Cargo Records

Hailing from New York – more specifically Poughkeepsie (ah, I adore that name, though I do not exactly know how to pronounce it decently) – 8 Hour Animal is an Industrial / Electronics act that did impress undersigned deeply with their Sentient Ruin Laboratories debut Resigner (link for the review: see below). In the meantime, this project recorded and released some more interesting stuff, and earlier this year they did also finish a new effort for Sentient Ruin Laboratories, called Kill Your Boss.

I know that Sentient Ruin Laboratories do not release catchy or poppy stuff, and once again this Californian label figuratively hits, and crushes, my (beautifully-shaped) skull with a rusty pickaxe. Resigner is the name of that rabid monster, that unleashed vehicle by one-man-army 8 Hour Animal.

I’d like to start this review with an excerpt from the bio. “Music is an obscure and ambiguous discipline, whose forms reflect in full light the mysteries of the soul. As most of the art forms, it deals with the paradox of the materialization of thoughts, feelings and beliefs. It reveals what is hidden, dives deep in the depths of mind, and brings back its ghosts to the surface for everyone to see.”

Those who are trusted with Usurpress’ former material might be ‘shocked’, because Ordained did progress quite a lot since 2012’s Trenches Of The Underworld or last year’s split with Bent Sea (which I did like a lot; see review updated on February 23^rd 2014). Hell yeah, of course I am exaggerating, but keep this fact in mind, will you.

Horn Of The Rhino return with their fourth album, and once again it gets released by Czech label Doomentia Records; why changing a winning team must be their motto. The label even re-issued material from this band when they were acting under the old moniker Rhino.

For a history / biography / discography about this Swedish, excuse me, this Mexican project, I would like to refer to the reviews I did for the Reaper’s Consecration-MCD (posted on December 9^th 2012) or the last full length At The Caves Of Eternal (see update June 2^nd 2013). As you can see / read, I was enormously enthusiastic about this stuff.

The glorious history, including rise and fall, of the Roman Empire, has been used as lyrical theme by dozens of (Metal) bands before. This goes as well for Ordo Inferus, a young Swedish act with members of e.g. Necrophobic, Excruciate and Nifelheim. Last year they surprised Mater Terra with the short yet highly interesting EP Damnati, and now Ordo Inferus return with their debut full length, Invictus Et Aeternus, done via major Doomentia Records.

I guess it's a fair assumption to state that any artist is into what he does for the appreciation he might get, and generally speaking you'll find 'em pleased to be tagged a certain way, being categorized as belonging to a certain genre or sub-genre. I mean, it's quite “human nature” to “belong” (or appeal) to a certain group of people, right? History however, has shown us that sóme individuals will walk another road, developing artistic styles outside the “norm”...individuals which later gain followers, and which are then seen as pioneers!

Who remembers the Dog’s D’amour, a band founded in 1983 in London, England ?  Even I don’t.  Well, the only constant in Dog’s D’amour lineup Tyla  now releases another solo album under his own name Tyla J. Pallas.

Does anyone remember the glam metal band Wratchild? They were fronted by none other than Mr. Rocky Shades. But with this new band/line up, he does not completely draw the card of glam/sleaze metal, but have instead mixed in some other elements, but the final conclusion after listening to this album is that is really is a glam/sleaze metal album.