Street date: 2008-09-08

A Feral Spirit takes the journey further into the heart of the forest. Combining Native American shamanic influence and the Germanic nature worship of Chet W. Scott's own heritage with an entirely transcendent musical vision, Blood Of The Black Owl gives praise to the spirits of nature and the unspoken bonds that tie man, beast and environment. With elements of doom metal, ambient, ritual and native musics in evidence throughout the album, Blood Of The Black Owl involve the listener in a timeless and spiritually expansive journey of discovery, evaluation and reflection over the course of the album's 73 minutes. "A personal cleansing woven through audible passages of earthbound ritualistic transcendence"...

Street date: 2008-08-25

Aurora Borealis proudly present this split seven inch between Burial Hex and Silvester Anfang. Burial Hex, who conjure all sorts of imaginings - nocturnal rites, lonely vigils with archaic analogue equipment, moonlight and madness - bring us the first track. They stun the listener with the ultra harsh yet brutally rhythmic 'Throne'. Screaming vocals and sheer cliffs of noise and feedback fight with a thumping pulse and total necro power electronics. The other side sees six minutes of pure heavy psychedelic guitar mantra from Silvester Anfang, with an increased line-up now including Ernesto of Bear Bones Lay Low. Silvester Anfang, who are the Funeral Folk collective gathered in a free folk drone band, mix together pounding drum patterns, multi layers of ethereal vocals, analogue synth and soaring wah guitar. They shred your mind as you are taken into new realms with 'Offerbloed Van De Maansekte' (or 'Sacrificial Blood Of The Mooncult' to the non- Flemish speakers). This is a total trip!

Street date: 2008-04-07

So here it is: The Seventh Goodbye, the debut full-length album from 23 year old Ben Nash. Clocking in at 34 minutes, its not an overly long album, but rather one that demands repeated listens, a collage of so many layers, patterns and textures so as to be as dazzling as the plumage of the finest peacock in paradise. Musical elements as diverse as folk, raga, Eastern percussion, drone, prog and noise collide and coalesce as the album unfolds, with each of the eight tracks providing new twists and turns, and never an element out of place. That this should all be the work of one man is quite astounding, and its clear that comparisons with Ben Chasny and Voice Of The Seven Woods are more than mere flattery.

Street date: 2008-03-24

Initiations, the debut recording for Aurora Borealis, is a lengthy proposition. Clocking in at one hour thirteen minutes, it represents a journey, a metaphysical odyssey of uncertain outcome. From the psycho-religious clamour of "Will To The chapel" with its jihadic cries, through to the somnambulant, subterranean oscillations of "Eight Pentacles", the way ahead is far from clear, the atmosphere claustrophobic and threatening. "The River Of Los" showcases a new breadth of vision for Burial Hex with layers of undulating analogue synth and gentle percussion, an opiate addled take on the horror electronics hinted at previously, and perhaps an indication of things to come. This long track takes the listener on a river journey, part Apocalypse Now!, part Orpheus in The Underworld, submerged in Carpenter's dense Fog, slow moving discomfort and ague. The album ends with the half speed collisions, static miasma and white noise squawl of "Bo -II- Ne", the listener deposited on shores unknown, prostrate at the feet of the infinite mystery.

Street date: 2008-01-28

Split TenhornedBeast / Marzuraan release. From deep within the hinterlands of northern England the TenHornedBeast is rising. Widely known for his 1990's work with English dark-ambient occultists Endvra Christopher Walton has let loose a new malstrom. Powered by biblical prophecy and oppressive volume TenHornedBeast stalks the neither-neither world between sound and invocation. "The Law Of The Needle" is a work of intense power and intelligence, carefully constructed for maximum effect on the attentive listener. Repeated listening reaps great rewards. Marzuraan pull out all the stops with their best recording to date. Drawing on all aspects of their previous work and building on their 2006 Solid Wood LP, "Into Countless Battles" sees the band in a hazy fog of narcotic bliss, swathes of warm guitar, droning arcs of bass and buried vocals: this track should never end.

Street date: 2007-12-03

WOLFMANGLER is the musical vision of Polish revelator D Smolken, formerly of DEAD RAVEN CHOIR. His music is slow, grim, noisy and shambling, a deconstructed hybrid of twisted folk and hinterland doom metal. Bowed double bass, electric bass, flute, French horn and violin merge with sinister growls and whispered vocals rich with the symbolism of life and decay creating a listening experience at once unsettling, twisted and darkly beautiful. Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves takes his trademark raw buzzing intensity and pushes it even further down an uncharted thorny overgrown path creating a wall of noise that almost seems to suck the air out of the room, leaving a festering rotten discomfort - a real sonic alchemy - creating oil from sound.

Street date: 2007-11-19

Recorded live and under ritual conditions, Oriflamme was Wraiths' first creation. The insanely limited CDr release was quickly consumed by collectors of the truly profane and now this vinyl presentation has been ordained by the ghastly monks themselves in conjunction with Aurora Borealis. Blackened death-ambient drone meets howling, metallic noise. Over their short period of activity, Wraiths have released two well-received CDs (with glowing reviews from Terrorizer, The Wire, Rock-a-Rolla and Aquarius Records) and have played live with acts as diverse as The Law-rah Collective, High On Fire and Chicks On Speed; producing ferociously loud sonic blasphemy wherever they can set up their arcane devices.

Street date: 2007-09-24

The first thing to assault the listener is Smolken's disregard, nay contempt, for the concept, practice and orthodox theory of recording levels. In his own words "Everything was recorded using a Polish stereo microphone from the 1970s, mixed and mastered using headphones of roughly the same age and provenance and a more modern pair of PC speakers which I got for free from a guy who paid about $6 for them." The instrumentation is similarly basic, being entirely bass centred, be it the double necked electric bass guitar of which Smolken is so fond (though he is now the proud owner of a triple necked model...), or the more traditional bass fiddle. "I already knew from working with Wolfmangler that metal sounds better without guitars. Cleaning up the arrangements made things clearer and heavier." Raw, violent and organized, My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind grips the listener immediately and threatens to overwhelm them with its brute force and unique sound. Smolken has transcended the avant-garde and moved beyond..

Street date: 2007-08-28

The Other Side Of The Island is the soundtrack to the sculptural works collected under the same name, both being the work of David J Smith. In addition to his percussion duties with Guapo, Smith has spent the last two years bringing his visions to life; life that emerged slowly, painstakingly, out of wax, coal, copper and lead. In much the same way, the soundtrack itself slowly writhes organically before the listener: the groan of the motherlode, the shifting of tectonic plates, the song of the Earth's crust. In collaboration with longstanding musical cohort Daniel O'Sullivan (with whom Smith plays in Miasma & The Carousel Of Dead Horses) and audio engineer Antti Uusumaki, Smith has created a strange work comprising of layered vocals, percussion, electronics and prepared strings. The Stargazer's Assistant offer up the soundtrack of eternal, elemental labour.

Street date: 2007-07-30

MOSS return with their debut full length, Cthonic Rites. A mighty slab of extreme Doom from beyond, a paean to the Elder Gods. Managing to pack two entire tracks into the 66 minutes, MOSS redefine torturous with a larger, more cosmically heavy sound with Jus Oborn (of Doom masters ELECTRIC WIZARD) taking production duties. Though each track retains the monolithic simplicity of a Martian pyramid, the production somehow increases the scope of the trademark MOSS wall of distortion and despair. MOSS create the heaviest and most tormenting extreme doom in existence. An expression of horrific bleakness and mind-numbing desolation through an otherworldly odes to madness, H.P.Lovecraft, and altered states. This is the band's second release for Aurora Borealis. "Cthulhu fhtagn"

Street date: 2007-06-18

Acéphale; from the Latin a-cephalus, headless or without a chief. Taking their moniker from George Bataille's political and cultural journal from the late 1930's, Portland, Oregon's L'acephale have created a ritualistic totem that stands as "a war machine against received ideas". Formed in 2002 and conceived originally as a one man project, Set Sothis Nox La birthed a sonic Lusus Naturae of Herculean proportion, taking equal inspiration from the current wave of Eastern European black metal (including Drudkh & Hate Forest), the more experimental approach of post-industrial neo-folk (Waldteufel, Toroidh etc.) and cultural writings & philosophies from neo-paganism through to the surrealism of the Inter-War years. Following on from other USBM ubermensch like Weakling, Wormwood, Leviathan and Wolves In The Throne Room et al, L'acephale create a heady brew - blasting whirlwinds of frenetic energy combine with more measured and eerie passages to create something potent, original and devastating. Housed in glorious deluxe packaging.

Street date: 2007-05-21

Silvester Anfang hail from Flanders, channelling an ancient spirit of blasphemous anarchy, transposing the nameless fiends of yore as free-flowing ritual psych occultic Flemish rock. Kosmies Slachtafval (trans. "kosmic slaughterhouse sweepings/debris") sees Silvester Anfang in dark, post-krautrock, heavy jam mode: guitars, bass, keys, flute and percussion combine with vocals to create a doomy funeral psych rich in the textures of ritual and worship. Through a series of cassette tapes and CD-r's released in micro editions, the arcane Belgians have garnered a fearsome and mysterious reputation for dark intense musical outpouring and idolatry. We are very proud to foist their first ever full length compact disc release onto an unsuspecting public.

Street date: 2007-03-12

The Sundown/Sunrise EP picks up where 2006's Silver EP left off, this time taking two songs and stretching them out over 35 minutes, mixing the bittersweet melody with huge swathes of oceanic drone and minimilist electronica - this is by far the most accomplished and ambitious that Jesu have sounded to date.

Street date: 2007-02-26

Threatening collaboration taking in parallel worlds of Extreme Computer Music and Black Metal. KTL is Stephen O'Malley (SunnO))), Khanate) and Peter Rehberg (PITA). A six part collision amongst the increasingly fading presences between the light and the dark, with some pieces recorded during a thunderstorm at night in a castle as well in glorious sunshine in a wintergarden. The collaboration came about as the two were working on a theatre production by Gisele Vienne and Dennis Cooper, entitled Kindertotenlieder.

Street date: 2007-02-12

Like Various Production, Knives Ov Resistance eschews the cardigan and commune imagery of folk revivalists in favour of a darker more contemporary take. Despite incorporating elements of hip hop turntablism, Knives' noir/folk contains no beats whatsoever - just pastoral swells, buzzing stringed bliss, layered samples (from birdsong and choirs through to blankets of the indistinguishable) and electronic fuckery... Amongst their members are Spykidelic - who combined guitar textures and hip hop breaks in his late 90's Lo Recordings project Echo Park and Demian Castellanos; responsible for the excellent Orichalc Phase and Mesma EPs on DC and Static Caravan respectively. A stunning piece of folk-concrete, or as dance mag One Week To Live stated "the sound of hip hop envisaged by druids and played by Popul Vuh."

Street date: 2007-02-12

Spawned in a city of cess, VILLAINS (an apt moniker fo' shizzle) deliver up their debut full length. Eschewing decency, production values, hygiene and good taste, this is music played by drunk heshers for drunk heshers. Songs about drinking, women, violence and drugs. Hearing this album for the first time creates some false sense of deja vu - Do we know these songs? Is this some long lost demo from a Chilean proto-thrash band from the 80's? Nope, all those wasted years on Mad Dog and meth must be catching up on you, Brah. Just relax, break a few bottles against the wall and drench yourself in the poisons. "This record smells like a bar mat" Stewart Voeglin, Oaken Throne issue 4

Street date: 2006-11-20

Wishing to forego the amplifier worship of previous projects, the trio set about using acoustic instruments to create a meditative and different kind of "heavy" musical landscape filled with the drone of traditional Indian Harmonium, Tamboura and Sruti Box alongside bowed and plucked guitars and layers of wordless voice. The resulting four compositions are powerful, reflective and extremely beautiful. The inspiration for this session came from the soundtrack work of Popul Vuh for the films of Werner Herzog and Alejandro Jodorowsky's collaborative music for his films from the early 70's along with more modern artists like Ben Chasny's 'Six Organs Of Admittance' and Jack Rose's Pelt. The sleeve features a drawing by Alex Tucker (himself an acclaimed comic artist) based upon an illustration by Russian Folk Artist Ivan Bilibin from the fairy tale "Vassilisa The Beautiful", and the inserts were created by all the band, making a cohesive package reflecting the mood and tone of the recording.

Street date: 2006-11-20

Two compositions from London based progressive avant-rock pioneers Guapo, and the first new material since their Ipecac debut Black Oni. The material was originally released as a 7 inch limited to 200 copies and Aurora Borealis made it available as a CDEP edition of 500 copies. The first track is very contemplative and structured around piano, and will come as a surprise to people who think of Guapo as some bombastic prog behemoth, while the second track is a more brooding, percussive track along the lines of what the band are known for. A tantalising glimpse of what is to come from this ever-evolving, ambitious band and a lovely little artefact for those that were impatient for the forthcoming album on Neurot Recordings

Street date: 2006-11-12

WOLFMANGLER is the musical vision of Polish revelator D Smolken, formerly of DEAD RAVEN CHOIR. His music is slow, grim, noisy and shambling, a deconstructed hybrid of twisted folk and hinterland doom metal. Bowed double bass, electric bass, flute, French horn and violin merge with sinister growls and whispered vocals rich with the symbolism of life and decay creating a listening experience at once unsettling, twisted and darkly beautiful. Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves takes his trademark raw buzzing intensity and pushes it even further down an uncharted thorny overgrown path creating a wall of noise that almost seems to suck the air out of the room, leaving a festering rotten discomfort - a real sonic alchemy - creating oil from sound.

Street date: 2006-03-20

MOSS return with their debut full length, Cthonic Rites. A mighty slab of extreme Doom from beyond, a paean to the Elder Gods. Managing to pack two entire tracks into the 66 minutes, MOSS redefine torturous with a larger, more cosmically heavy sound with Jus Oborn (of Doom masters ELECTRIC WIZARD) taking production duties. Though each track retains the monolithic simplicity of a Martian pyramid, the production somehow increases the scope of the trademark MOSS wall of distortion and despair. MOSS create the heaviest and most tormenting extreme doom in existence. An expression of horrific bleakness and mind-numbing desolation through an otherworldly odes to madness, H.P.Lovecraft, and altered states. This is the band's second release for Aurora Borealis. "Cthulhu fhtagn"

Street date: 2006-01-23

FUNGAL HEX was a collaborative installation by Brooklyn, New York artists: Aaron Cantor (sculpture), Fritz Welch (illustration), Stephen O'Malley (sound & print design) and Rylan Morrison (text). Originally presetented by The Foundation and Center for Contemporary Arts Prague, the show was shown at Galerie Jeleni, Prague between October 29th 2001 & December 5th 2001. This double 45rpm picture disc edition aims to recreate some of the aesthetic of that exhibition. Sonically, O'Malley (SUNN O))), KHANATE, GINNUNGAGAP) displays a more mellow, experimental side, with each track consisting of drones, ambient waves and subtle guitar work. Eerie scraping sounds drift in and out, and the general feel is unsettling. This work represents a very different side to the volume based, mammoth drones of SUNN O))).

Street date: 2005-11-28

7 trks,43 mins. A grimm missive from the burgeoning US Black Metal scene. A bloodied and hectic attack from the one man Bay Area machine trapped in darkened picture disc nightmare.

Street date: 2005-10-31

Aurora Borealis present "Protected by the Ejaculation of Wolves", a split CD with 2 tracks from UK extreme doom gods MOSS and 5 from WOLFMANGLER, US based Polish forest doom malcontents. MOSS was formed in Southampton in mid-2001 by three disturbed individuals, wishing to document their sick thoughts and macabre visions onto tape via the medium of discordant, torturous extreme doom metal. Bound by hatred, disgust and despair, MOSS create the heaviest and most tormenting extreme doom in existence. An expression of horrific bleakness and mind-numbing desolation through an otherworldly dirge. Grim, primitive, nihilistic...fukked up and eternally doomed. WOLFMANGLER is the musical vision of D Smolken, a Polish political emigre, formerly of Dead Raven Choir. His music is slow, grim, noisy and shambling, a deconstructed hybrid of twisted folk and hinterland doom metal. Bowed double bass, electric bass and violin merge with sinister growls and whispered lyrics as WOLFMANGLER improvise dissonant doom riffs around lyrics taken from Hank Wiilams Jr, Georg Trakl and others, rich with the symbolism of life and decay.

Street date: 2005-10-31

INTEGRITY came into existence in the second wave of American Hardcore in the late Eighties. Eshewing the crewcuts, sportswear, and youthcrew positivity of their peers, The Cleveland combo set out on an altogether different path. Combining the anger of hardcore with imagery and demon-conjuring of Slayer and Black Sabbath, INTEGRITY were altogether a more evil beast, inspiring love and hatred in equal degree amongst an increasingly narrow minded scene and their conservative musical tastes. The particular show documented here in limited edition blood red vinyl, is the stuff of true infamy - the one where the "kid got stabbed" (allegedly) and the one where "Dwid shot someone" (allegedly). As an archive recording, you are not gonna get studio trickery, overdubs or pristine performances mimicking the studio album's sounds perfectly. What you are gonna get is the definitive lineup of one of the greatest hardcore bands of all time showing you exactly why, some 13 years on, INTEGRITY still live on. And how they inspired the legions of "metalcore" bands that came thereafter. The Dawn Of A New Apocalypse indeed.

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The White Daughter project serves to exorcise the demons of Bridge & Tunnel in a way. We have gone down the route of collaboration with others and found that it doesn't really work for us. We are best as a duo. We are very, very different as people but we have a sonic understanding between us that is very unique - almost perfect - and the 'opinions' of others just get in the way of the sexy magic? "'Stiff With the Invisible' is a goth album. It's also a bit country, a bit rock n' roll but it remains resolutely gothic in its intent. We're blue jean Goths prancing through sun dappled civic cemeteries, beckoning the end of days with a sigh, a whisper and a tear."- Nathan Bennett (White Daughter)

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