Shop

THE OMEGA SWARM,
an atmospheric death metal group from Germany, started in 2022, very humble, very secluded.
T., renowned from crafting four fabulous albums to date with Sulphur Aeon, did not have a fully fledged live act in mind when composing early demos and shaping the skeleton of his – at that time – nameless new creature. A true creator at heart, T. embraces the meticulous work on riffs, tones, sounds, the adventurous spirit of building and realizing ideas, experimenting with his much beloved set of guitars and synths to produce astonishing vibes and songs that are meaningful yet extreme, melodic yet harsh and mount in THE OMEGA SWARM’s debut album, a record, a testimony dedicated to the essence of art itself.

As down-to-earth T. is, he is not the type of person to stick with one sonic formula, he looks out for ‘something more’, ‘something different’. Having finalized what Sulphur Aeon wanted to express for the time being on 2023’s monumental “Seven Crowns and Seven Seals”, THE OMEGA SWARM are his main focus right now, and the band’s line-up completed by vocalist Christian Schettler (known from his work in label mates Wound) and drummer Max Scheefeldt (ex Misanthrope Monarch), gels perfectly.
Musically, THE OMEGA SWARM were spawned from T.’s experiments with rhythmic patterns, layers of synths, elaborate leads and slightly more technical riffing structures. Probably, the only obvious parallels to Sulphur Aeon are an emphasis on a dense, captivating atmosphere, epic elements, and an overarching darkness as well as realizing after completing their first recordings that also THE OMEGA SWARM bear the quality to be more than just a ‘bedroom project’.

Sear Bliss delivers their opus magnum after a 30 year long journey of epic darkness!

Welcome to a journey into space itself in which its divinity is formed by progressive components and blackened chaos: Sear Bliss’s “Heavenly Down”. Externally mighty and internally filling, Hungary’s metallic frontrunners once again apply their signature formula of conjoining elegance and evil; two separate worlds that flawlessly connect into one special entity of supreme distinction. A galactic quest in which Sear Bliss rewrites the rules of experimental metal is found within “Heavenly Down” and the trip is very exciting, believe us.

Though containing common Black Metal qualities, “Heavenly Down” shows a neat shape of Sear Bliss’s own originality mixed in with several usual endowments. As expected,
Sear Bliss preserves their blackened roots intact with epic tremolo picking sections, firing blastbeats, and András Nagy’s graceful shrieks, yet the use of beautiful clean guitars and majestic keyboards add to the already-mighty picture. But don’t fear for too much soft stuff, because there are some massive head-banging riffs that just shred your eyeballs out of their sockets. The harmony between two separate musical extremes is reached in precise unison, and such a joyous tension is never broken from its state of wonder; this is how Black Metal and empyrean moods are supposed to wed. During the voyage, Sear Bliss keeps the ride interesting with the band’s hidden weapon that seems a bit odd at first, but ends out working excellently: the trombone. Zoltán Pál‘s strange position in Sear Bliss is not that of a clueless musician hitting symphonic notes, but rather an individual that can intelligently wrap the trombone around the harsh guitars and ethereal surroundings superbly. The thing is, however, that the trombone takes absolute control of Sear Bliss’s music whenever the master permits its freedom: you’ll be enjoying a cool riffing section, and then a blast of brass just explodes like no other instrument. It’s truly a unique experience that needs to be heard to be believed.

Overall, we dare to say “Heavenly Down” is a fantastic album with countless incidents of atypical independence and atmospheric delight. Everything is solid as a rock, and the
consistent display of cosmic instrumentation definitely make this record a highlight in Sear Bliss’ discography. Those looking for something outside the musical norm will most
certainly appreciate “Heavenly Down” and its metaphysical significance as a Black Metal recording unlike most of the genre itself.

Nadsvest is a black metal entity based in Serbia, comprised of Serbian native S and NewZealander A.
S (Gorgoroth) and A (Barshesketh) crossed paths in 2015, and after a clear musical symbiosis had become evident, formed Nadsvest.
After an EP and a split with Portugal’s Necrobode, Nadsvest crafted their definitive debut album.
Musically, Nadsvest is a hellish combination of the first, second-wave and bestial black metal scenes, with unhealthy doses of heavy metal and nods to Serbian folk music.
Lyrical themes deal with the black arts through the lens of the darker aspects of Serbian folklore.
Conceptually, Slovo meseca i krvi is an epic poem exploring the stages in the process of awakening the primal werewolf force in the warrior, the triumph of the spirit and the ultimate sacrifice of the flesh.
Sound was forged in Sonorous Studio with the goal of evoking the noise of the tortured soul.

SARKE continue to exploit their unusual mix of 70`s rock, 80`s speed metal and 90`s black metal, resulting in an album full of heavy-rocking and groovy metal while not forgetting the unique psychedelic, doomy and dwelling passages. A monster of an album by a beast of a line-up ft. (ex) members of Darkthrone, Enslaved and Khold!

“Endo Feight” , the 8th full-length of pioneering Norwegian metal act SARKE, covers everything from SARKE’s lightest parts to the hardest. Prepare for a unique musical journey that breaks barriers within the metal scene, of course featuring Nocturno Culto from the legendary DARKTHRONE on vocals.

“Endo Feight” was recorded and mixed at H10 Productions by Lars-Erik Westby and mastered by Sofia von Hage and Thomas Eberger at Stockholm Mastering. The cover illustration was created by Kjetil Nystuen.

Remastered and joined together in a single release, the first two Nest EPs see the light again! Fabled Lore and Hidden Stream, originally released in 2000 and 2003, will finally be available on vinyl as part of a comprehensive reissue work via Avantgarde Music!

Nest is an atmospheric folk / acoustic group from Finland, formed in the summer of 1999, mainly focusing on the use of the Kantele, a traditional Finnish instrument. The project, led by multi-instrumentalist and visual artist Aslak Tolonen (also member of Syven and several others), has always kept a shy behaviour, releasing three studio albums along the quarter of a century and playing selected live gigs.

Fabled Lore / Hidden Stream is the first instalment in Nest's vinyl and cd reissue schedule on Avantgarde Music and will be followed by the releases of Woodsmoke, Trail of the Unwary (with bonus) and Mietteita - this last one for the first time ever receiving a physical release.

For something to be “ecstatic,” the feelings and emotions it evokes must transcend what one tends to experience most regularly in their lives. Ecstatic joy isn’t just happiness; it’s a feeling of jubilation which impacts one emotionally and in a metaphysical, arguably spiritual sense too. Although it has long been associated with connotations of the dark and macabre, extreme music has the ability to be a powerful mode of expression for these feelings of absolute bliss, overwhelming love, and awe-inspiring sublimity. Extreme emotions no less and those which black metal quartet Agriculture evokes with its ecstatic subversion of the subgenre’s tropes.

What was initially a meeting and subsequent series of jam sessions between Kern Haug and Daniel Meyer, two musicians in the Los Angeles underground noise scene, would eventually manifest as a shared vision to portray the sublimity of the human experience through the vehicle of heavy music. Following the additions of veteran guitarist Richard Chowenhill and bassist / vocalist Leah Levinson to the band’s lineup, this idea would crystalize into the “ecstatic black metal” backbone of Agriculture’s music, first heard on the band’s 2022 debut EP, The Circle Chant.

With Agriculture’s self-titled record and first full-length LP, it’s abundantly clear that the band’s use of heavy music to showcase the most resplendent emotions and moments of the human experience has a far deeper meaning. Woven between the flurries of soaring tremolo picking, crescendoing guitar harmonies, celebratory screamed vocals, thoughtful improvisation, and meditative atmospheric passages is the record’s mission statement to experience the wonders and joys of both the esoteric and physical world.