
RECENT
RELEASES:

ORDINANCE - In Purge There is No Remission LP/CD [TSF013]
On
September 11th internationally, The Sinister Flame is proud to present
the highly anticipated second album of Finland’s Ordinance, In
Purge There is No Remission, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Formed
sometime during the beginning of this cursed new millennium, Ordinance
have been a study of patience and pride. Not for them to rush out releases;
each creation comes when it is ready. No more, no less…no mystique
intended. Neither for them is the term “Finnish black metal”
appropriate, despite their country of origin; rather, BLACK METAL is
the only torch worth bearing in the Ordinance world. And so far, across
a demo in 2007 and the Relinquishment debut album in 2014, that torch
has been brilliant in its searing obsidian glow.
Naturally
for a band that eschews wider visibility and the cheap gimmicks or safe
categorization that
gets many/most bands there, Ordinance have remained something of a “diamond
in the rough” as it were – a band too often (and unjustly)
overlooked, based solely on the strength of their recordings. While
The Sinister Flame does not hold out much hope for the public changing
its weak ways, it is confident in saying that Ordinance have delivered
their most potent work yet in their long-awaited sophomore album, In
Purge There is No Remission.
The
title itself bears especial portent, as musically, Ordinance literally
leave no stone unturned (or weapon unused?) in their quest for the ultimate
expression of black metal. The sound is immediately and irrevocably
BLACK METAL, to be sure, but the duo bend so many unorthodox means to
their diabolical design – and, it must be said, effortlessly and
unselfconsciously so – that the end result is paradoxically orthodox,
or at least a stridently purer iteration of black metal than one would
expect given the band’s wild ‘n’ wayward attack. Thus,
one could say that In Purge There is No Remission is black metal by
language, but Ordinance‘s dialect is an undeniably unique one.
Utterly
ominous, tauntingly sinister, Ordinance here create a seven-song soundscape
that manages to unnerve and unhinge the listener as ably as the band
have already done to their own spiritual parameters. A dense-but-devious
50 minutes in total, In Purge There is No Remission possesses an atmosphere
that’s unpredictable yet unified, exciting but never scattershot.
This is a work of master craftsmen and cunning sorcerers simultaneously,
a delirious (and delirium-inducing) trip into madness and mysticism:
a reconstitution of second-wave classicism with boundaries both broken
and built. This is Ordinance‘s In Purge There is No Remission,
and it demands that only the adventurous and ardent apply.
Track-listing
for In Purge There is No Remission
1.
Obstructed Paths
2. Diabolopathia
3. Gathering Wraiths
4. Credo Sceleratum
5. The Kingdom of Nothing
6. Gesticulation of Death
7. Purging Kremanation
Exclusive
USA distribution by Dark Descent Records
STYGIAN
TEMPLE - In the Sign of the Five Angles LP [TSF014]
On
September 11th internationally, The Sinister Flame is proud to present
Stygian Temple's striking debut album, In the Sign of the Five Angles,
on vinyl LP format.
A
literal bolt from the blue (or deepest black?), emerging with no warning
and even less fanfare, Stygian Temple released their debut album, In
the Sign of the Five Angles, on CD format in 2016. With no prior public
recordings, this release flew far too under the radar of even the most
diehard underground-dwellers, which is criminal to say the very least:
here, Stygian Temple evinced a mastery of black metal that defied their
otherwise-new standing. Indeed, one could even say that In the Sign
of the Five Angles was some lost Sombre Records release from the late
'90s, so authentic was its ancient pallor - but then again, the late/great
Sombre would NEVER release a CD in the first place...
The
Sinister Flame lives in the present, but breathes the past just as potently,
and therein lies the rationale for at last unleashing Stygian Temple's
In the Sign of the Five Angles on vinyl for the first time ever. Whether
the year is 2020 or 1998, this 41-minute opus is driven by a timeless,
purely Satanic fanaticism. After the appropriately mood-setting intro,
this Teutonic duo then transforms the six subsequent tracks into a menacing
void of cold & atmospheric all-caps BLACK METAL. It's imperative
to understand that latter point here, for Stygian Temple possess an
exceedingly astute grasp of melodicism: surely, a word that might rankle
the noses of those who grew up in more modern times of "cavernous"-this
and "sepulchral"-that, but cast your gaze back to the days
of purple 'n' blue covers and one will find that nearly every worthy
horde back then backed up their battery with spiraling, nightsky-melodic
riffing. Such is the case here, tenfold, and it's welded onto thoroughly
dynamic, first-class songwriting that sacrifices not an ounce of power
nor nuance. We could make further references to early Watain, even-earlier
Dark Funeral, and perhaps Mayhem's De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas to give
a clearer view of Stygian Temple's primary influences, but on evidence
of In the Sign of the Five Angles, their glorification of Satan is entirely
their own.
Thanks
to the ever-flowing mass of useless "black metal" that's shamelessly
released by hundreds of labels on a monthly basis, there are many pearls
that never get the attention they would very much deserve nor seem to
reach the right hands. Thus, The Sinister Flame deems it their duty
to shine a further blacklight on Stygian Temple's In the Sign of the
Five Angles by releasing it on vinyl. You snooze, you pose!
Track-listing
for In the Sign of the Five Angles
1.
Intro
2. Soli Deo Gloria
3. Cathartic Nimbus
4. The Great Cosmic Void
5. Verbum Dei
6. In the Sign of the Five Angles
7. Dominion of the Trident
Exclusive
USA distribution by Dark Descent Records
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