After the initial blast of punk rock bands made their impression on the youth of the late 1970s, subgenres quickly emerged. Some preferred the faster, louder aggression of hardcore, others the angular danceability of post-punk, some the raw and more personal home-made sound of DIY, and so on. Looking back among and between these genres we now recognize various blends of punk, post-punk, goth rock, industrial, and DIY as “ deathrock." In 2014, Sacred Bones Records launched the series Killed By Deathrock to document an entire scene of bands that haven't yet received proper recognition.

The thread that holds these groups together as deathrock bands comes down to their willingness and sometimes compulsion to reveal and explore the darker side of their psyches. Night-soaked dirges of fatality, despair, and horror were rampant, rooted in that sublimity that is found on the edge of the horror genre, as famously developed by Edgar Allan Poe — an edge that relished in misery and openly recognized the inevitable end of any human life. Killed by Deathrock Vol. 2 opens with Gatecrashers' maniacal, keyboard-driven anthem "Spectator," the first track from the Denmark group's 1980 7" EP Desillusioned.

Middle Class began by releasing what many consider to be the first-ever hardcore punk record: their 1978 debut EP Out of Vogue. Bassist Mike Patton would produce seminal California punk bands like Adolescents and Minutemen, among others. By 1984, Middle Class had evolved from their fast-blast origins to a darker, more plodding style, represented here by their track "A Skeleton At The Feast," from the 1982 LP Homeland. ADS, a group from the same Denmark scene as Gatecrashers, offers up the searing "Waiting for the War," from their scarce 1982 split 7" with City-X, which takes the socially conscious yet satirical bite of punk rock one nihilistic step further.

A swirling nightmare of reverb-drenched guitars begins UK darkwave act Veda's snarling "Whiplash," featuring Sex Gang Children member Cam Campbell. The 1987 single it comes from was Veda's one and only release. Fellow British band Skeletal Family began a prolific career in 1983. Their track "Promised Land" is a perfect showcase for guitarist Stan Greenwood's jagged style, as well as Ann Marie Hurst's powerful vocal ability. UK goth rock band Flowers for Agatha's somber "The Freedom Curse" was more than worthy of radio airplay, which sadly went unachieved. The song appeared on the band's 1985 EP of the same name.

"Dark Spirits" is a standout cut from Los Angeles deathrockers Red Temple Spirits, released by the legendary Midwestern label Fundamental. Independent Project Records later released a comprehensive anthology of the group's material in 2013. The driving post-punk obscurity that is "What's Wrong Yvette," by the nearly unknown Denver band Crank Call Love Affair, comes from their only record, a self-released 7" single of the same name.

Belgium's Red Zebra– now known as EX-RZ – contributes their raw, infectious brand of new wave in the form of the title track from their 1980 debut 7" EP "I Can't Live In A Living Room." Fellow Belgians Vita Noctis round out the compilation with their dreamy, recorded-to-cassette ballad "Hade," from their 1984 self-released tape In The Face Of...Deaths

This november 11th, 2016, Psy'Aviah launches an EP that closes the "Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars" album era, called "Chasing The Speed Of Light". Featuring tracks "ALCUBIERRE DRIVE ft. Kyoko Baertsoen" and "NOT WHAT I EXPECTED ft. Fallon Nieves" taken from the album in RADIO EDITS, as well as an unreleased track "ALONE" feat. Lis van den Akker on vocals. The EP is available in a limited physical EP with 7 bonus tracks, and a digital version that holds the other 10 tracks out of 17.

With Kyoko Baertsoen (ex-HOOVERPHONIC, LUNASCAPE) and her unique timbre fitting so well this sorrowful blend of trip-hop rhythms and EBM basslines on “Alcubierre Drive” and Fallon Nieves and her powerful vocals with attitude on the floor-packing “Not What I Expected” and its incisive synth lines and hypnotic grooves à la PRAGA KHAN, Yves Schelpe nicely summarizes PSY’AVIAH’s amazing dichotomy of sound stretching from moody mid-tempo electronic tunes to modern upbeat club songs with a dark industrial edge.

Besides their exclusive “radio edit” versions, both title songs are also featured in alternative remixed versions by AVARICE IN AUDIO vs. STUDIO-X giving “Alcubierre Drive” a modern electro-rock trip-hop vibe while CYBORGDRIVE and KONER both put their very own stylish touch to this brilliant song, also reworked here in a touching and beautiful 9 minute plus dreamy version full of ambient electronics and liquid drum’n bass by DISKONNEKTED vs. J. WOLF. Last but not least, young rising talent ANTIBODY gives a full-force aggrotech turn to the aggressive “Not What I Expected”…

Yves Schelpe also offers to us a beautiful bonus and exclusive 3rd song “Alone” featuring the unmatched voice of Lis van den Akker from the melancholy Dutch band MISERY, a track also nicely mutated into 2 different trance dance remixes by renown act ETASONIC.

This EP also comes as a very limited physical fan-edition with some 7 exclusive bonus tracks: besides 2 previously unreleased club remixes by trance/dance producer Tim Iron for “Lessons from the Past" and "Last of Us", Yves Schelpe also reveals the melodic and floating “Hal9000”, a very early PSY’AVIAH demo work written back then under the MARION XUE moniker; as well as 4 atmospheric recordings he made back in 2002 as a soundtrack for a theatrical adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s classic novel “The Portrait Of Dorian Grey”. Compositions so nicely fitting the overall spacey atmosphere of PSY’AVIAH’s last studio album “Seven Sorrows, Seven Stars”. Open-minded electronic music with heart and soul!

The Pretenders will release their brand new album, ‘Alone’ on October 21st through BMG.

It is the first Pretenders album for eight years and was recorded in Nashville. Originally intended as a solo follow-up to 2014’s ‘Stockholm’, it soon dawned that those driving guitars, ragged but righteous arrangements, tough yet tender lyrics delivered by the most beautifully distinctive voice of a generation, sounded fantastically familiar. The Pretenders were back. 36 years after their remarkable first album, ‘Alone’ could be the older, wiser, badder sister to that exhilarating debut.

The Pretenders have revealed a brand new video for ‘Holy Commotion’ today. ‘Holy Commotion’ is the first track to be taken from their new album. The part-animated video was shot in Nashville at Dan Auerbach’s studio and includes footage of Chrissie and Dan, edited by Director / Animator Luca Monterosso Whittmann.

Chrissie Hynde recorded the album in Nashville with Dan Auerbach, from The Black Keys, who stood as captain, producer and multi-instrumentalist on the record, an album which sees Chrissie at her searingly honest, most incisive best.

The full band joining Chrissie and Dan on the album features Johnny Cash’s former bass player Dave Roe and country rocker Kenny Vaughan on guitar plus sundry members of Dan Auerbach’s side project The Arcs: Richard Swift, drums, Leon Michels, keyboards and Russ Pahl providing sly curlicues of pedal steel. The album was mixed by Tchad Blake (Arctic Monkeys, Peter Gabriel, Elvis Costello). Duane Eddy also features on the punchy ‘Never Be Together’.

Of the new album Chrissie Hynde said the following: “This record is what I love the most - real people playing real music. I sang and recorded every vocal in a 48 hour period - 48 hours to sing them, 40 years of preparation!”.

BAUHAUS - DANCE - THE SEA: these are the engaging themes of the new highly seductive video for Xeno & Oaklander, "Palms" by Lauryn Siegel. The pace is fast, the edits are quick: the video captures the electronic and pulsating energy of the song. We see Liz Wendelbo and Sean McBride of the synth band Xeno & Oaklander chase each other as Liz dances atop a mirror cube in a Black and White set inspired by Bauhaus - geometrical shapes are suspended, cylinders, grids, a microscope and Xeno & Oaklander's favorite: flowers. SKOTE, a NY performance art duo, dance in choreographed moves, half Vogue, half Bauhaus. Abstract images of Diatoms, sea life from the deep, are inter-cut. Glossy 3D geometrical renderings swirl in and out. Scans of 35mm photographic snapshots and rolls of analog negatives cut in. Scratches and dust and all things analog abound in this high-energy video that never ceases to surprise you.

Xeno & Oaklander's latest album Topiary out now on Ghostly International.

What are we searching for, if it is all about loving, missing, hoping or, in one word: feeling? Isn’t it intensity, authenticity, absolute simplicity in absolute complexity? It’s the search for a world of its own, that unites everything from never ending depths to staggering heights. And despite this world is everything at once, it still stays one unity.

Wherever words are not enough to describe such a world, people have tried to put it into music. But only few made it that perfectly as the “new romantic of present time” of MODEL DEPOSE from Groningen, NL. They combine the immortal attitude from Icons such as THE CURE, DEPECHE MODE, PLACEBO and SPANDAU BALLET with their completely own mixture of Synthpop and Indie Rock and create a sound that is unique, authentic and intensive at the same time.

Initially in 2009 the five musicians of MODEL DEPOSE were inviting their audience to their world. Now, some minor releases later, the guys from Groningen are back with their debut-album “Splitting Light”, where they reinvent themselves once again. With “Splitting Light” the musicians from the Netherlands made it to create a whole world in 14 tracks, that is bursting in emotion of all facets. Intensity, authenticity and absolute feelings combine themselves to a unity, that nearly never was to be heard before, rather than to be experienced.

The heart-capturing voice of Roeland van der Velde and the instruments of his band-colleagues make this experience accessible not only to the heart, but to the ears as well. An example is the song "Nightwatch", which already has absolute hit-potential and enriches the creation of MODEL DEPOSE by another wonder of the world.

So, what are we’re searching for, when we feel? Maybe there is an answer in the music of MODEL DEPOSE. Anyway, “Splitting Light” is a good starting point for all those seekers.