Reviews: martial

A band that certainly deserves an overview about their career is Laibach. Formed in Yugoslavia in 1980, this group has both been immensely influential (Rammstein!) and controversial. Always exploring the thin line between art and ideology, they certainly knew how to attract attention. They played with numerous clichés, both from socialist states and Western capitalist society and culture…

A compilation with some of the best tracks from Der Blutharsch, especially for the Israelian market. It was released on occasion of a Blutharsch concert in Tel Aviv…

Usually I quite appreciate the work of Puissance from Sweden. For some reason I had missed this release from 2003, but I recently encountered it in a record store. Just like the previous album ‘Total Cleansing’ it has been released on Regain Records. By now Puissance has already created half a dozen of albums filled with dark orchestral sounds…

In a nice grey digipack and limited to 1000 copies comes this collaboration between Arditi and Toroidh. Both projects are quite well-known in the martial/neo-classical genre. Arditi being a side project of Puissance (which is I believe more popular and/or famous in the black metal scene than it is in the martial/neofolk scene, perhaps because the men involved look(ed) very `true`)…

When a band calls itself Luftwaffe you might expect to be in for a treat of darkness and loudness. You will not be dissapointed if this is what you expect from this new release on Punch Productions. Luftwaffe produces martial and bombastic music that is based on hypnotic pounding rhythms on top of which dark vocals are placed next to pieces of melody and orchestrated sounds…

A few months after the vinyl edition, we are now offered a cd version of the latest Sophia album, a release of Cyclic Law Records from Canada. It contains a bonus track and video as extras. The special pacakaging looks really great…

A reissue of older, out-of-print material in an impressive looking digipack. As a bonus you’ll also receive a funny 3″ mcd. In other words, a release not to be missed by Der Blutharsch fans. That is, if you don’t possess the original limited releases: the mcd ‘Der Gott der Eisen wachsen liess’, the 10″ ‘The moment of truth’and the 7″ ‘Thank you’…

Triarii confronts the listener with heavy martial and bombastic music. I read somewhere a review about this release in which the music was described as military pop. It is better to leave the pop out of it. This is military music! On the A-side is ‘Triumph to triumph’, a heavy piece of intense bombastic music. The track is slow, pounding and impressive…

Atomtrakt, the name sounds threatening. This project was founded early 2003, ‘Verwüstung’ is their first release. I think this act originally comes from black metal circles. The dominantly instrumental tracks on this mcd sounds rather apocalyptic.

Kim from Neuropa Records was kind enough to supply me with a copy of this LP. I already knew Der Feuerkreiner from their excellent contribution to the “Wir rufen deine Wolfe” compilation. The 12” mini-LP starts with “Tanz”, which reminds me of fellow Italians Camerata Mediolanense; a really nice neo-classical track with marching drums…

In the catalogue of the English Cold Spring label militant music plays a prominent role. This album, the debut of Clear Stream Temple is no exception. `XVI` takes us to the Arab world and contains critical messages about the Bush government and its foreign strategy. The music is a mixture of heavy industrial and dark ambient, classical elements, Arabic sounds and many samples…

This album by Omnicore is recommended to everyone who likes bombastic and martial music. Perhaps not always original, but ‘Mass murderer’ contains a strong mixture of ritual, orchestral and industrial music. It was quickly sold out, but Divine Comedy Records has provided a second pressing. The albumtitle sounds aggressive, but the nostalgic spanking pictures look somewhat more innocent…

In a very short period Dernière Volonté, whose music is often described as ‘military pop’, has become one of my favourite acts. This French act has only released two albums yet, but also quite a few vinyl singles and compilation tracks, some of which are highly sought after. So I’m quite happy with this double cd compilation with over 20 rare DV tracks…

This is quite a festive release, because it is not only the debut for the Dutch act HERR, as well as the first release for the Belgian label Were Di! HERR, a project around Michiel Spapé, can be characterized as neo-classical with a martial atmosphere. Monotonous drumming, classical symphonic layers with a lot of strings and horns and some vocal samples dominate the music…

This is really a splendid boxset! Eternal Soul Records has gathered some of the best dark ambient, industrial and neofolk acts on a very special compilation. The luxurious black box, with a stainless steel label on it with the title ‘V.A. Eternal Soul’ on it, contains two 10″ records and one 7″ single. Furthermore there are 11 postcards, one each for all the projects involved…

Really a fantastic looking release on the Canadian Cyclic law label. The vinyl version of the new Sophia album comes in a splendid looking gatefold sleeve, with great photos. There is also a nice poster included and the record is pressed on thick clear vinyl. A cd version of ‘Deconstruction of the world’ will be available in June…

The third album of the Swedish bombastic industrial project Karjalan Sissit, after the self-titled debut on Cold Spring and the follow-up “Miserere” on Cold Meat. This time the album is first released on vinyl by the German label Eternal Soul Records. The record on thick vinyl comes in a nice fold-out black cover. A cd version will be released later by the Canadian label Cylic Law…

Parzival is a Russian band that fuses bombastic sounds with some more atmospheric elements. They already released two cd’s, but last year at the Wave Gotik Treffen the band introduced themselves to a broader audience. This new lp is released on the Eis & Licht label which is known for its dark folk music, so a different type of release than usual for the label…

This record by Leger des Heils opens with an electronic beat. Soon more atmospheric sounds, military percussion and singing are added. Due to this the electronic sound is pushed into the background by a more organic feeling. This description is typical for both the opening track as the record as a whole. Leger des Heils is a band that knows its way with bombastic music…

Two years ago Predella Avant more or less took the world by storm with their powerful self-titled debut album, filled with orchestral soundscapes. Now they have come up with a second cd (if you don’t count the limited ‘Noviomagus’ cd-r). Carbon Figures, again on the Black Rain side-label Ars Musica Diffundere, demonstrates that the project has grown further…