Death Boulevard – Killed By Killers (2019)
I got lucky. I was paging through the Tesco website when I noticed the unimaginable project name with the unimaginable album title. For some reason I decided to look up what Death Boulevard would sound like. Perhaps because the ‘blurb’ says the project is from Brazil?
“Killed By Killers” contains noise and death industrial. The sound is about as original as the project’s name and album title, but it is executed very well. Good low frequency noise, great aggressive vocals. The tracks go from relatively tranquil industrial to more Cleansweep wall-of-sound type noise. Some tracks are more sample driven, giving a bit of a GO feeling. Some of the more vocal tracks do too by the way.
The album is released on L.White and there are only 100 cds available. You can get it digitally through Bandcamp though. As I said, it is a very enjoyable album.
Link: L.White
I have known Thorofon for years, but haven’t really known them. I have some tracks on compilations, but they never really caught my attention. A while ago an lp of Dogpop was announced which is described as: “between minimal cold electronic classics with a distinctive German voice and soundtrack-like dreams with a touch of antipop”. I was interested enough to order a copy, but I got a note that it was sold out (it seems to be available (again) from different distributors though), so I looked for it with P2P and actually found it too. Indeed, “Popgod” is a strange release with strangely accessible sounds somewhere between old-style industrial and electro/EBM, or maybe more a Neubauten sound. Nice, but not great, so I didn’t get myself the lp yet, but maybe when they play in Antwerp next week. In any case, probably because of the involvement of Thorofon in Dogpop, I apparently also downloaded “This Summer Suicide” and completely forgot to listen to it. When I later had to fill half an hour (I always play music when I am at home) and saw Thorofon I thought: “oh well, nobody has died yet from half an hour of power electronics” (usually I spare my girlfriend). I was still under the impression that Thorofon was one of these old noise/power electronics projects with chaotic sounds and screamed vocals. To my surprise I heard music that I had hoped Dogpop would sound like! From old fashioned (I mean: retro) industrial to nice accessible dance sounds (Neubauten-like?) and here and there some harder industrial and noise tracks. “This Summer Suicide” is really a great album, an industrial classic even! It all reminds a bit of the later material of Haus Arafna, balancing between harsch electronics and more ‘easy listening’ material, but with the difference that Thorofon’s accessible tracks are more accessible than Haus Arafna’s and the industrial parts have a more classical sound. To my surprise there are still copies available of the 500 that are pressed of this album (I got my copy from Steinklang) and it comes in a very nice A5 packaging too. If you are looking for a great industrial album with a refreshing sound, get “This Summer Suicide” (meanwhile I have downloaded another album which is more an old fashioned noise album with indeed chaotic sounds and screamed vocals) and maybe if you like the less-industrial tracks, you may want to listen to Dogpop and The Musick Wreckers (Thorofon is dead and they became TMW).