Hungry Lucy – Apparitions

Recently I received an advance promo copy of this debut album from US band Hungry Lucy. With such a bandname you can expect anything, but it turned out that this band has a rather pleasant sound, somewhere between gothic, pop and triphop. I think that fans of the Projekt label and “Heavenly Voices”, but also Portishead and Massive Attack will like this release…

Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – Make love and war: the wedlock of roses

After the leaving of Chelsea Krook, Ordo Equilibrio added Rosarius to its name and released this fourth album. The new bandmember is called Rose-Marie Larsen, but her musical contributions seem to be minimal so far. Tomas Petterson though delivered with this album a wonderful release…

Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio – Make love and war: the wedlock of equilibrium

Shorty after Make love and war; the wedlock of roses appeared The wedlock of equilibrium, this time with a white cover. There is also a vinyl double album available that contains both records. The album has the same intro and outro as its predecessor, the style of the other tracks is comparable, only perhaps a bit more tranquil…

Orchestre Noir – Eleven

Tony Wakeford should need no further introduction, having made a large oeuvre, mostly with Sol Invictus. Wakeford is especially known for making dark folk music, with well written lyrics…

Of the Wand and the Moon – :emptiness: emptiness: emptiness:

This is the second album from Of the wand & the moon, the Danish folk band around Kim Larsen, who used to be in the metal band Saturnus. The first album, with the ‘hit’ Raven Chant was already very pleasant, but in my opinion this follow-up is a big step forward. The album contains many catchy acoustic folk songs, like the opener Lost in Emptiness or Silver Rain…

November Növelet – From heaven on earth

From the cult house of Galakthorrö came this release in 1999, a project by Mr. and Mrs. Arafna. But don’t expect harsh industrial like Haus Arafna, November Növelet takes us to complete other territories…

Novalis – First Cadence

A new band, with (I assume) their debut mcd. All I know of Novalis is the info found in the booklet, namely that the band consists of Marcel (Keyboards and drums) and Stev (Vocals & guitar). Their label is the German Black Rain, and that the band is of German origin can also be heard through their accent…

Nothing – The grey subaudible

This album by the American formation Nothing has been released by the Italian label Eibon. I don’t know anything about this band, like their line-up or any other releases, but I do know that this album is of a very high quality. Seven tracks are on it, with a total playing time of 52 minutes…

Neutral – Walpurgis Night

Yet another great Russian band, after Romowe Rikoito and The Moon Far Away. This is the debut album of Neutral, released by Brudenia. Neutral makes folky acoustic music, with guitars, violin, piano, drums and percussion. Singer Ash is capable of making a convincing and moving performance. Sometimes a few darkwave influences can be heard…

One for Jude – Figures

One for Jude is a French band, ‘Figures’ is their first full-length album. They released a mcd earlier, from which two tracks are present here in a re-recorded version. Their style is not so easy to describe, One for Jude makes a rather pleasant mix of pop and 80’s wave, with some folky elements. Most songs are quite laid back, acoustic and atmospheric. Sometimes a gothic guitar can be heard…

Noxious Emotion – promo

At the beginning of this year I obtained this 4-track promo cassette of US band Noxious Emotion, and now (it’s about time!) I’m gonna write some words about it. As they say themselves, they make EBM in the style of early Skinny Puppy, FLA & Project Pitchfork. And it’s true, you can hear these influences…

Romowe Rikoito – L’Automne Eternel

A French album title, but a Russian band, that already appeared on the “Edge if the Night” sampler, that was filled with talented Russian groups. This is the second album of Romowe Rikoito, their first album was called “Narcissism”. Their debut was good, but this album is even better…

Régard Extrême – Résurgence

Régard Extrême is a French neo-classical act, a personal project of Fabien Nicault. Songs from this act have been included on various samplers and RE became known through the 1998 album “Vague L’Ame” (released by World Serpent) and the beautiful collaboration with Les Joyaux de la Princesse, Die Weisse Rose…

Psychonaut – Stealing the fire from heaven

Recently I received a promo cassette from Psychonaut, a band from Houston, USA. They hope to release this album (their fourth) “Stealing the fire from heaven” in early 2001. The band was founded in 1998 as a side project of the dark-industrial band Valefor…

Protagonist, The – A Rebours

This is the first album of The Protagonist, a project from Magnus Sundström. It brings us beautifully arranged bombastic neo-classical music, mostly instrumental, with some guest-musicians, like Arcana’s Peter Petterson and Mark St. John Ellis of Elijah’s Mantle. The album “A Rebours” is named after the French fin-de-siècle novel by J.K…

Polygon – Omnon

One of the members of the legendary electro band Mortal Constraint, Ingo Lindmeier, is also involved in another project called Polygon from which now a limited 2-cd set is released. It comes in a very special and beautiful package, which contains the 2 cd’s and interesting photographic artwork and accompanying texts…

Spiritual Bats – Sacrament

From Italy come the Spiritual Bats, a formation specialized in ‘old-school’-gothic rock. On this mini-cd called “Sacrament” you find 5 tracks, inspired by the classic gothic heritage. This means no big musical surprises are to be found here, but everything is well-performed. The band is active since 19992 and got good critics with their previous album “Confessions”…

Solitary Experiments – Final Approach

The German label Maschinenwelt is known for its dark electronic music (like Seelenkrank). Not all their releases have convinced me so far, but now they have a new talented band: Solitary Experiments.

Sepia, the – Demo

Until I received this demo CD I had not heard of The Sepia, but when reading their bio I discovered that this band already participated in vaious projects. They made various music pieces for tv, dance, drama and other media, did some album mastering for Marc Almond and relased already a self produced album. This three piece formation from London also has quite a lot of live experience…

Second Disease – Dogma

In 1996 Second Disease released the album Flame the dark true (on the legendary Zoth Ommog label), an album I rather liked at that time, because it was much darker and less accessible than most electro releases. That was probably also the reason that it wasn’t a very big commercial success…