Invictus Productions plays host to a variety of fascinating and unique metal sounds. Although the Irish label focuses on practitioners of death, black, and thrash metal — the individual bands come at these styles from all sorts of angles. It’s a label you know is going to deliver raw, dark, unrelenting goodness, but you can never perfectly predict how it will play out.
And for that reason, we decided to talk to label boss Darragh O’Laoghaire to learn more about the label, the bands he supports, and what keeps him going. His insights about starting the label and the challenges he faces operating in Ireland are particularly interesting.
—
Abhorrent Entities by Abhorration
Thank you for talking with us! For those who might not know, can you tell us about how Invictus Productions got started?
Back in the mid-to-late 1990s there was a lot of activity locally that I was either directly involved in or on the periphery of. Friends had started bringing in touring bands, I’d done two fanzines and Primordial, with whom I had spent a fair bit of time, had moved from Cacophonous Records to Misanthropy Records, where my friend Brian worked. I spent a little bit of time with Tiziana, having hosted her in my tiny abode in 1998 when she came to see Primordial play with Impaled Nazerene and prior to that, I pitched in with during the first two Mayhem UK shows in Bradford and London in 1997 so the seeds were planted then.
After that, I spent a bit of time in and around Hammerheart Records so in February 1999, I decided that I was going to do a label.
I didn’t play an instrument, wasn’t in a band and, back then, hardly anyone was into the same sort of stuff I was back then, so forming a band was a fantasy. Doing a label seemed like the best option. The original idea was to start with releasing Dublin band Morphosis‘ demos on CD/LP. They’ve recently split up and were a massive influence on all of us growing up in the 90s. The demos were remastered and a layout was done by none other than Stephen O’Malley but the release never came to fruition and I still don’t know why! In the end, the Slaughter Lord compilation Thrash til’ Death 86-87 became the first official label release in January 2000.
This came about as Steve Hughes (the former drummer) had relocated here from Australia in 1999. We met, hung out and got all the material mastered in a studio here in Dublin by a lady who had has much interest in metal as we did in country and western. We all sat in on that session and Steve called the shots on timings, endings, etc. A good experience!
Carnage Gathers by Grave Infestation
What would you say is the core vision of the label? A lot of the roster winds up somewhere between the worlds of black and death metal, but you have a lot of acts that go in cool or odd directions as well.
The core vision of the label comes from the name Invictus. It reflects the perpetual cycle in life of overcoming, conquering and holding your ground. That expression comes through the many different releases the label has had. Each one, at different times, reflecting where my own mind is at or even where my mind is absent. The more traditional thrash, black and death metal styles are my favorites — ones born from the 80s. But I do like how they have mutated in some cases — and I am repulsed by other mutations. The nature of music and art, I suppose.
I really loved The Third Temple from Spite when it came out in 2024. The album is super dark and cinematic and I still revisit it today. How did you end up working with Jesse?
Jesse was the live drummer for Negative Plane on a 2015 European tour I had organized for them along with then label mates Malthusian. Spite had put out the Trapped in the Pentagram 7″ at that point and we got on pretty damn well on the tour so we discussed working together, which has continued to this day! Spite’s style is something I find truly expressive and the rawness of the riffs hits perfectly. Absolutely love the band! I have yet to see them live as I missed their last European tour!
Running a record label, especially in a niche area like extreme metal, can’t be easy in 2026. What would you say have been your primary challenges? Are any of them unique to being based in Ireland or the EU? Alternatively, are there advantages to this as well?
Primary challenges right now are spiraling costs. I am preparing to move to a new warehouse next month. This will be the fourth move for the label in nearly as many years. Circumstances around the warehouse I rented at the end of 2020 created some serious challenges and created some financial difficulties, which are still a current issue. Energy costs here are out of control, affecting day to day living so this in turn affects people’s spending power. People ordering less and smaller amounts, which of course creates its own challenges. This decade, the 2020s, has been extremely peculiar on a number of levels and as it progresses, it’s difficult to see much getting better or changing — but the fact remains that unless people completely stop buying LPs, CDs, etc. then there’s a market and we will continue to release new music accordingly!
Being based in Ireland, a small island on the periphery of Europe, certainly brings its own challenges as there’s not a dedicated, specific market here on the island and people prefer to order from abroad as well, most of the time. I have a good, hardcore mail order audience here and we get some good turnouts at underground shows. The next warehouse venture will involve a monthly open day for people to come visit, pick up LPs, merch, etc. while we spin some vinyl on decks.
I would say that no, there are no advantages to being in Ireland. The European continent is where the “scene” is and if you’re in Germany, you have a ready made, automatic audience on your doorstep immediately, and small festivals you can do stalls at. We don’t have that here.
Looking forward, what are some upcoming releases you’d like Decibel readers to look out for? You’ve already blazing out of the gate with that new Oraculum album!
So far in 2026 we’ve released the debut full length from Oraculum titled Hybris Divina and the third Transilvania album Magia Posthuma! Both albums have received great praise, which is very rewarding! Next release is Hexorcist’s new album Crucifical Imprecations in the summer followed by Sépulcre Cryptic Temple of Otherworldly Abhorrations and the self-titled Callous Master debut. The new Malokarpatan album Baron Ferat will also be released along with some other to be announced titles.
Finally, it’s easy to get jaded and burned out when music becomes part of your everyday working life. What keeps you excited about this music?
It’s true that there is simply too much, of everything. Music, TV, media, movies. But in the end, you have to cut and carve out your own space and ultimately decide what you want to spend your time with. This simplifies the matter and while I can admire people who can endlessly consume new music at a weekly rate, I am personally more selective. There’s a lot of great music out there but the impact of it all certainly seems to lessen on a yearly basis. Perhaps it’s a necessary process the music world has to be go through and shed its skin like a snake, I don’t know. But it feels a little like a ‘musical nuclear arms race’ these days with little room for the proper digestion of something in order for it to make a proper impact. So what keeps me interested? The artists I work with. They’re a weirdly wonderful, mildly insane bunch of inspirational creative crazies!
Onslaught to Seraphim by Triumvir Foul
The post Label Spotlight: Invictus Productions appeared first on Decibel Magazine.