Got this 2015 Record Store Day release back in stock, a killer pairing of two great heavy darkwave outfits, Black Mare and Lycia. Lycia is, of course, the influential and singular outfit whose ominous, doom-laden darkwave has had a lingering influence on all manner of gothic rock, doom metal and black metal outfits since they first emerged in the late 80s, going back to such groundbreaking albums as Ionia and A Day In The Stark Corner. Their "Silver Leaf" is the first new song we've heard from them in years, and it's another spellbinding piece of funereal, plodding beauty woven from the layered, ethereal coo of Tara Vanflower and the solemn baritone croon of Mike Vanportfleet, with lush twelve-string guitar washing over the song in a haze of reverb, the distant, thunderous plod of the drum machine moving this gorgeous, haunting song at a Skepticism-like tempo. Fucking fantastic stuff.

     Couldn't have picked a better outfit to share a 7" with Lycia than Black Mare, too. This solo project of Sera Timms from Ides Of Gemini offers the similarly haunting "Low Crimes", where she is joined by Ides bandmate J. Bennett on bass as well as featuring additional guest vocals from Lycia's Vanflower. This song shares a similar somber vibe as Ides Of Gemini, and fans of that band's ghostly gothic doom-rock should hastily pick up this and anything else that Timms appears on - it is as bewitching as anything else I've heard from her, a subtly sinister, twang-flecked piece of darkwave-inspired gloomrock majesty that eventually erupts into a surprisingly heavy second half, dark and doom-laden and sorrowful, Timms' icily ethereal voice rising over the band's folk-flecked dirge, the sound somewhat reminiscent of SLC avant doom outfit Subrosa. Can't wait to hear more from Black Mare after hearing this.

     Limited edition, comes with a download code.