pre-order: Firmament, Hellcrash, Animalize

Dying Victims Productions is proud to announce the following new Pre-orders:

DVP 248 Firmament – We Don’t Rise, We Just Fall LP/CD/MC

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present the highly anticipated debut album of Germany’s FIRMAMENT, We Don’t Rise, We Just Fall, on CD, music cassette and vinyl LP formats. 


Hailing from Leipzig, Germany’s FIRMAMENT are a new heavy rock quintet begun in early 2021 by ex-members of TENSION, Prisma, and Wayward. Despite three of the members having done time in TENSION – who released their critically acclaimed debut album, Tension, via DYING VICTIMS last year – the goal for FIRMAMENT from the start was to write moving and thus catchy hard rock songs that get stuck in your head immediately as well as stylistically/spiritually returning to an era before traditional heavy metal even existed. So, while it’s tempting to superficially think FIRMAMENT are an extension of where TENSION left off, the truth is that FIRMAMENT are indeed their own “firmament.” 

FIRMAMENT’s first recording together was a two-song single, “The Void / Losing You,” which they recorded live in their rehearsal room. The single was first released digitally during the autumn of 2021, and then was released as a super-limited homemade tape sold exclusively at gigs. With such heartfelt and truly homemade passion, during March 2022 did FIRMAMENT enter the studio to record their debut album. Poignantly titled We Don’t Rise, We Just Fall, FIRMAMENT’s first full-length sees the five-piece steering the same ship – the unapologetically old-school vibes of the ‘70s and ‘80s and transferring them to the current time, without being stuck in specific genre boxes – but doing so more masterfully than before. Like those throwback eras (and particularly during the ‘70s), equal emphasis is placed on performance and songwriting, each one informing the other, resulting in an album-long experience where each of these nine songs retains its own identity and personality but come together to create a unified-yet-unique headspace. Just witness the deftly dynamic and era-authentic never-overdriven guitar work, where Tom Michalik and Philipp Meyer weave heartrending twin-guitar melodies; underneath that but actually taking center stage is the propulsive-yet-melodic bass work of Stefan Deutsch, which hooks just as effortlessly as those of his six-string partners. Of course, classic hard rock and proto-metal often lives or dies on the strength of its vocals, and in this department are FIRMAMENT no slouch: delivering his last performance with the band, frontman Maik Huber incites goosebumps with emotive, melancholic lines that sound as old as time and further add an air of mystery to We Don’t Rise, We Just Fall

While FIRMAMENT are currently working on fresh material with new vocalist Marco Herrmann, We Don’t Rise, We Just Fall stands as a citadel of archaic melancholy – towering in its aura, yet approachable across its moss-covered landscape. Maniacs for ‘70s Scorpions, Blue Öyster Cult, Wishbone Ash, and Thin Lizzy, lay down your sword and stand before FIRMAMENT! 

Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on gold vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.

– CD edition with sticker and obi.
– MC edition with sticker, button, download code.

Out 24th March

DVP 249 Hellcrash – Demonic Assassinatiön LP/CD/MC

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present HELLCRASH’s highly anticipated second album, Demonic Assassination, on CD, music cassette and vinyl LP formats. 

Despite forming in 2013 and a couple demos and a split over those first few years, it wasn’t until HELLCRASH’s debut album, Krvcifix Invertör, where the band started to make a dark name for itself. Released on vinyl by DYING VICTIMS in 2021, Krvcifix Invertör proved HELLCRASH were a power-trio in the grand tradition of domestic legends Bulldozer, brewing  a similarly sleazy (and EVIL) style of speed metal. Simple but sublime it was, and diehards definitely took notice. 

Now, two years later, arrives HELLCRASH’s second album, Demonic Assassination. On first glance (and especially THAT COVER), it would seem that HELLCRASH are sticking to their guns, sowing the same seeds as earliest Slayer, Venom, and of course Bulldozer. Peer deeper and this latest expurse of sodomy shows that there’s more – much more – to HELLCRASH’s cauldron. Immediately, their attack’s more refined here: some would call it “cleaning up,” but the fine-tuning of songcraft and polishing of production have paid off in spades across Demonic Assassination. As such, there’s far more variation in that songcraft – sometimes more speed metal, other times more thrash, or even metalpunk before it was such a thing, often all in the same song – and HELLCRASH ably finesse this transition with tighter execution that, thankfully, doesn’t sacrifice an ounce of energy. In fact, if there’s on guiding aspect here, it’s energy: while HELLCRASH sometimes seem on the verge of self-combustion, so juiced-up is their rollercoaster sound, it all spills over into the listener as a celebration of filth, fury, and FUN. Could this be their The Final Separation? Perhaps… 

Still sick, still sleazy, and definitely still crude & rude, HELLCRASH are firing on ALL cylinders here, and not just the old ones. So, while the aforementioned references still apply, Demonic Assassination is equally recommended for maniacs of later GBH, Carnivore, Warfare, Crumbsuckers, and contemporaries Children of Technology. 

Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on red vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.

– CD edition with sticker and obi.
– MC edition with sticker, button, download code.

Out 24th March

DVP 251 Animalize – Tapes from the Crypt MLP/MCD

DYING VICTIMS PRODUCTIONS is proud to present a reissue of the explosive debut mini-album of France’s ANIMALIZE, Tapes From the Crypt, on CD, and 12” vinyl formats.

Since 2018, France’s ANIMALIZE keep playing the kind of music that you (or your parents) may have been listening to 40 years ago. You know that “Heavy Metal” sound that appeared at a time when none of the band members was born. Well, they’re still doing it.

However, it is the band’s love of movies which arguably influence ANIMALIZE’s outlook the most and make the difference. For them, a visual identity and atmosphere – whether in their visual aesthetic, be it artwork or onstage, or especially their eventual videos – are of the utmost importance. Film also feeds their lyrics, quite often. The band states that such movies as Evil Dead, Mad Max, Pet Sematary, Masters of the Universe, and Terminator are among their most beloved.

While they would bring both to Technicolor climax with their debut album for DYING VICTIMS, Meat We Are Made Of, during the summer of 2022, ANIMALIZE nevertheless came out with all guns blazing two years prior on the preceding mini-album Tapes From the Crypt. With an eye-grabbing (and era-authentic) cover setting the stage, the originally-limited Tapes From the Crypt managed to make ANIMALIZE’s strengths plain and POWERFUL: cruising speed metal glory crossing swords with radio-ready traditional metal of a most mid-‘80s vintage. This is the sound of ANIMALIZE at their most straightforward– and, arguably, most accessible – for the proceeding debut full-length found them upping the vocal layering and especially the complexity considerably, but the gleam & glory of Tapes From the Crypt is undeniable, and undeniably fun. A snapshot of a still-boundless band finding their wings, now finally reissued: the saga of ANIMALIZE begins here!

Regular edition on black vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card and download code.
– Special edition on deep purple vinyl, with insert, poster, sticker, post card, download code and patch.

– MCD edition with sticker and obi.

Out 24th March