The Meads Of Asphodel – Running Out Of Time Doing Nothing 2019
1). Bug Splat
2). I am Oblivion, Deep Drenched In Forever
3). I’m Running Out of Time Doing Nothing
4). Black is Black & White is White
5). Cockroach Marionettes (Pigeon Street)
6). I Stood Tiptoe, Reaching Up For Heaven
7). Like Blood Shaped Flakes of Snow
8). The Broken Wings of a Hud-Hud
9). Funeral Drums of Insomnia’s Labyrinth
10). Recollections of a Hand Loom-Weaver
11). Souvenir of Death
The Meads of Asphodel/Rethro – Imperial East-West Onslaught (Split) CD 2018
A Forgotten Key To A Conundrum Of Hate
Gods At War
The Angel With One Eye
Hark The Potter’s Field
Qingdao Sagas
Wyrd
Oceanlich
Deathcontrol
The Night of Lost Soul
Demo
Meads of Asphodel / Forefather – English Steel 2017
Forefather ‘Tales From a Cloud-Born Land’
1. Opening
2. Two Sacred Oaks
3. One Blood and One Bone
4. Strongbow’s Death
5. In Victory We Feast
6. Out of Time
7. Daughter of Twilight
Meads of Asphodel ‘Taste the Divine Wrath’
8. An Ebullient Prelude to a Loathsomely Grim End [intro]
9. Chidiock Tichborne
10. You’ve Got The Hate (Candi Stanton Cover) different version.
11. Balthasar Gérard
12. Infidel 13. Castleland (Desaster Cover)
14. You’ve Got The Hate (Metatron Demo Version)
15. Perfect Day (The Saints Cover)
16. Borstal Breakout (Sham 69 Cover)
Godreah Records released the new Meads of Asphodel / Forefather split cd in May 2017. Titled ‘English Steel’, this release brings together two of the UK’s most respected Black / Pagan Metal bands.
The Meads of Asphodel have their vinyl only “Taste the Divine Wrath” tracks released on cd for the first time, with a new version of, You’ve Got The Hate, plus 3 exclusive cover tracks.
Forefather returns with “Tales From a Cloud-Born Land” featuring 30 minutes of brand new material, recorded in 2017.
Taste The Divine Wrath 12″ vinyl (split with Tjolgtjar)
2016
Tracklisting
The Meads Of Asphodel – An Ebullient Prelude To A Loathsomely Grim End
Chidiock Tichborne
You’ve Got The Hate
Balthasar Gerard
Infidel
Tjolgtjar – The 5th Mass & Her Works
Near You Always
A Goat In The Wood
Winter Research
Only available on 12″ vinyl via Eternal Death Records
Sonderkommando 2013
Tracklisting
- Introduction
- Sonderkommando
- Wishing Well of Bones
- Action T4
- Silent Ghosts of Babi Yar
- Children of the Sunwheel Banner
- Lamenting Weaver of Horror
- Sins of the Pharaohs
- Last Train to Eden
- Hour Glass of Ash
- The Mussulmans Wander Through The Infernal Whirling Fires Amongst Silent Shadows To Be Fed Into The Thirsting Jaws Of A Godless Death Machine To Cough Up Their Souls To The Nazi Moloch Who Sits Within A Ring Of Smoking Infant Skulls
- Send My Love To Maher-Shalal-Hash-Baz
Metatron’s visit to Auswitch Birkenau in Nov 2011 set in motion the forthcoming Meads of Asphodel album, Sonderkommando. With some prose recorded on site, and all the lyrics jotted down over three days. Metatron enthuses “Auschwitz [especially Birkenau] is a cold, eerie place where death laughs and the world spins blindly past. I couldn’t even begin to imagine the suffering of the children here, unless I went to the very place that was without a doubt, Hell on Earth. I Forgot about Jews and Nazi’s for a moment, and just looked upon pure hatred, and human beings slaughtered for sadistic self gratification under the veil of a flawed ideology.”
The end result is portrayed on the forthcoming album, entitled Sonderkommando, Produced by, JD Tait, which is the natural follow-up to 2010’s “The Death Of Jesus The Jew”.
With the departure of original/ long time drummer, Urakbarameel [now in Daken], a new skin pummeling Norwegian drummer, André Kjelbergvik Thung , has been welcomed to the fold adding another ruthless dynamic to the sound. The new album is darker, slower, faster, colder, and warmer. There are many surprises/ guests, including Mirai [Sigh] on keyboards, Roibeard O Bogail, [Mael Mordha] Whistle, amongst others, and the usual mind bending moments that make the Meads sound what it is.
Cover art was specially commissioned and painted by Aisha Al-Sadie and reflects what the album is all about. There are no political motives for creating, Sonderkommando [special unit], and a comprehensive track by track analysis will be on the bands web site to add more detail to the ‘at times surreal lyrics’ Take the track ‘Last Train to Eden’, at first glance a title that bares no relation to Auschwitz, and yet it was, Himmler’s vision to create a Germanic agricultural Utopia in Silesia, hence the titles two sided meaning. The Holocaust has spawned both an abhorrence to the tragic stories of the victims and sympathies relating to its perpetrators. This album touches on both.
Sonderkommando is a journey into the abyss of mans inhumanity. It tells of a place where all that becomes of a human being is a half a kilogram of ash. It can only glimpse this world of total brutality born from the age old irrational implementation of murder on racial grounds. If the oceans were filled with ink and all the Forest’s and trees were pens, even then it would not be possible to record the horrors of Auschwitz…
The Murder of Jesus the Jew 2010
Tracklisting
- Boiled in Hell-broth and Grave-dust [intro]
- My Psychotic Deity
- Addicted to God
- Stiller of Tempests
- Man From Kerioth
- Dark Gethsemane
- Jew Killer
- Genesis of Death
- Eagle to Cross
- Apostle of the uncircumcised
- A canticle for the lost amputees of Aelia Capitolina who have been trampled under the iron shod hooves of salivating hell rams and impaled on the shimmering tusks of salvation within the abandoned tabernacle of a bronze age myth.
- Outro
The Album details the historical life of Jesus [Yeshua] the Jewish rabbi who was slaughtered on a tree by the Romans on a cold winters day 2000 years ago, and thereafter his people condemned to be pariahs of the earth due to Christian hatred.
It is ironic that the Jewish roots of the Christian church have been erased and the blame of their man-god’s death cruelly placed upon a people already broken by the yoke of Roman imperialism. Truth is often blinded by faith, none more so than the story of Jesus and his maligned people..
The Early Years 2009
Tracklisting
- Angel Whore 1998
- Book of Dreams 1998
- The Gleaming Red Serpent 1999
- Just another time to Kill 1999
- Pale Dread Hunger 1999
- Rise in Godless Hell 1999
- Give me Fire [GBH] 1999.
- Neurodeliri [Bulldozer] 2000
- Bound Alive 2000
- Bleed for Me 2000
- Calling All Monsters 2000
- Paradise 2001
- Another God in another Place 2001
- Ogs Last Stand 2002
The Early Years album is a compilation of Meads of Asphodel demo/ unreleased material from 1998-2002. They feature the line up of Metatorn/ Jaldaboath and Urakbarameel.
There are two tracks taken from each of the bands 3 demos, plus 2 Jihad session demos.
http://www.live4metal.com
“This is the Dead Sea Scrolls of British Metal from the finest British metal band since Sabbat.”
English Punk Black Metal (split with Old Corpse Road) 2009
Tracklisting
- Old Corpse Road
Hob Headless - The Devils Footprints
- The Witch of Wookey Hole
- The Meads Of Asphodel
Intro/ On the Surface - Same Mind [Doom cover]
- Nazi [Hellbastard cover]
- Protest and Resist [Conflict cover]
- War Drum [Skeptix Cover]
- You Really Got Me [Kinks cover]
This is a TRUE underground release and reveals two of the finest Black Pagan Metal bands in the UK. Old Corpse Road, Hailing from the North East , kick off the release with their fiery brand of pagan Black Metal. Lengthy symphonic Songs meander across traditional English Black Metal sounds-scapes and a deeply brooding pagan atmosphere.
The Meads’ contribution is a collection of cover songs and one new song. The Meads have always had a Brit Punk underbelly and this has now been driven into renditions of, Doom Hellbastard, Skeptix and Conflict, as well as a lamenting version of the Kinks You Really got Me’.
Life Is Shit EP 2007
Tracklisting
- Strawdogs – Stiff Little Fingers (feat. Alan Davey ex Hawkwind on vocals)
- Tank – The Stranglers (feat. Mirai from Sigh)
- Babylon’s Burning – The Ruts (feat. Paul Fox from the Ruts)
The Meads take on punk classics.
In The Name Of God, Welcome To Planet Genocide 2006
Tracklisting
- Psalm 364
- My Beautiful Genocide
- A Baptism in the Warm Piss of Slaughtered Children
- The Man Who Killed For God
- March Toward Annihilation
- Hell On Earth / Blood Runs Red (Discharge Covers)
- Aborted Stygian Foetus
The concept of Genocide on this release is a conclusion to “Damascus Steel”.
http://www.metalstorm.com
“After hearing In The Name Of God, Welcome To Planet Genocide I can safely conclude that my assumptions were completely wrong – this is some of the most avant-garde and forward-thinking black metal I have ever heard.”
http://www.chroniclesofchaos.com
“Whether In the Name of God, Welcome to Planet Genocide … rates as their best effort, their worst or somewhere in between is largely irrelevant, so vastly ahead of the pack as this band is.”
http://www.metalreviews.com
“Ultimately, fans of the band will love this. It’s another eccentric step along an eccentric path for Britain’s most eccentric band.”
Damascus Steel 2005
Tracklisting
- Psalm 666 (Intro)
- Creed Of Abraham
- Hollow Womb Of Suicide
- Sword Of The East
- Satanic Black Nubian Pharaohs
- Wonderful World
- The Gods Who Mock Us
- Behold The Kindred Battle Carcasses Strewn Across The Bloodied Dunes Of Gilgamesh Mute In The Frenzied Clamour Of Deaths Rolling Tongue And Ravenous Bursting Steel
- Beyond Death And Darkness
“This album’s concept concerns the evil in human kind and the wanton slaughter in the name of God or whatever reason. The album is a return to the Jihad aesthetics. A cover of Louis Armstrong’s ‘Wonderful World’ and Hawkwinds ‘Sword of the East’ are recorded, plus a new version of the demo track ‘Death and Darkness’, re-named ‘beyond Death and Darkness. The additional use of Violinists, cellists, a trumpet player, sitar and tamba players, female vocalists, makes this the, most organic and involved Meads album ever conceived.” – Metatron
9 out of 10 – Terrorizer (Album of the Month)
9 out of 10 – Metal Hammer
http://www.metalreviews.com
“There is really absolutely nothing to criticise… this is the kind of album that’s best listened to as a whole, and the experience is breath-taking.”
http://www.lordsofmetal.nl
All this shows that the Meads are no purists. They are not afraid to lard their music with different influences.
http://www.metalmonk.co.uk
“Of course, while I heap praise on the album, I realise this may be an acquired taste – the general oddness of the MEADS is not going to be everyone’s cup of tea”
http://www.tartareandesire.com
“This one is hell of a weird CD. It´s kind of a concept album about the fight between religions wrapped in fanaticism.”
The Mill Hill Sessions 2004
Tracklisting
- God is Rome
- Grisly Din Of Killing Steel
- 80 Grains of Sand
- The Watchers of Catal Huyuk
- A Healer made God
- Refuse/ Resist [Sepultura cover].
- My Beautiful Genocide*
This album airs the band in a raw environment with the guitars taking over the main sound, leaving the keyboards at a bare minimum.
Hawkwind’s Alan Davey and Huw Lloyd Langton play bass and lead guitar respectively on this release. The CD contains two live sessions recorded at the Mill Hill Recording Studio during 2004.
* Lasting over 25 minutes, “My Beautiful Genocide” contains many work in progress sections that may or may not see the light of day on future studio releases and was blasted out at the second session.
metal-archives.com
“The sound is raw and stripped of any of the studio tweaking afforded studio outputs, but heavy as fuck.”
www.metalstorm.net
“The sound of this album is quite different from any of their releases, the band is stripped from the keyboards (usually handled by Mirai from Sigh), and the sound is much more raw and dirty. The album features guest appearances by Hawkwind’s Alan Davey and Huw Lloyd Langton (Hawkwind, Lloyd Langton Group).”
Exhuming The Grave Of Yeshua 2003
Tracklisting
- Intro – Exhuming the Grave of Yeshua
- God is Rome
- Blood Blasted Holy War
- 80 Grains of Sand
- Guts for Sale
- Utopia
- Sons of Anak Rise
- A Healer made God
- Sluts of the Netherworld
- On Graven Images I glide beyond the Monstrous Gates of pandemonium to face the Baptized warriors of Yahweh in the skull littered Plain of Esdraelon
- Book Of Dreams*
*Bonus Track
“With Jaldaboath gone, Metatron had six months to put a new band together and create the second album. Here it is. Again built around the concept of Christ’s mortality and the Church of Rome having its foundations built on hearsay and fabrication. This album features the new line up of Metatron, J.D.Tait, Urakbarameel, Deorth and Max.
The release includes a re-recorded version of ‘The Book of Dreams’ taken from the first demo. The album also contains the ten minute ‘On Graven images I Ride…’ which is a purpose made head fuck designed to take you away from the albums core and induce thoughts of ‘What the fuck is this!!’
The album also has the following guests: Huw Lloyd Langton [guitar] and Alan Davey [Bass] from Hawkwind. Vincent Crowley [Narration] from Acheron. Mirai [keyboards] from Sigh, and Paul Carter [Keyboards] from Thus Defiled.”
9 out of 10 Terrorizer – Album of the Month, Top Ten album of the Year 2004.
http://www.metalreviews.com
“The Meads Of Asphodel really outdid themselves here. Songs like Guts For Sale, acoustic riffs and danceable beats beneath mellow keyboards, are little short of fantastic, betraying the band’s Prog Rock interests. Partway through it turns to Middle-Eastern instrumentation again, percussion and strange trumpets writhing for a moment before the laid-back calmness returns, Metatron’s spoken growls all that betrays the band as not being commercial.”
Jihad (Split with Mayhem) 2002
Tracklisting
Meads of Asphodel Tracks
- Intro
- Jihad: The Grisly Din Of Killing Steel
- Paradise
- Another God In Another Place
- Tanks In The Holy Land
- Assassins Of Allah
Mayhem Tracks
- Freezing Moon
- Carnage
The track ‘Grisly Din Of Killing Steel’ was actually meant for the first album and the lyrics were inspired by the September 11th terrorist attack in America. We unearthed it and re-moulded the arrangements for Jihad. The Label’s request that the concept appear on CD necessitated two extra tracks. The first being the ‘Tanks in the Holy Land’ instrumental, and the other a demo recording of Hawkwinds ‘Assassins of Allah’.
This was a moment when Jaldaboath decided to leave the band as Metatron did not wish to pursue with the musical direction on Jihad. Jaldaboath was also unhappy with the promotion Supernal was putting into the release. [There was none].
Lyrically the songs are woven together to reveal the more than often potent weapons fanatics can employ against their supposed enemies. Whilst we as a band respect any religion that promotes peace, we cannot ignore the tragic darker under belly that is the warped sense of values sewn into the minds of the psychopathic wankers who use religion as a medium to express their own obscene vision of justice Both Western and eastern cultures share an equal burden for this legacy which has festered within religion since its conception. From the Catholic inquisition and subsequent Crusades to the suicide bombers of the Middle East and beyond. In the name of peace we kill, rape and enslave. In the name of Gods we suppress other gods and so it goes on and on.
The Mead’s of Asphodel believe in any people’s right to cherish freedom and to have a place to call their home whoever and wherever they may be. Used wisely religion can become what it preaches and yet history tells a different tale. Religion is a tragic failure of human frailty where the innocence and placid nature of its doctrines are manipulated into obscene machinations of war and oppression. Only when the gods are dead Shall we truly be free.
The Excommunication Of Christ 2000
Tracklisting
- The Excommunication of Christ [intro]
- Angelwhore
- The Watchers of Catal Huyuk
- Agrat Bat Malah
- Weeping Tears of Angel Light
- Bene Ha Elohim
- Assault and Battery
- Jezebel and the Philistines
- Pale Dread Hunger
- Rise in Godless Hell
- The Disembodied voices of Melchizedek
- Falling with lighting rays beamed towards the blazing firmament towards the untended burial grounds of Kharsag
- Calling all Monsters*
*Bonus Track
With the success of the third demo, several labels approached us and in the end we decided to sign with the smallest and most underground. This was a decision that ate away at Jaldaboath and this feeling would eventually consume him during the Jihad recording.
The album is out on Supernal music and has gained great reviews in all the media, album of the week on Malcolm Domes rock Radio show. The intro was narrated by A.C.Wild formerly of cult Italian eighties Black Metal band Bulldozer and the album also features guest appearances from Huw Lloyd Langton formerly of Hawkwind, Kobold of Old Forest and English Electro Gothic band History Of Guns who worked with Metatron on an instrumental track.
The initial pressings contained a bonus track in the form of a live rehearsal titled ‘Calling all Monsters’ [featuring Kobold on keyboards from Old Forest].
www.metal-observer.com
“For friends of really obscure Metal there is no way around this ingenious masterpiece.”
“[Exhuming] comes freshly packed with organic, rich riffs twisted with hard rock flare and black metal character. The band focuses on brute force to end their relentless siege on our senses.”
Demo – The Watchers of Catal Huyuk 1999
Tracklisting
- The Watchers of Catal Huyuk
- Rise in Godless Hell
- Pale Dread Hunger
- Give me Fire
This demo had a lot more thought weaved into the songs. The Mead’s sound had been fully honed into the first three tracks. We added a cover of the GBH track ‘Give me Fire’ as a tribute to a genre the band respected.
Demo – Metatron and the Red Gleaming Serpent 1999
Tracklisting
- Intro
- The Gleaming Red Serpent
- Weeping Tears of Angel Light
- Just Another Time to Kill
- Death and Darkness
The success of the first demo prompted us to create the second. The songs were more complex and even more bizarre. The demo got good reviews and sold more than the first demo, about 1000 copies.
Demo – The Bemoaning of Metatron 1998
Tracklisting
- Angelwhore
- The Book of Dreams
- Spell Bound
There was no forward planning when we recorded the first demo. After the initial 20 copies were sent out for review, we just forgot about it went on about our lives. Suddenly the demo was being praised in Kerrang!, and many other publications. Weird as fuck we thought!!.