NEWS 9/16/2012

I'm pretty much caught up on my releases thus far.  For my UK customers, a good chunk of the back catalogue is now available via Turgid Animal, so you won't have to pay such ridiculous shipping rates.  I'm sorry it's so expensive from the United States!  Hopefully my more recent releases will be available there soon as well.
The Vomir album is down to 4 copies.  Maybe I should have done a larger run...oh well.  It's Vomir.  I figured it would sell out quickly regardless.
The next album going into production (we're working on it now) will be Dead Body Collection's "This Is My Home" 2xCDr.  The packaging will be a little more elaborate than usual, and if it comes out as envisioned, it will be really gorgeous.  Afterwards, there will be another Burial Ground album based on "The Exorcist"-I've outsourced the artwork on that one, so it should look stellar as well.
Other future releases include Churner, Clive Henry, Culver, Footpaths, and so many more.
Thanks to everyone for all of the continued support.  It means so much to me that the label is being well-received and people are digging the releases.

-Cory

SAVAGE CROSS "ABYSS OF THE FLESH OUROBOROS" CDr (AOW 30)

The true black is the void, the embrace of the crawling emptiness, the recognition of the infinite oblivion, and the acquiessence to the malleable obliqueness that scalds our existence.  Much of modern black metal cloaks itself in the robes of ideological severity only to come up far short in terms of approaching the philosophical cornerstones of the genre; even the most supposedly nihilistic projects fail to follow up on their own endorsements of immolation and violence.
Savage Cross make no such pronouncements of intent.  Instead we receive deliverance unto the waste, an open-eyed gaze into the swirling waters of the universal negative.  Nothing comes back here; this is the devourer.  Enter and find the end.  Through the approximation of black metal form and the creation of sickeningly thick walls of molten contempt, Savage Cross attain the cosmically transcendent through violent harness, caring little for concepts of the future or awakening.  This is pure eradication of consciousness.
Altar Of Waste is extremely psyched to bring forth this numbing call to obliteration, Savage Cross's first physical offering after a small wealth of digital releases.  Behold the spoils of psychic despondency.   Packaged in a DVD case with artwork by Evan Craig and Cory Strand, in a limited edition of 20 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $18 rest of world.
More Savage Cross can be perused here: http://algeadestruction.bandcamp.com/

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

VOMIR "UNTITLED" CDr (AOW 35)

One of the true masters of the void, Vomir needs little introduction or hyperbole.  If you're familiar with the genre, then you know this is necessary.  Screaming nihilistic transmissions from beyond the pale, a brutal evocation of the absolute zero cradling the heart of existence.  This is the true bleak and the endless hollow.  Nothing begets nothing, a cycle of angst-ridden torment and psychic insomnia becoming a spectacle of near hallucinogenic, quasi-religious spectacle.  Remove yourself now.
Like being thrown into a sludge-filled wind tunnel with sub-oceanic levels of pressure pulsing over you, "Untitled" is another sterling example of why Vomir so defines a specific approach to HNW.  No one else quite summons up the nervous, trembling anxiety that permeates individualized modernity.  This is a hymn of self-loathing and a love letter to misanthropy.
Altar Of Waste is beyond pleased to release this new composition.  At just over 17 minutes, it's the shortest album we've done, but also one of the most uncompromising in both sound and vision.  This is true psychic terror.  Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $8 ppd. in the United States, $16 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: ww.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

WET DREAM ASPHYXIATION "BASER" 2CDr (AOW 34)

Questions of alien abductions, astral projection, cross-dimensionality, and the myriad conspiratorial relationships between them all manifest themselves across the span of Wet Dream Asphyxiation's massive new statement "Baser," a brutal and grinding assault that pretty much lays waste to every currently operating sense, leaving nothing but a scalded husk in its wake.  Pure torrents of cascading noise obliterate the sonic landscape, melting the space between your ears while they simultaneously attempt to elevate you to a position beyond your physical being.  This is some seriously transcendental shit, as concerned with altered-conscious passage as it is with running you into the ground.
Totally psychedelic in the best possibly way, this is one of the most assaulting and extreme records Altar Of Waste has put out, recalling the work of masters like Aube and Masonna while firmly blasting away a completely individualized space within the HNW parameters.  Utterly insane, next-level compositions.  Hymns to the great gods of the frigid electric.  You are not really here anymore.
Presented in a DVD case package in a limited edition of 20 hand-numbered copies.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CULTURAL SUBORDINATION" 2CDr (AOW 32)

I've fought a losing war against pop music all my life.  When I was younger I used to wear the elitist cloak proudly, wrapping myself in assertions that Napalm Death were better than anything that anyone else was listening to and that the Dead C were all you needed to know about emotional expressionism.  Several years later, I read Alan Licht's book An Emotional Memoir of Martha Quinn and my mind, along with my preconceptions about popular music, were sufficiently blown apart.  Licht wrote that "Peter Cetera wasn't the enemy," an affirmation that all music has some sort of value to it regardless of your personal feelings about it.  Pop may cater to the obvious, but the obvious exists in our collective subconscious, no matter how much we deny it.
"Cultural Subordination" is my attempt to subvert and pay tribute to this anti-radical form of crowd control.  Every track here was sourced from elements of Ellie Goulding's track "Lights," as infectious a piece of hypercolor ear rot as I've ever heard.  There's a yearning and desperation buried in the track that appeals to me, and I've tried to bring those more severe emotions out in my treatments of the track.  It's astounding to me just how far out these reworks can go, and how something so seemingly tepid can yield such grotesque, beautiful, and ultimately polarizing sounds.  Everything you want is here, if you're willing to go deep enough.
Ellie Goulding is not the enemy.
Released by Altar Of Waste in a DVD case, in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.
Portions of this record can be streamed at my Bandcamp page:
www.corystrand.bandcamp.com

-Cory Strand

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

LETHE "HAUNTING AND WOE" 4CDr (AOW 11)

Composed and recorded at the same time as "Inconsequence," "Haunting and Woe" is a moodier and hazier evocation of Lethe's worldview, one in which the banalities and frustrations of life rise to the fore and threaten to overtake the very notion of existence.  "Haunting and Woe" seems to hang on to notions of defeat and failure in a questioning manner, constantly reflecting on choices that have already been made, an infinite process of cyclical thinking that ultimately leads to despair, regret, and removal.  There is no joy here, only the solace of purgatorical emptiness.
If "Inconsequence" dealt with the void, then "Haunting and Woe" narrows Lethe's focus to a growing sort of melancholia, an infection in life that gnaws and teethes but never fully bites.  This is the sound of enervation, of confidence receding, of desire ebbing away in a wash of self-criticism and loathing.  This is a catalogue of perceived mistakes, a gathering of storm clouds across the sky of your being.  Isolationism is imminent.
Altar Of Waste unleashes this behemoth set of recordings after much delay, packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $28 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CLOCKWORK ORANGE: A REINTERPRETATION" 4CDr (AOW 33)

My second exploration of the soundtrack works of Wendy Carlos focuses on her superlative score to Kubrick's Clockwork Orange.  Carlos' compositions for the film were rooted in aristocratic classical masterpieces but also displayed her trademark darkness and sense of sonic disassociation, resulting in a perfect amalgamation of the highbrow and the severely fucked-up that fit Kubrick's vision to a tee.  If anyone could make Beethoven sound violent and menacing, it was Wendy Carlos.
I've attempted to tap into that sense of foreboding and violence with my work here.  Again, while I in no way make the statement that these pieces hold a candle to Carlos' originals, I think collectively these compositions provide a pretty excellent overview of my aesthetic in this medium; from deep bass drones to crawling walls of sludge to all-out HNW fracturing, it's all here, in copious amounts.  If nothing else, "Clockwork Orange: A Reinterpretation" serves as an overview of my myriad solo projects and a truly exhaustive listening experience.  At their best, I think they conjure up the wavering reality suggested by the film and serve as a devoted tribute to one of electronic music's finest innovators.
On a personal note, this is a favorite amongst all my releases.  Released on Altar Of Waste  in a DVD case with artwork assembled and constructed by me in tribute to Carlos' original soundtrack packaging, in a very limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $28 rest of world.

-Cory Strand

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com