Season of Mist
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| Season of Mist | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Founder | Michael S. Berberian |
| Genre | Heavy metal, extreme metal |
| Country of origin | France – United States |
| Location | Marseille, France |
| Official website | www |
Season of Mist is an independent record label and record distributor with subsidiaries in France and the United States. The record label was founded in 1996 by Michael S. Berberian in Marseille, France. From the start releasing black metal, pagan metal and death metal records, the label moved on to releasing albums of avant-garde metal, gothic metal and punk bands as well. The label has two offices, one in Marseille, France and one in Philadelphia, U.S..
Music
From the beginning, Season of Mist focused on releasing more extreme metal records by stylistically diverse bands like Oxiplegatz, Bethzaida and Kampfar. With the signing of Norwegian legends Mayhem in 1999 the label's profile clearly shifted towards black metal and attracted internationally renowned artists like Carpathian Forest, Rotting Christ, Arcturus and Solefald, with the latter two representing a marked progressive and avant-garde side to Season of Mist.
While staying close to its black metal roots with the creation of the Season of Mist Underground Activists division in 2007, the label widened its musical range and added to its black, death, doom (Saint Vitus) and thrash metal roster bands playing progressive death metal (Morbid Angel, Cynic, Atheist, Gnostic, Gonin-ish), sludge (Kylesa, Outlaw Order), industrial metal (Genitorturers, The CNK, Punish Yourself), hard rock (Ace Frehley), gothic rock (Christian Death), mathcore (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Psykup), garage rock (1969 Was Fine), groove metal (Dagoba, Eths, Trepalium, Black Comedy) and metalcore (Eyeless, The Arrs).
History
Season of Mist was formed in 1996, while founder Michael S. Berberian was completing his scholarships in "International Economics Sciences" initially, according to Berberian, as a way around the compulsory national military service in France. Since his graduation the label has become a full-time job for Michael and achieved a steady growth with Season of Mist now employing 20 members of staff. In the year 2002 Season of Mist also started out as a distributor for the French territory, which meanwhile includes other metal labels like Spinefarm Records or Napalm Records on their roster.
Season of Mist's name originates from A Midsummer Night's Dream, the play by William Shakespeare.
Roster[1]
North American roster
Bands signed on a license deal with Season of Mist for exclusive release in North America.
- Astarte – Greek black metal
- Beherit – Finnish black metal
- Black Funeral – American black metal
- Black Sheep Wall – American Doom Metal
- Deathspell Omega – French black metal
- Dying Fetus – American death metal
- Elitist - American Sludge Metal
- Eluveitie – Swiss folk metal
- Enslaved – Norwegian progressive black metal
- Finntroll – Finnish folk black metal
- Forgotten Tomb – Italian black metal
- Legion Of The Damned – Dutch thrash metal
- Moonsorrow – Finnish folk black metal
- Reverend Bizarre – Finnish doom metal
- Sadist – Italian technical death metal
- Shape Of Despair – Finnish funeral doom metal
- Shining – Swedish black metal
- Sopor Aeternus – German darkwave
- The Gathering – Dutch atmospheric rock
- To Separate The Flesh From The Bones – Finnish grindcore
- Trinacria – Norwegian doom black metal
- Within Temptation – Dutch gothic metal
Distributed labels
Fellow record companies distributed in France by Season of Mist.