Season of Mist’s announcement of Drudkh’s new full-length took me completely by surprise, mostly because I didn’t think the band would be cranking out another album so soon after 2009’s Microcosmos. Handful of Stars, which will be coming out Sept. 20th (Oct. 12th for us Americans) immediately becomes one of the albums I’m most looking forward to for the remainder of this year.

What I don’t look forward to is holding the album in my hand and having to stare at the newest grotesque visual creation courtesy of Drudkh’s union with Season of Mist. The new album art, supposedly rendered by Fursy Teyssier (Alcest, Amesoeurs) would easily be the band’s worst if it weren’t for the awful artwork on this year’s reissue of The Swan Road.

On the plus side, Handful of Stars appears to continue Drudkh’s recent move away form their typical autumnal visual style towards a more celestial aesthetic, which means that Handful of Stars will likely also continue the clearer production values and songwriting conciseness found on its predecessor. Drudkh’s first few albums still stand as some of the most masterful expressions of the atmospheric black metal sound ever created, and since it’s unlikely the band will ever top those, I think it makes sense for them to explore this slightly different approach. The new album may not be much to look at, but I’m betting that musically these guys will not disappoint.

Prophecy Productions recently issued some very exciting news for fans of Finland’s masters of dark neofolk Tenhi. The long-awaited new album Saivo will be coming out before the end of the year, and the band is currently wrapping up the recording process, according to this update:

“Sorry for the sparse updates about ‘Saivo’. We hoped to get the album out this summer and didn’t want to disappoint you before all hope was gone. Despite the hopefully final delays, the album is well underway and the final parts are being recorded within couple of weeks, namely choirs and cello parts. We plan to finish our works on the album by the end of August eventually. ‘Saivo’ has taken its time and we didn’t want to rush it. Almost every of the song has gone through a huge variety of alternative arrangements until we felt that we had achieved best result.

Perhaps just as exciting for me is the announcement that all of the band’s previous albums (Kauan, Väre, Airut:aamujen, and Maaäet) will be re-released by Prophecy, and the new editions will come with significantly enhanced booklets and artwork. Tenhi has a knack for crafting artwork that perfectly matches the sparse, wintry atmosphere of their songs, so I’m very eager to see how the new editions turn out.

If you haven’t checked out From Glory To Infinity, the latest release from Italian death metal band Faust, surely you’ve at least seen the eye-catching topless-nun-with-implants cover art. If that wasn’t enough to make you buy this album, Faust is getting set to release the picture disc edition of the album on July 1st through Negativity Records. The picture disc will feature exclusive artwork, and is limited to 666 copies.

Faust features bassist Steve DiGiorgio (Sadus, Death, Testament, Autopsy, James Murphy, Control Denied, Iced Earth, Quo Vadis), and other members have played in Ancient, Bulldozer, Blotted Science, Dimmu Borgir, Vader and Vesania. Quite an experienced bunch, in other words. From Glory To Infinity came out late last year, and is the band’s first full-length.

» Faust - From Glory To Infinity album page on Musical Warfare
» Faust on MySpace

The latest offering from enigmatic French entity Blut Aus Nord continues to challenge and distort our expectations. The vinyl-only release What Once Was… Liber I is the band’s first through new label Debemur Morti Productions, and apparently will showcase some new facets of Blut Aus Nord’s music:

What Once Was constitutes an epitaph for the past; a headstone for the present; and a funeral of the future. With a cheeky sidestep - nodding appreciatively in the direction of old school Death Metal whilst maintaining Blut Aus Nord’s own trademark take on Black Metal - the French mavericks bare a previously-undisclosed visage. This release will be “Liber 1″, the first in a series of intriguing, raw and primitive releases running parallel to their main body of work.

The album can be purchased from Eitrin Editions, or Ominous Domain if you are in the US.

Black Hate has finally released some news regarding Dark Tribe’s long-awaited follow-up to 2004’s In Jeraspunta - Die Rückkehr der Tollwütigen Bestie:

We have some really great news! Just in this moment we are mixing the new Dark Tribe album “Archaic Visons” in our shelter!!! We have the pleasure to have again Angel of Doom in the duty for this task. We have planned to finnish the mixing in the next 3 days. And Angel of Doom will of course also do the the final mastering. So its not that far away anymore.

So it sounds as though Archaic Visions will be released this year, hopefully sooner rather than later.

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.