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Cold Spring

v/a – Decoder (ost 2025)

Cold Spring announced the release of the soundtrack of a film the title of which did not ring a bell. Still, this 1984 movie has a soundtrack with Genesis P-Orridge (with and without Dave Ball), The The, Soft Cell, FM Einheit and Einstürzende Neubauten. Did I really miss that?

According to the label, this is the first “complete edition” of the soundtrack. Discogs lists several earlier releases from other labels, but it seems that these versions miss the Soft Cell track.

The film is about a man who finds out that when he plays “”noise” music”, people start to riot. There is not any noise on the soundtrack though. The music is rather soundscapish, sometimes a bit jazzy and a bit industrial here and there. Not too bad, but I think this will suit people who like the Psychic TV approach to music better. The soundtrack of the film itself is more experimental industrial. I did not recognise much music from the soundtrack.

The cd is out on 5 september, but is ready for preorders.
Thank you Cold Spring for bringing the film to my attention.

Link: Cold Spring

Colossloth – The Harmony Knife (2025)

  • noise

Even though I reviewed an album of Colossloth before, the name of the project (and perhaps the logo) always makes me think of some experimental doom metal band, probably from Tartarus Records. That is not the case though. Colossloth is a full out noise project with mostly releases on Cold Spring.

Well, the “noise” description is perhaps more fitting for the previous album, this time only in the first track. Other tracks are more ‘soundscapish’ and there is even a weird technoish track. After a while all tracks develop into something noisy though.

Let us say that the upcoming album (28 February) is more experimental. Sometimes soundscape, sometimes ‘rocky’, sometimes techno, but it always ends in a pile of noise.

Links: Colossloth, Cold Spring

Satøri – Pillars of Salt (2025)

For the upcoming release (28 February) Satøri went for a more rhythmical approach. Heavy industrial noise with darker vocals than before. There are also more quiet technoish experiments sometimes, but only to give your ears a little rest up until the next outburst of noise.

Every now and then you still get the wall of sound type of noise, but overall the more industrial approach of the new album is ‘easier’ to listen than the usual material of this project.

Not bad at all.

Links: Satøri / Cold Spring

Khost – Many Things Afflict Us Few Things Console Us (2024)

Finally there will be a new Khost album, and an album it is! Unlike many releases nowadays, the band (and label) did not settle for a ‘vinyl length’ of 37 minutes. Or did they? There actually will be two different vinyl versions with 11 tracks (40 minutes), but also a cd version with 18 tracks (70 minutes)! The cd not only has more tracks, but the tracks are also in a different order.

The sound is largely what we know and love Khost for. Very slow and dark doom metal with deep grunting vocals. There appears to be less use of electronics, except on the somewhat technoish/poppy “Face”. Some of the tracks do sound very industrial.

Among the extra tracks there is a somewhat more ‘normal doom’ track called “Define the Edge of Someone” which is more moody and with normal vocals. Also among the extra tracks is one of the dark ambient tracks with film samples that the band makes more often and two remixes.

I particularly like the slow, dark tracks. Perhaps “Many Things…” is not really surprising, but I still do not know much music in this style, while I like it a lot. You will have to wait until 20 September though, or go over to the label’s website or Soundcloud to have a listen in advance.

Links: Khost, Cold Spring

Trepaneringsritualen – The Totality Of Death (2024)

The first time I seriously listened to TxRxP was late 2013 when two cds were released on two different labels, with the same title, but with different material. The title was “The Totality Of Death“. The two cds contained existing material.

TxRxP had used the title before, for a 2011 tape release, but also after, as in 2013 another tape with this title appeared. In 2015 a 3lp release bared the same title and now two cds are made available by Cold Spring. The red cd is the “Alpha” and the green one the “Omega” part of this “Totality Of Death”, so is this really the “totality” this time?

Again the cds contain old material, mostly from compilations. Some tracks had not yet been released before or only in digital form. After two lively tracks follows the dark ambient sound of the project. Towards the end there are again some more industrial sounds.
Also the second cd goes from dark ambient to industrial, but mostly ambient. There is not really the ‘typical’ TxRxP sound it seems. There are earlier versions of a few tracks that later appeared on “Kainskult“.

There are some great tracks on the cds and some of the dark ambient tracks are descent as well.

You can get the cds from Cold Spring and when you are quick, red and green shirts.

Links: Trepaneringsritualen, Cold Spring

Satøri – The Woods (2023)

  • noise

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

Colossloth – Promethean Meat (2022)

  • noise

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

She Spread Sorrow – Huntress (2021)

I have known this Italian one woman project for a while, but I apparently never came to review anything of hers until now. This latest album will be available through Cold Spring like the earlier four releases.

Alice Kundalini (as goes the artist name) can get pretty loud every now and then “Huntress” is mostly an ambient album. 6 Tracks, 40 minutes of mostly industrial sounding ambient soundscapes with Alice’s whispered voice.

The music is alright, but not entirely my cup of tea. Perhaps this is why “She Spread Sorrow” never made it onto Gangleri.nl.

When you like soundscapish industrial ambient, have a listen to this (and previous) album(s).

Out 1 October.

Links: She Spread Sorrow, Cold Spring

Khost – Buried Steel (2020)

Every once in a while I feel like playing “funeral doom metal”. Yet slower and darker than much doom. I prefer the music to be without vocals (and with electronics), but there are a few bands whose vocals are good enough.

I was somewhat surprised when I found two such bands on the not-exactly-a-metal-label Cold Spring, Sutekh Hexen and Khost. Khost have made a few excellent albums, very dark, very slow. And here is their latest.

“Buried Steel” opens with more of a Godflesh-type industrial metal track, slow, but not as slow as Khost can get. A good track though. The second track is like that too. Then comes the magnificent track “Intravenar” with a slow techno beat, extremely low vocals and minimalist background sounds. The next few tracks are more comparable to earlier material and “funeral doom” is a good description. Great tracks to. I like the long ‘sample tracks’ in between less so though.

As closer off there is a remix of “Intravenar” by Mothboy! Not a better version than the original, but an amusing reference to another kind of music.

A wonderful new album. I am not yet sure if previous albums are better, but the new album is slightly different.

Links: Khost, Cold Spring

MZ.412 ‎– Svartmyrkr (2018)

Discogs.com

The ever active Hendrik “Nordvargr” Drakh / Björk returns under the moniker I first encountered him in back in the days on Cold Meat Industry. Nowadays Maschinenzimmer releases are made available on Cold Spring.

The previous album “Hekatomb” was a pretty descent ‘comeback’. Putting on “Svartmyrkr” I initially thought it was a new Nordvargr. Pompous industrial with the vocals we know from the other project. “Pompous” is a description for other tracks too, just like on the previous album, some tracks lean towards “martial industrial”. Other tracks have more the “black ambient” style of old, others are more noisy and then there is this moody track…

All in all “Svartmyrhr” is a good, dark and varied album.

Links: MZ.412, Cold Spring