BLUE VELVET: OTOMO HAVA (AOW 216E)

The fifth volume in the "Blue Velvet" series comes from Otomo Hava, who turn in a holocausting rework of "Jeffrey's Dark Side."  Opening with the incredibly unsettling string textures of the original piece, Otomo Hava stretches the ambience and the growing tension out immensely until the whole thing boils over into a crushing, destructive slab of molten WALL action.  Simply beautiful in every regard.  It's an incredibly dynamic piece of work, one of my favorite pieces from Thomas as a whole, and an excellent contribution to the series.  I love it when artists step outside of their normal sound zone for these projects; this one might be my favorite!
Packaged in a fold-over cover in a clear plastic bag in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BLUE VELVET: OBLIVE (AOW 216D)

The fourth installment of the "Blue Velvet" series comes from Oblive.  I gave Jeff what I felt to be the most difficult track to work with, "Lumberton, USA/Going Down To Lincoln" and his resultant work is impressively deep, dark, burbling, and THICK.  Some massive, suffocating tones here, spread across two epic walls, an exploration of the pockets of darkness hidden amidst the light and lurid colours.  If the decapitated ear is the "rabbit hole" that beckons both Jeffrey and the viewer into Lynch's surreal horror show, then Oblive's work here is the sound of the descent.  Crushing and incredibly dense.
Packaged in a fold-over cover in a clear plastic bag in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $ 7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BLUE VELVET: NIGHTTIME IN THE ABYSS (AOW 216C)

The third volume in the "Blue Velvet" series comes from another personal favorite, Nighttime In The Abyss, and as usual with NITA, the material here is both emotionally suffocating and exquisitely, painfully beautiful.  Here is the ache, the yearn, the desire, and the violence, all blended together in two amazingly gorgeous, dense, and scathing pieces of sound sculpture.  I gave Christopher "Mysteries Of Love" as well because I knew he could make it sing; his original track, "Fear And Loathing In Ben's," trades on the former track's beauty and ups the volume and tension considerably.  It's like falling into a hole of unending despair and nostalgiah.  Another staggering release from one of the underground's best!
Packaged in a fold-over cover in a clear plastic bag in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BLUE VELVET: EARTHENWOMB (AOW 216B)

The second volume in the "Blue Velvet" series is from the woefully underappreciated Earthenwomb, here turning in some of the most brutal, scorching, dense, and incredibly LOUD material i've heard from the project in some time.  Across two massive tracks, Earthenwomb marries the severe violent outbursts of Lynch's film to its more romantic subtextual suggestions, creating an assaulting slab of HNW that more than hints at the sorrow and devastation lurking beneath reality's more innocuous surfaces.
Packaged in a fold-over cover in a clear plastic bag in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

BLUE VELVET: LA MANCHA DEL PECADO (AOW 216A)

The inaugural installment of the "Blue Velvet" series comes from one of my personal faves, the darkly erotic La Mancha Del Pecado.  Here reworking "Mysteries Of Love" (a favorite track of many of the artists involved with the series, myself included!) and contributing the original track "Hidden In Dorothy's Closet," La Mancha Del Pecado explores the sexualized interiority of Jeffrey as his obsession with Dorothy grows ever more total and troubling.  Just over 50 minutes of dark and harrowing drone majesty alongside some claustrophobic static detritus.
Packaged in a fold-over cover in a clear plastic bag, in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "FARGO: COMPLETE" 26CDr + DATA-DVDr + BONUS CDr BOX SET (AOW 213/214/215)

PLEASE NOTE: This is a PREORDER.  Box sets should begin shipping late September.

Super deluxe box set version compiling all of my work with "Fargo," both the film and the television series, plus some very exclusive extras that come ONLY with the box set.  This is easily the most ambitious (and largest) project i've embarked upon.  "Fargo: Complete" includes:

"Fargo: A Reinterpretation" 10CDr (AOW 213): My epic dark drone/death ambient rework of Jeff Russo's score for the television series, packaged in two 5-capacity DVD cases, with artwork by Gina Newman.  Gina's artwork is exclusive to the box set; the stand alone version has images culled from the series.

"Fargo: Season One" 10CDr (AOW 214): All HNW rework of the audio from Season One of the show, using the same methods employed on my "True Detective: Season One" set.  Packaged in two 5-capacity DVD cases, with entirely different artwork than the stand alone version.

"Fargo: A Reinterpretation" 5CDr (AOW 215): rework of Carter Burwell's beautiful score to the Coen Brothers' film blanc.  Packaged in a 5-capacity DVD case with entirely different artwork than the stand alone version.

"Fargo" DATA-DVDr: Exclusive to the box set, my full HNW rework of the entire audio track from "Fargo" the film, packaged in a DVD case with full colour artwork.  Over an hour and a half of crippling HNW.

"Bonus" CDr: exclusive to the box set, my ultra raw and damaged guitar solo version of Carter Burwell's theme from "Fargo" the film.

The entirety of the set is housed in a painted box with paste on covers and a signed insert, and is limited to five hand-numbered copies.  Again, this is easily the largest set i have put together; it weighs a ton and will be brutal to ship, so this is reflected in the pricing.  $230 ppd. in the United States, $243 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

"BLUE VELVET" COMPILATION UPDATE

It's been forever since i've mentioned this, but I finally have some news to share regarding this long-gestating project.  The good news: some of the work i've received for this comp is finally going to be released.  The bad news: it is no longer an ultra-fancy box set.
I've decided to go ahead and begin releasing some of the tracks i've received in a manner similar to the "Twelve Suicides" and "Into An Infinite Black" series: fold over covers in clear plastic bags.  Why the change?  I think i made the restrictions/instructions for the original box set a little too complicated: some of the participants gave me two tracks as asked, but some people only gave me one, and I think it was because I was being a little too ambitious and perhaps unclear with my intentions.  It was also incredibly difficult to coordinate such a large undertaking, and it was silly of me to think that i could work with 20 different artists' time frames.  And people kept dropping out.  It just wasn't feasible.  But i received some good work from some awesome artists, and I hate to have it just sitting on a hard drive going unheard.
Along with this change comes some more good news: I am now going to make this an endless/ongoing series, with a completely open submission policy.  If you would like to participate in this compilation, please feel free to submit your track(s) to me at:

corystrand@gmail.com

The track should be inspired by David Lynch's film "Blue Velvet."  That's my only requirement, aside from the following stipulations: all of the artwork and layouts will be done by me, and there is NO artist info on any of the releases (meaning no website addresses, recording info, etc.)-just the name of the project and the track titles.  Very minimalist.  Each participating artist will receive artist copies.
The first few installments should be out soon.

CORY STRAND "DETRITUS" 2CDr (AOW 212)

As prolific a noisemaker as I am, there are a number of projects and tracks languishing in the archives which just didn't come together as I had envisioned or go far enough for me to finish them.  "Detritus" is a double disc collection of such works, all of which were themed around my ultimate muse, Lindsay Lohan.  The work collected on "Detritus" documents progress made on three different Lindsay-themed albums (plus a new piece created exclusively for this assemblage), all of which for one reason or another I never ended up completing (the liner notes provide details on intent.)  Taken collectively, the five pieces here add up to a surprisingly coherent listening experience, presenting a lengthy excursion into ghostly synthesizer drone and ambience as well as psychedelic HNW excess and caustic noise symphonies. 
Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $28 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "CREMASTER 2: A REINTERPRETATION" 6CDr (AOW 210)

Matthew Barney holds a special place in my heart.  As a creator of purposefully artful filmed images, few can rival his vision; as a champion of metal and noise and their relationship to the world of high art, and all-around in-his-own-universeness, he remains a provocative and polarizing figure.  I chose to work with the soundtrack to "Cremaster 2" because of its overtly obvious ties to the worlds of metal and noise (Dave Lombardo drums on the OST's centerpiece "The Main In Black," alongside vox from Steve Tucker and "riffs" by a swarm of fucking bees) as well its literary ambition (the film serves as an alternate cinematic version of Norman Mailer's epic docu-novel of banal nihilism "The Executioner's Song"), but also because of its confrontational and beautiful slow-moving imagery.  The resulting album is a mixture of death ambient, emptiness drones, and overloaded psychedelic HNW-a tour through my various interests as a sound artist, speckled with a drop more of darkness and blood than is my usual.
Packaged in triple DVD cases as a twin volume set, in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $30 ppd. in the United States, $43 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "OVERDOSE MY HEART" 9CDr BOX SET (AOW 209)

Another massive work of Paris Hilton manipulations, a companion set to my earlier "Paris, Do You Speak French?" box set.  While the first set was an attempt to create an array of varied sounds and textures, both HNW and ambient, this new set moves in exactly the opposite direction.  The nine CDs here are all incredibly dense and empty HNW overloads, meant to echo the incredible emptiness and banality of Miss Hilton's new single "Come Alive."  All the sounds on this set were again sourced from just that one song; the result is a total wipeout of texturally and tonally varied HNW and ANW.  It's a truly engulfing piece of work. 
The first three discs are my usual highly psychedelic and vaguely melodic wallcraft; the second three discs are very deep and bass-heavy plodding HNW severity; the final three discs become a prolonged descent into ANW drift and drone.  This woman and the position she occupies within the culture fascinate me to no end; perhaps i've found my new muse.
Packaged as three triple CD sets, with aesthetically similar artwork, all housed inside a painted box with a paste on cover.  Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $70 ppd. in the United States, $83 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

TWELVE SUICIDES: CORY STRAND (AOW 175F)

My own installment in the "Twelve Suicides" series is a deeply personal work reflecting the devastating influence of a particular person that haunts my memories.  She was my muse and my destroyer years and years ago.  The artwork and the music contain clues (although perhaps they are more like oblique ideas and only truly suggestive to me) and that's all I really want to say about it.  I am very proud of this work; it is one of my most focused and intense.  Severe and empty isolationist HNW for death contemplations.
Packaged as a fold over cover in a clear plastic bag.  Released in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com 

TWELVE SUICIDES: WILLOWBROOK (AOW 175E)

Fifth installment in the series, from Willowbrook.  This is the most exhausting and immersive volume of the "Twelve Suicides" project thus far, with Willowbrook turning in an absolutely massive 70 minute blaze of grey and bleak depressive HNW horror.  The feelings of despondency and banality are intensely expressed throughout the piece, evoking a palpable sense of tiredness and boredom.  The act of existence is merely the passage of time until death; there is no joy; memories can only blur the pain of being until they collapse in on themselves and carve the idea of joy apart with the knives of bitter and aching nostalgiah.  There is only sorrow and pain now.  There was never anything else.
Packaged as a fold over cover in a clear plastic bag.  Released in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

TWELVE SUICIDES: I WATCHED YOU DIE (AOW175D)

Fourth installment in the series from suicidal HNW master I Watched You Die (Alex Nowacki, from Boar.)  A crushing 40 minute track of extremely crumbly and punishing low end HNW destruction, a massive engulfing sound that easily brings to mind charring flesh and the stench of a life deemed worthless by the individual living it.  Intensely suffocating and transfixing, the monotonous roar of an all-consuming conflagration whose only purpose is the eradication of a diseased idea of the self.  Existence is without purpose; the only truth is in self-immolation.  Sever ties to the physical and watch as the body is eaten away by flame.
Packaged as a fold over cover in a clear plastic bag.  Released in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

FANTOME DE SANG "VORTEX" CDr (AOW 208)

Massive and bludgeoning new album from my Fantome De Sang project, offering up two huge and completely epic tracks of pummeling blackened noisecraft.  Nearly 70 minutes in length, the two tracks here seek to push the endurance-testing sonic extremism of previous Fantome De Sang albums totally into the red, with both pieces continually seeking to escalate their death-metal intensities to a punishing realm of tripped-out transcendence and total psychic wipeout.  These are the hugest tracks i've ever created with Fantome De Sang and I don't know that i'll repeat this sound in the future (nor do i know if i could!).  A transitional but major work for the project that will leave your ears exhausted.
Packaged in a fold over cover housed in a clear plastic bag, in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $7 ppd. in the United States, $20 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "THIS WILL STAY WITH YOU UNTIL YOU DIE" CDr (AOW 207)

Crafted out of sound elements from Big Black's masterful "Atomizer" LP, my new work "This Will Stay With You Until You Die" is a fairly brutal and colorful blast of psychedelicized HNW textures and thick suffocating ambience.  The majority of the work here traffics in substantial rage and despair, taking Steve Albini's famous indictment of Jordan, Minnesota and running with it to its logical conclusion, a place where memory and truth blend themselves into something not entirely real but wholly engrossing and quietly devastating.  This is a focused but experimental album, attempting to pay tribute to one of my favorite records while simultaneously exploring the perceived truth of an issue that still haunts the state in which I live.
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

AUDITOR "WHEN I WAS A LITTLE KID I WAS JUST LIKE ANYONE ELSE" 2CDr (AOW 206)

An utterly crushing and endurance-testing piece of HNW punishment from the Auditor, exploring the dual face of black hole psychopathy and the pitiful attempts at self-awareness and insight proferred by serial murderers.  Crafted out of an extremely lengthy interview with Jeffrey Dahmer, Auditor's work here becomes both inescapably dense and severe and almost psychedelic in its textural and tonal changes, reflecting the grey prismaticism of Dahmer's crumbling interiority as he fumbled towards some sort of understanding and appreciation of what he had done.  Troubling and disturbing in the best possible way, "When I Was A Little Kid I Was Just Like Anyone Else" is a major HNW statement within the subject of nullifying and nihilistic criminality.
The record can be streamed in its entirety at the Auditor's bandcamp page:

http://theauditor.bandcamp.com/album/when-i-was-a-little-kid-i-was-just-like-anybody-else

Packaged as a dual side printed heavy-stock card with the CDr's affixed to either side, housed inside a clear plastic bag, in a limited edition of 20 hand-numbered copies.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $28 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CROWN OF BONE "WOLF CREEK 2: A TRIBUTE" CDr (AOW 204)

Crown Of Bone's follow-up to "Wolf Creek: A Tribute" works with the soundtrack of the second film, creating a hellish and caustically scathing descent into prolonged torture aesthetics and noise-mongering psychedelia, an utterly transcendent slog through the punishing Australian outback and the vicious desires of the truly isolated, the alien blood fixations of an individual removed from society and left to his own wayward Nietzschean sexuality.  In this sense Crown of Bone's work here extracts from the film the "desert of the real"; the surface of existence is illusory, a mask to hide the true horror of being that must be confronted in order to persevere psychologically.  "Wolf Creek 2: A Tribute" seeks to destroy any hope of that perseverance, an audial tour of the dark destructionist forces quietly at work within the forgotten outposts of society.
The album can be streamed in its entirety at Crown Of Bone's bandcamp page:

http://crownofbone.bandcamp.com/album/crown-of-bone-wolf-creek-ii-a-tribute-cdr

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

MIND OF GOD "ELECTRO-BATTLE PREPARATION TACTICS" CDr (AOW 202)

The first of two planned AOW releases from Jason Pizzolato's Mind Of God, "Electro-Battle Preparation Tactics" is a minimalist tribalized techno-hallucinatory odyssey through the seedy trough of the American underworld, a world of Krokodil factories and crumbling meth labs filled with dead dreams and human detritus.  Similar in approach to Justin Broadrick's Techno Animal project, Mind Of God creates dublike textures with a vaguely metallized sheen, a sort of outer realms club music crafted out of plodding drums, decaying guitars, and all manner of industrialized sound.  Incredibly narcoleptic, mesmerizing, syrupy, and hypnotic, "Electro-Battle Preparation Tactics" weaves its way through despair and violence towards a suitably bleak and nightmarish conclusion.  The world just keeps spinning.
The record can be streamed in its entirety at the project's bandcamp page:

http://mindofgod.bandcamp.com/album/electro-battle-preparation-tactics-ep

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