Season of Mist

The label has two offices, one in Marseille, France and one in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Name originates from The Sandman: Season of Mists, which in turn comes from the opening phrase of John Keats' "To Autumn".

• Name — Season of Mist • Founded — 1996 • Founder — Michael S. Berberian • Genre — Heavy metal, extreme metal • Country — United States, France • Location — Marseille, France • Website — season-of-mist.com

Season of Mist was formed in 1996, while founder Michael S. Berberian was completing his studies in economic studies initially, according to Berberian, to avoid 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 staff members. In 2002, Season of Mist also started out as a distributor for the French territory, which includes other metal labels like Spinefarm Records or Napalm Records on their roster. 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 Black Tusk), 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).

Bands signed on a license deal with Season of Mist for exclusive release in North America. • Abysmal Dawn – American death metal • Astarte – Greek black metal • Beherit – Finnish black metal • Deathspell Omega – French black metal • Dying Fetus – American death 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 • Within Temptation – Dutch gothic metal