This is a classic case of an album where the vocals need a lot of work, but the beat isn’t too shabby. Look at the track ‘Binary Code’ for example. What we get is a decent slice of melodic electro-industrial. While it is not groundbreaking by any means necessary, there’s a nice backing synth and sincere dedication to preserving a style. However, as soon as the vocals kick in, I’m kicked out of my immersion. They’re kind of awful; spoken word in a sense, but unlike with the beat, there’s nothing melodic about them. They sound rather forced and just layered right on top of the mix rather than being a part of it. The vocals change out occasionally, such as in ‘Uciekaj’ where I feel as if they work well. The dark and brooding song is challenged with grittier vocals chords that work. A ton of potential here sometimes held back by weak vocals. 

I wasn’t much too impressed with my first passing of ogenix. I forget when and where I found them, but their album “01” released in November of 2014 and it wasn’t something I was much in the mood to listen to. A whole nine years after the original album came out, ogenix has decided to pump out an additional four remixes from the release. Which I suppose helps give the album life, but doesn’t make too much sense rather than moving onto new opportunities. Nonetheless, that doesn’t effect the score. What we get are four separate remixes of the track. The first of which is done by Leaether Strip. What we get is what we expect; Leaether Strip takes the original industrial metal script and gives it an old school, EBM stumpiness. And it sounds great. GOR FLSH takes a stab at it and turns it into industrial metal / dance track that suitable for your local fight club. 0110’s take on the song is less than stellar and muddy as hell, applying BPM over quality. And Récré à 2’s remix is an 8 bit take on the track; but it doesn’t sound that great. Overblown 8 bit sounds and a rapid fire drum machine underneath turns it into a stripped down zombie of the original track. So, two enjoyable remixes. And two not so enjoyable remixes. Take it for what it is. 

You know what’s great? When dark ambient / drone projects understands that it takes more than ten minutes of recorded tape loops to produce something that’s genuinely interesting. And while Devil’s Breath falls into some tropes on their most recent record, there’s enough meat to their production to have it recommended. Tribal drums, industrial soundscapes, unsettling audio visages of something lurking underneath the surface. This is great and all. The main issue I find within the album is the lengths of both the first and last tracks. They come in at around thirty-five minutes and twenty-one minutes respectively. Good chunks of both songs could have been cut to make them both sound better and reserve all the juicy originality and interesting parts for good. In the first song for example, the section beginning around the sixteen-minute mark where a squeal forms – unnecessary. The noise is painful and actually made me turn the song off multiple times. This is in the middle of a pretty good industrial soundscape that had me interested and then turned me off. 

A wonderful marriage of techno body beats and dream future synths. Italy’s AVANT! Records constantly pushes out some of the most pleasant underground electronic music and this is a familiar case. Italo disco elements can be found on the album such as in ‘Ice’ where elements of trance playfully frolic the field. There’s a lot going on on this album, lots of electronic genres being toyed with, and HØRD uses them all to their advantage. Very well done. 

These guys have been pumping out jams more than most of the industrial scene combined. You can say that it’s for better or for worse; for better as there’s more to discover, for worse as it’s hard to find the time to scour twenty-nine albums in my free time. Thankfully, I’m only taking a look at this one. A collection of rhythmic noise, industrial techno, and industrial hardcore. A lot of goodies to be found on this album, minus in certain areas. ‘Threshold of Pain’ need a bit of a more balanced mix; I suppose the bass was supposed to be overblown and punchy, but it was too oversaturated in my opinion. Songs such as ‘Proton Decay’, however, had just the perfect mix of dominating bass beats and industrial elements. Altogether more good than bad with room for improvement. 

While I often have trouble finding love for drum’n’bass inspired releases, this is a completely different story. The Blood of Heroes doesn’t solely rely on the genre for all of their music making; rather they use it as a structure to build upon. The solid foundation is treated with support beams of industrial glitchiness, electronic melody, and touches of theatrical noise. Whether they’re slamming out some heavy industrial beats such as in ‘La Guerra’ or doing something extremely chill such as in ‘New Orleans’, I’ve nothing but love for this release. And The Blood of Heroes are officially on my radar. 

This release comes from a band whose name I practiced saying for two-minutes straight in my best German accent and I think, only think, that I managed to nail it. I’ll probably forget the pronunciation ina  day or two. Anyway, the first track on this EP is a rather interesting and eerie soundscape that you might find in an abandoned school with a haunted history. Kind of like something you’d find in a horror movie. The title track takes the thematic influences and makes the synths sound like wails from the dead. It’s good, but it sometimes goes a bit too high in pitch and hurts my poor lil ears. ‘sMother’ attempts to use some spoken word lyrics to deliver an eerie atmosphere, but this brought me out of the EP rather than into it. A bit jarring and unnecessary, I was more in the mood for more instrumentals. The same can be said for ‘Suspect Recall’, though the noise found in this one wasn’t as interesting as what I found previously. The final track I didn’t find that redeemable as it went down an obscure path that wasn’t appealing to me. Shame really, as those first two tracks were rather interesting and drawing. 

So, this song threw me for a huge fucking loop. The first couple of seconds? Sampled movie with some static. Got it. Then I was brought into this excellent EBM beat that’s punchy, fun, and old-school. I was twiddling my feet to the beat, but then VRMS began to sing. And that’s where my enjoyment ended. Everything about VRM is great. Except for the vocals. The beat? Phenomenal. The production? Maybe not top notch, but damned good nonetheless. The vocals? God awful. Needs either a replacement vocalist as a partner, or needs to collaborate with other artists to make the songs complete. 

Ah, aggrotech and harsh EBM. It seemed like just yesterday when you were at the forefront of industrial and cybergoths populated the streets, threatening to stomp on anyone who didn’t bow before Suicide Commando with ten inch heels of INDVSTRIAL might. Not to poke too much fun at the genre, however, as we did get some great things out of that movement. Such as a ton of classic Grendel releases. Anyone, I’m afraid that SCRAP shan’t be falling into the category of aggrotech classics anytime soon. Since the genre had its heyday, it’s going to be hard to top anything that came out of it, or to create something original enough to warrant exposure. “Corrupted Memories” sounds like by the books aggrotech / harsh EBM with less than stellar production values behind it. It’s not something I could recommend and I find it rather boring.