Saturday, April 20, 2013

VOMIR/EARTHENWOMB "SPLIT" CDr (AOW 69)

Vomir and Earthenwomb return united to Altar Of Waste with this scathing slab of putrid assault.  Vomir's contribution crackles and burrows into the brain with the nervousness and anxiety that only the master can bring, the wretchedness of modernity burning bright with each second, a call to disappear, to recede, to vanish into the nothingness your life ultimately is.  Earthenwomb's piece comes full force, a bass-heavy mind melter of crushing detritus and static longing for ages so far gone by.  Together the two constructions become part of a larger intent, a harrowing exsanguination of the ghostly existence we all find ourselves floating through, an exalting of the grey and a praising of a dead infinity.
Altar Of Waste is pleased to release this massive split into the world, a reminder of how brutal and unrelenting the world's passivity can be.  Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 30 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $22 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

CORY STRAND "THE THIN RED LINE: A REINTERPRETATION" 6CDr (AOW 68)

Terrence Malick's "The Thin Red Line" stands as one of my very favorite films, a poignant, complex, and profoundly deep philosophical exploration of man's place in the universe balanced against the rampant destruction he so wantonly immerses himself in.  The staggering beauty of the natural world is thrown against the absurdity of war and the grey-life banality of killing until something like understanding is achieved.  A project of true transcendental possibility, "The Thin Red Line" is simply one of the most gorgeous, moving films ever made, a testament to vision, creativity, and humanity, a collection of images and poetry that is well beyond the good majority of modern cinema. 
In working with the soundtrack I wanted to bring all the beauty, emotion, and tension to bear.  This is probably my most massive set to date, but it is one of the works in my personal discography of which I am most proud.  Echoes of Troum and Eno haunt these pieces, a glacial journey to some sort of wavering inner place.

-Cory Strand

Packaged in a 2 volume DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $30 ppd. in the United States, $42 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

Friday, April 5, 2013

CROWN OF BONE "THE SERPENT AND THE RAINBOW" CDr (AOW 70)

Quite possibly Wes Craven's most frightening film, The Serpent and the Rainbow stands as one of horror's most unique and intellectually intense pieces.  When I first saw it decades ago I recall being unable to appreciate what I had really seen, with the thought the film demanded beyond my young mind at the time.  It did scare the shit out of me, though.  Since then I have come to view this film as a masterpiece, standing alongside Altered States as one of few modern films to truly grasp the twin concepts of transcendence and transformation.  Crown Of Bone's work on this album does a simply incredible job of translating the film's philosophical concerns into sound: the emphasis on possibility, deep and personal inner terror, and the ultimate mastery of forces beyond the human condition and intellectual precipice are all contained here in one engulfing 40 minute onslaught, a tour through the dirt well beyond the clutch of death, a piece that touches fully both drone and HNW but belongs to neither.  This is probably my favorite work from Crown Of Bone, and Altar Of Waste is beyond pleased to release it.
From Dustin: "Buried alive & crawling, scratching my way out from the depths of my shallow grave, 40 minutes of dark, slow churning HNW, keyboards saturated in reverb & percussion drenched in a black mass of distortion, zombie electronics at it's most contaminated."
I couldn't really say it any better.  This record fucking SLAYS.  Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 15 hand-numbered copies.  $10 ppd. in the United States, $18 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com 

CORY STRAND "NOSFERATU: A REINTERPRETATION" 4CDr (AOW 66)

Popol Vuh's eerily ethereal soundtrack to Werner Herzog's equally ethereal reinterpretation of Murnau's Nosferatu is the source for my latest soundtrack excursion, an entirely ambient affair that engulfs the listener in vast stretches of echoey, swirling blissouts and gooey fistfuls of coffin dirt from the dank blankets of the earth.  Herzog's film, while obviously creatively indebted to Murnau's original, became something else entirely, a masterful exercise in atmospherics so gorgeous and supernatural I can think of few other vampire films that come even remotely close to achieving its sense of baroque romance and diseased infatuation.  The grandeur of decaying Europe rots alongside the stench of sloughing flesh, a spectral and skeletal hand reaching out to caress the tender skin of beauty.  The sense of fragility and doom in Herzog's film is near physically palpable, and I have tried to echo that feeling with my work here.  While this set in no way matches the aural richness of Popul Vuh's original, I hope it takes you on a journey to another time, where visions are conjured and love is truly eternal. 

-Cory Strand

 Packaged in a DVD case in a limited edition of 5 hand-numbered copies.  $20 ppd. in the United States, $32 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com

NEW CORY STRAND DOUBLE ALBUM ON OCCULT SUPREMACY

CORY STRAND "VILLAGE OF THE DAMNED: A REINTERPRETATION" 2CDr (OCCULT SUPREMACY 013)

My rework of the soundtrack to John Carpenter's vastly under-appreciated remake of "Village of the Damned" is an exercise in melodic and ridiculously intense wallcraft alongside chillingly banal ambient environments, an attempt to create aurally the emptiness and malice hidden in the blank white eyes of the otherwordly children who lord over the film.  Much like the film, these two discs eschew obvious violence in favor of something more malignant, suggestive, and ultimately distressing.  The imagination creates its own semblance of horror, its own methods of dealing with the unknown, and its own recesses in which to crawl against the assault of insanity.  This record was a blast to make.  Many thanks to Dustin and Occult Supremacy Productions for allowing me the opportunity.  Collage artwork and layout by me.  I have 10 copies available for sale.  $15 ppd. in the United States, $27 rest of world.

ORDER HERE: www.altarofwasterecords.storenvy.com