PLAYLIST with COMMENTS/REVIEWS

[Eigen Bast]

Eternal Champion - Terminus Est (Sword Worship 2019)
Brief dungeon synth EP by the guitarist of Texas heavy/power metal band Eternal Champion. This is the first release on their new Sword Worship label, and 50 copies were available at Hospital Fest, 50 to be sold online. Side A reminds me of Depressive Silence; that kind of thudding percussion moving things along as evocative synth work twists over the background. The B side goes a bit spacier, riding an arpeggio and bringing to mind Tangerine Dream and the like. The combination of the two is certainly evocative of The Book of the New Sun, of which this release is "based" on.

Skin Crime - Lot No. 249 (Self Abuse)
Lot No. 249 is a brilliant story from Arthur Conan Doyle. A macabre and occult story of a murderous mummy found in a lot of Egyptian artifacts, this tape is one of those things where the inspiration is perfectly mirrored in the sound. this record follows the patterns of the last few Skin Crime tapes; pulsating dark ambient gradually building to scrap sheared cacophany. The A-side hums with what sounds like distant cicadas, dreadful shuffling and geiger counter clicks building into swarming anxiety. The B-side keeps the "I am covered in ants" thing going, while bringing in some heavy steel on steel scrapings, stone on stone, very earthy textural sounds. Never a dull moment over it's lengthy run time. Really enjoyed the almost rhythmic sensibility of the pulsing bass throb. Frightening and exciting stuff.

Worth - Hidden in Christ (Self Abuse)
New (pretty sure?) tape on Self Abuse. Side A opens with blown out bashed metal gurgling into a piercing wall of white noise. Chaotic loops layer and involute. Chains in a blender. Lava in a cement mixer. Evocative noise. Thick, sputtering textures allowed to develop and ride out. The B-side brought to mind an almost orchestral sensibility, organlike drones, rusted timpani junk drumming. Just a huge sound throughout. Thick textures explode again and again. Hell vacuum. I appreciate that this tape avoids the "build to a climax" mentality and just goes balls out, sputters to a near halt, then starts again.

[Zeno Marx]

Howard Stelzer - Anathematization of the World is Not an Adequate Response to the World 2019 - IMPRESSIVE.  102+ minutes.   So many layers while remaining a simple-feeling, leisurely listen.  The organic sounds had me thinking of everything from Grzinich, Kojo, Nehil, Dauby, and Northam to Hum of the Druid, Niellerade Fallibilisthorstar, Tarab, and Nebris.  I should pay more attention to him than I do.  He's been busy the past few years.  I still have a couple tracks to go, but this will make my "best of" list of the year.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

BODY CARGO - Echoes, Tape
A Lithuanian death industrial/mumbling noise tape that has been sitting on my shelves through several relocations. The oversized cardboard cover and the band moniker must have felt somehow uninspiring, I guess. Turns out this lack of inspiration was pretty much unfounded, as far as the sound goes. Deep, rumbling destruction, and oppressive, subterranean bass/distortion manipulations. Here, there are things being taken apart. Not exactly violent, but there are few or no really melodic and ambient qualities either. May lack cult appeal, but does its job really well. Multiple copies in mint condition still available from discogs for next to nothing; perhaps the unassuming extra-sonic appendages have confused more people than me.

JAAKKO VANHALA  - Cuts of Grace, 3" CD
Vanhala's stuff continues to combine harsh inaccessibility with Haloo Helsinki smash hit qualities in a way I find difficult to fathom. This is not something you would ever consider recommending to an "outsider" showing some interest in industrial music; it is relentless, violent, cut to pieces. If you're already in the game, however, it can't really get much better than this. You have the incoherent, aggressive energy of japanoise, yet somehow made more European by a a kind of punkish maltreatment of electronics and metal scraps. Almost-but-not-quite digital noise pulses mesh with shitty delay, only to be broken up by feedback and whatever else herra Vanhala deigns to dream up. The production is extremely clear and well mastered, yet the atmosphere retains a clear touch of rural Finnish rape basement. The absence of faux analog fetishism and the high production value coexists uncomfortably but effectively with rough and tumble, improvised noise cacaphony. Absolutely spectacular. I have absolutely no idea why this is still available from the label (Freak Animal).

V/A - The Night and the Fog II, Tape
An old classic. The ambiguity surrounding much politically suspect black metal these days is nowhere to be found - the tape is subtitled "The Hammer of National Socialism" and is unlikely to see much play in the upcoming Democratic primaries. If you disregard the pure crap, which does exist in the scene and on this tape, NSBM can be roughly divided into two camps. The first is made up of of the "subtle" stuff, music that combines the qualities of black metal with an extremist political touch (often conveyed through occult/spiritual symbolism, with the politics forming but an edgy backdrop) and so keeps the flame of the genre alive. This approach creates a strange and appealing juxtaposition of supposed traditionalism and "avant garde", pubescent revolt (even a shitty nazi band is 10 times more controversial and provocative than literally any other form of western "subversive" art, and hence even the slightest tendency towards intellectualism WILL produce maximum aesthetic Orgasmatron). The second camp is more about Eastern Europeans/South Americans aggressively mispronouncing English and German alike over ill tuned guitars and once-cheap drum machines. All reasonable persons can agree that this latter form of black metal is as great as it is hilarious. Both BM incarnations are represented a-plenty on this tape. Also, there may be a track or three that falls into the very first type delineated above - that of pure crap - and to complicate matters some of these lieder ambulate between all three categories. Nevertheless, this is a snapshot of early 2000's extremism that has rarely if ever been surpassed. Staples like ABSURD, BILSKIRNIR and TEMNOZOR rub shoulders with less cherished (but equally long lasting) acts like COMMAND, EISENWINTER and WOTANORDEN.  I assume this is banned for sale everwhere these days, but there are probably obscure but efficient Greek distros still carrying copies.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

JAAKKO VANHALA  - Cuts of Grace, 3" CD
Vanhala's stuff continues to combine harsh inaccessibility with Haloo Helsinki smash hit qualities in a way I find difficult to fathom. This is not something you would ever consider recommending to an "outsider" showing some interest in industrial music; it is relentless, violent, cut to pieces. If you're already in the game, however, it can't really get much better than this. You have the incoherent, aggressive energy of japanoise, yet somehow made more European by a somehow punkish maltreatment of electronics and metal scraps. Almost-but-not-quite digital noise pulses mesh with shitty delay, only to be broken up by feedback and whatever else herra Vanhala deigns to dream up. The production is extremely clear and well mastered, yet the atmosphere retains a clear touch of rural Finnish rape basement. The absence of faux analog fetishism and the high production value coexists uncomfortably but effectively with rough and tumble, improvised noise cacaphony. Absolutely spectacular. I have absolutely no idea why this is still available from the label (Freak Animal).

Maybe foreign people don't get the Haloo Helsinki reference, haha. One could say it's harsh noise with Lana Del Rey production values? Reason why it is still available, like the rest of the 3"s that came same time, was that I pressed all half more copies than I did for first batch of 3"s (Sick Seed, Umpio, Mania). Material of each project felt strong and I know none of projects is releasing material frequently so... Grunt, Vanhala, Worth and Selected Killing might be available a bit longer.

DETRIMENTIAL EFFECT "Your Truth" CD
Tesco
Good heavy electronics from the contemporary scene. It has it's advantage and disadvantages. Basically it does everything else well, except having its own voice. So getting well done heavy electronics album and liking what I hear. Yet one can't really say that there would be any songs that stood out in a way that it could be concluded to be his own style of doing things.

CONTROL "The Abattoir" CD
Old Captain
As opposite of this. CD is collection of old rare works. Pretty much instantly, when Control started, he had his own voice. You put this CD on your player, hit the play, and if you know Control, you will recognize the sound, the atmosphere, the way he composes material. The way he layers things and processes vocals and so on. This has not been imitated by anyone. Nobody else really does it like Control does. While ago listened handful of his Ant-Zen CD's. It is clear man has had vision and skills to put that into reality since very early on.

STRAIGHT ARM SALUTE "Teachings of Traditionalism" CD
Europa Erwache
Right wing extremist industrial, that has this element that it could easily been WarCom label related. Instead it has been published by label mostly known for putting out RAC titles. There is the same clumsiness and oddity that many WarCom label bands had. Martial beats on drum machines. Awkward electronic sounds. Movie samples from famous movies and actors you recognize. In times when all the martial industrial is so well done, they remind of movie soundtracks, SAM seems like fresh blow from deepest corners of underground. From artistic or technical point of view very very clumsy. Certainly not for people who dislike clear politics in music.

BIZARRE UPROAR "Lily the flesh" LP
Asrar
Literally ages ago, IOPS was planning for VHS themed compilation tape. It was meant for guys who actually took part of the VHS trading circles and collected stuff. Bizarre Uproar was also invited and he started recordings based on this particular VHS, using it as part of source for sounds. Not only recording became way more than requested 5 minutes, it became so good, that BU decided to put out material as it's own tape. Set was also performed live in Lahti years ago. There is plenty of variation in BU's output. This is one release that stands out with it's eerie droning quality. It's really killer release, and could have been rated as "album" if you ask me.
Bizarre Uproar later recorded track again for VHS themed compilation for IOPS. More than half decade later, it still waits for completion. It includes also track from MANIA. Surely will get finished at some point!

YANNICK DAUBY & HITOSHI KOJO "La vie dans...." 10"
Substantia Innominata
Very good material. Somewhere between drone and perhaps even sounds one often associates with ritual music. Hard to decide if the physical sounds have odd percussive quality, or if they are just something one could file under "electro-acoustic composition", hah.. Listened this many many times.

MICHAEL NORTHAN "Suhina" 10"
Substantia Innominata
Minimalistic and subtle drone release. Also several times spinning on turntable, but less memorable than title above.

CONTROLLED DEATH "Ritualistic Mutilation in the Bloody Darkness" 2LP
Urashima
First time Urashima doing regular full color gatefold cover. Photos of skulls and skeletons all over. At the same time I appreciated that it's not just series of black & silver stuff, but then in other hand it was nearly as if this wasn't even Urashima title, haha..  Nevertheless, I do hope he will use this type of covers for bands who have their own design ideas. Less black & silver and tamplate designs.
Controlled Death - I guess I have said pretty much everything what there is to say. It recycles the same idea since beginning and there is seemingly no progress or change. When you got short clips of improvised synth death industrial and buried vocal patterns, and every "track" is like sketch, with no beginning, no end. Just starts in middle and ends as abruptly as started, like from click of pause button... Well, I could say I have enough of Controlled Death now. Next time probably will skip. Not because it would be shitty, but I can easily re-listen previous works unless he will come up with new ideas.

MO*TE "anti is anti is anti" tape
New Forces
Technological changes are what has changed MO*TE sound, but not that much. In it's core, we got the same spirit now that there was. Japanese home recording harsh noise. Some more audible rhythm here occasionally. Mostly harsh noise without gimmicks. Just doing good "harsh noise for limited tape" type of stuff!

MERZBOW "De-Soundtrack" CD
Slowdown Records
1986-87 recordings mastered from cassette tape in 2018. Noisy experimental collages. Really good stuff. Hit instantly and listened this several times.

MERZBOW "Merzbeat" CD
MERZBOW "Dead Zone" CD
as opposed to these two. Merzbeat was lame. Was almost pushing stop in middle, but decided to give it a chance. Well, not going to keep that disc. Pretty useless. Dead Zone is 2011 works focusing on nuclear power. Released by Quasi Pop from Ukraine, recorded while Fukushima incident was happening. Chernobyl / Fukushima connection is there, as well as noise is vastly better than Merzbeat. But is it good by Merzbow standards? If you compare to De-Soundtrack, this ain't too good. It is different. It is software era and despite it is quite good on that, it is like shadow of the best days. It is good enough to keep as reminder of this era of Merzbow. Reminder that I don't need more of that really. Even when approaching material with intent to want to like it, specific qualities of material just reminds it is unlikely to happen. Still looking for bunch of older titles I never had, so there is work to be done in collecting Merz..

[Bloated Slutbag]

YANNICK DAUBY & HITOSHI KOJO "La vie dans...." 10"
Substantia Innominata
Very good material. Somewhere between drone and perhaps even sounds one often associates with ritual music. Hard to decide if the physical sounds have odd percussive quality, or if they are just something one could file under "electro-acoustic composition", hah.. Listened this many many times.

I've also given this plenty of eartime and have more than once threatened to subject it to a proper(ly) retarded commentary. On first percussive insistence, through to the more protracted metal-on-metal drawling, I'm hearing strains of earlier, Organum flavored, Kojo. Hangin out in swampier end of the forest with druid and frog, Jackman scraping the bong of ritual, can I hear you shout gloria sanctus omega.


edit for requisite cliche-

The brevity makes the experience that much more precious

Amen.

[moozz]

Kazumoto Endo - Keiyo

Some people included this one in their "Best of 2019" lists but I could include it in my list of biggest disappointments. The whole record is pretty quiet with a thin sound. There are "bursts" of noise with plenty of (almost?) total silence in between. The bursts are not violent or harsh in any way (that would have been how I prefer my noise) but they just kind of fade in and out. More like a noisy experimental release. Varied but it never gets going for me.

[DSOL]

Aaron Dilloway/John Wiese - Sniper Counter Sniper

perfect noise album

[Lazrs3]

Culver - the body beneath. 10cd set -  Turgid Animal-

Seen Culver a few times and keep going home with pocketfuls of tapes and cdrs. Saw this and couldn't resist, three decades of Culver spread across 10cds. Playing it through over the week.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

IMMORTAL - Northern Chaos Gods CD
Immortal's early discography is ripe with timeless classics. Pure Holocaust and Battles in the North are, of course, part of the seminal genre pantheon. Masterpieces of violence and disruption, which impress even more by being so great despite the complete lack of any additional aesthetic shazam provided by violent activities or even radical ideology. The debut Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism is also a solid album, as is Blizzard Beasts, with its uniquely dry and bizarre production. With At the Heart of Winter the band began to move into a more melodic/heavy territory where I kind of lost interest. They didn't become completely useless, but in all honesty this is yet another example of one of my teenage idols that I haven't really cared that much about for the past fifteen years or so. That is, until I finally got around to checking out last year's Northern Chaos Gods. After some kind of conflict, the band is now reduced to Demonaz and Horgh, and for this reason I honestly didn't know what to expect, but I have to say I am fairly blown away. The opening track, which is also the title track, is ripping, amazing, the best Immortal song since at least "Cursed Realms of the Winterdemons", and it sets the tone for the whole album. There is a metric ton of old-school Immortal blast beat blizzardkrieg going on in most tracks, and even if the tempo goes down ever so often, and heavy metal melodies do worm their way into quite a few places, the end result is more balanced (and far more brutal) than anything the band has done in many years.

There is also some envelope-pushing going on. Demonaz' vocals, which by the way manage to strike a good balance between originality and fidelity to the traditional Immortal gutturality, take a crazy turn on "Into Battle Ride" and become very similar to Absu, with slurred ramblings of long lines of texts in short time. Musically, on "Where Mountains Rise" we suddenly get almost pure NWOBHM, including almost an entire riff lifted straight off of a very well known Iron Maiden track, only to be broken up by more traditional Immortal riffing. The more you listen, the more gems you pick out. The lyrics consist of autistic repetitions of the same winter/war romanticism as always, complete with re-hashed, semi-made up terminology (the closing track and second single is even called "Mighty Ravendark"), but that is as it should be. The production is, of course, not as grimy and bizarre as Norwegian 90's black metal albums, but I have to say Peter Tägtgren managed to cram a whole lot of chaotic black metal fuzz into a "modern", professional metal production. This is absolutely fucking splendid, and I don't really know how they could have made a better album. Happy times.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

In connection with the Christmas Tree being put up, I found a plastic box/crate containing a variety of stuff. I haven't bothered to go through it systematically, but took out two pieces for listening.

V/A - Krach.com Version 1.0 CD
A 2005 CD compilation that, in retrospect, could be seen as quite absurd. Much like various collective digital release efforts today, the idea was to compile songs by the projects of various members of a specific forum (in this case, the German noise/industrial forum Krach.com). In the benighted times of 2005, though, the participants got to become eternalized on a CD limited to 300 as opposed to being featured on a Bandcamp homepage. Disregarding all that, I'm not really aware of most of these acts, with the exception of Atrox, Painslut and Antracot. Generally, the contents of this compilation could be described as extremely German/Austrian - I feel the need to invent the concept of "Steinklang light" to define this. At worst, this means dance rhythms (at the point of extremis there is literally an Amen break) with a modicum of distortion. At best, it means epic power noise/industrial with clear layers of sounds, synth lines and restrained rhythm sections coming together to force all this noise bullshit to become music worthy of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. If industrial ever became a mainstream success, it would be because of something that grew out of something like this. This belongs in a car stereo, preferably one with decent bass. Several tracks feel just a wee bit too constructed, but several are quite effective. The saturated marching drum of Chochmah's "Messias-Komplex", the minimalist, nasty and only tangentially German "Decompression Sickness" by Antracot, the 80's post apocalyptic hip hop beats of Nin Kuji's "Day by Day" and the painful, extremely disciplined noise structures of Atrox (bringing to mind the finest moments of Japanese Torture Comedy Hour). I'm conflicted about this, but I know there are a number of gems here, and the stuff that feels transparent and useless is still different from most online mass produced noise/industrial of the present time. The concept was naively sympathetic and/or stupid ("let's make a compilation with all our online friends from this forum!"), the result is not perfect, but it is certainly interesting and better than you'd imagine. This is almost free from Discogs, in case anyone is interested

SEWER ELECTION - Vengeance 3"CD
A small little release from the era when Freak Animal used paperboard for many covers. Super cool, but also super useless if you both listen to your CDs and want to keep them in at least decent condition. In this case, I can't really blame FA for the state of the cover, though, since Vengeance ended up on the floor of a car for several months a number of years ago, before moving on to the aforementioned plastic crate. Death Squad's "Fucked in the USA met a similar fate at around the same time, and for the life of me I can't remember what any of these were doing in the goddamn car to begin with. Luckily, only the cover was mangled (though still hanging together), and the CD as such remains in mint condition. My feelings for Sewer Election are those of a leftist shoegaze "black metal" hipster's for Burzum; I love the shit, for realz, despite feeling like perhaps I shouldn't. This rich and saturated distortion fest, straight outta Fabriksgatan, is pretty much what harsh noise should be, as far as I'm concerned. All frequencies covered, all hands on deck (Ahoy!). Wall noise with nuance, harsh noise wall before the internet defined the genre. Never static, but for the most part consistent and uninterrupted. A number of hard, violent cuts break any inertia that may be accumulating in the listener, and if that's not enough, there are also some pretty wild L/R stereo manipulations bordering on headphone malfunction. Vengeance doesn't fear moving up into the higher frequencies, nor diving into the depths of bass, but nothing ever gets obnoxious or outstays its welcome. Excellent stuff. Gonna have to revisit Wreck and (somewhat more reluctantly) Kassettmusik in the next few weeks, I think.

[Yrjö-Koskinen]

ULTRA - Delirious Elaborations 4CD
One of the benefits of being active in a very small and virtually irrelevant scene is the fact that material which might well have been unattainable to all but the well-off nerd, might suddenly lay on a table before you after a negligible payment followed by speedy delivery from somewhere in Asia. Ultra is one of many classic industrial acts I never bothered with, and then all of a sudden decided to bother with. In this case by procuring this excellent 2014 box-set reissue of their four major albums. It sounds different from what I remember hearing way back whenever, but not in a bad way. The themes are artfully unpleasant, and for once the intellectualism actually contributes to the overall impression in a positive, or perhaps rather "convincing", way. The sound is surprisingly accessible, though probably unpleasant to anyone insufficiently desensitized. The use of guitars, sound effects and ph4t analogue synthesizer melodies feels very outdated, but somehow not cheesy or even bad. It is an unfamilliar and interesting feeling to catch an 80's vibe (that is, not an "80's noise" or an "80's industrial tapes", but an "80's culture in general" atmosphere) from a series of old industrial albums. My first associations would be to some degenerated version of the Blade Runner soundtrack, or (anachronistically) a nastier and less spiritual version of Equimanthorn (US). There is a Come Organisation/old school power electronics scent to be caught here as well, but for the absolute most part that is a matter of mood and theme, not sound.

At this point in time my favorite Ultra track is the rather soft-and-girly, analogue synth line based "Aff" off of the 2nd CD Zoll, but this set is a treasure trove of somewhat unpleasant, classic era atmospheric gross electronics that I will most likely keep exploring until I tire of it.

[Eigen Bast]

Kestrel - Primordial Remembrance (CW Productions)

REGAL and TRIUMPHANT black metal interlaced with primitive interludes and field recordings. At points piano and flute play counterpoint to guitar without falling into boring medievalist tropes; a range of styles is on display here though it maintains a single minded weird vision reminiscent of Python's incredible full length from last year. Production is perfect too, gritty but not super mushy typical lofi bm. Always such a pleasure when something new comes out of this camp. If bands like Vothana or Rostorchester are your thing, you'll love this.

[impulse manslaughter]

First arrival of 2020 is the Aepel Electronics LP on Hospital. Listening to it right now. Nice variation of sounds and textures. Sometimes harsh and crude but mostly atmospheric. Hints of melodies and rhythms/loops in the background give the tracks a loosely 'composed' feeling. It all works well within the concept of this project and the great cover artwork is a nice bonus.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

GENOCIDE ORGAN "Case of..." 7"
GENOCIDE ORGAN "Functional chapter..." 7"
CDr copy of two early 90's acetate discs. Time when rare industrial stuff was not at youtube... so either tape dubs or at some point cdr. Many items I had from tape trading, I later bought as originals. These I do not have and I doubt I even want them. There is russian bootleg with these, but would be nice if material would have made it to official releases. Wpf version pretty damn ferocious. Rotten sound of acetate 7" rips adds to level of primitive force!

PAIN JERK "Mission Invisible" CD
Hospital productions
Painjerk is certainly not "underrated". It is worshipped all over the globe by noise fanatics. It is just underrepresented on full length albums that are available! Therefore it is great to see and hear such lost masterpiece of 90's noise harshness.
Back in the day, Gomi told me one of secrets of ripping sharp PJ sound was actually recording on DAT. Vastly overdriven DAT isn't all about digital clipping, but there is some audio alchemy happening in analogue to digital components. Some specific DAT decks would create harshly fierce, crystal clear distortion that is also paradoxically juicy and energetic. Not just the flat nonsense you tend to hear on many all-digital creations.
This recording, DAT was used and it is probably not the golden ingredient, but meaningful thing that is missing from contemporary recordings. Golden ingredient is of course mastermind mr. Kohei Gomi!

PAIN JERK "Exhibition of Electro-Disease" tape
GROSS
Not to undermine how good above CD is, but damn... this mid 90's GROSS tape. Just excellent. Perhaps among the very best of Pain Jerk? How to really put them in order? All the details are here that PJ is known for, but could it be also mastered by GROSS or simply getting slightly saturated by being dubbed loud on tape. Compositionally total blast with vivid and colorful approach even if liner notes tells it's recorded with "crude electronics".

HUM OF THE DRUID "The conservative Road Beyond the Bizarre" tape
Cipher
Absolutely great material. It is raw - yet clearly thought out and even "composed". It is brutal and noisy, yet atmospheric and immensely detailed and subtle. Full of surprises, dynamic tension. Noise unlike anything else?!

LINEKRAFT "Subhuman Principle" LP
Tesco
With pretty much every new Linekraft release I tend to say this is the best so far. How many japanese noise bands get better and better these days? Linekraft does. Subhuman Principle is masterpiece!  More structured, song oriented - but noisy, true industrial! There are short songs, ones you can clearly identify, not the kind of abstract industrial clatter like in the old days.  Album turned quickly among most listened releases.

[FallOfNature]

Vernichtung Durch Arbeit ‎– Totenfotze EP
Distant grinding industrial noise murk. Suits the artwork of b/w emaciated bodies perfectly. Some presence of vocals showing up sparingly. I liked the albums a lot but the duration becomes long with frequent listens, EP length is perfect. Good shit.

Ultimastanza ‎– Total Preoccupancy In Pleasant Silence
Lust Vessel related. Analog synth squaring off with feedback for space. Liked this a lot and need to hear the other tapes but even finding a rip is impossible.

Human Atrocity ‎– Horrid Events Of Malicious Barbarities
LDOH style blasting goregrind (think Putrefaction In Progress). Chilean project so I guess it's the same fellows from Gruesome Bodyparts Autopsy, Infant Myiasis etc. Sounds quite close to those indeed. Relentless and mean spirited, I'm all over this kind of goregrind so it's double thumbs up from me.