That familiar sound of a driving drumcomputer rhythm and pulsating synth bass line, sweeping guitars and synths, topped off by reverb-laden vocals leaves no doubt about the influences that inform ‘Exit Wounds’: From the darkwave of Clan of Xymox to the art-wave of Wolfgang Press or Associates and on to New Order’s pop hooks, ending in the darkness of The Cure’s early 80s albums, FAKE YOUTH CULT clearly balances on the shoulders of these giants, invoking the sound and spirit of early 80s new wave and post-punk.

Although sounding unapologetically retroist, FAKE YOUTH CULT adds a distinct, personal flavour, combining a popsong sensibility with an unpolished sound.

FAKE YOUTH CULT is a solo project by Richard van Kruysdijk, a Dutch musician, producer and multimedia artist who operates on the fringes of ‘dark’ music. On ‘Exit Wounds’, he explores his musical roots and honours the authentic sound that initially pulled him into a life of making music and art.

Contradictory as it may sound, this new album is as much cathartic and painful as it is slap bang in the middle of his comfort zone. Mixing the raw with the romantic, Richard has a very personal and direct approach to writing lyrics, delving deep inside his personal experiences of alienation and loss. What remains are exit wounds that never really heal completely.

CD / Digital Album

Austrian ritual wave ensemble The Devil & The Universe return with their seventh album Occult Pleasures, released via Swiss Dark Nights. Blending dark wave, cinematic electronics and occult aesthetics, the band expands their sonic ritual with vocal performances from key figures in the dark alternative scene. This time, the focus on spiritualistic and occult practices is the common thread of the new record.

CD / LP / Digital Album

SYNTHOME is not just an album, it’s the sound of a band surviving its own end.

After eight years since Perspektive LP, Ash Code were no longer the same, because the world wasn’t the same. They had danced through a digital void during the pandemic, playing for ghostly crowds on Gothicat Festivals streams, holding a fragile connection with an audience scattered and silenced. They had toured, created, collaborated with legends like Ellen Allien.

From the outside, things looked alive. But inside, something had already begun to die. 2024 was the breaking point. A sudden, devastating personal loss. A distance that turned emotional before it became physical. Long silences between people who once spoke through sound.

There was talk of stopping. There was no music left. Only a void. Six months of silence and then something unexpected. A new life, literally, arrived. And with it, a shockwave. The kind that reminds you you’re still breathing.From the rubble of what was, SYNTHOME emerged.

LP / Digital Album

The Spoiled is an Italian modern darkwave band based around the solo work of Giovanni Santolla, combining industrial-inspired metallic percussion, distorted synths, hazy guitars, and ethereal vocals drawing from darkwave and shoegaze influences.

Living Ghosts marks an important chapter in The Spoiled’s self-exploration, serving as a direct follow-up to its debut album, Parasite. It reflects a reconciliation with the eerie anguish that defined its predecessor. Each track tells the story of a “living ghost,” delving into themes of loss, guilt, and the longing for redemption through introspective lyrics and a razor-sharp sound.

Entirely produced, arranged, composed, and performed by Giovanni Santolla, The Spoiled’s sophomore album is a love letter to the gloomy, melancholic, yet gut-wrenching atmospheres of early Nine Inch Nails and later works of The Soft Moon, while also drawing inspiration from Killing Joke and Suicide.

CD / Digital Album

Danser La Nuit (ex The Monitor) is a new wave band formed in 2011 with dark wave and post punk influences.

CD / Digital Album

“Martyrdom: Eight Exercises” is a concept album that examines the documentation of neurosis in form of art and the process of suicide as “artistic martyrdom”.

Each song is related to an artist who died by suicide: Adrian Borland (The Sound), Richey James Edwards (Manic Street Preachers), Ian Curtis (Joy Division), Per Yngve Ohlin (The True Mayhem), Yukio Mishima, Peter Tyrrell, Osamu Dazai, Robert E. Howard.

CD / Digital Album

Children of pandemic decadence, Endeløs translate provincial boredom with dark sounds inspired by the 80s dark wave powered with the post punk seminal attitude and the by the punk roots of his members.

Dark Fields is a trip around the decadence of this times, extremized by the pandemic crisis that showed the real face of this sick world. Madness, depression, fear of the future, but also a light that come from love with the last song that close the journey in a liberatory dance.

CD / Digital Album

After acclaimed debut Collapsing and maxi single “Can’t Control”, Italian duo Velvet Vega releases new full album “We’ll Never Get Back”, a powerful and romantic synth work about broken promises and deluding attitudes of humankind. opening single “It’s Over Now”, for instance it’s a fierce criticisms to situations that are still occurring too frequently and wants to let us open our eyes on important themes like racism and violence.

CD / Digital Album

Here’s the third album of Temple, a death rock band from Portland, Oregon, USA.

CD / Digital Album

Bedroom Talks is a pretty young, Minimal Synth project from Lviv / Ukraine. This is their official debut album and merges an early, self-produced EP with all new, previously unreleased tracks in a nervous, minimelancholic release. [equilibriummusic.com]

CD / Digital Album