The Polish label Bunkier Productions has assembled a compilation with 16 international acts. The cd-r is limited to only 100 copies and has a nice cover. The music ranges from dark folk and ritual to neo-classical and martial sounds. A few names were completely new to me, while others already have one or more releases out. In general it is a very enjoyable compilation, though it won’t lead you to many new musical insights, therefore most bands don’t sound original enough.
Bombastic contributions are done by Koavt (nice martial industrial with nasty vocals), Alien Levi (the Death in June cover ‘Kapitulation’, which is no improvement to the original), the stupidly named Necropropagand (neo-classical with speech samples), Storm of Capricorn (soundscape with many war samples) Westwind (a nice military hymn) and Cold Fusion (a Blutharsch-like marching tune). More tranquil sounds are offered by The Arid Sea (a dramatic piano ballad), The Blue Hour (ambient folk) and Der Krieg (an instrumental atmospheric piece). Typical acoustic neofolk songs are also present, for instance by Ritual Front from Russia and Weihan from Belgium. More ritual, experimental tracks are contributed by Ghosts of Breslau, The Well of Sadness (in the vein of Ordo Equilibrio) and Morpheus.
“Songs from the Bunker” is a varied compilation, with most songs being nice, but not brilliant. The tracks by Westwind, Der Feuerkreiner (a bit like Camerata Mediolanense) and One for Jude (chanson wave) are my favourites.
