Hypnotic Dirge Updates and News

UPCOMING RELEASE / SONG PREMIERE: Vin de Mia Trix unveil upcoming double concept album

April 26, 2017

April 19, 2017


Ukrainian progressive doom metal band Vin de Mia Trix is set to release their new album titled “Palimpsests” on May 31, 2017 through two North American labels - Hypnotic Dirge Records and Cimmerian Shades Recordings. The twenty-one minute track "Pharmakos" is premiering on Invisible Oranges


Following on the heels of their 2013 full-length “Once Hidden from Sight” and a 2016 split with Nethermost (USA), Vin de Mia Trix have truly raised the bar on this release, working for several years to create an ambitious piece of art, wide in scope and taking a multi-faceted approach. Mixing and mastering were handled by Damon Good of the mighty Mournful Congregation, making sure the production quality matches the music's ambitiousness.

Palimpsests is an album about archetypes, the stories and characters that exist deep inside our collective subconsciousness, stories so significant and influential that they appear in various peoples' and cultures' mythology. Concepts like rebirth through sacrifice, stealing knowledge from the gods, or the great cleansing flood can be found anywhere from Hinduism through Ancient Greek myths to Christianity, proving their importance in shaping societies and civilizations. These stories are told to this day, and “Palimpsests” album tries to retell them once again, adding to the eternal cycle.


The name “Palimpsests” summarizes the spectrum of themes the band aims to convey and embodies the concept of multi-layered meanings and symbols expressed through musical, lyrical, and visual content. “Palimpsests” consists of four lengthy tracks, spanning over 90 minutes of playtime. It is a concept album,with each song exploring a specific archetypal myth, from Scapegoat to the Flood. Musically, “Palimpsests” is rooted in Extreme Doom, venturing occasionally into the territories of Prog Rock and Post-Metal.


The double album will be released as a 4-panel digipak with an exclusive 36-page booklet designed by the Kyiv-based Seri/graf Studio.

"PHARMAKOS is that one track we usually play at the end of our shows because of its emotional intensity. After finishing the climactic choir we feel utterly exhausted both physically and morally.

In Greek tradition, pharmakós literally means a ‘scapegoat’. It is a sacrifice that ancient communities would offer their blood-thirsty gods to avert disasters. Pharmakoi would usually be chosen among the weakest: slaves, cripples, etc. A very doom metal kind of story! But that is only one layer of meaning.

On a deeper level, pharmakós is associated with the most primitive fertility rites and especially the ancient Minoan cult of Dionysus, centuries before he became a jolly god of wine. In that old, pre-Olympic mythology, Dionysus, or Zagreus, was the king of the underworld, both husband and son of Rhea, procreating his own self and thus embodying the ouroborosian cycle of life and death.

The archaic Dionysian Mysteries involved killing a sacrificial animal (pharmakós), associated with the god himself, and eating its raw flesh, celebrating life’s victory over death. In more civilized times, these ecstatic rites would evolve into theatrical performances, giving birth to tragedy. Many scholars believe that the idea of Jesus Christ’s sacrifice (and who is Jesus if not a scapegoat?) is derived from these older cults. This explains the Eucharist ceremony of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Christ, celebrating his immortality.

So, PHARMAKOS encompasses a range of meanings, but in a nutshell, it is a hymn to eternal life through ecstasy and sacrifice. As such, it has an almost religious feel to it.
 

ALBUM RELEASE: NONE - selftitled

April 12, 2017
Today officially marks the release of this despondent debut album from the Pacific Northwest entity known as NONE. Enjoy this first offering of the band, and prepare for more as a follow-up is already in process!



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Album Reviews

Here is some clips of what reviewers have said about the album so far.
"There’s more than just harrowing bleakness on this album; this is where the atmospheric black metal influence comes in. The band’s clear depressive edge is augmented ...

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ALBUM PREMIERE: NONE - selftitled

April 8, 2017
NONE's selftitled debut is premiering now on Metal Trenches!

"It's always somewhat amusing to me to judge a depressive BM album in terms of words such as "like" and "enjoyability."  These probably aren't the best descriptors, so consider them in this case to be measurements of emotional immersion.  Within this context, None has plenty to take in.  For those out there who like to just lay back and soak in the misery, None will certainly deliver.  The morose, atmospheric guitars and despairing, ...

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Webshop Update - April 2017

April 1, 2017
New additions from Avantgarde Music from Italy and Loud Rage Music from Romania this month!
Limited quantities as always.

Latest Additions Link

HDR - D - 955 : Gothic - Demons
HDR - D - 956 : Akral Necrosis - Underlight
HDR - D - 957 : False Reality - End of Eternity
HDR - D - 958 : Earth and Pillars - Pillars I 
HDR - D - 959 : Mare Cognitum / Aureole - Resonance: Crimson Void
HDR - D - 960 : Aureole - Alunar
HDR - D - 961 : Mesarthim - Pillars
HDR - D - 962 : Mesarthim -  .- -... ... . -. -.-. .
HDR -...

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ALBUM RELEASE: Black Tremor / Sea Witch

March 25, 2017
Today, together with Sunmask Records we are releasing the long-awaited split album between Black Tremor and Sea Witch. This release was initially planned for last fall through Sunmask. A couple months ago, they approached me and asked if HDR would want to be involved and indeed it was a pleasure to take part in this release!! Black Tremor and Sea Witch have both been bands in the radar for potential releases for a while, so agreeing to co-release this split was an easy decision to make!

As has...

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PRE-ORDERS : Debut album from Atmospheric / Depressive Black Metal band “NONE” available to pre-order

March 16, 2017
We are now taking pre-orders for NONE’s upcoming self-titled debut album due for release on April 11. NONE is a band that seemingly emerged out of nowhere, (as many do nowadays) lurking in obscurity somewhere in the pacific northwest and having managed to create a really visceral and chilling style of atmospheric and depressive black metal.  

Along with the album, there is also a limited NONE shirt, available in sizes Medium through XX-Large. 
Pre-orders will ship out in the first few days of...

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ALBUM RELEASE: netra - Ingrats

March 13, 2017
The experimental and internationalist one-man project netra returns with the first new album since 2013 with perhaps his most focused work yet. The third full-length album“Ingrats” (french for “ungrateful ones”) is filled with raw and honest music that speaks to a common despair, internal psychosis, and the monotony of modern life. Mixing abrasive and claustrophobic depressive Black Metal, darkwave, trip-hop, and melancholic alternative rock, netra’s music has never been restricted ...

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ALBUM PREMIERE : netra - Ingrats

March 13, 2017
News from March 6, 2017

The new netra album "Ingrats" is premiering on Metal Trenches along with a review.



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Webshop Update - March 2017

March 2, 2017
Webshop Update - March 2017
Latest Additions
-All albums added this month are in this section.
HDR - D - 949 : Lux Divina - Possessed by Telluric Feelings HDR - D - 950 : Lux Divina - Walk Within the Riddle HDR - D - 951 : Vike Tare - Feed the Flames HDR - D - 952 : Bifrost - Mana Ewah HDR - D - 953 : Aethernaeum - Wanderungen durch den Daemmerwald HDR - D - 954 : Aethernaeum - Naturmystik

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RELEASE NEWS: Sunmask and Hypnotic Dirge team up to release Black Tremor / Sea Witch split release

March 2, 2017

Sunmask and Hypnotic Dirge present a split release from two of the best heavy instrumental bands out of Canada: The progressive folk doom of the prairies - Black Tremor, and the atmospheric nautical doom of the maritimes - Sea Witch.

Black Tremor are a three piece stoner folk doom band from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Bass, drum and violin roil across the flatlands in advance of the coming storm... Melancholic violin swirls above the grit of fuzzed out slide bass and the beating drums; glimpses...


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