[ aquarius records

IMPORTANT (Please read to avoid confusion): Some items below may be tagged with a bold, red, all-caps OUT OF PRINT/UNAVAILABLE notice. This does NOT mean that all other items not so tagged are, in fact, in stock — or for that matter, in print and available, though there's a good chance they are. Some folks get confused on this point, and we can see why, so please read this for further clarification and other important before-you-order information. Unlike some mailorder websites, we don't have an electronic inventory system linked to our site, so you can't be sure of what we actually have or don't have in stock at any given moment without asking us — please email our mailorder department for availability status — or better yet, just go ahead and place your order using our shopping cart function and we'll get back to you with the status of each item. If you have general non-mailorder questions, email the store.

Showing results 1651 through 1700 of 5570.

MPEG stream: Knives Of Ice
MPEG stream: Great Worm Of Hell

We've been sort of tickled lately for some reason by the idea of two bands sharing a split release, when both of the bands are essentially made up of the same members or mostly the same members. It definitely makes sense, recording, production and distribution wise, a split release is way easier when on some level it's not really a split release at all. It's even better when the bands sound exactly the same. Not sure what got us on that train of thought, must have been this here split between black thrashers Dimentianon and long time AQ faves, slow motion ultra funeral doom sludgelords Rigor Sardonicous. We've been itching for more of RS's bizarre lugubrious swampy slither, and of course their array of 'most evil cymbals' (more on that in a minute), so we were psyched to discover this brand new split, and in our current state of mind, even more psyched to discover that�Dimentianon was in fact fronted by the same mangled mind behind Rigor Sardonicous (although it seems that he's since left�Dimentianon to focus full time on Rigor Sardonicous)... Anyway, we're sort of rambling, the point is, this is a double shot of brutal blackened heaviness, the�Dimentianon tracks are a super intense blackened death metal, lurching, furious, evil and heavy heavy heavy. Nothing super mind blowing, but definitely heavy and classic enough to keep our heds banging as we waited patiently for the epic slow motion trudge of the mighty�Rigor Sardonicous... We've already waxed poetic at great length and gushed like crazy in other reviews, check em out elsewhere on the AQ site, it's easy to see that these guys are one of our favorites in the glacial world of funereal doom. These guys are sooooooooooo sloooooooooooow, and sooooooooo HEAVY, they literally almost sound like any one else's ultradoom record, slowed even further down. The guitars are viscous and black, not so much riffs and the sound of someone dumping buckets of black tar� into your speakers, the vocals, an outrageously low demonic gurgle, more along the lines of some of the bizarre gore grind we dig so much, but it sounds perfect, draped like rotting black innards over the already oozing riffage. Then there's the drums, an impossibly slow motion plod, but with the strange distinction of having the cymbals be way louder than the rest of the kit, or in some weird way, they sound like the only part of the kit that hasn't been slowed down to a snail's pace, so the various stretches of dooooooooom are demarcated by a crashing trashcan lid, or a chain link fence clang or once in a while what sound like a gong made out of hubcaps. So we posited that they must be the most evil cymbals ever, thus theire prominent placement and the fact that they're so much louder than any of the other music. Sounds weird, and maybe like it would sound bad, but it doesn't, it's genius, it just further enhances the fact that�Rigor Sardonicous inhabit some totally unique, and ultra fucked up soundworld. And if you're like us, you CAN NOT get enough. The other thing about the RS tracks on this split is one of them, the closer, "Blood Of The Seraphim" features�Rigor Sardonicous fully rocking out, as in playing really fast, double kick drumming, almost blasting, sounding a lot like diSEMBOWELMENT actually, before crashing back down to a 2mph trudge. But it's cool to hear what something as subtle as speeding up can do to a sound, to a band, and to a band's whole identity.�Another black hole slab of glorious slow motion heaviness for the doom obsessed among you. Go forth, and doom on...

MPEG stream: It Never Ends
MPEG stream: Anima Interius

MPEG stream: Djavulens Tid Ar Kommen
MPEG stream: Manniskan - Det Stora Misslyckandet

From the same label that brought us recent bouts of brilliantly fucked black metal from Wolok and Lorn as well as classic releases from Blodulv and Glorior Belli comes this killer split, featuring two grim legends from the Swedish black metal underground. The awesomely named Dimhymn do some impossible to describe black doom classic rock? Or something. Not sure what else to call it. Super blown out distorted black chug, haunting high end guitar licks, and incredibly catchy little bridges, a plodding dirge that sort of lopes along before the music suddenly screeches to a halt and is replaced by some classical piano, only to immediately be stomped on by a huge black cloud. A massive furious riffy freakout, guitars in the red and crumbling all over the place. The drums so hot that the cymbals' sizzle threaten to overwhelm everything. And before you know it the music blinks out again and in its place a haunting alien ambience that bloops and bleeps before once again the blackness descends. The song ends with mournful reverbed trumpet that sort of drifts off into the ether. WHAT THE FUCK? So awesome. The second track is a huge chunk of black drone, pointillist piano dropped into a bleak soundscape of thick grinding fuzz and insect like melodies. The final track starts off with melancholy guitar melodies before launching into a SUPER catchy groovy black thrash, with soaring melodies, and massive almost Nirvana like breakdowns, the sound still totally overblown and in the red. And again, the weird reverbed trumpet pops in without any warning, disappearing just as fast. The track ends with more of the classical piano from the first track. Wow. So amazing. We hear lots of weird black metal, but Dimhymn's half of the split has catapulted them damn near right to the front of the fucked black metal line! Tough to follow up something like that, so fellow Swedes Hypothermia don't try to out-weird Dimhymn, but somehow manage to be just as bizarre but in an entirely different way. Epic fuzzed out glacial dirge, thick riffs spread out in a black smear, the drums a caveman plod, and some of the most fucked vocals ever. From weird, something-caught-in-the-throat sort of strangulated grunts and mewls, to guttural growls that occasionally break into falsetto-y squeaks as if the vocalist hit puberty right in the middle of recording. Sounds funny, but the overall effect is more creepy than anything. The finish the disc off with an epic 16 minute midtempo buzzscape. Looped riffs, totally repetitive and hypnotic, occasionally the drums break into a not-so-fast blast, but for the most part this is drone drenched monochromatic black dirge rock. Almost like a grim black metal Circle, or a blackened Spacemen 3, all stretched out fuzz guitar and endless trancelike riffing. So great. A pretty much perfect split. Two more impossibly damaged and absolutely essential outsider black metal bands to add to the ever growing list!

MPEG stream: Drakoforism
MPEG stream: Fran Ett Depravcrat Inre

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY.

Okay, true grim metalheads, scoff all you like, but we can NOT stop listening to this. Not because it's a great black metal record (although it sort of is), in fact, this is barely black metal at all really. There was a time where Dimmu Borgir were Norwegian black metal royalty, but they committed the ultimate offense, which was to become popular, as in mainstream popular. And instead of fighting that popularity, they embraced it, and in the process became even MORE popular. In fact, the new record, at least special versions of it, are only available in your local mall via Hot Topic! And if there's anything less kvlt, we'd be hard pressed to think of it. But. And this is a very big but, for what DB has shed in true black metal cred, and classic black metal sound, they've made up for by transforming into something totally other and else. Sure there's still some blasting beats, some buzzing riffage, sick vokills, but where DB used to employ orchestras and orchestral filigree for bombast, and sheer epicness, that orchestral side of DB seems to have lapped their BM side, and now they sound like a black metal score to the most amazing pirate/adventure/action movie that could never live up to such an epic over the top soundtrack. Which means this is fucking FUN, and ridiculously bombastic, and now the guitars take a back seat to the strings, and you know what? It suits them. Check out "Born Treacherous", which sounds remarkably like their Norwegian brethren Khold, sort of groovy and grungy, but then the strings come in, and the flutes, the horns, the percussion, but before the can launch into it, the explode into some serious black metal, but even then, that buzz and blast is wrapped in strings and soaring dramatic swells, and there are plenty of stops and starts so the strings can soar dramatically. This is power metal writ WAY over the top, super intricate and proggy and pretty brilliantly orchestrated, but it's not until about halfway through that the brilliance is driven home, by a dizzying breakdown, a super dynamic stop/start interlude, with creaking ship's riggings, chantlike vocals, sampled spoken word, grunting pigs, choirs, even Tuvan throat singing, and then it comes together, descending pizzicato strings, dense swirling swells, launching directly into another almost trad sounding burst of black metal, but again soon the orchestra takes over. It's overwhelming and exhausting and totally thrilling. If we were designing a video game, this record would be the soundtrack, it's so evocative and over the top and you can't help but feel like you should be battling or swashbuckling or something. And beyond the music, DB always had the craziest outfits, the biggest spikes, the most ridiculous costumes, and for this new record they've totally outdone themselves, ditching black entirely, now clothed entirely in white leather, all dusted with what seems to be powder, strange rams horn helmets, long white leather dusters. Check out the video for "Gateways" on YouTube (it's also included as a bonus here, the special 'cross' digipak version of Abrahadabra, which we'll have til they run out), it's easy to see why these guys are so popular, in fact, it makes us wonder why they're not ever MORE popular. Fuck the boring jeans and sneakers shoegazers, if we pay $20, we want flames, and bigger than life characters, and ridiculous drama, and that's pretty much what you get with Dimmu Borgir, especially on Abrahadabra. AWESOME!

MPEG stream: Born Treacherous
MPEG stream: Gateways
MPEG stream: Chess With The Abyss

Epic, gothic black metal in the Cradle of Filth vein.

"Eliza, the whore of the night/attends the sabbath, the theatre of lust/The hunter is in the ring, caressing folds of flesh/Diabolical intercourse profound." Words and music with no equal?...from Norway's answer to Cradle of Filth, and one of the most popular metal bands in Europe at present. This ep contains new songs, an Accept cover (!), and some live cuts, eight tracks in total.

Newest and possibly best (certainly best in a while) record from black metal's second biggest 'sell outs' (first place belongs to Cradle of Filth of course). Not sure how this band managed to alienate the true black metallers (other than by getting popular)

RealAudio clip: Blessings Upon the Throne of Tyranny

Here is one third of a triple dose of bizarre that's just arrived at AQ! What's so bizarre? Well, first off, the pairing of buoyant sixties pop tunes featuring a young lad's sweet voice with the incongruous sepiatone vintage porn pics on the record sleeves. If we were to stop our description there, these would be pretty darn odd enough, but let's continue shall we? The almighty catch is that the voice in question just happens to be the one that would go on to sing for Elf, Rainbow, Black Sabbath, and Dio! Yes, these singles are early sixties recordings by none other than Ronnie James Dio himself! We all know he's an old guy, and had heard rumours for years that his recording career began way back in 1957...well now we pretty much have the proof in the form of these three singles, reissues of tracks circa 1962 done by Dio and his teenage cronies. This is not just pre-Heavy Metal Dio, this is pre-Beatles! Poppy, doo-wop, sock hop styled stuff in the vein of Dion, Richie Valens, that sort of thing. These singles with their risque covers come randomly assorted between plain black and nice thick swirly colored vinyl. Quite a curio. And as you might imagine, we have only a few in stock!

First off, DIRTY LUST? Wow, what an amazing name! They must be a metal band -- and indeed they are, but a weird one. We discovered this very heavy, very cool, very strange Spanish band on the internet (thanks to the www.customheavy.com site -- hi Chris!) and

RealAudio clip: How Could You Do It?
RealAudio clip: Sweet Inmortality
RealAudio clip: Envoies From Satania

Another batch of slow burn, churning doom drenched epic metal, steeped in convoluted math rock and blissed out post rock. You know what we're talking about. Disappearer fall WAY on the heavier end of that spectrum, with massive downtuned guitars, pummeling drums, soaring psychedelic leads and guitar harmonies, a gloriously lurching monstrous groove, loping and hypnotic, huge sweeping waves of melancholic post doom rock bliss, cymbals explode and sizzle all over the proceedings like acid rain, the bass grinds and throbs, pushing everything along like some ominous black tide, and the guitars, shit, this is all about the guitars, thick layered walls of drop-d sludge, long lazy drifts of glistening guitar minimalism, stuttery stretches of crumbling chug, swirling tangled tendrils of muted melody, all matched push for shove by the drums, sometimes a crushing caveman pound, sometimes a simple shuffling plod, other times an impossibly convoluted tribal freakout. If you still need some comparisons, Neurosis, Mouth Of The Architect, Tides, Conifer, Isis, that sort of thing, but Disappearer are all instrumental, and thus have a much more abstract and droney brooding vibe, like any one of those bands, jamming afterhours, not really playing songs, or a show, just slowly carving huge swaths of monumental heaviness under the cloak of darkness.

MPEG stream: Crownfire
MPEG stream: Rust / Dust

Another reissue of crucial stuff by these grindcore heroes, Hydrahead making it possible now for your entire Discordance Axis cd collection to be all uniformly packaged in DVD-style cases. And they do look spiffy. Inside this one you'll find a big ol' booklet of lyrics and detailed commentary, along with a 31-track cd of killer grind: DA's second album Jouhou from 1997 plus their sides of splits with Melt Banana (for whom DA's drum god Dave Witte later played) and Plutocracy, and a live, improvised track from their final show in Tokyo in '98. If you already have the Jouhou cd released a few years ago in the regular jewel case, you've got all the same tracks. But the booklet here is expanded and redesigned and of course now it matches the packaging of your The Inalienable Dreamless and Original Sound Version 1992-1995 disc. What? You like grind and you don't have those? Well any or all would be good places to start.

MPEG stream: Vertigo Index
MPEG stream: Flow My Tears, The Policeman Said

You wanna know what we mean when we talk about "grind"? This band could be the dictionary definition of grindcore. Not 'cause they're the most typical or generic, but rather because they're an exemplary grindcore band in so many respects. They'll certainly give you a good idea of grind: short, sharp, stop start songs with screamy grrrrrrr vocals, angular metallic riffs, and insane drumming (on most of the material here, by the godlike Dave Witte, ex-Human Remains, also of Burnt By The Sun and Melt-Banana). A political lyrical stance is also part of the equation, although these guys are also obsessed with information theory and Japan-fandom (the culture, not the band). This disc is a "perfect edit" reissued collection of stuff from this NJ "ninja grindcore" unit. Their first album Ulterior, live stuff, unreleased recordings (their first rehearsal!), tracks from split releases and comps and singles...approximately one gazillion tracks total, including sometimes multiple versions of the same song, like any good grindcore discographical release. All packaged in a DVD case, like their masterpiece Inalienable Dreamless, which allows for a big thick booklet of lyrics, art, and commentary. The self-deprecating liner notes are revealing and funny, great reading for fans, for example: "Our policy has always been if anyone likes any of our slow parts, we make them shorter or cut them entirely" and "The title track and yowza is it lame". The booklet is great, but it's the disc that (at proper volume) will really get your attention. It's a grind cornucopia, lurching from blasting beatdowns to quirky noise to almost-post-rock, even including a cover of Black Flag's "Gimme Gimme Gimme". Essential for anyone who is or wants to be grind-savvy.

MPEG stream: Hyenosis
MPEG stream: My Neighbor Totoro
MPEG stream: Lathe

Arguably the greatest grind band ever! Meaning you could argue they weren't, but you would be dead wrong and would summarily lose any argument to the contrary. DA combined impossibly complex composition, with furiously blurred execution, all held together by some of the most creative, innovative and cryptic design we've seen in ages, -especially- from a grind or metal band! They added a hyper intellectual slant to an already politically charged scene, forgoing all the gore and guts and stuff in lieu of, well, ART. The breakup of Discordance Axis was a blow to metal and grindcore freaks worldwide and as always with things like that, rumors started circulating about a lost, unreleased DA record. Well, the rumors were partially true. Two songs, recorded but unreleased did in fact exist, and are finally getting released with loads of extra stuff, in that immediately recognizable Hydra Head / Discordance Axis oversized DVD style packaging. So the good news: the two new songs are AMAZING, fucked up and brutal, dizzyingly and impossibly dense and intricate. The bad news: the two new tracks clock in at a total time of 1:42. But thankfully DA manage to pack in about a jillion changes and parts into that minute and a half. So then there's the extra bonus material on this here DA 'single'. First you've got ten tracks credited to 'Cide Project' which could be a real band but is probably more likely one of the DA guys fucking around on his computer. That said, these tracks are SO AWESOME, fully rendered MIDI versions of all your favorite DA tracks. Fuzzy computer synths and chaotic drum programming turn these grind classics into buzzing, fuzzed out midi blurs. Like a grindcore Anton Maiden! Then there's a bunch of bands covering their favorite DA tracks, Gate, Mortalized, Noiseear, none of whom we've heard of but who all offer up appropriately thrashing grinding tribute. Then there's Melt Banana's cover, which turns the DA original into a minute of bizarre skronky, bleeping blooping grindpop. Also included is the full version of Merzbow's interpretation of DA's The Inalienable Dreamless, an insanely chaotic mix of Japanoise, spacerock skree, and about a million skipping Discordance Axis cds. And finally, to finish things off, the first song from DA vocalist Jon Chang's new outfit Gridlink, a dense shrieking exercise in turbulent, super spastic grind! Now we can all anxiously await the forthcoming War Chalking record, featuring members of Discordance Axis, Human Remains and Burnt By The Sun (counting some folks twice or thrice!). Yowza!

MPEG stream: Sega Bass Fishing
MPEG stream: Flow My Tears...
MPEG stream: Information Sniper
MPEG stream: Ulterior (Melt Banana Version)

Anyone who heard Discordance Axis's last full length, The Inalienable Dreamless, knows that they weren't your average grind band. They were heavy and complex and intelligent, with thoughtful lyrics and an amazing design sense. They just seemed to do everything better than their fellow grinders. Unlcear why they decided to call it quits but they did and left us wanting more. So the more they've given us is this live document of their last Japanese tour. And it's as challenging as their records. Edited in a way that parallels their ultra jagged and complex songs, with seizure-inducing jump cuts, freeze frames, distortion, pixelization and all sorts of other effects passing by in a flash. Exhausting and exhilarating. Also included is their 'proper' video which is edited in a similar fashion, except it utilises television style inconsistencies to make their video look like a mix between scrambled porn and a bootleg live video. Extras include a discography, photos, artwork, and even tablature!!

Yeah, I know we listed this last time, but it sort of got short shrift, especially seeing as this record, and this band are the absolute masters of technical grind, and have taken their chosen form and stretched it farther then anyone could have imagined, creating something furious and brutal and violent and frightening, but absolutley stunning at the same time. And stunning in ways other than musical, which is remarkable for a genre that often shuns the avant garde, or doesn't understand it. The cd comes housed in a DVD box, allowing for more artwork, and the gorgeous minimal cover art certainly benefits. The cover and the booklet, continue the DA tradition of hyper minimalism, obfuscated text, and a wicked eye for design. Sleek and smooth, warm, and slightly sinister. And that subtlety bleeds into the sound as well. You would think that a 17 song, 24 minute cd would be short on subtlety and long on bombast, and maybe you'd be half right. DA temper their lightning speed metalcore bombast with, complex song structures, a breathtaking technical prowess, and fleeting moments of dark ambience, classic metal riffing, and face melting noise. This is about as close to perfection, both visually and sonically, as any grindcore/metalcore I have ever heard or seen. Seriously.

RealAudio clip: Castration Ritz
RealAudio clip: Oratorio In Grey
RealAudio clip: Compiling Autumn

Just the sight of that immediately recognizable underlined, lower case 'd' logo sends shivers up our spine. Some of you already know exactly what we're talking about, and just reading this far has probably got you all in a tizzy as well. For those of you who are new to the lower case 'd', prepare yourself for diSEMBOWELMENT!! Even the name, replete with mandatory case change, conjures up all sorts of bleak lifeforce snuffing, soul crushing sensations, at least for fans of mysterious otherworldly doom and bizarre slow motion grind!! diSEMBOWELMENT were but a brief flash in the underground doom metal scene, existing for a scant three years in the early nineties, but in that time, they recorded one of the all time classic HEAVY records ever, Transcendence Into The Peripheral. A mind blowing record that somehow melded extreme brutality with delicate beauty, a record that totally changed the way some of us listened to heavy music. Referring to the music of diSEMBOWELMENT as doom might give folks the wrong impression. This is not regular old doom like Black Sabbath or My Dying Bride, it's not even funereal doom like Skepticism or Esoteric, although it definitely spends most of its time a lot closer to the slow motion sludge end of the spectrum. diSEMBOWELMENT most definitely inhabit their own unique sonic space. It's slow, sure, but not always, bursts of pounding blast beats will erupt from a bleak tranquil soundscape, gutteral inhuman grunts, machine like percussion, buzzing riffs, all intertwined into a blazing near-death metal onslaught, but it's not long before big reverb drenched guitar melodies begin to fall like some sort of black rain, the metallic pummel sort of stumbling to a seasick lumber, turning the whole thing into a creepy crawl, lurching, plodding, downtuned guitars and spare, simple rhythms, a crushing slow motion dirge, with haunting atonal clean guitar parts and moaning melodies. And even during these vast expanses of atmospheric tranquility, you can never rule out sudden blast beat, or a throat shredding vocal part, or a sudden crushing riff. The magic of diSEMBOWELMENT though is that somehow the metallic crush and the melancholic ambience are perfectly balanced. The whole thing is a dark and depressive, minor key and mournful masterpiece. But it's all so fucking heavy! Even the not-so-heavy parts manage to sound completely massive and totally crushing! So intense and emotional and just absolutely beautiful. Yep, beautiful. Lovely even. Like few records we can remember, and certainly one of the only records this heavy and brutal that manages to be absolutely beautiful. Sonically it's a bit like Napalm Death's Scum, and Carcass's Reek of Putrifaction, that classic Earache sound, a bit lo-fi, lots of reverb, big drums, buzzing guitars, all boiled down into a viscous blackened sludge, sprinkled throughout with brief melodic flares and occasional glistening guitars, like rays of sunlight just barely penetrating the suffocating atmosphere of thick low hanging riffs and bleak, brutal ambience. Disc one contains all of Transcendence Into the Peripheral, and hell, we would have been happy with just that, a long overdue reissue of one of our all time favorite discs. But disc two contains the quite rare Dusk ep, as well as a rare compilation track and the five track Mourning September demo, all of it suitably genius! And, for a very limited time, we have managed to get a hold of the "mailorder only" version of this diSEMBOWELMENT reissue (limited to 1000 copies worldwide) that comes with a whole extra, third, disc! Disc three contains an unreleased version of "The Spirit Of The Tall Hills" (from Transcendence Into the Peripheral), as well as rehearsal versions of The Spirit Of The Tall Hills and Your Prophetic Throne Of Ivory (also from Transcendence Into the Peripheral). These versions are a lot weirder than the album versions, faster, with way more deranged and damaged vocals! Also includes a Necrovore (who we'd never heard of) cover, a murky, fuzzy, droned-out thrash workout! Wow. Obviously totally and completely essential. Like we mentioned before, the three disc version is super limited so we're not sure how long we'll have those. Packaged in an oversized 3cd jewel case, with a booklet of photos and liner notes, including lyrics and a history of the band from drummer Paul Mazziotta. When the 3cd version is gone we will have the 2cd version, which is cheaper and comes packaged in an embossed double digipak.

MPEG stream: The Tree Of Life And Death
MPEG stream: Your Prophetic Throne Of Ivory
MPEG stream: Cerulian Transience Of All My Imagined Shores

The band name starts with the prefix DIS, which is your first hint that you best prepare yourself for some serious D-beat pummel. Featuring at least one member of UK black doom heavies Ghast, Disfortune offer up seven songs in a little over eight minutes, with at least two songs clocking in at less than 20 seconds, this is some seriously brootal, furious frantic grinding metallic crust, weirdly lo-fi too, the guitars buzzy and murky but way down in the mix on most of the tracks, crushing and blown out on the super short ones, the sound driven by the d-beat pound of the drums, and the raspy vokills, and of course there are plenty of samples, the sound metallic and crusty, and much beholden to Discharge (of course), Digust, Disfear, Disrupt, and all the other DIS bands, as well as Anti Cimex and Doom and well you get the drift. A short sharp blast of metallic punk heaviness, for fans of all of the above mentioned bands, as well as more recent d-beat practitioners like Acephalix, Bone Awl, Malveillance, etc...

MPEG stream: Cider Sunrise
MPEG stream: Godspasm 7

You like your metal raging and misanthropic? Probably you do. After all, mellow, have-a-nice-day metal just isn't that popular, we've noticed. Well this second album from up n'coming Moonfog act Disiplin sure as heck ain't filled with a lot of love for their fellow man! Instead these Norwegians are full up with aggression and negativity. A powerful production here showcases Disiplin's violent blend of black and death and thrash metal brutality...thrash blackened thrash! But very modern and mechanized mayhem this is, and unrelenting. Maybe a song will start swith a sample, and/or a few moments of atmospheric string-scrape...however it's not long before you (or the inner demons you intend to exorcise with this particular listening regime) are being trampled by vicious riffage, blasting drums, and the throat-scorching bile-spew of the vocalist. For fans of more recent Satyricon, Myrkskog, Grimfist, Zyklon, etc. Includes bonus video clip for the title track.

MPEG stream: Feed The Fucker To The Dogs
MPEG stream: Anti-Life

It's almost enough for us just to say "new on Moonfog", isn't it? That label, run by Satyr of Satyricon, has definitely become synonymous with quality Norwegian black metal, bringing us both experimental stuff like Dodheimsgard/DHG and the current work of pioneers Darkthrone, with the likes of Thorns and Satyricon themselves bridging the old and new schools. So any new release on Moonfog is certainly worthy of our -- and your -- attention. Disiplin don't fail to meet our expectations. Fierce and raging yet, well, disciplined, Disiplin play black metal heavily infused with the energy and chops of thrash and death metal. Classy and kick-ass. But with just enough strange ambient/industrial/folky weirdness to keep things interesting. This is the band's first release, with guitarist/bassist "General K" having served time in Myrkskog. Guests include ex-Emperors Bard Faust and Zamoth. Folks in desperate need of a Satyricon fix will find everything they've been hankering for on Disiplin's crushing debut.

MPEG stream: Liberation
MPEG stream: Kniferegime

We must have mentioned before that we're suckers for electric pink on an album cover. Dunno why, it's just a thing with us. Especially when it's a METAL album. How did Boris know? And now Diskord. The shocking pink hues on the cover of this album are part of a garish, trippy painting that's deliberately indicative of the unusual, lysergic-sounding technical death metal these Norwegian guys play. Spaced out, definitely Voivod influenced, grinding weirdness... they're an alien metal machine with lots of cold, sharp edges and many moving parts. And though they're crazy technical and blasting a lot of the time, let's not forget the album is aptly titled Doomscapes, which means they can break it down from the hyperactive heaviness to sheer crushing slabs of sludge, and ooze ambient atmospheric interludes too. Definitely for fans of fellow demented deathsters like Cephalic Carnage and Canvas Solaris, and older bands running the extreme death metal spectrum from Autopsy to Pestilence to Disharmonic Orchestra...

MPEG stream: An Architectonic Manifestation Of Death
MPEG stream: Public Static Void
MPEG stream: Harbinger

Basically, these guys just dropped the "L" at the end to come up with their name. Using the same method, they could have also called themselves "Bruta", but "Disma" fits better with this sort of slow, sick, sludgey death metal, done in the ancient way by those who know it well, as New Jersey's dirgey, downtuned Disma includes in their (rank) ranks none other than Craig Pillard, former throat for '90s doomdeath legends Incantation! Seeing as how Incantation has been getting a lot of love in the death metal underground lately, we expect lots of peeps to freak out over Disma, we know we were chuffed. And yeah, folks who like fellow Profound Lore low-end miasmic metallers Vasaeleth, or recent releases by such bands as Encoffination and Vastum, should definitely bow down to the insalubrious onslaught that is Disma. Their chugging crunching crushing metal of death (often in slow motion) also brings the weird with it, song structures that nail your coffin shut with sudden herks and jerks of their spiraling buzzing guitars, then pave over the gravesite with oozing ambient fuzz... the funeral eulogy delivered via Pillard's guttural vokills, intoning lyrics evocative of crypts and chasms, abyssal deeps and ancient aeons. Hellishly hypnotic stuff, well worthy of Incantation's legacy. Disma also features members of Funebrarum, another current cult DM band keeping the old school sounds alive (or should we say, undead!).

MPEG stream: Chaos Apparition
MPEG stream: Chasm Of Oceanus
MPEG stream: Spectral Domination

This Austrian band's earlier records on Napalm *were* truly dismal--and this (their last for the label, before being picked up by the giant Nuclear Blast conglom) may also be tough to stomach, but they're doing the combination of black metal, operatic female vocals and classical passages better than before and I'm sure somebody out there will thrill to the ludicrous bizarreness of it all.

Troo Cvlt types everywhere have been waiting for this, the second "demo" tape from heralded Bay Area black metal / doom artists Dispirit, the band featuring guitarist/vocalist John Gossard, previously of Asunder, The Gault, and most crucially, USBM legends WEAKLING. The joke around here has always been, Question: Hey, have you seen Dispirit play live? Answer: Yes, well, no, not really - since you usual can't actually SEE them through all the fog they use on stage, putting even SUNNO))) to shame in fog machine abuse. They've got those suckers cranked to 11. And guess what? Their music SOUNDS foggy too. Once again recorded live at "Oboroten" (presumably, their practice space), here's three more long lo-fi excursions into Dispirit's hazy, obscured world of blackened, doomy, slowcore infused metal. Endless depressive trudge, utterly lugubrious lumbering plodding, with Gossard's anguished vocals (excuse us, vokills) a blown-out despairing howl barely rising above the din... And boy is it mesmeric. But then a strange thing happens. When you think you have 'em pegged, the shit gets much more metal and gallopy, the vocals more aggro, the riffs sharper, and even squiggly leads emerge (though still cutting through a dense miasmatic murk). Dispirit know how to rip, in their own way, it turns out. Whew! We're even hearing some Sabbath in there. Side B is back to the slow, sludge trudge, with Dispirits exhalations of doom pretty soon lulling the listener into a trancelike state, the music drifting off on textural, suicidally shoegazy waves of sound, ominous and... oh wait, it's the first song again, turns out "the program is repeated on side B." Aha. Also not sure what's up with the numbers as the tape title, oh maybe it's the date this was recorded. And the three song titles are given in a tiny, gothic blackletter font that's super hard to read (kinda like on the Weakling cd). Maybe the first song is called "All Baths End The Same"? Or probably it's "Paths" but we like "Baths". Which would go with song two, "Beneath The Waves", pretty sure we got that one right. Then there's "The Drinker" or "The Drifter" or "The Drinser"?? As you can see this music has muddled our minds.

We probably don't even need to bother with a review for this one if we start out with this detail: Dispirit is the latest project from John Gossard, best known as the mastermind behind SF black metal legends Weakling as well as gothed out metallers the Gault and doom merchants Asunder. But that wouldn't be giving something as awesome as this the respect it deserves, because this shit SLAYS. That part probably isn't too much of a surprise. What IS a surprise is how Dispirit can crank out a rehearsal tape that shames pretty much any other black metal band out there today. The lo-fi recording actually works perfectly in establishing an atmosphere that is, yes, grim, but also just HUGE and cavernous sounding, not to mention just plain eerie. The end results are the perfect soundtrack to dying in a mud pit in some war torn hell hole with flames all around. Or a score for the end of the world, civilization crumbling, the world as we know it descending into the pits of hell. We can only wonder what the future holds when this band sets out to make a record proper. No doubt the reason for this cassette's success is the fact that these guys can tear shit up like no one's business. Their use of mournful, heavily sustained guitars will certainly appeal to fans of Weakling, while the plodding doominess that leads these two songs to their furious, blast ridden midsections and majestic outros shows the link to Asunder. In a world where there is simply too much black metal, it's bands like this that make you realize why you became obsessed in the first place. Gossard possesses the perfect black metal vocal style, a terrifying banshee shriek that refuses to be buried beneath the equally impressive relentless instrumentation and blitzkrieg drumming. While retaining the essence of black metal, Dispirit also remain unique and true to themselves with a style of black metal that is distinctly American. Unbelievable stuff.

MPEG stream: Ixtab's Lure
MPEG stream: Bitumen Amnii

MPEG stream: Trapped
MPEG stream: Deprived
MPEG stream: Rid The Cancer
MPEG stream: Anti-Sobriety Song
MPEG stream: Dog Eat Dog

MPEG stream: Domestic Prison
MPEG stream: Mass Graves
MPEG stream: Compliant
MPEG stream: A Life's A Life
MPEG stream: Pay For...

New single from post-prison Dissection line-up. We'll reserve judgement for a full-length.

Here's the new, post-incarceration Dissection "comeback" album that we sorta dissed in our review of the Storm Of The Light's Bane reissue.

Long overdue, super deluxe double disc reissue of this long-time Aquarius favorite / black metal classic. After a not-so-great past few years for Dissection, including a lengthy jail sentence for frontman Jon Nodtveidt, and a recent disappointing 'comeback/reunion' record (not yet reviewed here), this black classic returns to remind us just how mindblowingly kick ass Dissection really were. And while of course this is a fave of all the metalheads around here, and our metal-lovin' customers, it's also loved by the less metal inclined -- for instance, former AQ staffer Byram, not normally a big metal consumer, ranks this as one of his favorites amongst the Nordic hordes. In fact, it's one of the few metal cds in his collection. It's that great. It came out originally in '94, reissued as a digipak a few years back, and now sees a super duper double disc re-release with a whole disc of bonus tracks (more on those later). With Storm of the Light's Bane, Dissection perfected their melodic, blackened Swedish death metal approach -- that means TRUE, original metal, with elements of everything from Morbid Angel to Mayhem to Iron Maiden, suped-up and super-grim, with raspy vocals, wicked drumming (the guy is AMAZING), truly memorable, majestic melodies, and tons of cold winter atmosphere. They take long breaks to let their acoustic guitars gently weep, then tear back into the brutal, razor-edged rifferama. Serious stuff, seriously great. This was to be their last album, a mighty swan song, as Dissection called it quits soon after when their frontman ended up in jail as accessory to murder -- but their -very- tangential role in any of that over-sensationalized Scandinavian black metal true crime stuff has nothing to do with why you should be interested in this band. Like we said, the band reformed last year when Nodtveidt got out of jail, and just recently released a mediocre new record, but it couldn't hold a candle to Storm Of The Light's Bane, nor could most metal records actually. Dissection was a brilliant band, and Storm of the Light's Bane is an all time classic that belongs in every metal collection. If you haven't already gotten this album, here's your chance. And even if you already have one of the previous versions, the extra disc might make it a necessary repeat purchase. The second disc is crammed with bonus tracks and unreleased material. First up, the Storm Of The Light's Bane unreleased alternative mix '95, which might have been for completist nerds only, but a closer look reveals an extra track not on the album proper. Then there's two tracks from an unreleased 1994 demo. And finally the Where Dead Angels Lie ep, also remastered. Lots of liner notes and packaged in a spiffy slipcover. SO RECOMMENDED!

MPEG stream: Night's Blood
MPEG stream: Where Dead Angels Lie
MPEG stream: Soulreaper

Reissue of a long-time Aquarius favorite. Not just of AQ metalheads Andee and Allan, or our metal-lovin' customers, but others on the staff here too -- for instance, Byram, not normally a big metal consumer, ranks this as one of his favorites amongst the Nordic hordes. In fact, it's one of the few metal cds in his collection -- it's that good (he was a music student y'know). It came out originally in '94, and now sees a digipacified re-release with bonus tracks from their out of print Where Dead Angels Lie cdep. With Storm of the Light's Bane, Dissection perfected their melodic, blackened Swedish death metal approach -- that means TRUE, original metal, with elements of everything from Morbid Angel to Mayhem to Iron Maiden, suped-up and super-grim, with raspy vocals, wicked drumming (the guy is AMAZING), truly memorable, majestic melodies, and tons of cold winter atmosphere. They take long breaks to let their acoustic guitars gently weep, then tear back into the brutal, razor-edged rifferama. Serious stuff, seriously great. This was to be their last album, and Dissection is no more -- front man John Nodtveidt ended up in jail as accessory to murder -- but their tangential role in any of that over-sensationalized Scandinavian black metal true crime stuff has nothing to do with why you should be interested in this band. No, regardless of their unfortunate history, Dissection was a brilliant band, and Storm of the Light's Bane is a classic that belongs in every metal collection. If you haven't already gotten this album, here's your chance.

RealAudio clip: Night's Blood
RealAudio clip: Where Dead Angels Lie
RealAudio clip: Soulreaper

2nd edition, re-designed digipak with new artwork for this collection of early demos from the infamous Swedish melodic death/black metal band. With main composer/guitarist/vocalist Jon Nordviet recently thrown in jail for an alleged murder, this may be the last Dissection release for twenty or thirty years...

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. The best Swedish death/black metal band's demos and rarities, cd format soon.

A reissue of these long-defunct Swedish black/death metallers' debut long-player, recorded in 1993 at Dan Swano's studio. It's melodic, with majestic riffs and folky acoustic interludes, but also quite fast, heavy and brutal. Here Dissection established their "blackened" style of Swedish Melodic Death Metal, a sound that they perfected on their next album, the classic Storm Of The Light's Bane. That's the one to get first, and then when you're hooked on 'em, you'll want this one as well. Why is Storm Of The Light's Bane better? It's just the subjective choice of the AQ-staff. Superior songs, we feel. But this is a fine effort too. (By the way, unlike the Nuke Blast reish of Storm, there's no bonus tracks to be found here.)

RealAudio clip: The Somberlain
RealAudio clip: Crimson Towers

THIS IS CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT OR OTHERWISE UNAVAILABLE TO US AT THE MOMENT, SO PLEASE DO NOT ORDER IT. SORRY.

SORRY. And if the Cradle of Filth's coffin box doesn't sate your need for Black Metal packaging gimmickry, how about a *shaped* cd? (Some kind of upside-down cross.) This six-song ep collects rare compilation and Japan-only bonus tracks from this truly superior Swedish death/black majestic metal band, including, guess what, a Slayer cover.

[ aquarius records — Metal ]