Autumnal Offerings

Coming very soon:

Yellow Eyes: Silence Threads the Evening's Cloth (interesting, raw black metal in the modern USBM vein; run of 100 cassettes)

Dead Dragon Mountain: Huddled Masses Under a Burning Sky (weird, twisted black/doom/folk/industrial compositions from 2/3 of Sun Splitter; run of 100 cassettes)


Coming soon after:

Golden Fawn: Danger Fawn Femur (psychedelic drone/folk with epic and evocative female vocals; undisclosed run of cassettes)


Coming sometime:

Recordings by Oyarsa (chicago doom), and new recordings by Monument (mystical raw black metal).

Mid year update

Little has happened at Sol y Nieve over the summer due to personal reasons, but this fall and winter will hold many new things. Here are a few of them:

- Multiple new Monument recordings including an EP, a split (with who will be a surprise), a full length, and a POSSIBLE repressing of 'I'.

- A new full length from Teeth Engraved With the Names of the Dead. Expect something familiar but on a completely different level.

- New material from two new signees: Oyarsa, a blackened doom duo from Chicago and Dead Dragon Mountain, an industrial/experimental/black/doom duo, also out of Chicago. Oyarsa shares a member with Monument, and Dead Dragon Mountain is 2/3 of Land of Decay alumni Sun Splitter.

Another chance

If you still want a copy of 'Monument: I', someone is selling a copy on ebay for 10 dollars. Ha ha ha!

The websites back...

After many months the website is finally back up! Please let me know if there's anything that should fixed with it.

www.solynieverecords.com

Monument - I review...

The Monument tape got a (i think) awesome review from Serious Fucking Business in france. One of the few things i could pick out was that he compared it to Wrnlrd and Wintherr meeting in a dream...sweeet.

"Surprenante découverte que j'ai faite via l'apocamix de l'incroyable lapin anti-gravité et que je m'empresse de partager ici. Il s'agit en fait d'une obscure release cassette (épuisée) en provenance du label Sol Y Nieve. Cinquante minutes d'un ambient black qu'on jurerait presque être une affection du dieu Paysage d'Hiver: On y retrouve l'esthétique lowfi propre à la production du suisse, son minimalisme tendance mystique et recueilli, les motifs guitares/batterie simples et itératifs (oui, le mot est à la mode je crois), soutenus ou entrecoupés de litanies grognées, de chuchotements mystérieux ou de choeurs sacrés qui m'ont immédiatement rappeler un certain Kristall & Isa, ainsi qu'au Malefaesance de l'Acephale dans une certaine mesure. J'ose la comparaison car il s'agit bien d'une oeuvre à la personnalité suffisamment marquée, toute à la fois contemplative, irréelle, religieuse et hypnotique -sur ce point la qualité dronesque de certains morceaux et ces quelques arpèges de piano y sont aussi pour quelque chose. L'orientation générale de l'album et sa relative "tempérance", si on le compare au caractère abrasif et exacerbé d'un Nacht ou d'un Winterkält fait qu'on y atteint pas les sommets vertigineux dessinés par la musique de PDH. Mais celle de Monument est suffisamment bonne, originale et inspirée pour mériter de faire un tour dans vos oreilles. Wrnlrd meets Wintherr, en rêve. Les amateurs de black/ambient y trouveront certainement leurs comptes, et même les plus réticents au genre pourraient être séduits par la magnifique piste qui clôture ce I, un de ces instants balayant en quelques notes toutes les velléités à retranscrire l'expérience musicale à travers le prisme des mots, ces minutes pleines d'espoir capables de revigorer la passion qu'on croyait refroidie pour un phénomène aussi fascinant et bouleversant que la Musique. Autant vous dire que je ne me fous pas de vos gueules."

KDW at aQuarius Records

aQuarius Records bought ten copies of Kosmiche Death Worship from me on 5/14 while i was visiting San Francisco. On 5/21 they wrote a fantastic and (typically) wordy review. Less than 24 hours after the review was posted, the tapes sold out. Wow. Here's the review:

"Long in the works debut from this Oakland co-ed doomdronedirge duo. And we pretty much already knew we were in for something good. C'mon, they're called Teeth Engraved With The Names Of The Dead, the record's called Kosmiche Death Worship, it comes in a cool silver stamped envelope, with a silver ink printed insert, the song titles and label info are physically carved into the cassette itself, and apparently the first few copies included an actual deer tooth. How bad ass is that? Suitably bad ass for the dark sonic rituals housed within, long sprawling droned out landscapes, bleak and barren, guitars, synths and electronics, woven into churning pulsing expanses of black ambient shimmer and droning industrial drift, think Wolf Eyes, Brighter Death Now, Wicked King Wicker, MZ412, this is some serious black ambient terrorism.
Fields of static cloak smoldering low end murk, jagged shards of feedback drift atop filthy pitch black sonic swells, fractured electronics are wrapped around minimal synth thrum and smeared into hazy dirgescapes, that creep and drift and ooze, the melodies buried and tangled in each tracks muted and muddy sonic morass, but definitely present, and infusing these songs with some sort of melodic core, which definitely makes these haunting sonic rituals actually musical, instead of just textural, the various sounds coalescing here and there into ghostly almost rhythms, but just as often slipping into a sort of blurred shimmer. The final track is the most majestic of the bunch, jettisoning most of the noise, and letting the synths and electronics carry the sound, resulting in a sound both epic and majestic, like the coolest black metal intro ever, stretched out into a cinematic creepscape, the sound growing more and more dense and chaotic, before slipping into a weird pulsing almost sci-fi sounding synthdrone outro. Definitely down to hear more from these two...
LIMITED TO 50 COPIES!!!! And as mentioned above, housed in silver ink screened envelopes, with silver ink screened inserts."

Thanks to Andee for the support and words.

The Inarguable on 'Kosmiche Death Worship'

Posted on The Inarguable on 4/14/11...

"Small labels are awesome, and Chicago's Sol y Nieve definitely holds true to that statement. Looking at the picture, the DiY aesthetic holds true; hand-stamped envelopes, hand-engraved cassettes, envelope, a deer's tooth (only for the first 5 copies, though. Sorry). It is obvious that label-head Noah puts a lot of time and effort into each release (this being the third and most-recent).

Teeth Engraved With the Names of the Dead (Teeth Engraved for the rest of the review) offer a thick slab of terrifying drone/ambient with a hint of noise with this release. I sort of envision this release like an abandoned beach on a grey day: waves of guitar and feedback crash against shores of synth drones, quietly hinting at melodies amidst the ebb and flow of ambience. Hell, the ambient noise crackling even froths like sea foam. Everything, though calm, is intimidating and unsettling; "What if I were to die in my sleep tonight? Should I beat death to the punch?"

Though this style of industrial-tinged, noisy, organic drone isn't really my style, I must say that Teeth Engraved held my interest with this release. Be sure to order this, as well as releases by Monvment and 10,000 Miles of Arteries from Noah at noah@solynieverecords.com. At $5 a tape you really can't go wrong."

Thanks for the kind words, Jon.

HSS on Teeth Engraved...

Many thanks to Harold over at Hammer Smashed Sound for these kind words:

"Sol Y Nieve Records has just released this debut tape from Oakland's Teeth Engraved with the Names of the Dead, titled Kosmiche Death Worship. Dark and scary drone using synthesizers and guitars, and while that's not a new formula, this tape is really very good. It is advised that you don't listen to it before falling asleep, as it will probably poison your dreams. The packaging is hand-stamped, and the song titles are engraved right into the cassette itself. The first few come with a deer tooth in the packaging; not sure if any of those are left."

Click here to see the original article.

Kosmiche Death Worship is upon us!

Teeth Engraved With the Names of the Dead's long awaited debut 'Kosmiche Death Worship' is almost finished and will be released March 27th. Four terror-inducing tracks in just under an hour. Perfect listening for noose-tying. Limited to 50 black, hand engraved cassettes in black envelopes with inserts. We're accepting pre-orders now, the first five of which will come with a deer's tooth in the packaging. Grab them quick! Email noah@solynieverecords.com to order.

Preview their track 'III':
Teeth Engraved With the Names of the Dead - III by Sol Y Nieve

Teeth Engraved news

Some news on our favorite terrordronedoom band, Teeth Engraved With the Names of the Dead:

1) They have a new website, www.sledgehammersuicide.blogspot.com. Go check it out for small amounts of band news and huge amounts of obscure music that Moz gleans from youtube.

2) We've started working on the packaging for Kosmiche Death Worship, they're debut album. The tapes should be coming in soon. The paranoia is imminent!

Words about Exorsa

Our friends over at Permanent Records said some nice things about 'Exorsa':

"Pitch fucking black industrial noise filled with hate drenched screams and feedback. Unholy white-noise hatred of searing power electronics. Recommended for fans of Merzbow, Brighter Death Now, power generators and possessed machinery."

Possessed machinery. Nice.

More blogs...

Another blog put up the Monument tape for download and said some kind words here. The rest of the blog is pretty great as well so be sure to check them out.

On another note, i only have 9 copies of Monument - I and 1 copy of At the Heart of the World - Flesh and Death left. Grab them while you can!

Andre Foisy's Top 20

This appeared on Dec. 28, 2010 on Brooklyn Vegan. Check out who's number 5:

Top 20 Albums of 2010 by Andrew Foisy of Locrian:
1) Deathspell Omega "Paracletus"(Season of Mist)
The rest of these are in no particular order:
2) Swans "My Father Will Guide Me Up A Rope To The Sky" (Young God)
3) Agalloch "Marrow Of The Spirit" (Profound Lore)
4) Neil Jendon "Cities in Flight" (Bloodlust!)/"Male Fantasies" (Land of Decay)
5) Monvment tape (Self-Released)
6) Human Quena Orchestra "A Natural History Of Failure" (Utech)
7) The High Confessions "Turning Lead Into Gold" (Relapse)
8) Velnias - "Untitled EP" (Self-Released)
9) Aun - "VII" (Important)
10) On "Something that Has Form and Something That Does Not" (Type)
11) Ural Umbo "S/T" (Utech)
12) Gog - "Heavy Fierce Brightness" (Utech)
13) Mamiffer/House of Low Culture "S/T" (Utech/Hydra Head)
14) Menace Ruine "Union Of Irreconcilables" (Aurora Borealis)
15) Wolvserpent "Blood Seed" (20 Buck Spin)
16) A Silver Mt. Zion "Kollaps Tradixionales" (Constellation)
17) Wrnlrd "Death Drive" (Flingco Sound System)
18) Puerto Rico Flowers "4" (Fan Death Records)
19) Twilight "Monument to Time End" (Southern Lord)
20) Sailors With Wax Wings S/T - (Angel Oven Records)

To be included on a list with Deathspell Omega, Twilight, Gog, Swans, Agalloch, Menace Ruine and Wolvserpent is such a huge honor. Not to mention that Andre from Locrian is a fan. Thanks, brother.

At the Heart of the World - Flesh & Death

I'm now distributing At the Heart of the World's "Flesh & Death" cassette. If you want to order online, go to his website and order directly from him. But if you're in chicago, the tapes are at Reckless and Permanent. Also, if you're already ordering other stuff from me and you want the tape, just let me know. They're almost gone so act quick!

Finsternis

A blog called 'Finsternis' recently put up the Monument tape for download. If you haven't already downloaded it, you can go there. Here's the link. Be sure to leave them comments so that they know people are enjoying it!

The website's down...

I'm in the process of making a better website, so it will be down for a little bit. In the meantime, you can go to Monument's Last.fm page, Ten Thousand Miles of Arteries' Last.fm page, and Teeth Engraved with the Names of the Dead's Myspace to preview songs.