Anti-pacifists will recognize the name ‘rds-220’ as an extremely powerful Russian nuclear bomb from that time when West and East weren’t best friends yet. Nowadays, that did change, haha. No, I am not going to turn this story into a political one, but an ‘rds-220’ was used as propaganda material from the former Soviet government against the western enemy – the Iron Curtain story, you know…
Depressive Black Ambient Records is a young label from Poland, for which I recently reviewed their first release, created by Removed From This Life. Because the label finds no reason to inhale and exhale, just focusing on chemicals and anesthesia, you can guess that any joy of life does not make sense. Or does it? Indeed it does not, though I have to admit that all releases I have heard (and I’ve been listening to all six of them, in the meantime – and damn yeah, all of them will surely be reviewed) do bring joy in my life.
I had not heard about this act, Drabataturk, but apparently it is a new project from the Russian Federation. This review deals with their first album, untitled, which gets released via the fine German (Black) Metal label Pesttanz Klangschmiede. Besides the digital version (via the label’s Bandcamp-page), there are 300 hand-numbered digi-sleeve copies, released with a very remarkable twelve-page booklet.
Not that long ago, I got in touch with a young lady from Belarus, Olga Kann. I didn’t immediately recognize her name, but still I had to know some of her works, for she is quite ‘famous’ as visual artist (besides painter / drawing artist, she’s also photographer and sculptor, by the way, with a very open-minded artistic vision, drawing influences from different angles).
All roads lead to decay…
The story of Georg Trakl isn’t a jolly one. His youth was disastrous, and so was his professional life, though being forced. Georg was an expressionist artist (and scientist) from Austria (born in a time that European borders did differ from the current ones, for Hungary and Austria were like one sole country), with a youth that was not exactly that easy for a kid. Anyway, I guess you can find some biographical education on the net.
I do know Tino Thiele from his activities in Wulfgar and Metamorph especially, although this guy has / had some other (smaller) (solo) projects too. And not that long ago I was happily surprised (indeed, I got attacked by the emotion ‘happiness’ somehow, but it didn’t kill me), and positively amazed (also ‘positivism’ tried to break me, but I stood up, raised my fist, and survived once more), when I heard that he joined forces with Aleksey Korolyov in this latter’s superior project Abigorum.
Even though this band was formed about a decade ago, they did not release anything decently yet – okay, with exception of a couple of independently released EP’s. IATO actually as formed by some (former) Punk Metal / Hardcore musicians (the band grew from the remnants of defunct Ejaculazione HC), and they did record two mini-albums during the first half of last decade (2012 and 2014, to give you the correct information). Then things turned into ear-deafening silence, but the band did not dissolve.
Sons Of A Wanted Man is an act from Beringen, which is a city in Limburg, Belgium, formerly known from its coalmine sites. The band started five years and something ago, when some experienced musicians from different anti-commercial acts joined forces to bring something that makes Belgium great again: Post / Sludge Heaviness with (hairy) balls! They recorded and released some demonstrational stuff throughout the years, and did gain an impressive (local) live status, but now things will truly start, caused by Kenoma.
A while ago, Apocalyptic Records did send me the untitled demo-EP by Cleveland, Ohio, uSSSa-based duo Nekrophasm – sometimes known as Nekröphasm, with the diaeresis on the ‘o’ included. Yet since this one is (1) very satisfying, (2) way too underestimated and (3) not published yet, I felt the urge to write down my thoughts and publish this two-tracker.
Earlier this century, some members of Black Metal outfit Dies Ater wanted to start a side-project which would rather focus on the essence of Doom. In 2006 they started Albez Duz (which is archaic German for noise of the swan), which was the start of a very interesting journey. Throughout the years, Albez Duz transformed from ‘just a side-outlet’ to a real band, and their handful of releases were highly appreciated by the international scene for sure.
