Sentient Ruin (US) and Clavis Secretorum (EU) are honored to announce the first ever release on vinyl for a true long lost masterpiece of USBM - Shaidar Logoth's Chapter II: The Ritualist
Originally released in 2015 by cult tape label Sol Y Nieve on a limited run of tapes, Shaidar Logoth's towering and imposing black metal masterpiece Chapter II: The Ritualist went all but unnoticed and now finally sees its first ever release on vinyl through a staggering audio-visual presentation customized to fit the utter majesty and uniqueness of the music. With The Ritualist Shaidar Logoth have unchained a black metal beast of utmost dread and unshackeled it of any form or restraint to let its turbulent and primordial instinct roam free to find its inevitable fate in inexorable chaos and destruction. Within these four vast movements of sickeningly magnificent atmospherics and dismal aural torment the listener will face the same infernal hallucinations and blood-chilling premonitions of horror and afflcition which have famously plagued other secretive and reticent black metal projects like Leviathan, Katharsis, Blut Aus Nord, S.V.E.S.T., Skaphe etc.
Always enigmatic, withdrawn, and rigorously shadow-dwelling, Shaidar Logoth silently emerged in Minnesota in late 2010 from a vision of mastermind and multi-instrumentalist Steven Henningsgard. Henningsgard set out to write and record years of ideas and riffs completely on his own, enlisting vocalist Adam Clemans (of Wolvhammer, Noose Rot, Skeletonwitch fame etc.) to help him complete his wretched vision. The result materialized as their hideous and foul debut demo/EP Chapter I: The Peddler - 30 minutes of raw and unforgiving black metal which viciously showcased the band's own plagued extreme metal formula made of ancestral and pestilent Scandinavian black metal fused with modern and unorthodox elements ranging from trance-inducing vortex-like passages, to progressive/psychedelic dirges, and obscure ambient ritualism.
Their proper debut album Chapter II: The Ritualist surfaced four years later in 2015 through a tape release from Sol Y Nieve revealing a massive evolution and broad improvement across their already magnificently detrimental sound architecture, with their songwriting and their sound especially now hinting at beast-like traits. Across its massive four tracks The Ritualist explored every notion of aural misery imaginable, tormenting the listener with lengthly and winding flailings of venomous black metal punctuated with dismal drone and dark ambient passages and thick layers of infernal and hallucinatory atmospherics.
Chapter II: The Ritualist can be now purchased from Sentient Ruin on our store and Bandcamp, as well as from Clavis Secretorum in the EU. The LP is available only in black vinyl and comes housed in a custom folder heavy black cardboard cover + insert printed with Pantone metallic silver.