Sick Seed - Guilty Pleasures CS

A1 – Praise the Children (Autopsy)
Written by Autopsy

A2 – Strange Fruit (Billie Holiday)
Written by Billie Holiday

A3 – Mutiny in Heaven (Birthday Party)
Written by Birthday Party

B1 – Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun (Pink Floyd)
Written by Pink Floyd

One of my favorite new projects in power electronics, Sick Seed, debut release “Guilty Pleasures” insures a throne atop the kingdom of hate. Unrest Productions done a first-rate job with this release, the sounds are dubbed nicely and the artwork looks good while matching the temper of this cassette. Popping this tape into my walkman I was weary at first because I actually listened to all compilation appearances and LP first. All tracks I have listened to from this project are top notched and I was timid this cassette would not match that force, but thankfully I was wrong. This is a cover release, every track on this cassette was remade in the image of Sick Seed and I have to say, I really like these newer versions better. The first track on side A “Praise the Children” is my personal favorite on the cassette because I love the power Pekka PT created with his vocals, he made this track better than the original. You can hear fragments of the Autopsy version processed through distortion and effects as Pekka annihilates the lyrics with swift and violent anger. I can’t get the phrase “PRAISE THE CHILDREN” out of my head now, this track is remarkable!
Track 2, a Billie Holiday cover is also a notable track, having source material from the original playing in the background at a normal listening speed; you feel a eerie sensation and disturbing sickness from the vocals over powering the beautiful classic sounds from years ago. This track is deranged and original in style. The 2 differences in love and hate are definitely met here. The Birthday Party cover is probably the most upbeat track on this recording because there is a rhythm to feel and react with as you’re being punished with raw thumping bass and screamed at by a drill sergeant. This track is intense and put me on edge. A harsh reality of being told what to do can really piss you off.
Side B to this cassette rings in at about 11:55 and is an instrumental version of Pink Floyd’s “Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun”, this is a dark track, more dark ambient then power electronics or noise, but I do hear wreckage of scrap metal abuse in the mix making a cold desolate landscape. This side is calming to me compared to side A but shows a relationship with light and dark as noted above. I am in no way saying side 2 is light but compared to the other side of this cassette, side B is the sun.

Bergraven - Dodsvisioner CD

01 Döende
02 Av Saknad Släcker Jag Ljuset
03 Ondkall
04 Känsla Av Livets Nästa Skede
05 Den Svarta Angstens Essens
06 Det Man Med Själen...
07 Ekot Av Bikt
08 Döende (En Avslutning)

Like a cracked windshield Begraven’s music starts with just a chip and then spiders itself into a full blown web, very slow to vein from one branch to another is how this band sounds grow into each other. A very slow start, and then the explosion, you can call this black art metal? So many different genres can be considered when trying to find a home for this band. Highly technical in skill, this French output makes it very difficult to understand what you want the music to be. After a few listens you realize that you just got to leave this alone and let it be what it is. I feel this band has similarities with Blut Aus Nord in ways of riff work but then the vocals play their own role of the songs. I can hear Opeth within the realms of this album but there are no sung to growling coarse vocals to match the two together. This is a truly original release, I have heard nothing like this; it is so technical but not boring, you hardly see that today. If you are in the mindset to witness something new and have an open mind then I advise you to give this album a spin.

V/A Nyrkki & Kyrpa Compilation CS

A1 Pain Nail - Loan Säkeet: 1) Merkitseminen 2) Kadotus
A2 Above Suspicion - Ympärileikatut
A3 Sick Seed - Delores Read
A4 Unaction - Within Human Touch
A5 sKKK - Tahtojen Taistelu
A6 Funeral Mongoloids - Vittu Soittakaa Nopeeta
B1 Manic/Depression - The Dead And The Dying
B2 Grunt - Daddy`s Little Sex Toy
B3 Grunt - Head In A Box
B4 Bizarre Uproar - Mustat Saappaat Murskaa
B5 Wertham - Nil By Mouth (Beat You Till You Are Blue Remix)

Translated into English, this compilation is called Fist & Cock

Side A

Starts with 3 tracks from Pain Nail, Loan Sakeet begins with echoed vocal samples and a background of pounding war drum and cymbals. The spoken word is in the Finnish language and I don’t understand what is being said but I can however say it works well together. The 2^nd of the 3 tracks from Pain Nail starts pounding percussion and rhythmic screeches with the same vox of spoken word behind it. I can’t really decipher when the 3^rd track starts and ends but track 2 from Above Suspicion is structured more with just noise frequency and processed vocals with metal trash clanging in back drop. This is fierce, a perfect mid range and low end here. Track 3 Delores Read from Sick Seed is my favorite tracks on side A because of the powerful vocals sprayed across the landscape. Sick Seed takes the European approach with a speech of some sort at the first of their track with a sample and begins the strength of the track, hissing tape frequencies, throbbing bass and shrieks of feedback feel the air. Pekka PT ‘s voice sounds fucking evil! Unaction takes track 4 with “within human touch”, this project is new to me but I feel this project could be as strong as the rest of the Finnish crowd here. Manic screaming vocals, pounding percussion and feedback are the key ingredients to this mixture. This is a strong track, forceful and filthy. Another project I am not familiar with is sKKK, their track Tahtojen Taistelu is different from the rest of the tracks on side A because the main focus here is just a soundscape with no vocals. This unit uses what sounds like a synth and many effects and minimal percussive instruments to fill their time slot. I’m not saying this track is bad but sounds just filler to the other notable tracks on this side of the cassette. The last track on this side of the tape is Funeral Mongoloids with Vittu Soittakaa Nopeeta, the sounds are lo-fi and demonic black metal structures, the recording is not that great, I can barely hear the instruments in the backdrop but do hear the yelling over the band that just seems like back masking and satanic slur. I am not too impressed with this outfit and feel this compilation got weak towards the end of side A.

Side B

Begins Manic / Depression with a track named “The Dead and the Dying”, this track sounds like an old VHS tape ran through distortion, nothing is spectacular about this track because there is nothing to it really but a couple of sounds that are muddy. Windy and rough is the way this track plays. Track 2 belongs to Grunt with a track called “Daddy’s Little Sex Toy –Head in Box”, this is really good, the track starts with a really good sample of a lady talking about being hung upside down and left. The noise starts with bass driven pulses and trademark vocals from Mikko Aspa. This is a notable track for the entire compilation because it is very strong and has that simple procedure that works every time you here a track from this project. Nasty distortion with shredding feedback gives this track a heart. Track 3 is Bizarre Uproar with “Saappaat Murskaa”, this is a very long track of good abrasive noise and walls of distortion. This sounds like old Bizarre Uproar, straight to the point and brutal. Within the past couple of years walls have become more popular with the likes of The Rita and The Cherry Point, but I can honestly say that BU can’t be touched when it comes to this type of fierce aggression. Vocals are present on this track late but they only add to the chaos and hate. This is definitely a notable track here.
Track 4 is Wertham with “Nil by Mouth” (Beat You To Your Blue Remix), I believe Wertham is only act on this entire cassette that is not Finnish but fits perfectly amongst the rest of these great acts. High pitched shrills, devastating distortion and balls feels the air ways here with a nice mix of sounds and effects. I don’t really get the remix part here but the track itself is good. I don’t really know what else to say but go get a copy of this because it is worth it even if it is deleted by now. This release is Pro duplicated tape in polycase with xerox insert.
Limited to 250 copies.

Bizarre Uproar - 13/10/06 CS-45

A Äpärä
B Vyö

I received this tape a few months back but didn’t get the actual photographs that supposedly came with this release so I will specifically talk about the music. This is a live assault of Bizarre Uproar with added vocals from Pasi’s wife. You can tell this is more of a visual performance listening to the music because it is not your normal sounding BU release. I hear sporadic female vocals and what sounds like dominatrix whipping. High heel boots walking across the floor with grunts and moans, as time passes you witness the sound of metal junk colliding and trash heaps piling into an industrial collage of sound. Nothing really changes on side A, I feel this would be better accompanying a visual, perhaps a DVD or something. Side B Endless Spank Mix created at IOPS Research Laboratory. Visual evidence of 3 days process of belt & boot action and its results by Mr. & Mrs. Bizarre. Limited to an edition of 48 copies. Black chrome tape comes in a soft tape shell with J-card, packaged in a box sealable box with insert and 24 photographs.

Greymachine - Disconnected CD

01 Wolf At The Door
02 Vultures Descend
03 When Attention Just Isn't Enough
04 Wasted
05 We Are All Fucking Liars
06 Just Breathing
07 Sweatshop
08 Easy Pickings

Arranged By - Justin K Broadrick
Artwork By [Layout] - Aaron Turner
Artwork By [Video Stills] - Justin K Broadrick
Bass - Dave Cochrane
Electronics, Bass [Bowed] - Diarmuid Dalton
Guitar, Drums, Vocals, Drum Programming, Electronics - Justin K Broadrick
Guitar, Vocals, Electronics - Aaron Turner
Mixed By - Justin K Broadrick
Producer - Justin K Broadrick

When the frontmen of two of the heaviest bands get together, they are guaranteed to make something extremely fucking heavy. Jesu mastermind and former Godflesh front man Justin Broadrick and Isis leader Aaron Turner have teamed up to form Greymachine, along with fellow Jesu/Godflesh member Diarmuid Dalton and Head of David's Dave Cochrane. Broadrick and Turner have both been known to maintain a ton of side projects, so it's really no surprise that they'd eventually find each other. The surprising thing is just how annihilatingly desructive and sludged-out the result is. The sound is just filthy and fucking gross; at times you think you are listening to a power electronics release. This is very noisy and if you ask me the perfect timing if you missed the old sounds from Godflesh. Each track has thought and appeal with new forms of instrumentation involved like the bowed bass, and probably a laptop to get some of these sounds but these sounds are distorted, grimy, and brilliant in these new times of metal. This is a hard listen but after stomaching 4 listens straight I can say it is one of the best releases period for 2009. Even though I say this release is noisy, it still carries a rhythm with timing of live drums, bass, and electronics. The combinations are merely exceptional and people in the noise scene will be appalled when they realize how much better this band is then theirs.

Celan - Halo CD

01 Safety Recall Notice
02 A Thousand Charms
03 All This And Everything
04 One Minute
05 Sinking
06 Weigh Tag
07 Washing Machine
08 Train Of Thought
09 It's Low
10 Wait And See
11 Lunchbox

Finding common musical ground obviously doesn’t require musicians to have a similar background although that’s normally the way these things come together. What happens when musicians from disparate musical worlds meet and merge? That’s where true originality can often thrive. One such outfit is Celan, the brainchild of Ari Benjamin Meyers (Einstürzende Neubauten, Redux Orchestra) and Chris Spencer (Unsane, Cutthroats 9). Ari and Chris met on an Unsane tour stop in Berlin with Ari mentioning that AndereBaustelle, the famed Einstürzende Neubauten studio, might be available, after that is when the magic started as the sounds veined together to make a landmark release that changed the genre of hard core. The tracks here are very developed and thought about. Electronic elements melt with the instrumentation from the guitars, bass, and drums. This is not your normal hard core CD, this release has a different story to tell with different emotions and sound. I can say that this release is doom driven at times with slow pounding bass, and melancholic atmospheres that play key in the background. I can’t really pick a notable track because all of these are very notable with differences throughout all the recordings. At times you might here a piano peeking through the crack or a nice synth line but as you are probably thinking, what does all this have in common? Let me just say that it all works perfectly together under the Unsane type vocals Chris Spencer delivers.

Artwork By - Andreas Kohl , Ari Benjamin Meyers , Chris Spencer
Bass, Vocals - Phil Roeder*
Drums - Franz Xaver*
Guitar - Nikko Wenner
Keyboards - Ari Benjamin Meyers
Mastered By - Stefan Brüggemann
Mixed By - Andrew Schneider
Photography - Alexander Laliak , Chris Spencer
Producer - Chris Spencer , Ragnar
Recorded By - Rocco Weise
Vocals, Guitar - Chris Spencer

Grunt - Petturien Rooli CD

01 Sota Ilman Pelisääntöjä
02 Raatteen Marssi
03 Kansanmurhan Kone
04 Vainoaja Lauma
05 Petturien Rooli
06 Piikkilangan Takana
07 Rotuhygienian Aikakausi
08 Pro Patria Et Lege
09 Valkoinen Voima

This is probably one of my favorite power electronic releases of 2009, different from previous Grunt releases; this CD offers more atmospheric realms at times while other tracks sound rhythmic, and trance like while still keeping that true industrial sound. All the vocals are Finnish so I don’t understand what is being said really but it just doesn’t matter when the sounds are this good. Track 02 Raatteen Marssi sets the tone with nasty abrasive metal clanging and pretty synth lines that begin the rhythmic sections of this release. This is a nice differentiation between what Grunt is known for but still very interesting to hear on this release because you can see Mikko Aspa has actually grown with all the years and releases from his huge and interesting discography. Track 03 Kansanmurhan Kone is reminiscent of old school industrial sounds from such artist as Dissecting Table, and Test Debt, the beats are the sounds of hammers pounding steel drums to develop a simple recipe of a 1986 style of work with shouted vocals that correlate with the style flawlessly. Track 04 Vainoaja lauma is what we expect when you hear the name Grunt, filthy sounds, pulsing bass, and loud shouted vocals, this is a notable track because where it rests on the CD pulls the other styles and sounds together to make this a true listening experience without getting bored of the same old straight forward power electronic release. Track 07 Rotuhygienian Aikakausi is another notable track to me because again the elements are different, the background is a rhythmic 80’s style configuration that just sounds incredible underneath today’s style and working of the genre, Grunt has pushed the envelope and it just works. I feel there were a couple of filler tracks on this CD that just help mold where the differences lay, but this is a great album, and a great new start for the Finnish project to build on. I feel as if I have just taken a breath of fresh air after listening to this, I feel the genre will change now because of this album, I feel more artists will grab a little harder to the industrial roots now that somewhere in the mix of the 90’s they all let go of and sounds started to suffer because of it.

Sick Seed - The Great Corrupter 12'' LP

A1 Irstaasta Ja Siveettömästä Elämästä
A2 Verbranntes Land
A3 A Plague Area
A4 Snow Fell
A5 Mielenkiihotustilat
B1 Luxurious Disease
B2 Huorakatu
B3 The Most Hated Crime Of Them All
B4 Peenemünde/Bug-Out Location

I got my copy of this filth when it first came out a couple of months ago and finally gave it a proper listen the past couple of nights. This slab of vinyl is nasty, gritty, and disturbing, just what you would expect coming from the cult underground label Filth & Violence. Pekka PT, (former Gelsomina) poured his heart into the arrangement and vocals on this record, you can hear it with every breath shouted. Sick Seed only having a few compilation appearances and 1 full length cassette under his belt created a landmark release with his first vinyl appearance. Verbranntes Land is my favorite track on the record, the pulses of bass and the vice sounds of Finnish vocals did it for me. The songs all revolve around a recipe of a few main sounds; a synth line, the vocals, microphone feedback, and what sounds like a guitar. This mixture may sound simple but with one listen you will agree that this is nothing simplistic but pure filth and disease. Other phenomenal tracks I really liked were the Screwdriver cover of Snow Fell and The most hated crime of them all. I really like the fact that Filth and Violence has the old school feel with Xeroxed covers but it would have been really nice to have the actual color on this release because it is so original with the burning rats. Plain black sleeve with Xeroxed front and back inserts. Limited to 250 copies.

Notes from back insert:
A3 Dedicated to the memory of J.G. Ballard
A4 Skrewdriver cover
B2 Recorded live at Private Reprisal #3

Brighter Death Now - Where Dreams Come True CD

01. Adipocere
02. Thirtyseven
03. Sperm on Your Jacket
04. Innerwar
05. American Tale
06. I Hate You
07. Happy Nation

I purchased this CD the other day from Malignant Records and I am glad I did, I was actually at this concert in Chicago Friday the 13^th 2003 and have to say that it was one of the best power electronics shows I have ever attended. This CD sounds very clear, not what I was expecting at first listen but I guess Roger Karmanik pulled the sound directly from the boards that night. The bass is amazing on this release and everything crisp and nasty. As Adipocere opens you can feel the throbbing and the vocal samples from the tape decks leading you deeper into the song and full aggression takes place with Karmaniks fanatical well planned vocals toying with your emotions until the next batch of queasy feeling samples plays out. A notable on this CD for me is Innerwar, one of my favorites from BDN completely molests your ears with the vibrations of bass, sick voiced samples, and high frequencies. There really isn’t a bad track on this CD but the only thing that I don’t like about it is the fact that you can’t witness the sound of the crowd during or between tracks. This CD rings in a ringing 60 + minutes. Cold Meat Industry and Jinx put this CD together with nice artwork and packaging consisting of a 4 panel digipak with foil embossing. Karmanik involved the crowd into the artwork of this release to give a more live feeling I assume but none the less it is an all around good purchase. Remember you’re a victim, not a survivor.