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>
“The return of a king”. After almost 10 years, ISN is finally back with a new album. I already downloaded two tracks from the CMI site and I was not disappointed. ISN still sounds mostly the same in those two tracks, but especially “As My Shield” is great. Listening to the rest of the cd I can say that ISN did evolve in the last years. There are some ‘modern sounds’ too. For all of you who have also listened to this band for decades, this one will not disappoint you. For the rest, get this classical piece of bombastic industrial too!
Desiderii’s first album “Songs Over Ruins” (cold meat 1997) was a classic Cold Meat release, both regarding music (dark ambient) and lay-out. Four years later the second Desiderii cd again reminds of Cold Meat of days past, but this time the music isn’t too typical and has some nice touches to it. There is more industrial, a bit of noise and atmospheric influences, making “Dead Beat” an enjoyable album to listen to. The length is a bit short (50 minutes) and the last track isn’t too good, but overall I think this is a pretty descent cd.
The brilliant debut of this project came to us in early 2000 and almost two years later an also very good mcd (late 2001) was made available. It was a long wait for the new cd of this project which I currently consider the most interesting industrial act on CMI. “Shape Shifter” may not be quite as good as “That Which Remains”, but is still pretty damn good. Again fairly dark and evil, but with more vocals (spoken, sung and samples). Also a nice amount of deep drones. No bombastic “Holy War” unfortunately, but definately a cd that will find it’s way to my cd-player quite often, like the debut of 3 years ago still does.
A new star on the CMI horizon. As we are used from CMI not a bad star either. The typical CMI sound (atmosperhic dark ambient), the typical CMI level (very good) and what also seems to become typical for CMI a not too smashing lay-out. I wonder why the latest CMI releases look so simple. But it is about the music after all, eh?
What makes Coph Nia different from other CMI bands is the use of vocals (spoken) which are used quite a lot. Further you will hear the usual drones, gregorian (?) samples, and a few beats here and there. Also female vocals and a ‘folky’/atmospheric sixth track that is rather out of style. But… eight tracks of which most long making a cd of over an hour which is very enjoyable.
Late 1998 the Swedish cultlabel Cold Meat Industry had its 10 years aniversary which they celebrated with a feast/concert. As main act (after Ordo Equilibrio), they didn’t get one of their own bands, but Blood Axis, who by then had reached a cult status themselves. The concert was recorded, the sound was polished and released as the cd “Blòt: Sacrifice In Sweden”. Many tracks known from the debut cd, tracks from several compilation on which BA appeared throughout the years and even tracks that I didn’t know yet can be found on this cd. The sound is incredible, the performance of the tracks powerfull and nowhere you have the idea of listening to a live cd. Maybe this is is even a bit better than “The Gospel…”. <25/12/00><5>
This cd is advertised by saying that the man behind this solo project studied classical music. This doesn’t have much to do with the music though. “Cellblock” is a cd for people that long for that old CMI-dark ambient sound. Atrium Carceri reminds of the tranquil parts of Sephiroth, but also has its own style. Dark creepy ambient with very minor orchestral influences and here and there a sample. Not too original, but also not badly done.
I wonder if there is any presure for the band. After 9 full-length cds and a variety of other releases of which the last 5 are nothing less than masterpieces and the rest is exceptional or ‘just’ very good, would they be striving for an equal level of quality or just make music as they like it? When I heard of a new upcoming cd a while back my expectations were naturally high, since Ataraxia is definately one of my favourite bands. So when I got it and listened to it, my only conclusion (even with the high expectations) could only be: “what else could it be than another masterpiece?”.
“Sueños” has the more medieval sound that Ataraxia produces on many of their cds (in contrary to the more neo-classical cds that they also make) and if I’m correct this disc contains old, rare, unreleased songs and songs that were so far only to be heard on live performances.
The cd is divided in three parts and all songs have a short description of when, how or why it was written. It agains comes in a good-looking ‘disc box slider’ on Cold Meat Industry, and according to the band new songs have been written and recorded and there will be a lot of live performances this summer. If you want to (try to) keep up with this band, be sure to visit Ataraxia.net regularly and subscribe to their newsletter. And of course buy “Sueños” asap!
Ah, a new cd of one of the best bands that I know. This may be some kind of celebration too, because “Lost Atlantis” is the tenth cd of this Italian band (then I also count the mcd “Orlando”). “Lost Atlantis” should have been released quite a long time back, but various reasons delayed it’s release. Just like “Historiae” “Lost Atlantis” is released by the notorious label Cold Meat Industry from Sweden. Because there was a rumour that this cd would come as a box, I was very curious about what Karmanik would make of that. Instead of a box I ‘just’ got a discboxslider (like with the Arcana cd and the previous Ataraxia on CMI). This turned out to be the box…
Anyway, the music is of course brilliant. Some songs can also be found on the live video/cd box “Os Cavaleiros Do Templo” that was released by the Portugese label Symbiose/Vortex about half a year ago. “Lost Atlantis” is somewhat different from other Ataraxia cds. Where you can divide the previous cds in the groups neo-classical and neo-medieval, “Lost Atlantis” is more atmospheric, but not really neo-classical or neo-medieval. The lucky few who have been able to lay their hands on the earlier mentioned live-box will know what I mean. Even though I think this cd is not as good as other Ataraxia cds, “Lost Atlantis” is still much better than most other releases I’ve recently obtained. I guess it’s difficult to keep such a level as Ataraxia does and still try to do different things. I can promise you -though- that no real Ataraxia fan will really be disappointed.
I used to own a record of this defunct cult-formation, but I didn’t like it enough to keep it. For some reason I did want to get a copy of this cd with old and unreleased material. Still not exactly what I hoped for. Quite monotous dark ambient, with here and there some industrial sounds, but nowhere vocals… The first disc contains material from “Beyond All Thee Sickness”, “2×6 Dimensions Of A Coffin” and one track from “Andromeda” the second disc 10 unreleased tracks. Some nice tracks, many not too great. The double digipack with ‘leather’ and golden letters is great though!