This Austrian project comes on Stahlklang with a cdr limited to 150 copies. 7 Tracks and 45 minutes of slow, orchestral and repetative industrial. Here and there a touch of Der Blutharsch or Sophia, but fortunately no copycat. Sometimes the music is a bit too repetative, but there are a few very nice tracks to be heard. Get in touch with Stahlklang for more information.
A new release on Stahlklang and indeed Stahlklang is not a label just releasing Savelkoul’s own material! Sector .03 is the new project of Johan König who started as A Challenge Of Honour (now only Savelkoul) making harsch rhythmical industrial with extensive voice-samples (sometimes too extensive). The music goes from repetative to teknoid industrial. Sometimes hard and dancable (in a way), sometimes more noisy. Comes in an A5 package, is limited to 50 copies and lasts for 45 minutes. Pretty nice.
I suppose this project from the Netherlands is a new one. At least two common names for me under the members. Re.sistance is a harsch industrial/noise-project and this cdr has 13 tracks and lasts almost an hour. The tracks are not always too great, but there are a few very nice between them. No creaking noise, but mostly rhythmical and with samples or distorted vocals.
Limited to 75 copies!
Opfertag is also the ‘design-side’ of Peter Savelkoul (Above The Ruins, Stahlklang, A Challenge Of Honour, etc.) on the web. Musically Opfertag is a noise project on Stahlklang. From ambient to rhythmical noise you get 7 tracks that are alright but not brilliant. A nice cd, but not Stahlklang’s best material.
Materialschlacht is the pre-A Challenge Of Honour project of Peter Savelkoul. As far as I know there is only a 7″ of this project, but here we have 9 tracks from a demo and an older track on an older cd that is very limited but not completely sold out yet. Materialschlacht is harder, more industrial and most of all darker than ACOH. The cd opens with some monotous ambient/industrial/noise tracks, but lateron there are more rhythmical tracks. Most tracks are pretty good.
The cd is dedicated to the neutral attitude of the Dutch people (in war, but also out of war) “which is summarised in two words: alertness and trust” (which words are the meaning of the title). A nice re-release on Stahlklang, limited to 25 copies, so don’t wait.
This isn’t exactly the first ACOH review on these pages. As a matter of fact the “The Right Place” demo was the first sign of ACOH that came to me some 15 months ago. In that time the band was still Johan König, later Peter Savelkoul of Above The Ruins / Stahlklang Audio / etc. joined and eventually continued alone. The 7 tracks of the demo are here and further 5 newer tracks which are of course by mr Savelkoul. The cd starts with orchestral industrial reminding a bit of Der Blutharsch or Dernière Volonté, sometimes rather soft, sometimes harder. Also there is an acoustric track and one with Sleepy Hollow soundtrack samples (also used a bit too much on the “Only Stones Remain” cd) and some tracks are better than I remember from the demo. The newer tracks are very orchestral and bombastic and mostly very good too! Quite a classic release again from the Netherlands. ACOH articles are usually very limited, but released a couple of times. There are 100 copies of this cd in a nice A5 package and other early ACOH releases are made available again as well. Try to miss them not.
This is a rerelease an of the earlier released promo-cdr “Wilhelm Gustloff”, but this time with additional tracks. The material for “Wilhelm Gustloff” was recorded together by Johan K. and Peter S. so this is the transition between when ACOH was still a soloproject of Johan K. (ger) to when it became a soloproject of Peter S. (nl). The “Gustloff” mcd was recorded in march/april 2001 and the additional tracks are only of Peter S. and were recorded in august/september 2001.
“Gustloff” tells the story of the ship with the name “Wilhelm Gustloff” that was shot down by a Russian submarine on 30 januari 1945. Samples are used from the 1959 movie “Nacht Fiel Über Gotenhafen” by Frank Wisbar. The music is not as bombastic as on the latest full-length cd “Only Stones Remain” (see elsewhere), but still ‘bombastic industrial’ so to say. The extra tracks are more orchestral and Peter also makes some neo-folkish music sometimes.
Anyway, again a very nice cd and again you have to be very quick. There are only 50 copies available and it seems that also “Only Stones Remain” is almost sold out. Be sure to get in contact with Peter quickly to see if there still are copies left for you. I can highly recommand both “Gustloff” and “Only Stones Remain” when you like ‘bombastic industrial’ (say, Dernière Volonté, Der Blutharsch, etc.). This one comes in a very funny package as well. <31/10/01><4>
Just released a few days ago and very limited (30 copies) comes a nice tape in a videobox.
“The Right Place” opens with a few tracks that remind of Der Blutharsch and Dernière Volonté and after an acoustic track there are a couple of monotous soundscape-like ambient/industrial tracks that I don’t like as much as the first few tracks. These are a bit harder, slightly militant and with talking-samples, like you may expect with the two comparison projects.
However I think that this German band would fit well on Hau Ruck!, it seems that Cold Spring showed interest. Not the least label indeed, so I’m curious what the future will bring. I’ll patiently wait and see. And for the moment, get in touch with Stahlklang before all copies are gone. <1/4/01><3>