Although I am still quite exhausted even after sleeping off nearly an entire day from the Seattle and Vancouver gigs for the Decibel Magazine Tour, here is the complete photo set of all the bands from the Vancouver gig exclusively who drew in a large and wide range of metalhead attendees both local in Canada as well as those from abroad. Being able to witness two of these bands whom I’ve wanted to see for a long time specifically (In Solitude and The Devil’s Blood) in an appropriate-sized venue rather than a small ‘less than 500 range capacity’ environment was quite awesome as well as relieving. READ MORE…

If you ever have found yourself in a place where even the most uplifting of words and encouragement from those near and dear to you are equivalent to that of mere spoke disappearing into thin air, the hardest thing to do is to get back on your feet and start running again. Sometimes music of that inner dark nature is just the cure one needs to endure through those restless days, nights and thoughts. Here is a compilation of some personal favorite albums that have certainly helped me reconcile and connect with my inner persona and project these demons in a more dim yet creative light.

Katatonia – “Brave Murder Day”

This album has stuck with me for a very long time, as it has with most long-term Katatonia fans who were especially more keen during their death-doom days rather than the cleaner rock-type sound they have developed to now. BMD is one of the most pioneering death-doom albums that started the genre itself with its harsh yet depressing themes throughout its entirety. With Mikael Åkerfeldt of Opeth on raw, death metal vocals (and Jonas Renkse on clean vocals with songs like “Day”), this collaboration is suitably what made BMD a huge success for doom fans and metalheads across the board. The whole album in itself is a highlight of creative and beautiful sorts, as every song stands out as highlights of their own and carry their own memories along with them.

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There is a new home for the few and far between dark clothing brands, and it is You’re Not Human. The brainchild of Sofi Donuts, You’re Not Human is a UK-based online store, with it’s first lineup of brands being CVLT Nation, Actual Pain, Raised by Wolves, ScumFuck, BA.KU, Creature x Peter Beste, Thrasher and Witchcraft Hardware. With her site’s illustrations & Darkthrone-inspired logo by French, owner of Witchcraft Hardware, Sofi has envisioned a webstore with an awesome aesthetic. It’s pretty grand to be able to go into one shop and find so many killer tees, and we get so much love from the UK, we are happy to give back – You’re Not Human will be the exclusive carrier of CVLT Nation for the next couple of seasons. You’re Not Human opened it’s portal to the dark side yesterday, and we are stoked to be a part of Sofi’s beautiful nightmare! Sofi will be stocking the shop with more underground brands as it grows, so make sure to keep in touch via their social media (links after the jump) so you are abreast of their updates. After the jump, check out images from the You’re not Human lookbook shot by Rebecca Naen, featuring model Hannah May & Gonga guitarist, George, wearing Bryan Proteau’s design Constellations and Halseycaust’s design Crown of Eyes.

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First and foremost, I would like to say that 2012 has been off to a fresh and fast start already. I feel honored to have been one of the first people to contribute to CVLT Nation when the site started out fresh last year, and now being a member of the CVLT team. With hundreds of blogs and web zines in this day and age, I have to say that CVLT Nation has certainly progressed and emerged successfully from the underground. READ MORE…

In the midst of all our top 6 lists, we are featured on someone’s top list! Dan at Unhallowed Nation Magazine put CVLT Nation on his top 5 most influential metal blogs of 2011. Big thanks to Dan for the support! Read the feature below and check out Unhallowed Nation…

DM-How did the site start?

M&S-CVLT Nation started as a clothing company, because we respect so many illustrators in the metal community and wanted to find a way to work with them. The site was initially supposed to be a webzine that was a backdrop for the clothing, so that fans of the clothing would have something cool to check out when they came to our site, but somehow it worked the other way around! We are both huge fans of the music, the art and the aesthetic of the so-called “dark” genres, and CVLT Nation became this awesome outlet for us to post about everything that fascinates us.

DM-When did you first realize you were making an impact upon the metal community?

M&S-I guess when we started getting in touch with the bands and artists we were covering. We kept getting so much positive feedback from them, and so much support in terms of interviews, mixtapes etc. it made us realize that we were doing something that people appreciated. We have gotten a lot of great emails and comments from our readers too, people saying that they have found out about new bands or artists through our site. It’s pretty awesome!

DM-Where did the title CVLT Nation come from?

M&S-Who knows! We came up with it together, Meghan said “cvlt” and Sean said “nation” and it stuck. It makes sense in a way, because we really want the site to be a platform for creative people, and to bring the sometimes disparate metal and punk communities together. We wanted to bring in contributors from all over the world, and cover stuff that’s going on in Europe, Asia, Aus/NZ, and we have gotten some stellar people from around the country and the world to write for the zine. Also, for our first season of clothing, our designs we done by artists from Chile, Japan, Brazil and the US, and it made us realize just how connected we all are through metal. United we can’t be defeated.

DM-What’s been the most rewarding experience about running the site?

M&S-Definitely it has been connecting with people from all over the world; bands, artists, writers, readers. There is so much creativity happening in even the smallest of places, and we have met so many friends through the site, so many rad people!

DM-What were some of your biggest influences growing up?

M&S-For me (Meghan), in my early teens bands like Sabbath and Zepplin were my gateways to heavy music. I am more into the doom, psych-rock, jammy metal – songs that go on for like 20 minutes. I cover the art for CVLT Nation, but of course I have been exposed to all kinds of amazing music through the site. For Sean, his roots are deep in Venice punk rock and hardcore, he was going to Black Flag and Suicidal shows in LA in the early 80s, lived with members of Crucifix in SF, and is basically an OG punker. He’s been into all kinds of heavy music for the past 30 years, and it’s mainly his wealth of music knowledge and experience that makes CVLT Nation what it is.

MISHKA recently featured an interview with Sean on their “Bloglin,” so I wanted to re-share it with you on CVLT Nation! With all the interviewing we do of other people, it’s kind of nice when someone else asks us a question. What follows is the “5 Questions” from Mishka…

Text via: Mishka Bloglin

Here he is again, Sean Reveron, harbinger of the awesomely vile clothing line CVLT Nation, returns to the Bloglin, not in the form of a brutal Blackened Everything mixtape, this time in the flesh. Sean is an entrepreneur, underground music enthusiast, and purveyor of all that is heavy. Fortunately, he was able to answer five big ones on the intent of his new brand, the creative process that brought him to this point, and the state of metal in general. Escorting the public into a new epoch of foulness, this guy is on the cutting edge of fringe culture. Listen up.

Is Cvlt Nation something you do all on your own? You put out a lot of material outside of the design stuff such as mixtapes, album reviews, and all-around media articles, I can’t imagine you do that all by yourself?

Sean Reveron: No way…I couldn’t do it all on my own! My wife, Meghan, and I spearhead the project and do the majority of the blogging, like 60% of it. But we also have contributors from all over the world who are a part of the metal and punk scenes in their own areas, like in Ireland, Germany, Indonesia, England, New York, Texas, Cali – so we get a wide variety of coverage.

We don’t micromanage our bloggers at all, so they bring a lot of different perspectives and opinions to the blog. It’s really amazing that we have been able to connect with so many awesome and talented people from around the world, whether in music or art. The metal communities worldwide have been so supportive of what we are doing, and we see the site as a way to support creative people in the communities as well.
Read the rest of this rad interview after the jump…

Pete over at Highsnobiety did a rad interview with us last week to celebrate the release of our first collection, CVLT Nation One, and we wanted to share it with you all here! Hope you enjoy…text via Highsnobiety.

T-Shirt labels come and go daily, many nothing more than a blip on our radar. The ones that endure are those with a deeper mission, a strong background and a true culture behind their brand name.

Sean Reveron and his partner Meghan MacRae (both formerly of RockersNYC) understand this much better than most. As such, we’ve caught up with the dynamic duo to discuss their latest venture CVLT Nation, a two-headed initiative that encompasses both a clothing line and webzine.

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