Berlin-based doom metal collective neànder has announced their highly anticipated third full length record, which will be released this fall via Through Love Records. The forthcoming album sounds more heavy, yet more melodic and colourful than ever before and will be available on Vinyl, CD and digital. The final album title will be revealed together with the first single in July.
The album cover is a painting by Berlin based artist Fabian Warnsing and shows again an exciting collaboration between Fine Arts and Alternative Music (www.fabianwarnsing.de).
In 2024neànder will play festivals like Desertfest, Fusion Festival and Into The Void (NL) just to name a few, followed by extensive touring throughout 2024 and 2025. So keep your ears open and an eye on the band to ensure you don’t miss any news!
Copenhagen-based extreme metallers LAMENTARI have released their eagerly awaited debut album “Ex Umbra In Lucem“.
The Danish sextet is a force to be reckoned with in the realm of symphonic black metal, seamlessly blending the darkness of metal with the grandeur of a roaring orchestra. Drawing inspiration from cinematic maestros such as Howard Shore and John Williams, LAMENTARI crafts a sonic tapestry that is both dark and majestic. Influenced by the virtuosity of Yngwie Malmsteen and the atmospheric depth of Dimmu Borgir, this band creates a haunting yet captivating musical experience that transports listeners through ethereal and infernal sonic realms.
Their intense and mesmerizing sound has already seen them grace the stages of renowned festivals such as Wacken and Copenhell, as well as sharing the spotlight with bands like Moonsorrow and Tsjuder. LAMENTARI‘s unique blend of metal and orchestral elements is brought to life through collaborations with live-orchestral musicians, resulting in a sound that is both powerful and immersive.
The band’s debut release, “Missa Pro Defunctis” in 2020, featured a brass trio and a 12-piece string ensemble, and was released on vinyl to immediate success, selling out within a day. Following this success, LAMENTARI released “Nihilitatis” and “Clavis Aurea,” both of which were limited editions that were quickly snapped up by eager fans within an hour of release. With their innovative approach to symphonic black metal, LAMENTARI continues to captivate audiences with their dark and majestic sound.
The release of “Ex Umbra In Lucem” encompasses an even deeper dives into the devious sounds of the grand orchestra with brass, woodwind and string parts recorded at the legendary AIR Studios in London (known for scores such as ‘Dune’, ‘All Quiet on the Western Front’ and used by artists such as Coldplay, Radiohead, Paul McCartney and Adele).
Tracklist:
Spiritus Noctis
Tenebrae
Tragoedia in domo Dei
Intra Muros Mentis
Appugno
Dolorum Memoria
Spiritus Diurnus
Arcanum Ignis Animae
“Ex Umbra In Lucem” is out now and you can get the album atTHIS LOCATION
Watch the music video for “Dolorum Memoria” here:
LAMENTARI are: Vocals by Daniel Lønberg Guitars, Emil Holst Partsch (lead) and Michael Møller Bass guitars by Jamie de la Sencerie Keys and orchestrations by Max Uldahl Drums by Thomas Mascagni
Dutch artist and Nordic folk pioneer Kati Rán proudly presents her new album SÁLA which is out today, 24th May. The album is based on the primeval mythological Northern cosmos and a patronage by its oceanic nordic deity ‘Rán’, as reinterpreted by the artist and other mythological female characters surrounding its musical journey.
Kati comments on the release: “Well well, what can I say or write about this auspicious day, where SÁLA has been born. Such a big event, when you have put all your heart and soul and craft into it makes any artist speechless at first. It’s both a strange feeling of relief and sentimental nostalgia, as we release SÁLA today, so that these songs can live their own lives and their meaning have their own interpretation for all the listeners out there, henceforth. In the last two years I myself and Jaani Peuhu have tenaciously co-produced, written/re-arranged, recorded and re-recorded, edited, mixed and tweaked some more and laughed and cried daily to bring this album into its final form out today as it’s ‘parents’ of sorts. I think I can speak for both of us and say that we hope it may bring some healing and light for anyone who finds themselves in a dark place, pleasure for anyone who wants to navigate its literary depths, or simply to have fun with it for all who enjoy listening to good new dark folk music. Thank you all. Thank you Svart Records. And my thanks to Jaani for believing in me and for all the help given while we produced this album together, when before only I believed in it and worked on this alone. It definitely made a difference.“
Kati Rán is known for her collaborative audio work for Netflix’s TV series ‘VIKINGS: VALHALLA’, films and work for videogames, her stage appearances with Wardruna, Myrkur and Gaahls Wyrd to name a few, and her previous release Blodbylgje.
Special vinyl editions in gold, transparent smoke, and black as well as digipack CDs are available HERE.
If the most profound treasures are often the most deeply buried, the journey to uncover them is a vital process of discovery. Five years after the 15-minute single ‘Blodbylgje’ signaled the birth of a new, more primordial, and immersive vision after the dissolution of her band L.E.A.F., Nordic dark folk artist Kati Rán has expanded on its oceanic theme for her long-awaited full-length album, SÁLA. Embarking on a far-reaching musical and personal travelogue, it’s a reawakening of both the feminine narratives submerged and fragmented within Norse mythology, and the enduring, healing powers held within.
Named after the Old Norse word for ‘soul’ and ‘sea’, SÁLA is an act of ‘soul retrieval’, the shamanic art of trauma recovery, be it illness, death, heartbreak or loss, and the reintegration of a splintered self. Across its 13, wide-ranging, elegantly unfolding tracks, the album is an embodiment of different feminine voices and perspectives – from the Norse nine daughters of the sea, or ‘billow maidens’, through various historical and fictional figures to the late-night voices we hear in our most liminal states – all with tales to tell, riddles to solve, challenges to be accepted and guidance to offer. It’s a multiplicity that, like the ocean itself, belongs to a vast, restless dynamic: a matrix of mysteries, unfathomable depths and ever-shifting currents, accumulating into an elemental, regenerative source of power.
Recorded in a barn in Húsafell, Iceland – home to glacier ice caves and a rare lava stone marimba rediscovered for the track ‘Stone Pillars’ – as well as Finland, Norway and at home in Kati’s native Netherlands, SÁLA is as much chronicle of Kati’s own perspective-shifting recording process as it as a pilgrimage through different viewpoints and internal states. That itinerant urge is also reflected in the use of different languages, ranging across Norwegian, Old Norse, Icelandic, and, for the first time, English, her combination of ancient texts, historical reimagining’s and unguarded personal reflection backed up by deep research into the most resonant recesses of Nordic lore.
Spun throughout every thread of SÁLA is a sense of communion – with the power of stories to offer moral guidance and the thrill of the unknown; with the element of water, recreated across the album both in field recordings and the agelessly organic nature of the music itself; with the archetypes whose qualities we are called upon to embody at our most critical moments; and with the internal hidden realms forever whispering at us from the far edges of our consciousness.
Appropriately, it’s a collaborative venture too. As well as working closely together with Finnish producer Jaani Peuhu, there are contributions from across the musical spectrum, including extreme metal vocalist extraordinaire Gaahl, the Icelandic female choir Umbra Ensemble, renowned Norwegian jazz musician Karl Seglem, Björk and Brian Eno contrabassist Borgar Magnason, members of pagan folk acts Völuspá, Gealdýr, Heilung and Theodor Bastard and even Napalm Death’s Mitch Harris on vocals.
For all the many sources SÁLA draws from, the result is a singular, intimately transformative rite of passage, and a returning of the heart to the reverent continuity of the sacred. It will take you from the opening title track’s chest-pounding rhythmic pulse emerging from a traditional Norwegian bukkehorn (recorded by Karl Seglem), a galloping horse-rider and Kati’s glacial, velveteen chant, through “Kólga’s” recounting of female persecution through the ages borne on the most gossamer-light yet unbreakable of timbres and “Stone Pillar’s” gently percolating, deep wells of abandonment and incantations to recovery. SÁLA closes with the track ‘Sátta’ – Old Norse for ‘peace’ and ‘reconciliation’ – ending the album as it began with the bukkehorn, as it weaves rich drones and experience-stamped poems and prayers, Kati’s vocals the most sensitively tuned of emotional barometers. An album made in dedication, and in thrall to, its own sense of destiny, SÁLA is, as all quests must ultimately be, a homecoming.
For Fans Of:Heilung, Wardruna, Ianai, Gaahls WYRD, Nytt Land
Lineup: Kati Rán
Special Guests: Gaahl (Gaahl, Wyrd, Wardruna) Mitch Harris (Napalm Death) Jaani Peuhu (Swallow the Sun, IANAI, Lord of the Lost, Hallatar) Karl Seglem (Norwegian jazz and folk legend) Borgar Magnason (Björk, Sígur Rós, Brian Eno) Florian Ravn (Skáld) Gealdýr Emilie Lorentzen (Heilung) Nicholas Schipper (Heilung) Yana Veva (Theodor Basterd) Umbra (Icelandic female choir) Sól Geirsdóttir, Varg Saastad (Völuspá band) Marianne Heikkinen, Salla Marja (Saruru) Páll Guðmunsson (Hilmar Örn Hilmarsson, Steindór Anderssen, Sígur Rós)
Production: Jaani Peuhu, Kati Rán, Christopher Juul Mastering: Jaime Gomez Arrelano
Cover Art: Photographer Arne Beck, Illustrator Halfdan Skrifa, Graphic design Jari Laurén, Charlotte Boer, Deluxe Box Edition with cover painting by Marzena Ablewska-Lech
VERIKALPA have released a lyric video for “Noijan Sauna”, second single taken from the new album “Tuomio” released on April 19th by Scarlet Records.
video by M. Irvan Dionisi
Fourth studio album for the Finnish extreme folk metal alcoholic trolls;
produced, mixed and mastered by Pasi Kauppinen (Sonata Arctica) at Studio 57;
artwork by Alvaro Valverde/AV Art Ilustracion (Unanimated, Night Crowned, Krilloan, Drown In Sulphur);
FFO: Korpiklaani, Alestorm, Turisas, Trollfest, Eluveitie and Finntroll;
“Tuomio” is the most accessible record ever in Verikalpa’s discography, and yet another intense and aggressive display of power. The new album showcases an exceptional guitar work and a pristine production, enhancing the majestic melodies for which they are known for and taking their songwriting to the next level.
Artwork by Alvaro Valverde/AV Art Ilustracion
Lyrically-wise, this is a mixed bag of fictional stories about drinking, partying, fighting, and of course a bunch of crazy Finnish folklore creatures setting up the stage. A very fun and easy collection of songs & tales to listen to, alongside rivers of beer and weird Northern liquors!
Brazilian Melodic Death Metal Group Eldermoon have released their new single, the title track taken from their forthcoming album Egregora, set to be released on July 30th, 2024 via Sliptrick Records.
Here’s what the band had to say about the song and how it fits in the storyline of the album; “Humanity can hardly resist the great war for resources, it finds itself in a great landscape of destruction, with all its progress and structures lost. Seeing the possibility of total extinction, the thoughts of the remaining human beings are now fiercely torn between life and death. The Moon asks the Earth if these beings are still capable of redemption and of changing their ways.”
Finnish modern melodeath band Numento has released the last single “Opilion” from their upcoming third album “The Antimatter Fantasy”. The song is released with a stunning hand-crafted animated music video. Aggressive and saturated with addictive melodies, “Opilion” tells a story about a person caught in the web of deceit, carefully crafted by a spider-like predator. True to Numento’s style, the song combines strong contrasts of rage and aggressiveness with a delicate ethereality that seamlessly complement each other. Even before its release, “Opilion” has become a crowd favourite at concerts and has established itself in Numento’s live set.
Masterin engineer: Thomas Feilner (Soundation Studio Mastering)
Programming: Christian Herrle, Atte Asikainen
Hand-animated video by Aleksi Vehmassalo
Album cover: Aleksi Vehmassalo
Founded originally in 2004, Numento is a modern melodic death metal band from Helsinki. In their music, extreme metal styles are combined with a phenomenal and versatile female voice, ranging from operatic heights to deep growls. The band has released two albums so far, “The Cataclysm” (2019) and “The Vile Entity” (2022), the third album is going to be released in summer of 2024. Numento always leaves the audience in awe with their aggressive sound, ethereal atmosphere and an energetic live show. The versatile songs are adorned with the eerie sound of the Finnish national instrument, kantele. One of their most important merits is winning the toughest metal band competition in Finland, Tuska-Torstai in 2022 and playing at the main Tuska festival in the same year. In addition, they have warmed up the stage for Aephanemer and Smackbound at On the Rocks Helsinki.
Numento: Atte Asikainen – guitar & backing vocals Katri Hiovain-Asikainen – vocals & kantele Simo Mattila – bass Aleksi Vehmassalo – guitar Mikko Virtanen – drums
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s ASA unveil the long-overdue release of "Collective Failure" + first music video for title-track! Check it out and stay tuned for more news! Click image to watch the video
Kimmo Kuusniemi’s SARCOFAGUS return with a Historic 2010 Concert Video Premiere on YouTube! Click image to watch the video
Ads
Visionary artist KIMMO KUUSNIEMI's ANCIENT STREAMING ASSEMBLY (ASA) have released “Aurora Nuclearis”, a powerful 12-minute audiovisual experience, dedicated to the Late Keyboardist Esa Kotilainen. - Click image to watch the video
Click image to watch the video
Metal Shock Finland (World Assault ) 