Sauron Archives - NO CLEAN SINGING

AN NCS PREMIERE: SAURON — “KLASZTOR”

Jan 252017

The Polish band Sauron first took shape in 1991, discharging their first demo Hellish Requiem in 1993 and a second one named The Baltic Fog in 1995, helping to introduce the sound of pagan black metal within their homeland. The band broke up in 1999 but resurrected themselves in 2003, and since then have released four albums, including the powerful Wara! in 2016 (which we wrote about here).

Now, Wheelwright Productions is re-releasing The Baltic Fog in a new remastered vinyl LP edition, with a release date of March 3. In advance of the release, we’re helping to premiere a single from The Baltic Fog named “Klasztor“, which includes cover art for the single created by Robert A. von Ritter (Outre, Witchmaster, In Twilight’s Embrace, etc.). Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK: CONVULSING, SAURON, ÚIR, TRISTE TERRE, PANZERFAUST, XALPEN, ÆÐRA

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 13 Responses »

Nov 272016

I spent time yesterday pawing through a lot of recent releases and advance tracks by black metal bands. After some self-struggle, I picked a group of songs to feature in this post. And then late in the afternoon I got additional recommendations from various sources, and that tossed all my plans up into the air. When the dust settled, I revised my picks to include these:

CONVULSING

Convulsing was one of the recommendations that took me by surprise (thank you to starkweather and DaNasher). This is a one-man band from Sydney, Australia, whose new album Errata was released just yesterday. It caught the ears of certain listeners because the man behind Convulsing, Brendan Sloan, is also a member of Dumbsaint, who have a following. And word has been spreading. When you hear the album, I think you’ll be convinced that word will continue to spread, and damned fast and far, too. Continue reading »

SHADES OF BLACK (PART 2): NEAR, SAURON, JUGURTHA, URFAUST, IMPERIUM INFERNALIS, DEN OF APPARITION

Album Reviews, RANDOM FUCKING MUSIC, SHADES OF BLACK 8 Responses »

Jul 132016

This is the delayed second part of a two-part collection of blackened metal that I began (here) on Sunday. The sharp-eyed among you will notice that I now have music from six bands instead of the four that I said would be included in this second installment. I actually wanted to add many more than two, but that would have caused the same problem that led me to split up Sunday’s post, so I’ll save them for another day.

This collection includes four full albums or EPs for which I haven’t written the kind of complete reviews that they deserve or that you might prefer. As usual, I’m squeezed for time. But please don’t mistake my meager write-ups for lack of enthusiasm — I’m very high on everything included here and hope you’ll explore all of them.

NEAR

Once again I must thank my overseas comrade Miloš for sending me links to the first two releases in this collection. The first of them is an album named Own Sun by the Italian band Near, which was released last week by De Tenebrarum Principio, a faction of ATMF. This is Near’s second album, following 2010’s The Opening of the Primordial Whirl. (The cover art bears the title “Our Sun”, but the ATMF Bandcamp page identifies Own Sun as the title.) Continue reading »