasts of lightning fast pound, the atmosphere is super creepy and murky, the melodies soar, the arrangements epic and majestic, but the sound is just this side of lo-fi, the sound managing to be dense and heavy, without being slick and polished, instead, the sound is feral and RAW, and it's a strange combination, the raw lo-fi sound, and this seriously complex avant garde blackness, the tracks slipping from old school black buzz blast, to soaring epic majesty, to total mathed out confusional chaos, all super twisted and psychedelic, just take the extended breakdown on "II", which is a head spinning swirl of constant drum fill and swirling interlocking manic melody, a blurred cloud of frantic heaviness that is so tense and intense, that when it does finally switch, it seemingly takes a few seconds to readjust.
There are plenty of strange interludes, buzzing black ambience, haunting pianos, hazy stretches of guitardrone, hushed expanses of hushed shimmer, but this is the kind of record that is already inherently twisted, those non-metal extras only add to the atmosphere, in fact, in a way, it's those parts that offer a brief respite from the actual music's hellish black weirdness, the core sound a grinding, buzzing dense black tangle, occasionally slipping into something woozy and doomy, lumbering and creeping, a haunting bit of depressive darkness, but inevitably those parts explode into flurries of wildly chaotic drum damage and fucked up and fractured riffage. But for all this perceived weirdness, the sound is not 'weird', all of those strange elements are deftly woven into an incredible suite of grim black metallic mastery, creating a series of songs that manage to be heavy, haunting, brutal and black, fucked up and totally fucking incredible. Black metal record of the year? Could be...
MPEG Stream: "I"
MPEG Stream: "II"
MPEG Stream: "III"

AOSOTH s/t (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
It's been quite some time since we've heard from French black metal lords (and lady) Antaeus. Fortunately, the always amazing Norma Evangelium Diaboli label has given us a split 7" with Antaeus and Germany's Katharsis, reviewed elsewhere on this list. But what has the band been up to since their last full length, 2006's Blood Libels? Well, we're not entirely sure. But our blackened hearts have been aching for Antaeus' incomprehensibly heavy blend of thick riffage, terrifying vocals and truly astounding drumming. And that, dear friends, is where Aosoth steps in.
The new-ish (they've been around since 2002 but only released a couple of splits) project of Antaeus vocalist MkM, with the awesomely monickered Bestial Satanic T handling all the instruments and production work, Aosoth effortlessly steps into the top tier of current black metal bands with their first full length. The sound is not too far removed from that of Antaeus, but Aosoth is its own beast indeed. These songs won't be mistaken for anything but black metal, but they are at times quite thrashy and, dare we say, "catchy" throughout the majority of the record. Production wise, this will make you realize that no matter how many black metal bands are capable of producing awesome work with limited means/musical talent, some guys are just a cut above the rest. Who, other than someone truly devoted to darkness, can write riffs this devastating? It's clear that these guys are anything but amateur black metal weekend warriors.
Things kick off with the two part "Aura of Pills", the name of which gives you a pretty clear idea of the strain of mental instability these true black metallers have embraced to further their deviance within modern society. Part I begins with shimmering cathedral-like ambience before snapping into a burley, hyperspeed D-Beat with thick swells of guitar and uber-metal pinch harmonics. Part II is a bit more plodding, but no less heavy, making nice use of the devil's tritone as the vocals bark out pure vitriol, before culminating in a squiggly (maybe not the best word to describe something so evil...) guitar solo. The somewhat hilariously titled "Here to Serve" offers another uncompromising blend of sheer brutality as does the final track, "Prophet's Curse", where MkM's treated vocals gurgle below a queasy, arpeggiated guitar riff as things head into a midtempo dirge that is probably a pretty good indication of what it would be like to die in combat... in a GOOD way.
This album came as quite a surprise, because honestly, we weren't really expecting it to kick our asses this hard. The unknown status of Antaeus is a little easier to stomach when we know the members are up to something as truly worthwhile and unrelenting as this.
MPEG Stream: "Aura Of Pills (Part II)"
MPEG Stream: "Here To Serve"
MPEG Stream: "Soul Cremation"

APATI Eufori (Total Holocaust) cd 12.98
BACK IN STOCK!
First record from Swedish depressive black metal trio, Apati (Apathy we assume), who travel a well worn path, one most recently and fantastically tread by their countrymen Lifelover, but who manage to take that sound and do their own thing with it. To be fair, that 'thing' is most definitely not that far removed from Lifelover, although we do hear plenty of other sonically similar groups like Hypothermia and Happy Days, and other outfits who are melding melodic blackened pop with harsh shrieking vocals and black atmospherics. Also worth mentioning is Katatonia, who seem to have inadvertently created the template for the modern wave of depressive black metal, strip the hellish shrieks away, introduce some deep crooning vocals, and you'd have some seriously dark and catchy blackened doom pop. Which should give you an idea of what's going on with Apati, the music is mournful and melodic, epic and grandiose, the drums sound programmed, but they're simple and there more as a framework, allowing the guitars to loop into mesmerizing riffscapes, most of the tracks only have one or two parts, more about repetition and mood than songsmithery. The vocals are really the only thing that keep Apati at all tethered to black metal, they shriek maniacally, frenzied, hysterical, anguished, wailed dramatically, easily the most metal element besides the buzzy guitars, but the guitar buzz is less harsh and hellish and more melodic and poppy.
Apati also offer up plenty of haunting instrumental interludes (which is probably another reason they get slagged off for being Lifelover copies), dark chamber music, looping piano figures, the sound of storms, disembodied voices, sampled dialogue, all draped over hazy, gauzy stretches of dreamy shimmer, or murky ambience. Where Lifelover are seriously demented and fucked up and damaged, Apati don't concern themselves more with creating beautiful music, the juxtaposition is certainly odd, and is what make them what they are, but it's not willfully far out, it seems more like an aesthetic choice, the harsh vocals, adding to the dread and drama of the melancholy music underneath.
We're pretty partial to this new breed of depressive black metal, most of our favorite BM has elements of pop anyway, this more like a dark rock band infusing their sound with elements of black metal, whatever you call it, gloom pop, dark metal, depressive dirge pop, black pop, it hardly matters, this stuff is awesome, moody, melodic, hypnotic and heavy, and heck, it will definitely tide us over until the next Lifelover record, or even the next Apati record. RECOMMENDED!
MPEG Stream: "Host"
MPEG Stream: "Somnlosa Natter"
MPEG Stream: "Nykter Idag"

APHOTIC s/t cd 7.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

APHOTIC Stillness Grows (Flood The Earth) cd 10.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

APHOTIC Under Veil of Darkness (self-released) cd 7.98
All the way from Green Bay, Wisconsin, comes this blackened doom metal horde, and we just discovered a small clutch (3 actually), of this, their self released 2001 ep, 4 tracks of moody, atmospheric midtempo doomy blackness, programmed beats, swirling keyboards, bellowed gruff vokills that switch to occasional crooned clean vox, all laid over tangled buzzing riffage, and blurred into hazy surprisingly beautiful buzz and blast and pound and crunch, the tracks slipping from frenzied blast, to lumbering dirge to woozy moody waltz and back again, the pretty parts reminding us a bit of older Katatonia, which is not at all a bad thing.
ONLY 3 COPIES!!

APOLION Death Grows Into Sperm (Bylec-Tum) cd 6.66
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Last copies!! Here's a new one from this Italian one man black metal band, the awesomely (and confusionally) titled Death Grows Into Sperm, with its equally confusional cover, featuring some sort of demonic sperm/skull hybrid.
For a self described practitioner of "harsh impudent black metal", much of DGIS is surprisingly melodic and lush, especially the opening two part epic (and the closing two parter, but more on that in a second), the intro is all clean guitars, and swirling swells and proggy synths, when the track proper kicks in, the guitars soar majestically, the tempo more doomy and midtempo than black and thrashing, still heavy on the melody, until about 4 minutes in, when some frantic riffing surfaces, and the sound explodes into some seriously bleak and blasting blackness. But even, then the sound is infused with melody, a subtle poppiness, that manages to make the fury and force stick in your head.
The sound shifts quite a bit too, from Nordic style classic black metal, to more traditional eighties style heavy metal riffing, those elements woven together by serpentine guitar leads, and those aforementioned melodies. The middle chunk of the record is much more traditionally grim and black, buzzy and blasting, still rife with bits of melody and unlikely arrangements, until the final two part closing songsuite, which mirrors the opening, creating a super lush and intricate blackened prog epic, lots of spidery clean guitars, droned out buzz, some black blasts for sure, but way heavier on the melody and the atmosphere, especially the second part, which spends the majority of its 8 minutes blurring and swirling and drifting like some Tim Hecker-ish bit of gauzy atmospheric ambience, interrupted briefly by a bit of super melodic heavy riffing, but otherwise left to whir and chime and float and finally fade out.
Grim, black, majestic, epic and melodic, and way recommended for folks who dig that sort of thing. Which we're guessing is a whole lot of you.
MPEG Stream: "Glint Of Creation (Part 2)"
MPEG Stream: "Death Grows Into Sperm"
MPEG Stream: "Inverted King"

AQUARIUS BUTTONS 2 x 1" buttons 1.00
Hey, we just got another batch of AQ buttons made up...
Spread the word! Show the world your true aQ colors! COOL COOL COOL aQ buttons, now in 6 different vibrant color combinations. 5 new color combos (blue on pink, red on dark grey, dark blue on blue, orange on black, and yellowish green on dark green) and a popular one we had previously (brown on yellow).
TWO FOR $1!!! Colors are random, but buy enough and you'll be guaranteed to get 'em all! And of course all feature our spiffy James Gang style logo!! So stylish!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: 2XL) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Extra Large) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Large) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Medium) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Small) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

AQUARIUS T SHIRT Special Limited Artists Edition #1: Justin Bartlett (Size: Youth Large) T shirt 22.00
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Finally! The first in a series of super limited, artist designed aQ T-Shirts, featuring original art by some of our favorite artists, who just so happen to be loyal aQ customers as well! Each one will be super special, totally unique, and will only be available for a limited time, as we're only making a finite amount of each.
The first shirt design is by aQ pal and infamous killustrator Justin Bartlett, whose style many of you no doubt will recognize. He's done tons of drawings for Oaken Throne black metal magazine, as well as record covers for grim groups like SUNNO))), Moss, Nadja, Pentemple and loads more. His style is incredible, super detailed, pen and ink with tons of stippling, lots of skulls and guts and demons and various crusty oozing offal. For aQ he's designed a super creepy and super evil mother and child, heads in bags, their rotten innards spilling out, skulls on spikes, and "Aquarius Records" carved into the stone archway in the background. It looks amazing, and will for sure get some eyes a popping as you wander through the grocery store or sit in church (heaven forbid).
The back features a small aQ logo up near the collar, the shirts are white on black, they are Hanes heavyweight T's, 100% preshrunk cotton, and we have sizes all the way from Youth Large (for kids and little ladies) all the way up to XXL (for the big guys).
We will only be selling these for a couple months, so don't miss out. Once they are gone, they won't be reprinted. EVER.
Future aQ Artist Edition T's will include designs by Savage Pencil, Stephen O'Malley, Aaron Turner and more more more!!!

ARCKANUM Antikosmos (Moribund) cd 17.98
We've long been fans of Swedish one man black metal band Arckanum. Even those who haven't heard his music, probably remember the 'band' photos, which always featured a cloaked creature with a deformed troll-like face, huge hook nose, and carrying a massive staff. Some folks were put off by this bit of theatricality, probably giving them visions of the much cheesier Mortiis. But then they were missing out. This Swede kicked out the classic black metal jams, nothing avant, or experimental really, barring the occasional ambient interlude, but just pure raw grim blackness. With a lo-fi production and a great crusty black sound, Arckanum released 3 full lengths in the late nineties, and since then, it's been nothing but a handful of splits and eps. So we were pretty excited for the first Arckanum full length in ten years, and we were not disappointed.
The sound, at its core is similar to the classic Arckanum sound, but the production is massive, the guitars thick and monstrous, the drums pounding and brutal, the whole vibe is much more sleek and streamlined and 'produced', but thankfully manages to retain most of its grimness and blackness, although now the music is imbued with a power never present before, and if anything, dare we say it, a new found groove.
We've heard this record compared to discs by Craft and Inquisition, among others, but we can't help hearing a little Khold, which as far as we're concerned is actually a good thing. Take the album opener, after a creeped out drone-y intro, and a swirl of guitar buzz and cymbal sizzle, the song launches into a furious blast, which sounds punkier and crustier that we remember, and again, groovier. It has much to do with the chord progression, as on the surface this is still all blasting beats and buzzing guitars, but then the deal is sealed with the bridge, where the guitars and drums lock into a weird droney, almost poppy part that sounds like it could have come from a Torche song! And that vibe, those melodies, those subtle touches are present throughout, even at its most intense and furious, the band easily will slip in a subtle, yet impossibly catchy hook or phrase, almost like they don't even know they're doing it, some mysterious musical force manifesting itself, hidden among the black brambles and jagged harsh heaviness. Then there's a track like "Rokulfargnyr", which is primarily a strange clipped staccato guitar chug, the drums locked in, peppered with dynamics, but it almost sounds like some sort of fractured math rock. Even when the song kicks in for real, the stop start guitar, the super technical drumming, eventually gives way to more soaring melodic buzzing blackness. "Nakjeptir" is all eighties groove and chug, laced with cool stretches of black dissonance. "Eksortna" is just guitar, distorted and melodic, unfurling a stately court-of-the-king style melody,
while closer "Formala" is classic blackened doom, very spacious and sprawling, with some weird drumming, a killer main riff, and an outro of demonic murmurs and buzzing distorted rumbles.
This disc has been getting crazy play around here, and has had us revisiting the older records as well, which sound even better than we remember. Lots of folks we know have been talking about Antikosmos as BM record of the year, and while we still have other contenders to consider, we're definitely inclined to agree that this could very well crack the top ten. Maybe even the top five...
MPEG Stream: "Svarti"
MPEG Stream: "Daudmellin"
MPEG Stream: "Rokulfargnyr"

ARCKANUM Helvitismyryr (Season Of Mist) cd 15.98
Latest from this Swedish one man black metal band, and the fourth in a seemingly sonically connected tetralogy, beginning with the godlike Antikosmos from 2008, continuing with 2009's oddly named but nearly as good PPPPPPPPPPP (those really should be runes, not 'P's), and then last year's Sviga Lae, which we were never able to get a hold of, unfortunately. Helvitismyrkr, while perhaps not nearly as good as Antikosmos, definitely ranks up there with the other three, and the more we listen to this, the more it seeps into our soul, and the better it sounds.
On PPPPPPPPPPP, it seemed like the only big change from Antikosmos was that the sound was getting more polished, but the sound here is appropriately raw, still punky and thrashy, shot through with bits of classic metal, NWOBHM, and of course first wave classic Scandinavian style BM, with soaring frantic riffage, and epic arrangements, but like on the other Arckanum's, the sound shifts constantly, from doomy dirge to black blast to midtempo lope, with lots of strange breakdowns and stop/start arrangements, and guitar solos, yep, one of the few black metal bands that has leads, and they're pretty killer, occasionally just mirroring the melody, but often totally shredding.
The opening track here, "Helvitt", gives a pretty good taste of Arckanum circa 2011, with all of the above mentioned elements in full effect, and all woven into a buzzing, blasting, soaring, pounding chunk of blackness that manages to be surprisingly catchy to boot.
The classic /traditional metal elements play a big part here, and there seems to be a definite shift even further away from the grim black buzz of the early years, with much of this edging ever closer to 'rock' than 'metal', but it definitely suits the songs, more melodic, more memorable, with a handful of the songs slipping into slow almost ballady prettiness, still heavy, just moody and melodic, while others just creeping along ominously, like the nearly psychedelic closing track, but those moments seem to often be perfectly bookended by more furious frenzied sounds.
We're digging this a lot, and guessing it should definitely appeal to fans of the more rock sound of the recent Glorior Belli which we raved about a list or two back, while still remaining just black enough for the true grim hordes...
MPEG Stream: "Helvitt"
MPEG Stream: "Myrkrin Vinna Hefnt"
MPEG Stream: "Or Djupum"

ARCKANUM PPPPPPPPPPP (Moribund) cd 16.98
Last year's killer Antikosmos was probably one of the best black metal records of 2008, and here we are only a year later with a brand new Arckanum, and once again, this too is poised to be one of this year's best. From its odd all p'd title (actually not P's, but letters called thorns, a bit like runes, pronounced 'thhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh'), to its scrawled heavy metal binder cover art, to the amazing raw melodic blackness within, we'd have to agree, gonna be tough to top PPPPPPPPPPP.
Very little has changed since Antikosmos, but then why change what is already working so well, the sound is pretty polished for sure, and still a bit punky, but here maybe even more melodic and stripped down. There are still plenty of blown out black blasts, lots of twisted dissonant riffage, but there's some serious poppiness going on, as well as some surprisingly killer leads, super melodic and a bit NWOBHM, the overall vibe epic and majestic, and a bit crusty, yet even when things are black as pitch, the sound is still infused with a fair amount of melody. Not really all that raw and grim, instead super rocking and so so melodic, the vocals as always are howled and punkish which helps things from getting too clean, but the production is so slick, and these songs are so good, it seems inevitable that things would veer toward the less grim and kvlt side of the black metal spectrum.
Perhaps we're painting to un-grim a picture, PPPPPPPPPPP is still plenty black and buzzy and blasting, but there's no way to ignore how catchy and melodic and classic metal sounding much of this is, and we're not complaining, it sounds awesome, and we've been playing this over and over, just didn't want to scare off all you troo grim metalheads, cuz it would be a shame to let any sort of dopey grim metal pride get in the way of digging into a record this rad...
MPEG Stream: "Porhatl"
MPEG Stream: "Pann Svartis"
MPEG Stream: "Pyrpas Ulfar"

ARCTURUS And The Deception Circus: Disguised Masters (Jester/Voices of Wonder) cd 16.98
Arcturus was a "black metal" supergroup featuring members of Ulver, Mayhem, Covenant, Borknagar, and Ved Buens Ende. They've broken up, but rumors abounded about a remix album still to come. Of course, the last Arcturus record, La Masquerade Infernale, was so bizarre for a metal record (containing Weill-esque cabaret music, drum 'n bass, trip hop, industrial, etc.) that it already seemed like someone had taken a "regular" Arcturus record and remixed it. So imagine someone taking said record (already sounding remixed), and remixing *that*. Well, here you go. Arcturus break down their already decidedly unmetal sound even further, adding more beats and stretching out their industrial soundscapes. Techstep, gangsta rap (!), classical string ensemble sounds, etc.--it's insane. One of our customers who bought this emailed to say "listen to track 7--now I've heard *everything*!" A good companion to the strange new Ulver double cd (reviewed here last time), and even better methinks. What's really interesting is thinking of someone, a drum n' bass fan for instance, first encountering Arcturus with this record, and then moving backwards through their catalog to the rawer, actually metal blackness of their earlier works and related bands! Will that happen, and what will they think?

ARCTURUS Aspera Hiems Symfonia / Constellation / And My Angel (Candlelight) 2cd 14.98
THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.
Two disc remastered reissue of this out of print cd as well as two out of print/super limited eps from one of our favorite black metal bands, before they got all 'weird'. This is Arcturus at their black metal prime, before they discovered techno and Mr. Bungle and circuses and rapping. Fast and majestic Nordic black metal more along the lines of Dimmu Borgir and the like with lots of keyboards, soaring baritone vocals (sounding remarkably like Depeche Mode's Dave Gahan and hinting at their future direction perhaps) inhuman shrieks, blazing double kick drumming as well as orchestral/melodic breaks. Totally melodic but still pretty brutal and fierce, and kinda "prog" too, but not nearly as prog as they ended up getting... A lot of you probably already have the original, but this double disc is remastered and includes the tracks from their 1991 7" and a 1994 promo only cd.
RealAudio clip: "To Thou Who Dwellest In The Night"
RealAudio clip: "Wintry Grey"

ARCTURUS La Masquerade Infernale (Candlelight) cd 15.98
THE weird, Mr. Bungle-ized Norwegian black metal album of the millennium, featuring Garm of Ulver and Hellhammer of Mayhem. "Rewind" from the start of the first song to hear the hidden bonus trip hop track!

ARCTURUS Sideshow Symphonies (Season Of Mist) cd 16.98

MPEG Stream: "Hibernation Sickness Complete"
MPEG Stream: "Shipwrecked Frontier Pioneer"
MPEG Stream: "Nocturnal Vision Revisted"

ARFSYND s/t (Daemon Worship Productions) cd 13.98