After leaving Skinny Puppy, Bill Leeb in 1986 formed Front Line Assembly (FLA) and influenced by early electronic and (Post-)industrial acts such as Cabaret Voltaire, Portion Control, D.A.F., Test Dept, SPK, and Severed Heads, FLA has developed its own unique sound while combining elements of EBM and Industrial (Metal).
The band’s membership has rotated through several members over the years, including Rhys Fulber and Michael Balch, while the current official line-up of the band consists of: Bill Leeb, Chris Peterson, Jeremy Inkel and Jared Slingerland. Read more Front Line Assembly – Plasticity (2012)
industrial
Ministry – Relapse (2012)
Few words worth more then a couple of fancy, but meaningless phrases, so, Al Jourgensen – age fiftyfuckingthree years – is back with the twelfth studio album of Ministry and they are simply and straightly louder, faster and angrier then ever. And Mr. Jourgensen is not alone, he’s got serious back up from Mike Scaccia and Casey Orr of Rigor Mortis, Tommy Victor of Prong and Tony Campos of Static X. This time eventually they aren’t pushing the musical boundaries further, they doesn’t break any new ground, but definitively they delivered again the most murderous sonic sledgehammer and you can bang your head to it, get wasted or waste someone, or occupy the streets and markets of your city. Politically correct? The ulcers are gone and Bush is gone, the shit stays the same, the price of the gas goes upper everyday, but let’s stick for now to the music and to this 10 tracks and just bang on this for a while! Read more Ministry – Relapse (2012)
Cycler – Polymath (2012)
Cycler is the alias used by Ioan Bârlădeanu when he’s tripping into music. This journey kicked out back in ’97, first influences came from acts such as Kraftwerk, Photek, ZX Spectrum Orchestra, Plaid, Modeselektor, Amon Tobin, Haus Arafna, Yvat, Distance, Brazda lui Novac, but two years later he saw a HBO documentary about “rave parties” and pushed forward by The Prodigy, he split his rebellious spirit between heavy metal and big-beat.
On April 26th ’07 made his main stage debut at the 2nd edition of experimental/electronic underground festival Cybermental at Bucharest followed by several other festivals and gigs along other Romanian artist of the electro scene like Matze, Brazda Lui Novac, Silent Strike, Clock:Divider, Luntaire, etc.
Cycler featured on several releases, the first was along Karsten Hamre (NO) on the project “The Flux Komplex”, and release of the album “Lost Illusions” through Trinity Records, Hong Kong. He also appeared on some compilations: “Diferenta 01” and “The DeviantArt Compilation” in 2008.
The time seems right for his debut album and Raumklang Music released it on March 1st Cycler’s debut album, “Polymath”. And if you enjoyed “Dizzy” , the latest album by Brazda lui Novac, definitively you don’t want to miss this one! Read more Cycler – Polymath (2012)
Morbid Angel – Illud Divinum Insanus – The Remixes (2012)
Some conservative death metal fans definitively hated “Illud Divinum Insanus”, the last year released Morbid Angel album because Mr. Vincent and his band mates delivered also some industrial and modern metal sounds and fans considered this an act of betray. Those fans definitively should stay away from this double remix album set to be released on 28th February. Although, “Illud Divinum Insanus” made it to my favorite 150 albums of 2011, so I was quite excited about this remix project.
On this compilation featuring 39 artists and they pushing the butchery even further, twisting Morbid Angel into the more noisier, electronic, but quite sick area of music. From contorted industrial remixes to wobbling dubstep out-takes, “Illud Divinum Insanus – The Remixes” it’s definitively the ultimate trip to hell and back. Read more Morbid Angel – Illud Divinum Insanus – The Remixes (2012)
Eisbrecher – Die Holle Muss Warten (2012)
The fifth studio album by the German Neue Deutsche Härte band takes down on a quite gothic/romantic side of the industrial metal, and from my point of view more than one ballad on a this kind of album it’s already too much. And – unfortunately – “Die Hölle muss warten” have several ballads, slow and pretty boring bitter-sweet songs, all of them filled with cliches, rather then with feeling. The faster, darker, pulsing songs of Eisbrecher sounds like a collision of The Sisters of Mercy with Rammstein and some of them are quite anthematics as the leading single: “Verrückt”.
No more “This is Deutsch”, but still, Eisbrecher rocks hard as they always should with tracks like “Herz aus Eis” where they managed to merged the slow and gothic mood with dark and heavy contortions. Love that track! And few others as “Abgrund”. Read more Eisbrecher – Die Holle Muss Warten (2012)
Mindless Faith – Just Defy (2012)
Although, as I just find out, this is their fifth album, “Just Defy” is the first album by Mindless Faith I ever listening to. I crashed into Mindless Faith at Indaba Music through the Jane’s Addiction remix competition , competition won by them which actually makes me hate them – although my remix is even darker – 😀 – but, I’m not gonna deny my subjectivity on this issue! 😆
Anyway, it seems they have a solid and substantial fan-base and experience in remixing “business”, delivering several tracks, including remixes for Nine Inch Nails and Front Line Assembly, and they delivering solid, balanced remixes incorporating their dark, deep and pulsing marks on these works. They remixed two Nine Inch Nails songs: “Only” and “The Hand That Feeds” and won a number of radio remix contests, met Trent Reznor as part of one of the prize, who said their remix was “better than some I’ve paid for”.
Mindless Faith find their path of merging industrial rock and EBM, their dark and contorted music honor predecessors such as Ministry, Pigface, KMFDM, Front242, Funker Vogt, Skinny Puppy, Combichrist, Nitzer Ebb, Schnitt Acht – just to name few.
“Just Defy” it’s another trip into the dark side and Mindless Faith is an exelent combo delivering soundtracks for this strange times of global turmoil. Read more Mindless Faith – Just Defy (2012)
Blue Stahli – Blue Stahli (2011)
Although I have a whole lot of new releases waiting there to be listen and eventually to get a review at the bottom line, still, there are many treasures left undiscovered from the previous year. Blue Stahli are definitively one of them and released on March 2, 2011, this self-titled album it’s the first not only instrumental album by the artist, but the second under the Blue Stahli moniker.
We’ve got 10 tracks, 43 minutes of ravishing fury and sensual emotions. Blue Stahli managed to merged anthematic rock hooks with smoothly cinematic sensitivity and epic electronic sound. Aggressive riffing, melodic hooks, bloody screams and contorted electronic layers are working in perfect harmony here to create the most efficient construction of gothic punk with industrial metal outfit. Probably most of the people will think of Nine Inch Nails and well, there are some obvious similarities, but still, this is something quite different. And highly addictive. Read more Blue Stahli – Blue Stahli (2011)
Dungeon Elite [**] – New World Disorder (2011)
Emocore, NintendoCore, Happy GrindCore, Electro Metal, label it as you please, this is extremely intense and murderous s*it. Fada (Screaming), Becko (Synthesizers and Vocals), and finally Maia (Vocals) formed the group in Rome, Italy and their released their debut, “Make Love Not Warcraft” in 2007. Described on their MySpace profile as “Techno/Grindcore/Emotronic”, their music is a refreshing mixture of Hardcore, Nintendo and Game sounds like elements with Dance and Electronic musics, it’s extremely pulsing, dynamic, Metal and Techno melt into one and explode. Read more Dungeon Elite [**] – New World Disorder (2011)
4Star – Daylight (2011)
If you’re looking for some biting hip hop mixed up with cutting edge industrial, this is it, no use to looking further. Obviously the first thing coming on my mind is Saul Williams’ 2007 album “The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!”, and actually there’s a quite impressive vibe of Nine Inch Nails behind these songs, but still, 4Star sounds different, more aggressive, more intense, eventually raw in its very positive – street – sense. “Daylight” probably is not a radio-friendly product, not something build upon the public and mainstream taste, still, it sounds simple and massive simultaneously, blow your head off.
I saw a video on YouTube (Face Change) and it was bloody murderous. I put 4Star on search at Google and I got myself a serious list of 4 star Hotels from the whole world. Gee! Read more 4Star – Daylight (2011)
Mr. Pan[k]sament – Mashed, Scratched, Trashed (2011)
Free download, but this isn’t a regular album, rather a collection of remixes, but featuring two original songs and the cover of Nine Inch Nails’s “Hurt”.
Regarding my remixes, as a fellow producer noticed, I do some creative work, actually I re-write, re-perform most of the instruments, not only “remixing” the songs, so this might be an exciting listening mainly for those who know the originals, but not exclusively for them. I twisted off, smashed and mashed, scratched and trashed songs by Nine Inch Nails, Ghostland Observatory, Paper Diamond, Archnemesis, Lloyd Banks, Peter Gabriel, Jane’s Addiction, She Wants Revenge, Jessie and the Toy Boys, WormZ and Family Force 5.
Download, have fun, Happy Holidays Everybody! Read more Mr. Pan[k]sament – Mashed, Scratched, Trashed (2011)
