ALTAR OF WASTE RELATED RELEASES ON VAGARY RECORDS AND WORTHLESS RECORDINGS

I have just received my artist copies of two releases I did for some stellar labels.  Super limited amounts available of each.

CORY STRAND "WORDS AND DREAMS AND A MILLION SCREAMS" 4CDr (VAGARY RECORDS)

My massive reimagining /reinterpretation of Weezer's landmark album "Pinkerton," rendered into brutal walls of loathful unforgiving noise and despondent nostalghic ambient.  Recorded for James Killick's esteemed Vagary Records, this is easily my favorite amongst my solo works, and represents the direction I'm headed in as an HNW practitioner.  A conscious attempt was made to part ways with my usual stagnancy and focus on a variety of immersive textures without forsaking the intensity.  I really feel I've succeeded: this record is a definition for me.  Many thanks to Jim for offering me the opportunity.  Released in an edition of 7, with full color artwork by me and given a truly gorgeous packaging job from Vagary.  I have a mere ONE copy available for sale.  $25 ppd. in the United States, $33 rest of world.

CARRION BLACK PIT/LETHE/FOLTER/HEARSE FETISH  "CRIMES OF PASSION" CASSETTE (WORTHLESS RECORDINGS)

A truly awesome four way split from the always amazing Worthless Recordings focused on crimes resulting from emotions gone awry.  One of my last pieces as Lethe (the final two are in the works) and certainly the most belligerently aggressive-the track I contributed here is a total audio assault, different from anything I've done while still referencing my love of death ambiance.  Also super psyched because this is my first cassette release, and many thanks to Tony for asking me to participate.  The packaging on this one is beyond words.  So fucking cool.  I have five copies available for sale.  $6 ppd. in the United States, $14 rest of world.  Worthless just released some other awesome tapes from more AOW-related artists (Vomir, Wet Dream Asphyxiation, and Burial Ground), so snag those from the label direct if you're so inclined.  And of course you should be.

Both releases available in the AOW store: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CROWN OF BONE "THRONE OF CACOPHONY" CDr (AOW 26)

Crown Of Bone needs little introduction.  Across myriad releases, Dustin Alan Redington has sculpted out a severe and punishing sonic monument to agony, immolation, and the totality of immersion.  The haunting bleakness of existentialism has rarely been given such a formidable auditory heft, with Crown Of Bone summoning up echoes of primal Mayhem, Deicide, and dISEMBOWELMENT without sacrificing any of the scathingly caustic assemblies that mark Redington's highly original approach to HNW.  To say this belongs in any genre is fairly illusory (and ineffective) as it so obviously transcends the idea of genre as the best artists do; "Throne of Cacophony" is instead a grand guignol of extremity with nods towards vintage black, death, and doom metal and roots firmly in HNW and power electronics. 
This is simply one of the most intense releases Altar Of Waste has put out, and I am honored to birth it to the world.  Listening to "Throne of Cacophony" is like being gutted from the inside out, blood flayed from flesh and bone burnt down to ash, leaving little left other than a murking husk awash in its own weakness slathering across the floor.  This is pure audio destruction.  The vocals here are insane, screams from the digital void that seem to come from somewhere far beyond our knowledge of dimensionality, communications from the purgatorical despondency that cradles the universe.  Crown Of Bone deliver true psychic scars that no amount of time can ever hope to heal. 
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 50 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $18 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

OBLIVE "SLOVENIAN DARKNESS/KROKODIL WARFARE" CDr (AOW 38)

Raw and ancient mysticism affixes itself to the brutal realities of isolationist destruction across the intensely  focused sprawl of Oblive's "Slovenian Darkness/Krokodil Warfare," a militaristic descent into crumbling bass textures and wind-splintered sickly psychic cracking.  The inherent darkness and folklore of Slovenia is evoked throughout the three pieces here, a conjuring of the inky black through extreme, blistered, and punishing wall deconstructionism.  Oblive's depth and deft manipulations result in compositions that bear little in common with the usual all out assault of HNW; instead there's a distinct uneasiness and intense anxiety found in these pieces, a fear of the nether forces acting beyond the realms of the known, manifesting themselves in ways both covert and insidious.  The night is alive and hungry.
Altar Of Waste is pleased to release this exploration of history and hallucination, both factual and legendary.  Slovenia is a land of magic and torment, and Oblive harnesses both in their fractured auditory attack.  Packaged in a DVD case, with artwork and construction by Jeff Landgraf and Cory Strand, in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $18 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "RIVER'S EDGE: A REINTERPRETATION" 4CDr (AOW 36)

"River's Edge" has been one of my favorite films since I saw it in a hotel room late at night on HBO almost 25 years ago.  It scared the shit out of me then.  Today, I feel there are few films that have so chillingly and accurately captured the pervasive nihilism and existential horror that permeates youth, the struggle to find meaning in the void, and the sense of desperation that drives us towards other people in hopes of making some sort of connection to combat the infinite meaninglessness.
The soundtrack to the film, made up almost entirely of classic 1980's thrash metal and hardcore punk, helped reinforce the themes of a distinct negativity at work in the universe and became as much a character as any of the teens themselves.
I have attempted to preserve the severe feelings of banality that I feel define "River's Edge" in my approach to the soundtrack.  Almost every piece here was created by manipulating the source materials in exactly the same base manner; differentiations exist in the form of tonalities and structure.  If a certain strain of HNW and ambient music is about illustrating emptiness, I feel my work here succeeds.  There is an absence in these compositions that surprises me, and I am honored to share it with those interested in sound as oblivion.

-Cory Strand

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 "L'ACRIME DI REI: A REINTERPRETATION" CDr (AOW 39)

Continuing my series of soundtrack works reinterpreted and manipulated, I'm pleased to offer up this floating, ambient take on Popul Vuh's ecstatic score for Werner Herzog's masterful film "Aguirre, the Wrath of God."  Herzog has long been one of my favorite people on the planet-his vision of nature and man's place in the universe is completely unlike anyone else's-and with "Aguirre, the Wrath of God" he hit a magnificent high point that juxtaposed the arrogance of mankind against the utter and total indifference of nature.  Popul Vuh's soundtrack helped Herzog's vision reach a hallucinatory peak that has never been equalled in film.  Florian Fricke's compositions were hypnotic, otherworldly, and imbued with a deep and ghostly resonance that elevated Herzog's images to a new level of subcontextuality.
I have attempted to make those resonances deeper and more subconscious in my reworking.  From gorgeous, wispy melodicism to a stagnant and seemingly eternal drone, my interpretation of Fricke's source material hopefully becomes a vision of auditory ecstasy as transcendent as the original marriage of music and image in "Aguirre, the Wrath of God."

-Cory Strand 

Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $18 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com