NORTHUMBRIA "ALL DAYS BEGIN AS NIGHT" CDr (AOW 132)

This one has been in the works for a long time.  When I first heard Northumbria's debut full-length on TQA records I was immediately awestruck and very deeply moved.  A truly engulfing roar of beautiful, droning sludge distortion and slow-motion textures screaming with yearning, the band sounded like nothing less than ancient and eternal mountains ripping themselves from the soil and throwing themselves into the cold and indifferent ocean.  The majesty of the natural exalted over the falsity of the modern.  The record was (and is) powerful for me, an epic work of pure and true sound borne from the same place as Earth 2 and l'ile re-sonante .  I wrote to the band immediately after starting Altar Of Waste and we agreed to work on a release, something the band promised would be truly special.
Finally unveiled, "All Days Begin As Night" is a unique and expansive release as well as being a masterful continuation of the work begun on the self-titled debut.  Northumbria offer up the gorgeous and haunting title track and then give it over to five distinct entities to remix and reassemble, essentially mapping out an exhaustive array of diverse but united sounds.  From Theologian's nightmarish and stately expanse of cathedral-like emptiness, to Famine's icily melodic bastardization of IDM, to Witxes' fuzzy and glistening burble drones, to Aidan Baker's gorgeous and crackling minimalism, to the black glassy droning pool of my own epic remix, "All Days Begin As Night" is a transfixing journey into the fertile realms of reinterpretation, an album seemingly borne for Altar Of Waste.
I am really honored the band gave this to me, along with an immense amount of creative freedom and an unwavering belief in me and the label.  This is a very special release for AOW!
Packaged in a DVD case with all photography by me, in a limited edition of 50 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $22 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "DAY OF THE DEAD: A REINTERPRETATION" 6CDr (AOW 149)

Many people cite Dawn Of The Dead as their favorite film in George Romero's trilogy, but for me Day Of The Dead perfectly captures the sick and hateful darkness that cloaks the collective human heart.  Through its intense focus on a small group of survivors holed up together and losing all hope against the endless zombie hordes, descending into anger, frustration, and insane fear born from an inability to comprehend the nihilistic absurdity of their situation, Day Of The Dead better illustrates society's ultimate terminus point in the face of annihilation.  In working with John Harrison's score for the film, I have attempted to create a stifling audio environment that is as relentless and unforgiving as it is layered and disorienting.  Forsaking violence in favor of an incredibly dark ambient approach (sans for one small explosion of pure hellish destruction/consumption towards the end), this album will press down on you over and over again, an avalanche of glacial drone that becomes more and more oppressive as it marches on, unstoppable and hungry.  I highly urge you to heed the suggestion in the liner notes and listen to this loudly, with headphones.  This album was designed with isolation in mind.
Packaged in a twin volume DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $30 ppd. in the United States, $42 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

PHANTASM NOCTURNES "DARK DIMENSIONS" CDr (AOW 144)

Newest album from Betty Koster's Phantasm Nocturnes, a truly restless project that has been churning out an awesome number of releases beholden to no aesthetic other than its own.  Phantasm Nocturnes is a project after my own heart, flitting effortlessly between punishing walls of disruptive noise to severe and disorienting masses of electronic detritus to frigidly cold and empty death ambience, creating an ultimately undefinable body of work that unites all of its facets beneath a shivering veil of terror and isolation.  "Dark Dimensions" delves deep into the choking heart of the endless night, a cruel and precise exploration of thick spacey drone textures fused to the gurgling, oozing pustulence of obstinate ambient noise walls, a journey to the outer reaches of emptiness that left me with a feeling of being lost and cold and very, very far away from any sort tether to the physical world.  This is pure isolation ambient with a paranoid apocalyptic bent, an ascent into the void that enslaves you to the infinite.
Altar Of Waste is delighted to release this record, a small piece in a very large, abstract puzzle that seems beyond any sort of genre appraisal.  Greet the encroaching black and lose yourself in the suffocating slurry of stars.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $22 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwaste.storenvy.com

AUDITOR AND VENOWL "ACID REVEALING OPEN WOUNDS" 2CDr (AOW 135)

Crumbling and bloated slow-motion metallized horror from Chicago's Auditor and Venowl, turning in an agonized studio collaboration that sets a new standard for "doom."  Venowl's hyper-distorted sonic waste marries perfectly to the Auditor's electronic terrorism, creating an unholy assemblage of sound that vomits hell out onto the earth without sacrificing a sort of ghostly aura of subconscious beauty.   There is a majesty to the two massive tracks here, something heavenly and expansive buried beneath mound after mound of rot and ugliness.  Imagine Khanate on LSD locked in a room with Merzbow and you'll get a good idea of what you're dealing with here-sheer and unadulterated brutally, executed masterfully.
Altar Of Waste is psyched to bring this to light once more.  Originally self-released by the artists in a single disc unmixed/unmastered edition of 15 handmade copies, Auditor and Venowl have been kind enough to give AOW a mixed/mastered and expanded version of their intense union.  The second disc contains a live collaborative performance captured in Chicago last July and an unreleased punisher from Venowl.  You will not emerge unscathed!
Packaged in a DVD case with an OBI strip in a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered copies.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $27 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

Also available in a super-limited four disc "Die Hard" version, available through Altar Of Waste only!  The "Die Hard" version contains the original two discs, plus the unmixed/unmastered version on a third.  The fourth disc contains two of my own compositions using audio from the Venauditor collaboration, entitled "Bleak Inferno."  A sort of meeting point between the Auditor, Venowl, HNW and over-the-top death metal conventions, a blooming flower of distorted disgust and numbing, pummeling electronics.  The "Die Hard" edition features totally different artwork in a twin volume DVD case and is limited to a scant 5 hand-numbered copies.  This one is for the AOW loyalists!  $30 ppd. in the United States, $42 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

RITUAL STANCE/CROWN OF BONE/EARTHENWOMB "SPLIT" (AOW 137)

A devastating three-way split between Ritual Stance, Crown Of Bone, and Earthenwomb, an all out assault on the senses and a seriously brain frying descent into the most tormented HNW and noise abysses imaginable.  Just shy of 80 minutes in length, this split showcases the absolute best of what each of these projects is capable of.  Ritual Stance's contribution traffics in the project's usual sickeningly bass-heavy dungeon HNW, an expression of meta-sexual power and control.  Crown Of Bone's piece is simply towering, a masterful arrangement of sound and texture that brings to mind pure demonic hallucinogenia and agony.  But it is Earthenwomb's work here that really fucks with your thoughts and dreams, an amazing, sputtering, minimalistic static cloud that feels like it's slicing your mind into about a million pieces, a seriously unique approximation of HNW's aestheticism as filtered through a haze of Lovecraftian cosmic insignificance.
Altar Of Waste is very pleased to unleash this destroyer, a brutal trip through some very sick and damaged headspaces.  Each project brought their fucking best to this one and it KILLS. 
Packaged in a DVD case with gorgeous commissioned artwork and my own usual collage approach, in a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered copies.  Includes an 8 page hand-made and bound booklet exploring some of the visuals these works suggested to me.  $13 ppd. in the United States, $25 rest of world.  The booklets are made to order, so please allow a couple days turnaround time on this one.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "HALLOWEEN II: DEEP DRONE VERSION" 4CDr (AOW 146)

An alternate version or companion volume to my upcoming Occult Supremacy release ("Halloween II: A Reinterpretation," most likely coming in 2014), "Halloween II: Deep Drone Version" is exactly what the title implies: a hyper-minimalistic reinterpretation of John Carpenter and Alan Howarth's masterful score for the sequel to Carpenter's landmark slasher.  Halloween II as a film was far more violent and brutal than its predecessor, forsaking all of the daytime menace and tension depicted in the first for something more visceral and bloody-minded, a veritable slaughter that left few characters alive and more or less set the standard for further characterizations of Michael Myers within the Halloween series.  In creating this specific version I have sought to upend that intensity and transmute it into a sort of quiet and prolonged dread, the eye of a storm of utterly inhuman and hellish violence.  May it haunt your dreams.  Happy Halloween!
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $32 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

UPCOMING RELEASES AND SOME WORDS ON THE FUTURE

There will be five new releases available come Halloween eve:

NORTHUMBRIA "ALL DAYS BEGIN AS NIGHT" CDr
RITUAL STANCE/CROWN OF BONE/EARTHENWOMB "SPLIT" CDr
PHANTASM NOCTURNES "DARK DIMENSIONS" CDr
VENOWL and AUDITOR "ACID REVEALING OPEN WOUNDS" 2CDr
CORY STRAND "HALLOWEEN II: DEEP DRONE VERSION" 4CDr

I will also have a new release on Occult Supremacy come Halloween (fittingly enough, it's "Halloween IV: A Reinterpretation").  After that, I will be heading into production on some of the trickier, more elaborate and construction heavy box sets:

NIGHTMARE CASTLE "THE UNHOLY THREE: TRIBUTE TO NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL" 3CDr BOX SET
DHAMPYR "THREE EPs" 3CDr BOX SET
ERDSTALL 2CDr BOX SET
CORY STRAND "HARRY POTTER AND THE ORDER OF THE PHOENIX: A REINTERPRETATION" 10CDr BOX SET
CORY STRAND "PARIS, DO YOU SPEAK FRENCH?" 4CDr + DVDr BOX SET

I can't give an honest time frame for these because I just don't know how long they'll take and how much they'll cost-but rest assured they are in the works and coming.  For whatever reason I've been gravitating toward these larger "statement" releases lately.  I don't think it's something I can maintain for long, though-these are big projects and they take me (and my girlfriend, who helps with all the box construction and manufacturing) quite awhile to complete.
Afterwards I will be focusing on all the upcoming releases I have committed to, in an attempt to clear the deck.  For now, I will not be accepting any more projects for release on Altar Of Waste beyond what I have already committed to (if you are an artist and we have already talked about doing something, then don't worry-it will get done) simply because it's becoming too much to keep track of.  I'm going through my files and hard drives and finding records I had agreed to release that i totally forgot about, which is not a great position to be in.  I try to keep thorough records of all of the label's interactions so i know what I need to be working on at any given time, but it is simply becoming overwhelming.  I need to step back and focus on what i already have planned before I take on anything new.
The label is not in jeopardy, nor will it close-I just need to play catch up for awhile.  It may take several months, so please bear with me.  As always, i thank everyone for their continued support, and hope you will enjoy the Halloween releases.

-Cory Strand

CORY STRAND "BLOOD SIMPLE: A REINTERPRETATION" 2CDr (OCCULT SUPREMACY PRODUCTIONS)

My rework of Carter Burwell's very brief score for Joel and Ethan Coen's masterful neo noir Blood Simple attempts to get at the rotted heart of the film, with a massive gulf of empty ambient spread across two discs that burrows deep into the existentialist quandaries of the work.  There is no violence here, not even an outburst-only the hollow tomb of contemplation that the film forces you into, a grey and purgatorial place where right and wrong are inexorably intertwined with action and consequence.  There are no punishments worse than the condemning dialogues we hold with ourselves.  The Coens know this and have manufactured a stunning filmography where philosophy holds a distant and removed court over the paltry lives and actions of men.  This record is a theoretical field recording from within those imagined halls of justice.  $8 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

FANTOME DE SANG "DANS LA NUIT VAMPIRIQUE" CDr (OCCULT SUPREMACY PRODUCTIONS)

More severe and melancholic blackened noise aristocracy from my LLN-influenced project Fantome De Sang.  Moving away from the massive constructs of the debut "Maladif Lune," "Dans La Nuit Vampirique" focuses the aesthetics into something more digestible but no less eviscerating.  Fantome De Sang is a project about minimalism, violence, elegance, arrogance, and nostalgic approximation, psychedelic and raw noise as filtered through the wintry lens of classic French black metal.  I have tried to attain a certain aura of the primitive on this recording, hopefully evoking frigid nights amongst the forests, with a waxy moon weeping down from above.  Howls come from the forests but also from the heart.
$5 ppd. in the United States, $17 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com 

LETHE "1989 CONFESSIONS, VOLUME II" CDr (OCCULT SUPREMACY PRODUCTIONS)

Second volume in this ongoing series for Occult Supremacy.  More nullifying death drones from Lethe crafted out of Ted Bundy's taped 1989 confessions.  This entry goes further towards an uncomfortable and unsettling approximation of flies buzzing on a diseased mind, a thick stench of tarry drone that pulls deeper and deeper into the recesses of a cloudy, fractured mind struggling to understand its own irrational motivations.  Two massive tracks spanning nearly 80 minutes.  Murder nostalgiah as a vehicle for understanding the horror of The Real.  Life is a construct whose architecture can be felled at any time.
$5 ppd. in the United States, $17 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

LA MANCHA DEL PECADO "A TRIPLE FETISHISTIC TREATMENT: TRIBUTE TO RAOUL VALVE" 3CDr (AOW 138)

Staggering new drone compendium from La Mancha Del Pecado, a frightening excursion into the deepest realms of the glisteningly erotic illuminating the horrid emptiness lurking behind boudoir noir.  Utilizing the eclectic soundtracks composed by Raoul Valve for three Andrew Blake films, "A Triple Fetishistic Treatment" sees La Mancha Del Pecado transforming the vaguely banal and unobtrusive into blackest night clouds of uncertainty and self-doubt.  The artistry in Blake's films reveals layers of suggestion not oft found in standard gonzo pornography, teases of themes and relationships oft left unexplored by the mainstream in favor of quick release and exhaustive bouts of fucking.  La Mancha Del Pecado takes that artistry and rips it open, exposing both the emptiness at its heart and the lurid technicolor expanse of the images it approximates.
I am quite honored to say that the band's approach to this recording was inspired by me and my own re-envisioned soundtrack works, an attempt to draw out something new and visceral by immolating the source.  The three massive pieces here are absolute onslaughts of cathartic amplifier meltdown hyperdrone, going well beyond the void into a realm of erotic punishments and haunting psychological complexities.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $18 ppd. in the United States, $30 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

ENSEPULCHRED "CANDLEMASS" CDr (AOW 136)

The final recordings from Ensepulchred, one of my very favorite black metal bands of the recent past.  Falling somewhere between the hallucinogenic somnambulist dirges of Xasthur and the pure roaring majesty of Summoning, Ensepulchred took USBM to an incredibly cold, empty and terrifying place, a fissure in the universe where dreams went to rot and die and the ultimate nihilism of existence was laid bare.  Vastly ahead of their time, they left behind a small but incomparable body of work that still sends shivering knives of contemplative blackened horror into the brains of the uninitiated. 
The band has been gracious enough to allow Altar Of Waste to release their final recordings, two massive songs that easily rank among their best and most densely layered work.  There is a stoic and aristocratic beauty to these tracks as well as a deeply unnerving center of dream reality, a hazy winter nightmare that blooms up like a putrid garden.  Black metal approximation and minimalism at its finest, a wash of icily gorgeous synthesizers and scathing vocals buried beneath the pummeling programmed drums, a funeral march into the stench of oblivion.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $19 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "THE SHINING: ANCILLARIES, VOL. VIII" 6CDr (AOW 143)

The eight and penultimate volume in a series of recordings utilizing Wendy Carlos' unused compositions for Stanley Kubrick's The Shining.  I've done a lot of work with this soundtrack in the past, and this series represents a deeper exploration of Carlos' original vision for the film score, a bizarre parade of tonal environments and shrieking ghostly ululations that for whatever reason did not fit Kubrick's vision.  The music showcased on these volumes is material that would not necessarily work as albums proper-they are individual manipulations and constructions intended to highlight specific compositions as opposed to the thematic whole of an album.  As such, they are glimpses of records that might have been, or perhaps are in an alternate realm.
"Volume VIII" is a towering 6 CD set that marks the end of my work with Wendy Carlos' magnificent soundtrack.  At this point I have worked with everything I have access to (some tracks more than once) and will let this stand as the near-final piece of my carefully crafted auditory puzzle; until i come across the bootleg 2CD set of the OST released by Overlook Productions (and if you can help me with this, please get in touch with me) my work with the score proper is now complete.  The six CDs that make up "Volume VIII" take the listener deep into thick and unctuous headspaces, terror drones and wisps of murderous suggestion that ultimately lead to discomfort and severe disorientation.  The final volume, utilizing the OST to the fantastic documentary Room 237, will be out late this year or early next.
Packaged in a twin DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $30 ppd. in the United States, $42 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com