Yesterday was the last time when I released a new song, here we go again, I’ve got another one: The Last Elephant. Maybe I’m not a creative genius, but still, I’m at least productive. 😀 Written for the same album, “The Ghost of the Absent Father”, this is a more darker song with kind of aggrotech/EBM resonances, industrial textures. It has a slow-grinding passage colored nicely with a gentle piano and a string orchestra, but still, this is pretty intense I guess. Not too sophisticated, straight and pumping. Read more The Last Elephant
EBM
Alfa Matrix Re:Covered 2 A Tribute To Depeche Mode – 2CD (2011)
Founded in 2001, based in Brussels, the Belgian record label, Alfa Matrix, becomes a quality trademark and home of some bands as Front 242, Leæther Strip, Unter Null, Armageddon Dildos, Zombie Girl, Mind:state, Psy’Aviah, Adam X, Dunkelwerk, Trisomie 21 – to mention only a few.
As the official release note says: “Although the first volume of this Depeche Mode cover album received a more than successful echo from both indie and mainstream worlds, this project would have definitely remained a one-off project if some of our label bands had not insistently pressed us to launch a second volume.” Leaether Strip, Ayria, Kant Kino, Komor Kommando, I:Scintilla, Technoir, Helalyn Flowers, Plastic Noise Experience, Implant, Krystal System, Acylum, and other bands delivered some twisted and exciting covers of Depeche Mode and definitively this double CD (plus free EP) are an excellent trip and perfect follow up of the previous, two years earlier release. Read more Alfa Matrix Re:Covered 2 A Tribute To Depeche Mode – 2CD (2011)
Ad Inferna – There Is No Cure (2011)
Mixing dark EBM with Euro-dance/trance and some Gothic/Industrial twist, Ad Inferna from Bordeaux, Aquitaine, France, returning with their forth studio album “There Is No Cure”. Actually, this is a dark place where there’s no God. The duo of VoA VoXyD – Lead Guitars, Keyboards & Electronics and V. V. Arkames – Lead Vocals moved from Trance (“Trance N Danceâ€) to club oriented EBM (“DSMâ€) and now they go down on a darker path with Gothic shades and blending their Trance roots with the previously incorporated EBM sounds. Powerful beats, dark multi-layer textures, gloomy soundscapes and mixed lyrics, both English and French, create dark and filthy atmosphere. Read more Ad Inferna – There Is No Cure (2011)
Necro Facility – Wintermute (2011)
Swedish newcomers Necro Facility deliver another intense and intelligently built trip into the EBM taste-like dark electro music where Industrial-strength beats, heavy synths and twisted sounds which reminds me once again of the Front 242 standard and contemporary club music collide into a glowing, pumping construction made of intensity and musicality simultaneously. Oscar Holter – music and Henrik Bäckström – lyrics and vocals made another “Swedish quality” product, European roots and Canadian sounds of the industrial/EBM scene are merged smoothly into an exciting and colorful material released through Progress Productions. Read more Necro Facility – Wintermute (2011)
Dolls Of Pain – The Last Conflict (2011)
This is the 4th album by French band Dolls Of Pain which lead us through the shady side of the contorted human soul once again. This is a wicked world made of leather and latex, conflicts and torture, sex, lies and jealousy. Musically, Dolls of Pain is a mixture of Dark Electro/EBM, resonating New Wave left-overs and reminiscences of Synth Pop and filtered Industrial textures with some rocking guitar riffs. There persist some unavoidable parallels with Front 242, the Belgian pioneers of the Dark Electronic music, but Cédric aka VDB42 – synthetic keys/2nd vocals and Olivier aka Machine – guitars/keyboards programming/composing, the two core members of the group, managed to write some interesting themes, “The Last Conflict” is a quality and absolutely correct album of the genre. Read more Dolls Of Pain – The Last Conflict (2011)
KMFDM – WTF?! (2011)
It’s been two years since the release of “Blitz” and KMFDM are back now with their seventeenth studio album released yesterday, on April 26. It’s true, meanwhile KMFDM released two compilation albums, “Würst” and “Greatest Shit”. Since Tim Sköld (formerly of Shotgun Messiah) left in 2003 to join Marilyn Manson (he left Manson in 2008 and formed Doctor Midnight & The Mercy Cult alongside Hank von Helvete), he still had contributed to KMFDM – “Skold vs. KMFDM” released in 2009, completed entirely over the Internet – and since Sascha Konietzko and Lucia Cifarelli moved to Hamburg, Germany, it will be the first release entirely without any contribution from Tim. Steve White and Jules Hodgson played guitars and Andy Selway the drums, completing the curent line-up of the band. “What the Fuck?!” still remains fresh, pulsing, intense and exciting. KMFDM is one of the few of this genre of Industrial Metal and Rock/EBM blending which avoiding successfully to repeat them self and becoming boring. Read more KMFDM – WTF?! (2011)
Blood – X-Cultura (2011)
In my book, Blood was a cult Japanese band closely associated with visual kei, but they referred to themselves as a “gothic band”. It’s the first time when I heard of Blood from Alicante, Spain. The band was formed in 1999 by Jose Master – vocals and bass and Mado Javier Battery East Beneyto – guitar, vocals, sequences, and they played a blending of Goth and Industrial Metal. “X-Cultura” contains 11 brand new tracks including three remixes by Alien Vampire, Homicide Division and Obszon Geschopf. While those remixes sounds pretty EBM, the other 9 tracks sounds much darker and heavier, quite similar to the sound of Rammstein. Read more Blood – X-Cultura (2011)
free downloads de la ALFA-MATRIX
[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/playlists/469926″]
1. ANDO – Rhythm Machine
2. MALAKWA – Monster 5.23 1054 plays
3. ARMAGEDDON DILDOS – Untergrund
4. PSY’AVIAH – Into the game (feat. AYRIA) [Signal Aout 42 remix]
5. STUDIO-X – You’ll Never Get This
Umbra et Imago – Opus Magnus (2010)
Într-o prea frumoasă zi de sâmbătă, pe 20 februarie, la Silver Church au venit cu un show incendiar cei din Umbra et Imago, am pomenit atunci de eveniment, dar nu mai ştiu ce m-a ţinut departe de spectacol. Ascultând proaspătul „Opus Magnus” oarecum regret absenţa mea de la acel concert, Umbra et Imago dincolo de show-ul erotic cu accente BDSM (Bondage & Discipline, Dominance & Submission, Sadism & Masochism), fac muzică, muzică de calitate. Imagini din Silver Church găsiţi pe Realitatea.net.
11 piese plus un bonus („Wanderers Nachtlied”), noul Umbra et Imago este un material întunecat, o combinaţie extrem de nimerită între tendinţele Neue Deutsche Härte impuse în primul rând de Rammstein şi notele tradiţionale de Gothic Metal cu iz teuton.
Mozart (Manuel Munz) – voce, frumoasa Madeleine Le Roy – voce şi show, basistul Lutz Demmler, bateristul Michael „Migge” Schwarz şi chitaristul Sascha au reuşit să imprime un disc rotund, echilibrat, colorat şi foarte bine produs.
Dacă trecem peste balada obsesivă, laitmotivul NDH, „Ohne Dich” ce deschide albumul, riff-urile consistente, clapele îmbietoare, vocea gravă al lui Mozart şi partiturile muzicale sofisticate ale Madelinei ne călăuzesc într-o lume incitantă, bine nuanţată şi solid construită.
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De la „Perfect Baby” la „Sonntagsandacht” discul Read more Umbra et Imago – Opus Magnus (2010)
Unter Null – Moving On (2010)
Pomeneam ieri legat de albumul Kidneythieves de Shikhee, vestea bună e că noul material Android Lust „The Human Animal” urmează să fie lansat în data de 10 august şi tot ieri aminteam şi de Unter Null, al treilea lor album, „Moving On” a fost lansat în februarie de Alfa Matrix, dar în avalanşa de discuri cumva n-am apucat la acel moment să scriu despre el.
„Sub Zero” (Unter Null în limba germană) este proiectul lui Erica Dunham (născută la Seattle) pornit în 1998 şi explorează o zonă Electro experimentală cu sonorităţi de la EBM la Power Noise, dar include şi secvenţe Chill, Trip şi Trance.
Nu doar numele are rezonanţă germană, stilul, abordarea este destul de nemţească, muzica are ca fundament sonorităţile EBM europene însă tocmai amintitele secvenţe de escapadă într-o zonă experimentală, pasajele mai lente şi de atmosferă o diferenţiază, o salvează pe Erica din zona gri, relativ monotonă şi repetitivă a sutelor, miilor de proiecte de acest tip. Tot un plus aduc şi ruperile, incursiunile în extrema opusă, momentele Noise, distorsiunile zgomotoase.
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„Moving On” aliniază 10 piese noi şi un cover Nick Cave Read more Unter Null – Moving On (2010)
