Black Metal

Although “Wolven Mysteries of Ancient Lore” is shorter; the lore, style and essence remain untouched, with a little variation in terms of the atmosphere, using some Dungeon Synth passages and interludes.
Production-wise is maybe a bit “dirtier” (so to speak) than its predecessors; vocals in here are more in the back-ground, resembling more to an echo rather than an actual voice, and function more as an complementary atmos-pheric element. Other than that, all the instruments are well differenciated and easy to isolate, but they also come as a whole. The harmony and consonance between all the songs is very solid.
Eight songs, half of them being instrumental interludes and the other half consisting of four long passages, which I am unable to highlight one of them. “Stronghold of the Black Abyss” is their most generic (with a good conno-tation obviously) in terms of style, with a remarkable second half; “Black Autumn Silence” is their most saddest and melancholic song to date, with more than half of it being instrumental and with feminine voices/chants (which has become a trademark of this band since day 1) and griefing riffs. The homonymous song if the most complex of them four, with a Dungeon Synth bridge functioning as a tempo changer.
“Wolven Mysteries of Ancient Lore” is another highly remarkable piece of Black Metal by the New Hampshire fellas. Captivating, full of identity and atmospheric melancholy.

Black Metal

Raw and melodic black metal from the US.

Black Metal

Originating in Hutchinson, Kansas in the early-mid 90′s, Arcane Shadows unleashed a very raw and sinister brand of American Black Metal. This LP collects the “Enthroned Mysticism” demo from 1995, “X.E.S.” demo from 1996, and unreleased tracks. For fans of early Black Funeral/Sorath and Demoncy.

Tracks 1-2: “Enthroned Mysticism” demo (1995)
Tracks 5-6: “X.E.S.” demo (1996)
(other tracks previously unreleased)

Black Metal

The cult album from 1993 availabe again on LP.

Black Metal

The cult album from 1990 availabe again on LP.

Death Metal

In 1991, Dark Opera was formed in Łódź, Poland, the very same city in which the band’s compatriots of similar ilk in Pandemonium had united approximately two years earlier. Dark Opera’s first year of existence was plagued by several lineup changes, but it stabilized later that year when the band began to write its own songs and played its first live gig in Łomża. The following April, Dark Opera recorded its first demo, “The Day of Pariah,” at Ariadna Studio in Łódź. Originally, this cassette was self-released, but the band was later signed by Carnage Records, who released a second iteration of the tape with alternate artwork. In 1993, the band added a second guitarist and recorded its first and only album, “Calling the Legend,” in April of that same year. Like the demo that had preceded it, the album was released by another Polish label, Baron Records, who made it available on cassette format only. Like the aforementioned Pandemonium, Dark Opera’s music was reminiscent of the great Samael and others like Alastis and Taranis, but it also incorporated a somewhat greater influence from both death and doom metal. Nuclear War Now! is proud to be the first to reissue both Dark Opera recordings on vinyl and thus continue its neverending objective of rekindling the great fires once set and then left unattended in the most obscure caverns of the underground.

Black Metal

Dripping Papal Blood is the secret unreleased second demo recorded a decade ago in 2010, in the band’s now shuttered ‘the prisoner’s chant…’ studio which rested at ground level across from the oldest cemetery in new york and rumored to be haunted.

Black Metal

Antichrist Rise to Power is a violent declaration of allegiance to the Emperor’s dominion, from the mud-covered skeletons of Marengo to the jagged cliffs of St. Helena. The noble acceptance of forced exile, the inescapable chill of the prison cell, and the cruel rush of combat all fill the aristocrat’s appetite for his boundless quest for honor. Napoleon’s coronation—the Anti-Christ’s ascent—left the earth damp with the crimson blood of elitism.

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

Less than a year after “Archaic Conjurations,” Dreadful Relic delivered their first vinyl release—an eruption of all the potential stored in the demo. Recorded after the summer solstice in 2015 and self-released later that year, the “Warlords of the Cosmic Sovereign” MLP showcased the band’s esoteric proclivities and potent songwriting, drawing inspiration from Hellhammer/Celtic Frost, Samael, and other progenitors of the black metal genre. Each side contains an atmospheric intro followed by a bludgeoning original composition. Additionally, the MLP closes with a cover of “In the Shrines of the Kingly Dead” by Treblinka/Tiamat, a song perfectly suited for Dreadful Relic in both style and substance.

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.