Forthcoming live events:

Cocooon Festival with JESU and CRIPPLED BLACK PHOENIX plus many more - September 12th/13th, The GRV, Edinburgh, 17:30/£20 (early bird discount for both days now available, day tickets may be available depending on weekend sales). We will be playing on the first day, supporting Jesu. More details at the event website.

Altar Of Plagues with A Forest Of Stars/Wraiths/Haar + 1 TBC - September 21st, The GRV, Edinburgh, 18:30/£5

Altar Of Plagues with Wraiths + more (22nd Sept - Newcastle, Trillians)

Behind The Light - A Hallowe'en gathering of Edinburgh's finest, darkest acts. A blending of noise, beats and guitars. October 31st, time and price TBC.

Chris Walton (of TenHornedBeast and ex-Endvra) very kindly wrote some thoughts on our recent appearance in Newcastle.

http://tenhornedbeast.blogspot.com/

Wraiths are interviewed in the latest issue of Zero Tolerance (#32 Nov/Dec, Nile cover), as part of the magazine's history feature. We were given a rare chance to talk about the historical and sociological influences behind our music which was pleasing and refreshing.



With regards to music, there're more plans than actual news...

The exotic materials and strange chemicals required in the construction of a vessel for The Grey Emperor have reduced At War With False Noise's Al to a gibbering, wild-haired wretch of a man but we remain hopeful that it will see the light of day soon. We have a handful of pre-release copies so please get in touch if you can't wait.

We've been contacting a number of labels with regards to a suitable release for Dust In Our Mouths, our next full length, and are in initial discussions with a handful of them. Should any labels reading this wish to be sent a promotional copy of the recording then please do get in touch.

Due to some unforeseen circumstances, the Premature Burial label has been put on hiatus for forthcoming releases so Hollow Pilgrim will no longer be organised through them as planned. Whether these two tracks will remain as a single release or be used for some planned split releases is yet to be seen.

In other collaboration news, we've finally submitted our side of a piece made in conjunction with Pyramids. Using the nearest we've ever come to sampling - Pyramids' source sounds were transcribed onto magnetic tape and then manually wound as part of a live reworking - Magpie & Raven is a sparse miasma of dark drones, slowly building before falling away as the tape itself decays in our hands.

Finally, the Ordo Pestilentia website is undergoing a much needed overhaul, combining the elements of the order into one whole. This should be fully available soon.

As always,

mail@ordo-pestilentia.co.uk
www.ordo-pestilentia.co.uk

When does The Grey Emperor come out? I've been on At War With False Noise and it only says they'll be releasing it soon. Thats not soon enough

Not entirely sure, to be honest. Making the packaging is proving to be a laborious process, it seems. I have a few copies, though, so if you want one then get in touch.

I'll keep tabs on AWWFN, don't worry

It's perhaps fitting that on my return from the fog-bound and ghoul-haunted Carpathian Mountains I find that The Grey Emperor has been revealed!

Label announcement follows:

ATWAR055

WRAITHS - The Grey Emperor CD



At long last: the Grey Emperor has arrived! This material was finished some time ago but the packaging has been so expensive and taken so long that it's been delayed massively.

Wraiths have been one of my favourite bands in the UK for a long time now and were one of my highlights of Glasgow Implodes last year, and it's been a pleasure to share a stage with them on several occasions now. The Grey Emperor is a real statement of intent, and shows that Wraiths are miles ahead of the rest of the drone pack with an album that is utterly drenched in dark, oppresive atmosphere and gives a genuinely creepy experience to the listener. So often Wraiths' drone kin come out with a "volume over everything else" mantra and what they do so effectively on this release is to build up tension, atmosphere, sheer black MALICE throughout the (one track's!) 60 minute running time.

Less is more, and from the repetitive drum beats at the start to the howling crescendo, the constrictive anxiety of the music is never comprimised. You won't find a horn section or guest vocalists here, just total ritualistic drone evil. HAIL!

500 copies, comes in an A3 textured card gatefold wallet with the CD mounted inside, held together with a wax seal (gold, silver or red) and inside a thick A5 PVC wallet. Completely hand-made packaging in every way, which my incredibly burnt fingers will attest to!

£8

http://www.atwarwithfalsenoise.com/

Let death take my enemies by surprise;
let them go down alive to the grave.

Psalm 55:15

Just requested a copy from AWWFN

Did you get one through, OK? Al's increased his production efficiency, I believe, so they should be being sent out sharpish.

The Grey Emperor has made its way across the vast, dreary Atlantic to Aquarius Records' HQ and has driven them into an ecstatic frenzy:

"After records on Aurora Borealis and Paradigms, Scottish black drone alchemists Wraiths have found their way to At War With False Noise, yet another ideal home for their grim black noise. This time it takes the form of a single hour-long track, that drifts through an endlessly and ever shifting landscape of hushed bleak minimalism, strange otherworldly percussion, deep dronemusic and caustic black noise.

The Grey Emperor begins as a strangely looped glitchscape, a tribal rhythm over undulating stretches of distorted rumble, growing ever more ominous, the low end getting more and more jagged and buzzy, a black cloud of sound threatening to swallow the rest of the sounds whole, surrounded on all sides by a slow shifting layer of swirling blackened whir, shot through with streaks of muted feedback. The track pulses and undulates, slipping from caustic crunch to hushed throb, strange little rhythmic flurries careening below the surface, the textures constantly changing and shifting, like watching the surface of some grim black sea, barely able to discern the shadowy shapes underneath.

Eventually, the low end is pulled back, allowing layers of hiss and buzz to pile atop one another, just barely holding the feedback at bay, only to have the blackness begin to crumble, while black bells peal, thick shards of sound plummeting into the swirling blackness, the track building and building to chaotic frenzy, the sounds blown out and on the verge of utter collapse, weirdly melodic while impossibly dense and destructive, finally exploding in a supernova of Merzbowian grind and crunch, that manages to be strangely textural and musical, while on the surface appearing as a dying black sun.

Gorgeous oversized packaging, a gatefold sleeve, printed woodcut style design on textured paper, and held shut with a stamped wax seal. LIMITED TO 500 COPIES!" - http://www.aquariusrecords.org/

It hasn't arrived yet. I ordered it about a month ago.

Hmmm. I'd drop him an email. Al's normally really quick with orders.