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Cold Spring

Iron Fist Of The Sun ‎* We Can Yield Our Own Footsteps (cd 2015)

Recently I bought the “Embers” 7″, but it proved to be from 2011, so I did not review it. I have known Iron Fist Of The Sun (or IFOTS on the latest releases) by name for quite a while, but I never really got to listen to this project from the UK until recently.

Deezer has the 2009 album “Behavioural Decline”. It is comparable to the “Embers” 7″, the “We Can Yield…” album currently under review and the “Live At The Garage” live mcd that I got with the album, but perhaps the last one is more intense. The music is roughly comparable to IRM or Skin Area. Pretty extreme noise, but not as extreme as Whitehouse or Merzbow. Here and there the sound leans toward ‘ambient noise’ and one track can even be described as a ‘soundscape’ (or a ‘noisescape’).

Some tracks are certainly dark and moody, but I do not like every track as much as the next. I do like the very extreme vocals, which is also one of the reasons I have to think of IRM.

Overall “We Can Yield Our Own Footsteps” is a fair album with a couple of very good tracks.

Links: Iron Fist Of The Sun, Cold Spring

Trepaneringsritualen * Veil The World (2011/2014)

Cold Spring recently rereleased this early Trepaneringsritualen tape. (The very first release (“Ritualer, Blot & Botgöring“) has been rereleased on cd by the Rusian label Infinite Fog Productions.) “Veil The World” contains the typical Trepaneringsritualen death industrial sound, but what makes these ‘early’ recordings interesting are the times that the distortion is limited and the sound goes into a more ‘minimal wave’ direction. These less typical elements make “Veil The World” not only interesting for archival reasons, but also shows that Cold Spring made a good choice to rerelease this particular tape.

Links: Trepaneringsritualen, Cold Spring Records

v/a * Treatmeant Of The Dead (cd 2014)

The latest Cold Spring sampler is a very very noisy one. The most eye-catching track is one by “Coil / Nine Inch Nails”, but the most ear-cathing is the track of Trepaneringsritualen. For the rest there are project that I already knew (Merzbow, Troum, Burial Hex, Skullflower, Iron Fist Of The Sun and Z’ev) and projects that I did not know, or only heard of (Sol, Tunnels of Ah, Shift, Mesektet, Khost and Sutekh Hexen).
Like I said, the compilation is pretty noisy, also with ear-piercing high frequencies and little structure. Not all my taste, but it is always nice to hear new projects.
Link: Cold Spring Records

Trepaneringsritualen‎ * Perfection & Permanence (cd 2014)

Trepaneringsritualen released material on a whole range of small labels. This is the third release on a relative major (after an lp and cd on Malignant). This will certainly be good for the spread of the wonderfull name. Cold Spring made a very nice digipack and what is more, this album might very well contain the best Trepaneringsritualen material so far. It reminds a lot of the WGT show in Leipzig. It is very industrial, with a lot of beats, rhythm and screamed vocals. Several earlier releases have less energy, are more ‘ambient noise’ so to way. “Perfection & Permanence” lives up more to the often used description “death industrial” that people put on this Swedish project.
This new cd might not only be more easy to obtain than other releases of Trepaneringsritualen, but for all of you who have not yet hear this project, give a great idea of how dark and aggressive this project (and his live shows!) can get.
Links: Trepaneringsritualen, Cold Spring

Heldentod * The Ghost Machine (cd 2012)

I am unsure of the reason why I got this album! Perhaps the name of this project suggested this to be a martial industrial project and I was curious what the latest in martial industrial would sound like? Well, this is no martial industrial I tell you! Apparently, Heldentod also is not a new project. Three albums have been made available earlier by the project itself. Looking back it seems that these previous album do indeed contain neofolk and martial industrial. Aha, prejudice confirmed! Onto “The Ghost Machine” then. It opens noisy, a wall of sound type of noise, but not too extreme. The second track is more of a “noisescape” kind, a very nice track with pulsating noises and some echoing vocal sample. Only in the beginning of the fourth track Heldentod gets pretty extreme, but other tracks are really good noise tracks of lesser intensity. “Betrayal” is more old-styled industrial noise and also good. Some other tracks are almost ambient, but also good. Actually, this is a very good album! I love it when I run into something good by accident!
Links: Heldentod, Cold Spring

Kreuzweg Ost ‎* Gott Mit Uns (cd 2012)

“Iron Avantgarde” 2000, “Edelrost” 2005 and now “Gott Mit Uns”. Kreuzweg Ost take their time to make their music. The previous two albums sound a bit like a parody on the martial industrial style with amusing experiments with samples, rhythms and song-structure. Both albums are quite good, but I rarely play them. So what would the third album in 12 years time sound like? First let me tell you that the comedy element is mostly left out. No silly samples of Dutchman trying to speak English or happily marching boots. Almost every track opens with a well-done rhythmic experiment and slowly builds up in melodies and samples. Also, as before, the tracks are stuffed with samples, this time with a (martial) Christian content. The tracks are seven to over nine minutes long with not a whole lot of variation. Again Kreuzweg Ost come with nice ideas and work them out meticulously resulting in very good tracks. The only thing is that they may be been a bit shorter here and there. A good album again, not with the typical martial industrial orchestral bombast, but the Kreuzweg Ost version of the genre.
Links: Kreuzweg Ost, Cold Spring

Von Thronstahl * Conscriptvm (2cd 2010)

Another album with rare songs and alternative versions of Von Thronstahl. I feared I would have most of them, since I have most material of the band and quite a few compilations with Von Thronstahl on them. The nice thing about “Conscriptvm” is that there are songs that were recorded, but eventually did not make it to albums because they did not fit. Therefor there are not only different versions of tracks that I already had, but also new songs. Good news for the people who prefer the early style of the band is that most tracks of the first cd in the old style, there is even a version of “Sturmzeit”. Not that there is much of the dark orchestral industrial style, but the music for the larger part is not of the rocky kind of nowadays. The second cd has more ‘neofolky’ songs. All in all I can say that “Conscriptvm” might not contain the best material of the band, but as usual it is a very nice album to listen to.
Links: Von Thronstahl, Cold Spring

NDE * Krieg Blut Ehre Asche (cd 2009)

Yet another project of Dead Man’s Hill, Alle Sagen Ja, Eisengrau, etc. NDE makes a mix between black metal, martial industrial, bombastic orchestrations and noise. The result is a heavy pompous sound with distorted screamed vocals and raging guitars. Quite extreme, quite original, not alway quite good. There are some nice orchestral noisy tracks, but as soon as the guitars set in, I loose my interest. I think this album will appeal to people who like the later sound of Karjalan Sissit with the noisy orchestrations and screamed vocals, but then with guitars added.
Links: NDE, Cold Spring

H.E.R.R. * XII Caesars (cd 2009)

XII CaesarsTwo Dutch reviews today. Two times soft orchestral music too. “XII Caesars” has the style of “Vondel’s Lucifer” (and I apparently missed the previous album), which means that it is not as bombastic and martial as the earlier material, but still a bit. The orchestrations are nice, the vocals as well, yep, HERR makes some fine music.
Links: H.E.R.R., Cold Spring

Von Thronstahl * Germanium Metallicum (cd 2009)

Germanium MetallicumIn an exquisite digipack comes the new album of Von Thronstahl. This controversial band will amplify the opinions about them with this pretty political release. A “musical terrorists network” was founded (with a funny “wanted” leaflet in the middle of the booklet) and the quotes and lyrics that come with each track are clear enough (but can of course still be either fuel or water depending on your own ideas). 19 Tracks seemingly going over most of Von Thronstahl’s musical history with orchestral tracks, marchdrums (fierce of subtle), rocksongs, neofolk and a lot of martial bombast, but also the more sound-collage oriented tracks. Especially the first part of the album is very good with a variety of good tracks and songs with of course a load of samples. The overall length is 70 minutes. For people worrying about the musical direction of the band: the way the songs are created may remind of “Bellum, Sacrum Bellum?!”, but sound does not really. On the other hand, neither is the sound as dark as on the early releases (which I guess will not be topped anymore). “Germanium Metallicum” is a real Von Thronstahl album and like all of the others, it is pretty good too.
Links: Von Thronstahl, Trutzburg Thule, Cold Spring