Mavradoxa Interview with Deadly Storm Zine
Published: June 18, 2017
Interview by: Jakob Asphyx
Original Link

Nival and Lux created Mavradoxa in early winter 2016. The band is a realization of Nival’s dream to create a meaningful and emotive sound, playing on twin themes: the spellbinding strength of Nature, and the absolute desolation of modernity. We would prefer to resist being caught in the trap of trying to label our own sound, but we do describe it as “Laurentian”—referring to our geographical origins.

In February our second full-length album, Lethean Lament, was recorded near Buffalo in North Tonawanda, New York. We recorded the album with Joe Leising at Rotten Metal Recording, the same studio we used to create Sojourners. The sound of the album was a collaborative endeavor. Leising’s mix of equipment, expertise, and unique recording techniques captured the essential sound, while we provided input on tone, atmosphere, and mix. Leising also mastered the record; he did an amazing job translating our ideas into reality.

Lethean Lament will be released through Canadian label Hypnotic Dirge Records in both digital and CD format. The CD features a four-panel digipak and an eight-page lyric booklet. More information is available at hypnoticdirgerecords.com, or on their Bandcamp page.

The band name was created by Lux from a loose transliteration of the Greek words mavras and doxas, which translate to “black worship” or “black glory”. The logo was first sketched by James Hallenbeck, and later converted to vector format by Justin Groth. The album art for Lethean Lament was created by Swedish digital artist Tomarum (Christine Linde), while Nival was responsible for layout and design. 

 

Hypnotic Dirge records has been wonderful to work with. Nick reached out to us upon hearing Sojourners and offered to release our second full-length. Hypnotic Dirge has released an incredible portfolio of dark and experimental music, which is well-worth exploring, including two personal favorites of ours, Obsidian Tongue and Frigoris. In addition to pressing our album, they have also made merchandise for us and promoted our album and its singles through a number of online venues.

We believe that it is important to try to incorporate a variety of styles to keep the song surprising and interesting to the listener. Lux has found a lot of inspiration in the progressive drumming of Gavin Harrison from Porcupine Tree and in the most recent Katatonia releases (Daniel Liljekvist, Daniel Moilanen).

We have played a handful of shows. Probably our favorite performance was a lodge show in the middle of a forest in upstate New York with two crushing bands, The Highest Leviathan and Enthauptung. The atmosphere was inimitable and perfectly suited to our style and concept. We look forward to sharing the stage with Obsidian Tongue in a few weeks at our first Northeast tour show in Portland, Maine.

Our plan for the future is to continue to create expressive and distinct albums—to construct a discography of which we are proud. Of course, we would like to tour and play festivals, but writing and recording remains our top priority.

We can be reached by sending a message to our Facebook page, or by emailing mavradoxa@gmail.com.

Thank you for having us.