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Cyclic Law

Peter Bjärgö * The Architecture Of Melancholy (cd 2011)

This second solo album of Peter Bjärgö (Arcana, Sophia) is a melancholic, orchestral album. It reminds me a lot of Arcana. There is a lot of focus on Bjärgö’s voice, there is guitar and orchestrations. 7 Tracks that span 40 minutes. In the early days of Arcana, I was gripped by Pettersson’s (as his last name was before he got married) music. Arcana soon started to sound too much the same to me, but then he came with Sophia. The later albums of Arcana that I heard are good, but not really my thing. The same I can see of “The Architecture Of Melancholy”. The music is certainly good, but does not ‘work’ for me. People who are gripped by Bjärgö’s music will undoubtely love this new album.
Links: Peter Bjärgö, Cyclic Law

Vortex * Rockdrill (cd 2011)

“Rockdrill” opens with a quite typical ‘droney’ dark ambient track, but halfway goes over in triballic drumming. Then we have a track which is somewhat of spoken word over soundscapes and then dark ambient again. Yep, Vortex is not your typical dark ambient project, it sounds more interesting than that. The ambient is nicely dark, but there are also more ritualistic and experimental elements and the artist certainly knows how to set an atmosphere. This is one of the more interesting dark ambient releases of late, tagging it for the larger part of the music. Recommended!
Links: VortexCyclic Law

New Risen Throne * Loneliness Of Hidden Structures (cd 2011)

I only knew New Risen Throne by name. I do not even think I knew that they had a cd on Cold Meat. Listening to “Loneliness Of Hidden Structures” that last bit is not very strange. NRT makes pretty dark ambient with deep drones and stretched sounds and I indeed hear the ‘CMI-sound’ here and there and the titles could have been of Raison D’Être tracks. I must say that however I am quite critical about many of the recent dark ambient releases, this album does not disappoint me. The music is quite interesting, Northaunt and Nordvargr give the album a more industrial twist with their remixes and the atmosphere is good for the dark winter nights to come.
Links: New Risen Throne, Cyclic Law

Psychomanteum * Oneironaut (cd 2011)

Cyclic Law seems to focus on rereleases and dark ambient. Just as Triangular Ascension, Parhelion and AUN, Psychomanteum recorded dark ambient soundscapes. Initially it sounds promising. Nicely dark, nice deep beats, but after a while I found myself thinking of Raison d’Être cds. Psychomanteum sounds similar in several tracks, even with the sounds of metal objects of the later Raison d’Être releases. It is not that “Oneironaut” is a bad or boring album, but it is but another dark ambient cd reminding too much of what is already there.
Links: Psychomanteum, Cyclic Law

Triangular Ascension * Leviathan Device (cd 2011)

The debut release of this Venezualian project is based on Thomas Hobbe’s “Leviathan”. It opens as a typical dark ambient soundscapes album. The second track is a nice dark one with deep beats and industrial sounds. Then comes more soft soundscapish material with a little bit of melody, quite typical dark ambient actually, but the fifth track is again very interesting with a slightly tribal-like rhythm and a great atmosphere. After this follow some more soundscapish tracks, some nicely dark, others less dark with here and there you will hear a flinch of noise. The last track is more melodious. “Leviathan Device” is a varried album. The dark ambient tracks are alright to nice, the darker tracks much more interesting. Overall not a bad debut, so if you like to listen to dark ambient, you might want to give this album a try.
Link: Cyclic Law

Parhelion * Midnight Sun (cd 2010)

“Midnight Sun” is a 60-minute album with 12 tracks of soundscapes and drones. The music sometimes gets a noisy edge, is sometimes rather dark, but remains ‘soundscapish’. The tracks have a variety of atmospheres which makes that I like some tracks, but others not at all. The overall style seems to be “drones”, not necessarily because of low frequency drones, but also because the music seems to be created with guitars and effects rather than just electronics.
Link: Cyclic Law

AUN * Black Pyramid (cd 2010)

I do not think I ever heard of AUN but it seems they have numerous releases in but a few years. AUN makes dark ambient soundscapes that here and there get a bit more energetic. Themselves they describe the sound as “drone”, but I miss the low frequencies for that description. Over the whole 48 minutes, the sound of “Black Pyramid” is too monotous for my liking. Stretched sounds, minimal melodies; not completely boring, but I like my dark ambient a bit darker and a bit less ‘soundscapish’.
Links: AUN, Cyclic Law

Allseits * Hel (cd 2009)

I did not know Allseits yet, but that is because this is only the second release and the debut was not released within our scene. “Hel” is a pretty good album with very dark ambient / drone music. The sound is minimalistic and monotous, but not too monotous and almost all the time there is this very low frequency industrial pulse on the background. Very nice!
Links: Allseits, Cyclic Law

Karjalan Sissit * Fucking Whore Society (cd 2009)

FWSWhen you read my reviews of the previous albums of Karjalan Sissit you will notice that I never really held this project in high regard. His music is alright, but there are better projects in this style. With the previous album Pesonen gave a bit of extra gass and he recorded an album much more agressive than anything in the “bombastic industrial” style of that time (and still). Too bad that on the latest album, he just repeats himself and made a copy of “Tanssit…”. Nice dark soundscapes with speechsamples are alternated with bombastic and sometimes orchestral industrial with fierce drumming and very aggressive vocals. Not really boring, but not really great either.
Links: Karjalan Sissit, Cyclic Law

v/a * Juche (cd 2008 kim il sung rec.)

A compilation dedicated to North Korea with a whole range of interesting bands to be found on it. Putting the cd on I am very pleased to hear that Turbund Sturmwerk didn’t loose their touch afterall. Their latest tracks were not too great, but their “Reunification” is pretty damn good. It opens very loud with a bit of a Firsst Law sound and after a noisy middle Turbund falls back in known patterns, but overall I am happy with this wonderfull track. Lovers of harsch noise can enjoy themselves with Operation Cleansweep, Con-Dom and Genocide Organ. The track that Militia contributed is quite nice, but when we skip on to Ex.Order we hear another wonderfull “ambient noise” track with a great dark sound. The Grey Wolves tear our ears to shreds with their power electronics and to close off Anenzephalia put together a quite typical track with minimal noise and screamed vocals; not their best material, but not boring either. Overall “Juche” is mostly a compilation for people who like the harder side of electronic music and who had to wait for their favourite projects to finally release something new. “Juche” has a nice A5 package, produced in North Korea and is limited to a mere 15.000.000 copies, so hurry up!