You can read individual descriptions in the products forms, but to put it short here too,  the band is continuing with their habit to anticipate the standard cd release with a limited digi (whose manufacturing is taken care by the band itself).

The vinyl release instead is a brand new thing for Darkspace! For their “vinyl debut” the band has basically applied the recurring artistic vision and styling we all are well used to now, with a minimalist artwork combined with the usage of rough paper/cardboard packaging material.

The vinyl comes in an all-black gatefold and embossed cover with inner artowork.

Just a few infos for those going to pre-order:

- CD, LP and CD+LP bundle are on sale at the Avantgarde Music store on this site for those willing to do a quick Paypal purchase, but also from our mailorder twin-site for those interested in ordering other stuff as well  www.sound-cave.com or for example those who prefer to pay by Credit Card (or cash on delivery for italian customers)

- To simplify things we have been forced to set standard shipping rates for the single unit purchase, while this cost might change (for the cheaper) for those willing to order more copies. For example it’s obvious that if one LP costs 6,00 euro to ship, 2 LPs won’t cost 12,00 but less… Therefore we encourage anybody wanting to order more than just one copy to drop us an email to orders@sound-cave.com stating your country and we will be back to you with a precise bill to pay with correctly estimated shipping cost

Customers want stuff in advance and they want it now, although most likely they will not care about it anymore the day after receiving it,  still… they want it now or even before.. yesterday!

If they don’t receive what they have ordered within a week they will ask Paypal  to collect money back: they dont even care about the reason of the delay / problem.

The war against rip-offs has become the real rip-off crusade! It’s the anti-antis! The revenge of the good people that makes them bad people.

In Italy we have built a national spirit on the proverb “The circumstance can turn any man into a thief” after all..

Sadly enough Paypal (just like any Bank do with Credit Cards net system) is totally on the side of customers: there is no right no weapon no power left for the sellers. We are just “begging beggars” praying people to still bother their asses and buy from us a few cds: not enough, now we also have to hope that they will repute theis asses to be satisfied customers, otherwise they claim money refund without even writing a single email first and checking out what’s wrong with their order processing.

This is not fair, this is not a customer’s right anymore: it’s a crime.

Luckily we are still talking about a small phenomenon in percentage of the whole customers base, but it’s obviously destined to increase…

South American, Far East’s and Italian mindcrimes have a mastery in this game, but lately even the French and the ethically valorous Germans have jumped on the wagon.

What really leaves speechless is the Pontius Pilate policy of Paypal who stands on the customers’ side always and no matter what: initially they just “freeze” that money claimed back by the customer and ask the sellers to provide enough documentation that the order was shipped and delivered to the right person!

This is totally ilarious and, obviously, NOT POSSIBLE.

Not even a registered parcel (which is expensive and customers obviously dont wanna pay for!) can provide a 100% guarantee that the parcel was delivered to the right human…: imagine trying to track a registered parcel shipped to Jadi Sihat Dan Kuat in Malaysia.. and obtain a signature from the local post office. Even if possible you will get back a scan with a schizoid ink sign that could belong to anybody really… and thus, Paypal ignore it and  physically take the money from the seller’s account.

But talking about record that left some scars in me in the last few years, this one is still on top of them all.

Have a look here gringos:  Blindead – Affliction XXVII II MMIX

The beauty and the angst that are present in every single second of this album are really emotionally taking me every single time I listen to it. It is also emotionally taking the fact-in-itself that a band can still release a GIANT album full of new elements and with an incredible song writing skill in these years.

“Neurosis meet Pink Floyd”: arrogant but take it in your mouth and swallow it.

This is a band, to my point of view, still criminally underrated, and you are now partially in blame of this since you have read this article and are not eventually acting.

Congratulations to Mystic Productions for having released this masterpiece.

Only for mailorder/retail sales this digipack is sold in bundle with their unreleased minialbum “Empire” as a BONUS extra disc!!
100 copies limited!
Normal distribution copies will not include the “Empire” disc!

“Barren” comes as a digipack.

ORDER HERE

Please state your T-Shirt size: until 15.03 we will be able to manufacture these shirts with sizes on demand

Release date / Shipping date 26.03.2012

ORDER HERE

There’s quite a few details to be adjusted, decided & revealed last hour, but at least it seems like we will have this done shortly.

Minus One will be released in gatefold embossed vinyl and cd.

… a Romanian band that came into being at the end of 2009. In the musical inferno of transmodernity, Laburinthos aims at burning all the heresies of present day music. Thus, by transposing the concept of labyrinth into music, a new avant-garde style was created: Labyrinthine BlueWave. Besides the sonority of a dignified sadness, the lyrics written in English and Enochian, plunging the band into an esoteric universe.

The studio final recordings were gathered in the debut album called “Augoeides”, which was produced and mastered by Hupogrammos (Dordeduh).

The sound of our music is rooted in the Gothic Rock (The Sister of Mercy, Fields of The Nephilim), Dark Wave & Ethereal Wave (Lycia, David Galas), but the inflections of such bands as Neronoia, The 3rd and the Mortal, Kauan, Monumentum or Stille Opprör are prevalent.

Please discover their incredible music depth and colours: we have roughly made a medley from their album and it is uploaded in our SoundCloud player

1.circles  2.foundations 3.-  4.libra  5.numbers  6.the tenant

7.cold ground  8.save yourself  9.libra (reprise)

10.d  11. –  12.murder the future  13.last

…XASTHUR ‘Nightmares at Dawn’: the CD is soon going to manufacture and we will run a small pre-order campaign for the digipack edition of the album sold in bundle with an exclusive T-Shirt. One hundred copies only available. Keep an eyes open here and on our Facebook page

…TOWARDS DARKNESS ‘Barren’: as previously mentioned the album will come in March and a special edition of it including a bonus unreleased Mini-Album titled ‘Empire’ will be available! This is the Doom-Metal album of the year to our point of view!

…New signings: we will announce two new signings in the coming days, and most likely these will be the last ones for 2012 as we look to have a rather busy year in front of us in terms of scheduled releases.

…Parting ways: our marriage didnt even last for a day so I probably could avoid this announcement,  but as it was made it almost clear one year ago that we would release a new ESSENZ album we need to make it public that this project has been cancelled from our schedule (at least not to act like a fool in the eyes of the people who are expecting this and that now knows they have signed to another label). Good luck for everything to Gregor and the band: great guys and great band and no need to make it public why this collaboration was deleted.

…DARKSPACE have finally mastered ‘Dark Space -I’ and have already switched back working on ‘Dark Space IV’. We dont announce anything but we have clear expectations to be put into conditions to release “something” from them in Spring. The band is confirmed playing at Hellfest 2012 in June and will play in Canada after the summer!

…ECHOES OF YUL: we have received the final (pre)master of ‘Cold Ground’ and we are submitting to it with big eyes and blessed ears. Impossible to define, Echoes are intensely subtle and experimentally solid as a rock. This is avantgarde post doom with a weird space-ambient rock vein.

…ALTERNATIVE 4 / MONUMENTUM Split 7″: to all of you who bought a copy of the ‘The Brink’ limited edition…we  didnt forget about your vaucher and it is of course still valid. At the moment being the split 7″ project was put under ice. First for the unexpected delay to finalise the MMM song, and then for other reasons that might become public soon we preferred to hold this on. Nevertheless,  the project at least in its basic idea is not (and will not be) cancelled and you will receive precise news soon.

We had the pleasure and related commercial success to work with bands like (***) Katatonia, Mayhem, Behemoth, Shining, Carpathian Forest, Taake and so on, and experienced the privilege to sell many records and, most importantly, to have high hopes based on strong facts.

Time has passed away and with it the record market completely changed (“the grass was greener and the light was brighter“, they sing).

Today record labels have two extremely opposite options: one is to dare and make it big, by investing money, dedication, work and a good dose of “ass“, as we say in Italy (everybody else says “luck”). The other one is to serenely fold to a more pocket-sized reality and thus dare only with financially sustainable projects.

Not that one is wrong and the other correct: there even is a few examples (like Prophecy or Season of Mist, but there’s a few more) of actual successful achievements as a clear demonstration that a label can still be a business and not only a hobbie-pleasure to run. But there is also black knells tolling as a reminder not to be an idiot when measuring your penis (Regain Records, Black Lotus Records).

The basic fact is that today all mid-sized labels, like Avantgarde Music was, are disappearing: either you are big or you are small. You can’t own a Ferrari if you live in a 30 square meters rats flat. Point.

We will do our best to meet the expectations of any band signing an agreement with us and we offer a rather stripped-down honesty to the bands approaching us for a record deal: but please don’t write us just because we were the label of those ones (***) and clearly expecting, for that reason, to deal with a corporation that will grant you sales or super promotion. As said, we are rather half sized nowdays and we are interested in releasing only bands that we like and that we think (and hope) can at least cover back costs and generate a reasonable financial income in order to fund next label’s activities and pay back our 6/7 days job.

Please do not misunderstand these words (often they are…: eventually bands prefer when they are offered dreams) but also do not under-rate them because i am tired to have to deal with bands who apparently are “easy! easy!” when in need to get a deal but then complain they didnt sell or whatever else. If record sales are the last of your concerns because you know that your band is small, then does it really make a difference in selling 377 or 524 copies of your record?

And before looking for a record deal with high ambitions please ask yourself and your band’s fellas ‘how many cds have we bought in the last year?”: if the answer is less than 40-50 per member you already have the answer why your record will not sell with us.

And no, we are not buying a Lamborghini with your royalties.