Svart HHV Records 318 Items

Picture disc, die-cut sleeve, booklet

Originally released in March 2019, the Green Lung’s debut long player has sold out several pressings quickly.

This pressing is remastered by the spectacular John Davis (Lana Del Rey, Led Zeppelin, Royal Blood…) at Metropolis Studios in the UK. The picture disc comes with an 8 page booklet and a die-cut sleeve.

Reissue of the 2011 album Tao of the Dead by American alternative rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead. First time available on vinyl since its release year. Features a replica of the original comic book insert.



Tao of the Dead is their seventh album. The band stripped down to its core four-piece lineup for the record, deviating from the past two records that featured a filled-out six-piece band. This resulted in a stripped-down record with heavy emphasis on guitar. It’s a two-part record, each side with a specific musical tuning; Part One in D and Part Two in F.



The album can be listened to as 16 different movements or two lengthy tracks. Part One: Tao Of The Dead is split into eleven tracks, whereas Part Two: Strange News From Another Planet is five songs combined into one. Lead singer Conrad Keely described the album's composition; "It's the way I listened to albums when I was a kid, seeing as some of my favorite records were Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Yes' Relayer and Close to the Edge... I always liked listening to records that were just a continuous piece, like an orchestra or a symphony."

Svart Records, by kind permission from Nuclear Blast, present a 10th anniversary repress of the band's fourth album Legend, pressed on 180 gram vinyl and with the original gatefold artwork.

2012's Legend was a departure for Witchcraft in many ways. Not only did they change half of their lineup and leave the previous label, also gone was the fuzzy warm analog sound of their previous three albums. Witchcraft have never made the same album twice, and Legend is certainly no exception. The album boasts a muscular modern production by Jens Bogren that really make the band's trademark doom riffs shine, and the songwriting is confident over the album's ten tracks of perfect retromodern revivalist doom.

Oriental Beat by Hanoi Rocks gets the redux treatment, officially mixed and revived from the original sessions, and released on March 17th on deluxe vinyl, CD and digital formats. The CD and vinyl come with the song lyrics, checked and approved by Michael Monroe.

Dubbed the “re(al) mix”, this 40th anniversary edition was mixed by Petri Majuri at E-Studios in Finland in collaboration with the band. Vocalist Michael Monroe calls this release “the longest and slowest album project ever,” stating that “40 years in the making, it's not just a remix, but the Real MIX supervised and approved by Hanoi Rocks”.

Recorded in London, UK in 1981, for 200 pounds a day, Oriental Beat was made during the height of the British punk + New Wave movement, when the band was hanging out with everyone from Phil Lynott to the Damned. Hanoi Rocks’ original drummer Gyp Casino says of Oriental Beat that: “Back in the days we gave heart, soul and a bit of pain to make this record something else” but the sound of the album, originally released in 1982, did not match their efforts at the time. Bassist Sami Yaffa called it “the worst sounding album of our career” and Michael Monroe said that “the producer of the album didn’t have a clue what the band was about and his mix of the album was horribly wrong”.

Oriental Beat’s original engineer Peter Wooliscroft, was not a rock producer, and according to Hanoi Rocks’ manager Richard Bishop he “tried to mix the album to sound like Spandau Ballet”. Released before the band could remix or rerecord it, as the label had run out of money, and the master tapes had gone missing, the band has always considered the original mix of Oriental Beat to be a “disaster”. With the tapes mysteriously showing up in the Universal vault recently, the band was finally able to mix and resequence the album the way they wanted it to sound.

Oriental Beat is a defining masterpiece made when Hanoi Rocks was about to explode onto the world scene and written at the absolute peak of lead guitarist Andy McCoy’s creativity as a songwriter. Rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide says “only now, with stripping it down to the bare essentials and tweaking it to bring out what was really laid down it became our dream come true! This is what it's all about” as this definitive edition of Oriental Beat now fully displays the ultimate arrogance and attitude which defined the band. Monroe says: “now, 40 years after its original release in 1982, we finally got the album sounding as great as it deserves, with no overdubs or samples,” and McCoy adds that: “It's better now than ever. This is what it was meant to sound like. So enjoy it...Another shot of Hanoi Rocks”.

2lpcd 2LP, gatefold, black vinyl.

Svart Records proudly presents Sonny Rollins with the Heikki Sarmanto trio, in an extremely rare live performance at Finland Festival in the summer of 1972. Available for the first time, fifty years after it was initially recorded, this incredible show features Sarmanto on the Fender Rhodes electric piano, his brother Pekka Sarmanto on bass and Esko Rosnell on drums. Legend of American Jazz, “Saxophone Colossus” Sonny Rollins hand-picked Heikki Sarmanto and his Finnish trio for this night of improvisation and mutual respect that culminated in years of collaboration after.

The music conjured throughout this live extravaganza is everything a jazz aficionado could have hoped for, with extensive improvisations and incredible soloing by the musicians. Two standards and one original by Rollins, which last between sixteen and twenty-four minutes, illustrate both the quartet’s vibe and supreme virtuosity. Taking place at the magnificent Finlandia Hall, an architectural marvel, which was completed only a few months earlier, and recorded by the YLE (The Finnish Broadcasting Company), this legendary concert has been expertly mastered by Pauli Saastamoinen at the infamous Finnvox Studios in 2022 to perfectly highlight the magic that was in the air all those years ago.

Rollins seems to be especially in high spirits throughout the show and his powerful and expressive playing, full of humor, is simply marvelous. He even manages to quote some hints of Jean Sibelius’ “Finlandia” tone poem as a tribute to the venue.

Through our tireless efforts at Svart Records to preserve our musical culture, you can now be re-introduced to an important piece in the jigsaw of Finnish Jazz history, immortalised on double vinyl gatefold and CD and both limited to only 1000 copies.

Svart Records announces the release of “Unissa palaneet”, the sophomore album by the Helsinki quintet Radien. Having begun their existence on the earthly plane in 2014, Radien have forged their brand of idiosyncratic amplifier worship with passion that is in full bloom on “Unissa palaneet”. The debut album “syvyys” (2018), given a warm welcome by the international doom/sludge crowd, swam in murkier and more monotone waters, whereas the follow-up presents breathtakingly heavy widescreen sludge that paints its oozing black hues in technicolor.



According to the band, “Unissa palaneet” tells a story of a person who finds a calm spot inside himself amid chaos, and starts to see visions and dreams of the end times of humanity.

“The protagonist’s dreams turn lucid, and he/she understands them as prophecies of the future. He/she understands being capable of altering the course of history through his visions, but in the end decides that it is best to let things happen as they are meant to happen and not intervene in anything. In the end the dreams and visions mix with one another and become reality. Nature strikes back at humanity and in the end the human era ends in flames and ash”, comments Felipe Hauri from the band.



“Unissa Palaneet” will be released on May 19th 2023 by Svart Records. The album is mixed by Sanford Parker (yob, Eyehategod) and mastered by James Plotkin. It features international guest appearances by Dylan Walker (Full of Hell), Mike Paparo (Inter Arma) and Italian multi-instrumentalist Lili Refrain.



Radien has shared the stage with numerous Finnish bands and international touring artists, such as Dopethrone (can), Barren Womb (no), Full of Hell (us) and Inter Arma (us).

As humanity hurtles chaotically, blindly, and seemingly willingly towards what may well be its last act, Netherlands -- NYC’s hulking, intoxicatingly heavy progressive-sludge duo -- has returned with an LP which attempts to filter the fury, the glimmers of hope, and untenable intensity of life in the anthropocene into a 10 song narrative whirlwind which sounds unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Severance is the 9th release from multi-instrumentalist, compulsive creator, and unrepentant volume addict Timo Ellis (Cibo Matto, Spacehog, Yoko Ono) under the Netherlands moniker. Severance features all the hallmarks of Ellis’ work, including blistering post-shred guitar heroics, primal drumming, and soulful, yet searing caterwauls. But as with every Nethrock release, Ellis has inexplicably found a way to ratchet up the intensity, render the dynamic shifts more extreme, and hone his menacing melange of melody and rhythm into a uniquely weaponized form of rock ‘n’ roll that reaches towards high art.

An album exploring topics as heavy as the ones Severance tackles requires sonics to match. For Ellis -- a prolific producer and engineer himself -- the skills and peerless engineering sensibilities of tastemaking heavy music producer Kurt Ballou (Converge, High On Fire) and the hallowed walls of Ballou’s God City Studio in Salem, Mass, proved the ideal space to capture the record’s massive sounds. For Ellis, Ballou’s unmatched attention to detail and “comprehensive tuning” of the drum and organic guitar sounds on Severance proved to be an x-factor in capturing the most monstrous and fully refined Nethrock release to date. The experience of tracking Severance with Ballou surpassed all of Ellis’ expectations, and reinforced the Neth mastermind’s belief that Ballou is “one of the best and most artfully-minded heavy music producers of his generation.”

Severance is another chapter in the book of a band that’s consistently released heavy music on its own terms and with its own undeniable personality. There’s a reason contemporary heavy metal luminaries like Joe Duplantier of Gojira and Bill Kelliher of Mastodon count themselves amongst Netherlands' most biggest fans, and Severance’S 10 tracks prove Nethrock’s potency once again.

Fire and brimstone from Icelandic Black Metal band Altari, as their volcanic new album Kröflueldar erupts via Svart Records on 14.04.23. Named after a series of eruptions that happened at Krafla in Iceland in 1975, Kröflueldar represents the constant threat of ash that Altari’s music lives under. Kröflueldar was a 9 year series of eruptions, and since the album took almost 9 years to create, Altari felt that it was a fitting title for their scalding and ferocious music.

Fans of Craft, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and the more well known Icelandic Black Metal bands like Misþyrming and Sinmara will revel in digging into Kröflueldar’s rotten soil, but there is something far more experimental and avant-garde to be reaped within the whirlwind of sound that Altari produces. With their foundations of sound in the classic eras of early Judas Priest, songs like Leðurblo?kufjandinn call to mind the discordant soundclash of bands like Voivod, Virus and even Sonic Youth in the interplay of melody and disharmony. The bewildering, but utterly charming frenzy of taking the raw sound of metal to the limits breaks through from Altari’s literal geological location in a landscape in constant upheaval. Guitarist and Vocalist Ó.Þ.Guðjónsson notes that; “bands such as Blue Öyster Cult, Interpol, Killing Joke were a big inspiration for us as well for the use of clean guitars as the sound for leads. I expressed a desire to find some balance between the overdriven rhythm and melodic yet clean leads. These bands helped us find that.”

It is through these uncommon and almost blasphemous influences that Altari proves to be a rare gem in the much vaulted Icelandic Black Metal crown, giving Kröflueldar the dna of a band that feels they have so much potential and fervor brewing up in their molten kiln. Tracks like Sy?rulu?ður with the vocals of Gyða Margrét are as delicate and subtle, cloaked in smoky atmosphere, as they are dark and brooding, giving hints of bands like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins.

When Guðjónsson states that the intention was an “overall desire for us to get away from the sound that has been a gateway for others here in the scene” they imbued Kröflueldar with a beguiling essence that’s hard to pin down, but magnetically unique. The co-production work of Stephen Lockhart, a staple of the Icelandic Black Metal scene and sound, is of quality but something very different from his signature work, born from what Guðjónsson describes as a need for a “new sonic approach,” Kröflueldar’s sonic eruptions, from the low earthy rumblings to the cacophonic and epic high notes, feels thoroughly worked but raw enough to be unsettling in the new ground it uncovers. Svart Records head honcho Tomi Pulkki expands on the reasons behind his new signing, saying that; “I found their approach refreshingly idiosyncratic in the way it mixes cleaner sounds with distortion. Altari brings something new to Black Metal and that is a rare thing these days”.

Adorned with the psychedelic album cover by guitarist K.R.Guðmundsson, which evokes the storms that come when a volcano erupts, Kröflueldar is a worthy song of praise to the wild and destructive threat of nature unleashed.

An official reissue, with the original gatefold jacket and the original large booklet reproduced. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, with side D etched. Sweden's Tribulation have been one of the most innovative bands working in metal in the new millennium. Their third album The Children Of The Night (2015) saw the band leap even further from their death, black and thrash metal origins and add hints of psych rock, prog and classic rock into the mix. Pitchfork called it "a sprawling, compulsory tale that doesn't turn dull. [...] There is no way to arrive at a consensus artist who will satisfy everyone, but The Children Of The Night comes close."

Svart Records presents, in conspiracy with Century Media, an official reproduction of the original 2015 double LP, that has already become a rarity.

The Finnish masters of explosive krautrock, the band of a thousand guitars, Teksti-TV 666 are ready to let loose their second album in February 2023 after the five year long wait. Svart Records are proud to release Vapauden Tasavalta on CD, vinyl and digital platforms on February 24th 2023.

Teksti-TV 666 plays loud and stretched-to-the-max alternative rock songs filled with motorik-beats, shoegaze, psychedelic elements, and suddenly a proto-metal riff or two emerging out of nowhere. The band likes to avoid the excessive seriousness surrounding their music and instead vows to their constantly growing wall of sound -army and to the various vocalists joining them on stage. Teksti-TV 666 is the band to light up the party anytime, anywhere.

Drummer and composer Edward Vesala, the most internationally renowned jazz musician from Finland, was very keen on percussion instruments. Oddly enough, this broad and enduring interest is hardly evident on his albums.

Whether playing on his own albums or contributing to other musicians’ work, Vesala played a standard drum kit most of the time. He hardly used external percussionists on his own albums either. And most of all: his music was almost never percussive, at least in the traditional manner. Perhaps even stranger is the fact that he barely played any drum solos on his own albums.

That’s why I’m Here (Blue Master Special, Spel 311, 1974), recorded in Helsinki in 1973, is such a rarity. Of course, being a limited release has also made it an expensive treasure among collectors.

Additionally, I’m Here is Vesala’s only solo album and only percussive album, and one of the few where he can be said to play drum solos, albeit in his own idiosyncratic way..

The idea of a jazz drummer making a solo album was in itself quite rare in 1973, although not entirely unheard of. French Pierre Favre had already made two solo albums (in 1970 and 1972), and Dutch Han Bennink and Swedish Sven-Åke Johansson one each, both recorded in 1972.

It wasn’t exactly Vesala’s first time either. He had already played drums alone on the second side of the album Yksi, kaksi, kolme, neljä soul jumppaa (One, two, tree, four soul gymnastics, Gross Records, Grlp-27, 1969), though for purely instructive purposes, showcasing different rhythms and tempos..

"My favorite music is so called ‘free’ or very modern music (classical as well as jazz). But ‘cause of a very little jazz audience in Finland, I’m playing also Pop-jazz to get bread", Vesala introduced himself with a self-written English text, almost as if foreshadowing the diverse solo album, I’m Here. Compared to other releases of its time, the album was indeed “free’ or very modern music (classical as well as jazz)”, which may be the reason why it didn’t make a significant mark on the music scene or significantly benefit Vesala’s career at the time.

Lauri Karvonen, a jazz critic of the largest Finnish newspaper, described Vesala’s album as “certainly uncommercial” (Helsingin Sanomat, 8th of December, 1974). At the same time, he was delighted that “the most controversial contemporary jazz musician from Finland” has, “after years of prostituting (pop music, schlager), been able to completely dedicate himself to his own music.”

“The man is doing what he wants”, Karvonen summarizes.

Now, after being re-released, I’m Here can be appreciated for its manifesto-like and almost documentary nature. The album can be valued as a greatly interesting peek into Edward Vesala’s preferences and efforts in 1973, when he was still looking for his "own thing".

The reissue comes on vinyl only and is limited to 500 copies. The release comes with extensive liner notes by jazz critic Harri Uusitorppa.

Storyteller's two albums were released by Britain's then foremost folk label, Transatlantic, their eponymous debut LP in 1970, and their last will and testament, 'More Pages', in 1971. This Svart reissue of 'More Pages' comes after the successful reissue of the band's debut album last year, and this one is likewise restricted to 500 copies on black vinyl.

'More Pages' has been hard to find as a full album, because the Storyteller CD reissue consists of the full first album and only a portion of the second.

No longer confined to being coveted by collectors and those in the know, this lush remastered reissue via Svart Records comes on gatefold vinyl with updated liner notes and interview. If you treasure Folk, Prog and Psychedelic Rock, make sure this is a tale you don’t miss out on!

The grand old man of Finnish Jazz, Eero Koivistoinen, has not kept still in his old age. Far from it, he's played with rappers from the younger generation, Argentinian tango singers, you name it. The Eero Koivistoinen Quartet, onto its 10th year in existence, is his outlet for what he knows by heart like no one else - cool quartet jazz in which Eero is aided by younger luminaries from the scene. Alexi Tuomarila is on the grand piano, Jori Huhtala on bass and Jussi Lehtonen on drums.

Diversity presents, as the title implies, a diverse selection of Koivistoinen's latest compositions plus a striking interpretation of the timeless Thelonius Monk classic Played Twice, here performed by tue duo of Koivistoinen and pianist Tuomarila.

Svart Records has released the Koivistoinen quartet's previous records as well, including Hati Hati (2015) which made it to the Finnish charts and Illusion (2017), Following the release of Diversity Koivistoinen proceeds to release his long-awaited autobiography.

An official reissue of the 2015 album by Caligula's Horse, originally issued on Inside/Out Records. Caligula's Horse are among the vanguard of the new generation of progressive rock artists. The Australian band has been often compared to the likes of Opeth, Haken and Porcupine Tree, and original copies of In Bloom on vinyl have already reached high prices on the collector's market.

In 1973 progressive rock group Tasavallan Presidentti's career was going forward on a high note: the band had in 1972 released the critically acclaimed album Lambertland with their new vocalist Eero Raittinen, and the following year the band embarked on a successful UK tour.

In 1974 things would take a downward turn which ended in the band splitting up, but what this compilation offers you is a snapshot of the year 1973 when everything still seemed possible. The band were returning home from the fabled UK tour in March 1973 and played a show in Gothenburg, Sweden on the way home. The Swedish national radio were there to record the show with professional equipment, so sound quality is excellent. A high point of the show is a vocal version of Ramblin', which guitarist Jukka Tolonen recorded on his instrumental solo album in 1971.

This album also features two tracks culled from the Swedish TV show Opopoppa, which featured many legendary bands over the years. Tasavallan Presidentti performed in the same episode with Frank Zappa, whose performance has been circulated as a bootleg. Tasavallan Presidentti's material has never been bootlegged, but luckily this official recording was preserved in the Sveriges Radio archives.

Tasavallan Presidentti's 1st incarnation with vocalist Frank Robson performed their last studio session at YLE Broadcasting Company in Helsinki, 1971. This session was, however, completely buried by time and forgotten, until Svart Records accidentally stumbled upon an archival copy.

This studio session recording from the autumn of 1971, found from the archives of the Finnish Broadcasting Company, is a sensational discovery in many ways. It is a studio live session which the band recorded just before parting ways with vocalist Frank Robson, which may be the reason why the tape was left unused.

Otto Donner, one of the three founders of Love Records, the band's current label, had become the head of the Finnish Broadcasting Company's entertainment unit, which produced this studio session. Perhaps he was planning to release it on Love Records?

The release features extensive liner notes by writer Petri Kuljuntausta, who provides background details which hint to the fact that had the band not decide to find a new vocalist a few months later, this tape could indeed have been the Tasavallan Presidentti album number three.

Never before released on vinyl, this album captures masters of technical brutal death metal Cryptopsy live in Montreal, 2002. It is also the only recorded performance by the band's then-new vocalist Martin Lacroix, who departed soon after.

It is a "truly crushing affair" (Metal Crypt), and the setlist features a great selection of Cryptopsy's classic tracks and is considered by many a fan as the greatest live death metal album ever.

Holy Moses, the masters of German Thrash Metal greeted the new millenium with a new album after eight years of silence. Disorder of The Order (2002), originally released by Century Media, makes a long overdue return to vinyl courtesy of Svart Records. Limited to 500 copies.

Built on the classic Black Sabbath formula of downtuned leaden heavy guitar riffs, coupled with soaring vocal lamentations, Solitude Aeturnus are the American masters of the classic epic doom metal style.

Their 1994 album Through The Darkest Hour features some of the strongest compositions of their career. The album has never previously been available on vinyl with the original cover art, which is now meticulously restored on this limited gatefold reissue. The music is spread over two LPs for best possible fidelity.

Kummitus (Finnish for “Ghost”), a band from Tampere who were active in the mid- ’70s, is certainly one of the strangest entities in the history of Finnish rock music. Their original vision was to create a mystical band that builds on horror or hysteria and performs in costumes, frightening their live audience. The band had also considered remaining completely anonymous. However, the concept proved inadequate for various reasons. Keyboardist Hannu Latva-Hakuni recalls: “We quickly ditched the masks and costumes because we had to show up before the show during the load in.” Drummer Seppo Tammilehto has speculated that in the ’70s, musical skills were even more important than in later eras of rock music. “We were laughed off the stage because of these extra musical elements.”

The concept for Kummitus came from Heikki Kauppinen who had managed a booking agency called Ohjelmamiehet and sold Matthews’ gigs. “He proposed this idea to me in the very beginning”, Seppo Tammilehto recalls. Jussi Niemi from the town of Nokia became the band’s guitarist. Despite their young age, Niemi and company accompanied both Sammy Babitzin and Johnny Liebkind and played in Muska’s band for one summer. A stint in Arto Sotavalta’s Häkäpönttö was followed by military service. After that also Niemi had time to play in Matthews. “Then we moved on to plan Kummitus.”

As the band’s manager, Heikki Kauppinen designed Kummitus a light show together with Pekka Heinänen who was responsible for the costumes. Flyers saying “kummitus IS Coming” were distributed all over Finland. When the band hit the road in the summer of 1975, the light show was of course ruined by sunshine. Besides their then unreleased original material, Kummitus played cover songs mainly from British rock bands such as Rolling Stones and The Beatles.

Later on Heikki Kauppinen was contacted by Kari Kantalainen and Vesa Majanen, both coming from a journalist background, who wanted to produce Kummitus’ album. The record label Basf, who were more renowned for their cassette tapes fit for home recording, was found through Kauppinen’s contacts. The album was made in Pekka Nurmikallio’s Microvox studio in Lahti. Jussi Niemi recalls there being “two stereo recorders, so almost everything was played live. Even the choir sections were sung while we were playing. The vocals, however, were recorded separately. It was challenging, since there’s all sorts of soundscapes especially on side B.”

True to its name, Kahdet kasvot (Two Faces) clearly consists of two different sides. The straightforward and rocking side A is kicked off with ‘Paranoia’, composed by Niemi and featuring lyrics written by Tammilehto. The murky synth parts are a fine addition to the “robust rock music”, as the original pressing’s liner notes describe the song. As an uptempo rock song, Juhani Kivistö’s ‘Tuonen rock & roll’ may bring to mind early Coitus Int, whereas ‘Taivaassa taas’ and its devoted vocal performances share DNA with Kontra’s Finnrock. ‘Nauru haamuille’, written by Tammilehto, features proggy guitar patterns and a ghastly synth solo. ‘Se on ok’ was written by Niemi while the rest of the band was dining, with the purpose of making the album long enough to be sold at a full price.

The more experimental four-part entity of side B was, according to the liner notes, dedicated to “Spike Jones and an Englishman named Waters.” Pink Floyd influences are apparent in dramatic sound effects and certain details in the arrangements. ‘On the Run’ from The Dark Side of the Moon can be seen as one of the role models for the nightmarish track ‘Ilme’. The title track, written and sang by Tammilehto, is a catchy rock composition, and Kivistö’s ‘Kuudes päivä’ effectively mixes Floydian prog and blues nuances with saxophone-filled soul. The guest blower Lucjan Czaplicki played in Uranus, whose sole album Aamun hauta (1975) was also released by Basf.

The story of Kummitus continued for a while, albeit with obscure twists. “Due to certain difficulties, the band split up in the early summer of 1976,” Seppo Tammilehto recounts. “The group continued with a lineup that consisted of me, Olli Kivistö and Eero Peltonen. We backed up Mikko Alatalo under the moniker Manserock-76. This came to an end late in the summer when I reassumed the position of Alwari Tuohitorvi’s drummer. The group had become quite popular.” After the original Kummitus had split up, some other individuals played gigs under the moniker. Seppo Tammilehto has met a recently deceased musician and person of reduced mobility from Tampere, named Jukka Törmä, who used to play in the fake group. “With all due respect, he was a great guy. Törmä looked back on the gigs, where musicians were gathered before the performances, with a smile even if they didn’t work out at all. Kummitus’ manager Heikki Kauppinen had no idea who was arranging these shows. According to Törmä, the shows weren’t arranged for long and he stepped aside quite early.”

Even without the band’s unusual history, Kahdet kasvot would deserve a second coming as an original and interesting album. To cite Hannu Latva-Hakuni, “listening to the album now, almost 50 years later, I think we did a hell of a good job.”

Limited red vinyl, gatefold sleeve

Probably very few people today have ever heard of the Finnish band called Uranus. In the short time of their existence in the mid-seventies, the group recorded their sole album Aamun hauta (“The Grave of the Morning”) which remained mostly unnoticed by the music consuming public. As drummer Jari Unha says, “the time just wasn’t right for the kind of music we were playing”. The more rewarding it is now, nearly half a century later, to dig the album up from the grave of oblivion and let its happy soul groove reach our ears. With the help of historical perspective, it’s perhaps easier now to appreciate this extremely well played and rare early Finnish dive into the vibrating musical territory inhabited by legendary figures such as Otis Redding and Stevie Wonder.

In the autumn of ’75 Uranus drove to Lahti and recorded Aamun hauta in Pekka Nurmikallio’s Microvox studio. Jari Unha is amused to remember the pink Volga of the trombone player Hannu Lehtonen. “We went to record American soul music with the pride of the Soviet car industry. Almost like a detail from an Aki Kaurismäki movie!”

It is presumed that Aamun hauta was too daring a deviation from the mainstream of the time to get the attention it would have deserved. On top of that, Basf had no guts or will to promote the LP. It was an optional subscriber’s gift in Popfoto magazine, together with albums by Kummitus, Kyklooppi and Horseshoe, but due to the lack of money, the short-lived magazine failed to succeed.

As for Uranus, things folded soon after recording the album. Soul music didn’t sell in live circuits either. For some time the group continued accompanying Markku Aro on dance venue gigs. The members have since made long and versatile careers in music.

Meanwhile, the original vinyl of Aamun hauta has become a rare collector’s item. Majanen has noticed someone in Italy is selling the LP for the price of 70 euros. Svart Records is proud to re-release this delicious and invitingly groovy album. Happy listening!

Up the hammers, down the nails! Originally released in 2008, this classic doom metal debut album of Lord Vicar features powerful and mournful songs about survival, regret, love, and sacrificial duty. The unmistakable melancholy of this band is underlined by the acoustic passages of ’The Funeral Pyre’ that enhance the groovy and crushing riffs that otherwise alternate throughout the album. This music must have been uplifted from some kind of personal hell, but there is much pleasure in the way it was delivered. As a bonus for this re-release, you have the partly remixed and fully remastered first EP of the band, originally released as a 7” in 2008 by I Hate Records. The Demon of Freedom took its subject matter from the novel The Wolf’s Bride, by Finnish author Aino Kallas.

he final decade of the last millennium was a significant period for the birth of Finnish extreme metal. In the late 1980s, speed metal found its way into the country, and was immediately followed by thrash metal. Afterwards, death and black metal bands started to pop up in every nook and cranny. Some of those rose to an international fame, while others stayed in the shadows waiting for their turn. Through the years, Svart Records has already brought to light many lost treasures of the Finnish metal scene. This June it will be the turn of Thromdarr from Riihimäki and their old tapes excavated from the band’s archives.

The story of Thromdarr reaches back to 1989, when the band’s guitarist Mika Kyöstilä formed Nymphomaniac, a precursor to Thromdarr, together with Ari “Ave“ Auvinen. When the band went through a lineup change, they changed their name to Necrobiosis and eventually to Thromdarr in 1991. According to the band, they entered the scene with the punk attitude of learning by doing. They followed the steps of their idols and started to make fast and heavy metal in the vein of Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, Slayer, Possessed, Bathory, Celtic Frost, Sepultura, Obituary, Pestilence and Death.

When the demos and recordings started to pile up, the musical taste of the band members started to evolve into a more brutal direction.

-“We played the demo to our friends with great excitement and were often told we sound more like black metal than death metal. We didn’t mind this since we had already embarked on that direction and had face paint on the first band photos. We developed the name Thromdarr ourselves and it was supposed to sound phonetically like thunder”, the band’s frontman Kyöstilä recounts.

Early on in their career, Thromdarr had already played with many renowned metal acts, such as Barathrum, Sentenced, Archgoat and Demigod. The band took a couple of cassette pressings of their first studio demo As a Wind Cries and ended up selling 500 copies.

On their later demos, Thromdarr made more experimental material from the black metal canvas. On the other hand, going through a lineup change led to the band losing its driving force, the recording pace slowing down and the little live activity falling behind partying. In the end of the millennium, the band became active again and signed a contract with Solistitium Records, releasing their debut album NorthStorm Arrives in 1998

Svart Records has now compiled Thromdarr’s early demos into a single package. Kyöstilä and Svart’s producer Olli Hänninen have barely touched the original soundscape, instead remastering the demos the way they were originally made with all their faults and successes.

-“The tapes haven’t been remixed afterwards. Instead, they sound as primitive as when they were originally released. The material has also been copied from original recordings. Pick up a beer and listen to old school metal!”, Kyöstilä urges.

Svart Records will release Thromdarr’s Midwinter Frost – Complete demo tapes 1990-1997 double LP compilation and CD on the 17th of June 2022.

An explosive compilation of Finnish underground rock from the late 1960's and early 70's.

An official reissue of the 2017 double album by Caligula’s Horse, originally issued on Inside/Out Records.

Caligula’s Horse are among the vanguard of the new generation of progressive rock artists. The Australian band has been often compared to the likes of Opeth, Haken and Porcupine Tree, and original copies of In Bloom on vinyl have already reached high prices on the collector’s market. The Svart reissue comes with a gatefold jacket and the 1000 copy pressing is split into two color variants, the more serene clear vinyl option and the more expressive blue and green marble edition.

Pressed on warpainted and bloodied vinyl, Svart Records present a trilogy of vinyl represses by Finland’s folk metal war machine Turisas. Prepared together with the band, these new gatefold renditions come with extensive liner notes plus A2 posters. The Svart edition has the nearly 60-minute album spread over four LP sides for maximum fidelity.

Formed in 1995 in Karlstad, Sweden by Rob Coffinshaker, these graveyard country pioneers have been steadily putting out records, most of which have now become highly sought-after collector items. The Coffinshakers successfully merged the imagery of German expressionist cinema with traditional country sounds of Waylon Jennings and Johnny Cash, occasionally flirting with Ennio Morricone -style melodies and the 60’s surf-garage sounds of The Ventures. Topped with full-bodied lyrics and Rob Coffinshaker’s haunting, low register voice, this combination gained them a cult following in the late 90’s and 2000’s, and they even creeped up to the Finnish top 40 with their self-titled album in 2007.

Svart Records are proud to announce the official Coffinshakers vinyl reissues, which have been in the works for a couple of years now. These reissues include the full length albums We Are The Undead (1998) and The Coffinshakers (2007), both of which come in repro-sleeves with original artwork. There’s also a deluxe box set edition titled “The Curse of the Coffinshakers 1996-2016”, which includes both albums, 2 bonus LPs (From the Crypt – Rare and Unreleased vol. I and vol. II) and a thick booklet with a lengthy interview and archive material. The bonus LPs are only available in the box set and they include rare compilation tracks, EP releases and a handful of unreleased tunes from Rob Coffinshaker’s personal vaults.

Deluxe vinyl reissue!

Energetic 10 track debut album!

Svart Records is proud to present The Limit. Punk & Doom originators go straight to the soul of heavy rock on their new album Caveman Logic to be released via Svart Records on the 9th of April 2021.

More than a super-group, The Limit goes over the edge, to deliver real-deal, soulful Rock and Roll. Consisting of members of legendary Punk instigators The Stooges, the founders of Doom Rock Pentagram, legendary NYC Punk originators Testors and infamous Portugese metal band Dawnrider, The Limit break out from the foundations of heavy rock and defy all expectations, to show a new generation what doom and punk really means. On the new album Caveman Logic, Bobby Liebling, singer and main-man of Pentagram, one of the originators of early Doom Rock and an inspiration for generations of Heavy Rock fans, on vocals, gives the performance of his career, singing like his life depended on it. Sonny Vincent, enigmatic legend of the early NYC Max’s Kansas City, Cbgb Punk scene with his band Testors, having been on the road and recording with members of The Velvet Underground, lays down the guitar driven songs, his writing bearing all the hallmarks of ground-breaking Rock history in it’s filthy DNA. Phenomenal bass playing from Jimmy Recca, ex- The Stooges, and Ron Asheton’s New Order, gives The Limit the intense and world-class, speaker-destroying bottom end. Joined by Hugo Conim on Guitar and João Pedro Ventura on Drums from Portuguese band Dawnrider, The Limit fuses star-dust pedigree with an organic incendiary chemistry that’s instantly raw and real. A dream come true to those that know their Doom/Punk history, The Limit brings the past right up to date on Caveman Logic, with an essential, burning passion at the heart of their songs. Seldom has a collaboration of well known stars in music sounded so vigorous and frenzied as The Limit’s caveman-like roar. The Limit is an astoundingly fresh and hot-blooded shot to the veins that Heavy Rock needs in this day and age. Conjured forth by stone-age pioneers, Caveman Logic goes to the heart of impassioned Heavy Rock and Punk, to deliver the basic and vital elements often missing in so much of today’s music. If you want primitive and straight to the soul primal rock, fresh from the grave and exhumed for a new unwitting future, look no further than Caveman Logic. This is it. This is as far as it goes. The Limit!

A Svart Mondo Release. Limited to 500 copies on black vinyl. By early 1960’s, jazz in its mainstream form had become the standard dance music for the student parties in high schools and several student union clubrooms in Helsinki. The Polytech union even organized matinée dances for high school students on Sundays. The change in the musical preference of young people’s dance music occurred with the arrival of British rock in the mid-sixties and this, of course, coincided with another cultural and musical development. As the new campus for the school was built in Otaniemi, Espoo in 1955-1966 and its operations gradually moved there, the modern style “Dipoli” building became the crowning edifice on the campus. It was to be the new home for the Polytech student union. When this controversial building was opened in 1966, it was meant to introduce a new vision of the future and constituted an embodiment of the modernist spirit of those times in the late 1960’s. This reissue of The Complete Jazz at the Polytechnicum recordings, done in 1967-68, also provides us with a glimpse of the modern directions of those days, not only in jazz music, but also in performance art. It is easy to hear that the main aesthetic in these performances was to break conventions and find new avenues for individual expression. The publisher of these recordings was the Jazz Society of the Tech Students, which was formed a little before these recordings. The name of the society was a take-off from Norman Granz’ Jazz at The Philharmonic and it became Jazz at the Polytechnicum. Both are, of course, abbreviated as J.A.T.P., which became formulated in musicians’ mouths into “Jappa”. This Svart Records re-issue consists of four EP-records in chronological order. The first three feature three jazz groups of the leading young players with their ages ranging from 21 to 30. The fourth one documents an avant-garde art “happening” held in Dipoli on March 20th – 24th 1968 called “Posotusta, pimputusta, pompotusta”, which could freely be translated as “Huff ‘n’ puff ‘n’ plonk”.

Originally released in March 2019, the Green Lung’s debut long player has sold out two pressings quickly.
This third pressing is remastered by the spectacular John Davis (Lana Del Rey, Led Zeppelin, Royal Blood…) at Metropolis Studios in the UK. The album comes with a 8 page booklet and a A4 art print, limited to the first Svart pressing only, all wrapped in a gatefold jacket
‘This is heavy metal how it should be done, with lashings of occult camp and some sweet solstice swagger’ The Guardian

With one foot in classic heavy power trio rock'n'roll and the other knee deep in psychedelic frenzy, Finland's Kaleidobolt blast off into innerspace with their third album Bitter. Produced by Niko Lehdontie (Kairon; IRSE!, Oranssi Pazuzu) and mixed by Lauri Eloranta, Bitter is poisonous sonic cotton candy.

Oriental Beat by Hanoi Rocks gets the redux treatment, officially mixed and revived from the original sessions, and released on March 17th on deluxe vinyl, CD and digital formats. The CD and vinyl come with the song lyrics, checked and approved by Michael Monroe.

Dubbed the “re(al) mix”, this 40th anniversary edition was mixed by Petri Majuri at E-Studios in Finland in collaboration with the band. Vocalist Michael Monroe calls this release “the longest and slowest album project ever,” stating that “40 years in the making, it's not just a remix, but the Real MIX supervised and approved by Hanoi Rocks”.

Recorded in London, UK in 1981, for 200 pounds a day, Oriental Beat was made during the height of the British punk + New Wave movement, when the band was hanging out with everyone from Phil Lynott to the Damned. Hanoi Rocks’ original drummer Gyp Casino says of Oriental Beat that: “Back in the days we gave heart, soul and a bit of pain to make this record something else” but the sound of the album, originally released in 1982, did not match their efforts at the time. Bassist Sami Yaffa called it “the worst sounding album of our career” and Michael Monroe said that “the producer of the album didn’t have a clue what the band was about and his mix of the album was horribly wrong”.

Oriental Beat’s original engineer Peter Wooliscroft, was not a rock producer, and according to Hanoi Rocks’ manager Richard Bishop he “tried to mix the album to sound like Spandau Ballet”. Released before the band could remix or rerecord it, as the label had run out of money, and the master tapes had gone missing, the band has always considered the original mix of Oriental Beat to be a “disaster”. With the tapes mysteriously showing up in the Universal vault recently, the band was finally able to mix and resequence the album the way they wanted it to sound.

Oriental Beat is a defining masterpiece made when Hanoi Rocks was about to explode onto the world scene and written at the absolute peak of lead guitarist Andy McCoy’s creativity as a songwriter. Rhythm guitarist Nasty Suicide says “only now, with stripping it down to the bare essentials and tweaking it to bring out what was really laid down it became our dream come true! This is what it's all about” as this definitive edition of Oriental Beat now fully displays the ultimate arrogance and attitude which defined the band. Monroe says: “now, 40 years after its original release in 1982, we finally got the album sounding as great as it deserves, with no overdubs or samples,” and McCoy adds that: “It's better now than ever. This is what it was meant to sound like. So enjoy it...Another shot of Hanoi Rocks”.

After the mind blowing success of Witchcraft's Legend (2012), mastermind Magnus Pelander outdid himself once again with the band's 2016 offering Nucleus. Combining what made it's predecessor the modern classic it quickly became as well as elements of the band's earlier days makes Nucleus a melancholic, raging, fragile, melodic and at times noisy masterpiece filed somewhere between classic rock, doom and ambient music.

With a renewed line-up (Rage Widerberg on drums and Tobias Anger on bass) the band sounds more hungry and powerful than ever. In combination with the thrilling, yet very down-to-earth production by Pelander, Philip Gabriel Saxin and Anton Sundell, Nucleus throws you in dreamy sonic landscapes that will mesmerize and haunt you alike.

Svart Records are proud to re-release Nucleus on black-, green- and Svart exclusive purple/turquoise marble vinyl on May 19th.

First time on vinyl!

Disembody: The New Flesh is the second full-length studio album by the San Francisco metal band Skinlab. It was recorded in El Paso, Texas at the Village Studios and was produced by Andy Sneap. The album was originally released on February 23rd, 1999.

Offering up more dark, moody passages amidst the roaring repetitions and stomping guitars, Disembody: The New Flesh shows Skinlab to be intelligent songwriters as well as sonic destroyers. The addition of veteran guitarists Scott Sargeant (Killing Culture, Laaz Rockit) and Snake (Skrew) doesn't alter the essence of Skinlab's sound, but it does add more flexibility and unpredictability to their compositions and band interplay. As a result, it's an album worth of whispers from hell, bellowing demons, pummeling guitars, and 45 minutes of pure, metal mayhem.

Reissue of the 2011 album Tao of the Dead by American alternative rock band ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of The Dead. First time available on vinyl since its release year. Features a replica of the original comic book insert.



Tao of the Dead is their seventh album. The band stripped down to its core four-piece lineup for the record, deviating from the past two records that featured a filled-out six-piece band. This resulted in a stripped-down record with heavy emphasis on guitar. It’s a two-part record, each side with a specific musical tuning; Part One in D and Part Two in F.



The album can be listened to as 16 different movements or two lengthy tracks. Part One: Tao Of The Dead is split into eleven tracks, whereas Part Two: Strange News From Another Planet is five songs combined into one. Lead singer Conrad Keely described the album's composition; "It's the way I listened to albums when I was a kid, seeing as some of my favorite records were Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon, Yes' Relayer and Close to the Edge... I always liked listening to records that were just a continuous piece, like an orchestra or a symphony."

After the mind blowing success of Witchcraft's Legend (2012), mastermind Magnus Pelander outdid himself once again with the band's 2016 offering Nucleus. Combining what made it's predecessor the modern classic it quickly became as well as elements of the band's earlier days makes Nucleus a melancholic, raging, fragile, melodic and at times noisy masterpiece filed somewhere between classic rock, doom and ambient music.

With a renewed line-up (Rage Widerberg on drums and Tobias Anger on bass) the band sounds more hungry and powerful than ever. In combination with the thrilling, yet very down-to-earth production by Pelander, Philip Gabriel Saxin and Anton Sundell, Nucleus throws you in dreamy sonic landscapes that will mesmerize and haunt you alike.

Svart Records are proud to re-release Nucleus on black-, green- and Svart exclusive purple/turquoise marble vinyl on May 19th.

Reissue of the German psychobilly legends Mad Sin’s 2010 album Burn And Rise.



Since their indestructible bandleader Köfte DeVille had gone through some major personal changes, which encouraged him to lose almost 40 kilo grams, the album title is more than adequate. 18 tracks titled like “Last Gang Standing”, “Geisterfahrer (Ghost rider)”, "Wreckhouse Stomp", "The March of the Deviants", "9 Lives" or "Shitlist Bop” promise tension and also a bunch of surprises.



The typical Mad Sin mix of psychobilly, rockabilly, 50’s Rock’n’Roll, Country, Punk and Surf sounds fresher than ever before. Featured artists include Sucker (Oxymoron, Bad Co.), Jack Letten (Smoke Blow), Hank (The Boss Hoss) and Marlen (Bonzai Kitten). An outstanding record which gave the band once more the chance to show that they think outside the box and can do a lot more than “just” rockabilly.

Reissue of the German psychobilly legends Mad Sin’s 2010 album Burn And Rise.



Since their indestructible bandleader Köfte DeVille had gone through some major personal changes, which encouraged him to lose almost 40 kilo grams, the album title is more than adequate. 18 tracks titled like “Last Gang Standing”, “Geisterfahrer (Ghost rider)”, "Wreckhouse Stomp", "The March of the Deviants", "9 Lives" or "Shitlist Bop” promise tension and also a bunch of surprises.



The typical Mad Sin mix of psychobilly, rockabilly, 50’s Rock’n’Roll, Country, Punk and Surf sounds fresher than ever before. Featured artists include Sucker (Oxymoron, Bad Co.), Jack Letten (Smoke Blow), Hank (The Boss Hoss) and Marlen (Bonzai Kitten). An outstanding record which gave the band once more the chance to show that they think outside the box and can do a lot more than “just” rockabilly.

3rd pressing with alternative cover design. Limited to 100 copies with poster and 300 copies without poster.

Have you ever felt like owning the entire Terveet Kädet discography from the classic lineup in one handy package? This is it. We’ve compiled every single thing the band ever recorded in the studio between the years 1980 and 1989 into this five disc set. There’s all LPs, all EPs, all compilation tracks, everything. On top of that there’s a full disc, approved by Läjä, of unreleased or otherwise impossibly rare tracks such as the unreleased third Ikbal EP.

Norway?s ambassadors of macabre romanticism take a step towards the great beyond with their new album Hinsides, out on Svart Records on May 12th. Despite the group?s love of all things curious and off the beaten path, they have taken their native Norway by hailstorm and were just recently nominated in the local Grammy awards for best rock album. Transmission from the band sets the record straight regarding the new album:

Hinsides means Beyond

Past life or past sense

Dead or dead drunk

Whether on wine, poetry or virtue

Sex, drugs or Baudelaire

The entire work deals with death in one form or another

Lingering ghosts of rented apartments

Wishing a violent end to insomnia

Futile existence facing apocalypse

Funeral rites and the burial of loved ones

The grand 24 minute epic Sankt Sebastians Alter was composed in commemoration of the 666th anniversary of the Black Death in Norway.

This album is less of a gloomy affair than might be expected by its theme, and the tunes are as catchy as the Plague. Join us in the Dance of Death, for verily Tusmørke sayeth unto you: Groove is in the Heart of Darkness.

As humanity hurtles chaotically, blindly, and seemingly willingly towards what may well be its last act, Netherlands -- NYC’s hulking, intoxicatingly heavy progressive-sludge duo -- has returned with an LP which attempts to filter the fury, the glimmers of hope, and untenable intensity of life in the anthropocene into a 10 song narrative whirlwind which sounds unlike anything you’ve ever heard.

Severance is the 9th release from multi-instrumentalist, compulsive creator, and unrepentant volume addict Timo Ellis (Cibo Matto, Spacehog, Yoko Ono) under the Netherlands moniker. Severance features all the hallmarks of Ellis’ work, including blistering post-shred guitar heroics, primal drumming, and soulful, yet searing caterwauls. But as with every Nethrock release, Ellis has inexplicably found a way to ratchet up the intensity, render the dynamic shifts more extreme, and hone his menacing melange of melody and rhythm into a uniquely weaponized form of rock ‘n’ roll that reaches towards high art.

An album exploring topics as heavy as the ones Severance tackles requires sonics to match. For Ellis -- a prolific producer and engineer himself -- the skills and peerless engineering sensibilities of tastemaking heavy music producer Kurt Ballou (Converge, High On Fire) and the hallowed walls of Ballou’s God City Studio in Salem, Mass, proved the ideal space to capture the record’s massive sounds. For Ellis, Ballou’s unmatched attention to detail and “comprehensive tuning” of the drum and organic guitar sounds on Severance proved to be an x-factor in capturing the most monstrous and fully refined Nethrock release to date. The experience of tracking Severance with Ballou surpassed all of Ellis’ expectations, and reinforced the Neth mastermind’s belief that Ballou is “one of the best and most artfully-minded heavy music producers of his generation.”

Severance is another chapter in the book of a band that’s consistently released heavy music on its own terms and with its own undeniable personality. There’s a reason contemporary heavy metal luminaries like Joe Duplantier of Gojira and Bill Kelliher of Mastodon count themselves amongst Netherlands' most biggest fans, and Severance’S 10 tracks prove Nethrock’s potency once again.

Limited 200 copies edition on black vinyl. Includes A4 sized booklet + insert with lyrics.

”Ritual, though, is a hotter, more raw proposition, expressionistically blowing the lid off Finnish stoicism. It is very exciting.” - Steve Lake, the Wire Nov 89

Gargantuan volcanoes erupting with primal force, fountains of molten lava bursting sky high and massive boulders hurtling capriciously through the air. These potent and violently alluring images in the documentary series The Living Planet captivated Raoul Björkenheim's imagination in 1986. The search for a band name had come to an end.

-”I was mesmerised. The name Krakatau sounded like a drum fill to me”.



After studying at the Helsinki Conservatory for a year and the Berklee College of Music in Boston for three, Björkenheim relocated to Finland where he played in bands with Jone Takamäki, Antti Hytti and Tom Nekljudow, and later went on to work with composer and drummer Edward “Eetu” Vesala (1945-1999). His always original and highly demanding Sound & Fury workshops were a pivotal hotbed in the local improvised music scene, but after four years of Vesala's strict leadership Björkenheim felt a need to leave Sound & Fury behind and direct all of his attention towards Krakatau.



The lineup on the first album “Ritual” consisted of reed virtuosos Jorma Tapio and Tapani Rinne, the bassist Sampo Lassila and two drummers, Michel Lambert and Heikki “Lefty” Lehto. “Krakatau’s debut album was very challenging to make, as I felt that it might be my one and only chance to record my own music, so I wanted it to be as intense and effective as possible”, says Björkenheim, “I was lucky enough to work with an incredibly talented cast of musicians. I can still listen to the album and feel satisfied that it really works. The first guitar solo illustrates what was to become my modus operandi: to try and play the electric guitar in unexpected ways.”



Svart Records will release an expanded double LP version of Krakatau’s Ritual. Limited to 500 copies and due out on March 24th, the album contains an album’s worth of previously unheard material recorded in 1987 in Studio Helsinki and at the Finnish Broadcasting Corporation studio.

Fire and brimstone from Icelandic Black Metal band Altari, as their volcanic new album Kröflueldar erupts via Svart Records on 14.04.23. Named after a series of eruptions that happened at Krafla in Iceland in 1975, Kröflueldar represents the constant threat of ash that Altari’s music lives under. Kröflueldar was a 9 year series of eruptions, and since the album took almost 9 years to create, Altari felt that it was a fitting title for their scalding and ferocious music.

Fans of Craft, Deathspell Omega, Blut Aus Nord and the more well known Icelandic Black Metal bands like Misþyrming and Sinmara will revel in digging into Kröflueldar’s rotten soil, but there is something far more experimental and avant-garde to be reaped within the whirlwind of sound that Altari produces. With their foundations of sound in the classic eras of early Judas Priest, songs like Leðurblo?kufjandinn call to mind the discordant soundclash of bands like Voivod, Virus and even Sonic Youth in the interplay of melody and disharmony. The bewildering, but utterly charming frenzy of taking the raw sound of metal to the limits breaks through from Altari’s literal geological location in a landscape in constant upheaval. Guitarist and Vocalist Ó.Þ.Guðjónsson notes that; “bands such as Blue Öyster Cult, Interpol, Killing Joke were a big inspiration for us as well for the use of clean guitars as the sound for leads. I expressed a desire to find some balance between the overdriven rhythm and melodic yet clean leads. These bands helped us find that.”

It is through these uncommon and almost blasphemous influences that Altari proves to be a rare gem in the much vaulted Icelandic Black Metal crown, giving Kröflueldar the dna of a band that feels they have so much potential and fervor brewing up in their molten kiln. Tracks like Sy?rulu?ður with the vocals of Gyða Margrét are as delicate and subtle, cloaked in smoky atmosphere, as they are dark and brooding, giving hints of bands like This Mortal Coil and Cocteau Twins.

When Guðjónsson states that the intention was an “overall desire for us to get away from the sound that has been a gateway for others here in the scene” they imbued Kröflueldar with a beguiling essence that’s hard to pin down, but magnetically unique. The co-production work of Stephen Lockhart, a staple of the Icelandic Black Metal scene and sound, is of quality but something very different from his signature work, born from what Guðjónsson describes as a need for a “new sonic approach,” Kröflueldar’s sonic eruptions, from the low earthy rumblings to the cacophonic and epic high notes, feels thoroughly worked but raw enough to be unsettling in the new ground it uncovers. Svart Records head honcho Tomi Pulkki expands on the reasons behind his new signing, saying that; “I found their approach refreshingly idiosyncratic in the way it mixes cleaner sounds with distortion. Altari brings something new to Black Metal and that is a rare thing these days”.

Adorned with the psychedelic album cover by guitarist K.R.Guðmundsson, which evokes the storms that come when a volcano erupts, Kröflueldar is a worthy song of praise to the wild and destructive threat of nature unleashed.

Jaaw is a post-industrial supergroug featuring Andy Cairns (Therapy?), Jason Stoll (Mugstar, Klämp, Sex Swing), Wayne Adams (Death Pedals, Big Lad, Petbrick) and Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Goldie, Squarepusher). Jaaw glories in big riffs and massive hooks, while also pushing the boundaries of what that even means thanks to its uncompromising strangeness.

In the back of Jaaw’s minds are the 1990s: an era when the experimental heaviness of acts like Ministry and Godflesh could find surprisingly large audiences. They also draw on the sonic ground that’s been broken since. The disorientating ferocity of Brazil’s Deafkids. The gaseous, shapeshifted vocals on Burial’s records. The freakout-laden noise-rock of Lightning Bolt. Far from emulating the industrial metal masters of the past, Jaaw will help shake lesser rock bands out of their generic complacency. With scant regard for typical verse/chorus/verse formulas, Jaaw’s song structures are closer to the nonlinear approach of body-shaking dance music.

Recorded intensely in a matter of days at Wayne’s Bear Bites Horse studio in London, the result is one of the most distinctive and exciting records that will be released this year, so heavy in textures that repeat listens will prove endlessly rewarding.

Experimenting with squealing effects pedals selected from the studio’s racks, Cairns was reminded of his love for the feedback-drenched records of Helios Creed and Nuklear Blast Suntan. Having grown up listening to Therapy?, Adams loved throwing Hm-2 pedals at Cairns and hearing his riffs through Entombed-style distortion. Bassist Stoll liked the idea of “Celtic Frost playing something by NEU!” This turned into the album’s bludgeoning centrepiece, ‘Bring Home The Motherlode, Barry’. As co-vocalists, Adams and Cairns wrote lyrics informed by the hallucinatory horror movies of Panos Cosmatos and the unforgettable set-pieces from Ari Aster’s Midsommar.

Jaaw’s sounds, ideas and modes all bleed into each other. “The lyrics, too, are part of the same whole,” adds Cairns. “I feel you could drop the needle at any point on this record and you know where you are with it. To me, it’s like greyscale psychedelia. It’s just this… experience.”

The greyscale psychedelic revolution starts here. You’d be crazy not to jump in.

Jaaw is a post-industrial supergroug featuring Andy Cairns (Therapy?), Jason Stoll (Mugstar, Klämp, Sex Swing), Wayne Adams (Death Pedals, Big Lad, Petbrick) and Adam Betts (Three Trapped Tigers, Goldie, Squarepusher). Jaaw glories in big riffs and massive hooks, while also pushing the boundaries of what that even means thanks to its uncompromising strangeness.

In the back of Jaaw’s minds are the 1990s: an era when the experimental heaviness of acts like Ministry and Godflesh could find surprisingly large audiences. They also draw on the sonic ground that’s been broken since. The disorientating ferocity of Brazil’s Deafkids. The gaseous, shapeshifted vocals on Burial’s records. The freakout-laden noise-rock of Lightning Bolt. Far from emulating the industrial metal masters of the past, Jaaw will help shake lesser rock bands out of their generic complacency. With scant regard for typical verse/chorus/verse formulas, Jaaw’s song structures are closer to the nonlinear approach of body-shaking dance music.

Recorded intensely in a matter of days at Wayne’s Bear Bites Horse studio in London, the result is one of the most distinctive and exciting records that will be released this year, so heavy in textures that repeat listens will prove endlessly rewarding.

Experimenting with squealing effects pedals selected from the studio’s racks, Cairns was reminded of his love for the feedback-drenched records of Helios Creed and Nuklear Blast Suntan. Having grown up listening to Therapy?, Adams loved throwing Hm-2 pedals at Cairns and hearing his riffs through Entombed-style distortion. Bassist Stoll liked the idea of “Celtic Frost playing something by NEU!” This turned into the album’s bludgeoning centrepiece, ‘Bring Home The Motherlode, Barry’. As co-vocalists, Adams and Cairns wrote lyrics informed by the hallucinatory horror movies of Panos Cosmatos and the unforgettable set-pieces from Ari Aster’s Midsommar.

Jaaw’s sounds, ideas and modes all bleed into each other. “The lyrics, too, are part of the same whole,” adds Cairns. “I feel you could drop the needle at any point on this record and you know where you are with it. To me, it’s like greyscale psychedelia. It’s just this… experience.”

The greyscale psychedelic revolution starts here. You’d be crazy not to jump in.

First time on vinyl!

Disembody: The New Flesh is the second full-length studio album by the San Francisco metal band Skinlab. It was recorded in El Paso, Texas at the Village Studios and was produced by Andy Sneap. The album was originally released on February 23rd, 1999.

Offering up more dark, moody passages amidst the roaring repetitions and stomping guitars, Disembody: The New Flesh shows Skinlab to be intelligent songwriters as well as sonic destroyers. The addition of veteran guitarists Scott Sargeant (Killing Culture, Laaz Rockit) and Snake (Skrew) doesn't alter the essence of Skinlab's sound, but it does add more flexibility and unpredictability to their compositions and band interplay. As a result, it's an album worth of whispers from hell, bellowing demons, pummeling guitars, and 45 minutes of pure, metal mayhem.

Svart Records set to re-release the debut and only album by the Finnish rock band Seitsemäs maailma.

Originally released in 1983 and produced by Pekka Aarnio (Agit-Prop), the album’s lyrics were mostly based on the poems of Leo Voss. The band was formed by the members of Se (Eeva Koivusalo – bass, P.A. Ulmanen – keys, Yari – guitar, vocals) with Liisa Tavi (vocals), Charlie (Lama) (guitar, vocals), Sidi Vainio (Briard) (drums) and Kari Hipponen (guitar).

The self titled album by Seitsemäs maailma will be released on April 28th. Available on a Svart exclusive yellow vinyl limited to 100 copies and black vinyl limited to 200 copies. Both versions include a 8-page insert.

The pioneering metal band Xysma ends 25 year hiatus with new album announced

Since the late 1980's when a new form of metal started to emerge from the ashes of the speed and thrash metal movement, Xysma were there making a racket. They've gone a long way from the pus-oozing grindcore of Swarming Of The Maggots (1989) to the death rolling groove of Deluxe and Lotto a few years later, becoming an internationally revered cult band over the years. Recently the band thought it best to end a 25 year sabbatical and announced that there's a new album in the works. Titled No Place Like Alone, the album will be released on Svart Records in early 2023.

The first slice of things to come drops this week. The single Well Seasoning will be released on all digital platforms this Friday. The short and to-the-point song is eerily reminiscent of classic mid-nineties Xysma, making the quarter of a century that separates us from those classic albums disappear. Well Seasoning is actually the first song the band finished after the decision to start working on new material. Xysma's sound has varied greatly from album to album, and No Place Like Alone is no exception to that golden rule. In addition to straightforward hard rocking numbers the record has its share of heavier moments but surprising elements abound as well.

The single Well Seasoning, a two and a half minute metal ode to the joys of cooking, will be out on Friday 7th of October and the band will play a single release show at Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland on October 15th.

The pioneering metal band Xysma ends 25 year hiatus with new album announced

Since the late 1980's when a new form of metal started to emerge from the ashes of the speed and thrash metal movement, Xysma were there making a racket. They've gone a long way from the pus-oozing grindcore of Swarming Of The Maggots (1989) to the death rolling groove of Deluxe and Lotto a few years later, becoming an internationally revered cult band over the years. Recently the band thought it best to end a 25 year sabbatical and announced that there's a new album in the works. Titled No Place Like Alone, the album will be released on Svart Records in early 2023.

The first slice of things to come drops this week. The single Well Seasoning will be released on all digital platforms this Friday. The short and to-the-point song is eerily reminiscent of classic mid-nineties Xysma, making the quarter of a century that separates us from those classic albums disappear. Well Seasoning is actually the first song the band finished after the decision to start working on new material. Xysma's sound has varied greatly from album to album, and No Place Like Alone is no exception to that golden rule. In addition to straightforward hard rocking numbers the record has its share of heavier moments but surprising elements abound as well.

The single Well Seasoning, a two and a half minute metal ode to the joys of cooking, will be out on Friday 7th of October and the band will play a single release show at Tavastia in Helsinki, Finland on October 15th.

A limited-to-300 reissue of this rare west coast psych inspired album from 1972. With all lyrics and liner notes by Jaakko Riihimaa.

Bengt Huhta, known by his nom de plume Kristian, made this unusual album in 1972, after enjoying a pop star career in the late sixties.

As a singer he suffered the same fate as most sixties pop singers - no matter how ambitious the artist, his choice of songs to record was always made by the label, the songs more often than not being Finnish translations of popular international schlager tunes. Most live appearances took place on small stages inside restaurants or at traditional dance halls, with the expectation that the band would perform music suitable for dancing, which meant a selection of evergreen material mostly. The artist could sneak their own material in at the end of a long set or between shorter dance sets.

Winds of change were in the air, though, and Kristian grew bored of his one-dimensional role as a domestic pop star. In 1971 he decided to quit altogether, but as his Finnish cover version of Let The Sunshine In was still in the charts, the record company persuaded him to make one more album. He agreed, but with the condition that the album would record his own English language material only.

For a Finnish singer-songwriter to release an album of English language rock music influenced by the post-hippie psychedelic and progressive movements of the time was a career suicide, and this is what happened with this album as well. What few original copies there are in circulation still have become very expensive. Svart Records are happy to present a new edition of this underrated light psych rock gem to the new millennium.

Darker Days Ahead is Terrorizer's follow up to their classic 1989 album World Downfall. It features original members Pete Sandoval (Morbid Angel) and Jesse Pintado (Napalm Death, Brujeria) on drums and guitar with new members Anthony Rezhawk and Tony Norman joining in on vocals and bass. Despite the long gap between releases, the band picked up exactly where they left off in 1989 and created an album full of pure extreme metal that is guaranteed to satisfy all fans of old school death metal and grindcore.

Darker Days Ahead is Terrorizer's follow up to their classic 1989 album World Downfall. It features original members Pete Sandoval (Morbid Angel) and Jesse Pintado (Napalm Death, Brujeria) on drums and guitar with new members Anthony Rezhawk and Tony Norman joining in on vocals and bass. Despite the long gap between releases, the band picked up exactly where they left off in 1989 and created an album full of pure extreme metal that is guaranteed to satisfy all fans of old school death metal and grindcore.

The Netherlands' premium progressive gothic metal artists The Gathering caught live on the stage of the legendary Paradiso in Amsterdam, 1999. The Svart Records official reissue comes on 180 gram vinyl, wrapped in a heavy gatefold jacket.



"It is a very good representation of where we stood back in 1998/99. We also didn’t do any overdubs so what you see is what you get. It’s a very honest document of what THE Gathering was like in 1999", says Hans Rutten of The Gathering,"It's very pure and I'm very proud of it, especially to see it finally reissued on vinyl after a first, very limited run in 2013."

The Netherlands' premium progressive gothic metal artists The Gathering caught live on the stage of the legendary Paradiso in Amsterdam, 1999. The Svart Records official reissue comes on 180 gram vinyl, wrapped in a heavy gatefold jacket.



"It is a very good representation of where we stood back in 1998/99. We also didn’t do any overdubs so what you see is what you get. It’s a very honest document of what THE Gathering was like in 1999", says Hans Rutten of The Gathering,"It's very pure and I'm very proud of it, especially to see it finally reissued on vinyl after a first, very limited run in 2013."

An astounding compilation of rarities by The Gathering. Features all tracks from EPs and singles from the band's golden metal days 1995-2000, plus a heap of material entirely unavailable elsewhere. Pressed on three 180 gram LPs and presented in a special die cut slipcase.



This 140 plus minutes and 27 songs long triple album is a bit all over the place, mixing works-in-progress demos, the odd cover song or alternative version plus occasional unreleased or live material. Yet, while in terms of years it covers a quite short period (1995-2001), it is one essential release that takes you right at the very core of their creative growth at a time when they were rapidly evolving, both on a human and musical level.



"The main idea behind it was pretty simple, to make available to our fans all those B-sides, unreleased tracks and versions that had been sitting on the shelves for too long. Everything. And before we knew it, we ended up with a double album with a lot of things on it! It’s quite a mish-mash but I also think it’s a nice bouquet so to speak of everything we had done", comments Hans Rutten from the band.

The first half of Accessories gathers 14 tracks from the band's singles between 1995 and 2001. None of these songs are available on other albums. The second half contains two sessions which remained unreleased until Accessories - the first being a studio session with krautrock legend Eroc, who the band wanted as their producer, and the second session the uncompromised result of the band being locked in a small analog studio for a week with nothing or nobody to restrict their creativity.

An astounding compilation of rarities by The Gathering. Features all tracks from EPs and singles from the band's golden metal days 1995-2000, plus a heap of material entirely unavailable elsewhere. Pressed on three 180 gram LPs and presented in a special die cut slipcase.



This 140 plus minutes and 27 songs long triple album is a bit all over the place, mixing works-in-progress demos, the odd cover song or alternative version plus occasional unreleased or live material. Yet, while in terms of years it covers a quite short period (1995-2001), it is one essential release that takes you right at the very core of their creative growth at a time when they were rapidly evolving, both on a human and musical level.



"The main idea behind it was pretty simple, to make available to our fans all those B-sides, unreleased tracks and versions that had been sitting on the shelves for too long. Everything. And before we knew it, we ended up with a double album with a lot of things on it! It’s quite a mish-mash but I also think it’s a nice bouquet so to speak of everything we had done", comments Hans Rutten from the band.

The first half of Accessories gathers 14 tracks from the band's singles between 1995 and 2001. None of these songs are available on other albums. The second half contains two sessions which remained unreleased until Accessories - the first being a studio session with krautrock legend Eroc, who the band wanted as their producer, and the second session the uncompromised result of the band being locked in a small analog studio for a week with nothing or nobody to restrict their creativity.

The Finnish masters of explosive krautrock, the band of a thousand guitars, Teksti-TV 666 are ready to let loose their second album in February 2023 after the five year long wait. Svart Records are proud to release Vapauden Tasavalta on CD, vinyl and digital platforms on February 24th 2023.

Teksti-TV 666 plays loud and stretched-to-the-max alternative rock songs filled with motorik-beats, shoegaze, psychedelic elements, and suddenly a proto-metal riff or two emerging out of nowhere. The band likes to avoid the excessive seriousness surrounding their music and instead vows to their constantly growing wall of sound -army and to the various vocalists joining them on stage. Teksti-TV 666 is the band to light up the party anytime, anywhere.

Little Animals, the last album in the official canon of the Beasts of Bourbon, was originally released unexpectedly, after 9 years of total silence from the band, in 2007. What could have been a new century renaissance for the group was cut short, however, during the next decade with the death of founding member Spencer B. Jones.

Over the Beasts' decades-long career the Beasts put out six albums and managed to carve their name into the annals of Australian rock'n'roll. Little Animals is a fitting epitaph to a legend, ten tracks of vicious and dirty crash-and-burn rock'n'roll.

0th Anniversary Vinyl Reissue! With the original gatefold layout plus all lyrics, new liner notes plus an interview with vocalist Harri Saksala. The album has been remastered for vinyl by Finland's premier progressive rock specialist Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox.

Kalevala and especially their debut album People No Names is a prime example of a record that should've been big, sold only a handful and only later on was reappraised as the masterful progressive rock epic that it is. Originally released 50 years ago on Finnlevy, then one of the largest labels in Finland, and not marketed at all, there were not more than 500 copies of the album pressed. When people finally realised the quality of the music on this piece of wax, prices for original copies on the second hand market went blasting through the roof and eventually into four figures.

Kalevala's story began at the turn of the new decade in 1970, and they played Cream-style hard

rock with a power trio lineup. The band's founding member Remu Aaltonen was kicked out the following year, and a renewed lineup immersed themselves in progressive rock. People No Names was released in 1972, and eventually Finnlevy had no idea what to do with this kind of difficult new youth music.

This 50th Anniversary reissue is put together with the approval of original vocalist Harri Saksala The album is remastered for vinyl by Pauli Saastamoinen at Finnvox.

The crown jewel of Finnish Death Metal, reissued in a band-approved new 30th anniversary edition. Features a new vinyl master from the original source by Noise for Fiction, plus a booklet with a lengthy feature by Hippo Taatila and some visual memorabilia. As an added vinyl bonus there's a large poster by the original cover artist Rob Smits creating a new vision of the album cover for the new millennium.

Together with bands like Demilich, Abhorrence, Disgrace, Xysma and Sentenced, Demigod from the wastelands of Loimaa, southern Finland, put Finland on the map in the global death metal scene in the late 80's and early 90's. Having risen to underground fame with their demo Unholy Domain, Slumber of Sullen Eyes was a hugely expected debut album. When it was finally released in 1992 after a complicated creation process at Tico-Tico Studios in northern Finland, it was received with open arms and drooling excitement by the then very active underground death metal scene.

That scene was, however, short lived,and by 1994 pretty much every band had switched from death metal to something else entirely. What was left after the bands had left the building was a number of classic albums that constitute the legacy of Finnish Death Metal. Among them, Slumber of Sullen Eyes is one of the most original and ferocious. There was nobody like Demigod.

Svart Records are proud to reissue this remarkable and quite hard to find album on CD, vinyl and tape.

The crown jewel of Finnish Death Metal, reissued in a band-approved new 30th anniversary edition. Features a new vinyl master from the original source by Noise for Fiction, plus a booklet with a lengthy feature by Hippo Taatila and some visual memorabilia. As an added vinyl bonus there's a large poster by the original cover artist Rob Smits creating a new vision of the album cover for the new millennium.

Together with bands like Demilich, Abhorrence, Disgrace, Xysma and Sentenced, Demigod from the wastelands of Loimaa, southern Finland, put Finland on the map in the global death metal scene in the late 80's and early 90's. Having risen to underground fame with their demo Unholy Domain, Slumber of Sullen Eyes was a hugely expected debut album. When it was finally released in 1992 after a complicated creation process at Tico-Tico Studios in northern Finland, it was received with open arms and drooling excitement by the then very active underground death metal scene.

That scene was, however, short lived,and by 1994 pretty much every band had switched from death metal to something else entirely. What was left after the bands had left the building was a number of classic albums that constitute the legacy of Finnish Death Metal. Among them, Slumber of Sullen Eyes is one of the most original and ferocious. There was nobody like Demigod.

Svart Records are proud to reissue this remarkable and quite hard to find album on CD, vinyl and tape.

The crown jewel of Finnish Death Metal, reissued in a band-approved new 30th anniversary edition. Features a new vinyl master from the original source by Noise for Fiction, plus a booklet with a lengthy feature by Hippo Taatila and some visual memorabilia. As an added vinyl bonus there's a large poster by the original cover artist Rob Smits creating a new vision of the album cover for the new millennium.

Together with bands like Demilich, Abhorrence, Disgrace, Xysma and Sentenced, Demigod from the wastelands of Loimaa, southern Finland, put Finland on the map in the global death metal scene in the late 80's and early 90's. Having risen to underground fame with their demo Unholy Domain, Slumber of Sullen Eyes was a hugely expected debut album. When it was finally released in 1992 after a complicated creation process at Tico-Tico Studios in northern Finland, it was received with open arms and drooling excitement by the then very active underground death metal scene.

That scene was, however, short lived,and by 1994 pretty much every band had switched from death metal to something else entirely. What was left after the bands had left the building was a number of classic albums that constitute the legacy of Finnish Death Metal. Among them, Slumber of Sullen Eyes is one of the most original and ferocious. There was nobody like Demigod.

Svart Records are proud to reissue this remarkable and quite hard to find album on CD, vinyl and tape.

Surprise Color Edition, with 500 copies on black, 300 on Magenta vinyl and 199 on Blue vinyl.

The second step on the way to world domination - Blind Channel's sophomore album presented in a definitive edition with gatefold covers and liner notes.

Svart Records enters into a vinyl partnership with Ranka Kustannus and will in the future release select albums from their ever growing catalog on vinyl. The co-operation starts with Blind Channel, who've by now become a household name and one of the most important music export items currently out of Finland.

Svart Records will release definitive vinyl editions of all three albums Blind Channel released on Ranka - Revolutions, Violent Pop and Blood Brothers. All three shall be presented in a limited edition of 999 copies, split into classic black vinyl and two color editions, which are randomly available to customers. All three feature extensive liner notes and interviews by James Hickie.

2022 has been a historically remarkable year in many ways, one of them being that the recorded legacy of Finland's top melodic death metal export Omnium Gatherum turns 20. After the now-defunct label Rage of Achilles put these songs out on a mini-CD, Omnium Gatherum embarked on a career that has taken them through eight albums on several large labels and shows no sign of slowing down.

To mark the occasion the band's own label imprint Filthy Horde decided it's time to bring the debut release out as a 12" mini album, took swift action and enlisted Svart Records to help with the task of the actual production.

The fruition of these efforts, a limited 12 inch just as it would have been, had the band's then-label Rage of Achilles released it on vinyl in 2002, is scheduled to come out on December 2nd. Available on classic black and natural milky clear wax.

One of the last pieces in the vast discography of Link Wray not available on vinyl previously, this album captures the Rumble Man live on two dates in London and Manchester on one of his last tours in 1997.

Over an hour of primal rock'n'roll from one of its absolute pioneers, captured in front of a live audience in the UK! The set lists feature brutally loud renditions of a select number of Wray classics with added cover tunes here and there.

With updated cover art, the Svart vinyl edition comes in a gatefold sleeve and features liner notes.

Finnish prog-psych quintet Sammal sheds skin and changes into a power trio, new album announced



Sammal have since their 2013 debut cemented their reputation as one of the leaders of the Fenno-Ugrian neoprogressive and psychedelic scene and also raised some waves internationally, performing at the well respected Roadburn Festival in 2015 and garnering a series of raving reviews around the world of psychedelia and progressive rock fandom, such as “Truly amazing and otherworldy music” or “Earnest, vibrant music specked with impressive nuance”. A few years have passed since the successful Suuliekki album, and since then two of their five members have left the fold. Guitarist and songwriter Jura Salmi decided, however, that Sammal must continue in some form or another.

“During the spring of 2020 I would spend time alone recording new demos with the guitar. The remaining three Sammal members had already decided that if the band was to continue, we would not seek another keyboard player.I had bought a guitar pedal that can simulate keyboard sounds and it opened a new world to me. I realized we can perform fine as a power trio without a bass or a keyboard player”, comments Jura Salmi.



“Sammal has always been a melting pot of all music we like. If in the past we used to be heavily into bands lke Camel, Dungen and Opeth, when working on this album we’d listen to everything from Bo Hansson and Iron Butterfly to Type O Negative and Whitesnake”, laughs Salmi and continues, “We’d also pick the language of a song’s lyrics based on what we felt would fit the mood of the song. This album has songs in Finnish, Swedish and English.”



Sammal’s unexpected prog-psych-boogie epic Aika laulaa will be released on November 18th on all platforms as well as on CD and LP.

Finnish prog-psych quintet Sammal sheds skin and changes into a power trio, new album announced



Sammal have since their 2013 debut cemented their reputation as one of the leaders of the Fenno-Ugrian neoprogressive and psychedelic scene and also raised some waves internationally, performing at the well respected Roadburn Festival in 2015 and garnering a series of raving reviews around the world of psychedelia and progressive rock fandom, such as “Truly amazing and otherworldy music” or “Earnest, vibrant music specked with impressive nuance”. A few years have passed since the successful Suuliekki album, and since then two of their five members have left the fold. Guitarist and songwriter Jura Salmi decided, however, that Sammal must continue in some form or another.

“During the spring of 2020 I would spend time alone recording new demos with the guitar. The remaining three Sammal members had already decided that if the band was to continue, we would not seek another keyboard player.I had bought a guitar pedal that can simulate keyboard sounds and it opened a new world to me. I realized we can perform fine as a power trio without a bass or a keyboard player”, comments Jura Salmi.



“Sammal has always been a melting pot of all music we like. If in the past we used to be heavily into bands lke Camel, Dungen and Opeth, when working on this album we’d listen to everything from Bo Hansson and Iron Butterfly to Type O Negative and Whitesnake”, laughs Salmi and continues, “We’d also pick the language of a song’s lyrics based on what we felt would fit the mood of the song. This album has songs in Finnish, Swedish and English.”



Sammal’s unexpected prog-psych-boogie epic Aika laulaa will be released on November 18th on all platforms as well as on CD and LP.

The original creators of Psychobilly Music, The Meteors began as a reaction against soft neo-rockabilly music of the late 70’s rock revival era. Since then the loud, sneering lovers of horror, perversion and death have released a few dozen records and are still going strong, 40 years into their career of evil.



Svart Records are demonically proud to present an official reissue of The Meteors’ 2004 album These Evil Things. Long out of print on physical formats, this authorised reissue comes with a secret bonus track, all pressed on pitch black or ghostly curacao blue vinyl and stuffed into a gatefold jacket.

The original creators of Psychobilly Music, The Meteors began as a reaction against soft neo-rockabilly music of the late 70’s rock revival era. Since then the loud, sneering lovers of horror, perversion and death have released a few dozen records and are still going strong, 40 years into their career of evil.



Svart Records are demonically proud to present an official reissue of The Meteors’ 2004 album These Evil Things. Long out of print on physical formats, this authorised reissue comes with a secret bonus track, all pressed on pitch black or ghostly curacao blue vinyl and stuffed into a gatefold jacket.

The original creators of Psychobilly Music, The Meteors began as a reaction against soft neo-rockabilly music of the late 70’s rock revival era. Since then the loud, sneering lovers of horror, perversion and death have released a few dozen records and are still going strong, 40 years into their career of evil.



Svart Records are overwhelmed with psychotic joy to present an official reissue of The Meteors’ 2003 album Psychobilly. Long out of print on physical formats, this authorised reissue comes with a secret bonus track, all pressed on pitch black or poisonous green vinyl and wrapped in a gatefold jacket.

The original creators of Psychobilly Music, The Meteors began as a reaction against soft neo-rockabilly music of the late 70’s rock revival era. Since then the loud, sneering lovers of horror, perversion and death have released a few dozen records and are still going strong, 40 years into their career of evil.



Svart Records are overwhelmed with psychotic joy to present an official reissue of The Meteors’ 2003 album Psychobilly. Long out of print on physical formats, this authorised reissue comes with a secret bonus track, all pressed on pitch black or poisonous green vinyl and wrapped in a gatefold jacket.

The original creators of Psychobilly Music, The Meteors began as a reaction against soft neo-rockabilly music of the late 70’s rock revival era. Since then the loud, sneering lovers of horror, perversion and death have released a few dozen records and are still going strong, 40 years into their career of evil.



Svart Records are hellishly excited to bring you an official reissue of The Meteors’ 2007 album Hymns For The Hellbound. Long out of print on physical formats, this authorised reissue comes with a secret bonus track, all pressed on pitch black or blood-dripping red vinyl and wrapped in a gatefold jacket.

The original creators of Psychobilly Music, The Meteors began as a reaction against soft neo-rockabilly music of the late 70’s rock revival era. Since then the loud, sneering lovers of horror, perversion and death have released a few dozen records and are still going strong, 40 years into their career of evil.



Svart Records are hellishly excited to bring you an official reissue of The Meteors’ 2007 album Hymns For The Hellbound. Long out of print on physical formats, this authorised reissue comes with a secret bonus track, all pressed on pitch black or blood-dripping red vinyl and wrapped in a gatefold jacket.

On December 2nd Svart Records will release the slowly gestated second album by the mystical Finnish progressive rock group Getsemane, who describe themselves as performing music "molded from the jawbones of a pike", in reference to the Kalevala where Väinämöinen built his first kantele The group first got together in 2009 in the Tampere area to perform live music for a fire theatre. After the shows they decided to continue as a band finding ever more polyrythmic and progressive ideas still drawing from the Kalevala mythos and eccentric psychedelic visions. Getsemane self-released their eponymous debut album in 2015, and the follow-up Viimaa is due for release this December. Best known for their dynamic live shows, the group's new album is full of unusual time signatures, meandering melodic lines and ethereal landscapes, not forgetting hard rocking in the best 70s style. Those that are into classic prog rock in the lines of Haikara, Tabula Rasa or King Crimson will feel immediately at home.

What on earth has happened to gothic rock? This was the thought burning in Joakim Knutsson’s mind, and he felt that something needed to be done to save the much-loved genre from going down the drain. He embarked on this mission with the aim to create something special but also something faithful to the original ideals of the 80’s gothic genre.



“I wanted a band that would be an occult mix of The Lords Of The New Church, Adam and the Ants, John Carpenter and Billy Idol”, says Knutsson, “The end result turned out heavier, bloodier and darker than that, but that was probably our destiny anyway.”



With a little help from prominent members of the Swedish metal and punk community the idea recently took a solid form. Today the band together sums more than 250 years of knowledge in music and pop culture - knowledge they shamelessly put to use in their own creation.



Here they are: die Oberherren. The Gothic rock band the world has been waiting for since the golden age of the 80s. Kept strictly under wraps until now, die Oberherren feature members of the rock and metal royalty in Sweden, with past or current membership in bands such as The Coffinshakers, Ghost, The Mobile Mob Freakshow, Gehennah and many more.



The band snatched their ominous-sounding moniker from the intellectual group that operated at the turn of the 20th century, by whom their lyrics are also heavily influenced. “Anarchistic, occult, and apocalyptic imagery with prophets of war, Armageddon, decadence, and love – these themes and ideas are even more actual today than the original ‘overlords’ could ever dream of over a hundred years ago”, comments Knutsson.

The debut album Die By My Hand, set for release on January 27th 2023 on Svart Records, is a collection of eight songs that are adorned with infectious hooks and laced with vintage darkness.

What on earth has happened to gothic rock? This was the thought burning in Joakim Knutsson’s mind, and he felt that something needed to be done to save the much-loved genre from going down the drain. He embarked on this mission with the aim to create something special but also something faithful to the original ideals of the 80’s gothic genre.



“I wanted a band that would be an occult mix of The Lords Of The New Church, Adam and the Ants, John Carpenter and Billy Idol”, says Knutsson, “The end result turned out heavier, bloodier and darker than that, but that was probably our destiny anyway.”



With a little help from prominent members of the Swedish metal and punk community the idea recently took a solid form. Today the band together sums more than 250 years of knowledge in music and pop culture - knowledge they shamelessly put to use in their own creation.



Here they are: die Oberherren. The Gothic rock band the world has been waiting for since the golden age of the 80s. Kept strictly under wraps until now, die Oberherren feature members of the rock and metal royalty in Sweden, with past or current membership in bands such as The Coffinshakers, Ghost, The Mobile Mob Freakshow, Gehennah and many more.



The band snatched their ominous-sounding moniker from the intellectual group that operated at the turn of the 20th century, by whom their lyrics are also heavily influenced. “Anarchistic, occult, and apocalyptic imagery with prophets of war, Armageddon, decadence, and love – these themes and ideas are even more actual today than the original ‘overlords’ could ever dream of over a hundred years ago”, comments Knutsson.

The debut album Die By My Hand, set for release on January 27th 2023 on Svart Records, is a collection of eight songs that are adorned with infectious hooks and laced with vintage darkness.

Isafjørd, meaning literally fjord of ice, is a shining new ethereal Post-rock band from Iceland. Named after the town that both of their fathers came from, Ísafjörður, Aðalbjörn Addi Tryggvason (Sólstafir) and Ragnar Zolberg (Sign/x-Pain of Salvation) sculpt beautiful and desolate pop, as bright and dark as the sub-arctic seasons. Isafjørd’s new album “Hjartastjak” is an infectious rush of euphoric melancholy, quiet-loud dynamism, lush instrumentation and unforgettable atmospheric landscapes of song.

Meeting on the road, night creatures of the same renowned Reykjavik music scene, Ragnar playing live session bass for Sólstafir, Addi and Ragnar’s musical paths finally intersect in Isafjørd with a sound that reaches like a stalactite from the past into a gleaming future. Holed up in the middle of winter, in an old house with a broken piano in the freezing cold, “Hjartastjaki” is an album of songs that were written straight from the heart, sometimes in a single day.

Their chemistry as immediate as the climate they survive in, Isafjørd is a real meeting of spirits, with Ragnar’s sleek and cherubim voice a brilliant counterpoint to Addi’s dusty and aching cries, over orchestrated build-ups of soaring piano and sliding guitars. The catchy and haunting music that Addi and Ragnar create in Isafjørd is at once familiar in that lived-in, well-worn way a great song can touch your soul. Having both lived in Norway and speaking Norwegian, Addi and Ragnar speak the same language of the heart, as their Nordic melancholy makes for deep and mountainous music. Isafjørd’s songs are sincere icebergs of tundra-anthems that bring to mind Fields Of The Nephilim and Duran Duran jamming in a frozen valley, where the creative 80s New Wave meets GodSpeed You Black Emperor. With influences that range from Cardigans, Beatles, early Judas Priest and Neil Young, Addi and Ragnar have struck a vein of gold that crystallizes their own heritage of wide-screen Metal gloom into something new.

Now coming of age, matured into a shimmering diamond of Icelandic pop at its finest, Isafjørd is on another plain from Addi’s own Sólstafir, where their cinematic metal roots have been re-traced into sweeping glacial song-craft. A country known for their honest and heart–wrenching emotional take on pop music with Björk and Sigur Rós, Isafjørd gives a new definition of “landscape music”. When an album feels like a place you want to inhabit and experience, “Hjartastjaki” is a journey that you’re going to want to take.

Isafjørd, meaning literally fjord of ice, is a shining new ethereal Post-rock band from Iceland. Named after the town that both of their fathers came from, Ísafjörður, Aðalbjörn Addi Tryggvason (Sólstafir) and Ragnar Zolberg (Sign/x-Pain of Salvation) sculpt beautiful and desolate pop, as bright and dark as the sub-arctic seasons. Isafjørd’s new album “Hjartastjak” is an infectious rush of euphoric melancholy, quiet-loud dynamism, lush instrumentation and unforgettable atmospheric landscapes of song.

Meeting on the road, night creatures of the same renowned Reykjavik music scene, Ragnar playing live session bass for Sólstafir, Addi and Ragnar’s musical paths finally intersect in Isafjørd with a sound that reaches like a stalactite from the past into a gleaming future. Holed up in the middle of winter, in an old house with a broken piano in the freezing cold, “Hjartastjaki” is an album of songs that were written straight from the heart, sometimes in a single day.

Their chemistry as immediate as the climate they survive in, Isafjørd is a real meeting of spirits, with Ragnar’s sleek and cherubim voice a brilliant counterpoint to Addi’s dusty and aching cries, over orchestrated build-ups of soaring piano and sliding guitars. The catchy and haunting music that Addi and Ragnar create in Isafjørd is at once familiar in that lived-in, well-worn way a great song can touch your soul. Having both lived in Norway and speaking Norwegian, Addi and Ragnar speak the same language of the heart, as their Nordic melancholy makes for deep and mountainous music. Isafjørd’s songs are sincere icebergs of tundra-anthems that bring to mind Fields Of The Nephilim and Duran Duran jamming in a frozen valley, where the creative 80s New Wave meets GodSpeed You Black Emperor. With influences that range from Cardigans, Beatles, early Judas Priest and Neil Young, Addi and Ragnar have struck a vein of gold that crystallizes their own heritage of wide-screen Metal gloom into something new.

Now coming of age, matured into a shimmering diamond of Icelandic pop at its finest, Isafjørd is on another plain from Addi’s own Sólstafir, where their cinematic metal roots have been re-traced into sweeping glacial song-craft. A country known for their honest and heart–wrenching emotional take on pop music with Björk and Sigur Rós, Isafjørd gives a new definition of “landscape music”. When an album feels like a place you want to inhabit and experience, “Hjartastjaki” is a journey that you’re going to want to take.