onsdag den 26. januar 2022

 Herbarium - Of Aconitum



A release from 2021 via Realm of Sleep, physical cassette-copy sadly sold out... but I will review it anyway! 

It´s another one of those interesting side-projects by Jason Browne ( Windersinnen, Boreal Dawn, Shelter Ov Shadows, etc). As you can see on the cover artwork (and the album title), then yes... we are dealing with something of a druidic sort of nature. Herbarium is all about the preservation of herbs and plants (drying them and pressing them). While Of Aconitum is about a certain plant that either can be used as medicine or to create a poison to kill! Also known as Wolfsbane or Queen of Poisons. And yes, the cover artwork has a Wolfsbane on the artwork. And the skull?. Yes, a wolf's skull (made a Google search on that!). For the movie-nerds, the Wolfsbane is also featured in the classic horror-flick Wolfman with Lon Chaney.

There is only 1 track on the album/cassette, the track is on the A-side... the one with the cool sticker on. An almost 20 minutes long piece. And yes, it´s simply called Of Aconitum. 



An old-school proto dungeon-synth lo-fi sound kicks, think a slower early Mortiis or Old Tower. Lovely low-key martial drummings and sorrow-filled and epic organ synth-work, grim and cold stuff... just the way I like it!. The esoteric and archaic feeling is there, and the sense of timelessness is absolutely breathtaking. 

A kind of dungeon synth album that can give the listener a sense of what real dungeon synth is all about, Jason Browne absolutely nails it down on this! Ancient castle ruins in a heathland forgotten in time. This stuff also takes me back to that classic series called Robin of Sherwood, a darker and more occult-driven version of the Robin Hood story. Brilliant! 

There isn't much to tell really, a one-track album that gives the listener a truly epic and mysterious journey into a forgotten realm. This is real dungeon synth at its most serious moment, without drunken dwarfs and silly elves. Go and use 19 minutes of your time on this, you won't regret it! 


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torsdag den 20. januar 2022

 Lesser Dog - Tavistock Anthropocene



Lesser Dog is a new act from last year ( 2021 ). Hailing from Portugal, dealing with the general harshness of life through a sound that lies between power electronics and industrial soundscapes. This album is the first full-length by Lesser Dog, the other 3 releases have been splits with like-minded artists. Both sides of the cassette have been filled up with 7 tracks, almost 60 minutes in total. Released via Danvers State Records as a limited 50 copies cassette release. Love the cassette design by the way!.

The first track Exceptional Creatures lets the listener into a... eerie post-apocalyptic and dreamy soundscape. The sound of rust, decay, and degeneration is quite visceral here. A very experimental thing between fields-records and ambient noise. Sort of takes me back to The Grey Wolves and even early Test Dept when they/he being more in the experimental-soundscape department that is. Love the layering of weird sounds here, lots of stuff for the ears and mind here. Mechanized brutality and nightmarish surrealism! Already sounds like a veteran actor in my ears!

The second track Desperate Dispatch starts as an HNW-inspired piece. But evolves more into a rumbling radio communication in some world war. Again a very brutal piece of nastiness with some interesting atmospheric undertones going on. A very noisy thing, but you sort of listening to it with ambient ears.

The third track Tavistock Anthropocene returns to that kind of hypnotic and metallic early Test Dept-sound. A sample from some documentary/radio, something about the decline of the human race (fewer babies and all that). A great piece of real industrial music, just give it a listen and you will know what I mean! Just love that sound of an old abandoned factory!

We flip the cassette and continue with the B-side. The fourth track is called Decimation Mechanisms. A mechanized nightmare keeping dying bodies alive for too long. The sound of machine guns in the streets awaken the dying patients, while the monstrous machine keeps on working to keep them alive. There is almost a storytelling mood in how these soundscapes work, they work on the listener's imagination... without a doubt!


The fifth track Bio-Hacking sounds like a vortex wall of sound. A hypnotizing cesspool of biological decay. Again, some interesting fields recordings going on here as well. Pulsating, repetitive ambient noise with TONS of layers, dynamics, and reverb! Fxxxxxx love it!

The sixth track T.C.B. jumps right in when the fifth track stops. Mercury and wet metallic sound, death-industrial moods, heavenly evil sound distorted beyond belief!... The classic proto harsh-noise meets industrial in the eighties kind of sound, told you that Lesser Dog sounds like a bloody veteran! Fans of Macronympha and early Contagious Orgasm, take notice!

The seventh (and last track) is called Silhouettes of the Past. A very subtle and rumbling piece of the highly dynamic ambient noise wall. A great outro for the album. I can sense ( and hear ) watery drops and... the sound of a playground ( kids playing ). You can also hear birds and all that. But, there is a sinister tone in this. Like if you are looking at something, and you are thinking about how that place was like... 30+ years ago. And now?. The playground/school has been demolished, your question would be ´did your childhood mean anything?´ Or are you just a brick in a huge puzzle/wall. The past is a thing that haunts you, and it will keep on reminding you of things that you either cherished or hated. I love this piece of atmospheric noise-wall, and I love the way how it ended as well.

Shit. This album is VERY good. With a lot of thought and sincerity attached to it. An atmospheric industrial-soundtrack journey. Not the most pleasant one, but one which will definitely give the listener a kick! It´s early Test Dept meeting it up with the Grey Wolves, but again with a unique sound and perspective. I´m looking forward to hearing more about this act in the future! You cannot hear the thing on some Bandcamp page, so you just have to bloody trust me... and buy the damn thing (bloody link below!)


Store Envy (Label):

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onsdag den 12. januar 2022

 Escuadron de la Muerte & Alpha + Galates 

- Himnos Y Resistencia. Veterans Psychotroniques.



Yup. It is one of the longest headline entries on Kalteldur ever. Two acts, one hailing from Mexico and one hailing from France. Putting their thoughts and ideas together, and have managed to pull a kind of split album on CD. One actually 100% split as of such, the two bands (maybe randomly) share the tracklist on the album. 

The one-act from Mexico (Escuadron de la Muerte) is a veteran when it comes to Mexican power electronics. An act that has been active since 2008, and has had its albums released on Steinklang, Skullline, and even had their debut on Trevor Ward´s Strength Through Awareness Branch (Grey Wolves). Be sure to check their discography out, cause it´s massive! The other french act Alpha+Galates is an act that is somehow connected to the industrial ritual act Melek-Tha (which is also a French act!). Several releases by this so-called skinhead-industrial act, some physical releaes are available on some of the links on their Bandcamp site (Link below)... The truth is (which was later told), was the idea behind this track came from Dr. Strangelove!

What else can I tell, the cover art of course!. What do we have? An incredible and surreal rainbow-colored painting, showcasing the kind of dreams that comes out of the mind of filmmaker David Cronenberg. On top of that, you also get a cool-looking poster with it. A kind of nice demonic-themed painting which reminds me of something from one of those Warhammer Fantasy books that meets Hellraiser, which I actually like cause I am a  nerd! You don´t always have to show WW2 photos to be a tough power electronics act. Enough of that, let us get on with the recordings!

The first track is called Conspiracion de la Vodka (with Escuadron de la Muerte). I don´t think it is about doing noise while being drunk on Vodka (Could be). But it could also be about a specific Vodka advertisement which showed a map of 19 Century North America, back then where Mexico was a part of the USA. The whole thing ignited paranoia among the local nativists (which you can understand). The track is a pulsating death-crushing piece of merciless heavy electronics, much in the same vein as Genocide Organ or Death Squad. Heavy and clipped distortions thump like a mad machine while screaming screeching sounds scratch your ear, weird recorded and mutated samples going on the background as well. Cool intro so far, more on the heavy attitude than the aggressive one (which I like). 

The next is with Alpha + Galates and the track is called Psychotronic Holocaust. The track follows up nicely after the first track ended. Rain of noise and metallic clattering with death-industrial aesthetics sucks the listener right in. Cool soundscapes here to contemplate the primitive noise here. 

The third track Operacion Climax de Medianoche with Escuadron, starts with low-fi AM-radio sounds and some moaning female voices. Creepy windy sounds and a thunderous death-industrial-machinegun rhythm kicks in. A lovely subtle and brutal piece, very hypnotizing! 


The Fourth track with Alpha + Galates called Detruire le Monde Moderne sounds like... Some kind of recorded music, being heavily distorted and multilayered with tons of mutated feedback. I sense a kind of epic melody in there, which kind of takes me back to the noisy moments with Blood Axis.  

The fifth track is also with Alpha + Galates called Vers i´Alliance des Forces, which is a track that floats in the same way as the former track, just way more harsh and aggressive. The sound is in the traditional German power-electronics sound.  

The sixth track (Alpha + Galates again) is a bit more interesting. Power electronics with a kind of ritualistic setting. It goes from a heavy sound to a more moody soundtrack sort of sound. Noisy soundscapes clashes with the soundtrack of old black and white horror flicks (sort of). Very intense mood going on here! 

I will now jump to the last track, which is a track where both acts are being present!. A harsh-noise wall with dynamics starts the thing, which extra layered sounds of noise being added while you are listening. A hint or two of sounds behind this wall can be heard and sensed! The wall is then turned down while the sounds behind the wall become easier to hear. Grey´Wolves´ish vocals are added later on as well. The wall is now kind of...looped. Which ends and is repeated in a thumping explosive sound. High pitched sounds yelling the listener that the end is nigh ( or the album ). 

And that ends the album, and yes... some of those high-pitched sounds can still be heard if you ask me. It was a raw and brutal experience without a doubt. Kind of a mixed feeling with the way how the track listing goes, I would rather hear a full-length from each act. I don´t really think that the sound of the two acts sticks all that well together, maybe that was the intention! My favorite of the two acts would be the Mexican ones, their stuff just seems more... thoughtful and...patient as well. While the French cannot wait and jump head-first straight into it (which some are more into, then acts while relays more on mood before action). 

I still think that it is an interesting album which has a lot of good moments. We are also dealing with an album that requires the listener to listen to it again ( a couple of times ). First time I heard this album was different, compared to the second and third times. But on top of that, I do actually have a gut feeling that we are dealing with something which might cult recording turn into a cult album in the future. There is a lot of blood and sweat here kids!.