From the Loki/State-Art corner of the German industrial scene comes a very interesting release. This Czech project makes odd industrial with lots of vocals and weird sounds. Not really dark, but pretty damn good and certainly very original. Package looks great too. There’re only 300 copies of this 10″, so let’s just hope that Skrol will be able to release something else with a bigger quantity in the future. <3>
In 1997 Sephiroth made his debut on the “The Absolute Supper” compilation of CMI. A great haunting ambient track with a rhythmical/industrial break in the middle. The first cd “Cathedron” (1999 CMI) more or less did the same trick a few times more. Now, six years later, Sephiroth still does the same. There is no progression in the sound whatsoever. Most of the tracks begin tranquil, ambient and gloomy, either or not going over in a heavy outburst to return to tranquil sounds again. Not that this is badly done, but when you have the first track of Sephiroth, you more or less have them all. This cd is not completely boring, but especially the fact that the same rhythms and sounds are repeated again on this album, makes “Draconian Poetry” rather disapointing.
Some of you will know Sephiroth from his contribution to the legendary 10 years aniversery double compilation cd of Cold Meat Industry. Then it was a new name, but the contribution was nontheless extremely interesting. A nice piece of dark ambient which is halfway the track disturbed by a piece of heavy industrial.
Actually I can say the same for every track on Cathedrone. It’s good, mind you, but every track is very similar. Most start off with a nice piece of dark ambient in de good old CMI-vein, and halfway there’s a piece of industrial and the track closes off with the dark ambient. There might have been some more variation in the cd to make it better. Hopefully a next time.
It took so long before I got the mcd, that I received the full cd two days earlier. Rome are the new stars on CMI. I no longer automatically buy new CMI-cds, but the mp3 snippets from Rome did make me want to hear this new band, and I’m glad I did! Rome acts somewhere between ConSono, Coph Nia (on the mcd) and popular military acts such as Von Thronstahl, Thoroidh, HERR or Dernière Volonté. Industrial, ambient, tranquil (orchestral) music with male vocals and especially on the full-length a lot of acoustic and soft electric guitars. The result is a nice original sound with good to stunning songs with often a veru full sound with many layers of samples. CMI surely did it again and found a great band. Rome may even come close in musical quality to Coph Nia and that surely is something to say. Rome should be bought by lovers of CMI-music, but surely also by those who listen to military pop or atmospheric industrial.
I had heard a lot about this band, but until recently I had never been able to hear their music. They are from my own country and make “bombastic medieval music with drumming”, as is said. Well, bombastic sure is THE term for this cd, but medieval? Well a little bit of Gae Bolg here and there, but what makes this music bombastic is more the opera and classical samples. Often too obvious and actually this cd is quite cheap, but GOOD! Maybe this is the kind of cd that everybody wanted to make but nobody did? I don’t know. Anyway, if you are still looking for extremely bombastic music like Melek-Tha but then good, if you like Gae Bolg, Sophia and Karjan Sissit, just try to get your hands on this one. <4>
After a 12″ and a 10″, this is the third part of the Oran Môr trilogy which was formed by split releases between these two bands and Gaë Bolg.
The NFM tracks are alright, not as dark and heavy as this Spanish act can be, quite atmospheric actually. The ODO tracks are quite nice. This band has a some more orchestral medievalish sound with the gregorian-like singing and drumming. If you know their contribution to “Eisteddfod” you will know what I mean. The tracks here are by far not as heavy as “Pastoralis Preeminentie” though.
This 7″ is again limited to 333 copies, so be quick.
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.
This is another of these albums that I was in doubt about. Karjalan makes enjoyable music, but not too original. When I heard that the new album also only lasts for half an hour, my doubt became even greater. But in the end I got myself a copy, just out of curiosity. The new album proves to be even louder than the previous ones. More noise, even more agressive vocals, more bombast, so still a bit of a surprise. Of course the loud tracks are alternated with dark ambient tracks, like before. Again not a top-class album, but certainly not a boring one either. Karjalan surely leaves similar projects such as Sophia or Triarii far behind in agressiveness. <4/12/06><3>u
This is the second cd of this project and now they are on CMI. This cd is very short (37 min) and qualitively of the same level as the debut on Cold Spring earlier this year. Very bombastic and orchestral industrial, here and there reminding of Sophia. Nice. <9/11/02><3>
This must be the first cd of this Italian act, because I can’t remember I’ve heard of them before. Also it’s the first release of the Oktagön label, but immediately they strike us with an extremely luxery package in 7″-size. “Chants Before The Last Battle” is a bit of an “I don’t really know what music to play exactly” kind of release. There’s cheap electro, a bit industrial, ebm songs, Shadowcaster/Tangerine Dream-like tracks. Most of the songs aren’t really good and since every track is in another style, the don’t relate much to eachother. One thing that is typical for Invisible Empire are the opera-like male vocals (tenor) which comes back in almost all tracks. Actually this is but a mediocre cd.