Aurora Borealis

Here you will find all the distributed CDs from N - Z. To browse other sections of the shop please click the red links below:

AURORA BOREALIS RELEASES
DISTRIBUTED ITEMS: vinyl, CD (A-M), CD (N-Z), other items.
All prices include shipping worldwide. Please allow 28 days for delivery. You will be emailed when your order has been shipped. Although we aim to ship orders out within 48 hours of receipt, this is not always possible. You will be emailed if there is a problem with your order (eg address seems incorrect, item out of stock, etc).

		NADJA "Trembled" CD "Trembled has returned, triumphantly. Released by Utech Records [046] in the summer of 2006 on limited cdr. The principal live recordings from Toronto have been remixed/remastered and include a rare performance of Swans "No Cure for the Lonely." The core of the release, though, is ÒTrembleÓ, a cascading improvisation of drift and atmospherics revealed to audiences on an occasional basis. The track is telling of the fluidity with which Nadja create and why the band has become so highly regarded. ÒBreakpointÓ and ÒCorrasionÓ complete the set. Exclusive material has been added in "Stays Demons" and a second version of "Tremble" recorded by Scott Slimm in Philadelphia. Illustration by Justin Bartlett. The ultimate document of Nadja at their most electric and empyreal." - Utech This is great, I think my favourite Nadja recording. Some really beautiful moments. "Tremble" sample. £10.00

		NADja 'Desire In Uneasiness' CD Genre: ethereal dream dirge Following a wave of recent reissues and re-recorded versions of older CD-R titles, 'Desire In Uneasiness' is an album of all new material from the acclaimed Canadian dreamsludge weavers Nadja. Five colossal jams of eternally-fuzzy, ethereal dirge that are powered by the interlocking bass guitars of Leah Buckareff and Aidan Baker, who set loose a wave of monstrous grinding bass riffs amidst a fog of beautiful, swirling electronic effects. Desire also marks the first Nadja album to feature a live drummer in place of the drum machine programming that has driven the band's previous recordings, and the difference in the band's sound is apparent from the first crushing beats of album opener 'Disambiguation'. The organic drumming here takes Nadja's music into new realms of spacious jazzy exploration, dubby rhythms and cavernous psychedelia, while also delivering some of the band's most grooving, crushing hypno-bliss yet. Desire also stands out from the rest of the Nadja catalog for it's bizarre artwork that Aidan commisioned from his friend The Reverend Aitor. Aitor's bright, bold lines and textured magic marker artwork gives the gatefold jacket we've presented this disc in the look of a twisted children's book on acid, with weird images of chickens, trees growing through chairs, and more. The package is a sturdy 4-panel gatefold jacket printed by Stoughton, and it looks killer. £9.99

		BEN NASH "The Seventh Goodbye Pt. II" CDR Three extra tracks from Ben, recorded at the same time as the debut album "The Seventh Goodbye" - see elsewhere on this page to pick that up if you don't have it already, its a stunning piece of work. Mandatory drone/folk/psych/cinematic/rock whatever! Great stuff. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED £6.50

		NORTT "Galgenfrist" CD Galgenfrist Til gravens vi Af d¿de Kaldet Over mit lig Havet hinsides havet Hjems¿gt "The elegies of Nortt tell about death and darkness viewed from the dying and from the dead. They reveal a bitter hate towards life and its divine maker. It is pure misanthropy and blasphemy Ð not self-pity! The darkened soil is praised as the godforsaken heaven Ð a heaven in hell. In order to unchain oneself from the despair of life, follow the path of death! At a funereal pace and with a sombre, chanting voice, Nortt summons the forces in the night." Seven hymns to the night by Denmark's NORTT. The new album. Seems heavier than previous albums in some ways, but also more ambient in others. Not sure what to make of this yet, but if you have enjoyed his previous work, you won't be disappointed. Apparently it was all recorded during the hours of darkness again, and that is certainly apparent. £11.00

		NUIT NOIRE 'Fantomatic Plenitude' CD The first half includes nine of the latest recordings from the French eccentric genius Tenebras! Recorded February-July 2007. Guitars sound as ethereal as they ever did, Emile joins on vocals as on 'Infantile Espieglery'. The second half of the CD is a live recording from June 16, 2006 - Tapette Fest. It was a great recording anyway but has been mixed and mastered for this release! Nine tracks taken from Lunar Deflagration, Furibond Elegance EP and some older titles like Nightwind and of course Lutina!! Featuring Nicoblast on drums. Who'd have guessed there would be a Japanese release from NUIT NOIRE? Even has an Obi strip. The world is a strange place as anyone that hear this will agree. The most bizarre band in France continues to bewilder. Great back cover shot featuring the emaciated Tenebras in a cape and loincloth combo. £9.00

		OAKHELM 'Betwixt and Between' CD Great viking obsessed metal from Portland (again) that was formed from the ashes of the excellent FALL OF THE BASTARDS: OAKHELM shares the same epic musicality and successfully combines some great blast beats and black metal sounding sections with excellent guitar parts in the vein of classic metal like IRON MAIDEN, sort of like the post-IMMORTAL band I. There's certainly some folk metal in there too. Really great album. How is it that there's such great music coming from Portland right now? £8.00

		old wainds 'death nord kult' CD Genre: Russian BM Brand new album! "From the stark, barren permafrost tundra of Northern Russia comes a portent of impending doom: like some insatiable demonic blizzard, the fourth full-length from OLD WAINDS is upon mankind. Germinated in the lifeless land of one season, infinite sadness and endless hatred, where little else grows but pure primordial evil, this is the sound of freezing winds, glacial isolation and permanent darkness. Like icicles of hate, eight chilly odes consume all within range, harbingers of the deathly coldness that will embrace and cloak us all ultimately. Blood stains the permanently-frozen soil, producing a dark, wintry kaleidoscope of black and crimson, consuming the blinding light of a dying sun, as long shadows creep across the icy expanses and winter commences its ominous onslaught. Sparse and desolate, veiled in a shrill, gloomy mist, OLD WAINDS embody the harsh Arctic Circle hinterland that conceived them. Their furious storm of blackness acknowledges the old school but has a trademark, twilight atmosphere unique to this frostbitten horde." Debemur Morti. This is great! Very heavy, almost an IMMORTAL feel to some of the tracks, very meta, blasting speeds, good production. Some interesting more experimental sections in some tracks: really enjoying this. Its in stark contrast to much of the other Russian stuff I've heard that seems to be way more raw. + 6-panel digipack w/ 20-page booklet + + Black polycarbonate CD + + Bonus video clip + £10.99

		one lifeless eye 'Three lights extinguished' CD Genre: death ambient This is some seriously evil death ambient with some hatred for your speakers, be warned... Great CD, well worth picking up. "Lustmordian overture, of Chthonic lairs, and cosmic terror. One Lifeless Eye is big dark ambient, a smothering world unto itself from the first bell tone to the screaming end." - Heathen Harvest £8.99

		pocahaunted 'island diamonds'CD Genre: psychedelic weirdness ThereÕs a working theory out there about Pocahaunted: either EVERY record theyÕve released is a concept album, or NONE of them are. ThereÕs good proof to support both camps. But truth, of course, probably lies somewhere between the two (if thatÕs possible Ð which it isnÕt), but Island Diamonds makes a stronger case for the former. The ladiesÕ longstanding studio union with Eagle Rock guru Bobb Bruno has explored an array of terrains in the past, but their partnership on Diamonds transforms Pocahaunted into a way weirder, doper, and dancier creature than ever before, inspired in equal parts by MandaÕs obsession with Max Romeo tropical soul and bad acid jazz and BethanyÕs abiding love of mainstream rap and the Cocteau Twins (that sounds like itÕd be a nightmare, right?). Naturally, the results donÕt really resemble any of the influences they may have attempted to channel during these sessions, but so what? Low-lidded drum machine beats, sparse guitar chimes, and the occasional air raid siren cycle beneath a night sky of cooing, crying, and caterwauling in the classic PHAUNT mode/model. This CD digipak edition is a repress of the sold out LP on Arbor, with all new collage-portrait artwork by the band, plus two bonus tracks added on (one an outtake from the Diamonds sessions, one the unedited mix of their Bored Fortress 7Ó single) and a freaky digital music video for ÒAshes Is WhiteÓ created by part-time Pocahaunted bassist/best friend Luis Naranjo. Edition of 500. £8.99

		POTOP 'Channels' CD POTOP create seismic assaults of negative, down tempo extreme hardcore. In a world where the boundaries between hardcore punk and extreme metal have long since dissolved, POTOP straddle genres and easy labels to produce pure audio negativity, despair and ecstatic misery. Their sound combines hardcore urgency of extreme Power Violence acts such as DROP DEAD, CROSSED OUT and MAN IS THE BASTARD colliding with the slow motion brutal Doom of bands like BURNING WITCH. POTOP are fiercely DIY and have strong links with the global hardcore underground, typified by their hands-on involvement with the FUCK YOGA label. "Channels", the band's first CD release, combines two tracks from the split 12" with the US band BURMESE and a further track from a forthcoming FUCK YOGA compilation LP with two previously unreleased dirges. POTOP are slow, blackened, ugly music. "channels the slowest, ugliest sludge possible into narcotized dirges splattered with sickening feedback that drones on and on and on, twisted slow motion riffs, pounding glacial drums, occasionally blasting into short bursts of noisy, unstructured grind. But it's the vocals, that intense, tortured wailing and shrieking, a high pitched bloodflecked scream that oozes fear and horror and despair...it's the vocalsn that elevate Potop's extreme sludge to another level of seismic intensity, and I'd almost compare 'em to the idiosyncratic suicidal shrieks of Silencer. Think Burning Witch, Crossed Out, Eyehategod, Despise You, but more vile." - Crucial Blast "I" (edit) sample. Other notes: IRON PIG is proud to present "Channels" with the packaging entirely in the band's native Macedonian language, in Cyrillic characters. The CD package will have an outer sticker with English language text. Running time approx 30 minutes. IRON PIG records. £7.99

		PORTAL 'Outre' CD "What will alienate Portal that much more from today's so-called death metal scene (well, 95% of bands being passed as death metal today aren't!), 'Outre' is an album, one in which is being released in the presence of today, that truly captures the pure essence of what real death metal is supposed to encompass. In today's death metal scene, most bands (who claim to be death metal) feel the need to digitally trigger themselves and continuously enter all these death metal recitals in trying to out-do whoever and try to be the most technical, the fastest, the most triggered, the most well-produced, come up with the coolest riffs, and the most brutal of course (any idiot can do this, especially today). Nonetheless Portal want nothing to do with thisÉ 'Outre' is an album drenched in filth, disgust, raw other-worldly mire, unforgiving surrealism, and pure unbridled horror, a scenario in which some might indeed find hard to grasp. Through waves of vortex-like guitar histrionics (donÕt expect to find any identifiable riffs on here), methodically tribal-like pacing percussion, looming bass pulsations, and the subterranean vocal dictatorship of The Curator, listening to 'Outre' is like being sucked into that suffocating black hole in the nether-regions. Like an abominable silent art-house film from the '40s gone terribly awry, like the death metal soundtrack to the existential disturbing horror portrayed in Salvador Dali's Un Chien Andalou, Fritz Lang's M, or Robert Wiene's The Cabinet Of Dr. Cagliari, 'Outre' could very well be one of the most uneasy, and uncomfortable listening experiences in the history of death metal. True death metal art unparalleledÉ Also to note, the way this demented masterpiece is packaged; housed in a thick 5" cardboard sleeve, with the CD placed in a designed inner-sleeve, and with a specially crafted booklet bound by leather-like decrepit paper and stapled in gold (for the record, all copies of the album are in said format, hence this is no alternate version and at the same time there is no regular version), all protected by a thick sealable polybag are set in place to bring the aesthetic of this horrid edifice to a new level not even attempted in death metal. And of course to stare at the luminous cover created by Jeff Lowe is an experience in itself to say the least." £7.00

		PROCYON-X 'The Ghost of Orion' CD Dark astral ambient voyages through solar infinity. Deep, all encompassing sensory projection for earthbound space travellers and cosmic explorers. Haunting, spacial isolationism from the same universe as Klause Schulze, Neptune Towers, Biosphere etc. A most beautiful and rewarding work. CD in DVD case with insert form the dependable Paradigms label. £8.00

		PULSEFEAR "Perichoresis" CD "Now serving as the alter-ego of The Axis Of Perdition (just like Tribes Of Neurot are to Neurosis), where the sounds that Pulsefear were generating in their lair would inevitably lay the foundations down to what The Axis Of Perdition would become, Profound Lore are proud to unleash the nightmare that was first conjured up in 2000 and continued to brood up until 2006. Characteristically, Pulsefear and The Axis Of Perdition of course do share similar aesthetics, even though both entities purvey different expressions in their audial interpretations of sheer utter horror. With ÒPerichoresisÓ, Pulsefear unveil sounds of rust and decay while summoning a foreboding evil ready to unearth itself from the cracks of the run down walls, hallways, and desolate roads and alleyways of a town that has become so decrepit and ghostly from the ensuing engulfing darkness that has consumed it to no end. As ÒPerichoresisÓ progresses through itÕs journey, the dormant monster that hovers throughout begins to become revealed more and more, just like the derelict, inexplicably functioning lighthouse in the abandoned seaport reveals the town to be a little more dilapidated and horrific by each slow revolution of the beam. ÒPerichoresisÓ also features stunning photography and imagery courtesy of urban photographer and explorer Melanie Rhys (www.urbandecay.org.uk) and will most-likely appeal to fans of the glory days of the Cold Meat Industry era via such acts as RAISON DÕETRE, IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES etc. along with such bands as SUNN 0))), NADJA, and LUSTMORD. " CD in great card digi packaging, 50 plus minutes. £8.00

		Quttinirpaaq "Dragged Through The Streets" CDR Quttinirpaaq is multi instrumentalist Texan Matt Turner, and Dragged Through The Streets sounds to me like what last years weak ass Transformers movie should have looked and sounded like... Doom ridden feedback and thundering percussion, weirdo fuzzed buzz with walls of harsh feedback, screech and squelch lined crust invested sludge, bleak tribal drums with repetetive piano and 90s metal feedback, all across 6 tracks. Further releases will soon be seen on Ruralfaune, Epicene ESR and more! Edition of 50 in multi coloured ink pressed textured paper sleeves with hand penned info. £5.50

		QUTTINIRPAAQ S/T CDr White as the bone of a dead musk ox, heavy as the skull of the beast, the monolithic guitars of Quttinirpaaq take your breath away. Lost on the glacial island, you will face the blizzard. Massive. They have recent releases on Blackest Rainbow, Epicene and Caligulan. Ltd to 81, Faunasabbatha records. Recommended! Quttinirpaaq myspace. £6.50

		Rakhim "Crimson Umbrella" CD Transylvanian Error" (17:45) and "Ultimate Sword" (16.34), two lengthy tracks of mesmeric, psychedelic murk. "caverns echoing with monstrous processed vokills and clattering pipe-fights" say AQ. "RAKHIM would more aptly call to mind Wolf Eyes filtered through a lengthy Faust tape jam" reply the label. Its 2 members of CIRCLE, so add that to the mix and its all perfectly clear now, right? Recommended. £7.00

		RAVENS CREED 'Militia of Blood Sacrifice' CD Tracklist: 1- Panzer Maniac 2:55 2- Imperial Leather 2:06 3- Exploding the Steel 3:02 4- Dead Crow Mantle 2:29 From the unholy hell pits of Nottingham, England, the mighty RAVENS CREED are unleashed upon the world. With ex members of IRON MONKEY, CEREBRAL FIX, SKYCLAD, and GBH with ORANGE GOBLIN vocalist Ben Ward at centre stage, RAVENS CREED are the audio equivalent of having your face smashed in with a bag of rusty hammers. Total thrash holocaust with tunes that stick in your head like nails, the fours tracks are all masterpieces of filthy dirty thrashing metal. Buy or die! £5.00

		Religious Knives "Live at bigjar" CD Wow! This is not at all what I expected. I only had 'Remains' before I got these, this is way different. More fun than the other stuff, really good. "A four track live disc recorded in August of 07 by myself. While Religious Knives represent half the former output of Double Leopards the output from this quartet is anything but. Raw and dirty garage rock for keyboards, bass, guitar and drums that sounds more comfortable being off the Doors early demo days box set rather then a nofun offshoot band. Comes in a half panel sleeve graphic work by now frequent archive art collaborator Chase Middaugh. Pressing of 600 copies" - Archive. £9.00

		Residual Echoes "MFI-GBSP" CD Residual Echoes, the brain child of Adam Payne, pave a psych-sound unique to themselves. Recorded late 2005, this LP, exclusive to Rocket Recordings, features four long excursions into psychedelia that brings to mind the experimentation of early Pink Floyd, the guitar heroics of Youre Living All Over Me era Dinosaur Jr and the sonic groove of the Velvet Underground. Residual Echoes first self released album featured Adam and the inspirational forces of Ben Chasney (Six Organs of Admittance) and Ethan Miler (Comets on Fire) and the subsequent LP created enough of a stir on the underground to gain them the prestigious Album Of The Month from none other than Julian Cope on his Head Heritage website. Since then they have had their debut album, now highly sought after in its original vinyl format, re-released by Holy Mountain who also put out their highly acclaimed secondalbum which saw their sound reach new levels of psyche noise. "Like eavesdropping the most lysergically inspired hippie commune jam" Mojo Unearthed a few of these. Great stuff. If you like stuff like SILVESTER ANFANG and BEN NASH and such, you'll probably dig this. 'nice price'! £6.00

		R.Y.N. "Astral Death" CD "RYN is the project of Pete Burn (MARZURAAN) and Dean Glaister (ROMANCE). With one 7" on Drone Records to their name this is their first full length. Six long tracks of slowly shifting massive drones created with guitar, bass, metal and effects. Cosmic drift as supenovas explode, dark matter envelops and your psyche slowly dissolves. Total Astral Death! Great album, excellent work. Fans of early hour comedowns and cosmic levels of despair, self-regard and narcosis will be more than happy. "A menacing yet strangely uplifting drone album, simply yet beautifully constructed." - Heathen Harvest. "RYN are the bleakest and most cold of ambient projects. The pieces contained on Astral Death are more akin to the voids that have been caused by the absence of sound than itÕs positive presence. Soft crackling grey spaces rotate, divide and multiply revealing concentric storms of slow falling snow falling feedback and static. Twice projected into the ancient past and the ancient future the listener is lost, abandoned in a neither/neither world with no signs to guide the way, no stars to navigate the ship. Stripped of bearing until meaning has no meaning and disorientated until there is only the pulse of shimmering samsaric spirals of non-being/being the listener must submit to be lead through these places by the psychopomp of astral death." - Christopher Walton. Recommended! £8.50

		SAGENTOETER "Prayers To Othinn" CD in wooden case "A brilliant classical Folk album with great middle-ages orientated instrumentation. Sagentoeter are members of RIHARC SMILES, which guarantees You a large variety of perfectly played acoustic instruments. the lyrics are strong and heroic and tell from a ancient nordic Wolfage." - Steinklang. I love this album and often find myself listening to it when lacking inspiration for what my ears are yearning for. Its very heroic, somewhat melancholy, and also highly enjoyable. Perfectly transports the listener to some boreal hinterland or blasted heath at the mere touch of the play button. Great wooden packaging and high production values you'd expect of the wonderful Ahntern label. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED £11.50

		SANGRE CAVALLUM "Veleno de Teixo" CD "The northern Portuguese Sangre Cavallum return with a new and outstanding folk album. It is titled ÒVeleno de TeixoÓ (meaning Yew Poison) and it is a collection of tributes to women and to the cult of mother-goddess in pre-Christian era. "Veleno de Teixo" contains a brand-new set of 16 powerful songs between pagan folk and power-psych atmospheres. Inspired by the music and ethnography of their homeland Callaecia/northern Portugal. It is laboriously produced, capturing the revolutionary minds of these musicians. Among many traditional instruments they play the hurdy-gurdy, bagpipes, flutes, folkloric guitars, war-drums and many times these acoustic instruments are transformed with heavy distortions and meet the psychedelic bass and vintage guitars. It also features the new singer Emanuel Melo da Cunha on a fine debut. "Veleno de Teixo" is a step forward in their wonderful path and a pleasing example of how tradition is a living thing when folklore meets folk rock or dark industrial music. Includes great artwork and a 16 page booklet with psych-photo art and beautiful texts. 63 min. / 16 tracks " - Steinklang. Another great album on Ahnstern, fast becoming almost a modern Folkways in their documentation of the rich and varied strands of pan-European avant garde music. Truly unique. CD in 6-side digipack with 16-page booklet / Ahnstern HIGHLY RECOMMENDED £11.50

		SERPENTCULT "Trident Nor Fire" MCD Thee Plague Of Gentlemen is dead. Serpentcult lives. Heavy, downtuned and pummeling with air raid siren vocals courtesy of Michelle this four tracker will run you over! SERPENTCULT formed in 2006 out of the ashes of THEE PLAGUE OF GENTLEMEN, BelgiumÕs heaviest band ever, and consists of Frederic Caure - Guitar, Steven Van Cauwenbergh Ð Bass, Frederik Cosemans Ð Drums and Michelle Colon Ð Vocals. Heavy, down tuned and pummelling, the parallels to TPOG are clear, but the air raid siren vocals courtesy of Michelle and their slightly more mid-tempo approach sets SERPENTCULT apart from TPOG as well as from the rest of the Doom/Sludge scene. Trident nor fire was recorded early 2007 at CCR studios (LENG TCH'E, ATARAXIE, TPOG) and has an amazing, full, bottom heavy sound that really adds to the immense impact of the songs. As a closer, the band choose to cover Rainbow demon by URIAH HEEP, in full awareness of that it has been done by several bands before them, still no previous take on this classic tune has been this god damn heavy! Prepare to be crushed! MCD in jewel case. £6.00

		shining 'III: Angst' A5 digi CD Genre: suicidal Black Metal This is the fancy reissue of this classic Swedish bleak and miserable Black Metal masterpiece courtesy of Italian label Avantgarde. Another slice of miserablism from Kvarforth and team as they push you over the edge and you wonder what its all about, why you bother, why you keep trying... Best to submit to the mid-pace misery and fade away as your blood fills the bath tub. You get the idea. £7.99

shining
'IV: The Eerie Cold' A5 digi CD

Genre: suicidal Black Metal
Despite calling it a day after the previous album, the self-slashing Swedes came back for more: suicide, depression, nihilism, you can't keep a good band down, and this album turns down the temperature several notches. An ideal soundtrack to freezing to death, trapped in the wreckage of your car on an icy road in the frozen wilderness. This is the fancy reissue of this classic Swedish bleak and miserable Black Metal masterpiece courtesy of Italian label Avantgarde.

£7.99

		SHORA "Malval" CD Grounded by precise rhythmic movements and pulsing guitars, MALVAL is a shape-shifting blend of the beautiful and the uncertain. The elegant, unusual and subtle melodies always swaying towards an almost unreachable closure. Lulling you towards comfort and security before erupting or imploding into yet another phase, leaving you to wander how, when, what and why. An independent and cyclic journey that will always be, its arms always open but its back always turned. Simultaneously comforting and cold, MALVAL is a mysterious instrumental voyage that will, for the foreseeable future, intrigue and occupy the depth of all who care to listen. MP3 sample here Recommended for fans of MIASMA, CIRCLE, CAN... Excellent stuff! Conspiracy. Digipack CD. £10.00

		SILBERNACHT 'Liebe und Verfall: Die Hoffnun stirbt, die Liebe nicht' CD "This one has been in the planning stages for a couple of years. Imagine a gloomy, old silent film. Imagine the soundtrack for that film. This CD would be the music you would hear. Germany couldn't be a more appropriate home for SILBERNACHT, project of one Frank Esser, for this musical score seems to fit in perfectly with an era of film that is legendary the world over thanks to the genius of many a German filmmaker. The release is on a 4-panel chipboard stock, with hand printed panels, is set up to look like the work received from Herr Esser over the years." - Ajna Tracklisting: 1. Das Erwachen (The Awakening) 2. Liebe und Verfall (Love and Decay) 3. Unter den Sternen (Under the Stars) 4. Wenn der Tod nur Sehnsucht weckt (When Death only creates Longing) This really is very good indeed and very unusual. Lots of reviews have mentioned various films that this brings to mind, but to my mind its "Carnival of Souls". This release is adrift in time, another great release from the ever amazing Ajna. £8.99

		Sitaar-tah! "Semimimimimin" CD Beautiful shimmering textures with sitaar riffs, some unlike any sitaar I've heard before, others more traditional. Shifting oscilations (laptop?) like Fennesz or other electronica of that ilk, gentle percussion. Almost throat singing, some banjo-like playing. "A 43min single track studio recording from the Tokyo based Sitar Orchestra that provided the amazing musical backdrop for Keiji Haino on the double disc archive release Animamima. The 22 piece unit is back with this swarm of locust gem of a release. Graphic and design work on the release by Stephen OÕMalley features an outer cover that is a four color silkscreen, beautifully executed by Alan Sherry of Siwa records. Inside is a gorgeous photographic collage. Pressing of 700 copies" - Archive. £9.00

		SINK 'The Process' CD "There is obscure and then there is Obscure. The difference is subtle, but when you hear Sink, you know the limit between obscure and Obscure has been surpassed. The Process is a beast that drags you below the surface and lets you gasp for air just enough to keep conscious and experience the horror. Monumental wall of sound built from demented vibrations, violent distortion, wailing feedback, reverberating clashes and almost choral (in)human voices echoing in your mind like amplified painful memories; and when the wall collapses, the undertow pulls you deeper into paranoid and disturbing surroundings filled with static drones, scorching electrical trills and gravely impressive Obscurity that defies mental health. You may never reach back to the surfaceÉ This is not a sludge record. This is not a drone record. This is not an experimental record. This is The Process. " Very good indeed! Glacial, almost industrial sounds, some creeping ambience and then crushing heaviness. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. On Kult ov Nihilow, Finland. Cool fold over packaging. "Weakness" sample. £8.99

		SKULLFLOWER 'Desire for a Holy War' CD Desire for a Holy War is mayhem piled on top of mayhem piled on top of squalls of caustic feedback. Furies spitting oaths of shrouded vengeance from ancient tongues. Plague riders dealing death on mounts of venomous ether, hooves pounding the wild earth. Matthew Bower may have reached a watershed with last year's Abyssic Lowland Hiss (Heavy Blossom) but it is with Desire that he has come to conquer. Never has Skullflower sounded so severe or remorseless. Edition of 750, art by Stephen Kasner. £9.50

		SKULLFLOWER 'IIIrd gatekeeper' CD Genre: noise rock A reissue of Skullflower's acclaimed 1992 album IIIrd Gatekeeper, featuring the lineup of Matthew Bower (guitar), Stuart Dennison (drums and vocals), and Anthony DiFranco (bass). IIIrd Gatekeeper is an immensely heavy album that was originally released on HeadDirt, the label run by Justin Broadrick of Godflesh/Jesu/Final fame back in the early 90's, and featured Skullflower at their heaviest, grinding out slow, sludgy riffs and crushing, almost industrial rhythms amid a tempest of psychedelic guitar noise and dense sheets of feedback - easily the most crushing, rock-based music that Skullflower ever produced. IIIrd Gatekeeper served up a skulldozing dose of post-industrial dirge rock that sat comfortably next to Godflesh, Swans, and Ramleh in terms of dark, druggy, hypnotic lumbering heaviness. This is one of our favorite albums ever at Crucial Blast, and we are presenting this reissue with new liner notes, a new package design that retains all of the original artwork from the HeadDirt release, and a remastering job courtesy of Scott Hull at Visceral Sound. £9.99

		SORC'HENN 'Faro: Death Of The Island Sheeps'CDr Genre: dream drone "I've been haunted by the beautifully dark loopscapes of French artist Sorc'henn dating back to first hearing the band on their 'Harmonium pieces & dead reveries' disc released by Faunasabbatha, so we were immensely stoked when Sorc'henn was interested in releasing some more of their music through Crucial Bliss. This new full length features four tracks of Sorc'henn's murky, dreamy drones that stretch out over a misty, grey-washed landscape much like the one pictured on the exterior of Faro's foldout sleeve, a lightless wetland that fades way into the distance, obfuscated by a thick veil of shadow, and the fourth track is additionally notable for being a collaboration between Sorc'henn and members of Portland black metallers L'Acephale and Virginia deathdrone outfit One Lifeless Eye..." - Crucial Blast Another intriguing release from Sorc'henn, and its as enigmatic as ever. Recommended. £6.99

		SOULSEARCH 'Liedersammlung' CD "classic Pagan-Doom Folkmetal with strong and heroic german lyrics and many medieval elements. Soulsearch started in the early 90s to create their own, unique style, which would today be called Folkmetal, but at that time Soulsearch were alone in the fields. 10 years later, Folkmetal (or Metalfolk) as we know it nowadays, began to establish as a own music style. All songs on this album were recorded between 1993 and 2000. The CD includes the final Soulsearch release: the 10" IHERNO from 2000, which was limited to only 100 copies. The other songs are a fine selection from their early albums (each album has sold 3000 to 5000 copies in the 90s!) + one unreleased track. After they split in 2001, two ex-Soulsearch members joined again in 2005 and founded together with a third musician OUR SURVIVAL DEPENDS ON US, a more NEUROSIS-orientated formation. Another ex-Soulsearch member (Haju) is one of the basic-members of STURMPERCHT." digipack CD / Ahnstern £10.50

		SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA 'AN OCEAN WITHOUT WATER' CD Genre: neo-psych melodic out-rock Richmond, VA's cinematic instrumentalists SOUVENIR'S YOUNG AMERICA present their second full length, "An Ocean Without Water". The album was recorded with John Morand (Labradford, Sparklehorse, 4 Walls Falling) at Sound of Music. Lush, shimmering guitar ambience and hypnotic, propulsive instrumental heaviness wind through the dusty highways and burnt twilight skies of "An Ocean Without Water," the sophomore album from Richmond's Souvenir's Young America. Divided into six flowing movements, "An Ocean Without Water" is filled with intensely beautiful melodies that drift on lonesome harmonica strains and sparkling, celestial electronics, shot through with mystic, western slide guitar, passages of crushing angular riffage, rolling tribal drumming, and transcendent blues. Through their intricate song arrangements and moody textures, Souvenir's Young America has created an epic, emotional narrative. The sound draws from the collected DNA of forebears like Popul Vuh, Earth, Labradford, and Neurosis, yet they form a powerfully evocative instrumental language all of their own. Features collaborations with Aughra (Magic Bullet Records) and Nick Forte (Sublight Records, ex Rorschach / Beautiful Skin). The band has developed their sound even further with this new album, and we couldn't be more stoked over the epic, moody sounds that onfold over "An Ocean Without Water's" 40 minute running time. Great and unique, though I'd say there's strong appeal here for those into GRAILS, ZOMBI, ACROSS TUNDRAS, though its much more than a sum of those. There's a real pounding urgency to some of this album, don't be lulled into expecting driftimg ambience. £9.99

		souvenir's young america s/t CD Genre: cinematic post-rock Monstrous instrumental post-metal from Richmond, Virginia. Beautiful, flowing, HEAVY instrumental music, heavily layered, masterfully assembled creations, emotionally moving and majestic like Red Sparowes, filled with dense shoegazer buildups and gorgeous droning electronic swirl, massively heavy prog-rock dirges and sludgy piano-accompanied rock, never descending into boring noodling or overextended jams. A range of instruments are used here, keyboards, percussion, samples, guitars, accordion, xylophone, cello, banjo,and much more. The whole album sounds like a soundtrack for a killer lost road-trip movie scored by members of Neurosis and Godspeed You! Black Emperor doing a weird mix of 70's prog and biker rock, and 80's soundtrack metal, but with all sorts of forays into lonesome,dusty country guitar-twang, long droning expanses of floating electronic drones, supremely beautiful and often super-crushing !!! This is ABSOLUTELY A MUST GET for fans of heavy instrumental ambient metal / post-rock (Red Sparowes, Mogwai, Mono, Pelican, Isis, etc.), and soundtrack-influenced heaviness (Zombi, Chromelodeon). Totally recommended along with their follow up release also on sale here. £8.99

		THE STARGAZER'S ASSISTANT "Schwarzhagel" CD "David J. Smith (Guapo, Miasma & The Carousel Of Dead Horses) releases a second set of recordings as The Stargazer's Assistant. Following The Other Side of the Island on Aurora Borealis, Shivers and Voids is a union of instrument, voice and tape. A soundtrack left waiting for the right film to accompany it through the dark. Sweeping, intricate, sometimes ominous, yet always exuding a warmth of emotion. Ancient forests, vast plains, billowing clouds, rusted metal hulks, wet rock walls, lights flickering in darkness. The Stargazer's Assistant reveals all this to us." - Utech An excellent follow up to the AB release. Part of the Kasner UR series. "Nightsoil" sample. £9.50

		Stefan Kushima "Don't Touch The Walls" CDR Stefan Kushima is a nearly 23 year old experimental visual and audio artist from Linz, Austria. On his debut release for Blackest Rainbow he creates minimal bliss wavering drones with bursting metallic vibes and fuzzed glows washing in and out. Sounds like Stefan was making these sounds somewhere in space or deep in the ocean and somehow it got recorded far away from the actual source. Its a real blissful nice gem from yet another unknown artist out there in the ether. Comes in classic BR sleeve designed by Stefan. Hand numbered edition of 50. £5.50

		STRIBORG "Autumnal Melancholy" CD "Fact is that this is such an inaccessible style of necro black metal, itÕs hard to find anyone who likes this at all. I personally donÕt know anybody who has this shit at home, but trust me, there are lost souls buying this. And those people either have an utterly bizarre taste in music, or they worship Satan in their daily lives for real." Metalrage More forest bound experimental black psycehedlic noise black metal from STRIBORG, maybe album eight? Top titles include: "The Crying Mirror", "As A Hermit Hiding In The Trance Of Night" and "Meandering In Sorrow". £6.00

		STRIBORG 'Trepidation' CD Reissue of this 2005 album from STRIBORG. 10 tracks of temperate rainforest Black Metal, including "Journey of a Misanthrope", "Black Gaia" and "Catawampus". £6.00

		STRIBORG 'Embittered Darkness/Isle De Morts' CD "Cruel lo-fi grim and dissonant black metal masterpiece ! New 2006 bleak misanthropic album + rare 1997 furious hateful bonus tracks ! " Who would have thought of a time when Tasmanian one-man BM would be all the rage? 16 tracks of Sin Nanna's own special brand of lo-fi bedroom BM psyche skullfuckery. As an artist and producer, I think its fair to say he has a unique ear... Tracks vary, in the STRIBORG style, from ambient lo-fi, to lo-fi BM scree malevolence, along the lines of XASTHUR. File under "Tasmaninan lo-fi one-man BM". CD in jewel case. Displeased. £6.00

		STURMPERCHT 'Geister im Waldgebirg' CD "One year has passed since the Austrian / south Bavarian Alpin-Folk formation Sturmpercht released their last 7". finally now here is their long awaited new album! "Geister im Waldgebirg" is a journey through the deepest central-European forests and mountains with all their strange creatures, fairies, myths and legends. the sounds and lyrics on this album are engrained in old pagan rites and cults, in hunters-legends and in tales from darkest woods and the people living there. the songstyles vary from powerful Martial-Folk hymns, over fragile Folk-balads, to weird songs about strange people and creepy animals. several great artists supported Sturmpercht in the making of this album: first af all Axel from WERKRAUM, who is a basic Sturmpercht-member since quite a while now. it's Axels perfect guitar- and flute playing and his skillful hands in mixing, that the Folk-songs have this brilliant late 60ies/early 70ies touch now. the close Sturmpercht-friends ALLERSEELEN, SANGRE CAVALLUM and WALDTEUFEL have also recorded fantastic songs especially for this album. Allerseelen and Sangre Cavallum also contributed several sounds from their large archives and Waldteufel additionally gave his voice for "RiesenbrŸder". Sturmpercht is the only Folk-band, who created their own music style named "ALPIN-FOLK", which is absolutely unique up to now. anyway if you prefer straight or weird Folk: there is no way around this album for all kinds of Folk-Lovers. this album will be your closest friend in dark and frosty winter nights!" - Steinklang. Great Julian Cope review. Great record. Ethnic music of the Alps. Sounds timeless really. CD in top quality digipack. 70 minutes and 20 seconds!! Steinklang. RESTOCK!! £10.50

		SUBURBAN LEPROSY 'Bohemian Leprosy' 3" CDr Coming down from the holy hill of Ranui; the instrumental rites of SL resuscitate the old daemons. A new battle begins. Choose your chapel. NZBM. Ltd to 52, Faunasabbatha records. SL myspace. £6.50

		SVARROGH Balkan Renaissance CD "The Bulgarian Black Folklore ensemble Svarrogh of Dimo Dimov has recorded another masterpiece of Ritual Folk music. "Balkan Renaissance" is already the 4th Svarrogh album under the banner of the god of the sun. This mystic sound-journey drags you along to the ancient heart of the Balkan mountains, its caves, rivers, villages and people with their deep mythological roots. Svarrogh's sound is absolutely unique, not only because of the beautiful mandolin-playing and the bagpipes, mixed with droning synths, which envocate the return of the sun. Svarrogh creates a musical look through a grey window to discover the dark past of Bulgaria«s 19th century and its Renaissance, after years of osman opression. On "Balkan Renaissance" you can listen to original passages of famous bulgarian poets and artists like Dora Gabe, Elisaveta Bagryan, Elin Pelin, Dimitar Talev or the amazing poems of Ivan Vazov. On this album, Dimo Dimov also pays a tribute to the genius music of Allerseelen with the song "Kamerad". And as a special feature, the CD will also contain a so called Martenitsi. Martenitsa is a Bulgarian heathen/pagan tradition related to March 1, which has its origin in the establishment of the Bulgarian state in 681 AD. Mart is the Bulgarian word for "March". According to Bulgarian folklore, the month March marks the beginning of springtime. Therefore, the first day of March is a traditional holiday associated with sending off the winter and welcoming the spring. Key-figures in these ancient traditional rites are the Kukeri, the demons who banish winter and invite spring and fertility. The Kukeri are the Balkan counterpart to the Austrian and south Bavarian Perchten. This album is full of traditional-, pagan- and ritual Folk music, Neo-Classical songs, Martial drummings and it has even some Industrial moments. - 18 tracks / 73 min." Strange mixture of Black Metal elements in the staccato guitar (& mandolin) work, and the vocals in parts too, and more Folk and Allerseelen style neo-Folk. Very unusual indeed, plus the Martenitsi is like a woolen pompom type of thing. Unique would be a good word, and well worth checking out. CD with special Martenitsi lim.>500< / Ahnstern £9.00

		TARANTULA HAWK s/t CD TARANTULA HAWK "combines all the essential elements of early Pink Floyd, Man Is The Bastard and King Crimson with a black metal sensibility", a very heavy psychedelic affair indeed. "On their second self-titled release Tarantula Hawk has laid the foundation for another instrumental interpretive journey into the depths of creative perception. Using a darker palette than their previous effort, this second album explores a cumulative void within the players, expressing emotions that can only be conveyed with music." Excellent album on Neurot by this great band that seems chronically overlooked to my mind. CD in jewel case. £9.00

		THRONE OF KATARSIS "Unholy Holocaust Winds" CD "Gloriously frosted Norwegian black metal, atmospherically textured, cold and grimm indeed. Masterfully recorded onto 4-track cassette including winter field recordings captured in the nocturnal gloom of Norway's Liarlund Forests." This is awesome. Great Blamck metal but with some really unusual acoustic guitar parts, and good use of field recordings. Paradigms £8.00

		TIERMES 'malahvia' CDR Incredible looking and bizarre sounding, 'malahvia' is something like Tiermes' 4th release? From the Finnish wilderness Tiermes create strange and ritualistic music straddling the genres of industrial, free-folk, ambient and noise, taking influence from traditional shamanic culture. Total playing time is 1 hour 13 minutes! CDr in card slipcase wrapped in a doudle sided poster with incredible artwork. This in turn is wrapped in a strange waxy paper and tied with rough twine. RECOMMENDED!! £9.00

		Titan s/t CD "A very special untitled debut release from Brooklyn, NY krautrock mystics, TITAN. Cascading kosmische freakout in three parts over 45 minutes - shimmering mind expansion like a heavy, solar tapestry of Ash Ra Tempel, Klaus Schulze and Zombi. Immense." Limited edition of 750 copies. Specially packaged in Paradigms card sleeve w/ band artwork. Sealed in a hand-stamped presentation envelope and wallet. Paradigms £8.00

		T.O.M.B. 'Macabre Noize Royale' CD Genre: black noise T.O.M.B. is a mysterious, unnamed entity well known for crafting the darkest noise recordings with the aid of nothing but field recordings. With 'Macabre Noize Royale', T.O.M.B. has set out to push the boundaries further than ever before. To collect the field recordings T.O.M.B. travelled and trespassed through PennsylvaniaÕs darkest landmarks including: Bethlehem Steel Works - builder of large calibre guns during WWI and WWII Eden Hall Church - 157 year old gothic church destroyed from arson Laurel Hill Cemetery - 170 year old cemetery Lambertville High School - students burned alive 30 years ago, site of countless suicides since. Each location has a disturbing history and they have become locations of multiple ghost sightings and unexplained deaths. Through these field recordings, smashing recording rods into massive steel structures and ancient crypt doors, T.O.M.B. reawakens the decaying structures and the agonizing history they hold sealed. The recordings are then crafted into the darkest, heaviest BLACK NOISE ever recorded. And for the first time full Black Metal / Industrial tracks have been created. Macabre Noize Royale is T.O.M.B.Õs most diverse album by far. Integrating pure noise with ambience, Industrial and Black Metal. The clear intention is to push the boundaries of Black Noise sound manipulation and continue to shock the listener (both fans and newcomers). The previous tape was really extreme and an excellent release. This full album builds on those grim foundations: this is total black evil noise. Supreme. £8.99

		trees s/t CD Genre: extreme doom The debut album from the Portland quartet Trees delivers two epic tracks of monolithic, blackened doom metal with a twisted, noise-damaged approach and a dank basement vibe. Trees craft glacial abstract riffs and rivers of ashen amplifier goo that fans of feedback-laden heaviosity will find highly satisfying, a kind of grinding, slow-motion black hole psychedelia that has a similiar hypnotic death-ritual quality as artists like Bloody Panda and Khanate, but with their own unique trance state of swirling guitar textures, horrific jet black dronescapes and ghoulish, excoriating vocals. Features members of the PDX psych-sludge outfit Tecumseh (we stocked some of their vinyl before here at AB). This CD edition of the TREE's debut comes in a Stoughton printed 4-panel gatefold case. I'd definitely recommend this to anyone mising their Khanate fix. Torturous! £9.99

		THE UNHOLY WARLOCK 'song of the spheres' CDr A single epic sprwaling live jam "one microphone straight to minidisc". 40 minutes and 53 seconds of ultra obscure "true sheffield black psychedelia". Sound is a little buried, but the playing is tight and sharp as knives. Some great drumming, not afraid of stepping on the gas here and there. Very varied as the track moves on, some SILVESTER ANFANG vibes, there's a great section with howling vocals, even a touch of ABRUPTUM in thee air at one point. There is definitely something in the Sheffield water. CDr with double-sided pro-printed insert in a PVC wallet. £5.00

		URFAUST 'Drei Rituale Jenseits Des Kosmos' CD "Enter the torture chamber and bear witness to rituals of intense depravity. While the last remnants of humanity slip away, URFAUST deliver the ultimate unsettling celebration of manÕs demise with 20 minutes of morbid, twisted dementia. Psychotic, disturbing visions abound as the ultra doom nightmare is unveiled amid a sickening dose of phobia-inducing audio illness. Agonised, tormented howls; inhuman(e) shrieks; terrible, tortuous invocations. The corrupted, unbalanced mindset revealed on these psychosomatic infections is so chronic it will induce feelings of vertigo and paranoia as the pandemic of disequilibrium spreads like a disease. Three epistles of agony signal the end... and then there is nothing more." - Debemur Morti. The first easily obtained new material from these ultra obscure maniacs. The extended Classical samples are gone. In fact, I think the guitars are gone. We have something further away from traditional Black Metal once again, with just mid-paced drums, a very distorted (even wonky..) keyboard of some kind and the usual buried vocals, part Bauhaus, part drunken cabaret singer, all infernal. Great stuff and worth the wait. It reminds me of RIDE FOR REVENGE in that its stripped down, though the sound itself is still large and sprawling, perhaps more so than before. Recommended. Tracklisting : 1 - Untitled 08:58 2 - Untitled 05:58 3 - Untitled 05:17 £8.00

		UTLAGR 'Traditions Normandes' CD Pagan warhammers thunder over Vinnland. Blasting, epic black metal from the far off shores of Canada, fueled by pagan heritage in honour of Rolfr Utlagr, founder of Normandy, their ancestral homeland. 6 stirring battle hymns of devastating black metal glory in the spirit of Immortal or early Satyricon. £8.00

		VELVET CACOON "Dextronaut" 2CD "Early lost material finally comes to light. Completely Re-mastered with a new sound and layout. Comes with a bonus CD featuring cold/ambient music. --The first full length preparation with 8888 track recording. Concept based on the journeys experienced with dissociatives [READ: DRUGS & MORE DRUGS] to achieve a true lunar black metal recording. Songs recorded and compiled over the course of 18 months. Extremely raw Chronicle/Compilation." I love this band, though I fear they may not be cool any more. Whatever. 2CD in jewel case. £9.00

		VELVET CACOON "Genevieve" CD Curiously named US duo with the Loki spirit: previously claiming to be eco-fascists and swathed in a cloak of mystery, they now claim to be hoaxers and drug addicts. Musically, this is an incredible fusion of the drifting drone feel of EARTH 2 and hypnotic BM of say BLUT AUS NORD. Cold and brittle, but with incredible depth, dragging you down into its glacial heart. Thoroughly recommended, and highly interesting in their manipulation of perception/belief amongst a an isolated scene. Full Moon Productions. £9.00

		vinterriket 'Lichtschleier' CD Genre: dark ambient/pagan Another CD from the insanely prolific Vinterriket, master of dark and glacial pagan ambient. Beautiful and cold, to such a point that it causes intense visions of glaciers and mountains and frozen forests and snowdrifts. Lichtschleier effortlessly achieves what it set out to do; create a dark, cold, ambient atmosphere. This is the Displeased reissue with a video for the title track. Total playing time: 50:52 £7.99

		vinterriket '...und die Nacht kam schweren Schrittes' CD Genre: dark ambient/pagan Another CD from the insanely prolific Vinterriket, master of dark and glacial pagan ambient. Displeased edition, fully remastered with new cover art and a previously unreleased bonus track: '...und Donner durchflutete' Total playing time 01:04:08 £7.99

VLAD TEPES
"Black Legions Spirits" CD

Beyond kvlt French Black Metal, compiling tracks from their demos: "War Funeral March" 1994, "Into Frosty Madness" 1995, and "Celtic Poetry" 1994. Right Black legions gear, so you n=know the coup: dire sound, made up languages, blown out recording, library copier corspepaint pics... All in all, its pretty killer. First demo actually sounds pretty good, but get better after they dropped the 4 track on the way to practice one day, around the track "Wladimir's March". Blow me down with a demo cover if there ain't even a solo on the Bathory cover "Bestial Lust"!
"Drink the Poetry of the Celtic Disciple" has all my favourite elements: title, dissonance, hoover/dentist drill guitar sound, trapdoor vokills... Its not as messed up as BELKETRE or some of the other Legions Noir stuff, but if you like STRIBORG and messy stuff, its a winner.

£8.00