ALTARAGE: Debut Album from Spanish Death Metal Monstrosity Finally Here - Album Streaming at CVLT Nation

Prepare for the most harrowing musical ordeal you have ever had to survive. We are about to make you endure a plight you never thought possible. It was like witnessing a mammoth beast crawl out of hell and carve craters in the earth at its passage when Spain's Altarage released MMXV - their monstrous debut demo that we released last year - in late 2015. Just two songs - less than ten minutes of complete aural annihilation that raised many questions in the mind of the poor listener who had encountered such horror, and provided few, if none, answers to what in the world could ever have materialized such immense and punishing sonic glory. When the MMXV demo was released in late 2015, long and unquestionable shadows were cast across the underground extreme metal scene, the possibilities of violence in aural form redefined, the scope and reach of death metal destruction, re-written completely. Now we find our selves against the complete absurdity of Nihl, the debut full-length album of Altarage. The multiplication, full-blown spawn, and sublimation of the MMXV demo - an ordeal in sonic form that will destroy people’s perception and cognition about what sonic violence and complete aural annihilation means. Nihl raised the bar so high in artistic craft and musical brutality that one is left to wonder how such a peak of madness could be accomplished simply from the first album. Continuing in the path of bands like Portal, Auroch, Deathspell Omega, Mitochondrion, Teitanblood, Knelt Rote and the such, Altarage have created a massive and oozing void in the perception of all avantgarde death metal fans - they have opened a portal to another dimension revealing levels and sub levels of technicality, inhuman songwriting, visionary madness, and of endless sonic brutality that will demolish even the most trained and prepared minds. No one - and we mean no one - is ready to hear what Altarage have accomplished in Nihl. Human ears were not made to bare such an atrocity and that is why when this record is released the perception of death metal will be changed inside of us forever.

Read the review and stream the whole beast over at CVLT Nation.

ALTARAGE - Nihl

1. Devicet
2. Womborus
3. Graehence
4. Baptism Nihl
5. Vortex Pyramid
6. Batherex
7. Altars
8. Cultus

Nothing is essentially known about Altarage. The band live somewhere in or around Bilbao in Spain and seemingly live locked away from the world, making the most cruel, punishing and diabolical music you will ever encounter in your lifetime. Nihl was produced and recorded by the band and by their own means and features incredible artwork by renewed New Zealand-based artist Nick Keller.

Nihl will be released on February 27 2016 on Cassette tape by Sentient Ruin and Sol Y Nieve (as was for the MMXV demo), on digital by Sentient Ruin, on CD by Doomentia Records and as a vinyl LP at a later date by Iron Bonehead Productions. Prepare, for the most surreal and fucking incredible sonic torment your ears have ever had to endure.

 

WAKE: Third Massacring Album from Canadian Avant-Grind Mercenaries Out On February 26 2016.

WAKE
Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow

Track listing:
1. Burn Well
2. Wretched Tongues
3. Drones
4. Better Living Through Apathy
5. Low
6. Unrelenting Hate
7. Vultures
8. Endless Decay

Calgary, Canada-based five-piece avant-grind war-machine WAKE have prepared the ground for their battlefield-like upcoming third full-length album. Titled Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow, this brand new sonic beast by the canadian band is already destined to elevate the bars of darkness, wrath, and hostility within the genre of grindcore to a whole new level of aural atrocity. 

When the masses will have this onslaught of blind and unforgiving rage unleashed upon them, it will become immediately clear that the worldwide current grindcore panorama will all of a sudden appear immediately redefined as WAKE impose their new standards in the genre, presenting us with a formula that uses grindcore as mere vessel, and then coerces it to become a conduit of completely unheard and lawless sonic hostility, twisting and morphing the genre into a new and aberrant sonic monstrosity made of torturous atmospheres and horrific bloodthirsty visions.

Far from being a grindcore band that fits any mold or follows any book, WAKE have always distinguished them selves for being outsiders who envision the genre as a starting point from which to spawn their barbaric and completely unheard of sonic vision, made of savage aggression, void-opening dissonance, and spellbinding psychedelic dirges. As Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow detonates on the notes of skin-peeling opener Burn Well the listener will immediately realize that what they are dealing with is far from simply being a grindcore band. Shards and splinters of Black Metal, Crust, D-Beat, Noise, Sludge, and Post-Hardcore will come at the listener like a firestorm, being hurdled at them with unconceivable violence, terrifying speed, and surgical precision. As the album unfolds, exposing a massive and oozing wound of dissonant and lawless horror, Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow will reveal it self as a low-end monster that stands completely on its own, engulfed in the rising flames of a wretched sonic hell, and drawing precious blood from many different influences which reach far beyond grindcore. 

While WAKE remain true to their underlying grindcore roots, showcasing clear affinity with stalwarts in the genre like Nasum, Brutal Truth, Discordance Axis and Napalm Death, attentive listeners will also notice how far WAKE's music can reach, encompassing the dissonant and twisted craft of Deathspell Omega, the slow and pounding sludgecore of bands like Breach and Knut, and the grandiose post-hardcore architectures of bands like Cursed and The Secret. All in all Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow is a monstrous achievement in the realm of modern and forward-thinking extreme metal and hardcore elaborations, and is a must hear for any fan of bands like Ulcerate, Full of Hell, Nails, Buried Inside, Celeste, and beyond.

In their seven year-long existence, WAKE have taken their wretched craft on the road and plagued the entire northern hemisphere with it on multiple occasions. Having toured Europe with Primitive Man, played Maryland Deathfest multiple times and turned venues into bloody battlefields all over North America with their pillaging tours, WAKE have established them selves as one of most despondent, merciless and infamous live acts to ever see the light of day in the last decade. WAKE have released two full-length albums to date on leading labels in the genre like 7 Degrees Records, Give Praise, and Handshake Inc. etc, (including two splits with Theories and Dephosphorous), and have shared the stage with monsters in the genre like Napalm Death, Black Breath, Rotten Sound and many more.

Sowing the Seeds of a Worthless Tomorrow was recorded and mixed by Joel Grind at Falcon Studios (Toxic Holocaust, Poison Idea, Lord Dying, Abyss, etc.), mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege (Nails, The Secret, Black Breath, Old Man Gloom etc.) and features mesmerizing art and layout by Hal Rotting of Rotting Graphics (Plague Widow, Napalm Raid, Atriarch, Barghest), and will be released on February 26 2016 on cassette tape and digital formats by Sentient Ruin, on CD by Everyday Hate, and on LP by 7 Degrees Records and Nerve Altar.

VASTUM: Cassette Version of Crushing New Album "Hole Below" Coming November 6th.

Vastum should be news to no one at this point. The Bay Area’s infamous doomed-out death metal heathens have been destroying ear drums since 2009, wrecking havoc up and down the west Coast with their barbaric live sets, and releasing two of US-death metal’s most acclaimed records of the last five years: 2011’s merciless Carnal Law and 2013’s tenebrous Patricidal Lust, both released on cult Portland-based shape-shifting metal label 20 Buck Spin. Today we’re proud to announce that we’ve been given the honor to release the cassette version of their brand new album, the monstrous full-length opus Hole Below, thirty-eight minutes of punishing and diabolical old school death metal that are surely going to become one of the crowning achievements in 2015 death metal. Vastum were formed in San Francisco in 2009 by three members of death-crust heathens Acephalix: vocalist Dan Butler, bassist Luca Indrio and guitarist Kyle House. The lineup was completed by Leila Abdul-Rauf (of Hammers of Misfortune ,Saros and Amber Asylum) on second guitar, and R.D. Davies of Gehenna on drums.

Their blastbeat-less brand of slow and sludgy old school death metal became immediately recognizable and attracted much attention in the underground almost from the start. Initially similar in sound to Acephalix’s crusty death metal rudeness, Vastum soon started to morph and mutate into something completely new and different, until they had laid the foundation for what would be destined to become one of the Bay Area’s most infamous and barbaric death metal aesthetics, a place where ominous perversions, sinister morbidity and visions of violence wandered off into a hellish dirge of punishing death metal riffs and bone-crushing doom metal heaviness. Today Vastum’s lineup is completed by Shelby Lermo on guitars (ex-Apocryphon - replacing Kyle House) and Adam Perry on drums (replacing Davies), but their primitive and ruthless sound has remained untouched, if not even further steered towards the most vile possible heaviness and the most tormented form of complete aural disgust.  Destined to be an absolute highlight in 2015 death metal Hole Below is an opus of mesmerizing violence and of fathomless heaviness, and a work which will surely captivate fans of Immolation, Incantation, Acephalix, Cruciamentum, Autopsy, Bolt Thrower, and Dead Congregation. Recorded by Greg Wilkinson at Earhammer Studios here in Oakland CA and mastered at Audiosiege Mastering Studios in Portland OR by Brad Boatright, Hole Below will be jointly released by Sentient Ruin and 20 Buck Spin on November 6th 2015, with the Portland label handling the LP, CD and digital version, and the cassette tape version being released by us. Read the full press release from Earsplit PR HERE.

VASTUM
Hole Below

1. Sodomitic Malevolence
2. Amniosis
3. In Sickness and In Death
4. Intrusions
5. Hole Below (A Dream of Ritual Abuse)
6.Empty Breast

ALTARAGE: Debut Demo Tape from Mysterious Spanish Avantgarde Blackened Death Metal Monstrosity To Be Released on September 27th.

Altarage is a terrifying enigma... The only known fact about this band is that they come from Bilbao, Spain, and that their music is some of the most fucked, hallucinating and surreal death metal you will hear all year. Other than that, nothing about this band is really known. Even us here at Sentient Ruin tried to understand, through the sparse email correspondence with them, who Altarage are formed by and who is concealed behind the moniker... to no avail. When asked to explain the origin and members of the band, whatever entity was replying to our emails, politely declined to comment.

Regardless, in front of Altarage's sonic immensity, you realize that their music speaks for it self at many different levels, and that anything aside from what your sorry ears must endure upon encountering their wicked craft, falls in second place. When you hear this band's savage and hellish music you realize that nothing else matters other than the music itself. You realize that existence is futile and that nothingness and emptiness permeate everything. You get sucked into a void of aural destruction that is impossible to escape... 

Altarage's music seems to do just that: it opens voids... Portals to other dimensions, revealing worlds of fathomless wretchedness and of unimaginable horror. In a similar way as seen in bands like Portal, Evangelist, Mitochondrion ,Antediluvian, Abyssal, and Teitanblood. Altarage also are forgers of death metal of the most twisted and hallucinated craft - of extreme metal of the highest technical and visionary order. Their unbelievable technicality and musicianship are a mere conduit, a medium to the immense aural devastation this band can summon. A simple vessel that can carry the listener from the safety of reality to the nightmarish musical hell that lies beyond Altarage's sonic vision, and to which the band wants to drag you with their insane pandemonium of coiled and tangled riffs.MMXV is Altarage's debut offering, the first statement of an artistic power so great that one is left to wonder what will come next - what could ever follow such a wretched spawn of musical madness. Coming in a limited edition cassette tape co-relesed in collaboration with Sol Y Nieve Records,MMXV will also see a digital release, with both versions dropping on September 27th 2015.

ATRAMENT: Debut Demo Tape by Oakland Blackened D-Beat Horde Coming On August 21 - Streaming in Full at CVLT Nation.

Birthed in the gutters of West Oakland in the fall of 2014, Atrament is blackened d-beat/crust band that features current and former members of Moral Void, Black September, Abstracter, Necrot, Caffa and Vastum. The band coalesced around a shared love of its members for bands like Doom, Wolfpack, Amebix, Bolt Thrower, Discharge, Axegrinder, Napalm Death, Emperor and Darkthrone, and from this groundwork has then evolved to become a conduit for some of the most negative, war-injected, bestial and barbaric punk-metal hybrids to ever see the light of day on Californian soil. Atrament are purveyors of absolute sonic filth and of total aural desecration, and are depicters of a completely wretched sonic world, in which humanity is rejected as a whole and a tomb of ash and radioactive fallout is summoned to encase it and devour it forever.

From these premises comes Atrament’s debut offering, a two-song demo that in a mere five minutes showcases with unmistakeable intensity all the band’s crude and inhuman ferocity. In this release the band rips through their two songs with harrowing aggression, summoning an utter warzone of aural devastation. Bridging gaps between D-Beat Crust and Black Metal, and showcasing obvious death metal striations in their sound, Atrament have created a debut offering that will surely please all fans of belligerent and embittered D-Beat Crust bands like Skitsystem, Tragedy, From Ashes Rise, Wolfpack/Wolfbrigade, while also pleasantly challenging the senses of all fans of blackened metal and punk-metal hybrids and of old school death metal ri-elaborations.

CVLT Nation who has dubbed Atrament as "a new and unapologetic threat in sonic form, with an immeasurable pile of violence and darkness" and Demo MMXV as "two blasts of fathomless sonic ferocity calling for the end of mankind" is now streaming the release in its entirety.  We have set up a pre-order in collaboration with the band for both a digital version and an extremely limited edition cassette tape of Demo MMXV over at the band's Bandcamp page. 

ATRAMENT
Demo MMXV

1. Consumed
2. World of Ash

What sets Atrament apart in the world of D-Beat Crust is their atonal, grim, dissonant and malefic-sounding riffing and their hateful and spiteful atmospheres. The black metal influences that slash their sound are as obvious as they are ominous, and as the band tears through these two tracks not only will you hear the sound of a lawless war being set off but also the malignant and forbidding sounds of the bleakest and grimmest Scandinavian black metal and of the slimiest death metal coalescing into daunting apocalyptic visions...

Atrament's Demo MMXV was recorded, mixed and mastered at Earhammer Studios in Oakland by the unmistakeable touch of sound engineer Greg Wilkinson (Noothgrush, Vastum, Iron Lung, Laudanum, Atriarch, Graves At Sea etc.) which has yielded a release characterized by raging and crushing guitars, a thundering rhythm section, furious and uncompromising atmospheres, and an absolutely ferocious vocal delivery. To top it all off on the side of absolute wretchedness, Atrament's debut demo tape will come encased in a grotesque but majestic graphic layout packaging crafted by the unforgiving hands of Stephen Wilson, an absolute master when it comes to the realm of haunting, grim and unsettling imagery. Look out for a full length LP from the band to be released in the coming months.

FUNERARY: "Starless Aeon" - Colossal Debut by Arizona Funeral Doom Crushers Coming on July 17th - Full Stream on CVLT Nation.

We're extremely honored and excited to announce the proper release digitally and as a tape re-release of the debut album by Arizona funeral doom misery machine Funerary -  not a band, but a monolith of dreadful dismay, a pit of depressive sonic horror that Roadburn itself has defined as "the perfect soundtrack to those bad days where everything goes wrong and you become hopeless; those days when you find yourself swimming in the ocean of sadness and sinking into an abyss of despair; the days where you struggle to cope with life." This rising force in the US doom metal scene will soon see their debut album - the inhumanly heavy and dismal Starless Aeon - released on tape and digital by Sentient Ruin, and on 12" LP by Germany's Vendetta Records on July 17 2015. A pre-order has been set up for both a digital version and the extremely limited edition cassette tape over at our  Bandcamp page.

FUNERARY
Starless Aeon

01. Coerced Creation (05:17)
02. Atonement (03:48)
03. Beneath The Black Veil (11:29)
04. Starless Aeon (03:11)
05. Depressor (10:18)

 

 

CVLT Nation has already covered this release extensively, stating that "If you are a fan of extreme music you should definitely check them out, simply because there is some fucking cosmic shit happening" and that "even though the band comes from a really hot place, their music is as cold as ice. In 'Starless Aeon', the group unleashes all its malice and melancholy, through the torturing soundscapes of their five songs, without showing any mercy for the listener."

Starless Aeon is monster album and one of the finest hours in current US extreme doom metal. The album is the culmination and then collapse of a vision of reality that is so bleak and hopeless that the album literally feels like a slimy void that seems impossible to crawl out of and that to the opposite breathes and ripples in a daunting sonic collapse, sucking you in even deeper into its bleeding and moribund sonic hell. Erected by the sheer force of an unimaginable pain, this album is an absolute must listen and possession for any fans of bands like Corrupted, Mournful Congregation, Evoken, Pallbearer, Yob, Sunn O))), Thorr's Hammer, Grief, Moss, Bell Witch, Unearthly Trance, Esoteric and other such pioneering and revolutionary extreme doom bands, and a work which is encased in a colossal cocoon of unchallenged destruction, immeasurable heaviness, unparalleled vision and fathomless imagination...

Starless Aeon was quietly self-released by the band as a free download in the summer of 2014 and released on a small run of 50 tapes shortly after by the Midnite Collective, all of which sold out in a matter of mere seconds. When Starless Aeon was self-released it immediately generated attention in the underground, spreading by word of mouth like a plague in the wake of its incredible destructive power and life-draining immensity, and stirring up quite a wave of hype, being hailed as a doom metal masterpiece and a debut that had birthed a new rising star within the realm of extreme underground metal. Now, this towering beast of a funeral sludge/doom album, will be given another proper run and a slight facelift on the tape format, once again featuring gorgeous art by Jas Helena and a graphic layout by Ryan Avery of the Midnite Collective, with the album itself being unleashed on the masses in digital format as well. A vinyl release will coincide through Germany's notorious black metal/crust/doom vinyl mongers Vendetta Records

ABATON & VISCERA///: "Diade(ms)" - Crushing Collaborative 7" Out on June 23 2015 - Track Streaming at CVLT Nation.

We're extremely excited and honored to announce the release of the collaborative work of two of Italy's finest, most forward-thinking and heaviest sludge/doom/post-metal bands around these days, ABATON from Forli', north-cental Italy, and VISCERA/// from Cremona, northern Italy. This 7" vinyl EP is the culmination of a long lasting friendship and of a shared vision that had been nurtured and obsessed upon by the bands in the last couple of years. Titled Diade(ms), this collaborative EP is the manifestation of the wills of both bands to materialize a synergistic, interwoven, and multi-layered work, in which the two bands become fused together into one multi-headed hideous sonic monstrosity, to materialize and represent their own vision of complete aural annihilation. CVLT Nation is now streaming Special Needs, the opening track from Diade(ms):

ABATON & VISCERA/// 
Diade(ms)

Side A:
Special Needs (05:31)

Side B:
Pandemic (06:21)

Produced by Abaton and Viscera/// together, and recorded in February 2014 by Maicol Caggiano at Soundscape Studio in Forli', Italy, and Mastered by Alexander Lizzori at Elfo Studio, in Piacenza, Italy, and bearing artwork by Davide Lega and a graphic layout by Marco Burbassi, Diade(ms) will be a co-release between us, Hypershape Records (IT), Insomnia Isterica (CH), Bare Teeth Records (ITA), Drown Within Records (ITA), Unquiet Records (PL) and Dio Drone (ITA), to be released on June 23 2015 as digital format and as a limited edition 7" vinyl EP. A pre-order for the Diade(ms) 7" has been set up over at our Bandcamp

.

Hailing from Forli' in central Italy,  Abaton 's stark and bleak wall of sound brings to mind bands like Year of No Light, Amenra, Corrupted, Thou and Graves At Sea, but there is no way in the world to pigeonhole this quartet's own brand of pulverizing and massive hardcore-infested blackened sludge. Te band has released one full-length to date - the gruesome and hallucinating Hecate, released in 2011 - and has toured all over Italy and most of continental Europe, leaving the venues they pillaged lying in complete ruin at their every stop. Abaton has shared the stage with bands like Samothrace, Forgotten Tomb, Cult of Luna, Amenra and many others and is a band set on an obsessive quest for complete and unadulterated sonic annihilation.

Abaton Facebook
Abaton Bandcamp

 

Hailing from Cremona in northern Italy, having released albums on such labels as Consouling Sounds and Soulfesh Collector, and having toured all over Europe, Viscera/// have been the subject of an incredible sonic journey. Te band's humble beginnings can be traced back to the early 2000's when the band was a flthy gore-grind trio infuenced by bands like early Carcass and Napalm Death, Repulsion and Cannibal Corpse. Ten something happened, and as the band kept playing and releasing music it was apparent that Viscera/// had undergone a frightening mutation and turned into something completely diferent and set on a track of daunting sonic metamorphosis, total psychedelic downfall and complete philosophical implosion. With their songs getting longer, more ethereal, and more layered and structured, infuences ranging from to Godfesh to Subarachnoid Space started to slither in and out of their sound colliding with their early death-grind infuences and creating something entirely new and unheard of, something vile, sufocating and crude, but also austere, magnifcent, and dominated by a deep philosophical profoundness. To this day, Viscera/// remain completely unclassifable, and while their sound, forged by striations of death metal, sludge, prog and psychedelia keeps evolving and morphing, the band remains one the most compelling enigmas in Italy's extreme underground.

Viscera/// Facebook
Viscera/// Twitter
Viscera/// Bandcamp
Viscera/// Soundcloud

Diade(ms)  is to be considered the collision between the two darkness-fueled and angst-ridden worlds of these two bands, and the implosion of both bands' aesthetics into a single, haunting and frightening, void of aural devastation.

MACERIE: Debut Offering by Italian Blackened Sludge Miscreants To See Release in April - Track Streaming at CVLT Nation.

Florence, Italy, is not your typical location for heart-splitting, skin-peeling, soul-crushing grimness. The legendary Italian city, shrouded in it's timeless artistic beauty, gorgeous skyline and breath-taking  tuscan setting is far from what you would perceive as a place where death and destruction reign unchallenged. But that is only true until you run into the music of Macerie (the name in Italian translates to "ruins"), a newly formed band from Florence that has made a statement of immeasurable sonic hostility with the birth of their debut offering, a work that will strangle the listener in an absolute ordeal of crushing heaviness and harrowing aggression. CVLT Nation is now exclusively streaming the EP's harrowing opening track Agonia:

Coming virtually out of nowhere, Macerie have set on a mission to hollow your soul out with their life-draining music. The first offering of theirs comes in the form of a sixteen-minute bestial EP containing four savage tracks of crust and death metal-infested blackened sludge that bring to mind the likes of Entombed, Amebix, Burzum, and His Hero Is Gone, all fused together into one hideous sonic monstrosity. Showcasing similarities to blackened, epic crushers like Altar of Plagues, Planks, Celeste, Hexis, Acephalix, Coffinworm and Downfall of Gaia, Macerie are purveyors of a view of the world so grim, suffocating and wretched that as you sit down and listen to their music you will literally feel the light being sucked away from your surroundings and your world turning into a grim and shadowy twilight, as a cold and inescapable downfall of bestial and absolutely crushing riffs annihilate everything.

MACERIE
Macerie EP

01. Agonia
02. Vermi
03. Macerie
04. La luce del buio

Sentient Ruin is proud and honored to announce the April 7th 2015 release the self-titled Macerie EP as a digital release, and as a limited edition cassette tape co-relased with the UK's infamous bearers of all things wretched and grim, the notorious cassette tape slime-mongers Yamabushi Recordings. A pre-order is now live HERE.