Tugend * Optimism Is For The Weak (cdr 2002 somnambulant corpse records)

Somnambulant Corpse is a brandnew label from the USA, founded just in februari 2002 but already having three releases out, a nice distro and a wonderfull internetpage. “Optimism Is For The Weak” is the first release of SC. Looking at the celtic cross and the ruins on the cover, the tribalish swastica on the disc and the Ernst Jünger quote on the back of the cover, it seems that also America has discovered the WWII-inspired industrial trend with a new-right edge. Putting the disc in the player you may expect Der Blutharsch-like bombastic industrial with WWII samples. This is where prejudice goes down. Tugend makes soundscapes and soft industrial, but not the bombastic sound of the more popular projects in this vein. There are war- and German speaking samples and orchestral tones though, but Tugend doesn’t really sound like any band that I know. Overall this debut cd is quite nice, not groundbreaking, but pretty nice to listen to.