Zero Kama - The Goatherd and The Beast (10", Athanor Records): Ritual music is certainly the best and only way to describe this. You can clearly hear that all tracks stem from different releases/sessions. But I think they're all good and in a way even better than Secret Eye... The album is good and interesting, mainly also because of the way of making it, but some of these tracks are just much better music wise. Pity the project stopped so early, since I could listen to more of this stuff. However, I do respect a band/project which puts itself to rest once everything is done, even if it might be way too soon for the 'fans'.
Zero Kama - The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H. (LP & CD, Athanor Records): Glad to finally have this. As said, this is good music, but maybe not great, but absolutely interesting because of the way all sounds were made. Nice to have to booklet with the interview, that gives a good insight in the creation of the album. It would have been cool to see a lot of pictures of all the instruments he made though.
Zyklon SS - Anti-Personnel Explosive Device (C60, Unrest Productions): Nice packaging of course! Listened twice now and it requires attention to know what's going on. If I don't pay attention it goes by rather unnoticed, when I do pay attention I hear what is actually going on. And then I hear this is actually pretty good Industrial with metal junk thrown in, as well as some bass guitar (I think), samples and few vocals. So, this is good, but having to choose between this and Kevlar, I'll go for Kevlar...
Dead Body Collection - Her Skin Remembers My Distressful Pleasures (C20, Hiisi Productions): I'm afraid I can summarize this in one word: boring. While the sound itself is good, that's really all there is. So after about one to two minutes, I've heard it, but it keeps going. Now I'm not too familiar with the whole HNW genre, but I've heard some things which I like if at least just a bit is going on... What I've heard from Creation Through Destruction was more up my alley.
Psychosadist - Crawlspace (C20, Hiisi Productions): Harsh stuttering sounds, deformed aggressive vocals. Good, but not great.
Abduct - God Complex (C30, Pale Horse Recordings): Bleak Death Industrial with some more aggressive PE parts. The lyrics (and the label) suggest that it might come from a Black Metal background. But this actually is really good, more than just someone wanting to do something in this style. Seems like this goes from aggressive to more and more bleak and dark, in the end there's just nothing left...
Swallowing Bile/Reinforcement:Punishment (C20, Obscure Vanity): Swallowing Bile is regularly referred to as one of the best Harsh Noise outfits of the moment. I don't know why... He's got quite some releases of which I heard only two. The Geoffrey tape which I found rather boring and this. This is better, Harsh Noise/PE which I think is good, but not great. Reinforcement:Punishment is rather harsh PE as well, so both outfits do fit stylistically together. Neat vocals. But I think I liked his last tape (Animal) more.
