This is the début album of Slug Comparison, a Canadian Progressive Rock band.
Actually a solo album with guest/session musicians, Slug Comparison contains 41 minutes of modern Progressive Rock.
This reminds me of early 00s band Sunna mixed with elements of Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails and something like Steven Wilson. It’s extremely accomplished and very well realised.
The songs on this album are diverse and professional, with dark themes and a quasi-Industrial/Electronica feel to them on occasion; synths and electronic effects are frequent accompaniments to the standard instruments. These are used well to add extra flavour to an already tasty feast.
The singer’s voice has a contemporary feel to it and has a raw presence and charisma that money couldn’t buy. He has good range and deals with all of the challenges the material offers him with zeal and skill.
There’s a lot to be absorbed here, and repeated spins reveal the depth of nuance that these songs have to offer. It’s clear that a lot of work and effort has gone into this album, and it pays off spectacularly.
I have no qualms at all about highly recommending this album for your aural delectation. There’s a wealth of talent and expertise on display here, and it’s well worth the taking the time to explore it.
This is the third album from Australia’s Mekigah. They play Industrial/Classical Doom.
This is a tortuous combination of Doom, Noise, Industrial, Ambient and Classical that somehow ends up pulling you into its embrace before you even really know what’s going on. I’m not a huge fan of Noise and a lot of Ambient leaves me cold, usually because there’s nothing to draw you in. Litost is different.
Here we have elements of Noise and Ambient but they’re joined by the usually far more spirited Classical style. Orchestral sounds and emotive synths provide these minimalistic elements with a vibrancy, albeit a dark, malevolent one.
On top of this we have the Industrial aspect to their sound, and, of course, the Doom. This is not a guitar-oriented project though. It’s there, but used just as one instrument of many. Guest musicians aplenty feature on this release, providing everything from vocals, to mellotron, to taishgoto.
Vocals are few and far between. When they appear they’re quite varied and performed by multiple singers across the album. They’re usually quite low-key and are frequently employed as just another method of delivery; another instrument in this disturbing symphony.
This album is surprisingly emotive and engaging. The layers of synths and orchestral sounds work perfectly with the harsher Industrial base to fashion songs that work their way into your subconscious like hooks into flesh.
There’s a Gothic element to this music, but it’s one that has been killed and buried so that its influence is felt through the remainder of the thing that’s growing in its place. Almost as if the remains of a Gothic ancestry were feeding the music we hear here, so that the influence seeps into the cellos and Industrial sounds almost without anyone noticing at first.
If you’re into music that fuses the Industrial and the emotive with a dark atmosphere then this is definitely one to track down. Whether you’re a fan of Ævangelist, Axis of Perdition, Cloak of Altering, Ulver or Indian, Litost has something to offer you.
A very impressive release; I wasn’t expecting something to merge darkness and light so completely. Litost is a thing of grim beauty.
Alexanred are from Finland and this is their début album. They play Industrial Rock/Metal.
This is catchy and atmospheric Industrial/Electonica-tinged Metal. If you think of bands like Neurotech and Deathstars, remove the Black Metal side and mix this with a Nine Inch Nails influence instead, you’ll have a good starting point for the band.
The tracks mostly hover around the 3 minute mark meaning that the songs are largely to the point and hook the listener in quite quickly. The music is quite emotive and has an atmospheric quality to it that recalls some of Devin Townsend’s work on occasion, (but only occasionally).
Always Active has a professional sound that befits music of this nature. It’s a powerful and driving sound that seems to push the songs along as much as it works for them.
The vocals vary from whispered, semi-spoken word parts to sung cleans and to event the odd shout. He sounds at his best when he’s singing though, as the spoken parts seem a little forced/repetitive sometimes.
This is a good début album, and if Alexanred can build on this then the next album should be very good indeed.
Anaal Nathrakh are from the UK and this is their 8th album. They play Black Metal.
Even since they first crawled out of Hell well over a decade ago Anaal Nathrakh have been a fixture of UK Metal for me. Their début album The Codex Necro was, and is, a case study in malevolent, grim Black Metal writ large and hateful.
Since their raw but powerful Black Metal origins their style has changed over the years; still scathing Black Metal but with elements of Extreme Metal and with added heroic and very catchy cleans thrown in.
And this is how we find them on Desideratum. The cleans are still buried under fields of filth and the screamed vocals are still sharp enough to slice fingers off. The intensity is real and the rage is palpable. The singer’s voice continues to be one of Extreme Metal’s best and his performance on Desideratum is stunning.
The songs are always catchier than you would expect for a band like this and even the most extreme blasting sections remain memorable. It’s always been a gift of the band that they are able to unleash such acerbic, raging songs that nonetheless remain full of hooks and enough Blackened melodies to give you whiplash.
Anaal Nathrakh have always had a vaguely Industrial feel to some of their work, sometimes coming across as an aural portrait of urban decay. On Desideratum this is more apparent than ever and adds a further layer of darkened potentiality to their sound.
When they’re not going full out hyperblast there’s even, (whisper it), a slight Djent slant to the odd riff here and there this time. It shouldn’t work but it does.
Eight albums in and Anaal Nathrakh continue to impress. The songs are strong and their apocalypse is coming ever closer. And do you know one of the best things about this band? They don’t particularly sound like anyone else. In 2014 this is a major achievement.
Another triumph from this Blackened jewel in the crown of UK Metal. Desideratum is desideratum indeed.
ART 238 are from France and play Industrial Extreme Metal. This is their latest EP.
Here we have three tracks lasting almost 22 minutes in total that showcase the band’s harsh blend of Industrial sounds and Death/Black Metal know-how.
Usually when bands attempt to merge these two genres the result is some half-hearted Death Metal with keyboards on top. ART 238 don’t fall into this trap, as the Extreme Metal they play is actually extreme, and the Industrial influences seem coded into the band’s make-up at the genetic level and then hybridised with cybernetics to create this fascinating beast.
ART 238 manage to merge ultra-brutal blast beats with more atmospheric Industrial workouts in a way that recalls Aborym if they had gone the Death Metal route rather than the Black Metal one.
Another thing I really like about this EP is that the songs take the time to explore their surroundings, like they’re genuinely trying to find the best fit for their various component parts. In a feat of ingenuity the band manage to work with both sides of their sound expertly and incorporate them into an Industrial Extreme Metal whole.
It’s a musical framework that not many bands try, as most that do usually sound weak, incoherent or like some 80’s synth parody. ART 238 sidestep all of this by going straight for the jugular with their creative brand of urban Metal.
For fans of and mixing influences from – Aborym, Mithras, Red Harvest, Axis of Perdition, Blut Aus Nord, Ministry, Dødheimsgard, Kekal, Invertia, etc.
Highly enjoyable and highly recommended. This is the sound of a mechanised apocalypse.
With their latest EP It’s Time to Paralyze The Von Deer Skulls have shown a willingness to experiment and test the waters of their burgeoning sound. Find out more below…
For those who are unfamiliar with your band – introduce yourself!
Peter: Hi, we’re The Von Deer Skulls a France based band. We’re a trio, but some other musicians play with us sometimes. We play something the press defined as Rock Doom Ambient, sometimes Indus or Post-Rock.
Give us a bit of history to The Von Deer Skulls.
Freke: The band started in the end of 2012, we have recruited Peter at the beginning to make the visual stuffs of our last band (The Dead Sound), but after talking a long with him we decided to make a new project.
Peter: Yeah at that time I worked on some songs that have become the basis of the project, then we wrote the song “B*tches Of The Wood” which is the one was entirely composed for the band like the interludes, intro and outro.
Hektor: Then we decided to make our biography like a history to serve the visual aspect of the band.
Where did your band name come from?
Hektor: The band name come from the artist pseudonym of Peter (Peter Skull), because like a leader to the band, and the “Von Deer” come from the semi-fictional biography of the band and because we have often antlers on our video-stage costumes.
Freke: It’s also to making us a family.
What are your influences?
Peter: Influences are from everywhere, each one listens to different things, I’m a big fan of Jazz, Tool, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, indus things. Hektor listens to a lot of Post-Rock, Electro, but also Radiohead, Kadavar and Freke listens to old Rock ’n’ Roll like Black Sabbath, and some loud things like Sunn O))) or Indus.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
Freke: Right now I listen to a lot of Kadavar, go to listen this German band if you don’t know, otherwise some old Marilyn Manson & NIN period.
Peter: On my side, I listen some more soft things right now as The Decemberists, Miles, Coltrane and Goon Moon and Pelican a lot.
Hektor: I listen some Queens Of The Stone Age’s songs, Pelican too and the Godspeed You! Black Emperor’s discography.
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
Peter: We would like to record songs which are the beginning of the project, to know each other a little better as a band and to show the public who we are. But it is just the beginning, a presentation.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Hektor: Yes, we think that’s a good beginning. We worked hard to develop the visual aspect as much the music, both are equally important in our universe.
Freke: We were actually surprised to have such good returns.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process.
Freke: Peter works on the structure, and we’re making all the atmosphere.
Peter: As for the songwriting process it changes according to the songs. Sometimes we want that song sound like that and sometimes they grow up alone.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
Freke: I think the next songs will be more loud, maybe more direct.
Peter: We’re working on it right now, some different songs, some heavy, some more ambient, but yeah maybe more direct for the moment.
Tell us a bit more about the visual aspect of your band.
Peter: As we say before the visual aspect is as much important than music. Because it opens so many possibilities. At first I’m a visual artist, I love painting, shooting videos… for this band, because we create our own mythology and histories with that, it’s like a tale what we are proposing to the people, with the costumes, the videos…
Freke: And it’s also a way to distance ourselves from what we’re doing. The important isn’t what we look like, important is the music, the tale.
What’s next for The Von Deer Skulls?
Peter: Next, we’re working on new songs right now like I said, we hope to record them at the end of this year or in the beginning of 2015. And we’re going to do new videos to go with it.
Hektor: Yeah, don’t forget to follow us, new costumes and visual stuffs are on the go!
This is the latest EP from Germany’s N/ill. N/ill is a one-person project playing Ambient/Industrial/Drone/Electronica/Rock.
This is a collection of dark soundscapes that use electronics and sounds to create atmospheric pieces that are reminiscent of Shoegaze Post-Rock only from an Industrial/Electronica standpoint.
The songs are slow builders and rise and fall like the ebb and flow of the tide. Rather than sounding organic though these tracks are largely artificial sounding, but not in any bad way. They come from a place of technology and show that this is not any barrier to evoking real feelings in songs.
When vocals appear they are ragged and heartfelt, lending the tunes the feeling of a singer like Mark Lanegan set to a backdrop of Nine Inch Nails-styled proto-Industrial Rock mixed with a synthetic Earth. Or they are female and come across as a stitched together sample that permeates the music like permanent ink.
These compositions are well written and the 33 minutes of music here comes across as a bleak soundtrack to a post-modern film. Each track has its own identity and it covers a diverse range of genres and styles across the 7 songs.
Before listening to this I wasn’t sure what to expect – the cover and the name didn’t give much away, so I’ve been pleasantly surprised by the contents.
This release has the potential to transcend the usual genre limitations and make a mark for itself. With the right exposure/backing it could do well.
Black Marble Carapace is the product of a very talented individual. If you’re looking for something a little different then check this out and lend him your support.
Ghegga are a Scandinavian band and this is their début album.
Ghegga play Electronic/Industrial-influenced Alternative Rock. These influences are embedded into the core of the band’s sound; rather than just add a few keyboards to their main instruments as some bands do, Ghegga incorporate these additional noises, sounds, etc. into everything they do so that the Industrial aspect is an integral part of their approach.
Obvious references would be a band like Nine Inch Nails, although it also brings to mind lesser known acts like Sunna and Gravity Kills. Think of these, add a more Techno/Aphex Twin influence to things; then strip away everything glossy and bright and you’ll have an idea of the Ghegga sound.
There are some good beats on this release and the songs work well as a stylistic whole. This is a bit too Industrial to be overtly commercial and is more like an underground Techno band who have discovered Rock and the beauty of guitars.
The vocals add to the underground Techno feel of the album. Sometimes melodic, sometimes spoken, sometimes threatening, sometimes conspiratorial, sometimes roguish; the vocals are a bit different and wielded like any other instrument to be warped and manipulated artificially by the band.
The tracks are very inorganic; they reek of mechanisation and industrialisation whilst maintaining a techno-darkness undertone that informs the central theme of the tracks. This is the soundtrack to an urban nightmare set to the backdrop of street-level warfare.
This is an interesting release from a band who have chosen to go down the road less travelled for this style of music. It would have been so easy to inject a glossy sheen to this kind of style and have anthemic choruses covering everything like sickly-sweet sugar. Instead we have a grittier vision of the future of music, one where urban decay is rampant and mechanised grime stalks the innocent.
If you’re looking for something a bit unusual then look no further. Delve into the world of Ghegga, just make sure you bring something to protect yourself as this land is not for the unwary.
The Von Deer Skulls have their origins in many different countries and have a suitably unusual sound to boot.
I suppose the best way to describe this band is Experimental Rock with elements of Drone, Ambient and Electronica/Industrial.
The tracks here are largely laid back, relaxed affairs. Low-key riffs and sounds move the compositions forward whilst soft vocals and gentle noises punctuate the flow.
This is relatively easy listening and the overall mood is an atmospheric one. Although I wouldn’t describe them as having a dark sound per se, it’s certainly not a bright and hopeful one either. They seem to be aiming for a slightly creepy, unnerving sound and I think they’re headed in the right direction.
The guitars are largely lo-fi but the distortion is noticeable here and there. They even approach a Rocky beat in places.
This is a good release from a band who are still finding their sound and these songs give them a good base to work from. If you enjoy this kind of Experimental Post-Rock then The Von Deer Skulls should be right up your street.
Give this band some of your time and see what you think.
Frozen Ocean have recently released the impressive album The Dyson Swarm. It’s a surprisingly effective release that mixes Black Metal with Electronica/Industrial sounds. Finding out a bit more was the next order of business…
Give us a bit of history to Frozen Ocean.
I am afraid this history won’t be very epic. Frozen Ocean was founded in 2005 in Moscow, Russia, as a solo project of me and was intended to play black metal related stuff. After recording of the first demo “Snow is the Ash” I decided to make something different and dug into dark and drone ambient fields, in which the very first official release, “Depths of Subconscious” was produced. Later the project returned to black metal related music, but next started to bounce from style to style (or a mix of ones) from one release to next.
What are your influences?
Too hard to distinguish, because for every release they are different. In general I have always admired Ulver, how they had their versatility through artistic evolution and simultaneously kept the highest level they achieved. In particular, the musician who inspired me to start making my own works is Mikael “Vaalkoth” Baiyusik from Tearstained, Night Conquers Day, Into The Sunless Meridian and Shadowcaster.
What are you listening to at the moment that you would like to recommend?
The album that could become “release-of-the-year” in my personal charts – “Existence” by Australian progressive death metal band Aeon of Horus. Also I would like to recommend to everyone the last work of Russian industrial brutal death metal band 7 H.Target called “0.00 Apocalypse”; this album will crush you to dust.
What did you want to achieve with your new album?
At least to have a wider reception and recognition for the project worldwide. I had a hope that this kind of experiment would be something relatively fresh and original (as far as is possible nowadays) and thus attractive to a listener.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
As always, the reception and feedback could be wider, but I am quite happy with the existing one. In the modern music world nobody can predict the audience’s answer for your musical proposal. And of course things get more complicated when you present some stuff that lies outside of trends. So that is great that some people have found this album attractive and listened to it more than one time; I think that is the best approval for the musician.
What can you tell us about the concept behind the album?
“The Dyson Swarm” is devoted to close and outer space, and the place of humanity in it. It is built like a journey through the cosmos beginning on the Earth orbit and Solar system and longing to the known edge of Universe and further beyond, and each track describes some phenomenon or object you could face during that journey. Album’s title is describing one of the variant of Dyson sphere – a gigantic hypothetical astro-engineering construction the purpose of which is to utilize the radiated energy of the central star in a star system in the most efficient way. Humanity’s future, on the certain stage of its development and raising level of energy consumption, is hardly imaginable without stuff of that kind.
Give us a bit of information on the songwriting process
The whole thing begins from the conception of release, and when I have the whole picture and structure of album in my head, I start making songs for it. When all the songs are recorded, at least in some scaffold state (without some parts or instruments), I take a listen to the whole yet incomplete release, and decide what and where should be added or changed to fulfill the requirements of the general idea. Thus I get the release united under one concept, but with the distinctive songs. Speaking about the production, all the steps of the production are performed by me in my home studio.
How do you see your songs/direction developing in the future?
It will be something new, as usual, at least it will be different from things Frozen Ocean presented earlier. I will continue to shift shapes and styles, continue to experiment with merging of musical directions for the best representation of release concepts and emotional colouring of them. For instance, I will develop the usage of folk instruments started earlier (when I played mandolin on “Autumn Bridges”) and try to add them to electronics and metal in equal ratio.
What’s next for Frozen Ocean?
Soon Italian label Bylec-Tum productions will release the whole “Norse” Trilogy on one tape for true underground activists. Next plans are too loose to reveal, but they include the very first Frozen Ocean vinyl release.
This is the début album of Slug Comparison, a Canadian Progressive Rock band.
Are you happy with how it turned out?
Wonderbox Metal 