PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[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.

[jadderly]

Inade - Aldebaran

I've tried to get into Inade before many years ago through earlier material than this and live recordings, but I never though they were that special. This album is a bit more refined than other material I've heard from them and a little more melodic as well. I'm not sure I would hold this up as high as some people do, but it's very good.

Obscene Noise Korporation - 2xCD on Malignant

IIRC this is a project of Peter Nystrom. I've never been a big Megaptera fan, but I have enjoyed some of his other work. The first disc is all old recordings while the second is newer material. I think the second disc is better executed overall and quite enjoyable. If you hadn't guessed by the name, this stuff seems heavily inspired by old SPK, maybe leaning more towards Information Overload Unit than the type of variety on Leichenshrei.

Terra Sancta - Aeon

I'm slowly trying to let go of my prejudice against ambient music released after 2000 or so, and this is an album I put on my list to try as it comes highly recommended. This is well executed and avoids being too cliche for the most part. The very faint bits of rhythm in a couple places were the highlight for me.


Steve Roach - Magnificent Void

A lot of Roach's work is just on the wrong side of new-agey ambient for me. I guess this is marketed as one of this darker sounded releases, but it's not nearly as bleak and dark as the typical "dark ambient" release from this time period or after. That's okay though, because the sound of the album works well, and everything is very well done.


Edgar Froese - Aqua

From the Virgin Years boxset. Between this box and the Tangerine Dream one I'm still digesting, you get a lot of value for money. This set has 5 albums over 4 discs. Unfortunately some of the albums are split across two discs, which is annoying, but I can't complain too much considering the price and the sound quality. I bought this mainly for the first two Froese albums, which are great. Even if the others don't grab me, this is still cheaper than picking those first albums up individually as they appear to be out of print right now.


Thomas Koner - La Barca - Complete Edition

I missed the boat on this release when it was new, but Koner has offered up an expanded version through his bandcamp site. You get over about 2 hours of music and a large video file, which I haven't watched yet. The main difference between this and other Koner recordings I've heard is the heavy use of field recordings, gathered while Koner was traveling across several different cities around the world. Most of the field recordings are just noise from the street and people talking. Some may find this spoils the experience of the music, but I don't. I think it works really well and I like this album a lot.

Organum - Submission

Hadn't put this on in quite awhile until recently. Maybe not as incendiary as the very early Organum material, but it's nice. 

Raison d'etre - Mise en Abyme

There were a couple Raison albums I loved in the 90s but I haven't kept up with his work at all, as my tastes have changed a bit over time and I've always kinda felt the choral samples and gothic atmosphere were overused in this project. That said, I became curious about this album after listening to soundclips of later Raison stuff, which are more organic and noisier sounding than what I've heard before. This album still has the choral samples and gothic moments, but they seem to be used with much more restraint. Some of the more active sections of this have metal clanging and scraping that's done very tastefully and the whole thing comes off as highly refined and well executed. Excellent stuff.

[Haare]

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.

We thought about adding beats/pulses but decided not to. The ebow/delay guitar makes it sound like Haare I think. More to come!

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.

I think I sent at least some of the material for you to check out, I put a LOT of work into this one.
The a-side was supposed to be released on a split lp.

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.

"Black metal without any metal" is how I described it to someone recently. Jussi of Circle on drums btw; should make it appeal to NWOFHM fanboys, heh.
Thanks for the reviews, Mikko!

[acsenger]

Vidna Obmana – The Ultimated Sign of Burning Death (LP, Urashima)

Reissue of VO's first tape, recorded in 1984. The music is kind of noise mixed with dark ambient, but definitely on the harsher side. While the music is great, I'm not too fond of the shouted vocals. Still, it's a good listen and a good document.

Taint – Justmeat (LP, Urashima)

Great filthy noise/PE. Not much to add, perhaps only that I love the frequent use of loops.

Nord – NG Tapes (LP, PCP Records)
Nord – LSD (LP, PCP Records)
Nord – Electronic Initiation (CD, Kinky Musik Institute)

Someone earlier remarked in this thread on Nord as being obsessive. I couldn't agree more: these two early LPs mostly feature singular, obsessive synth sounds. There's occasional (guitar?) noise and while there are weaker parts on both records, when Nord is on, it's awesome. Gotta get the other early LPs too (although I've heard the first one is very different).
The Electronic Initiation CD has a totally different lineup from these two LPs, and the music is, not surprisingly, very different. This is very much psychedelic electronic music (and not noise, although sometimes noisy). At over an hour, it's too long, but it's still an enjoyable listen.

M.B. – Telmegiddo (LP, Menstrual Recordings)

Apparently the last album from the early 80s, recorded after Armaghedon. While I haven't heard that album in a while, from memory Telmegiddo is in the same vein. Murky, lo-fi ambient noise with a desolate atmosphere.

Drug Age – Abandoned Geography (one-sided LP, Second Sleep)

The album starts slowly with high-pitched feedback that occasionally gets disrupted and then the whole thing turns into chaotic noise. There are some quieter parts now and then, making for an excellent and dynamic harsh noise record.

Keith Rowe/Graham Lambkin – Making A (CD, Erstwhile Records)

One of my favourite releases of recent times, and one that I nearly left at the record shop where I chanced upon it. Rowe and Lambkin use field recordings and contact microphones to create an album with a unique atmosphere that's really hard to describe. Let's just say it's very minimal and if you love small sounds amplified and the careful use of contact mics, you'll love this album.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

JUN KONAGAYA "Travel" CD
Art Into Life
mr. Grim doing stuff. I didn't fully read descriptions what exactly was to be expected of this. Perhaps because some of the GRIM stuff seems to barely live up to praise. If no expectations, then perhaps approach for listening is different. Not sure why material couldn't be GRIM? Maybe theme? Grim itself has been diverse, and over here too you can find noisy stuff, but most of all quite monumental and dark ambient / ritual music soundscapes. But not only that. Also quite exotic sounding traditional music perhaps, noisy industrial pieces. Gloomy and intensive tracks, what may have imperfections here and there, but I'd immediately rate this most definitely more recommended purchase than some of the Grim releases! One long track that has various elements throw in mix can be found at:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TstciqXhMEA

BIZARRE UPROAR "Lily The Flesh live" tape
Filth & Violence
Perhaps quite biased to say things about this. I requested BU to play in venue next door from my store. As it's just small pub, it was requested that something unusual, something what works in smaller settings. And I also made the live recordings. But of course BU performed it all, and F&V put out. And well he did! Professional tapes and covers. Nice sound and the same rugged design we've used to, but just now professionally printed. I guess this is only time he actually performed Lily the Flesh material, what was originally done due being invited to take part VHS xxx themed compilation on IOPS, which got cancelled/delayed and his material was so long anyways, that it simply came out as solo tape. These curious details lead to facts that original tape, the gig, and therefore also this tape, is kind of unique in BU's output. Of course almost all the elements he's known for, are here, but it is also much more harmonic, droning than most of his stuff. At least in different ways Also involving tasty video sex noise material never hurts!  Excellent!

AURAL HYPNOX "Underworld transmissions II" tape
Aural Hypnox
I guess the fans of the label know the drill. Helixes related artists join together in spontanous sessions in underground space where Aural Hypnox operates. From these sessions with different changing line-ups, results series of underworld transmissions. If you know what to expect, that pretty much what you get. Still, it's fairly poor judgement to say it would be "the same". Especially B-side here, I feel, is among closest things to my taste than ever before heard from this crew. Involving more industrial feel among darkest ritual soundscapes hits the spot!

RICHARD GARET "Areal" CD
23five inc
Icy slow ambient. In many ways, routines of the genre are used, but I like so much when it doesn't appear to be cheesy synths/keyboards, but something physical, something hand made. What this is, is textures what is probably most of all radio static or somehow "corrupted signal". It is not at all noisy. Harmonic, but with tasty surface textures. I have pretty much gotten rid of most of "ambient" in my collection, what somehow leans towards waves of synths or such. But stuff like this, I still consider worth keeping!

[Baglady]

Randomly picked out a zine at home. Happened to be #2 of the once brilliant Det Grymma Svärdet, from 2008. The issue has a two page feature on Swedish noise on tape, written by Matthias Andersson. Felt like revisiting some of the stuff reviewed in the article.

REGIM - Dedicated To Oskar Dirlewanger CS (Vigilante)
A shame how little there is written about Regim outside Sweden (or in Sweden too actually). I guess the very limited releases has something to do with it (50 copies in this case), but it bothers me that a brilliant tape like this remains unheard by alot of people who would most likely appreciate it. I was lucky enough to stumble upon it for 5€ this summer. A-side is a warzone, b-side is a wet cloth stuffed down your throat. One of the best Swedish harsh noise releases I've heard. Well, not that there are millions of them, but still...

ALTAR OF FLIES & JOSH LAY - Collab CS (Hästen & Korset)
This and the Creeping Unknown tape were my first encounters with Altar Of Flies. Released in 2007. I remember how excited I was when I heard these tapes for the first time. I'm not very familar with the guys work, but Lay's presence here seems strong; it doesn't sound much like the AoF one is used to, even at this early stage. Lo-fi basement sounds, screams... Quite rough, but not harsh. Having the latest AoF LP in mind when revisiting this tape is interesting considering how the project has developed since then. (Still) a good tape!

[Dr Alex]

Various - The Art Of Noise - 100 Years Anniversary cd

"Celebrating the 100th anniversary of Luigi Russolo's "The Art Of Noise", this compilation presents the 7 winning works (out of 60 contributions) of the annual Luigi Russolo electroacoustic and noise music contest, hosted by Studio Forum and Gràcia Territori Sonor."

Highly recommended compilation for all lovers of experimental noise and musique concrète.

[Strömkarlen]

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

There is a Swedish "comedy" based on the Niefheim brothers called Mammas pojkar (Mommy's boys). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2256749/?ref_=nv_sr_1 They weren't too pleased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi53FCu4efk

[Baglady]

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...?

There is a Swedish "comedy" based on the Niefheim brothers called Mammas pojkar (Mommy's boys). http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2256749/?ref_=nv_sr_1 They weren't too pleased.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mi53FCu4efk

From what I've heard they contacted a lawyer to prevent the director, Ulf Malmros, from making the film. Fruitless effort apparently.

[Ashmonger]

No Festival of Light - If God Would Live On Earth, We Would Break His Windows (CD, Fluttering Dragon): Dark/Ritual Ambient. Not bad, but it seems the music overall leaves less impression than the title did...

Lettera22 - Subsequent Teeth (C32, Monorail Trespassing): It's Lettera22 so it's good. However, I feel a bit letdown. This to me sounds more like 'usual' Harsh Noise than on Lack of Attention & Physical Point both releases which were really special in my view.

Ahlzagailzehguh/Brad Griggs/Breaking The Will/Developer - Summer Scum Harsh Noise (C10, New Forces): Got this tape because I quite like Developer, liked what I heard from Breaking The Will (though that hasn't been much yet, I think only the Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment tape box), had heard a lot about Ahlzagailzehguh, but hadn't heard his stuff yet and had never heard before about Brad Griggs. I'm certainly not disappointed. Only 10 minutes and it's a good headfuck, some volume changes between the artist it seems, but doesn't matter a lot. Might want to check out some other Ahlzagailzehguh stuff.

Dreadful Relic - Archaic Conjurations (tape, Frost and Fire): New band from Commando Wolf & Hjarulv Henker (ex- & current Der Stürmer members). This is really good, very Hellhammer/early Celtic Frost alike with some cool keys here and there. Of course don't expect anything technical or complex. This is just solid old school (Black) Metal.