Browse by Label: AURORA BOREALIS (UK)

Artist:	MOSS
Title:	Cthonic Rites
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ABX 008CD

"Managing to pack two entire tracks into 66 minutes, Moss redefine torturous with a larger, more cosmically heavy sound featuring Jus Oborn (of Doom masters Electric Wizard) taking production duties. Though each track retains the monolithic simplicity of a Martian pyramid, the production somehow increases the scope of the trademark Moss wall of distortion and despair. Who dares to dream what dark Old Ones may be summoned from beyond the realms of time and death by these primitive, obscene dirges?"

Artist:	KNIVES OV RESISTANCE
Title:	Prisca Sapienta
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ABX 010CD

"Like Various Production, Knives Ov Resistance eschews the cardigan and commune imagery of folk revivalists in favor of a darker more contemporary take. Despite incorporating elements of hip-hop turntablism, Knives' noir/folk contains no beats whatsoever -- just pastoral swells, buzzing stringed bliss, layered samples (from birdsong and choirs through to blankets of the indistinguishable) and electronic fuckery... Amongst their members are Spykidelic -- who combined guitar textures and hip-hop breaks in his late '90s Lo Recordings project Echo Park -- and Demian Castellanos; responsible for the excellent Orichalc Phase and Mesma EPs on DC and Static Caravan respectively."

Artist:	WOLFMANGLER
Title:	Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ABX 012CD

"Wolfmangler is the musical vision of Polish revelator D Smolken, formerly of Dead Raven Choir. His music is slow, grim, noisy and shambling, a deconstructed hybrid of twisted folk and hinterland doom metal. Bowed double bass, electric bass, flute, French horn and violin merge with sinister growls and whispered vocals rich with the symbolism of life and decay creating a listening experience at once unsettling, twisted and darkly beautiful. Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves takes his trademark raw buzzing intensity and pushes it even further down an uncharted thorny overgrown path creating a wall of noise that almost seems to suck the air out of the room, leaving a festering rotten discomfort -- a real sonic alchemy -- creating oil from sound. We doubt you will hear a record so deliriously unsettling this year. Maybe in any year..."

Artist:	WOLFMANGLER
Title:	Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$24.00
Catalog #:	ABX 012LP

"Wolfmangler is the musical vision of Polish revelator D. Smolken, formerly of Dead Raven Choir. His music is slow, grim, noisy and shambling, a deconstructed hybrid of twisted folk and hinterland doom-metal. Bowed double bass, electric bass, flute, French horn and violin merge with sinister growls and whispered vocals rich with the symbolism of life and decay, creating a listening experience at once unsettling, twisted and darkly beautiful. Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves takes his trademark raw, buzzing intensity and pushes it even further down an uncharted overgrown path, creating a wall of noise that almost seems to suck the air out of the room, leaving a festering rotten discomfort -- a real sonic alchemy -- creating oil from sound. We doubt you will hear a record so deliriously unsettling this year. Maybe in any year."

Artist:	STARGAZER'S ASSISTANT, THE
Title:	The Other Side of the Island
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ABX 018CD

"'We find no vestige of a beginning, no prospect of an end.' James Hutton, Theory of the Earth, 1795. Deep underground, life moves slowly. Once teeming with insect and amphibian life, the great swamps of the Carboniferous era were buried under the weight of 300 million years, eventually returning to the surface as coal. In this new form they would be consumed in fires and furnaces for three thousand years before blackening the lungs of Empire and driving the Industrial Revolution. It was then that James Hutton, the first geologist, began to consider the depths beneath our feet and the unimaginable abyss of time that they represent. This is the world of The Stargazer's Assistant. This is the forge of the Earth. This is deep time. The Other Side Of The Island is the soundtrack to the sculptural works collected under the same name, both being the work of David J. Smith. In addition to his percussion duties with Guapo, Smith has spent the last two years bringing his visions to life; life that emerged slowly, painstakingly, out of wax, coal, copper and lead. In much the same way, the soundtrack itself slowly writhes organically before the listener: the groan of the motherlode, the shifting of tectonic plates, the song of the Earth's crust. In collaboration with longstanding musical cohort Daniel O'Sullivan (with whom Smith plays in Miasma & The Carousel Of Dead Horses) and audio engineer Antti Uusumaki, Smith has created a strange work comprising of layered vocals, percussion, electronics and prepared strings. The Stargazer's Assistant offer up the soundtrack of eternal, elemental labor."

Artist:	DEAD RAVEN CHOIR
Title:	My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$16.00
Catalog #:	ABX 019CD

"Smolken returns to Aurora Borealis in the guise of his perhaps better known Dead Raven Choir project. Since the release of Wolfmangler's Dwelling In A Dead Raven For The Glory Of Crucified Wolves Smolken has settled in Poland, and seriously begun to record as much as possible. Where Wolfmangler is slow and ponderous ('compost with a grudge' as Julian Cope stated in The Guardian last year) and could perhaps even be described as an obscure branch of Doom, how shall we classify Dead Raven Choir? An altogether noisier undertaking and unafraid of the heady heights of mid-tempo, Dead Raven Choir has baffled, irked and aroused listeners for a number of years now. An unholy cross of black metal and folk? Organically produced noise and scree? Doubtless many a consumer has been outraged by a lazily tagged Dead Raven Choir release, though with the countless CD-R and micro-label releases, there grows a veritable army of supporters, eager to have their preconceptions smashed and ears damaged once more with every hint of new material. My Firstborn Will Surely Be Blind grips the listener immediately and threatens to overwhelm them with its brute force. Clearly there is something to be said for the Eastern Bloc technologies that were so deftly abused, as this is truly a unique sound. Smolken has transcended the avant-garde and moved beyond: ladies and gentlemen, Dead Raven Choir has left the field."

Artist:	BURIAL HEX
Title:	Initiations
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$15.00
Catalog #:	ABX 022CD

"Members: Clay Ruby - feedback, voice, PAIA 4700, samples, microphones, homemade oscillators, metal, organs, earth, distortion, delay, insect, reverb, electric piano and analog tape. Burial Hex first made itself known to Aurora Borealis a few years ago when browsing obscure blackened electronic treats online. The subsequent purchase delivered a rather bizarre cassette tape, totally without markings, and a cryptic, darkly printed simple cover bearing ancient symbols and occult schematics: The Curses Of Earth, indeed. It conjured all sorts of imaginings -- nocturnal rites, lonely vigils with archaic analog equipment, moonlight, madness. In 2007, Aurora Borealis found itself face-to-face with Burial Hex across the strings of the ether, in communication via email, almost wholly by accident and coincidence. Taking this to be a sign, perhaps the hand of destiny, a deal was secured to release something. More instinct than reaction, no one knew what to expect. The 'oppressive necro electronics' of the recordings heard so far gave little idea of what lay in store, of the new depths to be explored, the madness to be embraced. Initiations, the debut recording for Aurora Borealis, is a lengthy proposition. Clocking in at one hour thirteen minutes, it represents a journey, a metaphysical odyssey of uncertain outcome. From the psycho-religious clamor of 'Will To The Chapel' with its jihadic cries, through to the somnambulant, subterranean oscillations of '8 Pentacles,' the way ahead is far from clear, the atmosphere claustrophobic and threatening. For fans of Prurient, Wolf Eyes, Whitehouse, Dead Raven Choir, Throbbing Gristle, Nurse With Wound, Masonna."

Artist:	BLOOD OF THE BLACK OWL
Title:	A Feral Spirit
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$21.50
Catalog #:	ABX 026LP

"The temperate rain forest of the Pacific Northwest of the United States is a fecund node, both psychological and physical, profoundly affecting all that dwell there with the irresistible song of nature: The call to grow, to seek illumination, to gain nourishment, to grapple with the true reality of existence, to fight for survival among the ancient pines of a world wracked with modernity. From this organic cauldron comes Blood Of The Black Owl. Formed in 2004 by heathen visionary Chet W. Scott, (of noted post-industrial entity Ruhr Hunter), as a primitive fusion of slow tempo earth metal and woodland ritualistic doom, the journey culminating in the debut self-titled album on Bindrune Records in 2006. An ode to the more destructive and primal elements found in not only nature, but in black metal and trance-inducing funeral doom as well, the work marked a distinct movement away from the more ambient feel of much of the Ruhr Hunter material, while forging a unique musical path all of his own in the deep woods of Washington state. A Feral Spirit takes the journey further into the heart of the forest. Combining Native American shamanic influence and the Germanic nature worship of his own heritage with an entirely transcendent musical vision, Blood Of The Black Owl gives praise to the spirits of nature and the unspoken bonds that tie man, beast and environment. With elements of doom metal, ambient, ritual and native musics in evidence throughout the album, Blood Of The Black Owl involve the listener in a timeless and spiritually expansive journey of discovery, evaluation and reflection over the course of the album's 73 minutes. 'A personal cleansing woven through audible passages of earthbound ritualistic transcendence.' With its rigid stand against modernity and monotheism, A Feral Spirit is a clarion call for the rebirth of the human animal spirit and a return to the ancestral forests of our past. Blood Of The Black Owl shall lead them." Gatefold sleeve.

Artist:	SYLVESTER ANFANG II
Title:	Sylvester Anfang II
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	2LP
Price:	$25.00
Catalog #:	ABX 035LP

"All things must evolve, and given time even the unicellular organisms dwelling in ocean's deepest fathoms may shift form and take to the skies. In celebration of the mysteries of evolution, Aurora Borealis proudly presents Sylvester Anfang II. In the time since the release of Kosmies Slachtafval, Silvester Anfang have grown into Sylvester Anfang II, a more psychedelic beast, a more tangible creature in some ways, but one that defies and confounds standard classification. Taking their cue from Krautrock communes of yore, the Flemish troubadours have expanded both ranks and minds and now present this giant new opus for general consumption. With cultish numbers swollen with new blood in the guise of Stef Anus (Kiss the Anus of a Black Cat), Father Sloow (Sloow Tapes pontiff), Bram (Ignatz) and Clay Ruby (Davenport, Burial Hex), the sound is much fuller and more reminiscent of Kraut-ish dope jams than ever before. Ruby's vocal additions create a whole new universe for the band, rather like if Dr. John had been born in a plague pit in Flanders, and the resulting tracks 'The Devil Always Shits in the Same Graves Parts 1 & 2' are masterful examples of Flemish voodoo boogie. Sure to upset parents and upstanding citizens with their occult themes and liberal European-style artwork, Sylvester Anfang II reach new levels of consciousness with their mantras of goat worship and the orthodoxy of denial that states, 'Only analogue is real.' Dust off your robes, sharpen the sacrificial blade, order in some Trappist beers -- tune in, turn on, evolve." Deluxe gatefold sleeve with red and green colored vinyl.

Artist:	FAUNA
Title:	The Hunt
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ABX 038CD

"Fauna return with The Hunt. Originally self-released in an extremely limited run, this official release on Aurora Borealis has the addition of live drums and has been fully remastered by Mell Detmer (Earth, Sunn O))), etc), standing as the definitive version. The Hunt sees Fauna further expand upon their aesthetic as they head further into the dark core of man, the spirit of the original man of prehistory. The album chronicles the search of primitive man for food, though displays the magical reverence, wonder and visceral horror of such an undertaking in a world of animism. Musically the album defines a progressive course for the band with increased use of synthesizers and extended atmospheric passages building the tension. The live drums and full remaster also greatly expand the sound, adding an urgency to the proceedings, especially in the more traditional black metal sections. The Hunt further solidifies Fauna's mythic status as true pioneers on a musical trail that at once reaches out into our collective past and forward to what might be."

Artist:	YRSEL
Title:	Requiem For The 3 Kharites
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ABX 039CD

"Yrsel is a collaboration between The Austrasian Goat, primarily an experimental doom/black metal project, and Ondo, an equally prolific dark electronica project. Though hailing from different musical genres and from France and Sweden respectively, the two artists bonded following a split release on DIY label Burning Emptiness. Yrsel create complex, multi-layered and highly atmospheric music that fully explodes the genres of drone, doom and electronica resulting in a glorious glacial melt of sound and texture. Conceptually, Requiem For The Three Kharites deals with the Three Graces (Kharites) of Greek mythology; symbols of grace, beauty, pleasure and the creative impulse. A requiem for the loss of culture in an ever spiraling material world, a twilight ode to the mythic manifestation of our higher facilities. In this context the drones, glitches and whispers form the perfect soundtrack to such dark materials. The album dissolves slowly from its thunderous opening, finally leaving the listener in a deep void of palpable loss."

Artist:	CONAN
Title:	Horseback Battle Hammer
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ABX 041CD

"Conan are a caveman battle doom trio from the grim North of England. They summon the heavy riff from the ungodly land and crush the skull of the unbeliever with their low end doom assault. Waves of sludge and galloping crust passages overwhelm the unwary. Horseback Battle Hammer is comprised of four long and crushing tracks recorded in mid November 2009 at Wales' mighty Foel Studio (Hawkwind, Electric Wizard, Blue Cheer, Godflesh, Amon Duul). The sound is monolithic, and clearly the band made the very best use of this legendary studio to get remarkable results from their custom made gear for a truly crushing debut release. Combining excellent production values, deadly riffs and a unique vocal style, Horseback Battle Hammer stays with the listener like a fresh wound. With artwork by Tony Roberts (Electric Wizard, Unearthly Trance, Cathedral), Conan have set in stone the majesty of their arrival."

Artist:	MENACE RUINE
Title:	Union Of Irreconcilables
Label:	AURORA BOREALIS (UK)
Format:	CD
Price:	$17.00
Catalog #:	ABX 042CD

"The Montreal duo Menace Ruine release their fourth opus on Aurora Borealis. Entitled Union of Irreconcilables, the album builds on their previous great work, the alchemical collision of black metal, walls of noise, mysticism, martial rhythms, and a medieval affinity for melody leaving the listener with a sense of unforgettable originality. Begun in 2006, Menace Ruine have always followed their own path, combining unusual elements and vocal styles in an effort to capture their unique musical vision. The evolution of the band's style and sound has been a constant throughout their three previous releases, including 2008's The Die is Cast (Alien8) with Genevi�ve's powerful vocal performance coming to the fore."

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