Avantgarde Music

Mesarthim are now developing their Phase II, and following their latest EP released this very spring Vacuum Solution, they reached the farthest corner of the known universe with the new CLG J02182–05102.

“Astronomers are a bit like archeologists as they dig back through space and time searching for remnants of the early universe. In a recent deep excavation, courtesy of NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, astronomers unearthed what may be the most distant, primitive cluster of galaxies ever found.

In a twist, however, this apparent ancestor to today's "big cities" of grouped galaxies looks shockingly modern. Called CLG J02182-05102, the ancient cluster is dominated by old, red and massive galaxies, typical of present-day clusters. For example, it is similar to a young version of the Coma Cluster of today, which has had billions of more years to develop.” Says NASA.

*** brand new copy, but arrived slightly damaged during shipment... one small negligible damage on one corner of the sleeve

'Iterum' comes with one more song than the digital ep: "Loin de Moi" (exclusive to the physical release).
It will be a one-off press and limited to 500 copies (numbered)

Complete tracklist:
- L'intime (7"41)
- Renaissance (7"00)
- Loin de moi (5"13)

Format: 10" white vinyl with a CD copy inside (same tracklist), gatefold cover with printed innersleeve.

Kanonenfieber side project!  Digipak CD with booklet

Definitely the most unusual release in the whole Sivyj Yar’s discography with Novgorod gusli being the main instrument.
The artist defines this album as 'neo-medieval nocturnes' and dedicates it to Yuri Mirolyubov (1892-1970), the discoverer (well, most likely, the Author) of the mysterious 'Book of Veles', literally the main influence on the Eastern European paganism revival.

Let the moonclad twilight veil the forests once again!

Moonlight Sorcery is a Finnish black metal trio formed in early 2018. The band’s black metal is a symphonic and melodic variety by nature. Inspired by many black metal classics as well as classic heavy metal and melodic death metal, the band indeed has a huge palette of influences, which is directly reflected in the versatility of the song material.

Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity, the band first EP, was worked on as the icy winds blew and winter did its magic. In all the peace and quiet. The silver-saturated nights of the moon rushed to the melodies that breathe sorrow and the eternal majesty of the cold stars.

200 copies limited edition in white & blue stripes with purple splatters / Hotfoil silver print on cover

Let the moonclad twilight veil the forests once again!

Moonlight Sorcery is a Finnish black metal trio formed in early 2018. The band’s black metal is a symphonic and melodic variety by nature. Inspired by many black metal classics as well as classic heavy metal and melodic death metal, the band indeed has a huge palette of influences, which is directly reflected in the versatility of the song material.

Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity, the band first EP, was worked on as the icy winds blew and winter did its magic. In all the peace and quiet. The silver-saturated nights of the moon rushed to the melodies that breathe sorrow and the eternal majesty of the cold stars.

200 copies limited edition in Aside/Bside aqua-blue with silver / Hotfoil silver print on cover

Jewelcase edition, out of print

Moonlight Sorcery is a Finnish black metal trio formed in early 2018. The band’s black metal is a symphonic and melodic variety by nature. Inspired by many black metal classics as well as classic heavy metal and melodic death metal, the band indeed has a huge palette of influences, which is directly reflected in the versatility of the song material.

Piercing Through the Frozen Eternity, the band first EP, was worked on as the icy winds blew and winter did its magic. In all the peace and quiet. The silver-saturated nights of the moon rushed to the melodies that breathe sorrow and the eternal majesty of the cold stars.

Jewelcase CD

Comes with a noble paper insert, numbered

10 copies existent

Noircure is the musical endeavor of multi-instrumentalist Raffaele Galasso from Apulia, Southern Italy. Albeit born in 2021, Noircure comes after years of experience and hard work in a number of different underground projects, managing to be both something completely new and perfectly self-aware as well.

Galasso describes his latest one-man band as follows: “Noircure was born in 2021 as the result of blending two of my great passions: atmospheric black metal and certain shoegaze and new wave sounds. I recorded, mixed and mastered Kyrie inspired by these musical atmospheres, favoring improvisation in the recording phase, preferring "natural" sounds over production editing and trying to limitate effects as much as possible. I wanted Kyrie to personify a living entity capable of communicating a wide range of emotions in the most direct way possible. In order to do this, I tried to recreate all the sounds that I had figured out in my head only with my guitar and without the use of synths”.

The result is an honest, breathtaking album, plunging into the depths of blackgaze, where guitars are paramount, accompanied by a wide range of vocal styles, adding some Mediterranean vibes which make Klimt 1918 come to mind. If the likes of Alcest, Lantlôs and Sadness are part of your everyday music digest, Noircure will surely leave its mark.

Transparent orange with black splatters

PLEASE NOTE: this item will be included in label Circle of Wax initiative/series (Bundle #4 - March/April 2022). If you subscribed to it or simply plan to purchase the current bundle please restrain from ordering a single copy here!

New copy, arrived with 2 sleeve's corners ding after shipment, thus offered at 50% off

US darkwave pioneers Lycia are back with a new 7’’ less than a year after the acclaimed Casa Luna EP. It appears Mike VanPortfleet, Tara Vanflower, John Fair and David Galas are living an extremely inspired new youth, as these two tracks convey very lively, spry vibes, yet in the usual dark, melancholic tones which are trademarks of the band. In a matter of minutes, Lycia are able to take you back four decades, to a time when 4AD was the coolest label on Earth, Clan Of Xymox delivered the best beats around and Cocteau Twins would nurture your dreams. Lycia shapeshifted once again, yet remaining perfectly recognizable.

Digipak CD with 12 pages booklet

Ysyry Mollvün is a conceptual project created by Zupai Ulen in 2012. In November 2015, Antonio Sanna (Downfall Of Nur) met Zupai and offered to be the producer. As time passed by, Sanna got involved in the crating of this project, composing arrangements for acoustic guitars and native instruments such as the charango, sikus, flutes and percussions. The band’s name comes from the words “river” in the Guaraní language, indigenous people from South America (Ysyry) and “blood” in the language of Selk'nam people, the indigenous tribe from southern Argentina (Mollvün).

Ysyry Mollvün tells the story of K'aux, a being that was once a human who was educated by the Selk’nam gods to teach the tribe what was necessary to outlive in the harsh conditions of the extreme south of the world. K'aux betrayed his oath and did not pass on what he learned, and for this reason he was condemned to lie forever, neither dead nor alive, in the center of the earth.

A thousand years later Espíritu del Monte, the god who punished K'aux couldn't understand what happened to the other deities since, except for the god of death (San la Muerte), they were no longer on this earth. All had changed, the people who lived on this earth were more, the flora and fauna that had inhabited no longer existed and everything that was for thousands of years was longer as it had been. Because of this, el Espíritu del Monte decides to wake up K'aux so that he can see with his human's eyes what happened and what must be done so that everything goes back to what once was.

LP in galaxy effect, oxblood with green. Printed innersleeve

Please note, if you are an Avantgarde Music Circle of Wax subscriber, this release is a part of bundle #3 (February bundle)

Five long years after their fascinating debut, Milan-based duo A Pale December deliver their sophomore album, Death Panacea. Compared to The Shrine Of Primal Fire, Death Panacea steers towards more aggressive, warring sounds. The “atmospheric black metal” label which so aptly described their debut album, is now just one of the many, partial definitions which could be used to define the band’s music.

When asked about their new opus, multi-instrumentalists Riccardo Di Bella and Ernesto Ciotola provided the following, strong statement: “While many metal albums seem to appeal to a feeling of fierceness, a call to war, an urge to fight something, we wanted to express the opposite. Death Panacea is an album about defeat and hopelessness, about the inherent futility of human strife and all our laughable attempts at masking this unescapable nature.

We wanted to praise failing and giving up, as opposed to perseverance, pride and the grinding mentality. We wanted to praise the rejects above the leaders, who naively think they can escape this race towards oblivion, and the coward above the fighting man, whose only fault was believing in the frail concept of nation and a false sense of belonging.

While distancing ourselves from these delusional sentiments, we also didn't want to fall into optimistic nihilism; the idea that the awareness of an impending void can grant any peace is simply preposterous. 

Ultimately, this is the meaning that lies behind the title of the album: death is what keeps us in check and yet is the one and only panacea to all our anguishes. In all this, one could almost find a cold comfort, knowing that the top step of the podium is eventually just a springboard to the abyss”.

Limited edition, one-press 300 copies

Please note, if you are an Avantgarde Music Circle of Wax subscriber, this release is a part of bundle #3 (February bundle)

After two decades devoted to the dark arts within obscure black metal, Wraith (Vanquished) and Luzifaust (Kaifrun, Hostium) present a new chapter, going by the name of Vastatum.

An ancient parallelled entity born into modern existence. Rich with atmospheric maturity and an emphasis on existential impermanence, Vastatum have executed the sonic experience of passing beyond life into death’s immeasurable grasp. Thus melding the elusive soundscapes of disembodiment with the haunting distinctions of absolution. Poetic, and potent, melodic and malevolent.

Vastatum is driven by the dark innate will of creativity and the seductive allure of the occult, and Mercurial States Of Revelation is the first chapter in the band's history. A chapter written in black metal and contemplations upon human existence.

Mercurial States Of Revelation reflects upon the conceptual philosophy that since time immemorial the earth, world and existence (as we comprehend it) have been in a constant state of flux and continual transformation. Thus compelling all planetary inhabitants toward perpetual states of adaptation within a world that is rapidly evolving and transcending beyond the depths of the human species.

Through mighty riffs deeply rooted in both the classic sounds of Norway in the early ‘90s and the Cascadian tradition of the ‘00s, Vastatum find a perfect balance between the old, the contemporary and the esoteric, picturing visions of growing shadows and perishing bodies.

New press, 2022 edition, exclusive vinyl color in gatefold cover 

(galaxy trans blue and orange)

New copy, sealed but side-opened to check vinyl color.  Arrived slightly damaged during shipment: in this particular case, this copy has one corner of the cover  bent

There is not much to say about Lycia’s masterpiece which hasn’t been said already. Originally released in October 1996, following 1995 The Burning Circle and Then Dust, Cold is one of the most important and relevant darkwave albums of the nineties.

Inspired by the band’s relocation from the desert of Phoenix, AZ, to the snowy landscapes of Streetsboro, Ohio, Cold is a paradigm shift in terms of surroundings as much as a further development in Lycia soundscapes. “I think of all the albums I’ve done, the time and place when we recorded it seeped into Cold more than into any other album”, Mike VanPortfleet commented years later.

Cold is unquestionably one of the very pinnacles in Lycia’s discography, a discography now spanning over three decades and filled with acclaimed releases. An album conceived in the fall of 1995 and ultimately born in the winter of 1996, coming from a band used to write their music in the heat of the desert and now immersed in a snowy, wintry landscape, now made available again for its 25th anniversary.

Six panels digipak CD

Sgàile is the solo project of Scottish multi-instrumentalist Tony Dunn, a venture that was a long time in the making due to Dunn’s commitments with other bands such as Falloch, Cnoc An Tursa and Saor. “For almost a decade, I had concentrated on playing other people's songs, singing other people's lyrics, and not feeling that I had an identity of my own. The name Sgàile means "ghost" or "shade" in Gaelic, and this was born from the fact that I didn't quite "fit in" with the Scottish Black Metal scene that these bands were an integral part of”.

In August 2018, Dunn parted ways with Saor in an amicable manner. It was then and there that “I decided to really concentrate on putting out a body of work that I could put my own name to and be proud of”. Sgàile was officially born. Ideals & Morality was conceived, composed and recorded in most of its parts in late 2019/early 2020. At this point Mike Lamb (Sojourner, Light Field Reverie) was brought on board for the mixing and mastering. “He had a look at the quality of the recordings, and gave me a great deal of advice, so much that in late summer 2020 we decided the best course of action was to re-record all of the guitars and bass from scratch. So in essence, Ideals & Morality was recorded twice”. 

Musically and lyrically, Sgàile’s debut is an emotional record. “It is a record that I feel is both melancholy and quite dark in places, but uplifting and inspiring in others, as during the recording sessions I felt like I was in quite a low place at times mentally, but the actual writing process itself lifted my spirits. I feel that the album certainly has the potential to both haunt and elate in equal measure”. Lyrically, it's almost a stream of consciousness of various aspects of Tony’s psyche, dealing with his love for Scottish mountains (“The Summit”), the feeling of becoming a parent (“Instinct”) or even the experiences of the past decade (“Facade”). Every song comes from its own background, making Ideals & Morality a multifaceted experience. “The album is almost like a peek at what goes on inside my head. My ideals and my moral compass are what have guided me on my path as an artist since being thrust into the music industry and will stick with me through the rest of my journey, wherever that may lead”.

Silver and black, galaxy effect vinyl, printed in 200 copies

Inherits The Void is the musical endeavor of French multi-instrumentalist Antoine Scholtès. Born in 2020, the project based in Clermont-Ferrand released the Mémoires EP before starting to work on a proper full-length studio album.

Monolith Of Light hence marks Inherits The Void debut album, born from Scholtès’s desire for “a meeting between influences from the ‘90s Swedish Black Metal scene and a more current orientation of the genre”. Rage and melody entwine in these seven hymns to the transience of man, bringing to mind the great masterworks of Dissection, Dawn and Vinterland, as well as the more contemporary sounds of France.

Inherits The Void adds to their deep black metal roots, incorporating atmospheric hints from bands like Celeste, Déluge and Nesseria: “the main idea behind that album was to compose songs that would be both melodic and atmospheric, embraced by the desire to propose a range of various emotions”.

Second press, Aside/Bside:  Aqua Blue / Black 

February 2021 (in stock)