CONVOCATION: Finnish Funeral Doom Titans Unveil Colossal Sophomore LP "Ashes Coalesce" - Track Premiered at Toiled Ov Hell.

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Iconic Finnish duo Convocation join the Sentient Ruin family to release their staggering sophomore LP "Ashes Coalesce" on vinyl in North America, a colossal dirge of soul-crushing funeral/death doom standing high as one of the most accomplished expressions in the genre this year. The titanic opus is set to be released on July 3 2020 (now pre-ordeable from our store and Bancamp), while a CD, EU vinyl and digital version will come via Everlasting Spew Records, while a tape version will be issued later on by Dawnbreed Records.

Toilet Ov Hell has premiered the track “The Absence of Grief” from the release, stating that “‘Ashes Coalesce’ is comprised of four enormous tracks, each offering a unique atmosphere imbued with all manner of melancholic melody, malevolent murk, and monstrous moods. The exact kind of feeling you want from your funeral doom“ - you can checkout their feature and listen to the track HERE.

The LP will be available in two versions: a limited edition black/oxblood vinyl in vinyl effect + bone white splatter available in only 40 copies for the US or as standard black vinyl.

"Ashes Coalesce” is a monumental sonic devourment where slow-moving atmospheric death metal and void-sculpting extreme doom collide to signal the onset of oblivion and resound one of the most lightless and soul-consuming expressions of sonic abandon the genre has seen in the latter part of this decade. Like a massive maelstrom slowly circling a lightless void, the colossal album assumes form through a slow-moving morass of telluric drums, crushing guitars and bass, and guttural spectral vocals emanating from beyond a veil, that suck all light out of their surroundings and slowly encircle the listener immersing them into a suffocating abyss of levitating agony and inescapable hopelessness. Within the churning mass of oppressive distortion and hallucinogenic soundscapes lies a connective tissue of strings, synths, organs, and orchestrations that thread the listener's demise as the suffocating atmospheres condense and crawl to a climax, assuming a sense of inescapability and multidimensionality that ultimately surround and crush the listener into forty minutes of awe-inducing sonic immensity that deceive thee senses and defy logic.

The duo formed in Helsinki Finland in 2013, uniting vocalist MN from local doom metal ritualists Dark Buddha Rising , and multi instrumentalist LL from death metal tormentors Desolate Shrine, and immediately established themselves as one of the most intriguing new entities in death doom and funeral doom thanks for their debut Album "Scars Across", released in 2018 by Italy's Everlasting Spew Records, a colossal opus of churning and slow-moving extreme metal darkness and dismal atmospherics that elevated the duo as one of the genre's most exiting and transformative new entities.

DEARTH: Oakland CA Black/Death Harbingers Unveil Devastating Debut Album "To Crown All Befoulment" - Track Premiered at Decibel Magazine.

We’re proud and absolutely ecstatic to partake in the official and unforgettable birth of Oakland black/death metal plague wielders Dearth, local dearest friends of this label who’ve been a cornerstone and bastion band of the Bay Area extreme metal underground for many years. After the band has spent the last couple years of its existence diligently crafting what will soon become their introduction to the world, we can finally unveil their long awaited and highly anticipated first full-length album "To Crown All Befoulment", a sonic reign of terror clawing deep into the most wretched, abominable, and hideous realms of human nature. The hideous monster of an album is scheduled for a June 19 2020 release on vinyl, digital and tape, and will surely be one of the most intimating and uncompromising displays of aural terror to see the light all year.

Decibel Magazine has been kind enough to give and introduction to the pandemonium to come via an exclusive stream of the track “Death Sown In Polluted Soil”, commenting that “Dearth lull you into a false sense of security on ‘Death Sown in Polluted Soil’, or at least its opening. It’s ominous but not directly threatening until the strings bend and the latter portion of their black/death cocktail explodes.“ - you can check out their feature and the track HERE.

Nihilistic beyond comprehension and sonically devastating, on the crushing debut LP Dearth explore incomprehensible thresholds of disgust and abjection through a sonic arsenal f“ - you can check out their feature and the track HERE.

Nihilistic beyond comprehension and sonically devastating, on the crushing debut LP Dearth explore incomprehensible thresholds of disgust and abjection through a sonic arsenal forged deep into in the most tormented circles of hell, unleashing a cataclysm of dark death metal horror that will leave the listener scarred and ravaged. Thorough an inescapable maze of oppressive death metal riffs and malefic atmospheres, the Oakland death-bringers have drawn influence from extreme metal titans like Dead Congregation, Deathspell Omega, Lucifyre, Demoncy, and Peseudogod to assemble a mortal weapon of mass extermination that symbolizes and glorifies the complete and implacable eradication of humanity in its every form and manifestation.

Oakland’s Dearth appeared in the Bay Area’s extreme metal undreground around 2016, coalescing around members from local extreme metal deviants like Xenotaph, Torture Chamber, Dead Man, Swamp Witch, and Funeral Chant who wanted to explore an abominable syncretism between the ugliness and surrealism of French black metal, the power and chaos of the darkest strains of death metal, and conceptual lyricism and symbolism dealing with transcendental misanthropy, metaphysical nihilism and total inhumanity. The band debuted in 2017 with a debut tape EP released by Transylvanian Tapes which already put on full display their monstrous sound made of a cascading wall of bludgeoning death metal riffs draped in malefic and sickening black atmospheres borrowed directly from the fringe outer limits of the most tortured french black metal. Following their debut tape release the band lay mostly dormant playing locally only sporadicly and hammering away at what would become “To Crown All Befoulment”, their monstrous 2020 debut album for Sentient Ruin. With a sound both reminiscent of dark death metal monsters like Dead Congregation, Lucifyre, and Pseudogod, and of extreme black metal entities like Deadthspell Omega, Aosoth, and Anteus, with To Crown All Befoulment Dearth have levitated from the depths of hell and spread the enormous wings of a sonic holocaust of unseen dread and destructiveness, claiming their rightful place at the very center of contemporary blackened death metal transformation, and adding their own inestimable touch to a transformative and ever changing syncretism of styles which is in constant motion and evolution.

You can now pre-order digital, tape and vinyl products of To Crown All Befoulment via our shop and Bandcamp.


6TH CIRCLE: American Dark Electro-industrial/EBM Artist to Release 12" Vinyl Compilation "Pacified/Conjuring" on May 15 2020 - Full Stream Available.

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Sentient Ruin is honored to bring you this glorious limited edition 12" vinyl compilation comprising all tracks from 6th Circle’s first two cassette releases. Both released in quick sequence back in 2018, the “Pacified” and “Conjuring” cassette EPs immediately revealed the sheer depth and dimension of 6th Circle’s vision and sanctioned the birth and rise of one of America's most exciting and promising new post-inudustrial acts.

The two releases introduced multi-instrumentalist and sole mastermind Matt Auxier condensing years of concepts and ideas into eleven jagged cuts of anarchist and satanist post-industrial insurrectionism that explore deviant electronic dance music, dark movie soundtracks, and the most extreme fringes of punk, goth, and darkwave at their most aberrant and confrontational states, channeling with incredible craftsmanship and imagination the golden era of the genre first conceptualized in the late 80s and early 90s with cornerstone works by acts like Skinny Puppy and Front Line Assembly. The eleven origin tracks show 6th Circle pushing the genre's boundaries in multiple directions, reimagining the style altogether, and making the past and present of electronic industrial collide into an abrasive and pitch black synthesis of infectiously catchy beats, scathing vocals, apocalyptic atmospheres, and hypnotic distorted soundscapes that perfectly embody the archetypical post-industrial sonic dystopia. 

The long sold out debut cassette tape EP “Pacified” was originally released in 2018 by underground extreme metal tape label Knife Vision, while the followup cassette EP “Conjuring” which surfaced later that same year was released by notorious underground noise dealers Phage Tapes and Squall Recordings. With this meticulously crafted LP retrospective all tracks released by 6th Circle leading up to its 2019 Sentient Ruin debut album “The Third Estate” finally see the light for the first time ever on vinyl format, remixed and remastered for the purpose to their most abrasive and punishing form yet by 6th Circle mastermind Matt Auxier in person. 

Tracks 1-6 written and recorded by Matt Auxier in 2017, and originally released on cassette in 2018 by Knife Vision as the "Pacified" EP.

Tracks 7-11 written and recorded by Matt Auxier in 2018, and originally released on cassette in 2018 by Phage Tapes and Squall Recordings as the "Conjuring" EP.

All tracks remixed and remastered in 2019 for Sentient Ruin by Matt Auxier.

With an official ship/release date of May 15 2020, You can now pre-order digital and vinyl of the "Pacified / Conjuring" compilation on our Bandcamp and store.

黒い樹海 (KUROI JUKAI): Elusive Canadian Noisegrind/Powerviolence Suicide Commando Issue Posthumous Sole Release for the First Time Ever on Vinyl.

Sentient Ruin is honored and proud to bring you a first ever vinyl pressing of the only, monumentally annihilating release to have ever surfaced from short-lived and highly elusive Edmonton AB-based Canadian powerviolence/noisegrind suicide commando 黒い樹海 ("Kuroi Jukai", Japanese for "black sea of trees"), who existed for a short time during 2015. The band played an uncompromising and unorthodox blend of ferocious hardcore/grind with fringe strains of power electronics and industrial noise, creating a blunt and unrelenting wall of pulverizing sonic chaos. In its short existence the band wrote and recorded a single release, the ten-minute self-titled tape released in 2015 by Canadian harsh noise label Aught/Void, which also featured a live recording from a single gig.

By the time the release had posthumously surfaced on cassette in April 2015 through Aught\Void, 黒い樹海 had already ceased to exist, becoming somewhat of a mystery in the Canadian punk and extreme/experimental underground. But this lone self-titled effort has since remained untouched as undisputed testament of the band's visionary quest for complete sonic ruin and remains a crowning achievement amongst the most ambitious and sophisticated noisegrind and underground extreme hardcore punk releases of the decade. 

Sentient Ruin has now remastered the audio and upgraded the artwork for a limited and final vinyl release (minus the live track). Set for official release on February 21 2020 the limited edition 7" of only 200 units is pressed to crystal clear vinyl, and comes in a black uncoated cardstock cover + insert both silkscreened with metallic silver ink, download card, PVC bag, hype sticker - pre-orders and full stream are now active on our Bandcamp and shop.

With songs averaging thirty seconds in length and a sound pushed over the edge by a ruinous syncretism with fringe strains of harsh noise and power electronics, the harrowing mini LP is a conduit for armageddon that elevates the notion of audial terrorism to an extreme rarely before seen, all while the listener is obliterated with a violence and urgency that appears both senseless and baffling. Just as we've seen in other highly evolved experimental and extremized hardcore/grind bands like Knelt Rote, Column of Heaven, Endless Blockade, Hatred Surge, and "I&II" era Friendship, 黒い樹海 have wielded the extreme-end spectrum of experimental noise and industrial electronics like a blunt weapon of audial terrorism to take their incinerating experimental hardcore/grind delirium where conventional metal/punk could not fathom to go. With boundaries annihilated and experimentation tyrannically enforced beyond the point of no return, in the staggering ten-minute aural declaration of total war, 黒い樹海 initiate a chain reaction of irreversible destruction that never relents, terminating their incomprehensible and lightning-fast sonic suicide mission into a mortal full-on collision with the listener that leaves no escape. 

ASSUMPTION: "The Three Appearances", 2014 Debut MLP from italian death-Doom Titans, Sees First Ever Vinyl Release.

Sentient Ruin is honored to release Assumption’s debut MLP The Three Appearances for the first ever time on vinyl in collaboration with Italy’s Everlasting Spew Records. Three Appearances has been released for pre-order on our shop and Bandcamp and will be officially shipping on February 14 2019. The amazing LP has been pressed in a limited black/blue color variant and on standard black vinyl, and comes with the original 2014 CD artwork but with a revised layout and includes a black insert silkscreened with metallic silver ink.

Originally released on a limited run of CDs in 2014 by Italian label Terror From Hell, Assumption's The Three Appearances is one of the most imposing and enigmatic death-doom releases of this decade. Perhaps too unique and ambitious to be fully understood at the time of its release,the colossal thirty-minute EP is a masterwork of experimental slow moving death metal domination whose visionary enormity has thus far been unfortunately been matched solely by its unfortunate struggle to be noticed and recognized as the masterpiece that it is.

Fast forward five years later, the band has been finally and rightfully dominating European stages playing the likes of Killtown Deathfest, Asakusa Deathfest in Japan, and sharing the stage with bands like Skepticism, Esoteric and Evoken, while this somewhat forgotten EP has slipped further and further from people's memory, becoming a lost treasure of contemporary death-doom. Today, with its first ever release on vinyl Sentient Ruin and Everlasting Spew (EU) aim at paying due homage and service to a release of inestimable power and importance that has sanctioned the birth and rise of one of death-doom's most under-appreciated but visionary contemporary death metal acts.

Over the course of its four movements and thirty minutes of dismal heaviness and towering sonic enormity The Three Appearances glorifies death-doom in all its most iconic and beloved traits while redefining and reimagining the genre all-together, pushing it into an even more profound, refined, and dramatic dualism made of bludgeoning death metal riff mastery and ethereal and contemplative psychedelic virtuosity. Fusing the neck-snapping riff extravaganza of bands like Bolt Thrower, Grave, and Asphyx with the tenebrous hallucinogenic crawl of bands like Winter, Incantation and Disembowelment and the mournful and contemplative dirges of masters of slow and dismal atmospherics like Thergothon and Skepticism The Three Appearances projects a monstrous aura against a liquefying backdrop of lysergic atmospheres and mind-altering ambience that makes the listener feel enlightened and consciously augmented while simultaneously being slowly consumed and crushed by gravitational tides and invisible cosmic forces beyond human comprehension.

MORTAL INCARNATION: Japanese Psychedelic Death-Doom Destroyers To Issue Colossal Debut EP On Tape Via Sentient Ruin (LP To Follow).

Tokyo-based Japanese death-doom destroyers Mortal Incarnation debut with Lunar Radiant Dawn, a two-track, sixteen-minute dirge of colossal and otherworldly atmospheric death metal that towers over this year's death-doom output as one of the most imposing and spellbinding manifestations the genre has seen all year. On the mesmerizing EP the Japanese four piece have masterfully harnessed the majesty and alien experimentalism first conceptualized by legendary death-doom progenitors dISEMBOWELMENT, and fused it with the merciless darkness of bands like Morbid Angel, Immolation and Incantation, to sublimate into an imposing sonic entity of unseen majesty and enormity. Unyieldingly heavy and dark, yet profoundly mystical and contemplative, through the sapient interviewing of baneful and crepuscular 90s death metal and massive architectures of lysergic psychedelic virtuosity borrowed directly from the likes of Pink Floyd and King Crimson, Mortal Incarnation have assembled one of the most modern and visionary pure death-doom releases in years, in which the intimacy and meditative powers of the golden era of 70's psych/progressive rock and the primordial darkness and ferocity of the most suffocating death metal coexist in a marvel of superb aesthetic dominance and of crushing evocative force.

Mortal Incarnation materialized in Tokyo, Japan around 2018, by the will of four individuals (Septic Necrovoid on guitar and vocals, Goatlord on guitar, R$Y on bass, and Miasma Vortex on drums) obsessed with arcane and timeless forms of extreme metal and influenced by transcendental and mystical experiences that defy reality. This fascination with otherworldly states and realms of the unknown has pushed the band to create highly contemplative and mystical music that explores states of spiritual ubiquity, out of body experiences, absurd rituals and inexplainable phenomenons that live on the plain of irreality. While early experimentalists and progenitors of absurd and boundary-pushing extreme metal like Incantation and dISEMBOEWRLMENT are obvious influences for the band, Mortal Incarnation have also been particularly drawn to the experimentalism and self-destructive artistic lawlessness seen in early Scandinavian death and black metal bands who've widely explored this almost mindless pull toward near complete loss of self: Thou Shalt Suffer, early Darkthrone, Purtenance, Crematory, early Entombed etc. Their sound has then been ulteriorly shaped by contemporary and more immaterial influences like various forms of darkwave, shoegaze and ambient music which have greatly contributed to shaping the band's almost exaggerated obsession with creating enveloping and otherworldly atmospheres used as a backdrop to a maelstrom of pulverizing primitive death metal. The urgency and intensity with which Mortal Incarnation write, perform, and record their music comes from yet another plane of inspiration which sheds ulterior light on the band's incredibly diverse background and seemingly endless pool of inspirations: hardcore and punk music, mainly brought in the band by bassist R$Y who also militates in Japanese powerviolece band Soiled Hate. Conceptually, Mortal Incarnation focus on building a mirror-like reflection to their own sound, as a perfect thematic continuation and counterpart to the music, with philosophical, fantasy, and gothic literature or Japanese manga being the main source of lyrical inspiration, especially works dealing with the transcendental realms of existence, mystical experiences, surreality, and the mystery that permeates human nature, along with concepts of vastness, enormity and of incomprehensible and sensorial and psychological awe and wonder.

Lunar Radiant Dawn cassettes are scheduled to ship on January 10 2019 and are now pre-ordeable on our Bandcamp or RELEAES page above. A 10” vinyl version is in the works and its release is TBA.

PETRIFICATION: "Hollow of the Void" LP Reissued.

PETRIFICATION’s bludgeoning 2018 debut LP Hollow of the Void has been reissued on a limited new run of colored vinyl after having been sold out for nearly a year. The amazing death metal album is finally available again on clear water blue vinyl with a red and purple marble, housed in a high quality sleeve with electric green flood inside the pocket. You can now order the LP reissue from our RELEASES page or on our Bandcamp.

One the most unique and bombastic US/OSDM releases of 2018, Hollow of the Void is a breakneck rampage of gruesome death metal chaos that worships directly at the ancient altar of legends like Convulse, Bolt Thrower, Grave, and Autopsy. Despite its homage-like timelessness and classic feel, the album is a modern and defiant take on the genre that unifies an exquisite taste in its celebrative sonic assault with a visual surreal and masterful visual presentation unlike anything else commonly seen out there in the genre.

Hollow of the Void was released in April 2018 and established Petrification as one of the most threatening and exciting new new acts to appear that year in American death metal. The album received widespread and unanimous praise in the underground from fans and critics alike, being hailed as a 2018 landmark death metal release by outlets like Revolver and Decibel Magazine among others. Particular praise has been given to the album’s raw and visceral sound, to it’s modern and ambitious take on a style of death metal often labelled as “old school” and that has evolved little over the years, and to its astonishing and unique visual presentation, an aspect developed and created for the album directly by the band’s singer, famed underground surreal painter and visual artist Jason Barnett.

RUIN LUST: NYC-Based Black/Death Metal Horde Issue Incinerating Sophomore LP "Sacrifice" for the First Time Ever on Vinyl.

Ruin Lust play hellish grinding metal of death and war; a dagger to the throats of all insipid, trend-chasing, "old school" death metal of recent years. Violent, hateful, and unyielding, but with actual fucking riffs, Ruin Lust draws inspiration from the varied traditions of Sadistik Exekution, Sacramentary Abolishment, and classic, unhinged, American death metal and grind, without ever indulging in pure emulation. Contemporary chaos mongers Knelt Rote and Ascended Dead are also reasonable touchstones. The band formed in New York in 2010 at a moment when NOTHING of the level of violence, and sheer unbridled ferocity existed in the area. After years of reclusive labor, the release of Sacrifice, their second full length, reveals the most potent distillation of the band’s feral and deranged vision. LIFE EXTINGUISHED. DEATH TRIUMPHANT.

Sentient Ruin is proud to release Ruin Lust's incinerating sophomore LP Sacrifice for the first time ever on vinyl, after a self-released tape surfaced in early 2019 bringing back under the spotlight one of America's most elusive and feral extreme metal entities. Featuring current and past members of Anicon, Trenchgrinder, Vorde, Vilkacis, Fell Voices, Vanum, and Yellow Eyes, the NYC black/death/war metal horde return six years after their debut album was released on Psychic Violence Records, with their darkest and most baneful compositions to date, blending the most pestilent strains of black and death metal with the blunt force trauma of grindcore to elevate the notion of sonic warfare at unseen new extremes.

While remaining true to the genre's voluntarily involved and feral approach to aural barbarism, a careful ear will not fail to notice the modern and transformative approach taken by the band to assemble their sonic war zone, utilizing a dense and suffocating sense of atmosphere and an immanent sense of dynamics and unpredictability to mercilessly blindside and destroy the listener. By all means a pinnacle in this year's war metal output, Sacrifice is a modern and defiant spasm of extreme metal terror that will find loyal proselytes amongst fans of Diocletian, Knelt Rote, Heresiarch and other contemporary black/death bands who show to be more inclined to breaking new ground and paving the genre's future than living in the past.

The Sacrifice LP was officially released on December 13 through Sentient Ruin exclusively worldwide and is now shipping everywhere - find it at our Bandcamp, online shop or distributors for both North America and Europe/rest of world.