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Rusted Lock, the latest full-length from Portland-based dark ambient/industrial noise project SCARD, is out now and streaming via Scry Recordings.

SCARD – led by one J. Huston — began in 2001 in Seattle before relocating to Portland a year later. Drawing from dark ambient, power electronics, death industrial, and black noise, SCARD unites their personal origins in the forested regions of Oregon with eventual scum of city life to create a harsh, layered, and multi-faceted sound.

Stream SCARD’s harrowing Rusted Lock in its entirety at THIS LOCATION.

Rusted Lock was mixed by Fester, mastered by James Plotkin, and will see release on cassette and digital formats. For orders, go to THIS LOCATION.

“Rusted Lock contains the most seething, and incisive work since SCARD’s inception,” notes Huston of his latest output. “The project is by nature experimental and includes exploratory sounds and songs but a consistent thread of death/industrial doom and black metal virulence remains consistent throughout. This latest offering was an absolutely crucial album after a very long break from any activity. Near the end of the break, I underwent a total mental reconfiguration as well as a vast expansion of studio gear. The album evolved naturally throughout the process, utilizing a dominating force of will during a period of molting. It draws upon concepts surrounding personal strength, confrontation, obsession, and the many forms of poison, violently gripping, and tearing at its prey until cold, barren detritus is rejected and abandoned.”

Over the last nineteen years, SCARD has shared stages with the likes of Sixes, Bloodyminded, Daniel Menche, Control, To End It All, The Rita, Wolf Eyes, John Wiese, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Sleeping With The Earth, Pharmakon, Dave Phillips, Sudden Infant, Consumer Electronics, and many others. SCARD has also appeared at 2007’s Black Noise Festival in Oakland, 2009’s Northeast Noise And Power Electronics Festival in Boston, 2012’s Pure Harsh Noise Worship in Portland, 2014’s Pent Up Fest in Seattle, and many DIY venues throughout the Pacific Northwest.

In addition to his solo endeavor, Huston is the guitarist, vocalist, and producer of the atmospheric black metal band Winter In The Blood and also appears on the avant-garde black metal ensemble L’Acephale’s Stahlhartes Gehäuse and self-titled full-lengths (2009 and 2019 respectively).

“The solo project led by J. Huston (Winter In The Blood, L’Acephale’s Stahlhartes Gehäuse) finds the soundtrack-eque tomes seeping into your brain and implanting feelings of dread into your psyche. Perfectly eerie and haunted, just in time for the spooky season…” – Ghost Cult on “Impenetrable Will”

“The shuddering rhythms feel grueling and soaked in viscous tension, with a decidedly angular and erratic texture to the oddly more danceable components. It’s as if more pleasant-sounding sonic ideas are getting run through a blender in real time across ‘Fire In The Veins’…” – Captured Howls on “Fire In The Veins”

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http://www.facebook.com/foreverloyaltomisery
http://www.instagram.com/lungscollapse/
http://www.scard.bandcamp.com
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http://www.instagam.com/scry_recordings

Portland-based dark ambient/industrial noise project SCARD will release its Rusted Lock full length November 6th via Scry Recordings.

For preorders, go to THIS LOCATION.

SCARD – led by one J. Huston — began in 2001 in Seattle, moving to Portland a year later. Drawing from dark ambient, power electronics, death industrial, and black noise, SCARD combines their personal origins in the forested regions of Oregon with eventual scum of city life to create a harsh, layered, and multi-faceted sound. In addition to his solo endeavor, Huston is the guitarist, vocalist, and producer of the atmospheric black metal band Winter In The Blood and also appears on the avant-garde black metal ensemble L’Acephale’s Stahlhartes Gehäuse and self-titled full-lengths (2009 and 2019 respectively).

Comments Huston of his upcoming offering, “Rusted Lock contains the most seething, and incisive work since SCARD’s inception. The project is by nature experimental and includes exploratory sounds and songs but a consistent thread of death/industrial doom and black metal virulence remains consistent throughout. This latest offering was an absolutely crucial album after a very long break from any activity. Near the end of the break, I underwent a total mental reconfiguration as well as a vast expansion of studio gear. The album evolved naturally throughout the process, utilizing a dominating force of will during a period of molting. It draws upon concepts surrounding personal strength, confrontation, obsession, and the many forms of poison, violently gripping, and tearing at its prey until cold, barren detritus is rejected and abandoned.”

Stream SCARD’s “Graveyard Dirt” at THIS LOCATION. View the album trailer below.  

Rusted Lock was mixed by Fester, mastered by James Plotkin, and will see release on cassette and digital formats. 

Rusted Lock Track Listing:

1. Polluted And Barren
2. Dancing With Rot
3. Impenetrable Will
4. Silence Of God
5. Graveyard Dirt
6. Withered Prey
7. Fire In The Veins
8. Tainted And Estranged

Over the last nineteen years, SCARD has shared stages with the likes of Sixes, Bloodyminded, Daniel Menche, Control, To End It All, The Rita, Wolf Eyes, John Wiese, Blue Sabbath Black Cheer, Sleeping With The Earth, Pharmakon, Dave Phillips, Sudden Infant, Consumer Electronics, and many others. SCARD has also appeared at 2007’s Black Noise Festival in Oakland, 2009’s Northeast Noise And Power Electronics Festival in Boston, 2012’s Pure Harsh Noise Worship in Portland, and 2014’s Pent Up Fest in Seattle, and many DIY venues throughout the Pacific Northwest.

http://www.hellscum.org
http://www.facebook.com/foreverloyaltomisery
http://www.instagram.com/lungscollapse/
http://www.scard.bandcamp.com
http://www.scryrecordings.com
http://www.facebook.com/scryrecordings
http://www.instagam.com/scry_recordings

Hello friends! We’ve come across a little snag getting the vinyl here from Europe due to the pandemic. We are therefore moving the official release date for WANING HYMNS, the timely and lush-sounding new LP by Geist & The Sacred Ensemble, to JULY 31st. Those of you who pre-ordered this past month have likely received your copy already, as we were able to have one case shipped by air. The remainder are slated to arrive in July (sadly, the cost of shipping the whole order air freight would have been an outrageous one). We thank you for your patience! Looking forward to a song premiere soon…

Among the Pacific Northwest’s hidden societies, GEIST & THE SACRED ENSEMBLE forges a doom-inflected folk ritualism; dirges tinged with Eastern psychedelia and meandering meditative trances. For the last several years, the group has shown the Washington state underground a clear vision for their sound and lyrics creating a shamanistic space for the listener, placing them into a trance, then building up the excitement. The overarching theme of their lyrical work is that of an idealist, a yearning for an end to the modern human condition, for destruction of the constructs and constraints of oppression.

Comments the band of their latest offering, “Waning Hymns is a study of Western consumer culture, attention spans, and empathy. This collection of ritualistic music asks us to redefine our self-worth. Using sonic and lyrical incantations, on ‘Advaita’ we yell out, ‘…with no source to trust, we get tricked and submit, our lives, to a fabricated future, that has no chance,’ over chains on drums and thick tones. These Hymns are a ceremonial call; a reminder that we alone have the power to define ourselves.”

Find a Waning Hymns video trailer at THIS LOCATION.

Recorded and mixed by J. M. McNulty at Killroom Studios and mastered by Mell Dettmer at Studio Soli with artwork by Anima Nocturna, GEIST & THE SACRED ENSEMBLE’s Waning Hymns will be released on June 5th on digital and vinyl formats. For preorders visit THIS LOCATION.  

Waning Hymns Track Listing:
1. Advaita
2. Volition
3. Closed Eye
4. Century Of The Self

GEIST & THE SACRED ENSEMBLE has shared the stage with acts as diverse as Oranssi Pazuzu, Insect Ark, Soriah, Six Organs Of Admittance, Pedestrian Deposit, Yonatan Gat, Father Murphy, and Jackie-O-Motherfucker, and have appeared at Thirst For Light, Missoula Psych Fest, PNW Folklife, Magma Fest, Dismal Fest and Escalator Fest. With tours from Maine to Virginia and California to Montana, their live shows are hypnotic and emotionally charged, often taking place at unique locations like a metal forge and foundry, forests and meadows, old schools, churches and more.

At their greatest, GEIST & THE SACRED ENSEMBLE’s tunes exist as an ever-changing pilgrimage, transforming their abstract drifts into apocalyptic folk hymns or private confessionals.

GEIST & THE SACRED ENSEMBLE:
S. Yoder – percussion, gong, timpani
C. Segawa – electric guitar, metal spike
C. Howe – electric bass, bowed bass
M. Sauder – vocals, hollow body guitar, clarinet, piano

“GEIST & THE SACRED ENSEMBLE sound like the closet thing this city has to ’90s/00’s – era Swans: heavy, ritualistic rock that somehow straddles the moat between forlorn pastoral vibes and grim urban realms.” — The Stranger

“[They] do brooding, monolithic, and mystical like no one else, crafting out sand dried sonic psalms that howl like youthful godspeed ghost riders.” — The Sunday Experience

“Their music is both earthy and abstract, ancient and timeless. They truly opened a portal, infusing the blue-lit room with otherworldly vibes; slightly spooky, completely sublime.” — The Drainage

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