RABAUW is proud to present DEVOURING FAMINE’s debut album, Haunting Echoes, on vinyl LP format.

Those who follow the modern black metal underground will surely be aware of a renaissance on American soil, of a provocative rawness instigated by the likes of Lamp of Murmuur and Sanguine Relic. Of the bands that have followed in their wake, DEVOURING FAMINE have quickly and prolifically made their name known, first with a clutch of demos in 2022 and then followed by two albums the next year as well as a handful of EPs. Haunting Echoes, the one-man band’s first album, proved that DEVOURING FAMINE had personality to spare – and actual songwriting, which is a crucial element often lost in the strive for rawness / “rawness.” 

By the man’s own admission, Haunting Echoes was meant to be a “fast, gloomy” album, and indeed does he accomplish that with aplomb here, whipping forth a depressing delirium that hits that much harder due to its surprisingly sharp recording. Mind you, this isn’t big-budget black metal by any means, but DEVOURING FAMINE locate a rustic style of recording that feels old yet alive, roughened up some but not at the expense of masking dynamics or emotion. Finally, this grim misery finds physical release courtesy of RABAUW.

RABAUW is proud to present a remastered version of TEMPLUM ANIMA MORTI’s Vortex mini-album on 12” vinyl and CD formats.

Over the past decade, Russia’s TEMPLUM ANIMA MORTI have quietly become a vanguard of their country’s always-interesting and yet over-overlooked black metal scene. Of their half-dozen recordings during that time, it’s perhaps 2019’s ⍢χ͔Ω ΣằğΩþ χ͔åᵲằǻϻ (AKA Vortex) that stands as their most powerful and emblematic display of such. Totaling nearly 28 minutes, Vortex is a true mini-album and is surprisingly vast given that compact runtime. 

Mercilessly and mesmerizingly, TEMPLUM ANIMA MORTI allow the listener no room and no compromise in their multi-sensory assault; that static-yet-subtle style of riffing paradigmatic of post-millennial Easter European black metal is well and accounted for here, but more often than not – and especially when combined with the monkish vocals – those “riffs” alternately sound like the yawns of the Void, cattle dying, and singing bowls given demonic life of their own. Add to that the literally inhuman battery of renowned session drummer Krzysztof Klingbein and a fresh remaster for this new edition, and Vortex verily becomes its namesake.

RABAUW is proud to present SAPIENTIA DIABOLI’s debut album, I Ov the Darkness, on vinyl LP format.

The work of one Formless, SAPIENTIA DIABOLI are an American black metal band who’ve unleashed a steady stream of short-length recordings since their formation in 2021. They’ve worked with such cult labels as Ixiol Productions and Snow Wolf Records, and now make a blood pact with RABAUW for their first full-length. Tellingly titled I Ov the Darkness, SAPIENTIA DIABOLI’s debut album is a violent vortex of malodorous mysticism and teeth-gnashing tension.

At times, its slipstreaming surge is suffocating beyond belief – riffs slash and swirl from literally every direction, with the forward propulsion pushing that oppression to feverish levels – but just as often does the serpentine songwriting impact a paradoxically ethereal effect. Astute listeners will be cognizant of such a disconnect from the esteemed likes of Nightbringer, Hetroertzen, and progenitors Thorns, but SAPIENTA DIABOLI’s exercise of such here takes on a stranger aspect: cruelly mechanized and impossibly organic in equal measure, a searing symbiosis of cold, dead matter and human, all too fucking human. In that sense, we can also draw parallels to unorthodox outliers like Troll’s Neo-Satanic Supremacy or the cult Tsatthogua – but whatever manner you approach SAPIENTIA DIABOLI, I Ov the Darkness remains a stultifying work and an imposing springboard for the band’s next recordings.

RABAUW is proud to present The Seal of Vampyric Tyranny, a split album between SANGUINE WOUNDS and DEVOURING FAMINE, on vinyl LP format.

Out Friday, August 23rd at 6 PM CEST

Those who follow the modern black metal underground will surely be aware of a renaissance on American soil, of a provocative rawness instigated by the likes of Lamp of Murmuur and Sanguine Relic. Of the bands that have followed in their wake, both SANGUINE WOUNDS and DEVOURING FAMINE have quickly and prolifically made their names known, and The Seal of Vampyric Tyranny brings the two one-(wo)man bands together for a half-hour of exclusive material.

The split’s title is indeed apt, for SANGUINE WOUNDS especially maintain a grim & ghostly style of vampiric black metal that focuses on the weirder and more malformed aspects of Mütiilation and Vlad Tepes and extends them into an uneasy fever dream. A mood-setting intro is followed by two epic tracks of their characteristic cantankerousness. DEVOURING FAMINE, for their part, have maintained a sound that spans a whole long-lost decade’s worth of monochromaticism, from Malicious-era Gorgoroth to pre-“religious” DeathSpell Omega. Still ancient, their two black metal tracks here maintain that aesthetic purity but twist it in surprising ways, all before a closing funeral organ lament. Revive your bloodlust with this vinyl edition of The Seal of Vampyric Tyranny.