Century Media has taken a classic album and improved it by giving it production more like the first Sacramentum full-length. From the teletype:
Swedish blackened death metallers SACRAMENTUM are pleased to announce a special, definitive re-issue version of their sophomore 1997 album The Coming Of Chaos. Newly re-mixed and re-mastered by Dan Swanö at Unisound (DISSECTION, OPETH, MARDUK, etc.), the album’s revamped version also comes with brand-new artwork by Kristian “Necrolord” Wåhlin (DISSECTION, BATHORY, EDGE OF SANITY) as well as special liner-notes by the band in its CD format. Next to the CD format The Coming Of Chaos (Re-issue 2024) will also be available as LP on 180g vinyl (Unlimited black vinyl and 500x copies limited transp. blue vinyl) and as Digital Album, out worldwide via Century Media Records on December 13th, 2024.
The track-listing of the re-issue reads as follows:SACRAMENTUM – The Coming Of Chaos (Re-issue 2024) (41:14):
1. Dreamdeath (Remix 2024) (05:57)
2. …As Obsidian (Remix 2024) (05:11)
3. Awaken Chaos (Remix 2024) (04:58)
4. Burning Lust (Remix 2024) (04:49)
5. Abyss Of Time (Remix 2024) (02:45)
6. Portal Of Blood (Remix 2024) (04:18)
7. Black Destiny (Remix 2024) (04:30)
8. To The Sound Of Storms (Remix 2024) (04:58)
9. The Coming Of Chaos (Remix 2024) (03:43)After finishing a comprehensive touring run across north America as well as several European Summer festivals, SACRAMENTUM will next perform a special hometown re-release show for The Coming Of Chaos on December 28th as well as a European tour together with THULCANDRA and NEPHYLIM in January…
SACRAMENTUM – Live:
28.12.2024 Göteborg (Sweden) – Monument 031 + Ultra Silvam & Tyrannex
07.01.2025 Nürnberg (Germany) – Z-Bau + Thulcandra & Nephylim
08.01.2025 Stuttgart (Germany) – Schwarzer Keiler + Thulcandra & Nephylim
09.01.2025 Oberhausen (Germany) – Druckluft + Thulcandra & Nephylim
10.01.2025 Mörlenbach–Weiher (Germany) – Live Music Hall + Thulcandra & Nephylim
11.01.2025 Rosenheim (Germany) – Bavarian Winter Battle + Thulcandra & Nephylim
12.01.2025 Wien (Austria) – Escape + Thulcandra & Nephylim
13.01.2025 Ostrava (Czech Republic) – Barak Music Club + Thulcandra & Nephylim
14.01.2025 Poznan (Poland) – Club Pod Minoga + Thulcandra & Nephylim
15.01.2025 Dresden (Germany) – Chemiefabrik + Thulcandra & Nephylim
16.01.2025 Herford (Germany) – Kulturwerk + Thulcandra & Nephylim
17.01.2025 Haarlem (The Netherlands) – Patronaat + Thulcandra & Nephylim
18.01.2025 Den Bosch (The Netherlands) – Willem II + Thulcandra & Nephylim
19.01.2025 Hamburg (Germany) – Logo + Thulcandra & NephylimAnd more dates to be announced soon…
SACRAMENTUM discography:
Finis Malorum (EP) – 1994
Far Away from the Sun – 1996
The Coming of Chaos – 1997
Thy Black Destiny – 1999
The first “single” released from this, “Dream Death,” showcases the new-old production:
Tags: Black Metal, death metal, sacramentum
On one hand, it’s a clear improvement. On the other, it’s not the completely different album Nisse has been talking about for years. His claim that we’ve never actually heard The Coming of Chaos is pretty clearly untrue; it’s still The Coming of Chaos, just with the lead guitars higher in the mix, and the instruments panned harder for more separation, and it’s still the weak point in the discography.
True, but it’s hard for bands to keep the quality coming over the years; their work process gets interrupted by career, families, houses, etc.
Coming of Chaos is waaaaay better than Thy Black Destiny. The song “Black Destiny” is better than anything off the album TBD…
But this becomes a typical metal band obituary. They had a great EP, amazing album and then… and then they had a couple albums which flirted with speed metal and death metal more than whatever it was that made Sacramentum so damn cool back during the day.
Thy Black Destiny is, aside from the production, a return to the style of Finis Malorum (which becomes a bit more obvious if you listen to the vinyl version, which had a less modern master than either CD version). The Coming Of Chaos is a random hodge-podge of black metal lead melodies, speed metal rhythm riffs, and heavy metal choruses. It’s the work of a band embarrassed by their genre desperately lashing out in the direction of other genres hoping to find something else; Thy Black Destiny is the band realizing “we always wanted to be the black metal version of Grotesque anyways, so let’s just go back to our roots and try to make the Grotesque full-length that never existed.”
IMHO look at what was succeeding at the time. “Ho Drakon Ho Megas” had a long shadow, and it was clear by 1994 that trad death/black were fading. Bands turned to heavy metal because you always revert to the ancestor in times of struggle.
So you are saying that the problem with metal, is that metal gave up on being metal, so now we get “metal” that has no heart and soul, no sense of purpose?
It means stick to the first two Therion albums because they’re the good ones, bitch.
The third one is not so good?
What happened to the new album they promised us years ago? Was this it? Or is this just warming up?
Let’s hope they are relaunching their discography as a prelude to the new album. Smart marketing move, when you think about it: it gets the name out there, and then if people like the new album, they can order the other four releases.
Nisse talked about it in an interview about a year ago — he said it’ll happen eventually, but the material isn’t up to the standard he wants yet (he said something along the lines of “it’s good, but not Sacramentum good.”)
Thanks, C!
It sounds like they’re having to force it. If it takes this long, I doubt they’ll ever be “Sacramentum good” again. :/
Based on the live performances I’ve seen, they certainly don’t seem like a band having to “force it.”. I don’t expect the new album will come quickly, but this doesn’t seem as unlikely as, say, a Sadistic Intent full-length.
I think they should not rush it. Their Q&A worked in the past and they will know when they have the type of material they want. Bands get fucked up by labels pushing them to “strike while the iron is hot” and so they push incomplete albums out the door. They also get dismayed by being compared to whatever the Latest Thing is that sold ten thousand or more copies… so death metal bands had labels talking about Pantera and Slipknot to them, and a lot of them were like, “Well, Exodus and Prong are sort of similar and we like those.” Sacramentum is at the top of their game and can write whatever they want, so they should… and if it does not satisfy them, they should not release it. It is their legacy.
Bands also get savaged by lack of lots of spare time. Younger people have whole days where nothing needs to be maintained; older people have a set of tasks they must do every day, even weekends. So there’s not as much time to get bored and obsess over guitars and metal.
DMU should patronize and subidize good metal bands. Of WASP persuasion only obv.
Finis Malorum was recorded and released in 1994, in the DLA it says 1992 as its release date
What was wrong with original _The Coming of Chaos_? As a black metal enjoyer, I don’t even know what counts as good “good audio” anymore.
Allegedly not enough mids to pick out the intricacy of the guitar work.
If this article is about “The Coming of Chaos”, why did you put up the cover for “Finis Malorum”?
Psyop.
It’s a good symbol for the band and where their original orientation was.