SKORNEG - FOEHNI guess this was highly acclaimed, but I wasn't blown away by it. My general impression is that it is heavily influenced by Thomas Koner. Now, I love Koner, but there are few people working in his realm that rise to his level, IMHO. This is a well constructed album, but really adds nothing new to the ambient genre and seems to lack that extra-special "something" to make me really love it. I played it over my stereo at low-medium volume while listening so my opinion may change when I give it another, more careful listen at higher volume.
SIGMA OCTANTIS - DISSAPATIONSWow, I really liked this one. Heavily guitar based ambient, almost like a much cleaner sounding Maeror Tri with some other elements thrown in. There are some early Mogwai-esque build-ups and some industrial ambience that evokes the early 90s CMI sound. Really well put together, good variety, definitely a project I will be watching closely in the future.
TERRA SANCTA - DISENTIGRATIONListening to this now. Well executed ambient, seems to be a bit noisier and more aggressive than the "Aeon" CD, which I liked. The faint bits of rhythm from that album are gone, this one is more "drifty" sounding I guess. Nothing groundbreaking, but it has some sort of "personality" to it, which I like.
FOETUS - HOLE; NAIL; THAWGoing back to the first two here in a few years, and hearing Thaw for the first time. Nail was my introduction to Foetus and remains my favorite of these three albums but the others have a lot to offer as well. Listening to these again, I'm picking out some details I might not have noticed before as Foetus was/is very meticulous in his production techniques.
STROM.EC - NEURAL ARCHITECTMy second purchase from this group. Kicking myself for not checking out this project earlier. A little cleaner, sharper, and more rhythmic than I expected after hearing their other CD on Malignant. I think I may possibly like this just as much or more. To me, this is what contemporary artists trying to keep the old-school industrial sound alive should be doing - well composed/put together tracks with aggression and variety.
BAD SECTOR - AMPOS; CHRONOLANDUntil recently, I never cared about this project outside of the excellent "Kosmodrom" album. These two CDs don't sound anything like that but they're damn good. Ampos is an earlier release and rougher around the edges, but even at this stage the "magic" is there. Heavy, noisy ambient. Chronoland is a lot more refined, less dark on the surface but more subtle and meticuluous, more variety in the sound palette and also great.
INTEGRITY - SYSTEMS OVERLOAD (REMIX)I loved this album in the 90s but have only listened to it off and on in the intervening years. Found this remix version on Bandcamp, so I decided to take a chance for $5. Supposedly this is a re-creation of the version their label rejected and is close to what the band really wanted at the time. The main difference is that the guitars are more prominent in the mix, obscuring the vocals a little bit. The guitar solos also sound a lot different than before. Rougher, more lo-fi, I swear some of them are even missing from the mix but I haven't done a close A/B comparison. Worth checking out if you liked this album.
CON-DOM - THE EIGTH PILLARIn the late 90s/early 2000s, I was pretty lukewarm on this project. I had a couple of CDs but didn't listen to them much and had no desire to collect more releases. Recently I took a chance on this, and I'm liking it more than anything else I've heard by Con-Dom. Really lo-fi for sure, but powerful.
IN SLAUGHTER NATIVES - CANNULA COMA LEGIOBasically just as good as anything else from ISN. If you liked his last studio album and the recent live 3xCD, I can't see why you wouldn't like this as well.
PAUL SCHUTZE - NEW MAPS OF HELL; THE RAPTURE OF METALSYears ago, I got ahold of "The Surgery of Touch" and loved it. Immediately, I ordered 3-4 more CDs of Schutze's music and was disappointed with them, filed them away, and never listened to them much. Recently I have been revisited those albums, and while I like them more now, they still aren't as good as "Surgery". However the two albums listed here "New Maps" and "Rapture" are almost as good as that great album, even if they sound nothing like it. The tracks have more percussive elements but maintain the ambient feel. Even though there are some MIDI type keyboard sounds that are somewhat dated and inorganic sounding here, the composition is there and the overall effect of these albums is very enjoyable. If you wrote off Schutze after "Surgery", try these. I believe you can stream them on Bandcamp, that is where I bought them.
THROBBING GRISTLE - 2ND ANNUAL REPORT; D.O.A. ; HEATHEN EARTH - I.R. VINYL REISSUESReally well done vinyl reissues. Great glossy jackets, top notch sound, nice booklets. Well worth picking up. I think D.O.A. is still my favorite.
