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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.

Released in January 2013 as a 7", this split ep is now being reissued ten years later as a 10" with some changes on the MonumentuM side:
PJ Harvey's classic "The River" is here featured in a different version from the one on the original ep, plus, to bless the two bands sodality, we are adding the song "In Misery Front Row", which originally appeared in 1998 as an instrumental track called "The Colour Of Compassion" on Misanthopy Records label's compilation Presumed Guilty, but hereby featuring Shining's mastermind Niklas Kvarforth on vocals.

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.

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”.

ISON new album! Gatefold sleeve, double LP in Black vinyl 

Mixed and Mastered by Stephen Lockhart at Studio Emissary, Iceland. Band Photos by Void Revelations. Band Art and Calligraphy by Jose Gabriel Alegría Sabogal.

Based out of the frigid capital of the colonial state known as Canada, Dismal Aura surfaced with their self-released debut, Praeagia Tristia in 2021. The trio blend second-wave black metal with crust punk and grind elements, an offering as bleak and chilling as it is melodic and impassioned.

Composed of members with diverse cultural backgrounds and lived experiences, Dismal Aura explores socio-political topics such as colonialism, state-terror, and environmental destruction.

Produced by Topon Das (Fuck the Facts, Gorguts) and Mike Bond (Crusades, Loviatar), the band’s sophomore album was recorded in deep winter forest of Wolf Lake Studios.

Inspired by the essay Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe, Imperium Mortalia spans eight compositions that reckon with the grim relationship between the individual and the state, the exploitative nature of power, and the reduction of human life to commodity.

Based out of the frigid capital of the colonial state known as Canada, Dismal Aura surfaced with their self-released debut, Praeagia Tristia in 2021. The trio blend second-wave black metal with crust punk and grind elements, an offering as bleak and chilling as it is melodic and impassioned.

Composed of members with diverse cultural backgrounds and lived experiences, Dismal Aura explores socio-political topics such as colonialism, state-terror, and environmental destruction.

Produced by Topon Das (Fuck the Facts, Gorguts) and Mike Bond (Crusades, Loviatar), the band’s sophomore album was recorded in deep winter forest of Wolf Lake Studios.

Inspired by the essay Necropolitics by Achille Mbembe, Imperium Mortalia spans eight compositions that reckon with the grim relationship between the individual and the state, the exploitative nature of power, and the reduction of human life to commodity.

BANDCAMP DOWNLOAD CODE INCLUDED

Second press, now not anymore a mediabook but anyway pretty nice digipak with bookleet

Pioneering French dark atmospheric music since 1996, Dark Sanctuary is back with their eighth album, Cernunnos, the first in fourteen years. Following the EP Iterum released in 2022, it marks the group's return to the front of the stage.

Cernunnos is an ancient Gaulish god who embodied the biological cycle of nature, simultaneously reflecting life and death, germination and decay, like the deer, the animal that represents him, who loses its antlers in winter to recover them in spring. This title perfectly symbolizes the history of Dark Sanctuary after these years of artistic break and this rebirth.

Composed during the year 2022, the 11 songs of this album make it one of the most varied that Dark Sanctuary have made so far, oscillating between what has characterized the band for two decades and new musical horizons. Both dark and emotional, Cernunnos is a new milestone in the history of the group.

Mixed and mastered by Øystein G. Brun at Crosound Studio in Bergen

Cover Artwork by Valnoir/Metastazis

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!

Second press, same vinyl color, shipping on / around 15.02

Since their inception in 2010, Grá has relentlessly worked to shape their music to be both a perfect example of Swedish black metal and a very personal interpretation of its classic sound. Their new studio album will mark the first cooperation between the band from Stockholm and Avantgarde Music, and we thought best to leave frontman Heljarmadr complete freedom to introduce the opus.

Lycaon is our fourth full length album and ever since we started Grá in 2010, we have been striving for constant evolution, to challenge ourselves as musicians and composers with every release.

Where our last album Väsen was extremely intricate and bombastic, with an "all in" approach to keyboards, orchestral parts, acoustic guitars and choir arrangements, Lycaon is heading in the opposite direction. It has fewer layers and with that, every layer needs to be meticulously measured and well thought out to carry the right atmosphere forward.