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death industrial

Operation Cleansweep ‎– Release Now! Hungry For Power (2019)

Discogs.com

Tesco rereleased the 1996 debut album “Powerhungry” with an extra track.

“Powerhungry” is a classic in death industrial, a great album with brutal, industrial rhythms, violent vocals, but on ‘the noise scale’ closer to industrial than to noise.

The tracks have been reworked, some even stretched up and a 12 minute track has been added. It is called “Blood Is Tripping From Our Hands” (seriously) and it is a great Cleansweep track.

I have never been able to lay my hands on “Powerhungry”, so now I can get the nice looking digipack. Playing it was no problem, since it is the only Cleansweep album available on Spotify. Perhaps the other albums should be rereleased too!

Links: Operation Cleansweep, Tesco

Death Boulevard – Killed By Killers (2019)

I got lucky. I was paging through the Tesco website when I noticed the unimaginable project name with the unimaginable album title. For some reason I decided to look up what Death Boulevard would sound like. Perhaps because the ‘blurb’ says the project is from Brazil?

“Killed By Killers” contains noise and death industrial. The sound is about as original as the project’s name and album title, but it is executed very well. Good low frequency noise, great aggressive vocals. The tracks go from relatively tranquil industrial to more Cleansweep wall-of-sound type noise. Some tracks are more sample driven, giving a bit of a GO feeling. Some of the more vocal tracks do too by the way.

The album is released on L.White and there are only 100 cds available. You can get it digitally through Bandcamp though. As I said, it is a very enjoyable album.

Link: L.White

Folkstorm – Nihil Total (2019)

The productive Henrik Björkk releases material under a variety of names. Folkstorm is one of them. This project has been around for over two decades.

Quite a few Folkstorm releases are made available by Old Europa Cafe, as is “Nihil Total”. A nice digipack, limited to 300 copies.

Folkstorm is one of Björkk’s harsher projects. “Nihil Total” goes from death industrial to noise and back. Aggressive vocals, brutal rhythms. The tracks are more varied than on many death industrial releases, which is not surprising coming from Björkk.

Probably to add to the aggressive sound, the lyrics make that the project could have been name F**kstorm for this release, which is a bit of a down point to me.

Not all tracks are brilliant, but most are great. If you like aggressive industrial, you could give the latest Folkstorm a shot.

Links: Folkstorm, Old Europa Cafe

Detrimental Effect – Your Truth (2019)

Discogs.com

I ran into Detrimental Effect before. In 2017 the debut tape was released on Unsound.

As “To Brandon Bryant”, “Your Truth” contains an excellent piece of aggressive death industrial. Industrial rhythms, noise, fierce vocals, name it. There are harsher and more tranquil tracks.

This album fits well in Tesco’s roster with Deathpanel, Moral Order and the like. If you like a project such as Ex.Order, Operation Cleansweep or Gnawed, you may be interested in this album. Detrimental Effect sounds more aggressive than the names I mentioned though. Perhaps I should have just said Genocide Organ.

Anyway, I guess you get the idea. Old-fashioned industrial noise and good too.

Links: Detrimental Effect, Tesco

Am Not – Incursions (mc 2018)

Discogs.com

The excellent Am Not released a tape on Zaetraom, lining him with other excellent noise projects such as Anenzephalia and Ke/Hil.

On “Incursions” Tamon Miyakita goes from his magnificent death industrial and dark wall-of-noise style with brutal vocals to more tranquil tunes, somewhat ambient or even soundscape-like perhaps even.

Also there are guest musicians. Hermann Kopp in the second track (vocals, not violin), S.T.A.B. Electronics (whom I discovered because the project share labels) and two ladies, one of whom also cooperated on “The Developing World“.

“Incursions” opens brilliantly and brutally. Also “What Are You Waiting For” is a great track. The cooperation with S.T.A.B. Electronics worked out well and (as can be expected) the track is pretty harsh. I am less convinced by the more tranquil tracks, even though I do like the industrial, but not very noisy, “Cruth Do Bhaile”.

Previously I reviewed the “appendix” which also has a more tranquil track that I like less than the other tracks. What occurs to me playing “Incursions” is that the noise on these last two releases is more of the harsh type and less of the structured kind of the two brilliant full-lengths. Even though I do like the more extreme tracks of Am Not, I like the structured tracks a lot better than the more tranquil tracks that seem to have replaced them.

Let us see in what direction Am Not develops.

Link: Am Not

Moral Order – Freedom Locked (2018)

Discogs.com

Tesco has found another wonderful noise project. “Freedom Locked” contains a nice bunch of industrial noise tracks. Droning sounds, raw rhythms, brutal vocals. Dark and moody. It is a sound that we hear more often lately. Think Ausströmen or the recent Tesco release of Deathpanel. This is not too bad, since I love the style, but it is starting to get hard to keep projects apart.

“Freedom Locked” is not too long (about 40 minutes, 12″ length) and it is certainly good. I do not have a whole lot more to say about it. When you like the other projects that I mentioned, you can safely buy Moral Order’s debut. There seems to be another album, “Wrath Of God” which comes in a wooden box, limited to 45 copies and released by Gradual Hate. I hope a better accessible version of it will be made available too.

Links: Moral Order, Tesco Organisation

Deathpanel – Age Of Insignificance (cd 2018)

Tesco comes with a loud debut album of this new German outfit. “Age Of Insignificance” mostly contains violent noise and death industrial, with here and there a little gas off.

After a great death industrial opening follow a couple of noise tracks (less rhythm). These styles alternate until my favorite track of album, the title track, a wall-of-sound type track with brutal vocals in the middle. The vocals are varied from undistorted screaming to talking to a sound that is almost unrecognisable as a voice. There is not much focus on vocals. Where some music in the style has screaming lads from the beginning until the end, Deathpanel usually only has vocals in a part of the track. A couple of tracks contains good sample-work giving these track extra atmosphere.

Of the eight tracks presented, half I like a lot and the other four are still good. Indeed a promising debut.

Link: Tesco

Operation Cleansweep ‎– Release Now! Apathy Induction (12″+7″ 2018)

It does not happen often that Operation Cleansweep releases new material. In 2012 there was a cd of a ‘side project‘, in 2006 a split release with Anenzephalia and Inade and then we are already back in 2003. The last full length (2003) was released on the Italian XN recordings and for this label we can also say that it does not happen often that there is new material. The last release is over 10 years old!

XN releases are always very limited and come in luxury hand-made covers. “Release Now!” is not as luxury packed as the Proiekt Hat / Brighter Death Now split 7″, but it comes in a tasteful, hand-made sleeve that you have to cut open in order to play the release for the first time. The package contains a 12″ and a 7″. There are 86 red vinyl versions and 200 black vinyl versions. Because they are hand-made when ordered and this takes a while, my guess is that they were long gone by the time I got my copy, but it can never hurt to ask the label.

The 12″ has two times four tracks. The 7″ has one track on each side. The opening track is relatively soft, but in the second track we already get a glimpse of the noisy industrial style of Cleansweep, but this track is by far not as dark and extreme as it can get. Again a bit more of that we can hear in “Hunters”, but less so in what follows, especially side II is quite tame and there are (almost) no vocals, not even many samples. Until the closing track of the 12″ and the opening track of the 7″ that is, this is in the style that I love Cleansweep for, especially the latter.

The music certainly is not easy listening though, but when you put this music against “Fuck Your Brains Out” or “Powerhungry”, you have to imagine another approach. A couple of ‘alright tracks’ and a few good ones. Not my favourite Cleansweep release, but still nice to hear some new material after all this time.

Links: Operation Cleansweep, XN Recordings

Trepaneringsritualen – Kainskult (cd 2017)

Late 2013 I heard of Trepaneringsritualen because Distel cooperated to an album. The styles of these projects have little alike. Where Distel is more of an “angstpop” type of project (especially in the earlier days), Trepaneringsritualen makes very dark “death industrial”. I did (nor do) like all material, but some albums are great and live performances are too.

I got quite some material of this “Götisk dödsindustri” project, but it often sounds quite alike. Therefor the project dropped on my priority list.

I am very glad that I gave “Kainskult” a try though! This album sounds as exciting as when I first encountered this project. All known elements are still there, but as Tesco’s selling text says: “somehow it reaches a new level of intensity”. Among earlier material there already were tracks with less distortion, but on “Kainskult” Thomas Ekelund experimented with his common elements again together with a whole host of fellow conspirators. One of them is Michael Idehall who I think sings on the great and moody opening track. Also there is Kim Larsen who I think sings on the magnificent closing track. Between these two tracks there are Trepaneringsritualen tracks that are somewhat more uptempo than the usual material, Ekelund’s vocals moved more towards a kind of rhythmic growling with more text than just a few lines. Walls of dark noise, hammering on metal and well-placed drumming, “Kainskult” without a doubt contains Trepaneringsritualen’s best material so far. Distel returned as conspirator as the mixer of this album

Links: Trepaneringsritualen, Tesco

Ex.Order – The Place Of Dead Roads (cd 2017)

The new Ex.Order is not a new album. It is a compilation with ‘old and rare’ tracks, just as “War Within Breath“. But the tracks are not really that rare. They are mostly of compilations that I have, probably bought because Ex.Order is on them. “Juche” (2008), Zugzwang” (2010), “Heilige Feuer II” (2002), “Collapse” (2000), “Resistance” (1999)and “Don’t Hunt What You Can’t Kill” (2002). Then there are two unreleased tracks from 2008 and 2010.

The tracks vary in style like we are used to from Ex.Order. Some tracks are not-too-extreme noise (what I often term “ambient noise”), sometimes they even lean towards dark ambient. There are also extreme “death industrial” walls of sound with aggressive vocals and/or samples. Back in the days I was not fond of these extreme sounds (just read back my old Ex.Order reviews), nowadays I think such tracks are the best. Especially when they are as structured and ‘moody’ as Ex.Order can make them.

Indeed, the new album that is named after a book by William Burroughs, is a wonderful release of one of my favorite noise projects. I would not mind a release with really new music (or a compilation that includes material of the old 7″s), but I have another great album to play while laying on the couch with a glass of whisky and a book!

Link: Power & Steel (Loki Foundation)