Bethlehem – Mein Weg (2 x Vinyl) Label: Prophecy Productions – PRO 107LP Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album, Reissue Country: Germany Released: Jul 8, 2022 Style: Doom Metal, Goth Rock
Experimental Black/Doom Metal band from Grevenbroich, Germany, active since 1991. They call their style «Dark metal», which is the term they coined in the debut album title.
Until Dictius Te Necare, Bethlehem faced censorship and was even banned from playing in some German cities. It started when Matton gave one copy of their first demo to a 14-year-old boy. After a while his mother started to call the band, saying that because of their music, her son became aggressive and built a «Satanic altar» in his room. In cooperation with other parents, they started a crusade against Bethlehem and their «satanic» music (ironically, Bethlehem were never satanic).
Antimatter – Leaving Eden (Vinyl, LP) Label: Prophecy Productions – PRO 088 LP-1 Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition Country: Germany Released: 2022 Style: Alternative Rock
The first album of Antimatter as solo project
Unconstrained and with tremendous force – that’s a good way to characterize Mick Moss’ performance on Antimatter’s fourth album, “Leaving Eden.” The Englishman has undoubtedly found a way to gather his own power after his composing partner of many years, Duncan Patterson, has left the band – and this power has flown into a kind of music that has quite a rocking edge at times. “I wanted to create power and wide spaces in the studio,” Mick says. He was envisioning a “dark and laid-back rock album”, combining the hardest with the most light-hearted songs from ANTIMATTER’s history. It seems fitting, then, that Mick invited a more than competent session musician, Anathema’s guitarist Danny Cavanagh, into the studio for the dynamic recordings. The sensitive riffs and melodies do open vast spaces for Mick’s vocals – sounding self-confident and melancholic at the same time – and his personal lyrics with their introspective focus. “The album stands on its own two feet,” Mick acknowledges the changes in sound, which he however doesn’t think are that huge: “There are so many familiar elements; there’s one song with a violin lead like on ‘Planetary Confinement’, there are atmospheric parts, but now there are also the rockier tracks.” To the listeners, all of the above means that once again they are invited to sit back and join ANTIMATTER on their journey – a lively one at first, then growing ever more pensive to finally end in contemplation. Like in that line in the album’s last song, “Fighting For A Lost Cause”: “Some things never change” – this is also true of ANTIMATTER’s haunting atmospheres… The sensitive riffs and melodies do open vast spaces for Mick’s vocals – sounding self-confident and melancholic at the same time – and his personal lyrics with their introspective focus.
Nordvargr – Pyrrhula (Vinyl, LP) Label: Cold Spring – CSR98LP Format: Vinyl, LP, Album, Limited Edition, Remastered Country: UK Released: May 21, 2021 Style: Dark Ambient, Drone, Doom Metal
Recorded winter/spring 2008 at Villa Bohult, Sweden.
This edition has been restored from the original masters, and further refined for the vinyl format.
Based on Swedish doomlord mythology.
Partly based on an old Swedish folktale, Pyrrhula (“doomlord”) is a pitch black journey into utter darkness. This is a tale of foreboding doom… a portent of dark times to come… a blight on the face of this earth. These eight Black Ambient / Doom / Droneworks were brought forth from the abyss of Villa Bohult exclusively for Cold Spring and contain the malevolent vocals of Lord Nordvargr himself!.
“Beware the small creatures of light, they only bring misery and death upon the enlightened ones. For they will paint their breast with blood and reap your unborn angels.”
Ltd x 500 copies on pale amber vinyl. Black Fruit Of The Loom Heavy Cotton t-shirt with front and back print.
Composed By – Henrik Nordvargr Björkk Recorded winter/spring 2008 at Villa Bohult, Sweden. Artwork – Abby Helasdottir Mastered By – Martin Bowes
Reviews:
«What is most remarkable about ‘Pyhrrhula’ is given how unrelenting it is, it is an easy album to listen to. There are some pretty great melodies hidden in there… If ‘Pyrrhula’ was colour it would be vantablack, or more correctly the spectrum of darkness, and black, ending in vantablack. It’s an album that feels like it sucks the air out of the room. It makes you sit still and take notice, but most importantly, it still sounds as epic and devastating as it did 13 years ago.» (Vital Weekly)
