Nacht Und Gnosis (SWE) – Herranom WHITE LP

Black Metal

After 2019’s well-received Endless Trails demo via SIGNAL REX, HOLLOW WOODS strike with a full-length debut fittingly titled Cold Winds Cleave the Earth. While hailing from Finland, this mysterious entity largely eschew their homeland’s reigning black metal idiom, instead taking influence from Ukraine (Roman Saenko’s projects), Norway (early Ulver, equally early Gorgoroth), and especially Russia (the Blazebirth Hall collective). In other words, pure & proud BLACK METAL, nevertheless done with personality and charisma.

Black Metal

One of the most accomplished newcomers Signal Rex has come across in recent years, the shadowy entity of Valais burst from the voidal womb fully formed in the middle of 2021 with their self-titled debut album. Despite existing in the vast (and vastly inconsistent) wilderness of Bandcamp, Valais in fact imparted a power and poignancy that takes most bands at least a couple records to reach, if at all. Both classically composed and forward-thinking, Valais understood right from the start the core tenets of true black metal, but equally understood how to inject their own personality and poise into such to create something that adds to the language of BLACK METAL rather than mimics its speech patterns (and sloppily so).

No, Valais as a work is a towering monument of tension and release, skillful contours and subtle dynamics, richly malevolent melody and slipstreaming violence. Aesthetic touchstones include the likes of Slidhr, latter-day Leviathan, and even Blut Aus Nord at their wiliest, but Valais also exhibit an understated sense of the pagan – perhaps stemming from their native Ireland, or perhaps from some strange cosmos far beyond our comprehension… Either way, all of this coalesces into a whilrlwinding five-song/37-minute experience that feels far vaster than that succinct runtime otherwise suggests. As such, Signal Rex is honored to rightfully release this tome in all physical formats.

Black Metal

Negros Manifestos de Ordem Venusiana, a split LP presented on noble vinyl, to honor the ancient ways.

Indeed, both hordes wholly honor the ancient ways, and understandably are two of the mightiest and most respected hordes in Portugal’s nowadays raw black metal scene.

Negros Manifestos de Ordem Venusiana is something of an intergenerational pairing, however, as MONS VENERIS have been prolifically polluting the underground since 2003 while ORDEM SATANICA, by comparison, started their near-equally prolific onslaught in 2014.

Nevertheless, as representatives of the Portuguese Black Metal, here on Negros Manifestos de Ordem Venusiana do both hordes create provocative portrayals of their unique darkness and despair.

ORDEM SATANICA are on Side A and unfurl three haunting and medieval tracks, roaming the castle with that spectral rawness they’ve truly made their own the last few years.

MONS VENERIS are on Side B and offer an epic, side-long track that roams the rawest dungeons, spanning punkish bash and hypnotic hysteria alike, torrents of noise to ruin your soul.

Black Metal

RUTTOKOSMOS are one of the great “what if?”s of Finnish black metal. The band formed sometime in 2003 and released the five-song Ja minä näin kuoleman demo in 2006 and then the six-song Kärsimys demo a year later. Afterward, nothing was heard from RUTTOKOSMOS ever again. Only one member concurrently played in Divina Inferis, and the other two members either disappeared and played pseudonymously in other bands.

Black Metal

Producto de conspiración con el nuevo sello chileno Templo del Sol Muerto, traemos ante ustedes el trabajo debut de este joven proyecto del sur de Chile.

Caracterizado por ejecutar un Black Metal con sonido un tanto diferente a lo acostumbrado por estos lados del orbe: ritmos a medio tiempo, voces desgarradas, atmósfera medieval, cruda y melancólica, Kerasfóra nace desde los místicos vientos del sur para entregarnos cuatro tracks llenos de solemne oscuridad.

Dejamos el track promocional ‘Night’s Symbol’, para que se sumergan bajo el manto de la noche y esperen la llegada a este plano de esta nueva banda que de seguro nos seguirá hipnotizando.

Black Metal

The SELVHAT magnum opus Gjennom Mørket Famlende will always be a personal favorite of mine. This is where, in my honest opinion, he peaked before he left us, and yet I feel we had even bigger things to come, but alas.

Written, recorded and performed by himself with assistance from E.Blix, also playing drums on these recordings.

Absolutely mesmerizing, chilling Black Metal perfection, I will never stop praising this album!

Even looking back at playing an instrumental CD-r version back in the day, I instantly knew this was something special, and to this day I still think this is one unique album and one of my favorite albums.

Although slightly updated/adjusted layout, this release remains true to the original.