Profound Lore   Page 1

Nocturnus AD

Unicursal

Profound Lore

With their last / debut album Paradox, Nocturnus founder / sci-fi death metal godfather Mike Browning (also original Morbid Angel co-founder) would resurrect Nocturnus lore under its new alteration Nocturnus AD, giving Browning the opportunity to finally continue the mythos that came before with the legendary album The Key, almost thirty years after its release—one of the most influential death metal albums of all time. The result being Paradox—the proper follow-up to The Key (musically and thematically)—where the story of Dr. Magus would finally see its sequel. The new Nocturnus AD album Unicursal sees Browning, along with guitarists Belial Koblak and Demian Heftel, keyboardist Josh Holdren, and new bassist Kyle Sokol (bass on Unicursal was performed by now-ex bassist Daniel Tucker), continue the journey of Dr. Magus following the events of Paradox. Now armed with his bio suit, Dr. Magus is sent on a mission to traverse through the Spheres of the Kabbalistic Tree Of Life to conquer each sphere and collect its respective sigil / symbol. Unicursal will see Dr. Magus specifically travel to Malkuth, Yesod, Hod, and Netzach, the Tree’s lower realm, its roots—the story of Dr. Magus is featured on the album’s second half, where the album’s first half will continue to explore ancient occult themes and mysteries from the unknown, separate from Dr. Magus’ story. Unicursal is not only one of the most ambitious undertakings Browning has been involved with, but it is a formidable display of progressive occult metal wizardry that manifests Nocturnus AD...

Antichrist Siege Machine

Vengeance Of Eternal Fire

Profound Lore

As the mighty Evil has come to man, so has Antichrist Siege Machine, summoning the darkness with their third album Vengeance Of Eternal Fire. Expanding upon the latent evil in their hearts and inspired by the prophecies of Old, the band casts their lot with the demons of Hell. Each track here bears the banner of violence and chaos, furthering the duo’s commitment to utter brutality. Antichrist Siege Machine have solidified support within the underground and, after a highly successful touring cycle in support of their previous album Purifying Blade, will focus on live assaults in support of Vengeance Of Eternal Fire. This follows their many sold-out shows in the US and Europe, including multiple fest appearances (MDF, Psycho Las Vegas, NWTF, Mass Destruction, Destroying Texas, to name some), and several dates as direct support to Emperor, and US tour runs with Demilich and Miasmatic Necrosis. Also part of the Purifying Blade campaign, the band conquered Europe on tour with Full Of Hell and labelmates Spirit Possession.

Locrian

End Terrain

Profound Lore

Experimental metal trio Locrian are a prophetic voice of decline and a pioneering force in the world of metal. Their sonic tapestry weaves elements of black metal, ambient, and experimental music, creating a genre-defying experience that pushes the boundaries of conventional metal norms. Their new album End Terrain is the proper follow-up to 2015’s Infinite Dissolution (Relapse Records) and continues in the vein of their distinguishable sonic blueprint brought forth from said release along with other Relapse Records-released Return To Annihilation and The Clearing/The Final Epoch. 2022 saw their return with their Profound Lore debut New Catastrophism, in which the trio explored and returned back to the experimental side of their roots. End Terrain is the group’s most direct and concise work to date. More complex and layered than anything in the prolific trio’s catalog, it is a concept album exposing a vision of a future earth consumed by waste. It depicts an apocalyptic landscape, inhabited by a generation who despise their parentage and are a dying breed fully aware of the wasteland they have left. With mountains of trash and an uninhabitable planet, endless and dead, End Terrain is about inertia and regret, about the future and a mirror to the present, about mourning and extinction. A seamless and harrowing blend of experimental, post-rock, and post-metal, Locrian’s End Terrain is the perfect manifestation of modern, forward-thinking experimental music pushed to a maximalist conclusion. “Plenty of bands play music that sounds dark, but few can make every note bleed...

Grey Skies Fallen

Molded by Broken Hands

Profound Lore

***ON LIMITED BLACK/SILVER COLOR MIX W/WHITE SPLATTER VINYL or BLACK MARBLE SMOKE VINYL!!! The new album from American doomed dark metal veterans Grey Skies Fallen, Molded By Broken Hands, will coincide with the 25th anniversary of the band’s debut album The Fate Of Angels! Molded By Broken Hands sees the long-running contingent deliver their most triumphant work yet, an album that carries that feeling of underappreciated and underrated dark metal that was culminating in the US during the late ’90s. This was the era where Grey Skies Fallen originated and grew, while also paving the way for a resurgence of doomy-dark metal artistry. Through soaring, emotionally searing melodies, glorious epic harmonics, and with an overall conquering aura, Molded By Broken Hands will deliver the recognition the band are worthy of. Molded By Broken Hands was recorded and engineered with all keyboards provided by Colin Marston (Krallice, Gorguts) in the Thousand Caves and was mixed and mastered by legendary Swedish producer Dan Swano (Edge Of Sanity). It also features artwork and design by Travis Smith (Opeth, Katatonia).

Apparition

Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State

Profound Lore

California death metal force Apparition return with their new album Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State. The follow-up to 2021’s lauded Feel sees the band traverse further into the realms of otherworldly doom-riddled progressive dark death metal. Since the conception of the band, Apparition has been about creating an individualized version of death metal, all the while paying homage to its ancestors. Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State offers a dynamic range, from the brutal to the beautiful: a still, expanding glimpse into the band’s canon, a lathe of infinite death remaking itself—horrific and pristine. Disgraced Emanations From A Tranquil State was produced by Apparition bassist Taylor Young (Twitching Tongues, Deadbody) in The Pit Recording Studio and Electrical Audio respectively and mastered by Nick Townsend at Infrasonic Sound.

Theophonos

Ashes In The Huron River

Profound Lore

***AVAILABLE ON EITHER BLACK MARBLE SMOKE VINYL OR BLACK CLOUD VINYL!!! Theophonos (ex-Serpent Column) and Profound Lore Records present Ashes In The Huron River—named in honor of the local woods and riverlands that continue to inspire this studio project. This record is an account of a life spent in the rotten heartlands of neoliberal capitalism and a tribute to the vibrant underground music cultures that thrived before the second half of the last decade. Expanding on the directness of Nightmare Visions—also from this year, Ashes is grander in scope, and is internally regarded as a more focused analog to Serpent Column’s 2019’s Mirror In Darkness. Hafsteinn Vidar Ársælsson’s dark and intricate illustrations once again accompany the music with striking depictions of abandoned landscapes, arranged to invoke a sense of catastrophe and unwilling transformation. Primary musical influences include Death Grips’ Jenny Death (which the record homages in its gradient-like structure, its centerpiece “Still You Haunt Me” even acting as a reimagined “On GP”), the downtuned hyperaggressions of Morbid Angel’s Gateways To Annihilation, and the cinematic, raw intimacies of Pelican’s The Fire In Our Throats Will Beckon The Thaw. Contributions include reamping and additional mixing by longtime collaborator Maya Chun (of screamo prodigies Heavenly Blue and countless solo projects) in the frigid spaces of Detroit’s Telescope Vision Studio.

Cruciamentum

Obsidian Refractions

Profound Lore

Eight years following their debut album Charnel Passages—which was one of the most anticipated death metal debuts of current canon—US-via-UK abyssic death metal contingent Cruciamentum have finally emerged with their sophomore album Obsidian Refractions. Now more commanding than ever with a formidable new lineup, Obsidian Refractions sees Cruciamentum deliver their most advanced, demanding and overpowering work yet. Taking everything in the band’s death metal paradigm to the next sonic measure beyond anything the band have previously released, this latest release combines the very essence and aesthetic of ancient cult death metal while encapsulating the dynamic, complex, next-level affectations relevant in today’s death metal landscape. The darkness and resonating unequivocal, uncompromising evil and magnitude surrounding Obsidian Refractions also builds upon the band’s aura of dark death metal majesty, combined with the progressive, savage and complex-yet-aggressive substance of the album through the unrelenting and ever tectonic-shifting riff assault. Witness a modern death metal monument unparalleled.

Left Cross

Upon Desecrated Altars

Profound Lore

Emerging in 2015 with a uniquely hostile brand of war charged death metal, Virginia’s Left Cross quickly established themselves as a merciless live act seemingly incapable of restraint. Forging and refining their sound over several releases, the band continued their relentless assault while losing none of their murderous intent. Now veterans of countless campaigns, they return to unleash their sophomore effort, Upon Desecrated Altars, under the banner of Profound Lore Records. A cacophonous offering, Upon Desecrated Altars joins grotesque melodies with an inhuman vehemence that forgoes any ambiguity. Little to no respite can be found as each track builds upon the devastation of the last, ultimately rising to a crescendo of conquest. With a salvo of blistering solos, thunderous percussion and infernal commands, Left Cross declares victory and marches onward.

Wayfarer

American Gothic

Profound Lore

***VINYL NOW ON THREE DIFFERENT LIMITED COLORS!!! Note price increase. Wayfarer is the pre-eminent Western American metal band. Comprised of four black clad players from Denver, Colorado, the band’s sound draws from the deep wells of black metal, gothic country, and Americana, creating a thunderous and uniquely American genre of metal all to their own. After ten years of existence, the band presents American Gothic —a defining statement of Western heavy music that explores the dark soul of the nation itself. This time working alongside accomplished producer Arthur Rizk (Kreator, Soulfy) the band brings an aggressive and expansive vision to life in a new full length album. Led by powerful riffing, bleak melodic sensibilities, and pointed songwriting, this record serves as a funeral for the American dream. Caked in dust, and buried deep in blood and gunpowder, it paints a brutal and beautiful portrait, and sees Wayfarer elevate their unique and genuine brand of metal to new heights.

Krieg

Ruiner

Profound Lore

Ruiner is the first full-length from the cult US black metal force Krieg since 2014’s Transient and is a despondent expression that captures the classic complexion that has solidified the band as a vanguard and pioneer of the genre. Even though Ruiner is the first Krieg full-length album in nine years, they have continued to remain active leading up to its long-awaited release through various splits, collaborations and EPs. Those have all culminated in this ultimate manifestion. Ruiner is unrepentant and remorseless black metal in the reflective manner Krieg mastermind N. Jameson has always been known for. It harnesses the notable savagery and unhinged aura present in their triarchy of classic works, Destruction Ritual (2001), The Black House (2004), and Blue Miasma (2006), while maintaining a harsh, sorrowful and cold-blooded melancholic aura.

Fearing

Destroyer

Profound Lore

California post-punk outfit Fearing follow their 2020 debut album Shadow with Destroyer, which sees the core trio continuing to foster their sound by migrating towards sonic realms that capture the somber, the austere, the vigorous, and the vibrant. It is a striking singular vision of abyssal maritime desolation, expressed by carving sonic territory that seamlessly blends French coldwave, European post-punk, and first wave shoegaze. Ever since their debut EP A Life Of None (2017), followed by their widely celebrated Black Sand EP (2018), Fearing have been procuring a constant flow of commendable releases. Through vigorous touring and live endeavors that include the likes of Gatecreeper, She Wants Revenge, Soft Kill, 200 Stab Wounds, Choir Boy, Narrow Head, Death Bells, along with notable festivals as Substance, Home Sick, and Out From The Shadows, they have fastened themselves as one of the apex artists in today’s post-punk current.

Fabricant

Drudge To The Thicket

Profound Lore

Bay Area technical death metal entity Fabricant leverages any musical tool for their riff and song fabrication. Speed, stillness, technicality, simplicity, consonance, dissonance—are all at play for the express purpose of telling the stories of humanity’s hubris, madness, and frailty. Fabricant glimpsed into this black vortex, extracted the raw materials of inspiration, and refined the chaos into the ten fully actualized death metal songs on their debut album Drudge To The Thicket. This album was Fabricant’s obsession: a forbidden riddle to solve. From its beginnings stretching as far back as their 2010 demo and to its ultimate end, this album inhabited the deepest recesses of their minds as an omnipresent consumer of thought. With the arrival of this debut, the band frees themselves of this thicket. The battle was hard-won, but the next ones inexorably begin. From new obsessions to delirium to the mundane, consciousness marches onwards, screaming out at all of existence for answers, only to feebly fall on deaf ears. Descend into the chaos with Fabricant.

Godthrymm

Distortions

Profound Lore

British epic doom metallers Godthrymm (featuring members once involved in such luminaries as My Dying Bride, Anathema, Vallenfyre, and Solstice) return with their new album, Distortions. The follow-up to 2020’s widely-lauded Reflections shows the Halifax-based quartet of Hamish Glencross (guitars / vocals), Catherine Glencross (keyboards / vocals), “Sasquatch” Bob Crolla (bass), and Shaun “Winter” Taylor-Steels (drums) elegantly expanding upon their sound and vision. With tracks like “Follow Me,” featuring former My Dying Bride compatriot Aaron Stainthorpe, “Echoes,” and “Devils,” Distortions advances Godthrymm into the hallowed halls of the genre they adore to death. “I absolutely wanted to create a much more layered and complex arrangement in the sound,” says Godthrymm’s Hamish Glencross. “Totally amping up the contrasts to the extreme—the light shines brighter, and the darker depths are vast trenches. There is a lot more harmony and melancholy for much of it, but also some slab-heavy riffing, too. We wanted a total progression in the production and more class and clarity in the sound, as opposed to Reflections, which could get quite dense in tone.” Distortions is the second part of Glencross’ Visions trilogy—the third part, Projections, is already in the works. Throughout its seven-track, hour-long expanse, Godthrymm’s sophomore effort delves deeper into the despondent march of post-pandemic singles “Chasm” and “In Perpetuum,” the latter released exclusively on Decibel Magazine’s Decibel Flexi Series in 2022. Glencross’ emotionally-charged vocals pair perfectly with his towering riffs and thoughtful, crestfallen harmonies. The rhythmic foundation of Crolla and Taylor-Steels is absolutely critical to Glencross’...

Mizmor

Prosaic

Profound Lore

Mizmor, is a one-man heavy music exploration that began in 2012 as a way of dealing with the mental and spiritual anguish mastermind A.L.N. feels as a person. More specifically, the content behind the project is that of the existential / primal and innate musings about cause, purpose, and self. It is the search for light and truth, or the fact that there is none. It comes from an embittered, burned, confused, and broken heart. It is the fight for survival when reason and foundation has turned to nothingness. It is the crashing down of towers of falsehood and the freedom that comes through a certain kind of grief. Ultimately, Mizmor is the manifestation of a long-felt depression which doesn’t have an end in sight. In A.L.N.’s own words behind the new Mizmor album Prosaic: “The idea behind Prosaic was to make an intentionally less conceptual, more slice-of-life record. I wanted to make an album that was less precious and obsessed-over, more honest and real; less grandiose and more human. I found it an interesting challenge to find the line between ‘you can do better’ and ‘you’re beating a dead horse.’ I tried to make my process more efficient and even fun at times. I simply wanted to share, but if that meant exacting all-out perfectionism, I wasn’t going to make a record. Right now I’m interested in making less self-indulgent music. The themes are the absurdity / futility / purpose / meaning of work, mindfulness / consciousness / living...

Bell Witch

Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate

Profound Lore

Pacific Northwestern doom metal monolith Bell Witch is releasing their new album Future’s Shadow Part 1: The Clandestine Gate. For this new album, bassist / vocalist Dylan Desmond and drummer / vocalist Jesse Shreibman exploded Bell Witch’s bounds. Like 2017’s lauded Mirror Reaper, The Clandestine Gate is a single 83-minute track—a composition that pulses and breathes on a filmic timeframe. It constitutes the first chapter in a planned triptych of longform albums, collectively called Future’s Shadow. While traces of organ and synthesizer hovered over Mirror Reaper and Bell Witch’s 2020 collaboration with Aerial Ruin, Stygian Bough Volume 1, The Clandestine Gate drew those instruments closer to the center of its compositions. The band reunited with their longtime producer Billy Anderson as they began negotiating these new compositional weights. On this latest, the band’s twinned voices build off of the chantlike textures of previous records while steering toward more developed melodic lines, structured harmonies, and rhythmic death metal growls. The immense gravity of a work like The Clandestine Gate, which features exclusive stunning cover art by Jordi Diaz Alama, allows ideas to simmer in a way that feels profoundly and somatically intuitive—not just a philosophical exercise, but an embodied truth. By slowing down both their creative process and the tempo of the music itself, Bell Witch digs even deeper into their long standing focus: the way life spills on inside its minuscule container, both eternal and fleeting, a chord that echoes without resolution.

Impetuous Ritual

Iniquitous Barbarik Synthesis

Profound Lore

Australian death metal monstrosity Impetuous Ritual are unleashing their new album Iniquitous Barbarik Synthesis. It is the follow-up to 2017’s Blight Upon Martyred Sentience and presents itself as the most unnatural, abnormal, and nightmarish Impetuous Ritual offering yet.

Zozobra

Bird Of Prey

Profound Lore

Taking its name from the 50-foot effigy burned every year by a hysterical mob during the Fiestas De Santa Fe in Santa Fe, NM, Zozobra is the brainchild of Caleb Scofield (Cave In / Old Man Gloom) and, to carry on his musical legacy, the two Zozobra albums Harmonic Tremors (2007) and Bird Of Prey (2008) can now be streamed everywhere on all streaming platforms once again. Also both albums will see their respective vinyl releases, the first time they will be officially issued on vinyl for widespread distribution (previous editions were tour-only editions and the Caleb memorial version). Following on the seismic heels of Harmonic Tremors, Bird Of Prey was originally released in 2008 via Hydra Head Records respectively and features drummer Aaron Harris (Isis), who also recorded and mixed the album. Scofield’s second full-length under the Zozobra moniker is a white-hot exploder shot through with snaking melody lines and implacable riffs. From front to back, Scofield’s signature roar is tempered by his own gleaming backup chants; meanwhile, an arsenal of guitars alternately churns and shimmers in the flames of Zozobra’s effigial namesake.

Zozobra

Harmonic Tremors

Profound Lore

Taking its name from the 50-foot effigy burned every year by a hysterical mob during the Fiestas De Santa Fe in Santa Fe, NM, Zozobra is the brainchild of Caleb Scofield (Cave In / Old Man Gloom) and, to carry on his musical legacy, the two Zozobra albums Harmonic Tremors (2007) and Bird Of Prey (2008) can now be streamed everywhere on all streaming platforms once again. Also both albums will see their respective vinyl releases, the first time they will be officially issued on vinyl for widespread distribution (previous editions were tour-only editions and the Caleb memorial version). Harmonic Tremors was originally released in 2007 via Hydra Head Records and features drummer Santos Montano (Old Man Gloom) accompanying Scofield. It was recorded and mixed by Andrew Schneider at Translator Audio in Brooklyn, NY with art and design by Aaron Turner. Harmonic Tremors deftly traverses the far-flung fields of transcendental space rock and explosive dirge metal with alternately snarling and oscillating riffery, crippling bass quakes, and apocalyptic proclamations hurled end over end toward the cosmic unconsciousness.

Altar Of Plagues

Trilogy (Vinyl Boxset)

Profound Lore

The Altar Of Plagues Trilogy vinyl boxset, Profound Lore’s 300th release, sees the three landmark Altar Of Plagues full-length albums, White Tomb, Mammal, and Teethed Glory And Injury, re-issued with new artwork and design, presented in a collectors boxset. The limited edition vinyl boxset contains five records total, each in their own sleeve, all re-mastered for vinyl from the original mixes, with White Tomb being a single LP and Mammal and Teethed Glory And Injury each a double LP respectively. This also marks the first time Profound Lore has actually pressed Mammal on vinyl format. “It’s harsh; it’s menacing; it’s bleak; it is one miserable, death-obsessed, vicious piece of work...” – Pop Matters, on Mammal “It suggests the heyday of Touch and Go, Nine Inch Nails in their prime, or Swans at their vitrolic apex.” – Pitchfork, on Teethed Glory And Injury

Infinity Ring, The

Nemesis & Nativity

Profound Lore

In the summer of 2020, the seeds for what would become The Infinity Ring were planted by Cameron Moretti, drawing together many musicians long active in the Boston metal, punk, and electronic scenes. The initial endeavors of the band started as an experimental take on dark folk music with added elements of drone and noise. The band eventually grew to be an alchemical fusion of experimental rock with many disparate strains from the post-industrial continuum, all delivered with a spiritual and mystic bent. The band’s output sits at the crossroads of many different styles, such as ominous folk, no wave, industrial, and black metal, with elements of occult and ethereal antiquarian sonics laced throughout. The band spent most of 2020 and 2021 experimenting in various studios around New England, deeply immersed in open-ended musical R&D. These sessions would eventually lead to the collaborative Ohr EP with Jarboe. In early 2022, the band set out in earnest to record its debut album, Nemesis & Nativity, at God City Studios in Salem, Massachusetts with Kurt Ballou. The album built on much of what came before, but with a more pronounced sense of ritual, atmosphere, and heaviness. During the creation of the album, genre conventions fell by the wayside and extreme experimentation was channeled, resulting in a sonic palette that morphs from elegantly haunted atmospherics to mystic ritual drone, brutalist industrial rhythms to passages of hallowed melancholy. In the live setting, the band is dedicated to bringing the same experimental and spiritual energy,...

Spirit Possession

Of The Sign…

Profound Lore

***BACK IN STOCK ON LIMITED BLUE OR PURPLE VINYL!!! Almost three years spent sharpening orthodox weapons, Spirit Possession reveal their second full length Of The Sign…, six schizo spiraling, deranged hymns of black heavy metal from a lost time. While the s/t full length was a raw blistering torrent draped in first wave blood, Of The Sign… seems to be thoroughly drenched in its epic, strange and primitive ways. A violent cacophony of insanity laden cavern vocals, labyrinthian guitar trilling, scalding drum brutality, and analog harsh-noise eruptions—these are sinister yet adventurous black / heavy / death abominations from a forgotten age. Erratic musical madness with improbable entrances, and impossible exits. Featuring S. Peacock (Ulthar / Pandiscordian Necrogenesis / Mastery ) on strings and vocals, and A. Spungin (Vouna / Ormus / Taurus ) on drums and handmade synthesizers. Recorded in the depths of the S•P Dungeon / and studio mixed at Menegroth The Thousand Caves.

Kruelty

Untopia

Profound Lore

Formed in Tokyo, Japan in the summer of 2017, Kruelty has emerged as the most notable artist to find that sweet spot where the amalgamation of heavy beatdown hardcore and ’90s American / Scandinavian death / doom metal meet—a blueprint of brutality the band slams and unleashes. Untopia is the ultimate convergence of punishing death metal riffs and mind-blowing breakdowns influenced by Japanese and ’90s East Coast hardcore bands. 2020 saw the release of Kruelty’s debut album A Dying Truth and revealed itself as one of the heaviest albums that year. With their new album, they release an album even bigger in scope and ultimately heavier than their debut. Expect Kruelty to crush stages live in cities throughout 2023 with tours planned in North America, Europe, Australia, Asia etc.

Tithe

Inverse Rapture

Profound Lore

Tithe is a Portland, Oregon-based band that constructs an unorthodox amalgamation of death metal, black metal, and grind without straying too far from the fundamentals of aggressiveness and depravity. Conceived in 2017 by vocalist / guitarist Matt Eiseman and drummer Kevin Swartz, the band spent its first years writing and releasing a self-titled EP before finding bassist Alex Huddleston at the end of 2018. This lineup went on to release their debut album Penance in May 2020, which despite the challenge of releasing in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, was well-received. The album explores the themes of psychedelics, mental illness and the human condition. Tithe’s sophomore album Inverse Rapture evolves upon the themes of Penance and morphs into a more angry, raw and dissonant form. The trio’s most incendiary material to date, this latest maintains the blazing tempos the band is known for with dreary, lowering passages strewn throughout. Produced / mixed by Fester, mastered by Adam Gonsalves and featuring the macabre art of Abomination Hammer, Inverse Rapture is a complete exhibition of viciousness and despair beginning to end.

Object Of Affection

Field Of Appearances

Profound Lore

Field Of Appearances is the full-length debut from Los Angeles-based band Object Of Affection, which contains members of renowned acts Fury, Death Bells, and Lock. Meticulously crafted with Grammy-nominated producer Alex Newport and emerging engineer Phillip Odom, Field Of Appearances is an exceedingly memorable, precisely cohesive, and importantly, a refreshing addition to the alternative music landscape. With the inclusion of drum machines, synthesizers, acoustic guitars, and auxiliary percussion, Field Of Appearances highlights the band’s sophisticated evolution and experimentation from previous single “Through And Through” (Suicide Squeeze) and their self-titled tape. The result: ten songs exploding in character, contrast, and excitement. Exploring themes of reflection, insufficiency, and déjà vu as well as additional contributions from Bre Morell (Temple Of Angels, Crushed) and Brittney Beppu, each track on here simultaneously plays a role in making it a more significant sum than its parts while also standing out individually. This debut taps into the primitivism of said members’ other projects while elevating their capacity for atmosphere and melody. Hints of gloomy post-punk, forlorn new wave, and down-and-out Reagan-era alternative rock reverberate in their sound, not as pastiche but in sonic kinship to the austerity and fatalism embedded in the previous generation’s desperate and dejected anthems. Already sharing the stage with accomplished bands including Ceremony, Fiddlehead, Gulch, These Arms Are Snakes, and Special Interest, the band is a welcome addition to the Profound Lore family.

Fearing

Desolate

Profound Lore

Finally available on vinyl format, the California post-punk wonder Fearing’s Desolate EP! Originally self-released by the band digitally last spring, it was only previously available physically as a limited tour-only cassette on their tour with Gatecreeper / Narrowhead / 200 Stab Wounds. Desolate follows the band’s acclaimed Shadow LP from 2020 and since then, they have become the most recognized and promising new prospect within the modern-day post-punk movement. The vinyl edition of Desolate also marks Fearing’s debut release on their new label Profound Lore Records, which will be releasing their new full-length album in the fall of 2023.

Crawl

Damned

Profound Lore

Crawl is the one-man blackened ambient doom entity helmed by mastermind Michael Engle and consists solely of Engle performing drums, bass, vocals, synth and samples simultaneously. This unique performance process is one that is undertaken during recording and in live settings. With Damned, Engle (current Boris live drummer) has created the most enormous and despondent Crawl release yet. Through waves of immense negative energy and hopelessness being emitted through this sonic monolith—not for the faint at heart, Damned is a singular audial expression of pure torment and agony.

Lykotonon

Promethean Pathology

Profound Lore

Lykotonon’s Promethean Pathology is a digitized descent into the darker side of the human psyche. It is the probing question that hangs over all of humanity in the quietest of moments. Avant-garde, industrial / electronic black metal featuring members of Wayfarer, Stormkeep, and Blood Incantation.

Blacklist

Afterworld

Profound Lore

Blacklist is an atmospheric modern rock band whose music has been described as “anthemic” (The Guardian), “darkly erotic, strangely sensual” (The Village Voice) and “a much-needed anomaly in NYC’s music scene” (Other Music NYC). Starting out as the flagship band of artist Pieter Schoolwerth’s Wierd Records imprint, their trademark sound is dense and dark, incorporating elements of shoegaze and heavy metal with coldwave. The members often cite influences like My Bloody Valentine and Motörhead alongside bands like Comsat Angels, Killing Joke, and The Sound, while singer Joshua Strachan’s (Vaura) lyrics split the difference between the anthemic manifestos of Manic Street Preachers and Sisters of Mercy’s Vision Thing. Blacklist’s debut album, Midnight Of The Century—produced by Ed Buller (Suede, Pulp)—was released in 2009. The album’s main focus was a rejection of what Strachan described as a fear of looming new forms of fascism aided by the rise of various political and religious dogmas. After a long hiatus, the band returned in summer of 2020 with the “Disorder” single, inspired by the racial justice protests in the United States, and the b-Side “No Secret Islands,” which takes aim at the dystopian fantasies of tech billionaires. In April of 2022 “The Final Resistance” was announced as the lead single from their upcoming album Afterworld, due to be released in late autumn via Profound Lore Records. Post-punk.com called it a “captivating and dense explosion of coldwave and unfettered emotion,” and Brooklyn Vegan said it “picks up where the band left off with widescreen scope...

Black Math Horseman

s/t

Profound Lore

The return of atmospheric American doom rock band Black Math Horseman will see the reformed group release their self-titled new 12-inch on Profound Lore Records. This will be the group’s first release since 2009’s Wyllt (Tee Pee Records). Helmed by vocalist / guitarist Sera Beth Timms (Black Mare, Ides Of Gemini), the return of Black Math Horseman sees its original lineup rounded up by Ian Barry, Bryan Tulao, and Sash Popovic deliver their most engaging material yet with this self-titled 12-inch. Comprised of four chapters that seam into one, Black Math Horseman sees Timms and company heightening the tension and atmosphere of their sound, creating something more experimental and ultimately heavier with their comeback release. This EP is just the beginning of what to expect with Black Math Horseman’s resurgence, as their follow-up full-length album is currently in the works and will see its imminent release in the impending future.

Gevurah

Gehinnom

Profound Lore

Four years after their latest offering, the Sulphur Soul EP, Montreal, Quebec’s Gevurah strikes back with its most intense and scalding release yet entitled Gehinnom. Somber and vicious black metal, yet authentic and efficient in its delivery, Gehinnom is a journey through the physical and metaphysical desert, the realm of death and transformation. From the pits of Gehinnom, Gevurah tread deeper into the abyss towards the final resurrection, with eyes opened and spirit liberated. Each track represents a step in this process of negating the flesh, linking microcosm with macrocosm and deepening the fall of Man.

Innumerable Forms

Philosophical Collapse

Profound Lore

The new album from cult death / doom metal outfit Innumerable Forms Philosophical Collapse, the follow up to 2018’s Punishment In Flesh, is a pillar of death / doom enormity unparalleled. Helmed by founder Justin DeTore (aka DFJ), Philosophical Collapse (which was produced by Arthur Rizk) emerges as Innumerable Forms’ most triumphant work as alongside DFJ (Dream Unending, Sumerlands), guitarists Chris Ulsh (Mammoth Grinder / Power Trip / Devil Master) and Jensen Ward (Iron Lung), drummer Connor Donnegan (Genocide Pact), and bassist Doug Cho deliver an opus that coalesces the old school Finnish death metal cult of the early ’90s and the early ’90s UK doom glory of Anathema / Paradise Lost.

Locrian

New Catastrophism

Profound Lore

The new Locrian album New Catastrophism is the first release from the band in seven years! They are also releasing Ghost Frontiers, an EP that comes as a bonus disc with the CD edition and a bonus digital download with the vinyl. New Catastrophism sees the iconic experimental music trio return back to their roots through four immersive tracks that signal towards the band’s signature expressions of dark ambient, experimental music, drone and post rock. Massive dystopian sonic soundscapes presented through many layers of sound is the dominant audial canvas here. Locrian is a prophetic voice of decline. From the band’s inception, they have comfortably straddled both the experimental and metal underground, weaving themes of apocalypse, urban decay, environmental destruction and birth / death / rebirth throughout their multifaceted and genre-defying releases. The trio formed in 2005 in Chicago and features Terence Hannum (synthesizers, vocals, tape loops), André Foisy (guitars, electronics), and Steven Hess (drums, electronics).

Dreadnought

The Endless

Profound Lore

For their fifth full length The Endless, Denver, Coloroado genre-defying progressive metal outfit Dreadnought present their most spellbinding musical feature yet. With riveting vocal performances, ferocious grooves, and soaring synthesis, the quartet offers a familiarity to the melodic awe of previous records Lifewoven (2013) and Bridging Realms (2015) as well as the dark complexities within A Wake In Sacred Waves (2017) and Emergence (2019), but with a beautifully fresh perspective in writing, production, and performance. At its inception in 2012, Dreadnought’s four members, including guitarist / vocalist Kelly Schilling, drummer Jordan Clancy, bassist Kevin Handlon, and keyboardist / vocalist Lauren Vieira, strove for a project laser-focused on creativity and exploration, pulling from all aspects of their musical backgrounds to craft something exciting and unique. Joining in the common ground of extreme metal, the quartet explores a blend of prog, doom, folk, jazz, classical, black metal, and post rock.

Reeking Aura

Blood And Bonemeal

Profound Lore

Reeking Aura is a NY / NJ-based death / doom metal band in the old school tradition comprised of known scene veterans from Long Island and NYC. Originally conceived as a project for guitarists Ryan Lipynsky (Unearthly Trance, The Howling Wind) and Rick Habeeb (Grey Skies Fallen, Buckshot Facelift) to share lead duties, additional guitarist Terrell Grannum (Thaetas, Buckshot Facelift), was brought into the fold along with fellow Buckshot Facelift alumni Tom Anderer (Grey Skies Fallen) on bass and William “Big Will” Smith (Afterbirth, Ex-Artificial Brain) on vocals in late 2019. Since releasing their debut three song EP Beneath The Canopy Of Compost on Parasitic Records in 2020, the band has parted ways amicably with drummer and friend Keith Harris (Afterbirth) and welcomed Sam Shereck (Blame God, Stabbed) behind the kit. Though unable to perform live during the pandemic, the group used 2020 and 2021 to write and record their debut full length album Blood And Bonemeal. They again chose to work with well-respected producer Colin Marston at his Menegroth The Thousand Caves studio in Queens, NY. Marston handled all stages of production from tracking to mixing and mastering with drums being recorded at Rock & Roll Gas Station studios on Long Island, NY. Blood And Bonemeal is a concept album centered around the caretaker of a desolate agricultural property and that person’s struggles with morbid psychosis. Musically, the band sought to further explore the possibilities of a three-pronged lead guitar team, while the revamped rhythm section held down the...

Hissing

Hypervirulence Architecture

Profound Lore

Hissing is an extreme metal group based out of Seattle, WA. Founded in 2014 out of a mutual interest in mutilating sounds and exploring the outer limits of black and death metal, the group aims to desecrate expectations with each subsequent release. Their new album Hypervirulence Architecture, which is their first album in four years following their debut Permanent Destitution, sees the trio take their sound into more nightmarish, trance inducing, mercurial and mind altering sonic dominions.

Executioner's Mask

Winterlong

Profound Lore

Winterlong, the psychedelic new album from Executioner’s Mask is set for release on Profound Lore Records. An epic bouquet of swelling synths, hypnotic melodies, and noisy guitars marry post-punk and shoegaze in ten songs exploring themes of liberation and self-destruction in these end-times. In the studio, the core group of Gambit, Mickle and Wilson added Christian Molenaar into the fold on synths, adding an ethereal edge to the band’s hard-driving melancholy. Additional touches were added by Kennedy Ashlyn (SRSQ) and Jake Superchi (Uada, Ceremonial Castings), their distinct sonic fingerprints sending the compositions further into territories unexplored. Featuring production from Jeff Zeigler (The War On Drugs) and Ryan Schwabe (Oneohtrix Point Never), Winterlong is the type of sublime and immersive album that inspires the same visions often conjured by masters like The National, Alcest and Deerhunter. On stage, Gambit, Mickle, and Molenaar are joined by Anthony Charletta on bass, Melissa Lochambon on drums, and Daniel Gaona on guitar to create an explosive force of sound that come together with the potency of Children Of God-era Swans. Expanding on the kaleidoscope of ambition, expect to see re-mixes of the album released in a series of their own by an ensemble cast that features members of Deafheaven, Full Of Hell, No Joy, Xiu Xiu, and The Armed amongst an army of others. The first of these Winterlong re-mix albums will be released as a bonus disc that will come with the CD release, mastered by Angel Marcloid (aka Fire-Toolz).

Artificial Brain

S/t

Profound Lore

Drawing frequent comparisons to mind-altering progressive death metal acts, Artificial Brain have distinguished themselves from their peers through an emphasis on rich, melancholic melodic figures, contextualizing the harmonic and emotive qualities of black metal within a more aggressive death metal framework. Dissonance is threaded through elegiac, otherworldly chordal structures; saturnine tremolo melodies float along in the high registers of the instruments; guitars and bass traverse distinct paths before locking into harmonic orbit. These elements, anchored by blast beats and bellowing guttural vocals, create a sense of contrast that has come to characterize the band’s sound over the past decade.  Artificial Brain, the group’s final recording with original vocalist Will Smith (Afterbirth), is the terminal instalment in a trilogy that includes 2014’s Labyrinth Constellation and 2017’s Infrared Horizon. Smith’s lyrics on this eponymous album take a retrospective look at the sci-fi mythology developed on the previous records, using these ideas to explore themes of isolation, madness, and the inexorability of nature. Rounding out the recording is an impressive roster of guest performers, including death metal legends Mike Browning (Nocturnus A.D.) and Luc Lemay (Gorguts) as well as long time collaborators Paulo Paguntalan (Miasmatic Necrosis) and Colin Marston (Krallice).

Bog Body

Cryonic Crevasse Cult

Profound Lore

Bog Body’s looming form has thawed from the dregs of sordid earth to reveal their debut full length album Cryonic Crevasse Cult on Profound Lore Records.  Following in the footsteps of their 2018 demo Through The Burial Bog and 2020’s mini-album The Gate Of Grief, Bog Body traverses beyond the seracs and into the crevasses of black death, transcending the cultic guts of black metal’s early forefathers with a subsonic war doom incursion for their debut album that’s as much a dirge as it is pandemonic fervor. Recorded at Strange Weather Studios in New York by Ben Greenberg (Uniform, Algiers), mixed by Evan Mersky (Triumvir Foul, Witch Vomit), mastered by Dan Lowndes (Cruciamentum), and featuring artwork by Chase Slaker (Mortiferum).

Luminous Vault

Animate The Emptiness

Profound Lore

NY-based industrial / electronic black metal duo Luminous Vault, consisting of Mario Diaz De Leon (vocals / guitars / synthesizers / programming) and Samuel Smith (bass / vocals), have completed work on their debut full-length album Animate The Emptiness, which follows the unit’s two previous EPs, Communion (2015) and Charismata (2017) respectively. With this latest release, the duo sees the musical culmination of the two members’ creative repertoire in a new expression. With De Leon’s experience and work within the realm of classical music and his Oneirogen project, along with Smith’s work in Artificial Brain and Aeviterne, Animate The Emptiness presents itself as a vessel for the two musicians to explore new territory further within the realm of dark music by way of black metal and industrial, while treading adjacently within the familiarity of the other projects they dwell within. Through a surgically cold sonic canvas consisting of piercing blood-freezing riffs, hypnotic pulsating beats, and atmospherically charged electronics, Animate The Emptiness is an expression that tethers that of the harsh, desolate, rhythmically lurking, the melancholic, and ultimately that of the epic, celestial and soaring.

Haunter

Discarnate Ails

Profound Lore

Discarnate Ails, the new album from Texas-based progressive death / black metal band Haunter is the follow-up to 2019’s acclaimed Sacramental Death Qualia (named as Stereogum’s 2019 Metal Album of the Year) and will unveil them as one of the most enlightening and dynamic bands and one of the pioneering prospects within the current movement. With this latest, Haunter have tapped into the next level, unparalleled, with their most complex, advanced, and most furious and heaviest release to date. The three epic chapters that comprise Discarnate Ails weave through intricate, dissonant and vitriolic passages that find a notable balance between challenging melodious movements and parts while maintaining the band’s sense of creating epochal songs of triumph and mastery.