Lately, Season of Mist has been putting out some pretty sweet box sets for releases like Drudkh and Cynic’s latest offerings. The latest box set for Rotting Christ’s new album Aealo is no exception, coming packaged in a metal container that looks like a shield. Aside from the CD/DVD version of the album, the set includes an exclusive shirt, a belt buckle, a leather bracelet, and a bumper sticker. Not too shabby.

» Buy the Aealo box set from Season of Mist
» Buy the Aealo box set from Amazon.com

Finally a metal band woke up and used a painting from one of my favorite artists, Francis Bacon. Seriously, how can an artist who did a series of paintings of popes screaming in agony not have his art used in some fashion by the underground metal scene?

Francis Bacon was a highly successful Irish figurative painter in the 20th century. His artwork is known for its abtract, distorted figures and tortured imagery. He painted a series of works depicting screaming Papal heads or torsos, and other themes included crucifixions and grotesque self portraits or portraits of friends. H.R. Geiger has stated that Bacon’s work was a strong inspirational force behind his creations for the film Alien.

Anyway, the winner (unless there are other bands using Bacon’s work that I’m not aware of) is Prosanctus Inferi, a death metal band who will be releasing their first album Pandemonic Ululations of Vesperic Palpitation later this year. Their album cover uses a portion of Bacon’s Head I painting. Check out the cover art below.

You can learn more about Francis Bacon on Wikipedia, and check out a couple galleries containing some of his work here and here.

Alcest’s new album, the highly-anticipated follow-up to 2007’s Souvenirs D’un Autre Monde, will be titled Écailles De Lune, and will be released March 29th in Europe and April 20th in the US. I enjoyed the last album, but I’m curious to see whether they take a similar approach on the new one or incorporate more black metal into their sound this time around. Here’s a look at the cover art:

Prophecy is also getting set to release Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées, the debut album from Les Discrets. Les Discrets is the solo project of Fursy Teyssier, who is also a member of Amesoeurs. It sounds like that album will be on the softer side of things, so if you enjoyed Alcest’s last full-length then this will probably be right up your alley. Here’s the cover art, which was also done by Fursy:

Like the Alcest album, Septembre Et Ses Dernières Pensées comes out March 29th in Europe and April 20th in the US. You can find a track listings and more info about both albums’ releases at the Prophecy Productions site.

Romania’s innovative black metal horde Negura Bunget have announced that their latest album Maiestrit will be released in North America on April 6th of this year. Maiestrit is a re-recording/re-interpretation of the band’s classic Maiastru Sfetnic album, which came out in 2000. Negura Bunget is also putting the finishing touches on another new album titled Vîrstele pamîntului, which is expected to come out in March.

In addition to the new releases, Negura Bunget’s back catalog has been gradually getting reissued by Prophecy Productions, and these reissues will be made available in North America this summer. The reissues will feature new artwork and bonus content.

Finally, Negura Bunget is currently planning a full-scale tour of the USA and Canada to coincide with the release of Maiestrit. Tour dates should hopefully be announced soon.

» Negura Bunget on MySpace

Today was “Weird Metal News Day,” apparently…

First, Invisible Oranges posted about pornstar Sasha Grey is attempting to become a metal critic, which I guess might be interesting, although it sounds like her taste is mostly restricted to Sunn O))) and other Southern Lord-type releases. That’s the second porn star I know of who is into extreme metal, the other being Liz Vicious. Kinda makes you wonder..

Then I found something even more bizarre: this article in SFGate. Apparently veteran actor Christopher Lee is performing vocals on a symphonic metal album called Charlemagne: By The Sword And The Cross. He has worked with Rhapsody and Manowar before, so it’s not like this is completely out of left field. The album will be released in March, and is also being adapted into a stage musical.

You can check out some samples from the album at the Charlemagne MySpace page. The music sounds pretty tame, which I guess is not that surprising. The samples don’t contain too much actual ‘metal’ stuff, but you can hear some guitars here and there. I’m having a hard time deciding whether to be amused by it or to think it’s awesome because it contains Christopher Lee.

It’s about that time of year for people to start posting their ‘best of 2009′ lists; Decibel’s top 40 list is already being discussed in various forums, and other lists are sure to follow soon. I’m not yet ready to post my own yet (waiting to hear The Ruins of Beverast’s new one first!), but it’s never too early to look ahead to what’s coming out in the early months of 2010. Here are a few of the albums I’m looking forward to, in no particular order:

Dark Tribe - Archaic Visions
Dark Tribe’s follow up to 2004’s disturbing In Jeraspunta should hopefully come out next year.

Lantlôs - .neon
Lantlôs is another one of those post-black metal projects involving Neige. He only contributes vocals in this band though.

Farsot - To Be Announced
Farsot’s killer debut was one of my favorite releases from 2008, so I’m eager to see how their next album turns out.

Imperium Dekadenz - Procella Vadens
Imperium Dekadenz’s third album should come out January 18th on Season of Mist, so fans of this band won’t have to wait much longer.

Forgotten Tomb - Under Saturn Retrograde
Negative Megalomania seems to have turned a fair amount of people off with the addition of clean vocals and some modernization of the trademark Forgotten Tomb sound. Nevertheless it should be interesting to see how the new album turns out.

Forest Silence - Wintercult
Hungary’s Forest Silence, a side project of Sear Bliss keyboardist Winter, are scheduled to release their sophomore album in January.

Gorath - MXCII
Gorath’s last album Misotheism is another that blew me away in 2008. The new track on Gorath’s MySpace page is honestly a bit underwhelming, but hopefully it isn’t representative of how the new album will sound.

Ondskapt - Arisen From The Ashes
Dodens Evangelium was an amazing album, but Ondskapt have gone through some lineup changes since that album came out four years ago, so it remains to be seen whether that will impact the new album.

Tenhi - Saivo
Tenhi is one of those neofolk bands that gets associated with the metal scene, and in my opinion they are by far the best of the bunch.

Nightbringer - Apocalypse Sun
I couldn’t really get into Nightbringer’s last album, but the samples from Apocalypse Sun sound a step above their previous work, so I’m really looking forward to hearing the new stuff from these guys.

Urfaust - To Be Announced
The next full length from crazy Dutch black metal duo Urfaust should come out next year on Ván Records.

What other albums are you looking forward to in 2010? Leave it in the comments.

Belgian black metallers Gorath have inked a deal with German label Twilight Vertrieb, and will be releasing their fourth album MXCII in early 2010. Here’s a brief description from the band’s MySpace page:

Gorath’s fourth one, MXCII, again is a concept album all about local history, facts and religious items - All seen through the eyes of the heretic. Mixed at Shumcot Studio by Renier Schenk and mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound.

MXCII is the follow-up to 2008’s Misotheism, and it will be one of the releases I’m most looking forward to in early 2010. You can check out the track ‘Heidewake’ from the new album at Gorath’s MySpace page.

Misotheism continues to be almost impossible to find a copy of in the US. You can currently get a copy from Ominous Domain, and I’ve been told that The End Records should soon be getting some copies as well.

This seems to be all over the internet already but I think it’s hilarious so I’m going to post about it anyway. Death metal band Embryonic Devourment are basing their next album Vivid Enterpretations Of The Void on the Reptilian Agenda, which is a conspiracy theory developed by former professional football player, author and reporter David Icke.

Icke’s theory essentially states that a race of 7-foot blood-drinking, shape-shifting reptilian humanoids from outer space secretly controls the world. Many world leaders, including both Bush presidents, Hillary Clinton and Tony Blair are asserted to either be controlled by the reptilians or to be themselves reptiles in disguise.

You can check out Wikipedia for a bit of info on David Icke and the Reptilian Agenda, or you can check out some of Icke’s books on the subject:

» The Biggest Secret: The Book That Will Change the World

» The David Icke Guide to the Global Conspiracy

If all that’s not enough, you might want to check out the lengthy interview that Embryonic Devourment posted recently on their MySpace page with Zulu Shaman Vusamazulu Credo Mutwa talking about reptilians and all sorts of other bizarre stuff.

The Drakkar Productions site recently posted an update about French black metal band Mortifera:

“The full MORTIFERA discography will be reissued also under APPARITIA Recordings on CD & LP format and Official merchandising will be printed. A new album is to be expected in 2010. More information regarding set release dates when available!”

As far as I know Mortifera is on hold and has been for awhile, so it’ll be a bit of a pleasant surprise if they actually do come out with new material next year. Neige doesn’t seem to be involved with the band any more though, so even if they do produce some new material the sound could pretty different from their previous full-length. Their past releases haven’t been easy to obtain here in the US though, so hopefully the reissues will help with that somewhat.

Osmose Productions has secured a deal to reissue Hate Forest’s entire back catalogue, consisting of 6 albums in total. The reissues will be coming out over a span from October 2009 until March 2010. From the Osmose site:

“The re-issues will come under special packaging Digisleeve limited to 1000 each, with much improved booklets and carefully remastered audio version, close to original.”

Hate Forest is notable for its members going on to form numerous other well-known Ukrainian bands such as Drudkh, Astrofaes, Blood of Kingu and Khors.