HDR 2012

HYPNOTIC DIRGE RELEASES • 2012

Subterranean Disposition - selftitled
Release: October 27, 2012
Style: Progressive Death-Doom Metal
Format: 6 Panel Digipack / 8 Page Booklet (100) | Jewel Case / 8 Page Booklet (400)
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Subterranean Disposition is an experimental death-doom project from Terry Vainoras, The debut self-titled Subterranean Disposition album explores the use of dissonance and ambience, lending more dynamics to the long passages of darkness and light, crafted from the influence of early 90’s doom and modern sludge with forward thinking embellishments in song writing.

netra - Sørbyen
Release: September 29, 2012
Style: Trip-hop / Black Metal / Alternative Rock
Format: Jewel Case / 8 Page Booklet
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With influences ranging from the moodiest jazz music to black metal and trip-hop, netra has always been about challenging the listener's open-mindedness and 'Sørbyen' shows netra continuing to evolve its experimental sound using a palette of varying musical and artistic influences to create an album that is claustrophobic, organic, and unmistakably depressing.

Silent Path - Mourner Portraits
Release: July 28, 2012
Style: Depressive Black Metal / Funeral Doom
Format: Jewel Case / 16 Page Booklet
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Silent Path is another musical project from Saman Nu, the musician from Tehran, Iran behind the atmospheric Black Metal project, Ekove Efrits. With Silent Path the sound is grittier, darker, and much less optimistic and brings together elements of down-tempo depressive black metal, funeral doom, and ambience.

Epitimia - Faces of Insanity
Release: July 14, 2012
Style: Atmospheric Black Metal / Post-rock
Format: Jewel Case / 8 Page Booklet
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A three-piece atmospheric Black Metal, post-rock band from Saint-Petersburg, Russia, Epitimia's 'Faces of Insanity' album is the band's third full-length album. Combining an intriguing blend of atmospheric post-rock, and depressive black metal, this band has a strong capability for heavy doom, ambience, raw black metal, and a deep melancholy.

stroszek - sound graveyard bound
Release: March 10, 2012
Style: Neo-folk / Alternative Rock
Format: Jewel Case / Insert
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Mixing various influences including Tom Waits, and Johnny Cash, Stroszek is certainly not a typical band you'd expect to hear from someone coming from a black metal background. Instead, Stroszek is often described as "old music for old people" with its trademark sound mixing melancholic acoustic rock with american folk music and (real) country music.

Old Forgotten Lands - Primal
Release: March 10, 2012
Style: Ambient / Neo-Folk
Format: Jewel Case / 8 Page Booklet
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The new material of Old Forgotten Lands shows a nice progression and has a much more natural and organic feeling. Making use of various unique instruments such as a Tibetan singing bowl, a tambourine, wooden flute, violin, timpani, maracas, among others, Primal is a fantastic album which shows maturity in a genre which can sometimes become repetitive and mundane.

Official Releases - Digital Only

2012

Hypnotic Dirge Records Compilation 2012/13 : Solipsist Anthems
Release: December 15, 2012
Style: Black Metal / Doom Metal / Ambient / Other
Format: Digital Only
Stream / Download

The fourth annual free digital compilation from Hypnotic Dirge Records. Over 2 and a half hours of music from all of the current projects on the label, as well as some outside guests from Solitude Productions, collaborative work, and more. Also comes with over 30 minutes of video, full album artwork, notes from all of the artists, and photography.

Ekove Efrits - Hypermnesia
Release: September 13, 2012
Style: Neo-Classical / Trip-hop
Format: Digital Only
Stream / Download

This is conceptual album with different genres from Ekove Efrits. the style is mainly experimental with elements of trip-hop, electronic music, and classical music. The voice on the track "Moonlight Departure" is from "Ahmad Shamlou" the great Iranian contemporary Poet (1925-2000). The model on the front side of cover art is Erato. Predicate sounds have been taken from real radio archives.

Galaktik Cancer Squad - The Gathering [Compilation]
Release: May 29, 2012
Style: Progressive Black Metal
Format: Digital Only
Stream / Download

The Gathering is a compilation album from Galaktik Cancer Squad including remastered songs of "Oceans of Piss and Blood" Split, "Isolation/Separation" Split, "Ewig Wachend" EP and two new tracks.

Official Releases - Physical Media
2011

Ov Hollowness - Drawn to Descend
Release: July 29, 2011
Style: Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet
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After self-releasing a debut album in 2010, Ov Hollowness returns with a sophomore album one year later entitled 'Drawn to Descend'. Building upon the foundations of the 'Diminished' album, 'Drawn to Descend' is a fairly straight forward album with strong use of eerie guitar solos, effective drumming, catchy melodies, and thrash riffs which all combine to make a solid black metal album.

Ekove Efrits - Conceptual Horizon
Release: July 29, 2011
Style: Experimental Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 16 Page Booklet
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Ekove Efrits' Conceptual Horizon is a musically varied, album rooted within the Black metal genre but is also an album that is able to bridge many different emotions together into one relevant and stable concept. Hate, Aggression, Love, Depression, and Melancholy all find a place in an album which is filled with captivating and hypnotic melodies. The best melancholic black metal band from Iran!

Funeral Fornication - Pandemic Transgression
Release: July 29, 2011
Style: Eclectic Progressive Ambient Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Funeral Fornication is back with their new album Pandemic Transgression. Experimental, unique, catchy, bleak, depressing, yet difficult to define. Sole-member Vultyrous shows his ability to write captivating material using a variety of influences to create a strong mix of dark and melancholic music that shows that maturity of this evolving project. The necessary soundtrack to your funeral fucking fornications!

Official Releases - Digital Only
2011

stroszek - a break in the day
Release: July 18, 2011
Style: Melancholic Rock
Format: Digital Only
Stream / Download

A Break In The Day" features the music which was formerly recorded @ Big Wave studio for "the Wild Hunt" EP. Nat wrote her own lyrics and sang. The same goes for "Hotel", but this was recorded at home by Dan. Cover picture was taken by Donna. A very special thanx to Dustin for bringin' these songs to life. [This album was later re-released on CD edition by Pest Productions with additional tracks]

Deprived of Light - Coloured Death
Release: April 9, 2011
Style: Post-Rock / Metal
Format: Digital Only
Stream / Download

Deprived of Light is a collaboration between Lord Trowe - The Foetal Mind, and Psychotic - Phychocalypse. Together they form a post-rock influenced metal album with strong melodic guitar work, and hints of black and doom metal. This is not an easy album to catergorize, especially considering the three different projects that the songs belong to.

netra - Mélancolie urbaine
Release: December 16, 2010
Style: Depressive Black Metal, Trip-hop, Alternative
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet
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The street lights are colder than usual, how come I am so moved ? I feel the urge to escape, to make everything vanish for a while. Mélancolie urbaine album is one of the most original albums to be released in a long time and is truly unique. This album is an incredible journey to your innermost thoughts and nightmares and transcends the typical depressive black metal soundscapes for something more interesting.

The Foetal Mind - The Grand Contraction
Release: December 16, 2010
Style: Instrumental Post-Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet
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A largely instrumental metal album, filled with powerful, catchy and atmospheric riffs that bring about the concept of The Grand Contraction. A very guitar based album that should please all metal fans regardless of genre, The Foetal Mind's new album shows a massive change from their DSBM beginnings. The guitar work is highly melodic, catchy, and much more prolific in its approach than before.

Uruk-Hai / Funeral Fornication [Split Album]
Release: September 19, 2010
Style: Ambient Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Album Reviews

As a precursor to Funeral Fornication's forthcoming full-length album 'Pandemic Transgression', comes the split album with Austria's legendary Uruk-Hai, a project that Vultyrous has cited as a strong influence throughout his many years as a musician. Uruk-Hai delivers his brand of epic, LOTR-inspired ambient black metal in the vein of Summoning, while Funeral Fornication continues to grow with each sequential release.

Our Diabolical Embrance - Immortal Night Laments [EP]
Release: September 19, 2010
Style: Symphonic Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

...

Exiled From Light - There is No Beauty Left Here... [2CD]
Release: July 22, 2010
Style: Depressive Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Exiled From Light has quickly risen the ranks of Depressive Black Metal scene, and we are pleased to announce the release of the second monumental album - 'There is no beauty left here...' Another excellent example of the human mind's descent into depravity and agony, There is no beauty left here... picks up where the debut album left off and takes the musicianship and atmosphere to a whole new level.

Symbiosis / Ancient Tundra - These Engulfing Winds Never Die [Split Album] [CD+DVD]
Release: March 11, 2010
Style: Dark Ambient, Neo-Classical, Soundtrack
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet [CD-r / DVD-r release]
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For over a year now, ambient artists Ancient Tundra and Symbiosis have worked towards creating a monumental dark ambient release that showcased both the audio and video aspects of the genre. These Engulfing Winds Never Die is the result of over a year`s work writing / recording music and filming nature in its harshest elements. From the frozen Canadian prairies to the mountains of Italy.

Official Releases - Digital Only
2010

Funeral in Heaven - Shanthikarma [Live EP; 2010]
Release: May 11, 2010
Style: Black Metal
Format: Digital Only
Stream / Download

In the distant horizons of antiquity, Sri Lanka was an Island kissed by nature, blessed by gods, haunted be demons, gripped by mysteries and ruled by occultism. Funeral In Heaven, is nothing more than a congregation of a few concerned and ardent individuals belonging to one of the few and remaining cautiously orchestrated systems of preservation of the dark arts of Sri Lanka.

Official Releases - Physical Media
2009

The Foetal Mind - Supreme Cheminement
Release: December 19, 2009
Style: Depressive Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

After releasing five self-released demos between July 2007 and April 2009, The Foetal Mind unleashes their first full-length album "Supreme Cheminement." The Foetal Mind has created a soundscape with beautiful atmosphere and raw emotion expressed so strongly. "Supreme Cheminement" is loaded with memorable hypnotizing riffs that ride the wave of sorrow and despair.

Neige et Noirceur - L'Abime des jours, L'ecume des nuits
Release: December 19, 2009
Style: Ambient Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

The songs feautred on this double-disc album were released as 2 separate demos. The tracks on CD I were previously released on Demo III: "L’Abîme des jours, l’écume des nuits" and the tracks on CD II were released on demo IV: "Court séjour au royaume des morts." All of these songs were recorded in the same time period, so the idea to combine these pieces came to us naturally.

Old Forgotten Lands / Ancient Tundra - Equinox
Release: September 2, 2009
Style: Dark Ambient, Neo-Classical, Soundtrack
Format: Jewel Case / 8 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Old Forgotten Lands combines synergistic field recordings with dreamy and nostalgic synth tones that captures the essence of the natural world, while Ancient Tundra creates a colder sound that carry forlorn and melancholic melodies across barren landscapes. This album shows both artists continue to evolve from their earlier works and add new dynamics to their sound. The Equinox is Upon us!

Exiled From Light - Descending Further into Nothingness
Release: July 11, 2009
Style: Depressive Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 8 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

New Zealand's most prolific black metal musician Mort (Winds of Sorrow, When Mine Eyes Blacken) has created a mesmerizing, truly expressive piece of musical art in the form of an intelligent depressive-black metal album that feels both genuine and musically-accomplished. Six great tracks of pure melancholy across 50 minutes of music. Highly recommended for all fans of Depressive Black Metal art!

Funeral Fornication - Solitude and Suicide
Release: June 18, 2009
Style: Ambient Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Funeral Fornication's third full-length album 'Solitude and Suicide' is a new approach for this canadian project which has traditionally followed a pagan/thrash black metal musical identity. On "Solitude and Suicide" we are presented with a grim and powerful yet at times contemplative album that defines the beginning of a new, darker era in the legacy that is Funeral Fornication.

Immundus - Haunted Memories
Release: April 28, 2009
Style: Dark / Horror Ambient
Format: 4 Panel Digipack
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Neige et Noirceur - Crepuscule Hivernal sans fin sur les Terres de la Guere
Release: March 6, 2009
Style: Atmospheric Ambient Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Total dark art and blackness from Québec! Fans of Darkspace and Atmospheric Cosmic Black Metal will enjoy this Métal noir québécois!

Astral Luminous - Lunaric Tide
Release: April 27, 2009
Style: Atmospheric Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 12 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Astral Luminous is a one man Black Metal project from Texas. Inspired by the cosmos, astral projection, and human philosophy, this is an album filled with hypnotic riffs and trance-inducing ambience. Physical edition includes a beautiful 8 page booklet designed by Ba'al Graphics.

Echoes of Silence - Beyond the Crimson Gates
Release: January 6, 2009
Style: Experimental Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Album Reviews

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Official Releases - Physical Media
2008

Ancient Tundra - Requiems of a World Lost
Release: November 24, 2008
Style: Ambient, Neo-Classical, Soundtrack
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

Desolate, hypnotic, and dissonant dark ambient with hints of neo-classical and a slight black metal aesthetic and atmosphere. Distant melodies shrouded in layers and obscured by the winds of winter are heard amidst strings, piano harmonies, distant percussion, and the occasional haunted whisper. A post-apocalyptic

world - vast, cold, and dead - where nature reigns supreme and conditions are unfit for human life.

Winds of Sorrow - Through Twilight...
Release: November 24, 2008
Style: Melodic / Depressive Black Metal
Format: Jewel Case / 4 Page Booklet [CD-r release]
CD SOLD OUT | Digital | Album Reviews

The debut album from Mort's (Exiled From Light, Schizophrenia, When Mine Eyes Blacken) Atmospheric Black Metal Project. Beautiful Melodies and Absorbing Atmospheres, an album with the potential to be uplifting yet still be depressive! A different side of Mort's multi-faceted musical path.