Praise for Solstice‘s New Dark Age from San Francisco’s aQuarius Records: Wow! Now on vinyl, one of Allan’s favorite metal albums EVER. Released in style by the same label responsible for the recent Witchfinder General box set, and Pagan Altar LPs. This is equally worthy of their deluxe vinyl reissue treatment, and we mean DELUXE… super heavy duty gatefold sleeve, gorgeous cover with metallic blue lettering, and thick solid vinyl. Nice! And LIMITED, of course.

Here’s what we said about the CD reissue a while back, and yes the vinyl does include the same two bonus tracks…

Originally released back in 1998 on the fabled Misanthropy label, this terminal masterpiece from England’s truest champions of epic DOOM, Solstice (R.I.P.), has now at long last been reissued, with two bonus tracks to boot. Old fans can take pleasure in purchasing this again (because it’s an album so good, you’ll WANT to buy it twice, so maybe you can fool yourself into that feeling of hearing it for the first time) and those that missed it the first go-round now have a chance to prove themselves as discerning metalheads.

When we first reviewed this, we said it was a grower. A record we came to consider one of the best of that year, of any year. In the near-decade since, this has only gained greater stature. In the realm of true metal, of epic metal, of doom metal, of pagan metal, of just plain pure heavy metal – we proclaim New Dark Age to be an all-time classic. And believe us, few other albums from the late nineties qualify in that regard.

Such riffs. Such sheer heaviness – heaviness that actually seems to be signifying something. Such FEELING. This is possibly the apex of epic doom. The guitar leads and harmonies are to die for, the sad Celtic-folk motifs and Lovecraftian lyrics of weird fantasy argue for an ancient intellect at work. The clean, somewhat delicate vocals of Morris Ingram and his abstruse vocabulary (“vermivorous”, “tervous”, “perpetuum”, “axiom abhorrent, protean triumvirate”?) are at first a bit odd, but ultimately utterly fitting with the sombre and arcane, monolithic and melodically grand mood of this album.

Certainly his performance on the acoustic “Blackthorne” would make any fan of ’70s Brit-folk weep, while the other, fully amped tracks will make headbangers ready to both shed tears and storm the proverbial castle.

FYI, the bonus cuts consist of two NWOBMH covers (“The Prophecy” by Iron Maiden and “Stormchild” by Trespass).

We’re still waiting to hear more from Solstice, rumors have abounded for years that guitarist Rich Walker (who also has played in Pagan Altar, by the way) has a new lineup for Solstice and is working on a new album, we’ll believe it when we see it, and we want to… though we doubt they could ever top this!

At 40 years old, Aquarius is the oldest independent record store in San Francisco. We try to only carry music we love, and we’re always searching for more new, cool, weird and wonderful music. All of which we then share with you, our loyal customers.