CORY STRAND "ASSAULT ON PRECINCT 13: A REINTERPRETATION" 4CDr (AOW 161)

It's been a long time since I've done any Carpenter work for my own label so I figured i'd take on the absolutely essential OST to his first proper film, "Assault On Precinct 13."  Carpenter's soundtrack is an unequivocal minimalist masterpiece, one which i hardly feel the need to extoll the virtues of to anyone familiar with my own drone work or to Altar Of Waste in general, and in working with the source material I've attempted to emulate Carpenter's primitive means-no second guessing or over-intellectualized decisions about how to sculpt the sounds-just pure revelry and instinct.  Carpenter's OST offered tension and foreboding in equal amounts, a sort of stasis of gnawing fear, a sense that I hope my rework brings to the fore and extends.  Most similar in tone to my recent "Day Of The Dead: A Reinterpretation" in that most of these drones are very deep and subtextual; headphones are highly recommended, as is playback at a very high volume.  That's where the tones will resonate and best reveal themselves.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $33 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "OBLIVION ADORNED" CDr (AOW 159)

Last year, i was invited to participate in a private year-long cassette swap between a number of HNW artists.  I used the opportunity to explore new areas of my sound that I hadn't experimented with yet.  My resulting album, entitled "Ten Or Fifteen Times," was based again on Lindsay Lohan and had several pieces on it that have quickly become personal favorites.  My new albums "Adorning Oblivion" and "Oblivion Adorned" take elements of the work found on "Ten Or Fifteen Times" and unused sketches from those recording sessions and build them into new, fully-developed  compositions in their own right.
"Oblivion Adorned" is crafted from acoustic and electric guitar elements found on the tape and is the more gentle of the two new albums, easily categorized as one my "pretty" efforts.  Darkly ambient, the two tracks here cradle themselves in deep, echoed grey tones and bizarrely lovely, blurgazey type textures that recall Tim Hecker (one of my idols, if you couldn't tell by now) with a hint of the metallized  kosmiche found on "Adorning Oblivion."  The two albums are meant to function together, but either are enjoyable on their own.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "ADORNING OBLIVION" CDr (AOW 158)

Last year, i was invited to participate in a private year-long cassette swap between a number of HNW artists.  I used the opportunity to explore new areas of my sound that I hadn't experimented with yet.  My resulting album, entitled "Ten Or Fifteen Times," was based again on Lindsay Lohan and had several pieces on it that have quickly become personal favorites.  My new albums "Adorning Oblivion" and "Oblivion Adorned" take elements of the work found on "Ten Or Fifteen Times" and unused sketches from those recording sessions and build them into new, fully-developed  compositions in their own right.
"Adorning Oblivion" is one epic construction based on synthesizer parts from some of the songs found on the tape.  Heavily manipulated, the piece is an incredibly deep and extended drone, like gasping for air in a tar pit.  As it progresses, it becomes noisier and far more intense, culminating in an absolutely epic distillation of drone, noise, krautrock, metal, and pure psychedelic wipeout.  77 minutes of kosmiche destructionism!
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BURTON "MASTERY" CDr (AOW 160)

When I was finishing up Burton's "Dying Time Is Here" album, I got so taken with the overblown version of "Damage, Inc." i created (entitled "Damage Jackals" on "Dying Time Is Here") that I decided to record a version of "Master Of Puppets" the same way, in its entirety.  So what you have on "Mastery" is something kind of weird, unique and a lot of fun to listen to if you enjoy noise.  It's a sonic experiment of sorts.  Everything here is pushed WAY into the red and accompanied by my usual assemblage of rumbling echoes and distant washed out windswept grit.  The end result is "Master Of Puppets" but at the same time something that isn't "Master Of Puppets," a work that resembles that album but goes beyond it towards a level of intensity that metal on its own cannot quite achieve.  An embrace of adolescent nostalgiah swathed in brutality.  Enjoy this one-it's an outlier.  If people like it, i may do the other albums in a similar manner!
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BURTON "DYING TIME IS HERE" CDr (AOW 157)

When i was thirteen and just getting started on guitar, my idol was Cliff Burton.  He always struck me as being the most compositionally complex writer in Metallica, as well as the most open-minded and forward-thinking (for evidence of this, just listen to Cliff's pre-Metallica band Agents Of Misfortune-your mind will be blown apart.)  Of all the amazing music Cliff contributed to Metallica, none for me were more powerful and beautiful than the epic harmonized guitar into to "Damage, Inc.", a yawning maw of gorgeous melancholic ambient that betrays nothing of the severity to come a few seconds later when the track proper kicks in.  "Dying Time Is Here," an album by my new project Burton (why not be as obvious as possible, i guess),  takes that intro and manipulates the fuck out of it, creating both scathing walls of eruptive HNW and bleak blank passages of frigid and distant ambient.  The record closes out with a ridiculously overblown version of the source track (different than the version that appears on Burton's other album "Mastery"), a tribute to the intensity that Metallica used to be able to summon up at their cocaine-addled high points.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "SKETCHES OF LLEWYN DAVIS" CDr (NO CATALOGUE NO./UNOFFICIAL RELEASE)

Recently released in a micro-edition on 8-track cassette by the excellent boutique noise label H8-Track Stereo, "Sketches Of Llewyn Davis" is an EP-length recording detailing an album that might have been (there is still a possibility that I may rework the soundtrack in its entirety, but the result will be something far different than this collection.)  The film is easily one of Joel and Ethan Coen's best works, a dreary study of existential malaise and personal heartbreak that manages to be both poignant and bleakly psychedelic at the same time.  The images and themes of the film have lingered with me long after having seen it, and the film's score has wormed its way deep into my brain, fusing itself to my prolonged thoughts of Llewyn Davis's inward quest for clarity and outward quest for self-destruction.
I decided to press up a small edition on CDr for those that might have missed out on H8-track Stereo's pressing, or simply for those that purchased it but find themselves without the archaic technology necessary to actually play it.  It's certainly one of my "prettier" works, with shimmery burbles of distortion and noise giving way to deep grey ambience and washed-out whisps of songs and melodies.  Really lovely, i think.
Released in an edition of 5 copies in a slimline CD case.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world (if you are ordering this from overseas, i will probably throw in a free AOW title or two, since the CD itself weighs so little and the shipping is so extreme.)

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

NIGHTMARE CASTLE "THE UNHOLY THREE: AN HNW TRIBUTE TO NORWEGIAN BLACK METAL" 3CDr BOX SET (AOW 139)

While there is certainly a path to HNW that bypasses black metal, I'm hard pressed to think of anyone I know working in the field that didn't grow up on the work of the Norwegian masters: Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Burzum.  Black metal and HNW seem aligned in many ways to me, most notably in their focus on Nietzschean individualism, a reverence for solitude and the aesthetics of transcendent sound, and a general attitude of violent rebellion against existing societal foundations.  Both forms gravitate towards obliteration and indifference, and both embrace the violent and the caustic in their quest for annihilation of the self.
Nightmare Castle reflects these overlaps in the project's massive new offering, "The Unholy Three."  Using an assemblage of riffs and sounds from each of the three Norwegian masters, NC weaves a bleak tapestry of destruction across almost 200 minutes, an epic construction of disgust and revulsion that approximates the wicked spirit of Norwegian BM's legendary wave.  It's not difficult to imagine yourself amidst the ruins of Norway's immolated churches, reduced to ash and memory, their tendrils of bitter smoke rising into the choking grey Norwegian sky.
Altar Of Waste is beyond pleased to finally unleash this one-it's been in the works for quite awhile and was simply a joy to design and layout.
Each band tribute is presented in its own DVD case with individual artwork based on their albums, and the whole set is packaged in a black box with paste on covers.  It's very DIY but retains a twinge of the elegance that AOW always tries to deliver.  This set is a limited, hand-numbered edition of 15.  $35 ppd. in the United States, $48 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "PARIS, DO YOU SPEAK FRENCH?" 4CDr REGULAR EDITION (AOW 147)

Since the box set version of this sold out almost immediately upon announcement (thank you so much to those that contacted me about it!) I decided to create a "standard" edition for those that might have missed out.  This "regular edition" is a  4CD stand-alone version with entirely different artwork, minus the fancy box and the two data DVDrs that makeup the forthcoming deluxe edition.  "Paris, Do You Speak French?" is my massive engulfing rework of Ms. Hilton's sublime 2013 "comeback" single "Good Time," a song that has grown on me over many, many repeated listenings despite its utter vapidity and inanity-just listen to Lil' Wayne's verse and you'll see what I mean.  In some ways the song is absolutely amazing because it gives the listening public en masse exactly what it demands, but for whatever reason, the single sort of flopped, leaving Paris exactly where she was before-indifferent amidst piles of cash, drugs, and torrid demeaning sex with celebrities.  For me, for reasons that are increasingly difficult to explain to people, I find Paris' musical output to be of significant cultural importance.  This release is my attempt to expand on that idea, as well as to explore new avenues of harsh and beautiful sounds-HNW, ambient, blurgaze, my washed-out remixes, and cold stagnant drones are all well-represented here.  I am still a little amazed at the amount of material i was able to create out of a 3 minute track.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $33 rest of world.  If you have contacted me about the deluxe box set version, PLEASE do not order this one.  I will let you know when the deluxes are ready.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

NIGHTMARE CASTLE/FOUKE/DEAD BODY COLLECTION "MYTHOS AND LORE" CDr (AOW 152)

Incredible three-way assemblage of masterful HNW artists evoking the images and mysteries of mythical monsters from their respective cultural heritages.  Nightmare Castle summons ripping bloody moonlit severity in homage to the Loup Garou of the New Orleans region.  Fouke offers up a crackling mystical sketch of the legendary Fouke monster from the Arkansas territory of the US.  Dead Body Collection closes the split with a shredding piece of forest magic dedicated to the implike and eldritch Slavic spirit Leshy, keeper of the woods.  This is an amazing split simply by virtue of the artists involved, but beyond the pedigree, the concept (proffered by Nightmare Castle) is very cool and attaches the sometimes pointless intensity of HNW to something more deeply felt and tied to a shared global culture-the proliferation of mythology and storytelling-but no less scathing.
Altar Of Waste is beyond psyched to offer this document to the masses, a meeting place between three of HNW's most respected practitioners and a celebration of a worldwide commonality.  When all the technology has crumbled to the ground and humanity is reduced to a nomadic state, these stories will persist, terrify, and unite.
Packaged in a DVD case, with amazing original wraparound artwork by my girlfriend Gina Newman, in a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

GRY SMK "RENDITION" CDr (AOW 156)

Cold as fuck slab of nullifying synth drone from GRY SMK, a piece approaching HNW-like levels of intensity in its reverence for scalding and impenetrable gulfs of pure and brutal tone.  There is a stark simplicity of approach in GRY SMK's sound that I find incredibly appealing; that isn't to say the work isn't complex or layered or calculated but rather that it is a product of very singular intention, a transference of naturalistic nihilism onto the ignorantly romantic precepts of modernity.  Loneliness is the key, and not the sort of baroque loneliness one encounters in the worlds of literature, poetry, or film-instead a loneliness that truly intones isolation and embraces the stinking, fetid aura of self-destruction.  Your sorrow is a given, and your struggle is irrelevant.  There is only the truth: an unforgiving and distant concept unfettered by human ritual and posture.  Succumb to the grey and revere the meaninglessness.
Altar Of Waste is pleased to release this behemoth work, an ode to total absurdity and the harsh reality of being.  There is no warm and safe place; everything bears the mark of wear and rot.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

MIDWICH "THE SWIFT" CDr (AOW 145)

Gorgeous and tidal cascade of gentle droning sounds that become something akin to a crushing roar from the between the cracks in the sky and the broken limbs of trees, Midwich's epic construction "The Swift" is a piece that flirts with both natural ambience and HNW severity without fulling giving over to either.  Created from field recordings of swarms of swifts procured by the artist, the sounds here recall both the bleak pastoral harmony of the English landscape and the encroaching rumbles of black clouds swarming the sky.  Similar in tone to the work of Richard Skelton with a goodly dose of Daniel Menche's and Clive Henry's approaches to manipulated field recordings, "The Swift" is an amazing composition that demonstrates both the awesome power of the natural world around us and the possibilities inherent within electronic manipulation.  An incredibly creative work that blurs whatever genre lines you'd care to draw.
Altar Of Waste is very pleased to release this latest missive from one of the UK's finest practitioners of underground drone.  Succumb to the swarm and feel the tense beating of thousands of wings buzzing around you.  Breathe in the awe.
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com