Life is short and let’s face it, our time on this rotten planet is limited. So why not make out the best of it and just go full throttle as if there was no tomorrow? This has always been the HIRAX motto for the last forty years. Their indestructible frontman Katon W. De Pena may have celebrated his 61st birthday last September but time has seemingly no grip on him, the man is raging as if it was 1984 all over again.

As a matter of fact, in 2024 HIRAX still dances on the fence bordering thrash, hardcore, punk and crossover while frantically throwing their collective middle finger at whoever begs to differ. In August, they released an explosive four-track, immediately sold-out EP Faster Than Death – and first proper set of new music since 2014’s Immortal Legacy – It is a vicious and to-the-point eight minutes long beast, said to be a taster of things to come and warn listeners to run for cover…

Clocked at 20 minutes and 28 seconds, produced and mixed by cult OZZY OSBOURNE, Y&T, LOUDNESS and MEGADETH- related Max Norman and engineered by longtime collaborator Bill Metoyer (FLOTSAM & JETSAM, SACRED REICH, SLAYER etc.), Faster Than Death aptly deserves its title. Featuring different versions of the songs displayed on the previous EP, eight new originals and one remake of ‘Warlords Command’ from their cult 1985 debut Raging Violence, it destroys – no, wait – obliterates all competition. Forget about all those so-called ‘new’ old-school thrashers or supposedly ‘lost’ bands getting back together for a buck or two. HIRAX is the real deal. And before you complain about how ‘short’ this album is, just try - yeah go on, try you poser - and see if you can sustain the blast. Besides, don’t expect drummer extraordinaire and former EXHUMED Danny Walker or guitar player Neil Metcalf who both played on this recording, to try to slow things down, far from it…

THRASH OR BE THRASHED!!!

LP DIE-HARD VERSION:

• Ultra-thick casewrapped gatefold with black interior and glossy lamination
• Black and gold heavy weight 180gsm vinyl
• Printed inner sleeve
• A2 poster

CD DIGIPACK:

• 8-pgs booklet
• Glossy lamination

TAPE:

• 5-panel J-card
• Red and yellow color

Release and shipping date: 21st February 2025

MŮRA. The only band of its kind in the Czech music scene. This brooding death/doom metal ensemble got together in Prague in 2020 and immediately scored with all death/doom worshippers. Their successful EP "Doom Invocations and Narcotic Rituals" was released one year later on the American label Caligari Records. MŮRA will impress you with their creeping brand of doom metal, which offers a very wide overlap into old school death metal and true heinous black metal. Although there are some faster parts as well, the band keeps the tempo mostly slow and the music has all the necessary ingredients; varied rhythms, long drawn out gloomy guitar riffs, and subtle licks that contribute unobtrusive but impressive melodies. All this is dominated by morbid vocals reciting dismal lyrics.

You can expect an equally dark musical cocktail on the new recording, "Needle Cathedral," perfected to the last creative and sonic details. The album was recorded at the renowned Golden Hive Recordings Studio in Prague. For the new EP, MŮRA has joined forces with Doomentia Records, long-time home to bands like Disma and Funebrarum, and fans of those aforementioned bands will be likely to enjoy the new album as well. "Needle Cathedral" comes out on limited 12" vinyl with a high quality gatefold cover. The B-side of the vinyl version contains bonus material from the debut demo "Doom Invocations and Narcotic Rituals".

In addition to the vinyl, there will be collectible cassette tapes as well. Both "Needle Cathedral" and "Doom Invocations and Narcotic Rituals" will be issued soon on two separate cassette releases. Doom or be doomed!

VINYL:

• Bonus on the B-side: "Doom Invocations and Narcotic Rituals" demo
• Available in BLACK and WHITE MARBLED colours
• Each color limited to 150 copies only
• Gatefold cover

TAPE:

• Limited to 100 copies

Release and shipping date: 20th January 2025

You know you can always count on a highly-respected long term underground label like WITCHES BREW to sniff the right stuff whenever one new kid on the block rears its ugly head. After a welcome change of moniker from COLDBLOODED FISH to FAÜST in 2020, this lot of three Czech boys and one Slovak really showed the rest of the world they meant business with Tinnitus Inquisition on the German imprint, a nasty yet fresh and damn pissed debut album back in 2022.

Shaken by their intense mix of classic crossover and thrash sound boosted by a very contemporary feel, think NUCLEAR ASSAULT attacking MUNICIPAL WASTE in a dark alley with a rusty knife, DOOMENTIA had no choice but to offer to release their next slab of violence. Preceded in August by the Where Nightmares Reign Supreme digital single - aptly described by the band members themselves as ‘this what happens when you play thrash but you really love death metal’ – their sophomore album Death Galore picks things up where its predecessor had left them and push all the buttons to eleven.

It’s no wonder why the whole tracklisting is peppered with nods to some famous names of the extreme metal realms: ‘Entombed Alive’, ‘Diluting The Slime’ or ‘Lust Decontrol’ vividly show how they’ve smartly got out of the comfortable yet sometimes retro-thrash ghetto to fully embrace a more modern but as lethal mix or thrash and death metal with maximum results. They have arrived!

LP:

• 150x BLACK
• 150x COLORED sold out
• Sturdy jacket
• Printed inner sleeve
• Poster

CD:

• Jewel case
• 12-pages booklet
• Limited to 300 copies

TAPE:

• Limited to 100 copies on white
• J-card 5 panel

Every story has a beginning… Mind you, technically speaking, this wasn’t exactly THE beginning for the BLOOD INCANTATION guys. By that time, the Colorado lot been together for roughly three years and had put low-key, limited and rough sounding material and friends and family only. But one could say that it’s truly on the Astral Spells demo that BLOOD INCANTATION fully became BLOOD INCANTATION. Compiling two rough unmixed demo versions of ‘Hovering Lifeless’ and ‘Mephitic Effluvia’ and an even rougher live versions of both ‘The Vth Tablet’ and ‘Obfuscating The Linear Threshold’ it’s here for the first time that the cosmic vibe, weird guitar patterns and overall this uncanny if hard to pinpoint ‘oddness’ were all but ones, with then session member Damon Good from the mighty MOURNFUL CONGREGATION and STARGAZER, added his personal touch on fretless bass.

Originally released in a run of 100 copies, the studio side of this tape was meant to serve as a basis for what would become their debut EP Interdimensional Extinction but due to the sound engineer losing the basic tracks, the whole things had to be remixed, thus making those first versions quite exclusive.

With their impending album already tagged as the most expected death metal release of the year, the band felt the time was right to reissue it on vinyl and teamed up with DOOMENTIA to make it even more special. Adorned with a 10”, it includes 6-panel booklet with all the lyrics, two interviews from 2013 and 2014, archive photos and even testimonials from both Paul Riedl (guitar and vocals) and Damon Good, making this long-awaited reissue worthy of the legend BLOO INCANTATION has become ten years later.

• 10th anniversary of the original demo tape release
• Available in BLACK
• Transparent red vinyl is sold out
• White vinyl is sold out 
• Each color limited to 666 copies
• 6-page booklet
• One-time pressing

In some cases, split releases do compile together random acts who have little to do with each other. But in some (rare) cases, the end result bears a greater purpose, forging an alliance in darkness if you will. Such is the case here with cult black/doom/progressive Sicilian act SINOATH, sharing this highly collectable piece of wax with fellow countrymen MALAURIU.

Both bands don’t just share Sicilian origins. Besides, compared to SINOATH whose never-ending quest started all the way back to 1990 MALAURIU is a rather ‘new’, if quite productive with already two full-lenght and a whole lot of EP and demos under its belt, act, having being active for ‘only’ ten years. So one could also argue that stylistically speaking, the two are quite different: whereas MALAURIU is more or less acquainted with black-metal, albeit a quite experimental version of it, SINOATH sound is far more old-school oriented, if as everchanging. Yet both acts are all about pushing boundaries and following a very personal path.

Talking of SINOATH, the latter contribution ‘Symphony Of The Scythe’ sees them revisiting in a way their roots, inspired by a vision of death and its role in our everyday life. A one-of-a-kind track dedicated to the late Massimo Chiofalo, who played guitar on their 2015 EP Meanders Of Doom. On the flipside, MALAURIU’ song, ‘Scuru’, is as idiosyncratic, throwing out of the window all known so-called conventions in favour of something unique and utterly ‘out there’. The track also benefits from the presence of Regen Graves from ABYSMAL GRIEF on keyboards, adding the mystique.

Two great and hard-to-pigeonhole acts for one very special split EP, rooted in the classic Italian occult style yet with a different spin, courtesy of yours truly, DOOMENTIA RECORDS.

• 7" EP GATEFOLD
• Black colour
• Limited to 300 copies
• Release and shipping date: 20th January ´25