The label Blue FX Records, released on the 13th of May, the album Dying World by Boston project, WrongPath. The previous releases for Wrong Path, have all been instrumental, however, this album comes with the bonus of vocals!
Kicking off with the title track of “Dying World” with the driving guitar and deep vocals that tell you no one cares and are insincere because the world is nightmare. “Transparent Man” has echos of Soundgarden in the guitar work and the low tone is almost akin listening to throat singing. I can hear the resemblance to Motorhead in “Mankind“. Could be in the drums or guitar work but there is definitely something as the vocals roughly grind against the music. You have heard “My Way” and now there is “Fight My Way” and Wrong Path are fighting dirty.
Layered vocals echo over each other, in some psychedelic induced episode in “Break Me“. The change in drums grabs your attention in “My Misery” and the whispers wrap around you, trying to weigh you down in the mire of despair. “Breaking The Void” honestly sounds like a belching demon but then progresses into a black mass seance. The 70s is strong in the “The Truth” with those guitar riffs that Black Sabbath could deploy and there is a general fuzzing tone over the top of it all.
Like Rambo,”Meth Itch 2 (The Return)” is on a mission with rumbling rhythms, fuzzed out and clean guitars. When “Death Is Certain” then breakout the Buddhist ohms because that is going to work a treat in this dirge. Oh, the guitar work hear does remind me of Type O Negative in “Hate Within” and a news report from a British broadcaster which is about riots in Russia and it works together very well. “New Horizons” is the final track at a minute long and unlike the rest of the music, this seems to far more electronic and brighter. so maybe there is hope.
The deep rumbling vocals definitely bring something new to the table and possibly is part of the reason this album has a Type O Negative sound, though for me, it is more so in the guitar work. So bring on the doom and gloom of Wrong Path and a Dying World.
Merely mentioning the name X-MARKS THE PEDWALK, conjures up the visions of dark sweat soaked dance floors and now in 2022, we have a fresh new album called New / End. Released 29th of April on Meshworks Music, with founder SEVREN NI-ARB (synthesizers, computers/programming and vocals) and ESTEFANÍA (vocals), the husband and wife team based in Münster, Germany.
“Sailors At Dawn” is the first track and a single to boot, with ESTEFANIA at the helm in a piece about surviving the darkest moments to meet the light. The track is filled with those synths that wind up through your soul. And if that isn’t good enough, the second track is also another single in the shape of “Firestorm” this time with SEVREN on vocal duties with again those purposefully electronics and yet there is something very delicate within. You can see why this and “Sailors At Dawn” were singles.
There is a kind of sexiness, not only vocally but also in those jaunty synth lines in “Wonder“. “Kill Me Tonight” is a smashing track with those rolling beats that you instantly find yourself bopping around to. So smooth and delicious. I find myself inextricably draw to the track “Sacred Ground“. It resonates so keenly with me, on so many levels lyrically and mood wise. A truly good track can do that. The power of the rhythm and great whirling tunes reminds us of “Yesterdays“. A little Euro disco sneaking in? Love it and it very much a fact we are made up of our yesterdays but waiting for our tomorrows.
Really like hearing both SEVREN and ESTEFANIA in “Miss Me“, a really classy piece about wanting the other to miss them because they feel down, Miss me I’m a fool. “Into The Light” is a perfect piece of future pop style that would be great on any club dance floor. The electronic flutter down falling stars on magical night waiting for the dawn. Lucky last is “I’m On Your Side” and the synths and vocals convey such pain and yet such powerful message of support no matter what happens.
“Abbatoir” was a track that we danced to in the early 90s and even listening them now, it brings back warm memories of X-MARKS THE PEDWALK in the clubs. It feels strange to say that New / End is their eleventh studio but there it is and time seems to have flown. So time and growth have molded them into a tight and beautifully formed synthpop/synthwave group, that can write these superlative tracks to stir the imagination and capture your soul, which is exactly what New / End has in spades.
It doesn’t seem so long ago that the lads from the north of England, Auger, were the new kids in the gothic/industrial scene, but here we are in 2022 and they have released their fourth studio album, Nighthawks on the label The Big Chair. Kyle J Wilson (vocals, synths, writing, production and mixing) and Kieran Thornton (guitars and backing vocals) dropped the album on April 1st.
We kick off with the very deliberately slower and immersive “City Never Sleeps“. The wailing guitar on a cool breeze of electronics and it reminds me of old friends. It evokes regret for something that was lost in a time gone past. “Oxygen” just has this magnificent movement about it that presses forward. There are sparkling synths that sprinkle points of light through the darkness and an honestly sweet expression of wanting. Spine tingling could be the statement about “Forever Mine“. The guitar solo is hauntingly beautiful about a love story that might be over before it has truly started.
Depeche Mode written all over “This Pain l Compress” in the style and attitude. There is this fantastic welling of emotion joined by buzzing guitars giving it overwhelming vehemence. We hear Wilson pushing deep on those vocals in “Libra” with the wondrous spiraling chorus that sucks you in. Maybe we are talking the astrological sign and I do like the mystical Middle Eastern strains throughout. “Holding On” features Chris Harms of Lord Of The Lost and let’s face it, Harms never does anything awful as far as I have heard and this is no different. This reminds me of early Lacuna Coil and the dueling vocals of Harms and Wilson is magnificent as they intertwine and shatter against each other.
The machine is that which will consume us without thought and without remorse, so the “Sound Of The Machine” with the mechanical vocal distortion, is an anthem to never giving in. This was the first single that gave us an inkling of what this album was going to be like. Beautiful synths desingerate ,”As The World Falls Apart” featuring Imogen Evans with her lovely vocals, mixed in swirls of guitar laden waves, only broken by electronic fractures. They are roaming into dangerous waters of attraction in “Smother“. The refrains are heavy and sexually charged, then the chorus is so wonderfully plaintive and sonorous.
Another single, “Angel Dressed In Snow” and Wilson is channeling HIM in oodles. It might be the deep voice or the way he rounding his vowels, but I am pretty sure Valo would be okay if this was one of his. Thornton proves what a skilled guitarist he is and this is a song to play that person that brings joy into your little dark heart. “SharingShadows” is the final track and they are going out on a slower number and it kind of feels like a soul song in some ways. a very sad and mournful piece.
Nighthawks is most definitely Auger’s most definitive album to date. It has soaring vocals, beautiful melodies, driving rhythms and sonic affairs about love, loss and obsession. You can hear many influences pulled together with that Auger sound of guitar/synth and riveting deep vocals that are completely mesmerising. The guest vocalists were perfectly picked for their parts and each track is a carefully crafted, dark crystal piece that reflect the many fragments of a beating heart.
Brisbane’s Disfigured Mistress, has been releasing industrial noise for just over a decade. The man behind the project is retiring in the public eye, though in real life a gregarious hugger, who likes a laugh. With that decade under his belt and a veritable catalogue of industrial noise tracks, it seems to the perfect time to compile some of these gems into a huge 17 track behemoth called Decade Of Destruction (2011-2022), which was unleashed on April, 14th.
Just by the list of track names, you have to realise that most of this was not written to be all happy joy. There is a lot of angst, self doubt and even loathing, that is not even thinly hidden. You can bask in the pounding “SexAnd Violence” as the bass beats fracture in in ever heightened frustration or go from synth perfection into being stuck with pointed electronics in “Bleeding To Feed The Fake“.
The previous single “The Black Depths Of Hatred” is so fucking heavy, you could weight down a body with it, and it just gets better every time your hear it. Yet, it the midst of all this is the slower and ethereal, “Never FadeFrom Me” with acoustic guitar and ghostly accompaniment, that is like a breath inhaling and exhaling over and over until it is no more.. There is also the latest single, “Drown It all Out” that is overbearing and full of abrasive metalized distortion which fills your ears, unrelenting.
“In The Flesh Of Fallen Angels” has the glitching beats and the mind numbing harsh noise trying to crack your head open in “Black Mother Devourer Of All” are tracks I just need to mention because of their stellar execution and how magical they are.
The whirling “The Rage Within” is just epic and just made to murder a industrial/techno dancefloor as it screams in fury, lost in its own world. And it just goes on and the thing is that I am not trying to write about every track, because there are a lot here and yet as you listen, each one is so different in the use of synths, programming and even instrumentation. Occasionally you hear a distorted guitar that just adds to the amazing cacophony that assaults your ears, so brilliantly orchestrated.
Traditionally, it the Europeans that have this affinity with harsh powernoise but I am going to say that Disfigured Mistress could easily be just as good as any of those acts. He has a talent for weaving those electronic threads into powerful rhythms, that will touch your primal animal which lays at your core. So, there is no time like the present to immerse yourself in the Decade Of Destruction of Disfigured Mistress.
Jamie Blacker is ESA, also known as Electronic Substance Abuse, and we are going to talk about the album, Designer Carnage that came out on February 14th of 2022, on Negative Gain Records. But I will digress with a little background information first. ESA is a UK project that was formed in 2002 after Blacker, who had been involved in the black/death metal scene, started to experiment in and became drawn to the sound of harsh, rhythmic industrial noise, which he has in all essence become a relative master of. The first album was released in 2006, Devotion, Discipline and Denial, then releasing albums very regularly ever since.
Straight off the bat, “LaudanumDance” is like electrodes connected straight into the brain, sparking with glorious fuzz and beats. Like a fever dream, Blacker yells his discontent. Yet, hark it that a harpsichord? Classical piano which is a gorgeous oddity, played at a decent pace to be suddenly broken by the female vocal sample of Konstantina Buhalis and break beats, that descend into the stomach wrenching, bellowing tones. Those beautiful harpsichord keys again trill away, as they and the piano are played by Frederic Scarfone. Frustration and anger are swirling in the charged track “One Missed Called” which is about repression and fear stopping one from getting further in life. It is powerful with the female sample, of again, Konstantina Buhalis, screaming how much she fucking hates the person who puts her down. The rhythms circle and pounds down, enforcing the angst.
The use of noise and techno is near perfect in “I Detach“, when out of nowhere…ragtime music. Yes, weird and yes unexpected, but it works. The ticking of a clock, alien like electronic warbles, the ragtime and Blacker’s voice just culminate into this bizarre, dreamlike world of movement. The title track, “Designer Carnage” exudes electronic smut and grime. Fantastic! The music grinds while samples repeat the title. It speeds up towards the climax like there is no getting off this ride, only to drop you and drag you along again. Bara Hari is the guest vocalist for “Disruption Only” and it just pounds away. as a good, well lubricated industrial machine should. The rhythm is a drug that you can’t get enough of while in the static, you can hear angry voices. BaraHari joins in and it becomes something otherworldly while those hammered beats carry on regardless, stuck in a groove.
“Come And Find Me” again utilises that ragtime sound throughout in a myriad of stomping beats and electronics. A hallucination induced nightmare which translates to smashing yourself on a dancefloor. Curiously addictive and no we cannot get enough as it builds apon itself in a downward spiral. Saxaphone is by Matt ‘Chops’ Thompson and female vocals by Hellsea. For the track “Hyena“, all the vocals are credited to Pee Wee Pimpin, as he goes from cajoling to viciously snarling, the synths cackling as they track you down in your last moments, but what a way to go/ “Whom Then Shall I Fear?” features Pee Wee Pimpin, as he raps which works ever so well with the heavy electronics in the background. In fact, it is almost like listening to Public Enemy’s, “Bring On The Noise” but they were all industrialised and updated. It is an amazingly strong track.
There is something wicked and it comes this way in the track, “Vast Accept“. Off kilter and deranged, on a psychopathic mission only it knows. Do not be lulled into a false sense of security as it awaits to pounce while you are off guard with those techno beats. The final track is “Saturnalia“, which is full of blast beats, raging guitar and the deep, growling Blacker vocals, that start to fritz in and out. There are also these wonderful science fiction sounding synths and classic flamenco guitar by Frederic Scarfone, that lend themselves to a western touch, while Matt ‘Chops’ Thompson gives us that sleazy saxaphone. With wailing female vocals, it all crescendos, only to die away.
I knew this new album had come out but a friend, whom is also an industrial DJ, thrust it under my nose and declared that if I was to review anything this year, it has to be this album, Designer Carnage. In all honesty, he was completely correct. If this is not in people’s top 10 industrial releases for the end of the year, then I am going have to say that your taste might be in your arse. Jamie Blacker is able to experiment with so many different styles and mould them into something cohesive, with lashings of wicked heavy rhythms, filthy grinding electronics, inject music of past eras, whilst screaming near bloody murder at you. Really can’t much better than that other than you can dance to all of it. I dare you not to find yourself bouncing to the beats. You definitely need some Designer Carnage in your life, so let ESA be your dealer.
¡-PAHL-! have released their debut album, which followed three singles, The Lepzig project dropped I on March 31st, 2022, brandishing their style of grandiose, dark synth/electronic music. The trio consists of Olaf Parusel as the mastermind behind the composition of the music, while lyrical penmanship plus production was done by Leonardovon Leibnitz and lead vocals rendered by Peter Hardlab.
LEONARDO VON LEBNITZ & PETER HARLAB
The single “Abraham” is a powerful start to the album, as the horns sound and then be lured into the depths of ¡-PAHL-!, as they make comment on the religious ownership of the figure. The next track is “Big Data” which goes from dirty growls, to soaring heights of vocals and synths with an orchestral backing. Another single is “Dyo” with its overwhelming adoration in this beautifully simple song, that showcases Hardlab’s vocal talents.
“Götter Neuen Stadt” or Gods of the New City, is deep and cinematic in sound and could easily be a favourite off the album for me. There is so much going on in the background of this track, the synths that float, the electronics that are the restless flow beneath and a stringed instrument, with what sounds like metal strings. To this end, “Mankind” is the reduction of average humans to slavish beings, with no rights, the vocals describe our reliance on technology that might be responsible for some of this. Hardlab’s voice mingles with ViolaManigk’s quite delightfully. The sweet singing is undermined by a crackling voice in “Mass Instruction“, the programming of the masses to accept everything. There is the overwhelming power of an electronic choral of angels and down beats.
Slow burn “On Conspiracies” which asks how much credence there is in these things. The harpsichord is a beautiful touch, a refined touch with the unearthly voices that are not human. The single “Telos” asks what is a person’s potential. The bleak electronics speak of sorrow, while Hardlab sincerely questions what is “Telos“. “Timeless” is a great finishing track. Full of emotion and longing yet a resignation that all might be lost, so not all is timeless. The electronics are just mesmerising and fade with the words, unless we be saved……
How do I say this…..? For music created by three individuals, it has this huge atmosphere to it, a bit like a Cecil B DeMille movie. In fact, it was that style of biblical high drama movie, that this album made me think of…… kind of a modern fall from grace where only the few may be saved. Made in Germany but relevant to many, as technology and super billionaires acquire more information about us and subvert our reality, an observance of modern society. The music itself is this wonderful mixture of divine grace, smashed together with industrial dirtiness, the lyrics are a looking glass into the modern psyche and the vocals will both catch your heart and break it.
Estetica Noir are darkwave/post-punk group, founded in 2013 in Turin, Italy and they released their second album this year on the Red CatRecords label, called This Dream In Monochrome. The band is comprised of founding members Silvio Oreste (vocals-guitars-programming) and Rik Guido (bass), as well as Paolo Accossato (drums) and Marco Caliandro (synth-programming-back vocals).
There is something beautifully serpentine about the track “Room Of Masks“, as we are introduced to Estetica Noir and their lead vocalist’s ringing tones. Basically if this is the quality of what is to follow, then the whole album is going to be a treat. The second single off the album is “Sweeper” which is simply a divine myriad of guitars, synths and vocals. So utterly catchy.
“Striate Body” has a harsher tone to it in the beginning but that all melts in the chorus, only to return for this song, that was the first single released. The contrast of abrasive vocals and sweeter singing is quite delightful. The rain greets you in “Autumn” with unaccompanied keyboards, building a soundscape where if you listen carefully enough you hear the heartbeat. I still suffer from the pain of hearing the old internet dial up sound. “N.U.” uses this effect within the track. There is a cyber coldness as you feel the icy tendrils of the synths.
Such a wonderful build up of guitar in “Dawn Of Pluto” that drives it along on a sonic wave and echos throughout the whole piece. Do you have a strong preference for the night or darkness? You might suffer from “Nychtophilia” and the track is sexy with a soaring chorus about those that inhabit the shadows. “X” could mean a kiss in this spine tingling track. Smooth and slick with the breathy chorus. In the next number, a short instrumental, truly feels like it is on a precipice and maybe that is why it is called “The Fall“. We hit the last track, which is the retrospective “Climbing Up The Loneliness“. Such a superb balance of vocals with the haunting instruments backing up the lament of never being satisfied,
This is perfect darkwave music. Expressive, melancholy with great bass lines and lyrics that grab you by the heart strings. Throughout there are the wonderful guitar lines that ring out and the synths that create a beautiful synergy. I love Oreste’s vocals, a really strong singer who seems to very competent in his role. Each track has this beautiful dark crystal sound to it, smooth and clean on the surface but smoky beneath that shine. EsteticaNoir’s “This Dream In Monochrome” should be on your have a listen list, so what are you waiting for?
Things I am not an expert in… how much time do you have? While you contemplate this, I will tell you that Portland band, Supplemental Pills, released a seven track offering, Volume 1, on April the 8th. Never will I say that I am very offay with prog rock, though I have seen my fair share live. The band consists of Mark Folkrod (drums, vocals), Aron Christensen (bass, synth), Joel Meredith (guitar) and Ezra Meredith (vocals, guitar).
There is a bite to the guitars with electronic fuzz on the first track “Run On“. It is like an opus and an introduction to what will be awaiting you on this journey. “Freedom March” has a native American feel it is and also could be on psychedelic drugs it seems. With the tracks “Feel It ” and “Floating Mountains Over Rivers“, there is this yearning for the open spaces, as the guitars wend their way through the natural world, looking for passage to places unknown. “Feel It” has an angrier edge to it, meanwhile, “Floating Mountains Over Rivers” has a shamanistic texture.
“What The Wizard Said” actually starts off sounding a lot like the Jesus And Mary Chain with all the feed back. The wizard could be real or a hallucination of a fever dream. It is not often an eleven minute track is chosen as a single but this is the case with “Gonna Be Alright” which is a dirty dirge number with laconic droning guitars and vocals. Last track is “Mary Marrakesh” and this track reminds me very much of the other set of Scots, Teenage Fanclub, with the great vocal backing. I think this is probably my favourite track off the album.
The band was brought into fruition due to Covid and lockdowns at the time, and it not hard to see it has cemented a bond between these musicians.There is a harkening back to the late 60s and early 70s psychedelic rock with the darkness of The Doors pervading. Not a fan of purely instrumental progressive rock but the vocals and heart injected into this make Volume 1, make this genre far more interesting , especially when you can hear a melting pot of so many styles within.
The Dreadful Dead of Hoop Snake Hollow was the last album we heard from LA deathrockers, Black HeroinGallery, in 2016, but fear not. As of February the 20th, 2022, they released their third album, Feast Of Bats, on Pestilent WindFolk Records. Founding member and lead vocalist/writer/synths, Eyajo December Joseph, created this project in 2007 and was joined by drummer, Tony F Corpse, both having previously been part of the seminal deathrock group, Astrovamps. Over time, they have cemented the positions of lead guitar in 2015 with KrystalFantom and most recently, Dracul Grotesque in 2021 on bass and live keyboardist, Skye Lee Vague.
“I Cover Her Horns” kicks off the album, with a carnival in the distance with an off kilter mayhem. There is almost a genuine pain in the vocals for what maybe the love for a demon girl with her devilish horns. A lament to an unreasonable God that won’t keep his promises. The guitar work is just gorgeous in “Gargoyle Projekt“, a pulsating medieval hell of the black death that overtakes your senses in the eagerness to away from the victims of the plague.
There is a “Taste Of Worms“, a vortex of clashing drums and guitars, that whirls like a hurricane dragging you in with a sound of a siren. The classical elements are beautifully presented, giving this track gleaming facets. The track “Dreadful Wish” reminds me a hell of a lot of early Christian Death in the tone and tempo, about spiritual death. The guitars are often purposefully and yet then seem to almost meander in a psychedelic dream.
A tale of a demon who wished to see more than he should is told in “His Beautiful Darkness“. Grated out vocals from December Joseph, give you the sadness in finding a new world and losing it all again.”As She Slumbers” is dramatic and epically huge, images of a girl gone mad, who dreams of murdering her family and eating them. The guitars drop with the drums giving the effect of chopping into soft bodies. Even though there is a barrage of guitars and vocals, with the drums, tearing their way into your eardrums, “TheBoy Who Married The Spider-Face Girl” is actually a song for a girl that the world does not understand but is beloved by a boy.
Honestly, has there ever been a bad song written about the bogeyman? For the track “Hush, Hush, Hush, HereComes The Bogeyman“, this is no exception. Written originally in 1932 this cover version of the track is haunting, violent and wicked funny all at the same time. There is a wonderful heaviness that pervades. Expressive spoken word about the adventures of the “Twig Skeleton“, which sadly is only an interlude as I wanted to hear more about this character. A shamanistic atmosphere to “Take This Rose“, the last track on the album and rather than being romantic, a litany of what can never be.
There are black metal elements to the music that cannot be overlooked. It is in the use of classical aspects which is far more commonly used in black metal and crafted beautifully into the tracks on this album. Those elements indeed, enhance rather than detract from the overall sound. A Feast Of Bats is undeniably deathrock though with those angular, shredding guitars and tortured vocals. Stories of love, loss, death, decay and murderous intent….could one ask for anything more from an album? For me it is perfect gothic fare. You might have to venture in for yourselves and see if you get hooked on this release from Black Heroin Gallery.
Pure Obsession And Red Night have come a long way since their early days. Originally known as PORN, this French band, over the years has matured and evolved, especially in their sound. This brings us to the latest album, Let Your Obsessions Run Wild, which was released on April the 22nd. Philippe Deschemin is the lead singer as well as the composer for the band and on top of that, has done the mixing and producing.
The thing you need to know is that this is mostly a collection of singles, in album form. Now some would say that is a bit odd, but I am going to say to you, that this means you are getting all the good stuff. In other words, each of these tracks was considered good enough to be a single and the whole album is honestly excellent.
I think for me, my favourite tracks are “The Call Of Your Life” and “The Night Is Dancing In Your Eyes“. The music is a mixture of seductive electronics, vocals to entrance you and beats to move your body. The tracks are a synthpop joy to listen to and we think that this incarnation of Pure Obsessions & Red Nights is well worth listening to, as they have developed a deft touch for this ephemeral form of music. Exhilarating and poignant, so Let Your Obsessions Run Wild.
Onyx Music Reviews 