Eldar (Marc Merinee & Merce Spica) returns with a
new album and with their significant mixture of dark-ambient and
bombastic martial music. As always they choose the title for their album
related to a philosophical and mystical meaning. On "Amesha Spentas"
the songs has been created based on the work by Goya, from the
conceptual point of view. Viewing these works through an occult
philosophy. Each song is placed in a specific historical moment. All
sounds and instruments are also chosen specifically for each songs
individual concept. Using multitude of synths, samples, tools (metals,
knives, bowls, pipes, wood, etc.) together with field recordings.
Creating that special dark haunted atmosphere that has become wellknown
as the ELDAR sound.
Urban Alonso, who created the conceptual
artwork, is a graphic designer well known in Spain by different musical
genres, also as a musician under the name "Scumearth" of Ambient Noise
genre.
IRM - Order4 CD
IRM has already existed for over 10 years and are
recognized as one of the most interesting Industrial bands around. This
time Martin Bladh and Erik Jarl are joined by a third band member Mikael
Oretoft on bass-guitarr.
This new work by IRM is a deeper
delving into the psyche of the self inflictor ? the core of inner
regions violently exposed. Comprised by four tracks, each exactly 15
minutes in length we are thrown into a vortex of feedback, cymbaldrones,
heavy bass-strumming, nightmarish pianotinkles and irreproachable
synthwork. Demanding your attention all the way through ? certainly not
an easy listening experience ? describing the course of events is
impossible. It is again a mature and intricate work of incisive
delicacies and theatrical ambiences. The sense of detail throughout is
immense and the editing perfect. The clinical heaviness of earlier works
are now transformed into a pure harsh, static soundwave which are most
often cut off by another, slower, softer but in ways a more painful and
dynamic one. The lyrics here are deeper cuts into personal matters. A
man altering between life and death - a calculating and disillusive
thinker and recluse who has lost the grip of reality, or perhaps found
another? The strife for self-control turned into sick dedication, waging
war on himself to receive recognition ? the end comes nearer. Seldom
have we heard a strange work like this which turns both lyrics and music
into a full whole ? stay away if deeper encounters with the human mind
offends.
The creative artwork was made by the renouned Swedish
artist Stefan Danielsson, who also made the frontcover artwork for
Whitehouse album "Racket"
BLOOD AXIS - Born Again CD IN STOCK NEXT WEEK!
Coming in a super deluxe & stunning foilblocked
3panel ecopak with 24 page booklet. There will be at least one
resurrection on Easter Sunday, 2010, when Blood Axis unveils its latest
work, Born Again. The second full-length studio album in the group's
twenty-year history, Born Again signals startling developments and a
radical maturation. Old vines have been cut back and carefully tended in
order to bear strange new fruit. Over the course of the twelve tracks
that comprise Born Again, Blood Axis explores an epic yet human universe
in which gods are summoned, kingdoms rise, riddles are unlocked, love
is lost, and worlds crumble. This is psychedelia in the literal sense: a
"mind-manifesting" journey through the collective psyche of its
creators.
Born Again weaves a web of potent pleasures. Whereas
the earliest Blood Axis music was marked by keyboards and samples, Blood
Axis in 2010 is stripped down to an essential core of natural
instrumentation, but with force and bombast fully intact. The sonic
ingredients on Born Again include electric and acoustic strings (guitar,
violin, bass, bouzouki, banjo), melodeon, piano, highland bagpipes and
Galician gaita, marching percussion, the mysterious Annabel-a-tron, and
Bobby BeauSoleil's growling, prison-vintage guitar eruptions circa 1976.
Underpinning the album and propelling much of the music is the
traditional Irish drum the bodhr? recorded here with unprecedented
power. Moynihan's ominous voice is well matched by Annabel Lee's elfin
intonations, just as her violin finds a perfect counterpoint in Robert
Ferbrache's protean guitar parts. A selective cabal of guest musicians
from Europe and the USA add tasteful embellishments to these deceptively
simple arrangements. Shot through by myth and romance, the expressive
lyrics on Born Again have their roots in ancient and modern poetry,
archaic invocations, and tragic laments. Alongside modern English and
German, songs are sung in medieval 10th-century Old English and
13th-century Middle High German. The end result is both unclassifiable
and unforgettable: neither folk nor rock, traditional nor avant-garde,
modern nor archaic. It is simply Blood Axis.
Born Again was
recorded over a span of many years in remote locations ranging from
rural Vermont to the catacombs of Absinthe Studios in Denver, Colorado.
Engineered and produced by founding Blood Axis member Ferbrache, the
dense sonic tapestry of Born Again is simultaneously raw and refined,
synergistically more than the sum of its primal parts. Packaged in a
beautiful gatefold cover, Born Again includes a 24-page booklet with
complete lyrics and translations, striking portraits of the band
members, and solemn photographic images from France, Germany, Austria,
Portugal, and the USA.
To everything there is season. For those
who are cursed, a time to die and to be forgotten. And for the blessed, a
time to be born again: to live on, beyond death, in the minds of men.
Now
is the time for Blood Axis to be Born Again.
APOPTOSE - Bannwald CD
On a Friday in September many years ago three girls
went into a large forest in northern Germany. They never returned.
Apoptose
followed their path into the woods and listened closely to the voices
whispering among the trees. The new album ?Bannwald? reflects the girls'
journey to a realm of witchcraft, fairy-tales and ancient goddesses.
Here in the green twilight of rustling leafs and crackling twigs nothing
is as it seems and reality is covered by a thick layer of autumn
foliage.
The German term ?Bannwald? bears a double meaning: On
one hand it stands for a protected woodland where nobody is allowed to
cut trees or even to enter. On the other hand ?Bann? is an ancient word
for ban or spell.
After the urban nightmares of the last CD
?Schattenmädchen? Apoptose come back to the northern wilderness once
more - the home of their very first album ?Nordland?. This time with
extended lineup: Those who had the chance to attend one of the rare live
performances already know the voice of singer Silke and the enormous
rhythms of the 15 drummers of the Fanfarenzug Leipzig. On ?Bannwald?
they join forces again to invoke the spirits of moss-covered stones and
hidden glades.
Needless to say, this CD comes in an outstandingly
designed multiple-panel foldout cover featuring an 8-page booklet and a
separate cardboard CD-sleeve. Running Time: 51min.
DERNIERE VOLONTE - Immortel CD
Immortel, Derniere Volonte`s 5th studio album took 4
years in making and marks their 15th anniversary! It is a huge
development from the former style which redefined the therm "military
pop" to a more homoguene, less neoclassic but much more modern in
sounds, more electronic but organic at the same time - and reinvents a
style Geoffroy D has been influenced since his early days. The themes
on Immortel are effected by books, movies or personal experiences of
Geoffroy but reflects in general his personal feelings about beloved
people and their spirit which is and always will be present in our souls
and memories.
Immortel is another milestone in the oevre of one
of France`s most interresting band from the underground scene and will
for sure attract fans from the early days but a lot of new fans from
other musical scenes.
The album will come as CD in nice debossed
and spotvarnished Digipak with 16page booklet and as limited edition
vinyl of 888 copies LP in debossed and spotvarnished gatefold cover with
a bonus 7inch containing a song not featured on the CD.
ALLERSEELEN - Rauhe Schale CD
The Austrian group Allerseelen is, two years after
their successful cd release Hallstatt, back with a brand-new album that
fascinates musically as well as optically: Rauhe Schale (Rough Shell) is
the title of the opus that was released some days ago. Already the
first sight into the beautiful booklete of the digipack production on
Ahnstern shows that this cd differs in various parts from its
precursors: Allerseelen, live having been for a long time with various
members performing in many cities in North America, Europe and Russia,
has been nevertheless in the studio almost a solo-project by its founder
Gerhard Hallstatt, assisted from time to time by various guest
musicians. This has changed now, now Allerseelen is also in the studio a
real group with electronics, bass, electric guitar and drums. On
several pieces there are also contributions by two well-known violinists
from the world of neo-folk and folk metal. Apart from Dimo Dimov who
not only drums but also plays electric guitar on some songs and the
bassist Marcel P., Allerseelen this time also features the two
violinists Meri Tadic - from the Swiss folk metal band Eluveitie - and
Annabel Lee, the violinist of the American formation Blood Axis who also
released some weeks ago a new cd.
Still it is not easy to
describe the style of Allerseelen - everything moves and flows in a
field of force between industrial, metal, folklore and pop. Lovers of
bands like Nine Inch Nails, Einstürzende Neubauten, Laibach or
Underworld could also fall in love with Allerseelen. On Rauhe Schale
there are various songs with a powerful metal atmosphere with
electronic, industrial recordings - some minutes later one may discover
again a song that sounds more like dark pop. Gerhard Hallstatt sometimes
describes his music as Electronic Folklore or Apocalyptic Rock. But
basically there is no real description for Allerseelen - all attempts to
find an expression for their music may be valid for some time, yet
lose their meaning after a couple of months or years.
The cd
Rauhe Schale sounds like its title - the music is rough, tough, hard
like already the last album Hallstatt that received enthusiastic
feedback due to its fascinating combination of electronic beats and
strings and some compositions reminding in some way of Black Metal.
The
songs were inspired by various magical mystery tours in Austria,
Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia. They were recorded and
mixed in 2009 at Haus zur letzten Latern, Dungeon Studio (Rhenania),
Luftschutzkerker and Vitosha Studio 4.
16 songs / 70 min.
DER BLUTHARSCH - Live in Leiden CD
Live in Leiden by Der Blutharsch is the 3rd album in a
series of live recordings - after "Live at The Monastery" and "Live in
Copenhagen". Live in Leiden was recorded at "The Night of Confusion"
held September 28th 2oo4 at legendary venue LVC (where already artists
like Nico performed) and was the "most cntroversial" concert in the 40
years history of this venue. Nevertheless, this night was a huge
success and this recording is a document of this night. At the same time
it is the last live recording of the "old" Blutharsch - a small
reminder about what Der Blutharsch was dreaded for before they morphed
into "era two" and turned into a dark psychedelic kraut monster. This
is a great live document of a concert of the thee band who invented
"martial industrial" as well as "military pop" - a MUST of all die hard
fans of this genre as well as for people who want to know why this band
once has been considered "dangerous". The CD comes in a foilblocked
digipak.
STURMPERCHT - Sturm ins Leben wild hinein! CD
new edition of the long soldout first Sturmpercht
album. This album is pure weird Alpine-Folk music with martial
drinking-songs, alpine battle-hymns and strange fairie-tales out from
the deepest Austrian and Bavarian forests, all embedded in a breath of
black Monty Python humour. a pearl of pure Alpine Folkmusic!
12
songs / 46 min.
ARCANA - The First Era 1996-2002 4CD
Very few bands evoke such awe and inspiration than this
Swedish act driven by the now legendary talent of Peter Bjärgö. ARCANA
have been pillars and always at the forefront of the so called Neo
Classical / Heavenly Voices movement with their poignant, ethereal and
medieval inspired music since their very first album, Dark Age Of Reason
was released in 1996 on Sweden's Cold Meat Industry label on which they
subsequently released 3 other albums, Cantar De Procella (1997) ...The
Last Embrace (2000) and Inner Pale Sun (2002) making ARCANA one of the
most regarded and praised act on the label. Sorrowful strings, Doomsday
horns and trumpets, massive percussion and snares, bells, Dulcimer all
interlaced with exquisite Male and Female voices create a quite singular
atmosphere of grandeur and of melancholy for times long gone...
ARCANA's music leaves hardly no one indifferent, it's able to touch and
move in ways very few acts have been able to achieve, it's music is
timeless and rediscovering these albums years later certainly proves
this...now sold out for some years we are pleased to present these
classic albums together in a special format. This 4CD box set
includes the first 4 albums with bonus tracks taken from various
compilations and mini albums covering the early days of this unique act.
The first 3 albums have also been carefully ReMastered, "Dark Age Of
Reason" by Peter Bjärgö and the "Cantar De Procella" and "...The Last
Embrace" albums by Frederic Arbour. Limited edition of 2000 copies.
ROME - Nos Chants Perdus CD book
Over a series of remarkable concept albums, the
Luxembourgish band ROME have developed a totally unique 'poetry of
longing' which rings out from the dark melancholic mist of rootlessness
and which gives expression to a comprehensive feeling of modern
forlornness. The protagonists of their music are the unintentional
'rebels' of Camus (The Rebel; original: L'Homme révolté), contemporaries
from the turbulent epochs of the 20th century: the banished and the
hunted; the despised and the misunderstood - always enemies of
dictatorship. This is what the songs of Jerome Reuter are about, firmly
in the tradition of his declared heroes JACQUES BREL and LÉO FERRÉ, (on
earlier albums also TOM WAITS and NICK CAVE). As regards content, Rome
are inspired by world literature and the observant listener will be able
to detect references to and quotations from ALBERT CAMUS, MARCEL
PROUST, JEAN-PAUL SARTRE and JEAN GENET. This serves to create a new
kind of intertextuality between word and sound.
Following on from
their EP 'L'Assassin' (2010) ROME assiduously develop their sound
further on the minimalistic, simple singer-songwriter album 'Nos Chants
Perdus', slowly leaving the apocalyptic realms behind them. Catchy
melodies, which breathe the timeless atmosphere of the metropolis on the
Seine, impress themselves on the memory. The sonorous voice bears the
weltschmerz as well as the yearning for freedom and peace. Apart from
the French song titles the lyrics are primarily performed in English,
while the music is constructed primarily with acoustic instruments:
piano, guitar, touches of strings, accordion. They have largely
relinquished electronic elements, which marks 'Nos Chants Perdus' out as
a further stride in the work of the band.
'Nos Chants Perdus' by
ROME is an exceptional and valuable example of the art of
singer-songwriting, the likes of which haven't been heard in this
concentration and with such gravity for a long time.
ATTENTION:
The album is published as a strictly limited special first edition.
CD
in digibook format Hardcover-book bound in linen with special black
hotfoil debossing 40-pages extra-booklet, precious semi matte art
print on selected high-quality paper and with elaborate "Singer" thread
stitching Including all lyrics and photographs by Achim Webel
Eldar (Marc Merinee & Merce Spica) returns with a
new album and with their significant mixture of dark-ambient and
bombastic martial music. As always they choose the title for their album
related to a philosophical and mystical meaning. On "Amesha Spentas"
the songs has been created based on the work by Goya, from the
conceptual point of view. Viewing these works through an occult
philosophy. Each song is placed in a specific historical moment. All
sounds and instruments are also chosen specifically for each songs
individual concept. Using multitude of synths, samples, tools (metals,
knives, bowls, pipes, wood, etc.) together with field recordings.
Creating that special dark haunted atmosphere that has become wellknown
as the ELDAR sound.
Over a series of remarkable concept albums, the
Luxembourgish band ROME have developed a totally unique 'poetry of
longing' which rings out from the dark melancholic mist of rootlessness
and which gives expression to a comprehensive feeling of modern
forlornness. The protagonists of their music are the unintentional
'rebels' of Camus (The Rebel; original: L'Homme révolté), contemporaries
from the turbulent epochs of the 20th century: the banished and the
hunted; the despised and the misunderstood - always enemies of
dictatorship. This is what the songs of Jerome Reuter are about, firmly
in the tradition of his declared heroes JACQUES BREL and LÉO FERRÉ, (on
earlier albums also TOM WAITS and NICK CAVE). As regards content, Rome
are inspired by world literature and the observant listener will be able
to detect references to and quotations from ALBERT CAMUS, MARCEL
PROUST, JEAN-PAUL SARTRE and JEAN GENET. This serves to create a new
kind of intertextuality between word and sound.
