A few weeks ago I wrote an impassioned post about Hugo Chavez’s death, making some sweeping statements about what he contributed to both Venezuelan society and Latin American society without backing them up with facts. Well luckily other people do their research before they express their opinion publicly, and below I have reposted a very intelligent account of Chavez’ legacy and why North American governments and mainstream media are slobbering to take him down, even post-mortem. So please read on, and be assured that although Chavez is no longer with us, he has inspired many, many revolutionaries in his wake…

Chavez and the Latin American Spring: This is what democracy could look like
By Murray Dobbin via Rabble.ca

One of the many things that Hugo Chavez, the charismatic and revolutionary president of Venezuela contributed to the world, was his demonstration for people everywhere the difference between democracy and liberal democracy. Chavez’s hyperbolic style, his tweaking the tail of the Imperial tiger and his willingness to be just as ruthless as his U.S.-backed opponents, gave Western leaders and journalists lots of ammunition to demonize him.

But what really made them all crazy was precisely the fact that he took liberal democracy — the term applied to a political system designed to manage capitalism in the interests of the wealthy and corporations — and turned it into genuine democracy. It highlighted for those struggling for social justice that liberal democracy is an oxymoron — liberalism being the principle that capitalism (inequality) rules and democracy being its opposite: equality. As witnessed by the outrageous levels of inequality now characterizing Canada, you can have one or the other but not both.

Nothing threatens leaders of the Western powers — especially the U.S. — like good examples of real democracy and they will do anything to destroy them, demonize them or threaten any other country that dares think about emulating them. No example is too small to destroy as was witnessed by the 1983 U.S. invasion of Grenada (population 110,000).

The strategy was called “destroy the dream” — which explains, perhaps, why U.S. troops totally destroyed a rural, all-women jam-making co-operative. In the 1980s it was Nicaragua. There they forced the Sandinista government to change its system of electoral democracy from a constituent assembly (made up of elected representatives from all sectors of society) to a multi-party system that the elites could control. The result: the Sandinistas lost.

READ MORE…

Today is a fucking rad day because we got our limited edition collabo t-shirts in from FALSE, and they look amazing! If you don’t know about this awesome Singapore-based clothing brand, now is the time to find out – Le Messie and Amanda make everything by hand, and individually hand silkscreen their tees together so that each one is a work of art, check out the interview we did with them here. Plus, as a brand we see eye-to-eye with their anti-system and anarchist politics; they disseminate a lot of important information in the form of articles and documentaries, and they are pro-small business and pro-artisan creators! The t-shirt itself is already super nice, a lightweight, combed cotton American-made tee, and then FALSE’s silkscreening skills are off the chain. This is a super limited design, only a few are available in the CVLT Store and on FALSE’s webstore Anti Anti, so they are going to go quick! Check them out after the jump, as well as a rad video below documenting the process of making a FALSE t-shirt!

Making of a FALSE T-Shirt 2013 from FALSE TV on Vimeo.

READ MORE…

Over the weekend, something epic happened – our favorite UK store, You’re Not Human, celebrated it’s 1st Anniversary with a huge bash in Bristol featuring performances by BIG NATURALS, H A R K, SONANCE, TRIPPY WICKED & THE COSMIC CHILDREN OF THE KNIGHT, IRON WITCH, THRONE and SALUTE. By all accounts it was a huge success, and shows that Sofi means business when it comes to being the purveyor of darkness in the UK! On hand to capture their sets was Mei Lewis of Mission Photographic, who took some rad fucking photos of the night. After the jump, see Mel’s massive photo essay of all of these bands!

READ MORE…

Are you ready for the heavy? The D.I.Y. doom festival Heavy Days In Doom Town is back and will take place in Copenhagen, Denmark on May 2nd-5th, 2013. The bands that will be performing this year just might be heavier than last year; I’m just saying that they have a radical international line up including Hua†a, Graves at Sea, Moss, Cough, Dark Buddha, Bell Witch and Samothrace, plus many more. A couple of weeks ago, Heavy Days In Doom Town released a documentary called Smells Like Sweat that featured interviews and concert appearances by Noothgrush, Pilgrim, The Wounded Kings, Bottom Feeder and many others. Check out the film and all of the details about this year’s festival after the the jump!

READ MORE…

There are no words to describe how excited we are about the CVLT Nation 2nd Anniversary show on Friday, April 26th, 2013 at Unit B in Santa Ana, CA…but I’ll try anyway! With the help of Crash the Clubs and LACE Pickups, we have put together a fucking killer lineup of bands to celebrate our two years as a purveyor of all things dark and musical! Starting with doors at 7pm, the night will open with some heavy LA County locals: Whip Hand, Stoic Violence, Children of God and Youth Code! We are so stoked to see all of these bands live!!! Then we are bringing you the legendary Seven Sisters of Sleep, whose performance will be no doubt epic since this show will also be their official record release for OPIUM MORALS! All of this musical mayhem will culminate in a crushing performance by the Infamous GEHENNA, who will bring the walls and halfpipes down at Unit B! You can RSVP for the CVLT Nation 2nd Anniversary Show HERE and pick up the pre-sale tickets from Unit B HERE. It’s $8 pre-sale and $10 at the door, and this lineup is sure to sell out so pick yours up quick!

Today is the 2nd Anniversary of the day we launched the CVLT Nation blog and clothing brand, and we can’t believe how much has happened in the past two years! The support and love we have gotten from our readers has been overwhelming, and it has made every day that we work on CVLT Nation a pleasure! To thank you for supporting CVLT Nation, we want to give away three t-shirts to two of our awesome readers. To enter the giveaway, just email contest@cvltnation.com with “2nd anniversary” in the subject heading. We will pick three winners by Monday, March 11th at noon PST! For now, enjoy the mixtape and features we have for you to celebrate two awesome years of CVLT Nation!
***We have our winners! Rayny, James & X!**

READ MORE…

Starting this Sunday March 10th, CVLT Nation’s comrades LOCRIAN are about to play their first run of shows in two years and I know they are going to be very special events! Not only that, they have also completed recording their new album on Relapse Records which will be released this summer. For all those that will be attending the Denton Fest on March 10th featuring Sleep, Prurient and Eyehategod make sure to also see LOCRIAN. Check out their tour poster after the jump…

Cult of Luna (SE) + Altaar (NO)
2013-02-27 @ Parkteateret, Oslo, Norway

Text and Photos by Metaloath

We’re talking mid-tempo to slow, here. Altaar (NO) is an apocalyptic doom act that operates in the atmospheric end of metal with tension and funeral eerieness as their foremost characteristics. Cult of Luna (SE), on the other hand, does not restrain themselves when it comes to mid-tempo heaviness or massive riff-upon-riff-plus-some-electronics material. Considering the latest albums and back catalogue, I’d say that these bands combined could probably generate metal music heavy enough to tilt the planet Earth out of orbit.

Altaar put out their self-titled album in February 2013, and it is so far well received across the mighty Internet (for the Cvlt Nation review, go this way). Tonight, they did the support act for their labelmates on Indie Recordings, Cult of Luna.

Full Review & Photo Gallery after the jump!
READ MORE…

The pre-sale tickets are up now on the UNIT B facebook for the CVLT Nation 2nd Anniversary on April 26th! Save yourself a coupla bucks by picking your ticket up now for what is definitely going to be one of the shows of the year! You can’t get any better than The Infamous…Gehenna, Seven Sisters of Sleep, Youth Code, Children of God, Stoic Violence and Whip Hand at the Unit B skatepark/art/show space in Santa Ana, CA. We are super stoked to say the least, and so happy to be working with Crash the Clubs and LACE Pickups! Stay tuned for some awesome features coming up in the next couple of months and remember to pick up your tickets before the show!

Heavy music is taking over the fucking world and has fans everywhere. This fact is evident by the Brutal Winter Fest that just took place in Cuba. Our comrades from Denmark HEXIS made a trip to this land of sun to perform. While they were there, HEXIS complied a day-by-day tour dairy for CVLT Nation. Check out what the band has to say about their time in Cuba before and after the jump! Much respect to Brutal Winter Fest and all of the bands who performed!

13th February: This was the day I had been looking forward to for a long time; the beginning of our tour in Cuba! My bag was packed, but I kept the personal stuff to a minimum, since I wanted to leave room for as much merch as possible; 5 pairs of underpants, 5 socks and 5 t-shirts for 2 smelly weeks. I took the train to Copenhagen to do some rehearsals before going to the airport. We had our good friend Lars from the swedish band This Gift Is A Curse with us on bass, since our bass-player Søren left the band back in December. The plane departed from Copenhagen at 23:40 and arrived in Moscow 2 and a half hours later. There we waited for 8 hours before flying the long 13-hour-stretch across the Atlantic to Havana.

14th February: After almost 24 hours we finally arrived in Havana. Some people from the Cuban Rock Agency picked us up there, we got some beers and drove to the hotel to get some sleep

15th February – concert in Havana: Finally! It felt good to be in Cuba and to know that we were playing our first show tonight. We took a walk around the city, got some food and went out to the venue to do a soundcheck. The venue was extremely huge (1000 people capacity) and probably the biggest place we have played so far. We went out to get some beers – Rasmus and I got extremely drunk and I don’t really remember what happened after that.

16th February – concert in Cienfuegos: I felt like I had been run over by a bulldozer and there was mud all over my room. Don’t know what happened, but I am pretty sure that last night was wild. We took a 4 hours drive to Cienfuegos to play an outside concert. Actually all shows on this tour was outside, except for the first one. We played a good show, watched the other bands play and went back to a hotel.

READ MORE…