Mörksugga - Så Småningom Tar Allting Slut

A new act from Sweden, called Mörksugga, and the album is called Så Smågingom Tar Allting Slut (So Little By Little Everything Ends. Mörksugga comes from a mythological little dark creature created and painted by Verlin Molin (1907-1980). A small trollish black creature that looks faintly like something from the world of the Finnish author Tove Jansson (Moomins). Title of the album, well... everything faints away with the time. The photo is from some historical and religious construction I guess. 

The whole CD has been self-released by the artist himself, a cool, shiny, and classic blackened digipack. You´ll find additional info regarding the release itself and a nice photo of the man behind the project. A serious-looking man with sunglasses, and on the CD tray he holds a surprisingly small human-like cranium in his large hands... could it be the scull of a Swedish gnome?. We don´t know! But anyway, inside we have 9 tracks almost 40 minutes in total... so let us dig right into it!.    

The first track is called Skända Din Nästa (Disgrace Your Next). String-tortured arrangements with some slow and heavy industrialized electronic percussion. Not far away from In Slaughter Natives, just a bit slower, less melodic, and subtle. Classic Scandinavian horror mood nonetheless, the creeks and the sounds are all there... sounds pretty good. The sound quality suits the style so far. 

The second track Ett Minne Ristat I Hud (A Memody Carved In Skin) is slowly mixed into the end of the first track. The sound of human breath slowly inhaling and exhaling, and the sound of drums... drums in the deep... yes... the goblins are approaching for sure! Panic? A bit, let's just stay cool for the moment. Still maintaining that classic mid-era sound (2000 and later) of Cold Meat Industry. To someone like me, well... it feels comforting and home-like. 

The third track Lugnet Före Stormen moves into the sort of realm of Archon Satani or Inanna. Mysterious ritualistic moods and the sound of echoed metal pipes rolling inside the church, love the background drones here. The feeling of seeking some kind of protection towards what is outside is quite evident here.

The fourth track Utbränd Och Ödelagd (Burned Out And Destroyed) offers a sort of slow-driven electronic martial-industrial rhythm with some extra junk-metal sounds. Harsh distorted sounds and the sound of monks are there as well. Never been much into the polished side of this kind of music, but... for some strange and unknown reason, I´m actually charmed by this. 

The fifth track Affirmation offers something new. Looped guitar strings, get me straight back to old Ordo Equilibrio. Joined up with a nice and haunting epic synth melody. Cool background stuff going on, slow-motion monks burning up in hell with lots of reverb. 

The sixth track Den Osalige Andes Närvaro (Presence of the Unholy Spirit) offers the same as the former tracks... but ... there is something else going on in my left speaker... and right. Everything swirls back and forth between my speakers, love the dynamic! Slow-driven ambient horror with some extra dimensions attached to it!

Is the eight-track a Death In June cover?...

At this point, you should just check out the album and listen to the last 3 tracks! The album almost works like a tribute to the era of CMI after the millennial switch. The sound quality is pretty good, and I love the stereo dynamics of the reverbed sound effects. I do miss one thing though, a touch of ... well... madness, or when you just... lose control and something weird happens. But apart from that, the album manages to complete whatever mission it was set upon, it´s pretty well constructed.  Although... Hopefully, there will be a second Mörksugga album out.     

Bandcamp (band):

https://morksugga.bandcamp.com/album/s-sm-ningom-tar-allting-slut

    

      

 

Arlo Bigazzi & Elena M. Rosa Lavita - 
D’Altronde Sono Sempre Gli Altri

Elena M. Rosa Lavita, whom we reviewed some time ago with her breathtaking and horrific interpretation of Tjajkovskij´s Swan Lake, has a new album out. This time, she has made an album with Arlo Bigazzi, whom I don´t know. If you check up on him on Discogs, then it's quite obvious that we're dealing with a true veteran of Italian music. He has been in the industrial band Militia as well. These two cool people have gotten together to create an album called D´altronde Sono Sempre Gli Altri (which means After All, It´s Always the Others). The album has been released as a limited tape on Industrial Ölocaust Recordings, and on CD via Materiali Sonori. An 8 track album, about 30 minutes in total.

The first track is called Bruit Secret, starting with the metallic scraping on bass strings and some eerie-sounding synth work. Reminds me of Coil´s S Is For Sleep on their compilation called Unnatural History Vol.1, which has that relaxing and eerie complexity. Really love the sounds here, the strange shimmering of bell sounds, instrumental basswork, reverbed feedback, and synth elements here and there.    

The second track Manrovesci, moves further into down-tempo electronica beats mixed with excellent bass playing. Excellent high-quality soundtrack stuff for a great horror flick. 

The third track 11° Giorno Apoplettico Spirituale feels like a spider crawling on your spine! Everything is spine-tingling, and the haunting slightly jazz bass-playing manages the listener to be nailed to the ground... in an incredible meditative way! Highly evocative dark-ambient textures here as well, very organic sounding.

The fourth track Indipendenti Dagli Avvenimenti Esterni gets back to the roots of early gothic post-punk, the minimal atmospheric sound of Bela Lugosi´s Dead? Just being further into slow-driven ritualistic minimalism. Really love the kind of Robert Fripp´ish ambient guitar work here! 

The fifth track The Great Enemy of Art Is Good Taste offers a more melodramatic approach with strings! Slowly build with thumping sounds, which sound like steps on a staircase. Beautiful bass playing comes while the epic strings build up a certain melody and tension which grows patiently with every second. 

The sixth track Ahi Serva Italia Di Dolore Ostello seems to me to be the sad track on the album. Love the inventive injections of distorted feedback here, which almost sounds like a human voice screaming! 

At this point, I could go on rambling bout the last two tracks, but I will not. There is no point really, because everything should be crystal clear after what I have just written. This album is bloody amazing, and I will hear it again and again! It offers a wide range of moods with a pure minimalistic sound approach. The listener is bound to be amazed and highly intrigued, in the same manner of discovering a hidden part of the brain. It also feels strangely familiar in a good way. This one gets the green light for sure, big green lights! 

Website (label):

https://cardinium.com/product/ior-tk-xxix/

Bandcamp (artist):

https://rosalavita-elenam.bandcamp.com/

Schloss Tegal - Black Static Transmission 

One of the veterans of dark-ambient/industrial out with a classic re-issue. Black Static Transmission, was originally released by Cold Spring in 1999. Now remastered and released by Tegal Records, with a fantastic-looking artwork! The original cover was... (let's be honest) quite awful! This cool-looking glossy digipack really does its work, and the graphics represent the recordings way better. The album offers 6 tracks, almost 60 minutes long.  

The first second the album starts, you are there. The first track Black Static Transmission starts in some underground and abandoned subway/bunker, right under a busy motorway. A huge dark place where it hums with layers of reverbed sound. In the distance, strange voices are talking. Chittering and haunting radio voices, the movement of old machinery, and... distant chanting voices. All the sounds swirl around the listener like ghosts. Although in the murky ambient section of electronic music, everything seems surprisingly vibrant and organic.

The second track Blind Fault Upheaval (R'Lyeh Rising) starts with someone talking about a great darkness, and beyond that darkness, a light glows. Then, the heavy machinery of atmospheric death-industrial starts. A looped and thumping heavy sound works as the bass, a layered high-pitched vibrating sound of drills all wrapped up in a lovely and harsh analog-driven soundscape. 

The third track Toxified Systems Resistor is a really mystical piece. Telegram beeps, radio static, a floating UFO... and someone talking about the use of reality technology, and then someone mentioning the numbers.... 4....7....1. I can't help but think, that somewhere in some secret government they are using high-tech stuff to contact dead spirits (for some reason). The whole track is very relaxing and non-menacing but then again... there is the presence of a subtle creepiness...hiding. Interesting ear-opener for sure. Cosmic-horror ambient for sure. 

The fourth track Necronaut travels further into the deep paranormal spaces. A long ambient track that makes time stand still, with a brilliant murky (and adventurous) soundscape with tons of interesting weird recordings/sounds. The soundscape works almost as a kind of huge wall, giving the listener the impression that something weird and indescribable is going on the other side of the wall. U can sort of hear it, but you can't see it. It´s like the sound/recording from a world between the living and the dead... beautiful!

The fifth track Terra Insanium (The Overbeast) continues with the number...4....7...1. The goal to get in contact with the dead continues, the phenomenon of EVP? Thinking back to John Carpenter´s horror flick The Prince of Darkness, about the mysterious video that was sent (as a dream) from the future that others could receive by dreaming! The track has that lovely low-tech grainy sort of quality to it but is still multi-layered in a high-tech quality. Lovely mixture of low-tech and high-tech here! At this point, I'm aware that I´ve been on an aural journey, and with this track, we´re getting closer to...that is beyond the darkness? I´m actually not sure if I should be afraid, or astounded?! 

The sixth and last track Into the Quantaplex gives the answer to my former question. I should be afraid, sounds like hell being recorded through the radio. Eerie static, people screaming in hell, whispering, and more. Might just be the sample (from that recording from 2019) made by a person who lowered a microphone in a deep drill hole. Jim Jones is also here as well, and a lovely female singing loop. All is well in hell I guess? 

Black Static Transmission is an honest, frightening, and disturbing album, without trying to sound evil or extreme. It works on a specific paranormal theme in a convincing serious matter, I'm quite sure that the intention wasn´t to frighten the listeners but to inspire and intrigue the listener instead, if u do end up being frightening well.... that´s just a bonus! The whole thing is a journey from the start to the end, the whole thing sticks together like glue in a really good way. Interesting to think that Schloss Tegal is one of the pioneers of the dark ambient genre, this act might just be TOO dark for the term! 

Bandcamp (band):

https://schlosstegal.bandcamp.com/album/black-static-transmission-2

    

         

 Splintered - Between Scylla and Charybdis

A great noise-industrial rock band that started in the early 90s by Richard Johnson. The same guy was responsible for the cult magazine Grim Humour and the well-known industrial/noise label called Fourth Dimension. Between Scylla and Charybdis is their sixth album and the first one after their pause in 1998, all the material within has been made and recorded between 2021 and 2024. A 6-track CD digipack-album with over 50 minutes of spacy punishing enjoyment. 

One may ask about the actual album title. Scylla is a hydra-looking monster-daughter of Poseidon himself. And her sister happens to be another monster-daughter called Charybdis. Legend has it that Charybdis was once a water nymph who expanded the coastal line of Greece causing floods and destruction, this made Zeus angry and he therefore turned her into a huge water-dwelling Cthulhu´ish monster. Scylla on the other hand was also a water nymph that Poseidon liked too much, causing his wife Amphretrite to be jealous which then turned her into a Scylla monster. These two monster creatures inhabit the narrow sea between Sicily and the Italian Mainland, causing the sinking and destruction of traveling ships. So in other words, the album title has the same meaning as Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea, or between a Rock and a Hard Place. The lesser of two evils. 

First track Permutation 1: Furta Sacra works as a sort of intro to the album. The sound of crashing waves onto cliffs, and excellent epic psychedelic space-rock guitar work with a raw, scraping, and atmospheric bass line in there as well. Sounds really promising so far! Furta Sacra means the stealing of relics done in the Middle Ages when Christians moved a relic to another shrine/church. 

The second track Scylla starts with some gritty static noise, where the slithering sludge-guitar and the bass slowly creep in. Some ritualistic thumbing drums are added, with some mysterious vocal parts hidden in the background. I really get that feeling, that you are on treacherous waters! Something big and scary is hiding in the murky depths, waiting to strike. Really love those ethnic tam-tam drums that come later on, giving the track an adventurous feel. Love how the whole thing bloody works together! 

The third track The Horrors of Linden, is another slow and narrowing epic-piece of heavenly psychedelic space-rock. Like being on mescaline in the middle of the burning desert. A thing described as a cross between early Earth and Skullflower. Absolutely masterfully done.

The fourth track Charybdis, offers bubbling underwater drums and vocal parts sounding like far-away radio-static. Beautiful hidden melodies of sound in there, find them like treasures in a maze. Shimmering and pulsating like a soon-to-exploding star, this album keeps on amazing me! The whole track engulfs the listener, just in the same manner Charybdis engulfs the whole sea.

The fifth track Bell Harry´s Lament is the longest track on the album, being over 15 minutes long. Might just be my favorite track on the album. Slowly and surely the track builds up to something grand. Noisy post-rockish textures, scraping and hitting bits of shimmering steel springs, ceremoniously rhythmic parts, chirping birds, and moody church bells... not even halfway through! Some kind of daylight voyage through the ruins of an ancient graveyard, u can almost sense the dead trying to get your attention...for some reason unknown. The track ends with those watery waves, could it be about the protagonist in M.R James's ghost story?

The sixth and last track on the album is called Permutations 2: Pillars of Salt. Ends the album in the same manner as how it began with the first track. An excellent outro, delivering the last bit of the album. 

The whole thing is a masterpiece, and the whole thing can be listened to again and again. Plenty of exquisite ritualistic moments, levitating space-rock moods, even jaw-dropping undertones of cosmic horror... the whole thing just makes the time... well stop! And that is all I have to say, one more thing. Do give it a listen, it´s quite the trip!.

Official website (label):

https://fourthdimensionrecords.bigcartel.com/product/splintered-between-scylla-and-charybdis-cd

Facebook (band):

https://www.facebook.com/p/Splintered-100057425623087/

  

 Misa Tridente / Lacrimi Si Sfinti / Inselberg -  The Pact

We get to review another release from French-based Cioran Records. A sort of compilation featuring 3 acts, or could we call it a threesome-based concept album? Misa Tridente is from Spain, Lacrimi Si Sfinti is also from Spain, and Inselberg is from France. Two first acts have also been released on the Spanish label Marbre Negre, I have also had the pleasure of reviewing Lacrimi Si Sfinti some years ago. All three acts work within the fields of ritual and experimental dark ambient music. 

Again, I love the artwork made by Cioran Records. The album comes as a beautiful DVD-sized 6-paneled digipack. Front-cover artwork, think it shows hell in some way? Kind of a collage, gripping hands reaching out for help, and some confused naked humans trying... to find a way out of the place. The ground itself looks kind of organic. Really love the artwork here, always a good thing to look at while listening to the album. 

The first act on the CD is Misa Tridente with the track called In Béllùm. Tried doing some research regarding the mysterious title of the track, but couldn't find much... other than it meant Into Battle. A cave-kind of reverbed soundscape greets the listener with some additional shimmering bells, and some kind of moaning drones... almost resampling a human voice. A dominating Diamanda Galás kind of vocal punctuates the silence, love the extra echoed layers put into the voice. There is a creepy kind of... sound in there as well? Sounds a bit like... some sort of alarm... or the kind found in Throbbing Gristle´s Hamburger Lady or Leather Nun´s Slow Death? Later on, we have a distorted vocal added, male-sounding if you ask me. Some evocative synth is added, and some kind of string works as well. It´s all a VERY dark, beautiful, and ritualistic piece, offering a really intense moment worth listening to. The sound of it is absolutely superb! Fans of Aghast and MZ.412 should definitely check this out for sure! Can´t help to think back to Stuart Gordan´s H.P Lovecraft movie Dagon, where a female deep-one/human-hybrid evokes a Cthulhu rite in Spanish while sacrificing a human female to their Great Old One named Dagon. Dagon would then impregnate her offcourse... anyways!  

Next track is by Lacrimi Si Sfinti, called Miserere. Probably something about... misery. A humming and constant sound of 100 frozen strings, and yes... we are still in the bowels of a deep underground cave. Painful and torturous violin strings are in the background, while the intensity of horrific ambient soundscapes slowly turns up the volume. Organ/wind-driven sounds are added, such as hypnotic vocal chanting, and a really hellish recording of glass shards being driven into the strings of an electrified harp! A mixture of ritual ambiance and improvised harsh-noise aesthetics. Plenty of misery here so far! Sounds like Tibetan monks in hell. Incredible evocative, and what an atmosphere! 

The third and last track by Inselberg is called Sparsum Cruorem Posibus Vastator Horret Angelis *takes a deep breather*. Roughly translated on Google Translator as The Angel Is Horrified By The Scattered Blood Of The Posts Of The Devastator. A gothic horror introduction of someone ( I think! ) trying to pry open a coffin with the church bells going on in the background. The sound of splintering wood is quite an ear-candy thing here! The slow-downed sound of a priest mesmerizing his words for the funeral rite, is the sound of wood just the sound of wood being pressured by the sheer weight of the soil? Not sure, the whole thing is incredibly beautiful sounding. More driven towards angelic ambient moods here, than hellish here. Not trying to sound like a boy-scout here, but so far my favorite track is this one. Kind of a trip back to Brian Eno´s Ambient 4 On Land and Klaus Schulze. It´s just really well-made ambient music, in my experience... making ambient music that just works... is a rare thing. But I know that it´s a matter of taste! 

All in all, it IS an incredible concept album with three highly dedicated acts. It took me about, 20 listening to get to the core of it. And I enjoyed it every time I heard it. But to put words on it, was kind of hard. Being quite atmospheric and ambient-based, also being very direct and almost aggressive as well. It´s a complex beast, but a beast everyone can understand after a listen or two. I like it, and would love to hear it again... and again. 

Bandcamp (label):

https://cioranrecords.bandcamp.com/album/the-pact

Bandcamp ( Misa Tridente ):

https://misatridente.bandcamp.com/music

Bandcamp ( Inselberg ):

https://inselberg1.bandcamp.com/

         

 

 Gnostic Grain - Chalice

Gnostic Grain is a 2-man band from the UK which started back in 2020. So far they have released several albums, which are obtainable via their Bandcamp site. The idea behind the band is the wish to explore the world of dark-ambient electronic music, while also being reflective of our distant past and using modern technology to achieve it. Chalice is their fourth album, and being more of an album with a focus on the vocal parts. It´s a 5 track album, 45 minutes in total. So far there isn´t a physical release out, but maybe there will be in the future. I have a certain stomach feeling about this act, I sense a bright future ( for some reason).

The first track is called Unheard. Someone having a walk in an underground sewer, sounds of distant birds and the distant sea as well? It stops when a haunting electronic soundtrack melody fades in, with incredible atmospheric sounds going on there as well. In comes the vocals, a deep and mesmerizing male vocal with a lovely British accent (I'm an anglophile in case u didn't know). The first thing that gets into my mind is offcourse Coil, Attrition, and later TG but also with a touch of the more electronic-driven Ulver. Absolutely jaw-dropping material here! Love the synthy xylophones and the violins! 

The second track Uber Alles starts with ritualistic chanting and drums, a beautiful melancholic piano part, awesome goosebumps vocals, and really eerie drone parts. Again with the synthy violins, the element of doom and darkness is quite certain here... being more in the cosmic-horror section. Later on, a cool organ is added, and a kind of doom's trip-hop rhythm... really dramatic! Fans of Deutsch Nepal would also love this. The apocalypse is surely here, lyrics like ´The night turned black, and the smoke chokes all the people´.

The third track is Chalice. Breathing in and out, dripping sounds in the cave, and a melody... a melody which (for some reason) takes me back to the first Terminator film or John Carpenter's The Thing. It´s still, pretty jaw-dropping... the mysterious and esoteric feel is being quite effective here. Certain moods going on in here, the sort of stuff that happens at night time. The sort of stuff that goes on when (almost) everyone, is asleep. Stuff that goes unseen, unheard. A jazzy saxophone kicks in to enlighten the big city mood just a bit more, we really more saxophones in dark-ambient stuff ( I mean really! ). At this point, I´m a fan of this act!

The fourth track Opiate continues with an awesome synth and piano part. With that excellent piece lyric, ´The night is still a secret from the day, as I crawl back into my dreams´. A tragic, beautiful, and sad song bout an Opiate addict, about how ´When the night steals the day. Incredible track!

The fifth (and last track) called Prawda, is the most ambient/drone-driven track on the album. A slowly rising atmosphere is at work, with some additional chanting vocals in there as well. When the eerie saxophone kicks in, there is a kind of Nurse With Wound vibe. A mechanized female spoken-word is there, is it some kind of Scandinavian language... Finnish?... Not sure. Beautiful ending and a beautiful start, all is good!.

As I mentioned earlier, I´m a fan of Gnostic Grain. Everything is inventive, spotless, beautiful, and incredibly adventurous! Although the Coil resemblance is there, u still (as a listener) receive the feeling of treading into completely unknown waters. Throughout the entire album, Gnostic Grain manages to tell the tale... that there is something hidden in the dark, too dark for any human mind to understand. And it´s there, hidden... and waiting. It´s absolutely incredible! Can´t wait to review these guys again! 

Bandcamp (band):

https://gnosticgrain.bandcamp.com/album/chalice

Dreamrecorder - First Test Replications

Always nice to know when something interesting and different is happening in my mother country... Denmark that is. This release is definitely one more of them. This release has been released on a label called Thank You Tapes, a label being maintained by the same guy behind this project. As for now, he solely releases his own music on the label, but will hopefully (shortly) release other artists. The same guy also works under the Skidtmads alias and among cool projects as well, you can check them all in the Bandcamp link provided below.

This project called Dreamrecorder is solely based on the dreams of the artist himself. He has had ideas of having a machine to record the sounds of his dreams, but offcourse we all know that it isn´t actually possible. But anyway, he has tried recreating these dreams into pure analog sound. First Test Replication is a limited cassette, with 5 copies left so be quick! 

The cassette itself comes in a cool-looking soft-plastic cassette box, and the tape itself is pink with a sticker on it. The pinkish artwork shows some s/m-related material, with the tracklisting offcourse. Inside the booklet, we have some extra info and photos regarding the label. I really like the mysterious and fuzzy-looking artwork, nice old-school feels for sure. 14 tracks, 45 minutes.

The first track is called Doctors Appointment. A low-fi analog nightmare representing (I think) the fear of doctors. Chunky analog sounds, manipulated recording/sample of a doctor talking. Takes me back to some of the very early (and first) recordings by Cabaret Voltaire or Esplendor Geometrico. Quite a unique sound.

The second track I Have A Weird Feeling Now gets more into a sort of eerie ambient vibe. Crystal-like tunes from an underground cave, and the reversed sound of a contact-mic getting brushed by a toothbrush. Definitely a dream-driven idea in this. Some of the sounds have been recorded from tape, while the tape head is being tampered with.

The third track Touch My Face (Good Boy) has again a certain nightmarish edginess to it, thinking of extreme performance art here... or some kind of murky porn flick from the 70s.

The fourth track I´m Very Sad About What Happened is filled with analog chaotic glitch sounds and samples. Almost as if there is a melody in the random noises. Bit like the noisy Autechre at times.

We jump further into track 8 called Things Are Not What They Seem. Warped ambient melancholy with flimsy sound-images changes in and out of focus.

And track 9 In Some Sort of Factory Setting, an unrelentless blistering sea of glitches, knops, and turns. And strange electronic humanoid voices in there somewhere as well. 

First Test Replications is a strange, rare, and interesting beast. The feeling of isolation and creating something unique, without belonging to a local scene is obvious. This is a good and refreshing thing since so much is being made out there that sounds like it has been made, with the same ideas... and on the same equipment. Really love how chunky analog sounds get thrashed together into a flimsy digital dream from the past/the future. A term for this tape? Harsh ambient glitch anyone?. Might just be the most unique item to be reviewed on Kalteldur this year, give it a spin!    

     

Bandcamp (label):

https://thank-you-tapes.bandcamp.com/album/first-test-replications

    

Barrera - No Input Can Release Me 

From My Fatherland

From Greece to Spain, from Mai 12 to Barrera. The powerful blows of  HNW continue to flow from the sun-baked parts of Europe. A new album from this relentless Spanish beast, the first time on CD-R, while the other releases have been on cassettes. This is a limited CD-R released on Black Artifact, an experimental US-based noise label from Fort Worth, Texas. The pro-duplicated thing comes in a nifty-looking black poly case, adorned with some gritty WW2 photos showcasing soldiers' wounded and scared faces. There is only one track on the album, a track being 1 hour long. The title of the track is the same as the album title.     

Flickering red flames dance on the motor of an old Spitfire fighter airplane, nosediving while all the splintered parts melt in a roaring sea of fire. Thunderous bass wall, sparks of a high-pitched tone, flickering painful sound-images and then... there is a ghost´s humming sound in there, giving the first 6 minutes a weird paranormal touch. At this point, I'm at 15 minutes. Minor alterations to the overall sound, but it isn´t getting monotonously boring... u get that warm feeling (subconsciously) that it´s a vibrant and living being! At around 25 minutes, it´s almost becoming pleasant. 

Are we being told (through noise) how totalism gets into people´s minds? The expression is constant, obedient, and without breaking a limb ( or thought ) through the process. Like standing in a shower of sharp knives, without shedding a single tear. In a lot of ways, the extremity of this simple beast leads straight back to the early days of NON. Simple, abstract, and incredibly efficient.

Halfway through now ( 31 minutes ) and I am enjoying it more and more. There are some kind of metallic ritualistic elements/sounds in the background, hidden... but they are there. At around 40 minutes, the high-pitched tones have a sort of telegram-sort-of effect, is there a hidden message in there... I'm not sure!

At around 45 minutes, it´s starting to hurt... just slightly. Your ears have been acknowledging and recognizing the sounds within, and at this point, they are telling you that it´s not all that pleasant! but there is a big but! Your mind wants more, so the record keeps on playing!

If you want to enjoy this, then you have to tune your ears (and mind) into complete slow motion. Or better even, the end of time! This album captures a certain conceptual moment in the blink of an eye. The blistering storm of trench soldiers in the 1WW, or the screaming sounds of German Stuka-bombers in the 2WW. It´s brutal and constant, and the thing keeps on pounding! Without a doubt, the most extreme noise-related thing of 2024!

Bandcamp (label):

https://blackartifact.bandcamp.com/album/no-input-can-release-me-from-my-fatherland

 

 Mai 12 - Post Structural

The second time around I get to review something related to this noisy one-man act from Greece. Last time it was a collaboration with Dosis Letalis, who (again) is no stranger to Kalteldur. This full-length CD is limited to 20 copies and is a self-released album by Karl Grümpe himself. The disk is housed in a custom-printed cardboard case with flaps and a 2mm spine. It is kind of nifty and different at the same time. 

The artwork shows something from a children's playground, like a swing or something. And then there are fences around it, with a sort of industrial complex in the background. Poststructural? Makes me think of a place In Germany I visited this summer. The town of Duisbuch has a major closed-down industrial complex from the Second World War, which has been turned into a park. The place has a kind of... post-war feel to it. But anyway! The whole thing is a 6 track album over 1-hour long. All the tracks 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 have all been mixed so the album sounds like one whole track.

Scraped metal against metal, creating blistering iron sparks in the air. The sound of a red-hot flame is bursting through a huge rusty-looking chimney, while a river of melted iron floats into a pool of smoking water. I can almost sense the smell of someone welding. The sensating of metal pipes creating steams of noise submerged the listener into the recording itself. It´s noise-wall, just being a lot more harsh-noise dynamics. True primal industrial noise! Love the punctuating thumps and occasional bleeps here and there, a constant and menacing storm made of fire and steel. A nuclear explosion that doesn't end! At track 3 the distorted tones get a bit higher, while the bass gets even more dense and thick. Minor elements of rhythmic elements can be traced here. Pulsating waves of liquid noise get squeezed into the listener's ears like a great pumping syringe. Later on, a high buzzing electronic mosquito sound will paralyze your senses with some lovely and excellent crunchy noise sounds. The last track takes me straight into some submerged atomic-driven submarine!

It´s a monster to satisfy every fan of HNW and harsh noise. With lots of experimental touches here and there, it manages to create a soundscape of its own with an organic and dynamic feel to it. Quite adventurous as well. and it has that authentic live-session atmospheric feel to it. Highly recommended!  

       

Bandcamp (band):

https://mai12.bandcamp.com/album/post-structural

 Zakhme - Kula

A new project out on the esoteric Italian label Industrial Ölocaust Recordings, a debut by an act called Zakhme, and the album is called Kula. Out on CD-R and on numbered cassette. Zakhme is in Urdu, a language spoken in India and Pakistan. It means bruise, offend, spite, hurt, and wound. Kula means community, tribe, or clan. 

The front cover artwork shows an ancient hand wedge. A primitive tool and weapon used back in the Stone Age constructed sharp-edged flintstone if u like. Inside the booklet, there are some detailed esoteric writings about the act and the album itself. Worth reading while listening. It´s a 3-track album, with about 45 minutes in total.

The first track is called Parte I: Rito / Illusioni. There is a mesmerizing and ceremonious drone combined with shimmering bells. Think there is a boiling cauldron somewhere, or the sound coming from a lab of an alchemist. Farway ritualistic tribal beats slowly fade in while the focus of the sounds zooms in and out. Really hypnotizing, deep stuff that sucks the listener in. There is that Zeit by Tangerine Dream meets Bladerunner sort of vibe here, dramatic and epic... but also strangely calm and mysterious as well. Also, some well-done melodic elements are hidden in there as well!

The second track Parte II: Hypnos. For those who don´t know, Hypnos is the god of dreams in Greek mythology. You can also meet him in the world of H.P. Lovecraft as well! The sound of dust on a looped vinyl player, the buzzing of night crickets, screaming reverbed sounds in the distance, birds chirping (a bit), and the sound of a UFO above. Mind-opening stuff for the imaginary mind for sure. Love the sound of dribbling lime-stone caverns here, or is it the sound of a bonfire?

The third and last track Parte III: Stella Del Mattino / Risveglio offers a reversed sound of some kind of stringed instrument and bells, with a mind-boggling drone-driven soundscape in the background. Kind of being at a druidic ritual, with the presence of strange spirits being summoned. But at the same time, it has that... futuristic touch to it. Again, ancient ritual music meets Bladerunner. For some reason, the one track which had the biggest impact on me was this track. I think it was intentional, not because it was more dynamic than the former tracks but just because... the other-worldly sensation/feeling was slightly increased!

Kula is a really good ambient album. Or is it ambient? There is drone stuff and tribal stuff. And a tiny touch of Berlin School as well! It´s an ambient-driven album that connects the past with the future. I can't say one bad thing about this album, I really can´t. It´s honest, unique, and well-made. The experience is quite... a thing (believe me!). One of those albums...(which I think...) will be a new experience every time the listener would lay their ears to it. It´s a pure angelic monster the whole bloody way through! For fans of Zoviet France/Rapoon, Controlled Bleeding, and Brian Eno.        

Bandcamp (band):

https://zakhme.bandcamp.com/album/kula

Official site (label):

https://cardinium.com/product/ior-tk-xxviii-cdr/

 Djinn - Apatia

Since we have already reviewed 2 splits with Djinn and several releases from his death-industrial label Death In Venice, we must conclude that Djinn is not a stranger to Kalteldur. This time we get to review a full-length with this iconic death-industrial act from Italy. This album was released back in 2022 and was a joint release between Death In Venice and another Italian label called St.An.Da, which is a sister label to Silentes. A nifty-looking 6-panel digipack, limited to 200 copies.  

The album-title Apatia simply means, the lack of feeling and emotion ( Or just a lack of interest or enthusiasm ). That explains the artistic artwork, some t-shirt-wearing guy with his head down. I like the menacing murky-looking background, inside the digipack, there is more... murky and depressing imagery, but also very beautiful. The same artistic style/concept can be found throughout the entire artwork, which in my world is a big thumbs-up. 

The first track Nothing...Endless starts with the sound of an old lady talking, I don´t know what she is saying... is the language Finnish? Neither way, there is a certain... sound of hopelessness in her voice. A murky bass sound and some horrific and distorted-swirling ambient soundscapes surround the listener like life-sucking wraiths begging for your soul. Looped bone-crunching rhythms get into the morbid-themed soundtrack. So far the recorded material perfectly represents the concept-driven artwork! 

The second track Attendre En Silence Part.1 has an awesome up-and-down thumping bass, some eerie highly-pitched sounds and some... haunting piano notes as well. A kind of abandoned kindergarten sort of atmosphere going on, a place where something horrific has happened without a doubt. Love the menacing industrial sounds here, almost have a psychedelic edge to it. Effective minimalism here!.

The third track Apatia, a heart-monitoring machine and a high-pitched tone. Gets me back to Throbbing Gristle´s Hamburger Lady offcourse. The track contains some spoken word lyrics/vocals, and the effects that have been used on this creepy whispering are REALLY well made! Sounds of orgasmic voices in the background, more like ghosts reaching a never-ending cycle of forbidden pleasure. The whole feeling about Apatia is very well represented here. Excellent distorted bricks of sound occasionally wake the listener up. It´s also the longest track on the album, almost 15 minutes long. The track was made together with another artist called Himukalt, which I don't know... but I have a good feeling that I must check the artist out (Bandcamp link below). The long track is an outstanding piece of ethereal-driven death-industrial with a morbid erotic touch. 

The fourth track Pre Depression continues with that effective psychedelic death-industrial vibe, with excellent echoed effects on the whispered and distorted vocals here. A strong presence of Atrax Morgue influences here, just without the power-electronics elements... more ambient and soundtrack-driven. The sounds are really special, with lots of... atypical elements being added to this genre as we speak. 

The fifth track Unheard Voices Part.1 adds a touch of harsh noise into the mix, not too much.  The vocals are the harsh noise element, while the other elements are more in the death-industrial/ambient section. There is a certain kind of sick feeling in this track, more direct and less... ethereal. 

The sixth track Attendre En Silence Part 2 goes heavy into the psychedelic minimal industrial sound, with the melancholic touch that we heard back on the second track. Some really excellent manipulated stuff going on here, almost with a cosmic-horror element to it. That high-pitched tone at the end, falling in love with it for some reason. 

The rest of the album continues to deliver the same effective torture. It surprises and chills and it creates a specific mood best suited for cold cellar rooms. The whole mood is a pure death-industrial delivery, with some new elements added to it as well. The sound quality is absolutely superb, without losing its primitive (and ethereal) edge! Apatia by Djinn, is a perfect start/intro for new listeners of death-industrial. Lots of reasons to check this album out! 

Bandcamp (label):

https://deathinveniceproductions.bandcamp.com/album/djinn-apatia

Bandcamp (Himukalt):

https://himukalt.bandcamp.com/