At the end of last decade, a new entity was born in the Netherlands: Styxian Industries. The aim was to destroy the last beliefs in mankind, and to brutally penetrate all organic structures by the post-apocalyptic industrial hammer (damn, I’m in a poetic mood tonight…). But seriously, this act created some stuff in between 2009 and 2010, with a highlight in 2012 by means of a split with Redreom, released via Total Death Records. More nastiness did follow in 2014 under the banner of The Last Generation, and I’m glad to announce that we can finally welcome the first full length studio album, which is called Zero Void Nullified (Of Apathy And Armageddon).
The trio (with a fourth session member) did record this material at Plug Unit Music, and the mastering got done at the Toneshed Studio. The artwork / lay-out (done by session musician ACW) are mostly fitting to the concept of Styxian Industries sonic distortion: being post-nuclear and mechanic-industrial, the radio-active way…
Zero Void Nullified (Of Apathy And Armageddon), which has a total running time of fifty-three minutes, stands for an industrialised and mechanical form of (Post) Black Metal. There is quite some atmosphere that totally refers to the old styled trend anno early nineties. Riff-wise, I permanently hear those majestic structures that did characterise the Scandinavian scene specifically (and the trans-European more generally) two and a half decades ago. Gorgorothian guitar melodies (it includes the legendary Grieghallen-sound, for my concern!) and slow-paced mayhemic structures act as fundamental basics, but all this gets mercilessly raped by those machinery / factory electronics, covering the whole rather in a mist of industrial discordance.
What I do appreciate is that the industrial elements aren’t too much on the foreground. It’s a part of the whole experience for sure, but Styxian Industries are not an Industrial act. Believe me, I have nothing against industrialised Music – on the contrary – but within the Black Metal scene, I think a distinction must be made. Styxian Industries surely succeed, to my opinion, to search for the perfect balance in between all those approaches. It makes that the result isn’t an exaggeration that leads to frenzy or mental distortion. On top of it, this Dutch trio even succeeds to go deeper, by creating something occult and ritual
This creation simply is a must, sorry, I mean a MUST, for everyone who appreciates all stuff that balances in between DHG, Cryptic Winds, Diabolicum, Mysticum, Diabolos Rising, Infestum, Thorns or Blacklodge. I do not think that’s a bad thing, do you…?...