Pacific Threnodies - Dark Paeans from California

[pacificthrenodies]

Francis Roberts (Old Man Wizard, King Gorm, ex-The Dread Crew of Oddwood) is certainly an enigmatic artist. With a pedigree that runs the gamut from pirate metal to progressive rock, his unique take on "dungeon synth" seems to owe more to the Berlin School than to black metal. Our various experiences with Francis' live performances have been - without exception - unforgettable. From a long voidgazing journey taken in a dark cave, where audience members began falling asleep on the dusty floor; to brilliant space-voyages among almond trees under dazzling stars; to a mind-bending underwater-like sonic exploration culminating in a sonorous, explosive sounding of an enormous gong, Francis has never failed to capture something strange and oneiric in these appearances.

Perhaps his most mythical feat to date, however, was his performance at this year's live-streamed Dungeon Synth music festival, Northeast Dungeon Siege MMXX.

As sonic textures began to build upon one another in a thrumming crescendo, and visuals of brilliantly colored nature-scenes danced behind the various synthesizers on screen, it was immediately apparent that something was not quite there - Francis, himself, had disappeared. For the entire half-hour runtime of one of his most magnificent pieces we've heard to date, the performer remained completely invisible. Viewers were alternately aghast, confused, and delighted at the weirdness of this live performance, which was to become legendary among those privileged enough to see it unfold in real time.

We are proud to present "The Friends You Met Along The Way: Live at Northeast Dungeon Siege MMXX" on 50 gold-on-purple-tint pad-printed pro-cassettes in printed O-cards, housed in 5x4" green jewelry boxes topped with vinyl album art sticker. Included is a 3" mini-DVD of the entire performance, individually accented with psychedelic watercolors and stamped with the Francis Roberts logo in purple.

Recommended for listeners of Klaus Schulze, Tangerine Dream, Jenn Taiga, Lisa Bella Donna, Storm Corrosion, etc

To be shipped 07/31/20.

[pacificthrenodies]

From the Italian mastermind responsible for the sublime classic 90’s dungeon synth act Sagenhaft, we are proud to present the debút recording by Victorian Witch.

“Eerie Tales” is a wondrous work of ritualistic dark ambient, dripping with gothic atmosphere and occultic imagery that would make a wonderful soundtrack to the most nyctian works of Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, and Mary Shelley.



In the artist’s own words:



“Eerie Tales is inspired by the imagery of the Victorian Era, a modern Middle Ages populated by ghoulish entities, assassins lurking in dark alleys, haunted houses and a constant morbid attraction for death and mysteries ... sit in front of the fireplace with a good book of ghost stories and a glass of absinthe and let yourself be carried away by these sounds.”



Recommended for listeners of Hexentanz, Aghast, Moëvöt, The Spirit Of Iuvenium, etc - and for all seekers of forbidden knowledge in shadowy places.

We are offering a limited edition of 100 compact discs in printed digipaks, housed in black-on-black printed outer envelopes individually sealed in stamped wax and featuring two bonus tracks unique to this format. To be shipped 8/29/20.

[pacificthrenodies]

PT-25: Ardormort - The Desolation Letters




We are proud to unleash Ardormort's latest offering, “The Desolation Letters,” unto the world. This is a work of enormity and passion, an expression of extreme eclecticism that nearly defies description. 



Already known for their masterful dungeon synth work as Shrouded Gate, the artist behind Ardormort here expands to much broader horizons - with sounds reminiscent of the awe-inspiring classics of funeral and death-doom, black metal, and coldwave cohered by strong neo-medieval synthesizer composition overlaid throughout. From the melancholic oboe and clarinet duet that opens “A Study of Death” before erupting to a thrumming blackened climax, the disorientingly heavy metal grooves of “Fool’s Prayer,” the disharmonic death-dance of “Back The Blade,” through the depressive melodicism of “Tom Riker” at the album’s close, Ardormort’s unique synthesis remains startlingly cohesive from start to finish.
These are masterfully engaging pieces that impart a complicated range of emotion; from languor and alienation to imperious battle-music, from harsh death metal aggression to gloomy doom atmospheres. “The Desolation Letters” is a lyrical work that manages to navigate the many pitfalls inherent to its more progressive style, leading us down its many shadowy pathways in awe of what we may find around the next corner.



Recommended for listeners of Thergothon, Green Carnation, Empyrium, ColdWorld, Summoning, and dungeon synth music in general.



We are offering a limited edition of 26 black-on-gold pro-cassettes in standard cases, with color printed j-card.


24 additional copies are offered as part of an extremely special-edition pinewood box set; treated, stamped, stained, finished, and numbered by the artist's hand. Each musical piece from the album is represented by its own poetic "desolation letter," for a total of 8 individual letters in each box; each weathered, tea-stained, and inoculated with flame by the artist. In addition to these letters, each box contains the album on cassette in standard packaging and band logo button.

To be shipped 9/29/20.

[pacificthrenodies]

Aylwin are veterans of nature-centric atmospheric post-black metal, having inaugurated both themselves and the Eternal Warfare Records Festival in the year MMXIII - where they performed alongside such mainstays as Alda, Mania, Hell, Wolvserpent, Murk Rider, Barghest, etc. Despite their urban origins in Whittier, California, they exude an apocalyptic sorrow tempered by melodicism of a decidedly Cascadian flavor, as if Wolves in the Throne Room had collaborated with Ameseours in a Pacific beach cave. 



You may recognize them as a sister band to the death metal project Civerous, which released a split tape with Stygian Obsession on Pacific Threnodies last year.

“The Arch Holder” is a single monolithic track running 30 minutes in length. The journey waxes and wanes in intensity but does not lose cohesion as its winsome elegies to a wounded Mother Earth are expressed.

It is our distinct pleasure to present an edition of 77 professionally-duplicated cassettes, pad-printed in metallic gold on translucent dusky brown tapes, housed in standard Norelco cases with full-color j-cards with art and lyrics, in an outer pouch of black muslin, screenprinted in metallic gold.

Recommended for listeners of Alda, Huldrekall, Sadhaka, Stellar Descent, Twilight Falls, etc.


Shipping February 4, MMXXI.

[pacificthrenodies]

We are honoured to share with you this beautiful debút offering by the atmospheric black metal duo Kaskaskia. Made up of members of Acheulean Forests, Trollkjerring, Life, Sadness, and Born an Abomination, these varied elements of idyllic dungeon synth and melodic / depressive black metal are joined herein to terrific effect, resulting in a demo that is effulgent in emotion, executed with a dire, even desperate earnestness.

From the astonishingly catchy synth arpeggios that soar over the frigid blastbeats of “Winter Tresses” to the final exultant melodicism of “The Brunette,” we cannot help but imagine a marriage of Sweden’s LUSTRE with Australia’s AUSTERE; similar moods of nostalgia, longing, and despair hang thick among these snowy climes.

Recommended for listeners of Severoth, Lustre, Woods of Desolation, Coldworld, Veldes, etc.

We are pleased to offer an edition of 66 cassettes, each paired with a 1.5” pinback logo button.

To be shipped 03/05/2021.

[pacificthrenodies]

EXPANSION ABYSS & PACIFIC THRENODIES proudly present
this monolithic split LP of intensely atmospheric black metal.

MONVMENT (Sol y Nieve Records, Seven Chains)
and NEMORENSIS (Malfet, Stygian Obsession)
have each prepared a single 23-minute-long hymn to span the sides of this disc. These are meditative spells, extended hallucinations of fear, wonder, and warlike glory, with ambience and aggression in equal measure.

Recommended for listeners of DARKSPACE,
EVILFEAST, FAUNA, and DRUDKH

Released on limited-edition silver 12” record in silk-screened LP jacket with color double-sided photo & lyrics insert.

Streaming exclusively at:

http://thecallofthenight.com/nemorensismonvmentpremiere

https://pacificthrenodies.bandcamp.com/ ... s-monvment

[pacificthrenodies]

PT-34: The Spirit of Iuvenium - The Nameless Love


We are thrilled to share this, the latest missive by Chieftain Conifer (Acheulean Forests, Trollkjerring, Kaskaskia) & collaborator Amos Hart.


“The Nameless Love” is an instrumental gothic darkwave record that embodies many features we have come to love from this artist’s body of work. Profuse in its sincerity, there is a palpable, nigh-obsessive nostalgia for childhood innocence and an idealistic fixation on the purity of romantic love - disguising a dark transgressiveness and intense pain hidden just beneath the surface.

This earnest romanticism recalls the naïve charm of artists like Morrowdim or Narsilion, while some lighter passages could have easily found a place among the faerie dungeon synth paeons of Acheulean Forests. While brief, the core of this record carries an intensely emotional density that will sate any who have been enraptured by this style.

Recommended for listeners of The Sins of Thy Beloved, Narsilion, Secret Stairways, Arcana, etc.



Pacific Threnodies is offering an edition of 77 professionally-duplicated cassette tapes in windowless white shells with metallic silver pad-printing, in clear/white norelco case with multipanel J-card of art and lyrics. 


The tape will feature 3 cassette-only bonus tracks from The Nameless Love recording sessions and runs 27 minutes in length.

This edition also includes bonus logo sticker and button.



Preorders will be accepted starting 05/13/22, with a projected fulfillment date of 06/10/22. 



[pacificthrenodies]

Cassettes are in-hand and all preorders have been shipped. Features 3 cassette-only bonus tracks. Silver pad-print on white windowless cassette, clear / silver norelco case, 5-panel j-card and bonus vinyl logo sticker with (frankly massive) 2.25” logo button.