Ladies and Gentlemen of Industry

some of which you've no doubt heard earlier

As threatened there’s new Mütterlein on the horizon. Overmars and Eitrin’s Marion Leclercq returns with a new full length early May. This funeral call of death industrial sludge and inimitable hoarse vocals shall be your guide through the abyss.

Keeping it in the French fields of post everything is Bank Myna. First track is a stark, melodic, methodic build to catharsis. Rosa Crvx meets Battle of Mice would be points of reference. Meld of romantacism, ethno rhythms, bass driven bludgeon and articulate, soaring vocals.

Crossing the Atlantic to the Great White North and Montreal’s Show of Bedlam. This, too, is keeping the female fronted sludge aesthetic to the fore. Another interesting thing with this latest Show of Bedlam release is Vromb has been enlisted for electronic treatments. Elegiac, off kilter, and at times coming off the rails of the CultofNeurIsis track in a wave of psychedelic noise and AmRep/Trance Syndicate pounding.

Moving to a different northern province, we look toward Ontario and La Torture Des Ténèbres. Could very well be Jessica Kinney gone the full Adjani. To my ears this recording is the most unhinged and unbridled black metal attack yet. Almost conventional in terms of song structure. However, this being La Torture Des Ténèbres the tones on hand are Husker Du (81-85) meets The Angelic Process and Wolok. An overdriven, delay and reverb smothered assault of sound.

From beantown with riffs, modern death metal proper from Hallucivore. Songwriting chops keeping the verse/chorus patterns to a minimum and go for a more narrative approach where the riffage leads in an Imperial Doom, Dreams of the Carrion Kind, Time Does Not Heal style. This debut displays heaps of promise, tech skill and knowledgeable understanding of the Steeve Hurdle sonic cloth. If “Telescopic Threshold” isn’t an invocation of the great one beyond… then, I don’t know my Obscura or Negativa. Great work across the board (be that ouija for communication and/or inspiration) from this quartet to bludgeon and lacerate eardrums.

Sheol Blanc answer the question of what could possibly happen if Rainer Landfermann were steering the wheels of Drive Like Jehu’s “rome plows.” A fever dream of jangly black metal post rock with shrieking terror vocals. Some songs are centered more around a depressive black metal playbook, others sneak in noisy math rock elements and some outright begin in the Slint woodshed before staking off into other territory. The only constant being the Landfermann-esque painful screams.

From Finland with a grudge come TYHJÄ This third full length is a massive step up in production and while the song writing has always been on point, they’ve managed to insert new wrinkles. The intro this time around has a slight Badalamenti feel crossed with Ordo Equilibrio stark electronics and sampling. When Tyhja launch into their black metal proper it’s a mix of Dawn - slaughtersun speed with early Impaled Nazarene vocal violence, electronics and punked up throttle - with the bass tone here being something else. This album is unrelenting in its ferocity and moments of respite are few and far between, whether a quick nod to heavy metal forefathers or electronic incursions. The only track dialng back the speed is “Olento Herää” and its first half makes me think of a thrashier Amebix adorned with manic as fuck vomit vocals, while its second half begins full on Monolith-era with the pacing and synth component before ramping up to warp drive.

New Tuscoma track could make one think of Eisenvater with to mega therion orchestral accompaniment. Or it could be AmRep Today is the Day. Whatever. Take your pick. Fourth album from these New Zealanders drops soon.

An appropriate title for the debut FIN song. Jesús Vergara with his spin on classic iterations of Swans. Moments of Pink Floyd live at Pompeii with the shimmer of the great annihilator, bass clang of white light from the mouth of infinity, long form die tur ist zu/soundtracks for the blind given modern ant-zen electronic sensibilities. Bombastic, melodic, well crafted layers. Looking forward to where Vergara takes this project.

Needs no introduction, but probably spots in need of lyrical revision. New SWANS track.

The death mother returns. Nuclear Death’s Lori Bravo and denizens of the Centipede Abyss have new Ukakuja in the wings. A take no prisoners Last Exit, Naked City, grindcore, death metal transcontinental freak out.

Andrew Grant, alias The Vomit Arsonist, unleashes To What End on Cloister Recordings. Pulsing doom, harsh frequencies, fried vocals. Sonically very much in keeping with the Swedish school of death industrial power electronics with the nihilistic bent of Italian purveyors of noise and cloaked under a funeral shroud. Unrelentingly grim, thoroughly bleak.

Not straying from the death industrial and power electronic side of things, Ausströmen has an attack aligned more with the UK and German school of noise work. Take elements of Sutcliffe Jugend, Con-Dom, Soldnergeist and Genocide Organ and one has a general idea of the textured soundwork on display. Layers of noise, dynamic mix of sound and, when implemented, distorted vocals at the fore.

After taking a beating from the aforementioned power electronics purveyors it got me to thinking, I wonder when Budrūs will release their follow up to Canine Visions IX? As luck would have it, the same week. Will wonders ever cease? The first two Budrus releases are outsider electronics works in alignment with Bladh and Jarl’s IRM and Skin Area. Not quite pure power electronics, not pure harsh noise, but experimental takes on said genres. After a couple spins I’m not sure if Ten buvai tu is as “out there” as Devyniems Rytams Auštant or Canine Visions IX but it is markedly different from the approaches The Vomit Arsonist and Austrommen display. Perhaps more “musical” in the way its sonic landscapes are arranged. It isn’t unremittingly heavy or dense with layers, but it is dark and off kilter. Get the sense some of the noise is generated with guitars.

Old school titans and provocateurs Laibach have announced the release of the stunning live performance Alamut.

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