Dying Victims Productions is proud to announce the following new Pre-orders:
DVP 327 Pagan Altar – Never Quite Dead Box/LP/CD/MC/T-Shirt
DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present PAGAN ALTAR’s highly anticipated sixth album, Never Quite Dead, on CD, music cassette and vinyl LP formats.
PAGAN ALTAR are the very definition of a CULT band. Formed in 1978, during the early days of the influential NWOBHM movement, they honed their craft onstage with an eerie, dramatic presentation. And yet, the PAGAN ALTAR sound tended more toward doom metal – which, back then, was not quite yet a subgenre with its own aesthetics – but also infused with their native English folk as well as hard rock. Still, the world outside the UK would not know about the band until years after their dissolution, with the 1998 release of Volume 1, PAGAN ALTAR’s debut album recorded in 1982. Thereafter, the cult of PAGAN ALTAR would begin to grow, and a whole new fanbase hungry for old sounds waited for any sign of uncovered gold.
In 2004, treasures aplenty began to appear. First was The Time Lord EP, which dated back to PAGAN ALTAR’s very earliest days, and later that year came the full-length Lords of Hypocrisy, whose material was originally recorded during 1982-1984 but was re-recorded in 2004: past to present, the band was indeed active again! A year later, the full-length Judgement of the Dead arrived, featuring material written between 1978 and 1981 and recorded in 1982 but remastered in 1998; a bonus track recorded in 2004 was added, again bringing past to present. Past and present truly collided on 2006’s monolithic Mythical & Magical – truly, a perfect description of PAGAN ALTAR at the height of their mesmerizing powers – which featured material spanning 1977-1983 but recorded over the course of 2005 and 2006. Thereafter, only two new songs would emerge for a while – one on a split with Jex Thoth in 2007, the other in 2011 – before, tragically, founding vocalist Terry Jones’ death from cancer in 2015. However, before his death and led by his son and co-founding guitarist Alan, the band had been working on another album, which would later be finished and released in 2017 as The Room of Shadows.
Miraculously, The Room of Shadows proved not to be the band’s epitaph, as PAGAN ALTAR defy time and return with Never Quite Dead – a “new” record in theory, but one bearing the imprint of the past, particularly with Terry Jones’ unmistakable touch. On vocals here is Brendan Radigan, who true metallers will know from Magic Circle, Sumerlands, Savage Oath, and tons more. His somber, ever-so-poignant tones pay reverence to the prevailing PAGAN ALTAR sound whilst putting a distinctive touch upon Never Quite Dead. As Alan Jones details within the album’s liner notes, nearly all the songs on the album – barring the closer “Kismet,” which came as a precursor to Alan’s band Malac’s Cross in the early ‘90s – originated while Terry was still alive, and thus does Never Quite Dead remain an authentically PAGAN ALTAR album. From the Rainbow-rocking opener “Saints and Sinners” on to trad-doom juggernauts like “Liston Church” and “The Dead’s Last March” to the emotional climax of the aforementioned “Kismet,” pretty much every aspect of PAGAN ALTAR is covered in incredibly compelling fashion…even the folk instrumental “Westbury Express,” keeping the mythical & magical alive. Never Quite Dead? You better believe it!
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on silver vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
– Limited Box set on marbled vinyl, with insert, A1 sized poster, sticker, post card, woven patch, silkscreened backpatch, metal pin, posterflag, vinyl slipmat and download code.
– CD edition with sticker and obi.
– MC edition with sticker, button, download code.
– T-Shirt, printed on Gildan Heavy Cotton
– woven patch
Out 25th April
DVP 328 Venator – Psychodrome Box/LP/CD/MC
DVP 205 Venator – Echoes from the Gutter LP 4th pressing
DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present the highly anticipated second album of Austria’s VENATOR, Psychodrome, on CD, vinyl LP, and cassette tape formats.
Forming in 2016, it took VENATOR a while to get going, but when they finally did – it was ON! In 2020, the Austrians released their debut EP, Paradiser, which DYING VICTIMS eventually put on a split LP with the late ANGEL BLADE. Those three songs were an incredibly auspicious first start, showing VENATOR as a band seemingly thawed out from 1983, so authentic and skyward was their songwriting. As the buzz began to build, it came to boil with the band’s debut album, Echoes From the Gutter. Released by DYING VICTIMS in early 2022, VENATOR’s debut album was everything a first full-length should be: a summation of demo legwork, but an equally concerted strive for new & greater heights. Electricity was positively bristling from every second of the record; stunningly addicting, one anthem after another was doled out in seemingly effortless fashion, showing VENATOR as young masters of melody and moodiness.
Following the release of Echoes From the Gutter, VENATOR made good on their street-level charm by hitting any new stage they could, heavily gigging first with labelmates MEGATON SWORD in 2023 and then with labelmates TOXIKULL last year. That increased charisma spills over into their second album, Psychodrome. Indeed, with a title and cover like that, Psychodrome builds an era-specific atmosphere that’s “on brand” for a vintage-savvy band like VENATOR – but such sometimes-superficial moves would all be for naught if they didn’t have the SONGS to back them up! And back ‘em up, VENATOR do here, showing ever more sides to their sonic arsenal whilst sounding characteristically themselves. Much of LP#2 punches forward to a cruising mid-tempo – fist-shaking, for sure, but never overly speedy – while some other songs dip into tempos both faster and slower. But no matter the speed, VENATOR quickly and compellingly establish mood and almighty MELODY: street level as before, but with that heart-on-sleeve passion that puts this into a realm all its own – one that’s authentically mid ‘80s heavy metal heroism in one sense, but strangely refreshing in another. Frontman Hans Huemer once again rallies the warriors with a performance that’s rough and emotive in equal measure, while the rest of his bandmates sharpen their swords with slightly more clarity and spit-shine those godly HOOKS to deadly levels. A lateral development from their almighty debut, then, but another modern classic in the making!
Just like that debut LP, anyone pining for the 1983/’84 peak of the likes of Tokyo Blade, Grim Reaper, OZ, Witch Cross, Heavy Load, and even Judas Priest, here again do you have a band adding to that hallowed lineage rather than plagiarizing it – or perhaps moving the calendar year to 1985, fucking CLASSIC either way. VENATOR command you to enter their Psychodrome!
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on beige vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
– Limited Box set on pink vinyl, with insert, A1 sized poster, sticker, post card, woven patch, silkscreened backpatch, metal pin, posterflag, vinyl slipmat and download code.
– CD edition with sticker and obi.
– MC edition with sticker, button, download code.
Out 25th April
