PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Ganesha23]

FEMEHEIM "Dominium Terrae" & "Grenzniederkunft"
very strong and well built 100% industrial/power electronics... Goes in between Germany 90's classics and obsucre Scandinavian death industrial.
Full display of vocals, varied atmospheres and very good composing skills. Really looking forward to listen more of them.

Inspired by Marco's post, I gave these a listen last night and second his opinion.

Both CDs and all tracks are perfect length, ie. not too long for what they have to offer (which is a few simple things but done very well). There are no absolutely great hit tracks, except for "Ewiger Sühnetod" on Dominium Terrae, but on the other hand none of the tracks are bad or out of place, quite the opposite, it feels everything is there for a reason. Dominion..., being newer, is the better one of these but both are well worth checking out if German-style power electronics is your thing.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

AVARUUDEN SÄHKÖ "S/t" tape
Heavy Meditation
Mr. Haare and bunch of other guys. It could be Haare, but perhaps more "electronic" here? I was expecting it would be more into sort of kraut electronics, but it is bleak droning. Dark, suffocating.

HAARE "Musta Magia" tape
Heavy Meditation
I have listened this before from advance cdr, I think?! More tape hiss. Suffocating slow moving drone on a-side, noisier, almost harsh works at b-side. Again, very good Haare tape. He never fails?! Especially I like that b-side is not just one thing, but he can move to different sounds and atmospheres without losing drone-noise spirit.

LIGATURE IMPRESSION "Slaves to our senses" tape
Danvers State Recordings
Quite short tape of post-industrial of some sort. One could possibly lump it together with modern PE, but it has probably more in common with Steel Hook Prostheses and such things. Gloomy, noisy, but never aggressive soundscapes. Calm vocals processed with effects. Lay-out of tape isn't too exciting, despite it has all one could think of: Fetish photos, dead bodies, lyrics printed. But lay-out has same kind of less tasty computer lay-out as I get impression of music. I like it, but only to certain point when I realize its weaknesses.

AOYE tape
Brown Records
Finnish ritual drone. All the typicalities of this genre is here. Ghastly voices, echoing sounds, slow paced waves of synths/electronics. If you compare this with masters of Finland out there in north, they have smoky, rotten and blood spilling atmosphere. Apparently helsinki based AOYE gives you more of "synthesizer greatest hits" kind of hight-tech sound, which soon gives me impression of new age music. But all in all, decent stuff I listened few times, and again.. its good for what it is, but not entirely my taste.

FECAL FETAL "Rituals Of Purification" tape
Spread Evil
So black metal label putting out Finnish ritual music, with band name that sounds like goregrind? Well, against all the odds, tape isn't bad. By no means we're looking at flawless release, but I like clumsy elements and lo-fi crappiness of some sounds, use of guitars without making them sound like neat effect fueled musicians contributions. At best, its grim and gloomy old fashioned deadly industrial, but at other times you do fully acknowledge its not exactly Nekrophile records level morbidness.

[Ashmonger]

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.

[Dom America]

Speaking of 2nd incarnation-Ultra, also finally got "Stain." It was only $2 on the Dom website, which might speak a bit to the value Mr. Taylor places on it

Thank you for the kind words about the Ultra box, but I did want to quickly address this. I personally think "Stain" is a wonderful and unique listening experience and enjoyed reading your take on it. I think it has left a lot of listeners to simply scratch their heads. My price point on it is simply because I have many copies of it still, and would rather make it affordable and get it into as many hands as possible than just sit on them for years and years.

[Dr Alex]

What I've heard from Creation Through Destruction was more up my alley.

Dead Body Collection and Creation Through Destruction are totally different stories sonically and visually. DBC is raw and monolithic without changes, just pure HNW. Anyway, thank you for giving a chance to this.

[Ashmonger]

What I've heard from Creation Through Destruction was more up my alley.

Dead Body Collection and Creation Through Destruction are totally different stories sonically and visually. DBC is raw and monolithic without changes, just pure HNW. Anyway, thank you for giving a chance to this.

Yeah, I know, I've got the split with Black Leather Jesus, totally different indeed.

[Ashmonger]

Khmer Noir - Bödlar Med Svarta Fanor (C42 single sided, Nil By Mouth): Really good PE tape, 5 tracks, but the first is some sample (I think), which I don't understand. This makes the rest of the tape a bit short, since I want to hear more of their PE. Filthy synths, feedback, aggressive vocals with and without effects depending on the track. Not too fond of the effects on the vocals on the last track, but that seems the only setback. Doesn't sound like anything I haven't heard before, but it's just good! Also, their logo looks great! Nice overall layout as well.

Feberdröm - Intrusion of Mortality (C42, Nil By Mouth): I'll start with saying that this tape looks great as well! This is Industrial, simple as that. Hardly any vocals despite some samples and heavily effected screams on the A3 track, but good percussion, some guitar or bass, I think, synths and other noises. The percussion on the B2 track reminds me a bit of Militia. Anyway, another really good tape from Nil By Mouth.

[Vermin Marvin]

Amph - Terry/Framtid ‎(12", Komplott)
Lots of interesting voices put well together, can´t loose with Amph.

Someone said something about looking gift horses mouth but..

Hanna Hartman - H ^ 2 ‎(CD, Komplott)
Mostly fieldrecordings and quiet (contact?)mic compositions, violins and umm..stuff,
clear sounds but nothing too memorable, besides some irritating voice that sounded like Formula1

Andreas Bertilsson - Själens Ö ‎(CD, Komplott)
NeoFolk/softpop with acoustic guitar,piano and some strings. Understanding swedish most likely would open this better.. now it reminds me of Kent, dunno is that too good thing at all. 

Mats Björk -  Som vågform  ‎(CD, Komplott)
Field recordings, minimalistic electronics, somehow twisted out of tune guitar with lots and lots of echo and delay.. beautiful female vocals, Listening not need skills of lanquage here since voice fit well in the ambience of record and works as one of the instruments.. Not too familiar with this kind of stuff but reminds me less heavy Nadja/Aidan Baker stuff with acoustic folk parts.. and Kent.

[jadderly]

IRM - Closure
I ordered this as soon as it was available, but didn't get around to properly listening to it until very recently. I don't really have much to add beyond what has already been said, but it's very, very good. Maybe different from the last one and not quite as immediate, but I find that every IRM album is a little different from the last. Is this the "final" album by IRM? If so, I guess you could say they ended on a high note.

Yen Pox - Blood Music 2xCD
This has been both remixed and remastered, but I don't think it sounds that different from the original CD. Maybe a thicker, more balanced mix. I need to to compare the two discs more carefully. The material on disc 2 isn't as strong as the original album, but it's still pretty good.

In Slaughter Natives - Insanity and Treatment
Playing disc one now. This is very enjoyable, but I'm not sure how much was really "live" and how much was pre-recorded loops and such. Overall more "in your face" than the albums on CMI and such.

Tangerine Dream - Phaedra
This is the from the Virgin Years '74-78 boxset, which is a very inexpensive way to acquire 5 TD albums from this period. I do tend to lean toward earlier TD works such as Zeit and Atem, but this is just as good. I had not heard it in quite some time and forgot how "active" it was. Looking forward to the playing the rest of the set.

K.N.O. - Overlook Hotel
I was never much of a Megaptera fan, but this I can dig. At times, it sounds a little too digital/slick, but it walks the fine line just on the side where it doesn't annoy me. There are some industrial/percussion oriented tracks as well as some more droney pieces. Good stuff.

Strom.ec - Divine Legions Beyond Psyche
I've been meaning to try this album for some time, but I'm just getting around to it now. Really enjoyed this one. I need to work my way through some of their back catalog for sure.

Masonna - Spectrum Ripper
Not sure if this tops M.A.S.O.N.N.A., but it's very intense. I have the Cold Spring reissue where an LP and CD were packaged together. Today I played the LP version.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

HEFAISTOS  "s/t" tape
Heavy Meditations
Was this described to be something between Dead Reptile Shrine and AMM ?! I guess so. Improvised music, what occasionally lean towards more eccentric side of "black metal", with distorted guitars, rhaspy vocals, etc, but overall it has more common with improvised music than anything remotely "metal". Ok tape.

UMPIO "Dub Electronics 1" tape
Neko
I guess one sider c-90? What makes this 45 min journey to yet another style of Umpio. Many probably associate his works to harsh noise and metal junk, and yeah, this has metal junk as well and it's noisy, but like name suggest, it's basically percussive noisy sounds treated with extensive live-electronics what add deep echoes and tasty manipulated delay time adjustments. It get very far into "electronic music" side, rather than "noise". If you aren't turned off by such thing, tape worth to check out if you still can find it these days.. Very limited edition dates back to 2010.

KDP KOMMANDO demo
Finnish black metal-noise what could be perhaps lumped into category of RIVOLOGI or GENSERIC etc..  Utterly distorted and damaged sound, reminding more blurry noisecore recordings or even harsh noise. But riffs, vocals and actual music here. Swastikas, Siitoin kult and overall nasty stuff including tracks like "juden animal type", haha.. Don't expect noble nsbm. Just offensive chaos.

INFEKTIONSABTEILUNG tape
Obscurex
Was compared to Will Over Matter, and yes, it's true. If you like cold, primitive and simple electronic approach of WOM, you probably like this project as well. It's not noise. Sort of electronic music meets industrial sounds, with simple and "home made" feel to it.

BIZARRE UPROAR "Teurasjäte" tape
EST
one of the semi-old Bizarre Uproar tapes. Era when he started to use big size metal objects, ripping feedback, obscured distant shouting, etc. very harsh. Not domited by loops and not yet drenched in epic delay effect or instruments. Tracks are not so distinctively different from eachother, more like one session with slightly different ingredients in use for loud noise. It's good stuff. Noisy as fuck. Ripping and punishing. Not flooring bassy rumble, but torment of high pitch and raw assaults on physical objects. Certainly item that would deserve to be available also nowadays..  Recorded back in 2006.

HALO MANASH "Am Kha Astrie" CD
Aural Hypnox
Good stuff. Slow, brooding ritual sound. I like the fact that there is imperfection. Not software and clean calculated results, but suffocating and lo-fi feel to many sounds. Some distortion appears when percussive elements hits harder than usual. It contributes greatly to feel that this is actually performed and recorded without being overtly nerdy about technical details, but capturing the true feeling of session.

[urall]

Pleasure Bros - Lower Than A Snake's Belly cs
Awesome tape with slow moving eerie synthscapes, low end gritty rumbling and other sounds. Quite minimal but this does not need anything more. I just got this and its been on repeat a couple of times now.

Ritual Chamber - The Pits of Tentacled Screams cs
This is for me one of the better metal releases of the year. Great occult death metal, big riffs. Can't believe you hear so little about this project.

[J_D_H]

Ligature - The Stanger (Chondritic Sound tape)

Great arrival in the otherwise dead period between xmas and new year. Puce Mary provides vocals and additional sounds on first track, depressed vocals over muffled electronics. Nice unhealthy sounding synths (sounds like MS20?) and male vocals on the other three tracks. Second side in particular is full of sounds I cannot get enough of - droning synth, burried, washed out vocals. Great washed out, decayed sound throughout that reminds me of the almost psychedelic elements of old Con-Dom tapes etc. Can see this getting a lot of plays!

Arv & Miljo - Kropp (Posh Isolation vinyl)

Interesting concept behind this one and reckon the sounds more than deliver the goods in backing it up. Probably the clearest/cleanest sounding A&M material that I have heard - field recordings and pretty subtle clean sounding synths for the most part. One track on second side features a straight up clean synth drone that reminds me of Call Back the Giants or something (not a bad thing at all!). Very different to the much more industrial, grottier and noisier Antropocen cs on Lust Vessell but a strong LP deserving of the vinyl treatment.

[Baglady]

SADISTIC INTENT - Reawakening Horrid Thoughts 12" (Iron Pegasus)
I can't say I'm dissappointed since it is, by todays standards, a rather solid release. Having seen them live last year in Copenhagen made me expect something more energetic and hungry though. It just sounds too comfortable. This isn't the heavily delayed fullength though, and my expectations for that album, whenever it may be released, remain high. Hope to catch them live again sometime. They were without doubt last years highlight for me at KTDF.

NIFELHEIM - Satanatas 12" (TPL)
This on the other hand was even better than I had hoped it would be. I saw the new lineup on stage last year, and they really delivered. I wasn't all too happy with Envoy Of Lucifer, thought it lacked something the previous albums had, some sort of juvenile spark (they're old now, I know, but still...). But it's definitely back. Great songs, perfect sound. Not a dull second here.

PENTACLE - ...Rides The Moonstorm CD (Iron Pegasus)
Much needed reissue of their first full length. Since I never got hold of the earlier pressings and haven't heard it until now, I was very excited to get this. And well, it's just as good as Fifth Moon (some Possessed, Asphyx, Obituary, Celltic Frost etc), which suits me fine since I never really got into the Under The Black Cross album. Nice rendition of chilean Pentagrams "Spell Of The Pentagram" too. Nice booklet with lyrics, liner notes for each song and some old reviews.

[bitewerksMTB]

I'd like to hear NIFELHEIM - Satanatas 12"*. I liked "E.O.L." a lot. I think I read the new 12" is only being sold at their performances...?

I listened to Teitanblood's "Death" a couple of times last week & a Mercyful Fate tape has been played over n' over in my van.

*here's a song from "Satanatas": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nk3tzdwWyVk

[Baglady]

I heard something about the at-gigs-only thing, but I got mine from a swedish distro (I Hate Records). I think the label, TPL, sells them too. But I don't know about distribution overseas.