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Welcome to the House of Mroczek
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The big news is that we're releasing the second Bleak Magician album -- called No Fireball Show -- on 02 May 2025. It's on pre-order on Bandcamp now. Go check it out.
Also, we've added the pre-SMRZ albums from Bornwithhair and Vinterdracul to the discography on this here website. And the debut from Demonographer is here. Still need to get some of the releases on the streaming services, but everything is available on Bandcamp.
-- Srogi (07 Apr 2025)
Official music video for "Silver Dollar"
Official music video for "Silver Dollar"
From the album No Fireball Show by Bleak Magician
From the album No Fireball Show by Bleak Magician
SMRZ013
No Fireball Show
Bleak Magician -- May 2025
The sophomore release from the brothers. This one leans heavy into the past. More details coming soon.
SMRZ012
The Angels Which Kept Not Their First Estate
Demonographer -- March 2025
Four black n roll bangers rolling in at less than nine minutes. A mysterious book of Fallen Angelic visions from a universe that's been flipped upsidedown.
SMRZ009
Telepathic Table Games
Bicycle Deck -- February 2025
The duo of E. Appleton and S. Mroczek see their ambient techno stylings merge with hints of psychedelic electric jazz and occasional blasts of noise and dub. Highly recommended.
SMRZ008
Do Not Fold
Bicycle Deck -- November 2024
A set of ambient techno from E. Appleton and S. Mroczek. Turn out the lights and nod your head. Don't think about anything. Especially don't think what this might all be about. Because it's definitely not about anything. Definitely.
SMRZ007
Xoltergeist
Xoltergeist -- Halloween 2024
From out of leftfield comes this noisy debut album by Dirt Boucher. It's a bit punk. It's a bit metal. It's a lot classic rock if classic rock were played by someone who didn't entirely understand how to use a guitar amplifier. We are thrilled to present the debut album by Xoltergeist. Appropriately spooky for a Halloween release.
SMRZ006
How the Disappearance Appeared to Us
Bleak Magician -- December 2024
By turns elegiac and then snarling. There is a punk urgency here without the histrionics. Ambling beats churn on through the noise and clatter. Heartbreaking in its own way. You do not want to sleep on this one. Featuring the return of Weirding Batweilder.
"The production works in its favour because this reminds me of so many epic bands from decades back; be it Nick Cave in his Birthday Party costume or Alien Sex Fiend, The Cramps, Sonic Youth, Bauhaus, Christian Death, The Gun Club, even Magazine and Gang Of Four... Fuck the wankery of the Oasis brothers, this is way deeper and more seismic in a subtle and truly artistic manner by two proper musicians (who are brothers). Forget the bollocks of the year's best albums, this is one of the best albums I have heard in 15 years." -- Devil's Horns Zine
SMRZ005
Where Shall You Cast Your Soul
Towerhouser -- July 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
His body torn asunder by a ghastly host, Jerry Shengel’s aura drifts through the ancient ruin until it comes to rest upon a pile of bones – the skeletal remains of those who came before him to witness the Wrath of the Doppelgänger. In liminal form, and then returning in some semblance to bodily form, Jerry awakens and hears a voice calling to him from a passage deep below the ruin. He fumbles for a match, lights it, follows a stony path several yards, and sees before him a wall punctuated by four closed doors. “Shengel, son of the son of the son of Aleksandre: focus your attention to the West of the Tower and the four doors. These are the doors beyond which dimensions diverge. Position your ears before each door, one at a time. Listen to what is there yonder each of the four doors. Hear, you may, the simple whistle of the subterrestrial wind. Hear, you might, the twinkle of an alien glockenspiel or the pluck of a harp handled by one inapproachable to they who know not death. And lo, hear you might, the Ancient Voices beckoning you to submit to your fate beyond the reach of mortal proceedings. Listen and choose the door over whose threshold you will cast your soul." Slowly, Jerry creeps to the doors, the dwindling contents of his matchbook his only source of light. Following the instructions given by the voice, he listens carefully to what is beyond each door. And then he makes a choice.
SMRZ004
Death of an Amateur Genealogist
Towerhouser -- June 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
"In essence, 'Death of an Amateur Genealogist' is an intriguing blend of history and horror, masterfully crafted into a musical narrative that’s as captivating as it is haunting." — Skull Sessions
"With a futuristic yet 80s synth vibe, this is one of the most interesting dungeon synth albums of the year. It’s the perfect soundtrack for an evening playing ‘Shadowgate’ on the NES, embodying 80s elements within a fantasy world." — Blacforje
For several months in the spring and summer of 1984, Jerry Shengel has been spending Saturdays in the basement of the Delaware Historical Society where he has been trying to gather genealogical information linked to a list of names and dates found tucked into his late grandfather’s family scrapbook. Searching through the microfiche, he happens upon an illustration from a Gilded Age newspaper clipping that seems to connect a far away tale to his family history. Despite his own sense that he is acting irrationally, he arranges travel through the Intourist state travel agency of the USSR and books a flight to Moscow. His goal is to slip away and clandestinely travel to the Caucasus where he plans to visit a small village built around the medieval ruin depicted in the illustration. Despite the odds, he successfully reaches the village. But nothing has prepared him for the vile evil that lurks within the ruin — nothing has prepared him to come face to face with himself.
SMRZ003
Hell Fire (Raise Hell) b/w Sorcerers Rule the World Tonight
Mephistophilizer -- May 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
The Mephistophilizer 7" lathe-cut is now in stock in a limited edition. Each one is made one-at-a-time, in real time, by a real person using an experimental process and 70 year-old recording technology.
Debut b/w for the old school blackened heavy metal devotees. Mephistophilizer is just a big fun dumb Heavy Metal band. This one is all unapologetic Neat Records worship. Think Venom, Fist, and Jaguar hanging out in a convenience store parking lot listening to Motörhead and arguing about whether Overkill is rock 'n' roll or heavy metal. A bit blackened and plenty lyrically tongue-in-cheek, this is the first single from the upcoming album Night of the Spellcaster.
SMRZ002
Uriel Spake Plainly
Evil Will Bless -- April 2024
Recorded, mixed, and mastered in February and March of 2024. The intention was to create a version of the story of Edward Kelley's last days. Kelley was the 16th Century alchemist and charlatan who had acted as John Dee's seer during a protracted series of attempts to contact angels. In his latter days, he was imprisoned as a fraud by Emperor Rudolf II and likely died after a failed attempt to escape Hněvín Castle.
“In creating this suite of songs, we thought about it as though we were making a short film. There are opening and closing tracks akin to the opening and closing credits of a movie. And between them there is a rather impressionistic story about a man whose failure to live up to his own lies leads him to his doom,” said bandleader Srogi Mroczek. — Blessed Altar
SMRZ001
And the Gods Shook
Evil Will Bless -- March 2024
Bandcamp | Spotify | Apple Music | YouTube
Recorded, mixed, and mastered in January and February of 2024. The intention was to create an ecstatic music. Inspired by writings of Ralph Waldo Emerson, Aleister Crowley, and John Milton, work began in the winter of 2024. This is the first in a trilogy of short song-cycles exploring aspects of the archangel Uriel and themes angelic and demonic more broadly.
From the dankest of castle halls hails the charlatan Srogi Mroczek, leaving in his wake the decay of a thousand unreleased songs.
"If I were to call myself a producer or an engineer, I'd likely be visited by the erinyes later in the evening," said Mroczek. "Suffice to say that I've been working on the composing and recording of music for a long time. Some of it sounds better than it should."
Credits include musical contributions and sound engineering on the avant-metal Bornwithhair albums Smoleńska, Someplace to Haunt, and When the Witches Fall and the vampiric black metal Vinterdracul albums The Murnau Nocturnes and The Lee Variations. His production and songwriting can be heard on the Evil Will Bless EPs -- And the Gods Shook and Uriel Spake Plainly. He performs with multiinstrumentalist Dirt Boucher and drummer Rick Morerick in the latter day Heavy Metal band Mephistophilizer. And he composes for and performs on his primary instrument -- synthesizer -- under the name Towerhouser. The release of How the Disappearance Appeared to Us -- his collaboration with Weirding Batweilder and Dirt Boucher was released in late 2024 under the band name Bleak Magician. Late in 2024, he began recording ambient synth and techno with Apples Appleton under the project name Bicycle Deck. As for 2025? Something new is on the way.
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