Welcome to Metal Masala !

Directly inspired by the aesthetics and approach of the print fanzines of the pre-internet era, the Cult Never Dies: The Mega Zine series expands the focus from Cult Never Dies’ previous black metal books to more fully document the metal underground. The fourth full-length work by Dayal Patterson (Black Metal: Evolution Of The Cult, Cult Never Dies Vol. One and Into The Abyss), featuring guest writing from the talented Frank Allain, this tome comprises of huge, candid and definitive interviews with: MYSTICUM, BAL-SAGOTH, IN THE WOODS…, REVEREND BIZARRE, INDESINENCE, NAHTRUNAR, SLEGEST, SCYTHIAN, LYCHGATE, MORK, ANCIENT, JON KRISTIANSEN and the story of HEAD NOT FOUND records, black metal photographer ESTER SEGARRA and illustrator GARETH ELLIOTT.

All orders will include a full-length Odium Records 20th anniversary CD compilation, featuring tracks from respected bands such as Mephorash, Varathron, Black Altar and Beastcraft, and including several previously unheard tracks.

New EP by Argentinian black thrash powerhouse, Vomit of Doom! Jointly released by Symbol of Domination Productions (Belarus), Morbid Skull Records (El Salvador) and Metal Masala (India)!

Official Tape-Release of the “The Oath of an Iron Ritual” Album of mighty DESASTER!
The Tyrants have returned! Stronger and majestic as never before, Desaster are striking once again with ten powerful hymns of blackened steel to hail the ancient spirit of true Metal Might!… what makes “The Oath of an Iron Ritual” to an absolute confluence of their strength and wisdom!
– Limited on 300 hand-numbered copies
– All pro-done Cassettes
– 6-page cover with lyrics and golden-ink

The Burning was the pre-Lustre project. Some of you may wrongfully consider the same as a rough version of the Swedish acclaimed project but are really missing the target. The Burning is like watching the majesty of the nightsky, a large and even more dreaming version of the darker and more depressive declination that Lustre took later on.
The 2cd edition is a comprehensive collection of all material released by the The Burning, nothing missed. Atmospheric Black Metal at the state of art, where a deeply emotional keyboard layer is like shred by the abrasive primeval guitar sound.
The edition is a limited to 600 copies Gatefold Digipak version.

Brutal Death Grind from Germany

”Den Förstfödde” is Arckanum’s 9th studio album after 25 years of existence.
The album ”Den Förstfödde” is a dedication to Loki’s and Gullveig’s firstborn, Jörmungandr.
The songs are invocations, prayers and magical formulas, and they are designed to enkindle the black flames of Thursian Powers, its followers and Ragnarök. “Blow your venom and stretch your wings oh Mighty Dragon!”

Swedish self proclaimed “primitive and progressive” death metallers Usurpress return with a new, bold album. This time, core members Stefan Pettersson (vocals, lyrics), Påhl Sundström (guitars, music) and Daniel Ekeroth (bass, music) are joined by jazz-fusion drummer Stefan Hildman and ambient/trance keyboardist Erik Sundström, and the outcome astounded even the band itself. “Interregnum” can be been described as “an unholy mix between Camel and Bolt Thrower, that somehow works flawlessly”, so be prepared for something quite out of the ordinary. And out of this world.

Recorded and mixed in famed Dugout Productions Studio (Soilwork, Behemoth, In Flames, Dark Funeral). Death Metal writer Daniel Ekeroth on bass (author of the book “Swedish Death Metal”).

We Owe You Nothing” marks the highest point in the band’s constant evolution and once more makes it hard to narrow down its sound to some pre-existing labels. Effortlessly blending the eerie, dissonant black metal sound the band is well-known for with muscular sludge/doom riffs and a subtle, nihilistic punk attitude, “We Owe You Nothing” defines the band’s personality more than ever, reaffirming its unique sound.

The new album includes 6 songs for approx. 40 minutes of music. Recording-sessions started in December 2016, with drums being tracked at Big Pine Creek studio in Italy, but were abruptly interrupted when singer/guitarist Ferdinando “HM” M. was involved in a life-threatening car accident that left him unable to play for months. The recording was resumed and completed in May 2017 at SPVN Studio in Italy, while mix and mastering were done in June 2017 at Planet-Z studio (Hadley, Massachussets, USA) by Chris “Zeuss” Harris (Rob Zombie, Six Feet Under, Crowbar, Hatebreed).

Through a loss of a friend and a near-death experience, the band found strength to let the feelings deepen into music and record a reflective album, “Near Death Revelations”. The group’s creative yet methodical approach gave birth to a dark, enigmatic unity, that continues to mature and explore the genre more and more, with “Conscious Darkness” being their latest offering.

The recordings of “Conscious Darkness” were completed this June, with final mixes and mastering done at Satanic Audio Studio, and cover artwork drawn by Karmazid. Layout was prepared by Kontamination Design.

Mixed by Dan Swanö

On the 22nd September 2017, Devin Townsend Project played a special show at the Ancient Roman Theater in Plovdiv, Bulgaria, celebrating the 20th anniversary of the landmark Ocean Machine album in full, as well as a set of fan-requested tracks alongside the Orchestra and Choir of Plovdiv State Opera. This concert was filmed and released as ‘Ocean Machine – Live at the Ancient Theater’.

Devin comments: “Plovdiv and this live package represents a lot to me, it signifies the end of one era, and the celebration of another. Amidst a gruelling touring year, this show came together with much blood, sweat, and tears, and the result is the culmination of many aspects of my work on one stage.

Ocean machine was released 20 years ago, and though Marty (drums) is no longer with us, I was able to finally perform the album in its entirety with the original bassist John ‘Squid’ Harder on this night. On a cold evening in an old city in the ancient theatre, many lifelong milestones came to a conclusion on this night and I’m exceptionally proud of it.

The team of individuals who contributed to this project, from the musicians in the band and orchestra, to the crews locally and with this, management, artists, filmographers and most importantly, the audience… made this night a powerful and strangely bittersweet moment I am proud to have documented with this work.

This is a very special live recording of a very special night, and I hope you enjoy it as a monument to the things that inspired it all in the first place.

Love and light,

Devin Townsend”

AT THE GATES are innovators. From debut album, The Red In The Sky Is Ours, through comeback stunner, At War With Reality, the Gothenburg-based death metal act have always traversed the left-hand path on their own terms. The Swedes are keenly aware of who they are, where they come from, and how they got to where they are today. In the ‘90s, AT THE GATES spearheaded The New Wave of Swedish Death Metal. In the aughts, then-swansong album, Slaughter Of The Soul, served as a feature-rich treasure chest for a host of upstarts to plunder. When AT THE GATES returned in 2008—a full 12 years after they disbanded—their return was celebrated and the follow-up to Slaughter Of The Soul—now placing handsomely on Top Metal Album Lists—hotly anticipated. Now, four years after At War with Reality, the Swedes are ready to show their indomitable spirit, ceaseless ingenuity, and raw power on new album, To Drink From The Night Itself.

Hailing from Italy, TALV started in early 2012 under the name of Trees In The Fog. Their purpose has always been to merge dissonant and melancholic black metal with a touch of ambient music.
Like painting a dismal scenario, TALV’s new effort is drowned into the darkest north-Italian naturalistic black metal inspiration. The cold and freezing guitar sound reminds of Tenebrae in Perpetuum and Beatrik’s classics, while the prevailing desperate feelings position the band within the groove of depressive black metal.
What makes of Talv a personal and unique project is the wise equilibrium between a hateful, cold hunger and a fragile background soundscape. The ColdWorld cover further emphasizes the strong visionary ambient perspective and inspiration of this raising underground project.

Hailing from USA, ELEGIAC inhabit the realms of the most traditional and genuine Black Metal. They ride with a vengeance those same old battlefields illuminated by the glorious black metal blazes of the past, evoking memories of the Walpurgisnacht and – more prosaically – of Finnish/Scandinavian or USBM early underground metal marvels like Satanic Warmaster, early Gorgoroth, Horna, Sargeist & Judas Iscariot.

Raw and abrasive sounding, yet characterized by magnificent melodic guitar lines crashing against walls of primeval hate, “Black Clouds of War” is permeated by a dark mysticism deeply rooted in the collective consciousness of the werewolf’s myth, with all its deriving metaphysical metaphors and spiritual implications. An overwhelming enthusiasm will conquer the most nostalgic black metal hearts in the scene.

“Backwater” is an enveloping and suffocating funeral death doom opus, the distressing awareness of the nothingness, transcending in the oblivion, and feeding on the black void. The relationship between state of mind and nature, the desolation and vast sense of distance are the main themes. An introspective, mournful journey, deeply rooted into the unknown. Like a flood of impenetrable black magma.

Taken deep from a tomb of a german graveyard… Doom bringing Death Metal with member of GOATBLOOD. Limited to 200 red cassettes with black print (includes a download code)

BLASPHEMOUS PUTREFACTION walk the paths of long forgotten, Doom rotten Death Metal in the vein of the ancient… The GOATBLOOD-member Satanic Death Vulva (vocals, guitars) teams up with Tar Morion (drums): This first demo, “Abominable Premonition”, is bloodcurdling. It is an unbelievably rotten studio recording, which has also been mixed by Deathroned Production (Germany) and put into tape format, on red cassettes with black print, limited to 200 copies. The artwork, done by Grasenstyle Blood Artwork is a glimpse of what is waiting inside….!

Fruit of the Loom, Value Weight

”Den Förstfödde” is Arckanum’s 9th studio album after 25 years of existence.
The album ”Den Förstfödde” is a dedication to Loki’s and Gullveig’s firstborn, Jörmungandr.
The songs are invocations, prayers and magical formulas, and they are designed to enkindle the black flames of Thursian Powers, its followers and Ragnarök. “Blow your venom and stretch your wings oh Mighty Dragon!”

The sole definition of Depressive Black Metal doesn’t fit anymore to Falaise.

With their second effort the italian duo is ready to further cross the boundries of this genre to involve the expanding vision of post-rock and indie tunes.

This defragmented vanishing flux of emotions is well shifted on the cover, the mind and the feelings are like swallowed into the infinity of cosmos.

A tribute to Amesoeurs is performed with the cover song “Les Ruches Malades” providing a possible chance of comparision. If “As Time Goes Bye” was already an impressive and coherent collection of emotionally heart wrenching songs maturity has been achieved with “My Endless Immensity”, where the different chapters seems like part of a bigger scenario.

Swedish extreme metal icons ARCH ENEMY present their most versatile album to date with 2017’s “Will To Power”! Marking the second opus with Alissa White-Gluz on vocals, it bears all elements of ARCH ENEMY’s trademark melodic yet crushingly heavy sound, but also offers some stunning sonic surprises. After the astonishing success of 2014’s “War Eternal” and 2016’s massive live release “As The Stages Burn!”, Gluz, Amott, Loomis, D’Angelo, and Erlandsson now deliver an album which is more than ready to top that! “Will To Power” was mixed and mastered by Jens Bogren (Opeth, Kreator) and its powerful cover artwork was created by exceptionally talented painter Alex Reisfar. From start to finish, “Will To Power” is another milestone in ARCH ENEMY's career and its brilliance is based on one simple formula as Michael Amott explains: “What I've always believed to be important is to stay true to yourself and the reasons why you started. Why you love music must always be at the forefront. I'm pretty good at keeping the 15-year-old Michael Amott alive in my heart!”

24-bit remastering from original source tapes, five bonus tracks, 3,500 word essay about the making of the album, band involvement and additional photos spread out over a 16 page full colour booklet.