Black Metal

Originally released in 2011 on the Tour de Garde label, Departure Chandelier’s demo recording, “The Black Crest of Death, the Gold Wreath of War,” was recorded in 2010, a year after “Antichirst Rise To Power,” the band’s recently released debut full-length completed in 2009. With slightly heavier production than the album—an intentional act by the band—this demo nevertheless achieves the same atmosphere, one defined by the inherent discord between the visceral body of the songs and the ornate melodies reflected in the poignant interplay of guitars and keyboards, in which one hears the influence of O.T.A.L. and Strid. Musically and conceptually, Departure Chandelier explore the dichotomous relationship connecting unbridled freedom and the concomitant lust for power with tyranny and despotism.

Black Metal

Recorded and released in 2014, Dreadful Relic’s “Archaic Conjurations” demo established the sonic and thematic axes about which the band has expanded and evolved over the last decade. The specter of ancient civilizations lost to time haunts their music. Cities once teeming with people, tethered to their own relative sense of modernity, reduced to ash and dust. This is the fate of all men—for all their megalomaniacal lust they are ultimately nothing, their works obliterated in the darkness cast by time’s long shadow. Nowhere is this phenomenon more readily apparent than in Dreadful Relic’s homeland of Greece, its ancient ruins and monuments like the last crackling embers and ashen remnants where the fire of western civilization once blazed brightest, harkening back to a time when the veil between reality and magic was thin, translucent, and permeable. Dreadful Relic approach these concepts metaphorically, drawing heavily upon the mythopoeic works of Robert E. Howard, references to which abound in the band’s lyrics.

Black Metal

Funeral Winds formed in 1991 as a trio composed of Hellchrist Xul (guitars/vocals), Gorgoroth (vocals), and Esteban (drums). Along with Bestial Summoning, which was founded approximately one year earlier, Funeral Winds was among the earliest of black metal bands to emerge from the Netherlands, and its activity through to the present day makes it one of the most significant in the country’s history. Given the era of the band’s formative years and its relative proximity to Norway, it is not surprising that Funeral Winds played in a style similar to that of the more well-known Norse bands like Mayhem and Gorgoroth. Prior to the release of its debut album, “Godslayer Xul,” in 1998, Funeral Winds recorded three demos, an EP, and a split CD with Abigail. These early recordings were later reissued by two different labels on two separate compilations entitled “Screaming for Resurrection…” and “The Unheavenly Saviour” in 2004 and 2019, respectively. These collections are hereby resurrected on vinyl by Nuclear War Now!, a few months after first being made available on cassette by the same label. “The Unheavenly Saviour” compiles the first two demos (“Rehearsal 1992” and “La Majeste Infernable”), a live track, and an unreleased studio track from 1995 on a single LP. The “Screaming for Resurrection…” DLP consists of the third demo, “Resurrection…,” the “Thy Eternal Flame” EP, and the tracks from the split release with Abigail.

Black Metal

A mere matter of months since it released its first official recording, “Demo I,” Perverted Ceremony returns with its uniquely abominable variety of black metal, hereby presenting its debut full-length album, “Sabbat of Behezaël,” under the very same banner of Nuclear War Now! First discovered by NWN! through the time-honored underground tradition of the band spreading self-produced cassettes to a limited number of contacts, Perverted Ceremony’s music reflects the same authenticity and dedication to their craft as their original manner of clandestine distribution. Although the band lists such revered acts as Demoncy, Mystifier, Von, Blasphemy, Profanatica, Archgoat, and Beherit, as their primary influences, their sound tends to gravitate somewhat more towards the latter two (along with Barathrum), who represent the Finnish tradition of bestial black metal. That said, Perverted Ceremony’s style is not easily compartmentalized according to their influences. On the contrary, with their distinctive approach to songwriting, production, and atmosphere, they have achieved a ritualistic blend of black metal that is unique unto itself. Additionally, Perverted Ceremony has proven with this album that the work recorded on its demo, which was already impressive in its own right, was only a snapshot in the band’s development, and one which has now been superseded.

Black Metal

Regular edition on black vinyl in a gatefold sleeve.

Tracks A1-A2 taken from “Procreation Of The Unaltered Evil” Demo (1989)
Tracks A3-B3 taken from “Genesis Of Apocryphal Desire” Demo (1990)
Tracks B4-B5 taken from “One Step Beyond Dreams” 7″ EP (1990)
Tracks C1-C4 taken from “The Black Arts / The Everlasting Sins” split LP with Necromantia (1992)
Tracks D1 is studio bonus track (1989)
Track D2 is studio bonus track (1993)
Track D3 is studio bonus track (1995)

Black Metal

This slab of occult metal has been conjured by the mind of Deathwalker (Nihil Invocation, USA) and derives its influence from bass-driven, black metal cults such as Barathrum, Ride for Revenge, Perverted Ceremony, Demoncy, etc. Originally a 1 piece project, Deathwalker has welcomed help from his homelands & Russian tundra along the path.

Tracks 1-5: “Forbidden Doctrine of the Youthful Gate” demo (2019)
Tracks 6-11: “Shade of Darkness Casting…” demo (2020)

Black Metal

Two of Finland’s black metal hordes unite to compile and recite “Dead Christ Prayer,” an eight-track split release that represents both the country’s unique tradition and its future. Witchcraft, whose style pays reverence in no subtle way to the great Beherit, returns to expand its imprint and demonstrate its continued adherence to the unrefined bestiality that its primary inspiration pioneered thirty years ago. Its co-conspirators in Aske first inhabited the same time and space as Beherit, but then began an eighteen-year hiatus in 1998, returning in 2016 to embark on a second blasphemous stint of new recordings, which have culminated in this effort. “Dead Christ Prayer” thus presides over the exsanguination of the lifeless body of the false savior and the ensuing transfusion ritual, combining the old blood of Aske with the new blood of Witchcraft to perpetuate the cycle of evil.