FREE SHIT FROM DUPLICATE RECORDS: “AN ALIGNMENT OF SHRINES”

On this Saturday morning I’ve been struck by a combination of early slothfulness and (annoyingly) a subsequent need to deal with some internet service problems. I had plans to review two EPs for today, but since it’s already noon out here on the Left Coast and I haven’t written a word, I wondered what the hell I would do to foist music upon you. And then I received a Bandcamp alert in my e-mail and… Voilà!!!

That Bandcamp alert concerned a just-released compilation of sounds from Oslo, Norway’s Duplicate Records entitled An Alignment of Shrines. It includes tracks by 14 bands — four of them from forthcoming releases and the rest from Duplicate releases over the last year or so. I recognized the names of 10 of the bands, and it happens that I’ve enjoyed and we’ve previously written about the music of all 10 of those. Here’s the list of the bands and the names of the releases from which the songs were drawn:

SUPERLYNX – LVX (coming 2016)
GORRCH – Nera Estasi
GESPENST – Forfald (coming 2016)
ARKAIK EXCRUCIATION – Cursed Blood Of Doom
ORGAN – Everything Is Pared Down. Minimal Expectations (coming 2016)
MORBO – Addiction To Musickal Dissection
SERPENTS LAIR – Circumambulating The Stillborn
RITUAL CHAMBER – The Pits Of Tentacled Screams
ESOTERICA – Aseity
VIRUS – Oblivion Clock
HALF VISIBLE PRESENCE – Half Visible Presence / Monte Penumbra Split
GHOUL CULT – Ghoul Cult (coming 2016)
EXECRATION – Morbid Dimensions
TUSMØRKE – Elektriske Skrekkøgler Og Forhistoriske Framtidsfabler (a split with Spectral Haze)

I haven’t made my way through all of these tracks. In fact, I focused first on the songs from the four bands whose names were new to me — Superlynx, Arkaik Excruciation, Ghoul Cult, and Tusmørke. All four are very appealing, respectively representing heavy doom (with somber clean vocals), thrashing black/death (that gave me severe neck sprain), black speed/thrash, and psychedelic proggy folk rock (with a prominent role for flute).

An Alignment of Shrines is a name-your-price download at Bandcamp. Get it here:

https://duplicaterecords.bandcamp.com/album/an-alignment-of-shrines