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Satøri – The Woods (2023)

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In 1987 Dave Kirby started Satori after having been active in the noise duo Psychopath for a few years. In 1994 Justin Mitchel of the Cold Spring label joined and after a pause in 2007 Satori became a three piece project. By 2012 Satori was a solo project again, but the new album is announced to be released on Cold Spring within a month.

“The Woods” is another massive wall of noise with highly distorted vocals. The sound reminds quite a bit of Control at times. Some tracks start a bit ambient to give the listener some rest, but pretty soon the dentist drill sound and other noises that make a wall of noise set in. As before the tracks also have a bit of an industrial side with heavy blasts, but it are the chainsaws and the screeching that are mostly noticeable. Somehow the sonic mayhem works quite well for me, but even on my scale “The Woods” makes a pretty tough listen, so it will probably not be an album that I will play a lot.

Links: Satori, Cold Spring

v/a – Arise (2023)

14 July Cold Spring will present another label compilation. Two cds, 33 tracks, 2,5 hours of music. Most tracks are from earlier releases (unfortunately), a few are from forthcoming releases.

Since Cold Spring releases different kinds of music, “Arise” goes from the heavy industrial of Kollaps and Khost to the dark ambient sounds of Jagath and Sleep Research Facility, noise by the likes of of Himukalt and Satori to more folky sounds such as those of Coil and FM Einheit. There are scene classics. Coil as we already saw, but there are also Merzbow, SPK and Genesis P-Orridge. Also projects that were new to me.

A large part of “Arise” is dark ambient and soundscape, not entirely my cup of tea. The good tracks I already knew. I guess this compilation is mostly meant as an introduction to Cold Spring.

Link: Cold Spring

Ausströmen – Intersection (2023)

The debut of this UK noise project from 2018 was launched through Soundcloud, had a few physical releases and ended up on Bandcamp. The second album is now made available on Bandcamp and I have not heard of upcoming physical releases yet.

“Intersection” is quite like “Immobilise”. The noise is not too extreme, there are the typical ‘nagging’ vocals (but not in a negative way) and most tracks have some sort of rhythm, either in beats or pounding industrial. Ausströmen has a distinctive style, so it is not easy to throw in another project name to give you an idea of the sound. But, since both albums are on Bandcamp, you can just listen to them and decide if you want to buy them.

What may be somewhat different this time, is that “Intersection” has more ‘noisescape’ type tracks, which are alright. I prefer to wall of noise type tracks better and they are once again excellent. Also the more industrial tracks are again great.

Five years after a smashing debut (I still play it frequently) there now is a great follow up. Hopefully there will be a physical release again this time.

Link: Ausströmen (Bandcamp)

Abscheu – Creed (2023)

Contrary to some other noise projects, Abscheu has only released a handfull of albums since 2016. After some releases on Unrest, the project found its way to Tesco.

As on previous releases, “Creed” contains dark industrial noise with very extreme vocals. Some tracks are harsher than others. I again prefer the death industrial type tracks over the more ‘ambient’ and chaotic noise ones and especially the tracks that contain vocals.

Abscheu sound somewhat ‘typical’ for an Unrest project, but when it is good, that does not really matter. “Creed” is another good noise album.

Links: Tesco

Moral Order – Backlash (2023)

Moral Order is an active ‘new’ project. After the 2018 album on Tesco that I reviewed, there have been no less than five albums and as many ‘other releases’. The project released through labels such as Tesco, Malignant and Old Europa. Two of the shorter releases were made available by Cloister who now also release this vinyl full length.

The sound of Moral Order goes from dark ambient, to ambient noise, but often working towards more of a ‘wall of noise’ type of noise and death industrial. Extremely distorted vocals bring an extra layer to the fairly extreme sound. However this is my kind of sound, I cannot say that I listen to Moral Order a whole lot. Perhaps it is good, but does not really stand out or something. Also there are other kinds of tracks, more experimental soundscapish things which work less for me, so I would probably not just play an album from start to finish.

In any case, all I can say is that “Backlash” is a good new album in the noise type of music.

Links: Moral Order, Cloister Recordings

Am Not – Cold + Disloyal (2022)

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It has been five years since the last cd of Am Not. The meantime has seen some tapes and vinyl. Now suddenly there is a double cd. It is not entirely clear to me what the history of this release is. The album can be listened to on the Bandcamp of a label called “Kampf Unrest” which has the logo of the (defunct?) Unrest Productions label that also released “Unpunished : Appendix” (2018). Bandcamp does not offer buying a physical copy. These physical copies appear to have to come from Tesco, but are not yet available.

Bandcamp says that there are: “10 new songs about dispossession”. According to the Tesco website, there are: “11 new songs about dispossession”. Perhaps the Bandcamp release is one of the cds and there is one long track on the other?

For now, based on the Bandcamp release, I can say that “Cold + Disloyal” has the ‘harsh noise’ style of Am Not. Walls of noise, industrial blasts, metal clanging, extreme vocals. There are not the more dark and structured tracks of the brilliant “Unpunished” (2015). Towards the end there is an ambient track and the Bandcamp album closes with an ‘organ track’.

Update 16/12. The digipack is a nice threefold double cd. The extra cd has an alright 23 minute noisy soundscape.

Am Not remains one of the more interesting ‘new’ noise acts. I am curious what the 11th track will bring.

Links: Am Not, Tesco

Dødsmaskin – Herremoral | Slavemoral (2022)

I noticed an announcement of a new Dødsmaskin and just as before I thought ‘right, that’s that project that made a very descent ambient noise album’. Well, no ‘ambient noise’ on the new album!

The new album starts with a very rough piece of noisy industrial. Loud blasts, metal clanging, distorted sounds. The second track leans a bit towards death industrial and then we go to some sort of technoish rhythmic noise that ends ‘ambiently’. More tough industrial, ambient that goes over into ‘wall of noise’, downright noise, this is mostly pretty damn good too!

Industrial noise lovers beware, you may have to check out the latest Dødsmaskin.

Links: Dødsmaskin, Ant-Zen, Malignant

Colossloth – Promethean Meat (2022)

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This British project has remained below my radar. Yet, he has been around since 2006 and this is the fourth release on Cold Spring. The label ‘blurb’ says:

Rhythmic industrial noise – grinding and churning, drenched in crushing doom-laden guitars – drapes the sacrificial bones of the new album from esoteric electronic alchemist Colossloth.

What I hear mostly on “Promethean Meat” is fairly chaotic noise with a lot of screeches and high frequencies. The guitar noise, sometimes with vocals, reminds me a bit of the Dutch Gnaw Their Tongues. Here and there the chaos tones down a bit towards darker (industrial) tunes and towards the end there is a more ‘ritual’ type of track.

Not entirely my kind of noise. Not too bad either. Perhaps I will also try the older material of this project.

Links: Colossloth, Cold Spring

Bøltorn – Dødsverk (2022)

The over-active Hendrik Nordvargr Björkk has got a new project together with two other people. Even though two of their releases have been made available by Cloister Recordings (and two other by Old Europa Café), I have missed the project until this new release on Tesco.

By the way, there is one self-released EP in 2021 and all other six releases are from 2022!

What I have heard of the project so far is mostly somewhat typical, but excellent Scandinavian death industrial. On “Dødsverk” the sound is much more noisy. The industrial rumbling rhythms of other releases have made way for high frequency mayhem. I must say, that of all releases that I have listened to so far, I prefer all over this new one…

Concluding that the trio wants to explore different sounds and that most of their outputs are pretty good, we have another project to keep an eye on (and try to keep up with!).

Links: Bøltorn, Tesco

Operation Cleansweep – Release Now! The Call To Die (2021)

So “Release Now!” became a trilogy with old Cleansweep material and “The Call To Die” closes the series. Like the previous, it was released by Tesco.

You get material created between 1995 and 2004. Of the eight tracks I only knew one, “The Call To Die” which was on the live in Munich album from 2003. All other tracks are not even listed on Discogs, so they have probably never been available before and represent the “unreleased material of lost tapes and material” of Tesco’s ‘blurb’.

Style wise there are no surprises. Noise with slow rhythms, low frequency walls of noise and here and there death industrial. The material is good to amazing (how comes that a tracks such as “Algomania II” has never been released before?).

Most Cleansweep releases were from before I liked them, so it would be nice if other material will be made available again too. New material would be a good idea too!

Links: Operation Cleansweep, Tesco