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raison d’être ‘In Sadness, Silence And Solitude’ [Expanded edition 2021] 2CD/Digital
Mammoth stone walls stretching high into the unknown, dank cellars stewn with bones and ashes. A chill in the lonely night wind disturbed by the utterance of arcane phrases. This is music guaranteed to at least bring about thoughts of mysticism, if it doesn’t produce mystical states outright. This defines the term hauntingly beautiful. ‘In Sadness, Silence And Solitude’, first released in 1997, is the fourth full-length album of raison d’être and is yet another astonishing dark ambient industrial masterpiece.
‘In Sadness, Silence an Solitude’ (expanded edition 2021) is an updated version of the long sold-out expanded edition from 2014. It contains the same tracks but with a fresh new K-14 level mastering presenting the highest possible sound quality.
raison d’être ‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’ [Expanded edition 2021] 2CD/Digital
The ambience of grim desolation: With ‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’, originally released 2000 on Cold Meat Industry, the ubiquitous Peter Andersson continues his exploration of internal desolation, be it of a spiritual base or purely of self. ‘The Empty Hollow’ in question seems to be the soul; a soul that has unfolded into a vast, blasted industrial landscape, littered with warehouse debris that solemnly clatters like wind chimes born of refuge. The darkened shadows cast on ‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’ are of an eerie, almost sinister allegiance, as if the maw at the center of infinity is yawning wide and the haled breath freezes souls; brittle souls that shatter before the immense veracity of such imposing internal devastation. Bones clang over chain-link fences. Metal creaks unsteadily. Bleak is an understatement, as the vast scope of emotions presented here is a sonic lament that lashes the soul. ‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’ is a grim travelogue from the land where the sun never rises; grievous keyboard passages overlaid by factory noises and the trademark chanting monks turns this into some of the mostunsettling listening since the days of Lustmord’s ‘Paradise Disowned’. The album was voted as the single best release in the history of Cold Meat Industry, making it an important milestone and point of reference.
‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’ (expanded edition 2021) is an updated version of the long sold-out expanded edition from 2014, now being a double CD release. Disc one contains the same tracks as the previous expanded edition. The additional disc contains session-related compilation tracks (also available on the Collected Works album) and a selection of live tracks from the special expanded edition of ‘The Empty Hollow Unfolds’ from 2014. All material has a fresh new K-14 level mastering presenting the highest possible sound quality. The artwork is, as the earlier editions, styled with the somber industrial photos by Martín Pels.
raison d’être ‘The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice’ [Expanded edition 2021] 2CD/Digital
‘The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice’ is not only vibrating on the surface of your skin. It is alive and breathing, a creature with a knife that cut deep wounds in your body while your soul shatters for air. It is a psychosomatic and transgressive disease oppressed by a compulsive behaviour manifested in dualities – the one of your body and mind – and states of metamorphoses – mind becomes flesh become wounds become fluids become stains. Play it loud if you want to become the martyr. Play it quiet if you are the innocent victim. There are no levels in-between. Violent and intense, it is a hell of an ordeal, but withstand and you are promised bliss.
‘The Stains of the Embodied Sacrifice’ (expanded edition 2021) is an updated version of the long sold-out expanded edition from 2012. It contains four bonus live tracks recorded at Club Resolve, San Dona di Piave, Italy, 2011 and a fresh new K-14 level mastering presenting the highest possible sound quality.
