Moribund Records

I lost it, counting the releases by Vardan. Does it matter? Yes and, at the same time, no. No, because the origin of this stuff is, like it has always been, very pure, decent, professional, convincing, grrrrimmmmm… Yes, it does matter, for it is once again another typifying Vardan-release… Well, to be honest, I do have a couple of Vardan’s recordings (being both promotional editions I did receive throughout the past decade, as well as several ones I did steal buy myself), and never it did disappoint me.

FINALLY!!! This is one of my most-wanted releases to come. I just adore Empire Auriga’s debut album Auriga Dying, and when Moribund did re-release this material for a second time in 2011 (it was self-released in 2006 and re-released a first time in 2008), it was announced to be some teaser for the upcoming album that would see the unlight later that very same year. Well, f*ck it!

I remember being pretty enthusiastic with Hrizg’s former Moribund-release, Anthems Of Decrepitude (released early May 2011; review in the Archive-section of Concreteweb, updated on July 17^th 2011), and apparently there was an album before, 2007’s Oaken Path Of Grief, which I hadn’t heard before. This Spanish one-man army now returns with Individualism, a perfect title for an isolationistic entity.

Vardan are a very productive solo-outfit by an Italian guy called Vardan, whom you might know from e.g. Nostalgic Darkness, Anwech, Tomhet, Magnus Obscurus or Leaden. I do not have all their material in my possession (I bought / received four or five Vardan-albums in the past), but what I do have is of a very satisfying quality. Enjoy Of Deep Sadness just strengthens this statement.

Wormreich, hailing from the East of the United American States of Milk and Honey and stuff (???), were formed in 2009. The band (at that moment a duo: Chris ‘Obsidiam Vulk’ Pyle and Ian ‘Nazgul Vathron’ McKinney) self-released the album Edictum DCLXVI in 2011.

With the 2012’s debut The Dragon Lineage Of Satan, this band’s first official studio recording on Moribund (KULT!), this American trio did surprise me enormously, if only because of the richness of their inherent poverty (richness and poverty in one shell…). Check out the review on this album, still available on the Archive-section, update July 6^th 2012, sardonically done by undersigned.

Italy’s Profezia are a Black Misanthropic Elite (hehe, got it???) which I do like a lot. The band is now on the roster of Moribund, which isn’t that strange at all, for the ‘musical’ approach is very much moribundish in different aspects: song writing, lyrical approach and sound.

It’s not a secret anymore, I guess, to admit my passionate devotion to the Moribund Cult (read: Moribund Records). Only once in a while I do not get that ecstatically horny by a release via this Washington-based top-label, and that was, unfortunately, the case with Bleeding Fist’s 2011-EP Devil’s Ferox … It was not bad, but compared with former material by this Slovenian band, I thought it was a step back (see update August 7^th 2011 within the Archive-tab).

Apostolum are a band from Lombardy, Italy, formed about a decade ago. After a demo, the band released a first EP / album in 2006, called Anedonia, but it was one of the many releases within a huge grey mass of pulp. Result: Apostolum faded into silence…

Australian act Moon (one of the hundred bands with that moniker), a solo-project by a guy called Paul Marsh aka Miasmyr (also formerly known from e.g. Urgrund, Forn Valdyrheim or Catacombs), return with the second full length, after a couple of minis and splits. The first album easily made it into my top-five of 2011; Caduceus Chalice was, just like the mini-albums done before, a pleasure for ear and brain in case ‘Underground’ is your thing.