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

The full-length available again on LP.

Black Metal

’A Blaze In The Northern Sky’, Darkthrone’s second album, was originally released in 1992 and was without question the blueprint release for the Black Metal scene, spearheading the evolution of the early second wave movement in Norway & beyond. It was hailed on release as an album of true scene-shifting greatness, following their more death metal centered debut, ’Soulside Journey’.

Death Metal

Darkthrone began in the late 80’s as a thrash/death metal act & progressed through technical death/doom metal experimentation to become legends of the black metal world & one of the original leading bands of the Norwegian scene, as well as inspiring a whole generation of metal bands.

Soulside Journey was Darkthrone’s debut studio album after signing with Peaceville Records, following their cult Cromlech demo. It was recorded in 1990 at Sunlight Studios in Sweden with Tomas Skogsberg, notable for his work with Entombed & many other acts over the years. Soulside Journey contained tracks of atmospheric & often technical & complex death metal, with influences ranging from acts such as Autopsy & Death. This was the band’s only death metal album before turning to a more primitive black metal style, but is still rightly regarded as a masterpiece of the genre.