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Impure Underground Enslavement
Morning Star Heresy is an independent UK metal record label with a hybrid model which supports unsigned artists.
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Current customers served by countries
Our Story
INCEPTION
Morning Star Heresy, originally conceived in 2017 in Staffordshire, UK, was formerly known as Morning Star Heathens. As a player of musician with passion for metal and physical music formats, MSH was founded by Shane Giess. The label aimed to create a platform for extreme metal artists both domestically and internationally.
2017
The label's inaugural release was by a traditional doom band from Scotland called Drowned Ten, with their album "Stand." During this period, the newly formed label was also learning the intricacies of running a record label. The album was successfully released both online and in CD format.
The label facilitated several small releases with local artists, including Minus Inferno. This led to its first live event in Birmingham, coinciding with the release of the album "Bringeth the Ice." Another notable band involved was Bradford's heavy rock group, Black Falcon, who later released "Devil’s Chase Him" and "Turn Around and Face the Sun" under Morning Star Heresy.
Since then, MSH has continued to release music from various artists, with a focus on heavier and darker sounds. During a 2017 holiday to Transylvania, Romania, the label discovered a melodic death metal band from Cluj-Napoca called Krepuskul. This encounter led to an immediate connection, and a meeting with the band in their city marked the beginning of discussions to release their upcoming album, "Hybrid." This album was released both on CD and digital platforms supported by a more comprehensive effort.
2018
MSH had set up operations in London and continued its vision of releasing music. The first London-based black metal band to release their album under the label was Praecantator, with the EP "Arcane Sceptre." Released on Digipak format, which sold out, leading to the labels first sold out CD release and prompting a second run.
In that year there were discussions with numerous artists both within the UK and internationally, including the Russian melodic death metal band, Dominia. A remastered EP from Dominia, titled "Melancholy," was released under MSH with an agreement to work with Dominia continuously. Dominia was working on their album "The Withering of the Rose" and had a pre-release ready single titled "My Flesh and the Sacred River," featuring legendary Greek vocalist Sakis Tolis from Rotting Christ.
Northern English death metal band Cadaver Soiree approached MSH, leading to an agreement to release their debut three track single "Cordyceps" on cassette.
With a strong reception for Dominia’s latest single release - the label planned for Dominia to London for the first time in the UK, resulting in a headline show at The Lounge 666/Archway London, supported by Cadaver Soiree, and local London bands Sphynxx and Parabyss with Northerners - Raised By Owls. A somewhat diverse line-up sponsored by Zero Tolerance Magazine.
The first music video was filmed that year of Staffordshire's own - Saarkoth, a black metal band inspired by nature and occultism. (Yes, the video was filmed in the woods.) The debut album ‘Jera’ had a second run after initially selling out accompanied with UK distro BlackWood productions.
2019
UK releases in 2019 included the release of the debut album from Jorgen Kirby’s atmospheric black metal project Hexivoid, with ‘Disdain From A Burning Cosmos’. A project inspired inspired by nothing but cosmic horror. This led to a second release in 2020 titled ‘The Beckoning of Celestial Tendrils’.
To further promote the releases from Saarkoth & Cadaver Soiree - MSH hosted an event in Bradford featuring artists Concrete Age as the headlining act and Doom band Petrichor. 2019 seemed to have been the year of side projects, with Voices of Grief debuting their self titled EP under the label. A “funeral black metal” project from Saint Petersburg featured members of Dominia.
2020
Dominia's much anticipated album "The Withering of the Rose" finally saw the light of day in early 2020 after delays receiving the final masters. Solidifying this release was the array of shows Dominia performed in their motherland and an exclusive show with Harakiri for the Sky.
Enter the Australian blackened death metal band Tanin’iver. After discovering this band and their first release, there was an immediate appetite to release and hear more from them. Their album "Pyrrhic" was released in 2020.
Another notable addition was Decimated Cross, a black metal band based in Staffordshire/Tamworth, who released their album on cassette with MSH and went on to play shows across the country.
This year, the label also signed the Welsh black metal band Lichway. A band forged by the drummer of Sodomised Cadaver, Gavin Davies. Unfoundedly a successful release for their debut album "Soul Torment."
2021
MSH had the pleasure of releasing the next album from Tanin’iver ‘The Lucifer Effect’ and Suspended Over the Immanent by Doom band, Forever Falling. Ultimately, the effect COVID 19 had on the world at large was horrific and life changing as we all know. Being an underground metal label and a team of one predominantly brought the label to it’s knees.
To double down on the challenges of the world - the news of war with Russia and Ukraine. With having a growing number of relationships with Russian artists you can imagine how things started to mount up and the difficult decision to shelve the label was thoroughly being considered.
Evidently that wasn’t the case.