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marble/galaxy effect in grimace purple with pink

Anyone with the slightest interest in darkwave music and the goth counterculture is familiar with Lycia. Born in Tempe, AZ, in 1988 from the creative mind of Mike VanPortfleet, Lycia is as seminal and influential as a band can get. Devoted to cold, somber and synthetic sounds, these pioneers of the ethereal are responsible for some of the most acclaimed underground albums of the ‘90s. 

The current lineup of the band is John Fair, David Galas, Tara Vanflower and Mike VanPortfleet, who has been the only constant member since the band’s formation. Although only achieving minor cult success, the band is notable for being one of the groundbreaking groups in the darkwave and ethereal styles. Their 1995 album The Burning Circle And Then Dust "remains a high point of American dark rock" according to AllMusic, and 1996’s Cold has been cited as one of the genre’s best by Post-Punk.com and Alternative Press. Lycia's sound is characterized by rich soundscapes and layers of heavily effected guitars, dark atmospheric keyboards, heavy reverb drenched drum machines, VanPortfleet's somber raspy vocals and Vanflower's vivid melodic voice. 

Avantgarde Music had the pleasure to bring the 1991 debut full-length Ionia to a vinyl edition for the first time in early 2021, and this brought along the chance to cooperate on new music. This turned out to be a rich studio EP, Casa Luna. We reached out to Mike VanPortfleet, who describes Casa Luna as a followup to 2018’s In Flickers, with a more varied approach, stylistically and thematically. “In Flickers and Casa Luna are Lycia’s purest releases. Originally planned as a split 7” with the song “A Quiet Way to Go”, as more songs were written they evolved to an EP”.

Dark Folk from France

CD in Digipack with golden hot stamping

For fans of folk guitars, rainy ambiences and medieval sorcery

- CD Digipak

Tracklist:
1. Nametenie
2. Izbucul Galbenei
3. La Hotaru Cu Cinci Culmi
4. Curgerea Muntelui
5. Tarim Vilhovnicesc
6. Impodobeala Timpului
7. Picur Viu Foc
8. Schimniceste

 GOATS OF DOOM showed a new face on Rukous, where the mysterious atmosphere of old is shot through with more surging aggression and bewitching melody: in essence, a melodic blizzard, if you will. It's characteristically Finnish in its melancholy - melody can never be too saccharine, of course - but burns icy hot with a passion that makes its seven-song/42-minute runtime a nightsky treasure to behold. The theme of Rukous is suitably spirituality, and hereby do GOATS OF DOOM offer myriad ways to worship the dark.

 GOATS OF DOOM showed a new face on Rukous, where the mysterious atmosphere of old is shot through with more surging aggression and bewitching melody: in essence, a melodic blizzard, if you will. It's characteristically Finnish in its melancholy - melody can never be too saccharine, of course - but burns icy hot with a passion that makes its seven-song/42-minute runtime a nightsky treasure to behold. The theme of Rukous is suitably spirituality, and hereby do GOATS OF DOOM offer myriad ways to worship the dark.

Split album released in a few hundreds ex., for the die-hard fans 
CD comes in six panels digipack and release date is 5/11/2018

When PARADISE LOST guitarist Greg Mackintosh put to rest his VALLENFYRE side project in 2018, he closed a difficult, but an ultimately cathartic period in his life. Created as a tribute to his father John, who passed away in 2009, VALLENFYRE originally served as a sounding board for Greg’s grief, but then delved into his nihilistic take on the world. VALLENFYRE’s brief existence was intentional — the band always knew they could go no further than the three studio albums that bore their name. A mere few days after VALLENFYRE played its last live show in September 2018, Mackintosh announced the formation of a brand-new band, STRIGOI.Named after the troubled spirits in Romanian mythology who could rise from the grave and assume an entirely different form, STRIGOI's lineup is rounded out by former EXTREME NOISE TERROR and VALLENFYRE bass player Chris Casket, who was also responsible for the project's lyrics. Mackintosh gave him simple thematic guidelines: Attack organized religion, sparingly discuss grief and dive into the countless horrible things humanity continues to inflict upon itself.

The resultant 12-song-debut »Abandon All Faith« was recorded and mixed at Greg's Black Planet Studio between January and March 2019 and today, the English duo unveils a haunting music video directed by Ash Pears. Designed in the same black and white vein of the band's overall look, 'Phantoms' will clearly evoke some ghosts. Stream or download the new single here: https://nblast.de/Strigoi-Phantoms

The debut album will be available as jewelcase CD, black vinyl in gatefold 

Digipack CD with 8 page booklet.
2020 marks the first release of Feral Light under the Hypnotic Dirge Records roster. The name is not new to the scene, being led by guitarist Andy Schoengrund (ex. Empires, ex. Wolvhammer), who formed Feral Light in 2015 with drummer Andrew Reesen, and shortly thereafter released a demo, an EP, and two full-lengths - 2017’s Void/Sanctity and 2019’s excellent Fear Rides a Shadow.

Firmly anchored in Blackened Post-Metal, Life Vapor - their third album -, not only builds up on the foundations of its predecessor, but it also cranks it up on all fronts. It instantly pulls you in with its killer mix of melodic and dissonant riffing, combining and incorporating various styles including elements of post-metal, black n roll, doom, and second-wave black metal. This album is loaded with catchy riffs and memorable hooks exhibiting momentous black n roll sections that transform into triumphant post-metal, somber doom metal, and everywhere in between. Life Vapor is an album that manages to explore a wide berth of what the blackened sub-genres can manifest while remaining rooted by strong and purposeful songwriting and a balanced mix that highlights the instrumentation.

On “Blessings of Amurdad” (Amurdad translating to immortality in Middle Persian), Dakhma abducts listeners to a distant, foreign land and dares to journey to a time long ago, when desert mystics and noble empires still strode proudly through ancient Persia. Thematically, “Blessings of Amurdad” explores the complex relationship between mortality and immortality in Zoroastrianism, based mainly on key passages of the ancient text of the Gathas. In particular, the band manages to provide a compelling narrative detailing perceived jealousies expressed by mortals towards the divine and vice versa. These themes are captured in the compelling cover artwork, painted by the inimitable Babar Moghal, depicting an ancient tower of silence, seemingly forgotten and decaying but nevertheless exuding a sense of foreboding and nobility, hinting at the divine.

Deathbell is a five-piece band from Toulouse/France, that create eerie and heavy fuzz-laden Doom. Having released their debut album With the Beyond in 2018 that garnered underground attention, Deathbell have been lying in wait, taking their time to craft and hone their new juggernaut “A Nocturnal Crossing”. Incanting her melancholic and haunting vocals, Lauren Gaynor calls through cavernous walls of funeral organ and distorted slabs of riff-witchery to shepherd “A Nocturnal Crossing” into a hypnotic otherworld. With morbid clanging trips of psychedelic rhythms and shadowy atmospheres, Deathbell’s brand of mystical Doom is both transcendent and sombre.