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We are going to touch the dark musical mire that is the harsh, ambient electronics of German based VERFÜHRERVERGELTER, in the new EP From the Void​:​ Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain.

“Aschewüste” is the ash desert and that wasteland is present in your ears. Abrasive and sand blasted by storms, echoing with the past where something abominable happened. The looping electronics grate and gouge at your psyche. Next is the lurking “Deathpile,” which slowly consumes the will to live and the Reaper could be knocking on that door. The music vibrates and rolls with the death throes, in anticipation of a painful cellular end. Starting to to get saggy skin due to a lack of collagen? No worries for there is a “Silicium sale,” and in truth I involuntarily shivered a little as it has a sharp cruelty to the tone. Behold the unbridled electric guitar as it brings you into the “Untitled Abstract Void.” Shards of light try to penetrate but this is pure darkness that will break the mind of the strongest if you ponder it too long. A yawning abyss of terror echoing the fear endlessly. Maybe there is nothing more terrifying than the thought of never reaching a weekend, perpetual groundhog day for the whole week, over and over again. “Bonus: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Monday Tuesday…..” drones on without joy or meaning, only with the intense ticking letting you know that there is no rest.

What does it all mean? Hmmm, I might take a guess that this could be about a body on life support. The brain no longer present but the nerves keep trying to contact central control with no response. VERFÜHRERVERGELTER has unleashed another release of infernal doom that can drag its cold fingers and nails across your soul and make you ponder From the Void​:​ Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain.

From the Void:Silicon Signals to a Dead Brain | VERFÜHRERVERGELTER (bandcamp.com)

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Glaswegian band, Hanging Freud have a new single, out on the Belgian Spleen+ label, just before the release of their seventh studio album, titled Worship. The track is called “Falling Tooth,” and the name alone made me feel all creepy. Not sure what Paula Borges and Jonathan Skinner have been up to, but I’m not sure if I’m up to hearing about falling teeth.

The rhythm sounds like a clock, ticking down, while Borges vocals gracefully wander the soundscape like a ghost searching for completion. Electronics whir and drone, building the tension, as time ignores all of it, matching on.

Beautifully avant-garde and engrossing, like a fever dream that takes you down a path of your mind, you never knew existed. Hanging Freud’s first offering off the new album leaves you wondering what is next… though I am rather relieved to say no teeth were hurt nor fell in the creation of “Falling Tooth.”

https://hangingfreud.bandcamp.com/track/falling-tooth

https://www.facebook.com/hanginfreudmusic?mibextid=ZbWKwL

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The electronic merry men of British project Decommissioned Forests (DF), have a new release, which is not a new release. How is this so, you might ask yourself?! I shall elucidate. Dream Technicians 2023 Promo is a compilation album, drawing on singles, remixes, the most played on Spotify, and favourite tracks chosen by bandmates, Max Rael, Howard Gardner and Daniel Vincent.

There are tracks from the debut album Forestry, released in 2019, such as the delightful and gauzy “Drifting Into Darkness“, the gothic overtones of “Asleep Under The Leaves” that invoke the ghost of Coil, and and you get to enjoy the stunning “Impermanence“, with the entrancing synth playing that swells, begging for your attention..

The last album, Industry, was released in 2022, and there is “Base“, full of turgid, droning insecurities. DF have added a previously unreleased version of “Triggered“, now called “These Triggers“, which is equally electronic, but this new version almost jumps out at you with a faster rhythm pulsating and increasing the nervous tension. “A Comforting Uncertainty” was also the backdrop track for a short movie of the same name, and its tendrils slowly envelope your psyche, while the creeping doom of the monstrous entity within “Drop Brick“.

You can lose yourself with the transcendental 2022, electronic remix of the instrumental “Impermanent State“, that was the band’s original single, while “Bad Dust“, paints a languid soundscape, with Rael’s voice burbling occasionally in the background, running for a gargantuan 20 minutes and 48 seconds, off the EP Fortean Amps. Dream Technicians 2023 Promo has been put on Bandcamp for free and you really can’t do better than that. One cannot deny the influence of Coil on this project and all three members all admit to being huge fans, yet you can most certainly hear their sound is developing and further becoming very much Decommissioned Forests. Just brilliant.

Dream Technicians 2023 Promo | Decommissioned Forests (decomforests.com)

https://www.facebook.com/decommissionedforests

Decommissioned Forests (@DecomForests) / Twitter

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Apparently, the project Habitable Moons is air and atmosphere out of Stockholm, but actually, it is a guy called Peter Lindström out of Stockholm and back in January, they debuted the EP, oddly called….well… EP1. This kind of alludes to the fact that there might be other EPs in the future.

“October 3” kicks off, with highly rhythm intensive textures layering over each other. The pulsating electronics are almost futuristic in nature. Perhaps this is a date in future that we are awaiting with trepidation. There is the feeling of movement and the build-up of something ancient in “Winter Storm, Baltic Sea“, though it does not seem like a violent storm, but rather swells and ebbs with driving rain. The third track is “Cape Breton, Nova Scotia” and the sounds of gulls and guitar give you a glimpse of sun drenched beach running into the ocean, and early morning when the day is but young. It seems at peace with the world as the land wakes up. The guitar looping could be mistaken for church bells, and we even get to hear the voice of the progenitor, Lindström.

Just a small observation of mine was that the Bandcamp player that you can preview tracks on, was not showing any minutes, nor seconds for any of the three tracks, which is something I am not used to and it kind of gave an air of uncertainty as to how long the tracks went for. Maybe I should pick the word “timeless” as that suits these electronic tracks that conjure up visions with their rhythms and experimentation. EP1 runs for approximately twenty-five minutes, but it definitely doesn’t feel that long, and maybe that is what happens on Habitable Moons.

EP1 | Habitable Moons (bandcamp.com)

https://www.facebook.com/habitablemoons?mibextid=ZbWKwL

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[gelöscht], more or less means ‘erased‘ in German, and it is also the debut industrial harsh noise album for VERFÜHRERVERGELTER, also known as David Munster. The album has been released digitally on the label Produkt 42 and as a self release on tape.

Now here’s the challenge…. every track on the album is called [gelöscht] except for “Intro“. I’ll let that sink in. It is slightly terrifying territory for a reviewer where the only difference is the timing of each track.

Sooooo, this is a completely instrumental album, and I think it would be an injustice to break it down, so I’m going to give you the overall gist. My thinking is that if all the tracks are called [gelöscht], then this should be listened to in one sitting.

Whoever David Munster of VERFÜHRERVERGELTER is, they have come from the black metal scene it feels like. That aspect is like a morass of inky darkness that swirls under all, constantly threatening to take over and devour all light, yet never succeeds. The electronics are the most vocal, often glitching with static. They can be like starlight one moment and be screaming blue murder the next.

There are huge soundscapes that want to swallow you whole with their vastness as they drone on. Others are claustrophobic, filing every space with noise, a horror movie. The electronics oscillate, quiver, and even sometimes bear down heavy, while the nightmarish beings in the aether converse with you in their own language.

On the Bandcamp page, VERFÜHRERVERGELTER is described as death industrial noise, which I think sums up his style quite well. People who like harsh industrial noise are going to appreciate the effort and mastery that has gone into the creation of this album. Just listening to this makes me think it would be pretty amazing to see live. VERFÜHRERVERGELTER is giving you [gelöscht], and if you don’t get it…. that’s okay as well.

https://verfuehrervergelter.bandcamp.com/album/gel-scht

https://www.facebook.com/Produkt42Pro/?mibextid=ZbWKwL

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UNFEELING is one of Derek Rush’s projects, a New York electronic artist who has recently been on the road touring. His latest ambient album, VERTICAL SLEEP, is out on the CHTHONIC STREAMS label, created between June to October 2022, on the previously mentioned US tour.

Ever been so tired that you drag yourself around while everything and everyone is conspiring against your ability to shut down? This is the premise behind VERTICAL SLEEP, where one’s sleep cycle is so contaminated, nothing seems real. The music is slow like being caught in a nightmare, every movement laboured.

Even the names of the tracks conveys the near death like state of the subject due to the trauma of not being able to rest. There is “PAROXYSMAL” which is at such a low level of noise, that when there is a change it actually seems like a big deal, to “BAROTRAUMA” slowly pulsates and grows in seeming pressure, from the void, that slowly dissolves into the state of near nothingness.

The burbling and twittering of “SURRENDER” definitely conveys the loss of one’s senses, as the conscious stream goes for a wander due to the inability to turn off, or in other words that unhinged feeling and spacing out. The whole point of this electronic quest is to express how the mind reacts once it has passed the limits of regular sleep patterns, into the realms of mental torture and numbness. UNFEELING might be not as unfeeling as they pass into VERTICAL SLEEP.

VERTICAL SLEEP | UNFEELING (bandcamp.com)

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So, Brutal Resonance have threatened us with a good time by releasing, on the 27th of May, the new EP, Out Of Time by Her Noise Is Violence. With cool artwork by Psyklon Industries, this is the first EP to be dropped on the Brutal Resonance label for Her Noise Is Violence.

“For this EP, I really wanted to get out of my comfort zone and work with sounds I seldom do as Her Noise Is Violence. I borrowed a lot of ideas that I normally use with my other project, Funeral Pyre – but I also allowed myself to just be immersed into the theme as a whole. Nuclear war, the end of civilization, living in the Kali Yuga, etc. I wanted to go more for feeling vs dance-ability and DJ friendliness. I guess this is a hybrid album of both my style as Her Noise Is Violence as well as being a part of Funeral Pyre.” – Her Noise Is Violence

Think big, bringing in the “Nuclear Age“. A wall of deep electronic sound and twinkling synths that resonates in your chest, while we wait for midnight. So 60s sci-fi at the end. “Pale Horse” could be the foretold one of the apocalypse and this grinds into your brain with wavering electronics and rhythms trying to punch through. It is glorious in it technical coldness. There is a certain amount of frustration with the title track, “Out Of Time“, because….well…it’s a beat out of timing. Good grief, just being slightly out of step does weird things to my brain. Add in all these rather pleasing popping and scratched tones which makes it both fun and torturous all in the same piece of music.

Amazing heavy beats assault your ears, in an Asian style emoting Bladerunner track called “Stolen Dreams“. It circles and becomes almost an sickly sweet instrumentation, while the context of war wends words around it all. The last track is also the single, “Apathy“, which was released prior to the EP. It is apt to end with this track, as it spirals downwards, rivulets of time lost to the aether..

There are beautiful synth lines woven throughout each track and as such, are like glass catching the light, while the darker industrial thunder sweeps you up in it’s grip, squeezing the rhythms into your core. Her Noise Is Violence has a techno savvy, that she mixes with synthpop nuances and harsh industrial noise…. it is a wonderful thing and if you don’t listen, then you are going to be Out Of Time.

Out Of Time (EP) | Her Noise Is Violence (bandcamp.com)

Her Noise Is Violence (facebook.com)

Raye Albate (@hernoiseisviolence) • Instagram photos and videos

Music | Brutal Resonance Records (bandcamp.com)

Electro Industrial Music Magazine | Brutal Resonance

Psyklon Industries | Facebook

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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.

Volume 1 | Supplemental Pills (bandcamp.com)

Supplemental Pills | Facebook

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October 30th was the release date for the debut album, Abyss by In Tenebris. Power noise extrodinaire, Sebastian Sünkler of Stahlschlag, is the driving force behind this project, out on the label, Crunch Pod.

And so into the inky Abyss we travel, with the lonely, echoing call of a raven to “Inferis“, otherwise known as the Underworld. This slow build of wind tunnel sound, rings with eerie chimes.

One of the scariest creatures is “Mandkind“. They consume everything, create war and destruction and continue on. A mixture of subtle power noise creeps into this unrelenting march, with possible gun shots and Sünkler’s distorted vocals.

An electrical impulse, that could be a message. It then stops, with the atmosphere becomes murky and oppressive. This is “Interception“, with graduating industrial bangs in the background.

“Hollow Hills” might emit whistles and groans, with an errant wind blowing through them. This feels bleak and forlorn, haunted by ghosts of the unfortunate, as the electronic chimes, twitters and knocks never seem to cease.

“Mandragora” is the drug form of mandrake and this starts off like a bad, tormented trip. The lone piano, followed by struck chords and hazy noise, make this feel other worldly and darkly unrealistic. Mental screeching and lost filaments of lucid thought, drifting away.

IN TENEBRIS

The wavering apparition of the “Phantasm” is a very constant electronic echo of things past, making their presence felt. This shadow is what has been and never will be again, reaching out to the living. The finish with heavy breathing makes you apprehensive.

The final track is, “Antinatal“. Maybe this is opposite of birth and a return to the aether, the limbo between life and non existence. This music is like a fog, seemingly feathery and yet heavy and unable to be penetrated by light.

This is very much an album of dark ambient style sound scapes with leanings towards the nightmare realms.

‘I started this side project because of a coincidence. Someone on instagram asked me if I could do a spooky soundtrack for one of his lost places videos. Well, in the end he didn’t like what I did for his video but because of that I discovered how much I enjoy to create dark soundscapes.’, Sünkler explained to me.

With a taste for these dramatic, brooding vistas, one can presume that this is not the last we have heard from In Tenebris and nor should it be. Have a listen to the creeping doom coming from the darkly, delightful Abyss.

https://crunchpod.bandcamp.com/album/abyss-crunch-189

https://m.facebook.com/intenebrismusic