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Occult and Vampyric Symphonic Black Metal Magick from the depths of Astral Chaos! Spellbinding atmosphere filled with synth-scapes and lyrics that lift the veil from the Abyss, revealing the Serpentine path! Recorded in the Serpent's Chamber from 1996 - 1997 on a portable 4 track recorder, this cult underground second album, that did not originally see a release until 2005 is finally out again on tape. Transparent green pro-tape with 6 pages booklet. Limited to 200 hand numbered copies.

BEHERIT require no introduction. Arguably the most influential black metal band from Finland and no doubt one of the most infamous regardless of locale, mainman Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance has always followed his muse no matter where it takes him. And that certainly proved true with the synapse-frying EP Messe des Morts.

Originally released in 1993 on 7" vinyl by the notorious Necropolis Records, Messe des Morts immediately followed BEHERIT's landmark Drawing Down the Moon. Whereas that album not-to-so-subtly hinted at the electronic textures to come, with Messe des Morts did Nuclear Holocausto Vengeance completely subvert expectations. The content itself was similar to what came before - albeit in a wilder and more chaotic iteration, if that can be believed - but it was the FORM where BEHERIT severed itself from convention, black metal or otherwise. Incredibly unorthodox at the time, everything across Messe des Morts seemed to stem from the crudest "instruments," if they were actual instruments at all; given the scattershot drum-programming and the layers of drill fuzz across everything, it could be believed that the EP was entirely synthetic. And frighteningly so: Messe des Morts was utterly unhinged and ALIEN, especially Vengeance's vocals, and served as a giant FUCK OFF to the rest of the scene before BEHERIT delivered the all-electronic H418ov21.C the next year.

Naturally, Messe des Morts caused confusion and frankly upset most who heard it, but that has been part of the genius of BEHERIT lo these past three decades. An absolute classic of true black metal unorthodoxy, Messe des Morts receives a LONG-overdue standalone reissue courtesy of WEREWOLF, and will be available across all formats.

BEHEXEN should require no introduction. One of the longest-running Finnish black metal bands, BEHEXEN have patiently spread out their album releases in such a manner that each serves as a tome, a poignant snapshot of that era of its creators, with each being unique in its headspace but undeniably coming from the same visionary minds. But prior to essential early albums like 2000's Rituale Satanum and 2004's classic By the Blessing of Satan, BEHEXEN had recorded a trio of equally compelling demos - and even one prior, under the moniker Lords of the Left Hand, in 1995.

That is where Beyond the Four Gates comes in. Truly titled, this massive double-disc collection conveniently compiles the original three BEHEXEN demos and the preceding Lords of the Left Hand one, making for over an hour and a half of ancient black metal music. Lords of the Left Hand's lone demo, Reality is in Evil..., leads off Beyond the Four Gates, and even back then, the foundation for the first era of BEHEXEN - which culminated in (and concluded with) Rituale Satanum - was in place, all hulking plod and clanging cold guitars. Following on the first disc is BEHEXEN's first official demo, Eternal Realm. Here, the cold clang is suffused with more energy and, more crucially, medieval synths: a poignant snapshot of 1997 indeed. From those sessions is included a cover of Rotting Christ's "Sign of Evil Existence." Come 1998's Blessed Be the Darkness demo, BEHEXEN would begin showing signs of the sound that would come to define that first era. Colder, crueler, faster, and fueled by founding frontman Torog's increasingly inhuman throat, this demo presciently forecasted the filthy & furious idiom of Finnish black metal that would bloom during the looming new millennium. Before that millennium arrived, BEHEXEN recorded the previously unreleased Promo '99, which closes out this collection. Five of the six songs on this promo would be re-recorded for their pivotal debut album, but in comparison to the bass-heavy thrust of Rituale Satanum, it's interesting to hear these tracks with the ripped-yet and yet wide-open soundfield of By the Blessing of Satan four years later...which all underlines the fact that BEHEXEN's vision has been far-seeing for ages now. Enter Beyond the Four Gates and receive wisdom manifold.

Comes with massive 24-page booklet. By now, DECEASED need no introduction. One of the longest-running American death metal bands, since 1985, DECEASED have been there for it all: death metal's genesis, its creative peak, its commercial peak and subsequent sink into trendiness, the eventual fallout and "un-trendiness," its rebirth at the hands of a new generation, and on and on. There they have stood, simply and 100% always DECEASED, not caring what year it is or what is hip - simply, always, DEATH METAL FROM THE GRAVE!

And across their sizable-yet-succinct discography, at their heart, DECEASED have always been a great HEAVY METAL band. They proved it with 1997's landmark Fearless Undead Machines and continued to prove it with every album thereafter, with 2018's Ghostly White showing that even this MANY years on, their pistons are pumping harder and more creatively than ever.

During those past three decades, DECEASED have not been without ambition. Even when stretching the limits of complexity like on 1995's The Blueprints for Madness, true-to-death storytelling has always been at the fore of their work, vividly illustrated by the characteristic throat of founder / former drummer King Fowley. And although Fearless Undead Machines was perhaps the apex of that storytelling, never before have DECEASED attempted such an emotional, topically rooted-in-death album...until now!

Enter Children of the Morgue, DECEASED's darkest record to date. The album's concept is on dying and all that it entails, and suitably do the band integrate nearly every element of their past and present arsenal into its 55-minute runtime. "There will be fast parts, slow parts, melodic parts, noisy parts, and everything in between," Fowley claimed pre-release, and he's not wrong! But how DECEASED manage to thread everything together so seamlessly speaks to the strength of their songwriting - always recognizable, but never resting on past laurels. Here on Children of the Morgue, moody-yet-melodic riffing and lead-work take center stage as Fowley narrates this epic-length tale of life and death. The album's exceptional pacing and engaging, always-going-forward song constructions heighten the sensation that the record is a lot shorter than it actually is; however, if one was to do some quick math, he'd surmise at least half these tracks are indeed EPIC - at or above the eight-minute mark. Nevertheless, the sum effect is mesmerizing and even majestic, unremittingly DARK as the subject matter may be. The final icing on the cake (or slamming of the morgue's doors?) is the warm & rustic recording courtesy of Oblivion Studios, where the aforementioned Fearless Undead Machines and co-classic Supernatural Addiction were rendered onto tape.

Nearly 40 years since their formation, DECEASED show no signs of stopping - and, in fact, are arguably more potent than ever. You can now add Children of the Morgue to their list of undeniable classics...but this is not the end!

Since 1997, DESTRUKTOR have been proudly flying the flag for Australian extreme metal. While quite often do their recordings come within large gaps of time - their second album, Opprobrium, was released back in 2015 - these Aussie tyrants have been patiently honing a sound that seethes with the war-metalled fire their homeland's world renowned for, yet over the years finessed with an acute attention to propulsive, immediately memorable songcraft. Black metal, death metal, thrash, "war metal," whatever: DESTRUKTOR are their own paradigm by now, and it is eternal.

Such is the case with their long-awaited third album, Indomitable. All-too-perfectly titled, Indomitable sounds like it could've come at any point in DESTRUKTOR's quality-over-quantity career: eight stout tracks of scathing, surging, no-nonsense extreme metal. Indeed, founding vocalist / guitarist Glenn Destrukor and longtime drum-tornado Jared maintain the same, singed-black rage that have made their two full-lengths and two EPs such touchstones of Down Under extremism, but here they are joined by old friend / new addition Chris on bass, who exhibits the best low-end work on any DESTRUKTOR recording and fully complements their characteristic chaos vs. control dynamic. Lean and mean at 34 minutes just like its predecessor, Indomitable continues the band's proverbial sharpening of blades; their fury still walks that fine line between chaos and control - neither too blackened, nor too deathly, nor "thrashing" in any cliche way - but the clear-yet-crushing production (at Melbourne's renowned Toyland Studio) amplifies tenfold their scabrous assault, making it somehow grittier and more gleaming in equal measure. It's impossible not to get inexorably swallowed by the album's slipstream: Indomitable is death in sonic format, bereft of belief, joy, and light.

And yet, DESTRUKTOR can still surprise, for Indomitable features the band's darkest and most personal lyrics to date, fully committed to the concept of death in many forms. And, if we are to read into the lyrics of climactic closer "The Path to Lucifer," there's an allusion to returning to dust, but rest easy: after delivering undoubtedly their best work after 30 years of existence - truly, an exception to rule of metal bands wimping out or worsening as the years slog on - DESTRUKOR are in no danger of disbanding anytime soon.

Riff after riff, blast after blast, death after death, Indomitable is catchy-yet-unrelenting dark extreme metal for the dark and the darker. DESTRUKTOR are truly eternal.

By now, DRUADAN FOREST should require little introduction. From their demos in the late '90s to the fever of work from 2016 onward, this Finnish entity has created a vast and magickal world like no other. Naturally, it should come as no surprise given that mainman V-Khaoz is an incredibly prolific veteran of the black metal underground for over 25 years now, and concurrently numbers the likes of VARGRAV, EMBRYONIC SLUMBER, and GRIEVE among his endeavors. With DRUADAN FOREST, however, the emphasis has always been on atmosphere and its transportative qualities. Whether the medium is ominous, titanic-gait black metal, cosmic ambient, pure dungeon synth, or some symbiosis of those, it matters not: the story - and the voyage - from this realm to another is paramount.

After the interstellar ambient of 2022's Portals, DRUADAN FOREST returns to a medieval age with Dismal Spells Part 2 - The Night Circus. As spelled out by its title, Dismal Spells Part 2 - The Night Circus is a companion record to 2019's Dismal Spells From the Dragonrealm, arguably V-Khaoz's most massive work to date: four tracks across 73 minutes, a none-more-immersive journey that felt even vaster than its epic length suggested. While scaled back to 38 minutes and comprising eight component tracks, Part 2 is no less immersive; if anything, it portends more magick and daresay whimsy, further fleshing out DRUADAN FOREST's pure dungeon synth worldview. The track titles give credence to this parallel shift - "Moonlight Sorcery," "Summer Night Orgies," and "Spells and Magic Potions," for example - while others suggest specific locales, like "Wizard's Hut," "Witches Lake," and "Black Towers of Kharanos," altogether serving as a sonic canvas for RPGs in the flesh or within the shadow soul. For his part, V-Khaoz stays within the parameters of dungeon synth - and, indeed, that was the aim with Part 2 - but he's never skimped on its sonic palette, always rendering his tones in rich, 3D sound and tastefully embellished songwriting; this is far from the pre-programmed, one-note garbage borne of Bandcamp trendiness. Almost deceptively soothing at times, the sometimes-sparse canvas of Part 2 nevertheless reveals shimmering expanses perhaps more on par with Portals than the first part of Dismal Spells Part 2 - The Night Circus.

But no matter where you meet DRUADAN FOREST, the man remains a master of mood, and he again offers infinite landscapes on which to roam. Dismal Spells Part 2 - The Night Circus is suitably completed by breathtakingly olde-world cover art courtesy of Misa Horkio.

Since 2018, Arizona’s FLUIDS have been prolifically polluting the underground with their remorselessly disgusting brand of goregrind. While they no doubt made an impact with their first two full-lengths, 2019's Exploitative Practices and 2020's Ignorance Exalted, it was myriad short-length assaults where FLUIDS truly made their loudest / lewdest declaration of total goregrind purity: knuckle-dragging, ignorant, and intensely foul 'n' filthy. Come / cum 2021, FLUIDS would join HELLS HEADBANGERS' dysfunctional family and release their grand-reckoning third album, Not Dark Yet, followed by a vinyl reissue of their Fluids of Death compilation and, a year after that, the all-new Fluids of Death 2 compilation. And still, the toilet was not empty...

Now, the sewers erupt again and FLUIDS expel their fourth full-length, Reduced Capabilities. Immediately, the full force of FLUIDS is felt - a characteristic stream of slimy, speculum-spreading, all-caps GOREGRIND in the grand, drum-programmed 'n' fuzz-toned tradition of godfathers Mortician - but more so is Reduced Capabilities the band at their most stripped-down. No intros, no samples - rather, a rugged & raw and totally streamlined approach to the foulness that is FLUIDS. Sublime simplicity defined, and then defiled: nothing but blasting and slamming, slamming and blasting, blasting and blasting, and slamming and slamming. Reduced Capabilities also marks the first album with newer vocalist David Duran, who plumbs the absolute depths of his throats whilst evincing slightly more articulation than most goregrinders. And then, surprise of all surprises, FLUIDS end the album with a cover of Moby's "God Moving Over the Face of the Waters," which actually isn't so shocking given the band's past dalliances in filmic atmospheres.

"Less is more," more or less, and FLUIDS trim the fat with Reduced Capabilities!

It was but 2019 when FUNERAL STORM made their grand entrance onto the international metal stage with their acclaimed debut album, Arcane Mysteries, courtesy of HELLS HEADBANGERS. While their history goes back to 2001, activities didn't begin in earnest until 2012, and hard graft became their watchword. But it was Arcane Mysteries that majestically consolidated all of FUNERAL STORM's considerable promise into one grand statement of classic Greek black metal in an authentically early '90s style. It certainly didn't hurt that that debut album featured Varathron founder Necroabyssious on vocals. Two years came a split 7" with Greek comrades Synteleia, appropriately titled The Ancient Calling, also courtesy of HELLS HEADBANGERS.

That split featured a scaled-back lineup of Necroabyssious and guitarist Arcania and founding guitarist/bassist/drum-programmer Wampyrion, and thus fortified does FUNERAL STORM's second full-length follow. Likewise appropriately titled, Chthonic Invocations further explores the steadfast theme of the Cthulhu mythos. More specifically, FUNERAL STORM's second album in general focuses on death, in every form, for Arcania and Wampyrion were totally isolated during the lockdown and Necroabyssious was heavily infected with Covid-19 to a point where the band didn't know what would happen. However, after he was healed, Necroabyssious delivered an exceptionally aggressive performance, suiting to his bandmates' more surging yet more mystical music. Truly, Chthonic Invocations sounds like FUNERAL STORM 666%, and harkens even further into the ancient past: to say that the album could've been released in 1993 on Unisound is an understatement to end all understatements. But again, just like its full-length predecessor, Chthonic Invocations easily avoids lazy "throwback" status on both the strength of its songwriting and its era-authentic synths, handled by both Arcania and Wampyrion.

Featuring another awe-inspiring cover courtesy of Markus Vesper (DENIAL OF GOD, Manilla Road, Attic), with Chthonic Invocations do FUNERAL STORM once again triumphantly revive atmospheric tartaric black metal in the vein of the old Hellenic scene. The old ones have been summoned!

Since 2021, Ohio's GENOCIDAL RITES have been waging war on the American Midwest via a demo and a trio of EPs and especially their mesmerizing live shows. Just last year, HELLS HEADBANGERS made a blood pact with the band on their home soil, with the first fruit being the EP Exsanguination of the Gods. As concise of an introduction to GENOCIDAL RITES as any, the feral frequencies across that three-song/nine-minute assault were indeed black, white, and red all over: the Ross Bay gods of war loomed large here, as did paradigmatic Black Witchery and especially Proclamation.

No progression and no compromise, GENOCIDAL RITES now make their Genocidal Upheaval of Subservient Abrahamic Law. Still throbbing with ignorant barbarity, here do the quintet somewhat flip the script on the bestial metal idiom. Said foundation firmly in place, GENOCIDAL RITES amplify their underlying D-beat influence - think Avskum, GBH, and especially Anti-Cimex - and more so the '80s grindcore of Repulsion, Germany's Blood, Finland's Goat Vulva, and the demos of Sweden's Carnage. As such, Genocidal Upheaval of Subservient Abrahamic Lawis just as blown-out and blackgrinding as expected, but the songwriting and execution slightly deviate from those dogmatically rocking wraparound shades. Pushing this deviance further are the perverted solos swirling about RITES' wreckage, creating a unique headspace for otherwise-hammering intensity. Lyrically, Genocidal Upheaval of Subservient Abrahamic Law is good on its title, balancing void and chaos magic, total annihilation, death to the Abrahamic religions, psychological mania resulting in true evil, and long-forgotten deities; ritual-ritual-rituals and fumbling through pig's blood this is not. GENOCIDAL RITES have arrived, machetes leveled at you!

At ground zero of the rebirth and resurgence of South American black/death at the dawn of the new millennium, GOAT SEMEN delivered one of the most classic demos ever with their self-titled 2002 demo, which has seen countless re-editions in the past two decades. As their legendry grew to enviable levels, so, too, did the anticipation for these Peruvian devils' debut album. But alas, time passed and the fervor 'n' anticipation for that first full-length reached critical mass in the metal underground, taking on almost mythical status (not unlike Sadistic Intent's long-promised debut LP). Finally, it saw the unlight of day in 2015 as Ego Svm Satana: the ultimate GOAT SEMEN statement, in the making for literally a decade, the album became something of a veritable travelogue across the history of South American metal barbarity the prior three decades. The very end, and also the beginning, Ego Svm Satana was suitably CLASSIC, as expected.

But, GOAT SEMEN are never one for half measures, and much like that full-length took at least a decade before it emerged from hellfire fully formed, they've only released live albums and a couple splits since then - nothing as substantial as a fully-new recording. Now, nearly a decade after that momentous debut album, GOAT SEMEN return with a comparatively quick-hitting EP in Fuck Christ. Much like its unapologetic & unadorned title, the Peruvian devils waste no time, kicking in immediately with a swirlingly sulfurous maelstrom of classic GOAT SEMEN proportions. For a record that comprises five stout songs in 19 electric minutes, Fuck Christ feels simultaneously longer and quicker than that runtime suggests, so respectively satisfying and urgent is that hammering barbarity. Naturally, it wouldn't be GOAT SEMEN if everything wasn't attacking from every angle all at once, the feeling of imminent implosion lurking around every dark 'n' diseased corner; compared to Ego Svm Satana, Fuck Christ exacerbates that mania to an almost overwhelming degree even when the intensity dips down to a doomed trudge. But perhaps the most unique element on this new record is how relatively clean and clear its recording is, with each and every instrument sounding sharp and powerful - nothing "muddy" about GOAT SEMEN fucking Christ here - which in turn makes the band's inherent grit & grime sound stranger and more depraved. Put another way, there's nothing to hide behind here; there's simply no escape from Fuck Christ.

For those who still hail the old gods of equally early Sarcofago, Krisiun, Hadez, Sextrash, and Mystifier, no matter when their records arrive, you can always count on GOAT SEMEN to Fuck Christ!

VERY LAST copies of the original Deathangle Absolution Records pressing. The 2nd full length album on SATANIC SKINHEAD PROPAGANDA. 11 pummeling assaults of hatred, rage and fury aimed at all subhuman degenerate filth. The most brutal and crushing onslaught by the band whose 21 years of existence has led to this release. NO "DIE HARDS". NO "EXTRAS". ALL COPIES THE SAME.

VERY LAST copies of the original Deathangle Absolution Records pressing. The return of the Brazilan Blackgrind War Metal Commando. The follow up to the band's highly praised album from 2011 "Depleted Ammunition", displays the band returning with a vengeance and fury aimed at anyone who dares to stand in their way. 11 tracks of insanity driven barbarity performed and delivered with the band's unique blend of Grindcore, Black Metal and Death Metal to create a form of audial warfare that could be described as nothing other than what they have defined and labeled themselves for well over 2 decades: WAR METAL.

It was but 2020 when GRIEVE emerged from the darkness with their self-titled debut EP. Although otherwise meant to exist strictly in that darkness, it was soon discerned that the band included veritable Finnish black metal royalty within its ranks. Nevertheless, the swiftly uncompromising nature of Grieve was felt: Northern Black Metal Exclusively From the 1990s. No more, no less, no progression, no fun.

And then, at the dawn of 2020 came GRIEVE's first - and, at the time, final - album. Aptly titled Funeral, the record was a fiercely focused one, solely featuring funereal marches by V-Khaoz and last rites by Werwolf. Beyond cold, utterly grim, violent and restrained simultaneously, Funeral was a record out of time, one where the last couple decades of "black metal" never existed. And then GRIEVE ceased to exist.

But, obeying only nature and will, GRIEVE have arisen from their own self-imposed grave with the second full-length Wolves of the Northern Moon. "We said we’d end the project for good, but we lied," state the band about that grave. "We exhumed it." Indeed, the exhumation also includes a nastiness last found on such Nordic classics as Kronet til konge, Pentagram, Til evighet..., or even Black Thrash Attack. Essentially, then, GRIEVE's ethics have not changed (nor should they have to), but one can nonetheless find here a pronounced asskicking sensibility that adds further antagonization to trendy ears as well as a noble march to mystical victories. "Eternal Winter, Eternal War": These Wolves of the Northern Moon are on the hunt - and you're next!

Spain’s HAEMORRHAGE should require no introduction. Alongside MORTICIAN, there is no other gore-obsessed death metal band who’ve been around longer and been more influential – or, perhaps most importantly, never wimped out for more commercial aspirations. As such, while they’ve undoubtedly drawn influence from the immortal early works of Carcass, it could be argued that HAEMORRHAGE have in many ways bested the original. Or, simply, rarely does goregrind get as disgusting AND catchy as these Spanish legends.

Alas, it’s been eight long years since HAEMORRHAGE released the full-length We are the Gore, and the only brand-new material they’ve released since then was the three-way split with Hemdale and Meat Spreader the following year. Therefore, it is with no small amount of ceremony that Opera Medica arrives, courtesy of longtime fans HELLS HEADBANGERS (who recently reissued on vinyl 1998’s classic Anatomical Inferno). Thankfully, HAEMORRHAGE are as sick and depraved as ever, serving up their characteristic goregrind with utmost catchiness, crushing power, and a charisma otherwise elusive to their contemporaries. Featuring five exclusive songs in 19 swift minutes, Opera Medica sounds exactly as it should – like HAEMORRHAGE, sewer-drenched and slicing / sluicing and yet with a focus that’s (STILL!) frightening to behold – but the uniquely strutting “Nomenclator Pathologicum” surprises with its sleazy groove, and is bound to become one of the band’s new live standards.

HAEMORRHAGE’s Opera Medica will be exclusively available on CD and one-sided 12” vinyl, with a silkscreened side B. Don’t be a canoe and miss out on this new record by one of the few ‘90s death metal bands that hasn’t wimped out!

Longtime fans of KRISIUN's classic early work, HELLS HEADBANGERS is proud to conspire with the band to reissue their classic fourth album, Ageless Venomous, on digibook CD and cassette tape formats. KRISIUN require no introduction. For over 30 years now, the power-trio have come to define Brazilian death metal, and are among the country's most renown and influential bands - rivaling the likes of Sarcofago and early Sepultura, even. Originally released in 2001, Ageless Venomous continues the tradition of their trauma-inducing sound, once again invoking the unadulterated power of relentless aggression in metal communities around the world. The entire album is highlighted by Alex's rotting-throat vocals and Moyses's masterful guitar chaos, heavily influenced by his knowledge of classical guitar. Max's drumming continuously pushes the limits of modern percussion, showcasing the same incendiary hunger that fueled the groundbreaking contributions of Slayer's Dave Lombardo and Morbid Angel's Pete Sandoval.

Elegant hardcover digibook with an 8-page booklet. Longtime fans of KRISIUN's classic early work, HELLS HEADBANGERS is proud to conspire with the band to reissue their classic third album, Conquerors of Armageddon, on vinyl LP, digibook CD, and cassette tape formats.

KRISIUN require no introduction. For over 30 years now, the power-trio have come to define Brazilian death metal, and are among the country's most renown and influential bands - rivaling the likes of Sarcofago and early Sepultura, even. However, it is KRISIUN's first three albums - Black Force Domain, Apocalyptic Revelation, and Conquerors of Armageddon - that are the band's most legendary recordings, unmatched and unrivalled in their extremity, intensity, and sheer evil. KRISIUN continue to be an unstoppable force to this day, but this unholy trilogy of albums remains the band's most beloved, and for good reason.

Originally released in 2000, Conquerors of Armageddon capped a run of albums that made KRISIUN legendary within the international death metal scene. In fact, the trio could've broken up following its release and their name would still be spoken in reverential tones today. Thankfully, the KRISIUN at the dawn of the new millennium kept dominating barriers and brought the band to a massive level of recognition otherwise unattainable to music this unremittingly savage and evil. Following widespread touring across the world, Conquerors of Armageddon saw KRISIUN link up with Century Media - one of the very biggest metal labels, where they've remained to this day - and it saw them deliver one of the most mesmerizing statements of death metal ever committed to tape. Granted, you could say their Black Force Domain was the most evil and follow-up Apocalyptic Revelation the most crushing, but Conquerors of Armageddon sought a savagery that was martial and hypnotic, labyrinthine and monolithic. In short, it was high ART sent from the sulfurous pits of Hell.

Hailing from the ever-fertile Australian black metal underground, LAMENT IN WINTER'S NIGHT is the work of one The Seer, who has a vast array of other projects lurking in his cobwebbed soul. Of them, LAMENT IN WINTER'S NIGHT is the most prominent and prolific and, since the beginning of 2019, has seen feverish activity from The Seer, culminating in the debut album At the Gates of the Eternal Storm in 2020. so impressed by its hideous grimness, HELLS HEADBANGERS reissued the album in 2022 and promptly sought an alliance with The Seer, which now culminates in the release of LAMENT IN WINTER'S NIGHT's second album.

Evocatively titled Whereunto the Twilight Leads, LAMENT IN WINTER'S NIGHT's second full-length immediately sounds like them - spectral in its rawness, wounded in its melodicism, largely bass-less recording, and altogether ghoulish and ethereal in equal measure - but changes are certainly afoot here. For one, The Seer is joined by Blood Fury on drums, and while the former still handles all songwriting as well as guitar, bass, synth, and vocals, their chemistry comes careening with no small amount of aplomb: Whereunto the Twilight Leads is both more feverish and nuanced than the band's prior recordings, bouncing from buoyant blasts to an almost-regal midtempo that absolutely amplifies the unapologetically bright riffing & lead-work (often, one and the same). Mind you, by "bright," there's an underlying sentiment of melancholy or at least nostalgia across the whole of the album, but rather than get bogged down by the should-be-inherent misery, The Seer's scurrying & scrying strings build citadels of invigorating sound - "medieval" by proxy, and perversely more AND less black metal than ever. It's a unique disconnect that LAMENT IN WINTER'S NIGHT work further in their favor here, and anyone who misses the work of Stefan Kozak (Mystic Forest, Eikenskaden) would be well advised to roam these hinterlands of Whereunto the Twilight Leads.

An exceptionally emotional release, Whereunto the Twilight Leads proves that LAMENT IN WINTER'S NIGHT are defying the "raw black metal" template with daring imagination and breathtaking poignancy.

By now, MEDIEVAL DEMON should require little introduction. Formed in that fateful year of 1993, MEDIEVAL DEMON remained one of the cultest entities of the immortal Greek black metal scene, releasing a handful of demos during the mid '90s and then their lost-classic debut album, Demonolatria, in 1998. Not long after, the band receded into the shadows, in vampiric slumber, until awakening from the crypt in 2018 with the majestic comeback album, Medieval Necromancy, through longtime fans HELLS HEADBANGERS, followed two years later by the equally acclaimed Arcadian Witchcraft.

Continuing that enviable momentum compared to most "old" bands who tiredly rehash long-faded glories, MEDIEVAL DEMON light another new full-length torch with Black Coven. Just as its esteemed predecessors sounded like those glorious '90s never ended, so, too, does Black Coven burn with an authentically eldritch fire by those who truly LIVED IT. Much as canonical Hellenic black metal always prized heavy metal classicism at the heart of black METAL, MEDIEVAL DEMON once again synthesize such with equally-classic horror and high drama, making Black Coven arguably their most widescreen record yet. The production, in kind, gives robust crunch to that heavy metalized songwriting, along with highlighting the band's always-captivating synth work. Indeed, the album sounds EXACTLY as it should for something titled Black Coven: the ancient spirits are legion, and unbound!

As founding drummer/keyboardist/composer Lord Apollyon explains, "For the composition of Black Coven, there were used methods and practices of the ancient Greek theory of music, which were also used to the Middle Ages - in the name of Satan. Composition in black metal presupposes to live in real time the process that includes all the elements involved in this kind of black art. We moved into an isolated village inside the forest, a place where ancient Greek sorcery and death magic was born. Ritualism and ancient black metal are parts of our eternally black souls."

Specifically, opening track "Where Witches Dwell and Labyrinths Confuse" was written as tribute to the deceased Andrea Meyer of Norway's cult Aghast. Likewise, the unabashed use of saxophone was in tribute to founding Greek forebears Necromantia, who entered the crypt of time eternal last year. And of course, the influence of Italian gods Goblin is never far away from MEDIEVAL DEMON, even if that influence is more spiritual rather than literal. Any way you cut it (and try not getting mesmerized by the choirs here!), Black Coven is cinematic black art at its very finest. Last word, then, to Lord Apollyon: DEATH TO THOSE WHO BETRAY THE SECRET CULT!"

"One of the most solid, heavy, legit death metal releases of the year!" -MetalAsFuck.net

Hot on the heels of their Whoresanna EP, Australian hooligans MONGRELS CROSS deliver their highly anticipated debut album, The Sins of Aquarius. Seven anthems of chaotic-yet-poised black/death barbarity, The Sins of Aquarius spans filthy thrashing, downtempo warmarches, and epic metal grandeur alike, with a powerful panache and strong songwriting to the fore. MONGRELS CROSS throw down the gauntlet and spit on all pretenders - behold The Sins of Aquarius! Recommended for diehards of GOSPEL OF THE HORNS, BESTIAL MOCKERY, GRAND BELIAL's KEY, and UNCREATION's DAWN

Formed in 1997, France's MORGUE quickly set to work on assaulting the death metal underground with an uncompromising style of goregrind-leaning death metal. After a demo, EP, and a couple splits – the second of which with fellow goregrind legends LAST DAYS OF HUMANITY - MORGUE were at last ready for their full-length debut in 2001. And what a debut it was: curiously titled Artgore, both the GORE and the GRIND were pushed to the extreme, and there was certainly no "art" in sight. With a production that was exceptionally sharp but also eerily echoed, MORGUE's restlessly blasting-and-slamming attack took on an impossibly heavier aspect, like a massive, rusted dumptruck sloshing viscera all around before a fateful dumping; that the band always seemed on the verge of chaos only heightened that terror. Or, in other words, total goregrind perfection.

Originally released only on CD through the cult label Ablated Records and out of print for nearly two decades, MORGUE's Artgore finally finds a fitting home at HELLS HEADBANGERS with not only a CD reissue but, for the first time ever, a proper vinyl release. REAL goregrind's undead!