Dying Victims Productions is proud to announce the following new releases:
DVP 210 Reaper – Viridian Inferno LP/CD
DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present the highly anticipated debut album of Australia’s REAPER, Viridian Inferno, on CD and vinyl LP formats.
Hailing from the wildlands of Melbourne comes REAPER, four speed-freaks hellbent on exhuming the first-wave graves of the masters in primitive metal, punk, and thrash: Celtic Frost/Hellhammer, Bathory, Discharge, Venom, Warfare, and Sacrilege.
Since the release of their sold-out self-titled demo in 2017 and subsequent LP reissue in 2019, REAPER have kept up an almost-relentless show schedule, including many Australian, New Zealand, and festival appearances, as well as support slots for Aura Noir, Mortiis, Blasphemy, Dark Funeral, Vomitor, Immolation, and more, with an upcoming European attack currently in the works…
In the meantime, REAPER make their full-length debut with Viridian Inferno, under the auspices of DYING VICTIMS. No change and no compromise, and definitely no quarter: Viridian Inferno contains ten savage tracks of their hyper-aggressive hybrid of ‘80s hellhammering speedmetalpunk. Possessed by their REAPER’s debut demo? Then Viridian Inferno is gonna absolutely crush you with its megaton-heavy grime. New to the ways of these post-apocalyptic road warriors? Hop aboard their wasteland rover, hold onto the gun-mount, and pray no massive spikes impale you aboard the ride…
Beware the nightmare’s sound! There’s no escape from the REAPER: Viridian Inferno is coming for outsider minds, headbangers, and metal maniacs of the apocalypse! The ultimate price you’ll pay, and your bones will pave the way….
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on swamp green vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
– CD edition with sticker.
DVP 211 Harbinger – Doom on You LP
DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present a long-overdue vinyl LP edition of Doom on You, the lone cult album of Michigan’s HARBINGER.
Originally released in 2009 by Chris Black’s Planet Metal label but only on CD, Doom on You would be the only full-length Lansing, Michigan’s HARBINGER would record. While a couple demos preceded it and a late-coming split 7” with Züül would be released in 2015, the band effectively broke up following the album’s original release, and Doom on You would successively grown in stature as a gem of cult American metal.
HARBINGER had its roots in a preceding band called Thwarter, which was admittedly “hugely influenced by Holy Terror, Sabbat, and Sadus.” As Thwarter eventually transitioned into HARBINGER and the lineup began to solidify, their style shifted away from thrash-leaning to more classic heavy metal, influenced as much by NWOBHM mainstays as Satan, Avenger, Iron Maiden, Praying Mantis, and Tokyo Blade as well as the power metalled likes of Gotham City, Nocturnal Rites, and Jag Panzer. With the joining of bassist Doc, HARBINGER then recorded a whole album’s worth of songs.
“This was around 2005 to 2006,” guitarist Victron Power L. continues the story. “Though the band never really caught on except with a few local friends at the time, we decided we should try to record the songs around that time. This was ill fated, and the original recording session with our friend Kevin was a disaster due to far too much partying, poor rehearsal, and overwhelming levels of power. We threw in the towel around 2007 but decide to give it another go a year later that resulted in the album Doom on You, or ‘Fuck You’ in Vietnamese.”
However, that second go didn’t yield the intended results, continues the guitarist: “The recording of Doom on You the second time around was not necessarily better managed, and still there was much tomfoolery and partying, and even the initial recordings from 2008 were are also destroyed in a cataclysmic event involving a bottle of alcohol, a misstep, and collision with the recording devices. However, upon the third attempt to record the album, we were able to see it through to the end, and that album is what you see here.”
Like a band out of time, HARBINGER strafed against the prevailing paradigms of 2009, when Doom on You was finally released, but there’s equally an effervescent sense of freshness here that puts the record far beyond retro retread. Raw and slick simultaneously, flashy yet fierce and also FUN, brimming with bright leads and dark ones, and an utterly engaging GOING-FOR-IT attitude, it’s practically impossible not to get swept up in Doom on You. The punk roots of most of the band’s members give their classic American power metal style a unique aspect, with a bevy of unusual twists and turns that, say, Agent Steel would’ve taken, but that just makes HARBINGER hit that much harder and lodge the album deeper into its your psyche. Seriously, this is cult metal for cult metallers, played by cult metallers!
“Though there was a lot of passion, a lot of friendship, and also a lot of bickering, we were able to leave this testament for us and a few of our friends who really liked what we did,” concludes Victron. “After the album came out on CD through Chris Black’s old label Planet Metal Records, we did one more show with Cauldron and Enforcer at Blondies in Detroit and put the band on a rest. We would return some years later to record a new song and play some concerts, but it was a little different and maybe should have been called something else.”
The members of HARBINGER played in many other projects afterwards: vocalist Matt Warr had Wastelander and now Low Magic; Doc had Locust Point; and Victron along with drummer Sean Cyriis and fellow guitarist David Ruiz followed with Borrowed Time and now Prelude to Ruin. But that one lone album document of Doom on You retained such a special magic, such a snapshot in time, that DYING VICTIMS felt duty-bound to preserve the name of Michigan’s HARBINGER for posterity – and we’re all the richer that it’s suitably (and FINALLY) being released on the format it so deserves, VINYL!
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on oxblood vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
DVP 216 Armory – Mercurion LP/CD
DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present the highly anticipated third album of Sweden’s ARMORY, Mercurion, on CD and vinyl LP
Hailing from Gothenburg, Sweden’s ARMORY started out in 2012 and have been delivering hyper-speed metal ever since. After two demos, the debut album World Peace… Cosmic War was released via High Roller Records in 2016, and it garnered great reviews from all around the world. The band then got to share the stage with bigger bands such as Pentagram and Nifelheim.
With all the new experience, ARMORY went into the studio again in late 2017 to record their second album. That album, The Search, was released in July 2018 via High Roller and again did it garner great reviews and proved that the songwriting had developed in the right direction. The band was also able to break new ground outside of Sweden with gigs in Germany, Belgium, and Denmark.
With two albums under their belts, ARMORY were finally ready to make something that they had planned for years but previously didn’t feel they were ready for: a full-blown sci-fi concept album with a story from start to finish. And now it arrives in the form of Mercurion, set to be released by new label home DYING VICTIMS. With this goal in place, this didn’t just put more pressure on the lyrics but also to make the music more dramatic to fit the story – and dazzlingly and dynamically, ARMORY accomplish all that (and more!) across Mercurion. The album takes the listener through a dramatic journey aboard the starship Mercurion, named after the god Mercurius – the winged messenger of the gods, protector of travelers, and god of boundaries between worlds. ARMORY’s now-trademark hyper-speed metal is more powerful and poignant than ever, pushing their boundaries of epic storytelling, mesmerizing hooks, and explosive solos whilst retaining their core sound. The production, in kind, carries the perfect balance of dirt and drama, grime and gleam, making their melodicism sound ever more effervescent while making sure this is the sound of five actual humans playing together as a band.
Now that band is heading out into space, and they beckon you to board Mercurion – ARMORY will guide the way!
– Regular gatefold edition on black vinyl, with booklet, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special gatefold edition on grimace purple vinyl, with booklet, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
– CD edition with sticker.
DVP 206 Spectre – Drifter / The Black Jewel 7″
DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present a brand-new EP from Australia’s SPECTRE, Drifter, on 7” vinyl format.
SPECTRE is the sterling heavy metal vision of Will Spectre. Formed in 2017, the band made its recorded debut that summer with the two-song Silver Invaders / Stand Alone single on the cult Heavy Chains label, which DYING VICTIMS released on 7” vinyl later that year. SPECTRE’s primary influences are heavy metal and hard rock of the late ’70s and early ‘80s, and they continued that streak with the Hard Attacks digital single in 2018.
Now back with DYING VICTIMS, SPECTRE return with another short-yet-satisfying recording in the two-song Drifter. On this record, Will Spectre is joined by his heavy friends Jake Glas (Outcast/Teuton) on vocals and David Harrington-George (The Wizar’d/Tarot) on bass. Indeed, as the cover slyly nods to cult Japanese psychedelia surely known to the most devout trainspotters, so, too, do SPECTRE here sprinkle spices from Will Spectre’s other musical conjurings – namely, The Wizar’d, Tarot, Dracula, and Crypt Vapor. What results on the title track “Drifter” and its flipside “The Black Jewel” is pure vintage bathos and pathos, the hard rocking moodier and more mysterious yet also more immediate and, somehow, disarmingly human in its naked bravado. The A-side gets the chest thumping and fists shaking, while the B-side is a haunting vision in velet: simple, sure, but also sublime. What dream singles are made of!
– 7″ with sticker and download code.
REPRESSES:
DVP 179 Lucifuge – Infernal Power LP
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on oxblood vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
DVP 180 Insane – Victims LP
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on orange vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.
DVP 183 Eisenhand – Fires Within LP
– Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on white vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.