Skip to content

dark industrial

Radiodrama * Autopsy nº 9 (cd 2002 hermetique)

Radiodrama can be heard on the newly released “A Reassuring Voice On The Television” compilation of Hermetique and an album that is much older than I expected is still available from the same label. “Radiodrama ultra harsch electronics” the booklet says. This is in a way true. The album opens with a track with a very deep rumbling industrial rhythm with samples and creaks. Other tracks have an even more industrial sound, but very hard industrial. Not extreme in the sense of over-the-top, distorted sounds (alright, these are also present) or loud, danceble beats, but more like harsch and slow rhythmical industrial soundscapes with a noisy edge. Some tracks are really great, others are just alright, but most are pretty good.

Propergol * Renegade (cd 2001 tesco organisation)

Here we have a real Tesco release. A 71 minute noise cd in an oversized package of a French band. 11 Tracks with a lot of variety in styles of noise and power electronics including everything from high to low-frequency noise, from relatively tranquil to very extreme, lots of rhythm, lots of samples, sometimes with distorted vocals and most of the time pretty dark. Get it before it is gone!

Predominance * Nocturnal Gates Of Incidence (cd 2000 loki)

In a beautiful digipack comes the new offering of Predominance from Germany. Fortunately it doesn’t sound like their contribution to the “Collapse” festival sampler (noise), but it is in their dark industrial/ambient style. As we know from another compilation (“Book ov Shadowz”) the band isn’t afraid of using vocals (singing and talking), which they do in a few tracks.
I don’t like the first two tracks too much, but after those Predominance presents their wonderfull extremely dark ambient with a lot of industrial influences. Extremely low frequencies, minimalistic approach, just not too monotous and not too many samples. One track may sound a bit like Deutsch Nepal with slow, hypnotic rhythms, while the next is a dark soundscape with no rhythm whatsoever.
Unfortunately the cd is pretty short (not even 41 minutes) and not all tracks are equally good, but overall I find this cd quite enjoyable. <5/1/01><4>

Nocturne * Kapitulation (cd 2000 state art)

After 10”’s on Tesco and Old Europe Cafe, State Art from Germany presents the first full-length of this French industrial act. “Kapitulation” comes in a very nice digipack and has 6, mostly long, tracks making a cd of almost an hour.
The music is sometimes a bit hard to describe. As often with State Art releases, the music can be quite strange and abstract, but at other times there is great dark industrial, ambient or noise.
The quality of the tracks is a little varying, some are good, others are quite boring. All in all this makes an average cd in my opinion.

Morpheus * Rebis (online album 2006)

This will probably happen more in the future. “As you can see, I finally made up my mind and decided to go solo on this trip. No record labels, no middlemen, no distribution, no physical CD. Just download it, listen to it, enjoy it (or hate it), share it, burn it, do what you want with it as long as it’s not for commercial purposes.” Online albums. I already reviewed two online compilations and here we have an online album. You can download a zip with mp3s and artwork (a very nice photo for every track). Morpheus; I have ambient/noise material from about 9 years ago of a band with this name which I though come from Sweden. This Morpheus is from Spain and has been releasing material since 1998. (Parts of) tracks of the older material is available from the site of the band. They started with ambient, going to more industrial and martial sounds and “Rebis” is more of a dark ambient/industrial album with some atmospheric (jazzy?) tracks. Most of the tracks have vocals (male and female) and the style has become pretty original. However the website of the band has very personal reflections about the first efforts, what went wrong, etc., this new album (even though compressed two times) has a nice and clear sound (also in the very low frequencies). Most of the tracks are pretty good too. The album opens very dark and grows towards more subtle tracks. And since it is free, it won’t hurt you to give this Spanish band a try, right?

Melek-Tha * De Magia Naturali Daemoniaca (cd 1999 cold spring)

I remember Melek-Tha’s debut on the French metallabel Adipocere. I listened to it ones. I found it cheap and primitive. Somehow I got the idea that this is the third album of the French “Lord Evil”, but I don’t really remember what the second one is called. Anyhow, “De Magia…” opens brilliantly. A sample from Hellraiser (II if I’m correct) supported by the brillant opera chorus “Dies Irae” of Verdi’s “Requiem”. The combination of the two makes a great piece of dark classical music with battle sounds. Unfortunately, this is the very way that the cd proceeds. Samples from movies (not the most original ones either, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula” is sampled at great length) with a minimum of ‘music’ over it. Sometimes dark ambient, sometimes industrial, but never really as dark as the first track. Actually again I find this a cheap and primitive cd. If it wasn’t for the opener, this one would be just horrid.

Megaptera * Beyond The Massive Darkness (2cd 2001 cold meat industry)

However Megaptera has always been close to the Karmanik family, this is only the second release on this label. According to the text in the digipack, this is a goodbye cd, I think this trio thought 10 years of existence enough.
“Beyond Massive Darkness” comes in a digipack similar to “The Absolute Supper” compilation of CMI and contains the 1992 LP “Songs From The Massive Darkness” and a remix of the first cd “Beyond The Shadow”, which is of 1994. Cd I is Megaptera how I like them best: extremely dark, deep drones, heavy beats, lots of samples; in short, an excellent piece of dark industrial/ambient.
Cd II is more in the dark soundscape vein that Megaptera also presented more often. I think it is okay, but not the style that I prefer.
Anyway, for the price of little over that for one cd, you get a 74 minute and a 44 minute cd and if you don’t already own the two mentioned releases, this is quite a good investment.

Megaptera * Electronic Underground (cd 2000 slaughter productions)

Just two months ago I decided to review an old Megaptera cd, because I didn. t expect anothing new to come out and there we go. A brandnew album by this legendary industrial act.
The opener isn. t too promising though. Rather monotous, not as dark as Megaptera can get. But, seven more tracks to go.
The second track reminds a bit of Endura. Minimal ambient with tribalic drumming. It lasts a bit too long for my taste though.
The third track is more promising. Very noisy, pretty dark. Quite typical for a Slaughter release actually. Not so typical for Megaptera, but rather amusing.
The fourth track breaks down the cd. A ten-minute long boring and monotous ambient track with wale or dolphinsounds or whatever. New-age influences in industrial music?
Fortunately the fifth track makes up a lot. Again a long and monotous track, but this time in the true Megaptera dark ambient/industrial vein and very dark and also very good.
Also the sixth track sounds like I expect from Megaptera and so does number seven. The closer off is a piece of noise again.
Hm, a bit of a variable quality on this cd. A bit more than half is good, the other half is just nice or simply boring. The cd lasts for 60 minutes, so I suppose you should think well before purchasing this cd.

Megaptera * The Curse Of The Scarecrow (cd 1998 relapse records)

Dark industrial freaks will know the name of Megaptera, because he’s been very close to the Cold Meat family for many years, but never released anything on this label. As you can see this cd is pretty old. Megaptera isn’t too fast with new releases and as far as I know (remember) this is the last (and second) cd. I’ve had it on tape for years, but decided to buy it, simply because it’s very good. And while it’s available anyway, why not tell you a bit about it? The music of Megaptera is easy to describe when you’re familiar with dark ambient. Megaptera is only quite a bit darker than the usual CMI-cd. Dark drones and a lot of samples characterize the music of Megaptera. All in all this sounds pretty damn good, but my biggest comment to this cd, is that many samples are used that are also to be found on the cds of various CMI-acts (Morthond, In Slaughter Natives, Deutsch Nepal). Further, nothing but praise.

Le Testament Du Lumières * Der Tod Is Ein Treuer Kamerad (cd 2003 noiseworks)

I just bought this cd out of curiosity. It proved to be limited to 55 copies!! Of course Le Testament sounds like Der Blutharsch, as you will hear. This is still a sellers-line, but it doesn’t give this release much credit. “Der Tod…” goes from dark ambient, to dark industrial, martial industrial and even some slightly dancable experiments. All in all not bad for a debut (?). No masterpiece, but still promising. Where do you get this album? Well, the emailaddress of the label doesn’t work, so you may want to check my source Going Underground. <22/9/03><3>