GRØND, chapter two in a trilogy, is an album wholly developed through a process of withering abstraction. The instrumentation renders a forceful merging of massive celestial bodies, each a whirling cacophony of inter-dimensional conjuring. After digesting the lyrics in accordance, what used to sound like the swinging of a pendulum, rather depicts a birth of an unknowable origin... a spectral and magnetic void. Nihill, an outfit firmly entrenched in the European underground, travels freely from one metal sub-genre to the next, effectively dispensing with the notion of a genre specific work all together.

The reflexive nature with which Nihill makes these connections puts them beyond the boundaries of simple categorization. GRØND is at once: black metal, drone, doom, noise, and even hints at martial industrialism; arriving at something resembling mechanistic dark ambient as much as traditional black metal. If this unique work need suffer comparison for the sake of cognition, Nihill's nearest contemporaries are the likes of Blut Aus Nord, Deathspell Omega and the more obtuse of America's own Leviathan.

Moreover, rather than confining the moods and ideas therein to the nullifying constructs of a conventional metal record, GRØND offers the listener the opportunity to perceive things beyond physicality, an experience closer to metaphysical awakening than base entertainment. Into the void indeed....


First vinyl pressing
Limited to 600

Nihill - Verdonkermaan PRE-ORDER Ltd. 2xLP/CD/CS/Digital August 21st, 2012

Holland's Nihill are one of the few bands in current circulation to which some of black metal's most common musical descriptors actually apply. Theirs is music of a truly relentless, cold and unforgiving nature, one which offers little or nothing in the way of relief or comforting melody. Though their albums are often punctuated by stretches of near silence or hushed ambience set between walls of frenzied blast and pummeling churn, these lulls serve to bolster the threatening whole in their absence of recognizable musical footholds. The winding paths laid by their music may be lightless, but the journey down them is one well worth taking. 

Verdonkermaan is the third installment of a trilogy that began with 2007's Krach, and delves further into the churning cosmos as mapped out by its predecessors. Opener "Vuur - the Deathwind of Resurrection" serves as a devastating introduction to the album, replete with scalding washes of caustic guitars, and a howling backdrop that threatens a continual consumption of the foreground without ever fully taking over. Downshifting in tempo, but not in intensity "Spiral - The Taileater" brings the listener fully into the shadowy fold, with a hypnotic combination of cascading single note bends and insistent low end throb. From this peak of maximal force, through the dizzying cycle that closes out the album, many lines are cast into the pitch, but all remain firmly tethered to a dark hearted center. It's precisely this ability to transverse a multifaceted terrain without ever losing course that give the album its undeniably potency and obsidian allure.
Considering Verdonkermaan unto itself, as well as the trilogy to which it belongs, it's readily apparent that Nihill have established themselves fully and firmly with these stark and ferocious musical proclamations. While their efforts are clearly built on the foundational pillars erected by the early founders of the genre, they have added their own singular and acidic tongue to the modern lexicon of black metal. Though self imposed obscurity is the proud badge of many who've tread this particular realm of sound, the existence of Nihill and their freshly completed trilogy should not be overlooked by those who seek to stare longingly into heart of darkness.


2xLP extremely limited to 500, all black vinyl.
CD extremely limited to 500
Cassette extremely limited to 60!

Black metal has always been about individualism and not being "one of the sheep, " yet more and more albums seem to be coming out of the woodwork with the obligatory forest scene artwork, indecipherable band name, buzzing lo-fi guitars and tortured screams. Sweden's Bergraven -- aka sole band member and multi-instrumentalist Par Gustaffssons -- has shunned such cliches to make some of the most evolved, compelling and expressive extreme music we've heard in a while. In a sea of misanthropic music makers, Bergraven stands alone as a band that truly adheres to the black metal ideology. Ironically, Par rejects the black metal tag entirely.

READ ON!!!

New 2xLPs from Harvey Milk and Xasthur are available now!

HYH-176-1 Xasthur - All Reflections Drained 2xLP
Available as:
Picture Discs with an exclusive back Patch
Red Mist vinyl with an exclusive slipmat
Black vinyl
Blood Red vinyl

The art will scare your conservative mom (sorry if you don't have a mom)

Front and back cover

Jacket interior

Sleeves front

Sleeves back

Picture discs A and C sides

Picture discs B and D sides

Back patch, packaged exclusively with picture disc



Red Mist vinyl with slipmat (packaged exclusively with Red mist)


Blood Red vinyl - yes, it is pretty similar to red mist, but there is a tiny bit of white haze in red mist. Look closely.


Don't miss out on these, or your children will look like gargoyles. The Disney cartoon ones.