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Elan Sign to APF Records

February 15, 2025

APF Records is thrilled to introduce you to ELAN and announce their upcoming release, Elan Vs Elan, a split album with a twist—two personalities, one band.

The album highlights the creative duality of founders Shane Miller (A Horse Called War) and Joseph Woodbury (ex-William English). Recorded at Bomb Store Studios in two separate sessions, it underscores their fractured yet cohesive musical identity.

Hailing from Norwich, Elan crafts sludge metal and noise-rock built on raw energy, dark atmospheres, and a deep love of film and TV. With Shane on vocals, guitar, and bass, and Joe on drums, they deliver an intense sound, enriched by their alter egos, Billie and Dianne—rabbit-masked figures inspired by the unsettling world of David Lynch.

Originally formed in 2015, Elan paused when Joe moved to the US. His 2019 return revived the project, culminating in the recording of eight tracks in 2023. Each song on Elan Vs Elan draws from cult cinema and TV, blending savagely experimental soundscapes with visual storytelling.

First single My English Tongue drops late February. Prepare for something truly heavy and unpredictable.

Read more about Elan on their band page here on the APF website.

Praetorian's Pylon Cult Gets Glowing Reviews

January 30, 2025

By the time you read this, Praetorian's Pylon Cult will be out in the world. You can pick up a physical copy here on the APF website, in our store, and stream the album in full on Bandcamp and YouTube (the album will be on Spotify, Apple Music and all other streaming sites next week).

The critics are loving it:

"Take sludge, doom, black, death, hardcore, thrash, and speed, blend it together until you get a brownish, sticky paste that smells as bad as it looks."
~ 9/10 GBHBL

"Nothing is wasted here; the only fat is in the sound of the guitars, everything else has been pared to the bone, and it shows."
~ 4/5 Metal Epidemic

"Praetorian bring the dirtiest riffs from the sludge scene and pair them with black metal starkness... Raging, screaming, growling and grunting their often sarcastic, satirical words and gargantuan chunks of riffage."
~ 9/10 Musipedia Of Metal

"From blistering slabs of disgusting sludge to the ethereal haunting atmospheres of black metal, Pylon Cult strides from the forest, swinging its maul and sweeping enemies aside left and right."
~ Noizze

"Pylon Cult is grim, grievous, massive and mauling, full of twists and turns."
~ No Clean Singing

"There is no compromise in the brutality of the sound. This music nails the words emphatically with bloody hammers."
~ Doomed & Stoned

"It's break-neck, it's atmospheric, and it's crushing."
~ Machine Music

"A thick, heavy, dredge of fog and falling black rain."
~ 8/10 Metal Temple

"Pylon Cult is a grotty, no-fucks-given sludge record, but there's a lot of depth here beneath the molasses thick churn."
~ The Quietus

"This is a band with immense creativity, taking sludge into blackened sonics with full-fledged screamo vocals in a kind of harmony with the guttural growls."
~ Veil Of Sound

"With a vocal delivery that can chew through stone and spit gravel at your feet, it lashes out with a viciousness unmatched by many."
~ Monuments In Ruin

"Feels like a brain being melted by some sort of alien satellite laser weapon."
~ The Angels' Share

Praetorian Premiere Pylon Cult

January 27, 2025

Praetorian's Pylon Cult album lands this Friday. For those who want an early listen, it's streaming today exclusively over at NO CLEAN SINGING.

"Pylon Cult is grim and grievous, massive and mauling" they say, "but it’s also full of twists and turns that make the music interesting in addition to ruinous".

Find out for yourself and give it a listen. Hope you all dig it.

Link to the Premiere:

https://www.nocleansinging.com/2025/01/27/an-ncs-album-premiere-and-a-review-praetorian-pylon-cult/

You can buy the album on CD and tape, with or without a t-shirt, in our shop here on the APF website.

 

Praetorian Give You A Burly Haemorrhoid

January 14, 2025

On a dank Tuesday night, what you need is a blast of brand new Praetorian. Our friends at Noizze are premiering Burly Haemorrhoid, the second single from forthcoming album Pylon Cult. 

"A torrent of filth forcibly squeezed forth from a place that could be dubbed as pure evil. With the band’s take on blackened sludge carrying the viscous texture of contemporaries such as MastiffSwamp Coffin and GRIEF RITUAL, this is perfect for those who like their metal putrid."

Get it in your ears.

Link to the premiere:

https://www.noizze.co.uk/video-premiere-praetorian-burly-haemorrhoid/

Praetorian Incoming

January 09, 2025

In 3 weeks’ time Praetorian's debut full-length album Pylon Cult will land.

You've already heard its beastly opening cut Fear And Loathing In Stevenage. Next week we're going to maul you with album closer Burly Haemorrhoid, a full-on teeth-rattling blackened sludge epic. Expect ferocity. Prepare yourselves.

Pre-orders for Pylon Cult are open here on the APF website in our shop: https://apfrecords.co.uk/albums/pylon-cult

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