Black Metal

For those who’ve lurked within the black metal underground since the late ’90s, the name BURNING WINDS should carry the cultest cachet. Formed in 1997, the band is the sole creative province of one NecroDan, hailing from the American wasteland of Michigan, which unbirthed such foul entities as Masochist, SUMMON, and Wind of the Black Mountains. BURNING WINDS are very much of this sonic lineage, defiantly utilizing the ugliest, most primitive black metal in the most unorthodox of ways. For many, the band first came to attention / infamy via Paul Ledney’s extremely short-lived Necroscope label and the seemingly full-length The Flame of Lucifer – here, also underlining the aesthetic links to PROFANATICA and especially HAVOHEJ – but “seemingly” in the sense that that recording was album length and yet otherwise considered an EP; the same could be said for 2005’s classic Cease to Exist compilation. As the decades slogged on, NecroDan would intermittently emerge with a new / “new” recording, always in the most underground manner and with absolutely zero fanfare, preferring the private and autodidactic over any sort of cultivated “mystery” or scene involvement.

Black Metal

CANDELABRUM hail from Portugal, renown in the past decade for its polarizing raw black metal scene. The nameless mainman behind the band has been involved within that scene for many years, and even before his native scene found worldwide recognition. And even within that scene/idiom, CANDELABRUM stands alone, enigmatic and electric: his works are slavishly reverential of ancient black metal whilst simultaneously unorthodox. The band’s two albums to date, 2016’s Necrotelepathy and 2018’s Portals, are equally astounding modern classics which emit a strangely shimmering quality amongst an explosion of emotive rawness. Both albums are immersive and mesmerizing experiences unto themselves.

Wisely prizing quality over quantity, CANDELABRUM only emerge from the shadows when a new experience is fully formed and ready to curse/haunt/liberate the listener: at long last, Nocturnal Trance. Truly titled, this third album is a strident synthesis of its monolithic predecessors as well as form meeting content. Conceptually, Nocturnal Trance deals with the same theme of Necrotelepathy and Portals: death and the passage to a different plane, beyond. On those previous CANDELABRUM records, the figure on the front cover is always “moving” – crossing the passage, as it were – but this time, the mainman chose to clearly portray the passage from absolute darkness to an ominous monochromaticism: both a blinding light and a complete lack of it, going beyond darkness and back around to an absence of literally everything.

Black Metal

This is where it all began, the 1994 debut which shook the European Black Metal scene upon its foundations.
Originally released on cult imprint Cacophonous Records, CRADLE OF FILTH first album is now available for the first time over a decade on noble vinyl but also on picture vinyl, digibook-CD and tape. While still bearing few traces of their Death Metal roots, The Principle Of Evil Made Flesh remains an unique sounding album to this day, drenched in gothic atmospheres and vampiric themes. A true masterpiece which immediately spawned many imitators, although none managed to match their intensity and undeniable British flair.