One of the illustrators who put us on the path to CVLT Nation is Doomsday Graphics – his art has an intensity and a punk rock spirit that resonated with us as soon as we saw it. His wife and partner in crust is Acid Witch Produxions, and she handcrafts some very unique and stunning etched brass jewelry using Doomsday artwork. This is taking punk artwork to another level, immortalizing it on brass with her own special hand-made acid etching technique. Acid Witch’s collections feature occult jewelry in beautiful shapes with macabre images burned into their surface, as well as extremely awesome metal patches that can be attached to one’s vest with screws. In my quest for rad and disturbing jewelry, Acid Witch Produxions is one of the most inspired set of pieces that I have found. After the jump, check out a selection of her work, and make sure to go to her site to see what she has available for sale.

READ MORE…

Text and photos Maren Michaelis via Dit is Fashion!

The Art of David D’Andrea is gloomy, doomy iconic and beautiful. The topics include magic, occult, mysticism, folklore and natural history. The drawings are beautifully detailed, decorative, and the writing is archaic.

On May 12, 2o12, David D’Andrea and his Irish colleague, Glyn Smyth (also an illustrator for the music business), exhibited their work in the screen printing workshop in Berlin-Neukölln.

The exhibition was relatively small, the posters hung side by side, on a line in space, their presentation rather temporal. There was a DJ and a quasi-merch booth where you could buy prints, t-shirts and stickers by the artists. The nice thing was the relaxed atmosphere, and that the two artists were on site and you could chat with them. The screen prints, which I bought, must be framed!

David D’Andrea studied illustration at the CCAC (SF, Oakland, CA) and is now one of the leading visual artists in the punk and metal scene. The young D’Andrea began with show flyers, zines and skateboard graphics, which is why he uses different media in his work, such as photocopiers, spray paint and screen printing. Today he works mainly with bands that are Doom / Sludge / Psychedelic / Stoner in orientation. Among his first clients are Oakland natives prog-rock trio High On Fire. His work for Om D’Andrea calls the most personal, because it is his favorite band. Om is a stoner-doom metal band who shares its rhythm section with the band Sleep, and whose music and aesthetic recalls the structure of Byzantine and Tibetan chants.
READ MORE…

“My art is dark because life is dark…people would not be able to be in search of light if they didn’t know what darkness represents.” – Maxime Taccardi

The dreams of Maxime Taccardi speak. Each night when this French-born artist closes his eyes, a whole new world stands unveiled. A subversive fantasy where darkness reigns supreme and the most perverse aspects of humanity are stripped bare. Using death, and all its facets, as his greatest muse – he fleshes out the lucid visions using parchment, ink and his own blood. The results, although frightening for some, signal beauty for another.

 This is CVLT Nation’s exclusive and in-depth interview with this artist…

READ MORE…

The Solstice is coming early this year, and it’s coming in the form of five sick new illustrations by Cub of the Woods and Elias Tormentor, offered on both t-shirts and tank tops. This season explores the dark and sexy world of vintage occult imagery, and takes you flying down the highway to Hades with our designs Hell Awaits, Death Trip, No Mercy, Loose and Solstice. We released the companion prints Death Trip and Hell Awaits a couple of weeks ago, and now you can get them on tees or tanks. Celebrate the beginning of Summer with CVLT Nation Solstice, now available in the CVLT Store and worldwide, and check out a full gallery of our offerings after the jump…

READ MORE…

Have you ever walked by a building and said to yourself, rad dark shit is happening behind those doors? This was the case when I used to walk by Last Rites Tattoos in it’s old location in the Lower Eastside. I could tell that this shop created the kind of skin art that people would travel far and wide to get inked on their bodies. Paul Booth, the owner and head artist, seems like a person that is dedicated to making people’s nightmares a reality, so that we can all see the beauty in those dark fantasies. His work is pure evil, but it still has a sense of humanity that draws you in. Paul fit well into the fabric of the LES, and you could tell he was down for the community. Today CVLT Nation would like to celebrate Booth as a tattoo artist, but also as a fine artist – his work will speak for itself!

READ MORE…

Text and photos by Astrid Tonella

It’s been a few weeks since the last Roadburn, and the after-festival is always a bit nostalgic. However, this year the nostalgia didn’t last long, with the brand new fest “Heavy Days in Doomtown” coming to darken the streets of Copenhagen, Denmark. Yet another “doom/sludge” festival you would say, but actually, this event is so much more than that. First of all, HDDT is organized and managed under the DIY principles, which means that the festival is run by volunteers only and as “payment” for their performance, bands get food, accommodation and transportation fixed for them. Besides, everyone is treated equally – it actually felt during the fest that the barrier between artists/volunteers/organizing crew/festival goers was almost nonexistent. For instance, the roster doesn’t have any headliners, despite the presence of big names such as Noothgrush (performing for the first time in Europe), Jex Thoth or Coffins, but it gives the chance for local bands to perform in front of an international audience. Other unique aspect of the fest is its strong artistic dimension. Not only does HDDT focus on the music, but also on the culture and aesthetic surrounding it. Therefore, all along the fest we were able to admire the extraordinary work of David D’Andrea, Glyn “Scrawled” Smyth, Samantha Mancino, 13th Sign Collective and Benjamin Sillanpaa, creating a whole new level of experience.

Full review after the jump…
READ MORE…

Story Source You’re Not Human

Ien Levin from Kiev Ukraine is a extra epic artist that uses skin as his canvas.He work makes me want to jump on a plane and have start tattooing my body asap.Ien lines are the perfect balance between beauty and cryptic decay.I can look at his work all day long and never get bored.It also seems that Ien has a huge morbid imagination that is able transform the normal into the abnormal! CVLT Nation has put together a huge gallery of his work.So turn off the light burn some black candles and peep his work after the jump!

READ MORE…

CVLT Nation is proud to present our first two limited edition silkscreened poster prints, Death Trip and Hell Awaits, now available in our webstore! Both prints are illustrations by Cub of the Woods, and are a part of our upcoming Solstice summer season, which will be released next week. We printed them at Seattle’s own Broken Press, and Andy handcrafted these beauties on 18″ x 24″ Pegasus Midnight Black heavyweight paper. It is a very limited run of 50 pieces worldwide, and far less than that is available in the CVLT Store. After the jump, check out an up-close gallery of Death Trip and Hell Awaits, and make sure you pick one up for yourself! Also, stay tuned for the Solstice release coming soon…

READ MORE…

Hello Jenks, thank you so much for doing this interview. How is everything in the Horseback camp?

Great, thanks Bryan.

The Invisible Mountain was the album that really put Horseback on the map, and you’ve released a lot of material since then. Your offerings on splits and collaborations since that release have been very different sonically. Did you intend to distance yourself from the sound of that record a little bit to avoid repetition?

I try to keep the process open. I’m not as concerned with whether or not I’m repeating myself as I am with pursuing ideas as they come. I try to avoid molding these ideas to fit any particular genre — some suggest a “rock-band” approach to realization, while others work best in more abstract arrangements.

The follow up to Mountain was a release called Forbidden Planet which was released initially very quietly on cassette by Brave Mysteries. That release was highly textural and an exploration of drone and soundscapes that focused primarily on guitar. Listening to it on tape adds an extra layer of hiss and noise. Do you see that record as lending itself specifically to the format of cassette?

I did, after it was finished. Listening back to Forbidden Planet is a challenge because there are so few concessions to listenability on that one. Like many harsh noise records, it’s to be endured — maybe even “beaten” — so that completion is an accomplishment. Records like that seem to benefit from an explicit layer of physicality between the listener and the sounds themselves. Cassettes provide that sense of confrontation: they are physical things that the listener must wrestle with, unlock. As you suggest, there’s a layer of hiss that won’t allow you to forget there’s a machine whirring away behind the music. Tape gets tangled in players, sometimes it tears. Cassettes demand a certain level of physical interaction that you don’t get from the digital medium.

Still, I don’t like obscurity for the sake of obscurity. I’m happy to reissue cassette releases in more accessible and widely-distributed formats, should the opportunity arise. The listener can choose which format is right for him or her.

Rest of the interview after the jump…
READ MORE…

One of the raddest things about being a part of CVLT Nation is the sense of community that this zine has been able to help create. One person that has been with us almost since day one is Bryan Proteau, who is not only a CVLT Nation writer and contributing photographer, he is also an illustrator who has created designs for our clothing as well as for releases from Lycus, Deafheaven, Atriarch and so many more bands and labels. He just returned from the outstanding Gilead Fest, where he was showing his art at his own stall, plus he took photos of some amazing bands! Bryan has just opened his Natvres Mortes Illvstration webstore HERE, where you can pick up back patches, tees, patches and pins that feature his gloomy, ethereal artowork. Check out a gallery of the goodies he stocks after the jump!

READ MORE…