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death industrial

Abscheu – Pretense (mc 2017)

Unrest may not be a guarantee for a good release, but of the labels that I (relatively) recently discovered, Unrest has a descent success rate.

Here we have the second release of Abscheu, both tapes on Unrest Productions. I do not know the debut, but judging the new tape, it may be a good idea to get a copy. “Pretense” is limited to 141 copies though, so perhaps “Breviary Of Chaos” might well be sold out.

Similar to other Unrest releases, Abscheu presents great tracks and not-my-kind-of-noise tracks (chaotic, high frequencies, etc.). The thing is, there are some great death industrial things here, perhaps even reminding of Ex.Order. Other tracks have a bit of that structured noise sound of Am Not, the project that acquainted me with Unrest Productions.

Perhaps I should make some sort of Unrest playlist with the good tracks and leave out the ones that I do not like, because the good tracks can be great and this can be said for “Pretense” too.

Links: Abscheu, Unrest Productions

Am Not ‎* The Developing World (cd 2017)

In 2015 Unrest Productions release the superb Am Not album “Unpunished”. There appeared to be an earlier album (“First Morbid Vibrations” 2012 Unrest) which is descent, but not as good as “Unpunished”. Now Tesco picked up Am Not to release the third full-length.

I do not remember how I learned of this project, but with the previous and the latest album, this project rapidly rises to being one of my favorite projects. Tamon Miyakita combines elements that I enjoy in music. It is dark, structured, emotional, but most of all, he seems to have something to say. Just music for the sake of music (or anti-music in the case of noise) can be entertaining, but I like it a lot when the artist seems to be concerned with more than just music. Am Not actually has lyrics, lengthy ones too sometimes. Not just the shouted one-liners of many similar artists, but lyrics that make me wonder what the artist means with them. A track opening with a sample of a man telling about him torturing black people, ending with “Leopold reigns today” (on the previous album), a stance against racism, as Leopold was a Belgian king who had a terrible regime in the then-colony Congo?
The new album seems to have more “1984” type lyrics, complaining about the almighty bureaucratic system that is more powerful than politics and a “child” that is summoned to “come home” with what appears to be a dangerous regime.

I do not mind that the lyrics are not ‘clear’ or even if there appears to be something there that I agree with or not, but this underused element of extreme electronic music definitely adds something for me.

The music then. Just as the previous album the music is pretty dense and noisy. The vocals are more often heavily distorted compared the previous album. Some tracks are more power electronics in sound, others somewhat less extreme, but “The Developing World” is certainly no easy-listening. It is abrasively dark though and, I said it before, I have a thing with extreme music with vocals. The new Am Not is, once again, pretty damn good!

Links: Am Not, Tesco

Gnawed * Pestilence Beholden (cd 2016)

Thank you Noise Receptor for letting me know about the new Gnawed. I like the previous “Feign And Cloak” album quite a bit and I now see that I also thanked Noise Receptor for bringing that release to my attention.

“Pestilence Beholden” opens with a few pieces of dark ambient, but within the third track we go over to the death industrial style from the previous album. Well, maybe not exactly, the new album seems a little less as extreme as its predecessor, which also has more higher frequencies and overall a more noise-feeling.
The music is still very slow, somewhat rhythmic, with soundscapish tones and here and there highly distorted vocals. Maybe more like a ‘doom’ kind of industrial.

I like the new album. I think I prefer the rougher edge of “Feign and Cloak”, but the latest release may be more fitting to play when reading or something.

Links: Gnawed, Malignant Records

Steel Hook Prostheses ‎* Calm Morbidity (cd 2016)

Apparently the first Steel Hook that I review. This is weird, because I have known this American project for quite some time. I guess I never came to buy any of their releases or I just never came to really listen to them before I started to enjoy noise better.

“Calm Morbidity” is not the first release on Malignant, a label that seems to be shifting more and more towards noise.

The album contains the wall-of-sound type of noise, dark, slow, dense, with extremely distorted vocals, but also more dark ambient tracks. I like this dark type of noise that is not as chaotic as some other styles. The album is not terribly good or varied, but enjoyable nonetheless.

Links: Steel Hook Proestheses, Malignant Records

S.T.A.B. Electronics ‎* Day Of The Male (cd 2015)

A while ago I was playing the great album “Unpunished” by Am Not and I wondered what other releases Unrest Productions would have. I listened to the tracks on their Soundcloud account and liked the track of S.T.A.B. Electronics, like Am Not (and like the label) from the UK.

Nowadays when I want to ‘try out’ a band, I just see if they are featured on Deezer or if they have a Bandcamp or Soundcloud page. Not everything is available online (which is perfectly fine with me) and I did not find much of S.T.A.B. Electronics. So, just as in the old days, I just bought a cd of a project I was curious about.

“Day Of The Male” opens with a descent ‘death industrial’ track with rumbling and noisy rhythms and screamed vocals. Perhaps ‘power electronics’ is a better description. However I do not entirely like the vocals, this track is a nice one.
Then follows a screeching noise track that I do not like at all.
Things get better with the title track which is again more ‘death industrial’. What follows hereafter is brutal power electronics, in one case pretty extreme: the great track “Marquis Complex”. The other tracks are nice to good, so overall I may conclude that “Day Of The Male” is a good power electronics album.

Links: S.T.A.B. Electronics, Unrest Productions

v/a * Epicurean Escapism II (cd+dvd 2013)

Epicurean Escapism is an ‘extreme media’ festival and this release looks back at the second edition. There is a cd with tracks from Ke/Hil, Anemone Tube, Post Scriptvm, Trepaneringsritualen and Dieter Muh (the last is a 20+ minutes track). Compared to the DVD all these tracks are ‘easy listening’. Dark, noisy, industrial, ambient and quite enjoyable too.

Then we go to five videos recorded by Con-Dom from 1983/4 and one from a decade later. The videos are mostly shots of photos and images taken with a shaky camera. Some footage has been montaged in between. The videos are accompanied by Con-Doms most uncompromising sound. No ‘easy listening’ for sure! In fact, I do not really like this side of Con-Dom. The videos have been remastered and they are interesting ‘for archival reaons’. They give a peek into the early extreme noise scene.

The packages is DVD box sized and made from cardboard. A booklet is glued to the last panel and contains an essay and photos of artwork that was on display during the festival. The concerning artists are Alex Tennigkeit, Andrew Liles, Carmen Burguess, Dennis Rudolph, Philip Best and Rudolf Eb.er.

I like the more ‘overall approach’ to this release, but personally I find the cd part the most interesting.

I see that volume III was also released a few months ago.

Links: Silken Tofu

Genocide Organ * Obituary Of The Americas (cd 2016)

However I can enjoy some pretty extreme music, this German project is often too much for me. Their sound can be chaotic and extreme with high frequencies and little structure. GO also has darker tracks that I do like, but also among their more extreme material there are tracks that I like. The thing is, an album contains perhaps a few tracks that I like and a lot that I do not. Hence, GO albums are a bit of a risk to my ears.

27 Years after their first release (!) there comes an album that is perhaps GO, but maybe not too typical. “Obituary Of The Americas” has more of a wall-of-sound type of noise than their usual chaotic power electronics. Not that this album sounds like Ex.Order, but their style is more comparable that some GO tracks. Compared to other GO material, this new album is easy-listening. You still have to be able to be a musical masochist to enjoy this album though, so be warned! “Death industrial” is probably a good description. Anenzephalia but somewhat harscher.

A track like “I Don’t Wanna Die” is really my kind of noise. A static, pulsating sound, very extreme vocals, a wall of lower frequencies and a lot of samples. Also other tracks are pretty good, extreme, but not over my edge.

I like the ‘new’ sound of GO! It comes as a limited lp and an unlimited cd.

Links: Genocide Organ, Tesco Germany

Am Not * Unpunished (cd 2015)

I was looking much forward to hearing this cd, but it took a while before I could. “Unpunished” was certainly worth the wait!

The album opens with the brilliant title track. A dark rumbling piece of death industrial with calm, clear, spoken vocals with a not-so-calm message. Then Am Not continues with different styles of death industrial and noise, all pretty damn dark. From Operation Cleansweep-like dark noise with distorted vocals to chaotic power electronics with no vocals. Somehow I have something with dark noise with vocals and that is a description for most tracks on “Unpunished”. All well-excuted and moody, so here we certainly have another great noise album.

The first ‘real album’ of the British Am Not is one for lovers of the mentioned Cleansweep or Ex.Order, industrial noise projects like Trepaneringsritualen and ‘vocal noise’ projects such as IRM and some tracks of the latest Iron Fist Of The Sun.

Recommended!

Links: Am Not, Unrest Productions

MZ.412 * Hekatomb (cd 2015)

In 1994/5 I was happy to be able to leave behind the black metal scene and role into something more interesting. Cold Meat Industry was one of the labels that I discovered and from which I bought dark ambient and strange industrial. Then there was this act with corpsepaint and whatnot even making a style of music that I -at the time- did not like: noise. Well actually, they called it “black industrial”, setting it aside Brighter Death Now’s “death industrial” as Satanic black metal stood aside death metal.

I never really took a descent listen at MZ.412. I have (heard) some of their albums, but I never tried the entire discography. The more death and dark industrial albums sound better to me than some others. After almost 10 years after the last ‘real’ album, Maschinenzimmer moved to Cold Spring and brings a brand new album. Well, “brand-new”… there are some tracks that sound very familiar even to me.

MZ starts with a little surprise, almost martial industrial tones. Soon we are thrown into the deep and dark pits of rhythmic industrial and low-frequency noise. Some tracks are very good, others are less interesting, but certainly not bad. “Hekatomb” became a reasonable ‘comeback’ for our Scandinavian terror korps.

Links: Nordvargr, Cold Spring

Diutesc ‎* Evilution Resurrected / Draconigena (cd 2015)

This is not exactly the first release, but the first I heard of (I think). Diutesc is the project of an ex-Genocide Organ member. The label (Old Captain from Ukraine) does not immediately ring a bell, but I do know some of their releaes.

I got this cd from Cold Spring who filed it under “death industrial”. This certainly goes for some tracks, but many tracks I would simply describe as “industrial”, a quite harsch kind of industrial, but still. There is quite a bit of variety in style between tracks. Some are indeed “death industrial”, distorted noisy industrial with distorted vocals; others are more “industrial” (less heavy, but not quite easy-listening) or even a little ‘ambient’ or ‘rhythmic noise’. There are certainly some very nice tracks on this album (the cover of whih is entirely written in runes). The sound does not get as extreme as some GO material.

Not bad. An album if you want to get some noise that is not too extreme.

Links: Diutesc, Old Captain