CORY STRAND "PSYCHO: A REINTERPRETATION" 14CDR SET (AOW 324)

Massive drone/ANW rework of one of the most famous film scores in cinema history, Bernard Herrmann's masterful exercise in tension and volatility - the score for Alfred Hitchcock's legendary Psycho.  I'm not going to waste space writing about the film-i'm guessing anyone with a passing interest in my work understands Psycho's influence and place in the Western Canon of cinema.  I've studied Psycho pretty intensely in my academic career, and it's a joy to finally be able to cut loose with it and view it through a different prism.  My rework is 14 discs of crushing ambient/ANW-style power drone, meant to evoke the grey areas of Norman Bates' fractured psyche.  Intensely orchestral scores always translate really well into drone and noise, and this one is no exception.  If you've enjoyed my work with other Hitch scores, then this will be right up your alley.
Packaged as 14 separate albums, each in their own DVD case with their own artwork utilizing images from and ephemera associated with the film.  Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $130 ppd. in the United States, $143 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "I AM BEYOND YOUR EXPERIENCE: THE NIGHT STALKER" 5CDr (AOW 154 - SECOND PRESSING)

A reissue of one of my most oft-requested out-of-print works.  "I Am Beyond Your Experience" is my take on the life and crimes of Richard Ramirez, rendered into five discs of death ambient, HNW, drone, and Carpenter-esque synth compositions.  The original edition was a somewhat lavish box set and sold out almost imemdiately; this new version collects everything into a more compact form.  There's no new material, but the package has new artwork - more minimalist, less sensationalist.  Here's my original write-up:

"With Richard Ramirez's death in 2013, the serial murder cult of celebrity lost one of its most vocal and strangely charismatic figureheads.  His passing was felt in the noise scene as well, with many of my contemporaries openly lamenting his death.  Ramirez's exultation was (and still is) incredibly bizarre to me; compared to other serial murders (like Edmund Kemper or Ted Bundy) Ramirez had difficulty expressing himself and explaining the motivations for his crimes, and it seems to me his murder journey wasn't so much driven by true psychological compulsion as it was focused and considered courses of action manufactured to bring about a certain image.  Perhaps Ramirez's true disregard for society is what draws so many people to him; perhaps his alignment with a self-created Satanic path allowed him a feeling of actualization that rendered him beyond any real explanation. 
I personally find Ramirez tedious and incredibly self-serving (as all serial murderers are at heart); his crimes were pointless and callously brutal, and his reflections on his life, if you can call them that, add up to little more than an endless cloud of noxious hot air void of insight.  With other serial murderers an intellectual/psychological blueprint can be created and some sort of understanding can be reached.  With the Night Stalker, there is only a roaring emptiness.
These recordings were created using elements of interviews with Ramirez and snippets of his favorite album, AC/DC's "Highway To Hell," which he would listen to prior to his murders.  I hope these compositions illustrate the intensely violent nothingness that Ramirez projected."

Five discs, packaged in a DVD case.  Released 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

TWELVE SUICIDES: NIGHTTIME IN THE ABYSS (AOW 175H)

I am very pleased to announce the eighth installment of the "Twelve Suicides" series, from longtime AOW ally Nighttime In The Abyss.  This recording marks the project's return after a considerable length of silence: all of the hallmarks of NITA are present here (persistent eerieness, suffocating atmosphere, visceral emotionalism), but the sound is clearer, more haunting, fuller, more gargantuan than it has been on any other NITA piece.  Across thirty harrowing minutes, Christopher Ropes explores matters of death and the immateriality of flesh, the persistence of being, and ideas of the beyond.  Tinged with eastern philosophy and the vision of a poet, this album casts echoes and queries into the aether.  It's a thing of beauty - tortured, wrecked beauty - and I could not be more happy to be releasing it.  Includes a remix prepared in alliance with Invoke Aether Often that stretches the piece to its melodic and ambient limits.  I would also like to add that Christopher recently had his first book of poetry published through Dynatox Ministries; if you enjoy his work as NITA and his intense lyrical content, you'll enjoy his poetry as well.  Interested parties can check it out here:

http://dynatox.storenvy.com/collections/240632-all-products/products/14066268-the-operating-theater-by-christopher-ropes-standard-edition

This release is packaged as a fold-over cover, housed in a clear plastic bag (the same as the previous volumes in the series.)  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

BIG HOLE/SEE THROUGH BUILDINGS "SPLIT" CDR (AOW 323)

A massive, crushing split release between two of the most interesting HNW projects currently in operation, Big Hole and See Through Buildings.  AOW has worked with both artists prior (both have releases in the "Blue Velvet" series, and Big Hole has a double CD released through AOW, as well as an upcoming split with Dejection in the very near future), and when I was offered the chance to release the CD version of this split, I jumped at it.  Those looking for intensity and volume in their WALL will not be disappointed by either project's contributions here, as the volume levels are near obscene: white-hot, city-leveling destructionism spread across 70 monolithic minutes.  Both projects excel at minute textural changes within their walls, slowly mutating lakes of sound that expand and despond ever further outward, until total blackness is reached.  This is the true harsh that should satisfy even the most jaded HNW ear; no respite and no remorse.  Absolute annihilation.
Packaged in a DVD case and released in a limited edition of 20 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $23 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "ED WOOD: A REINTERPRETATION" 13CDR + DVD-R SET (AOW 322)

My rework of Howard Shore's glorious, beautifully quirky but mostly despondent score to Tim Burton's finest film, the chiarascuro drenched masterpiece Ed Wood.  Burton's homage to the delusional but visionary Ed Wood features stunning cinematography, one of Johnny Depp's finest performances, and an array of awesome actors portraying the various eccentrics that weave themselves around Wood's mess of a life.  It's simply a brilliant film that memorializes both the 1950s horror/sci-fi that Burton so obviously loves, as well as eulogizes a Hollywood that used to be, where an ambitious wide-eyed maverick like Wood could still get films made.  Perhaps Ed Wood is a fitting cinematic funeral for the Dream Factory, and a warning of the creative desert Hollywood would become in just a few decades.
My rework of the score goes all in for the sadness that permeates the film, a set of long, deep, mournful drones full of existential yearning and anxiety-ridden dissatisfaction.  Thick, unctuous tones envelop and eventually suffocate, creating an atmosphere at once comforting and terrifying.
Packaged in 14 separate DVD cases, each with their own artwork utilizing scenes from and ephemera associated with the film.  Twelve CDs of the rework proper, a short "Coda" piece, and an HNW "Totality" recording of the film's entire audio track make up the work.  Nearly 18 hours.  Released in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $130 ppd. in the United States, $143 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

OUR LOVE WILL DESTROY THE WORLD "SOL AIRBORNE PYRAMID" 3XC60 BOX SET (AOW 289)

PLEASE NOTE: This is currently being offered as a preorder, to help defray the costs of production.  If all goes well, I expect the cassettes to be in stock and hopefully shipping out late November/early December.

Finally unveiled, the long-awaited triple tape live retrospective from Campbell Kneale's freeform genre-eradicating noise/drone "OHM" unit, Our Love Will Destroy The World.  I have been a fan of Kneale's since forever and being able to put this release together has been nothing less than an utter privilege for me-the emotion and power inherent in Kneale's output (OLWDTW, Birchville Cat Motel, Ming, Black Boned Angel, and a thousand others), along with its unwavering quality and inventiveness, is something most of us working in this genre of "noise" can only dream of achieving.  The fact that Campbell makes it seem so damn effortless fills me with even more bewildered wonderment.
"Sol Airborne Pyramid" is comprised of six live performances, captured in all their beautiful, ragged, overloaded, white-hot glory.  The performances run the gamut of audio extremism, from hushed windy uberdrone to vomitous torrents of distorted sludge corruption to lovely yearning barely-there melodic powerdrone clouds to metallized dreamcrush and back again, creating a tower of sound that reaches to the heavens, storms their gates, and burns them to the fucking ground.  This is OLWDTW unhinged, communing with the ether, reaching for the beyond, dragging outer dimensions into ours and bending them to Kneale's sonic will.  It's a thing a of rare beauty, and I am beyond psyched to release it through AOW.  I could easily end the label with this one and die a happy human being (but i won't-don't worry!)
Packaged as a triple cassette set; nearly three hours of magnificent, expansive sturm und drang.  Artwork by Campbell himself.  Released in a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered copies.  $30 ppd. in the United States, $43 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com