Brighter Death Now – Everything Is Gonna Be Alright (2022)
More BDN and he is touring too. Roger Karmanik appears to have an artistic upliving. “Everything…” comes as a 10″, listed as “CMI-03”, but available from Tesco. It does not appear to be a rerelease.
The first track is a throbbing piece of industrial. Not as harsh as BDN can get. A good track. The next track is more noisy, but again relatively tranquil. The same can be said about number three, but this is more industrial than the previous track and reminds a bit of Karmaniks older (Lille Roger) material.
Then comes the absolute highlight of this release. “Love Hard” has a bit of a Thorofon approach. A somewhat ‘rhythmic noise’ rhythm with vocals of an artist I was not familiar with: Åsa Tedebro. She looks pretty classically goth on her Discogs page and appears to be a guest singer every now and then, but not an artist (or band) of her own. Her dramatic vocals go perfectly well with the background noise that intensifies and calms down again. It appears that the Swedish electropunk band Isotope Soap (that I also think I was not familiar with) have something to do with this track. It is a great track.
Links: Brighter Death Now, Tesco
As ORE keeps releasing new albums, my interest deminishes, the last Triarii album is a great album though and the “Roses For Rome” song that these two did together is very nice too. So what would an entire album of a combination of these two projects sound like? Besides the first and last track, it seems that ORE had a lot more influence on the sound as Triarii. The songs are tranquil, ORE-like and only on the background are some martial industrial or orchestral sounds. It is funny to hear the similarities of the sounds of both projects and “Three Hours” sounds better than ORE alone, but I would have like a bit more Triarii sound in here. I must say that like with Triarii the simple melodies start to work better after a few rounds in the player, so maybe this album will grow on me a bit more.
“Martial dark ambient” is the best way of describing this CMI release I think. Soundscapes and ambient with drumming, marchdrums and deep beats, sometimes some orchestrations or a sample. Each track of this 70 minute album is recorded with another guest musician/group. “Sapere Aude” is not a bad album, but not particularly good or original either. I guess this might appeal to people who like 
I first thought that this was a new album, so I was a bit disappointed that “The Luminous Experience” sounds too much like Raison d’Être, but this is actually a live recording! More even, this was recorded in the Netherlands. I do not think I was there in Enschede, not sure how I missed it. The music reminds of a show that I did see in Antwerpen with a great film of ‘rotting boats’ on the background. Anyway, slow dark ambient soundscapes with industrial sounds and gregorian singing. Raison d’Être, do I need to say more?
CMI labeled this release as “dark ambient”, but Atrium Carcari is pushing the boundaries of that genre in that case. There are ambient parts, but Atrium Carcari has added ‘uncommon sounds’, rhythms and samples that makes this release sound different from your usual dark ambient release. In fact, this release is so ‘strange’ for a dark ambient release, that I do not even yet know if I really like it or not. It is refreshing for sure and it is always good when something new happens.
First released as a 12″, then as a picture 12″ and upcoming on cd and cd+dvd comes the new album of ORE. This album immediately sounds a bit different from earlier achievements. The sound is softer, more melancholic, the guitar loops are almost gone (or with effects). After a few listenings, the album still does not really work for me. It is a bit too soft and the crazy, bombastic, industrial, martial, etc. elements all seem to be lost and we are left with atmospheric music with male and female vocals. Perhaps musically “Onani” is a step forward. There are no longer the obvious looped samples and repetitions, but it seems that this had to give away to the atmosphere somewhat. Maybe I have to listen to this album some more before things start to fall in their place.
I have neglected to properly follow this Dutch project. I do not have the previous album on CMI. Foundation Hope does not really sound like the average CMI act. There is dark ambient, but much more experiment, sometimes with slow orchestration like other CMI acts, but also with distorted/noisy sounds and strange soundscapes. I have heard this album a few times by now and I cannot say that I completely adore it, but it sounds interesting nonetheless. It is something different in the dark ambient and soundscapes field for sure.
About a year and a half ago I got the 
Two bands that I find allright, but not great. I do not think I would have bought this cd if it was just a split album, but because this is actually the result of a joint recording, I was interested enough to give this album a try. “Sang Graal” turned out to be a nice album, going from moody ambient soundscapes to more bombastic and martial pieces, folky and orchestral tones and of course ‘ritual’ sounds, because that is an element in both the projects’ sounds. The sounds of the bands go well together and they made a good balance resulting in an album sounding between both of them.
Strange actually, this cd could be listened in full and bought digitally on the CMI website a couple of weeks before the actual release. I have looked forward for this new album. I love this project from Luxemburg, but I don’t play his cds too often because they are rather melancholic. The latter is a little less present on “MMM”, but the sound doesn’t differ all that much from the earlier releases. Rome makes music somewhere between neofolk and military pop and has thick ‘wavy’ influences. Especially the tracks in the beginning sound even more “gothic” than we got used to and the music may not (allways) ‘grab me’ as much as on the previous albums, but the songs are again very well structured and layered and all known elements are again present. “MMM” is again a very good album with perhaps the only minor point that it remains a bit too much in the sound that we all know by now. That is hardly a reason not to buy this album though, because it is a lot better than almost anything coming from that corner of our scene nowadays.