Reviews: martial

A few years ago the unknown act Stalingrad impressed with the track ‘Der letzte flug’, which could be found on some compilations. It’s a superb neo-classical hymn. Soon Stalingrad turned out to be a Kirlian camera side-project. Luckily it did not remain an one-day fly. Now a Stalingrad album has been released, which includes ‘Der letzte flug’ and 8 other songs…

Here we have the second part of the cd trilogy by Toroidh, after “Those who do not remember…”. The vinyl version of this new album is released through 205 Recordings, this cd in black & white digipack is made available through the English Cold Spring label. Toroidh is one of the many projects by Nordvargr, and according to him, his most ambitious one, second to MZ412…

The highly productive Peter Pettersson strikes again with this mini cd, that contains three untitled tracks. As always the visual side of the release is well taken care of, it comes in a splendid digipack…

Wappenbund already impressed me with their album “Zeitenwende”, so now I also purchased this mini cd ‘Blood & Fire’. This is an unlimited re-release, the original highly limited edition is sold out. This cd, which comes in a nice package, contains 5 tracks, again in their impressive bombastic industrial style. ‘Ruins’ is a noisy soundscape, with a militant atmosphere…

Yet another release from Peter Pettersson, who is very productive with both Sophia and Arcana lately. This new Sophia cd again brings us bombastic industrial, with heavy percussion and an orchestral wall of sound. All songtitles are short: ‘Filth’, ‘Dirt’, ‘Scum’ and so on. I’m very pleased with the artwork, which consists of close-up pictures of old steam trains…

The cdr I have in front of me was only released in a very small edition. But it will be re-released this summer (with a few extra tracks) by the English label Cold Spring, which is a good thing, because this album is interesting for a wider audience. A Challenge of Honour is a productive Dutch act, combining musical elements of neo-folk, industrial, dark ambient and neo-classical…

Corneliu Codreanu was the founder and leader of the paramilitary Iron Guard in Romania. This organization proposed a Christian-Nationalist political system. In 1938, he was arrested by King Carol, who feared his strong influence, after his party gained many votes in the 1937 election. He was shot shortly afterwards…

Mastermind Henrik Nordvargr can perhaps be compared with fellow Swede Peter Andersson (Raison d’Etre). Not so much in musical style, as in the fact that both are very productive and release music under various names (like MZ 412, Folkstorm, Sleep Therapy). And just like Peter Andersson, Nordvargr will also release a compilation which gives an overview of his work…

Last year I discovered the German label Greyland Records, when browsing the internet. I downloaded various tracks from their website, which sounded great, especially the material from Wappenbund was impressive. So I soon ordered their “Zeitenwende” cd. Although this cd is already some time in my possession, I more or less forgot to write a review on my website…

Karjalan Sissit is a brand new project from Markus Personnen. The production was taken care of by Peter Petersson (Sophia, Arcana). Well, he knows how to create a bombastic sound of course. Karjalan Sissit stands for orchestral powerful ambient and industrial. War is the main theme here, in fact the album is dedicated to Personnen’s uncle, who died as a soldier in the war…

A beautiful picture disc and seven new tracks from this German project around Raymond P. is what this 10″ offers us. The music is in the line of the debut album, neo-classical music, performed with electronic means mostly, a little bombastic at times, but always tastefully. There are a few lyrical samples, with texts from Eichendorff and Rilke…

The subtitle of this album is ‘La Folie Verte’, as the green liquor was called that this album is dedicated to. Two great bands work together on this concept album, two bands of which most releases so far are limited and highly sought after, so I expect that there will be a lot of interest for this album. The members of both projects have long been under the spell of Absinthe…

Ho ho ho, Sophia stays productive! When Peter Petterson was only active in Arcana, fans had to wait with patience for the next release. Sophia though has brought us 2 cd’s, the 10″ ‘Aus der Welt’ and now this new ‘Xmas-single’ within a year. Furthermore Petterson also started the new project Victoria, and a new Arcana album is expected for the beginning of 2002…

If you say Cold Meat Industry, then one of the first bands to come to my mind is In Slaughter Natives. Their dark and powerful music belongs to the most popular on the Swedish label and has inspired many bands over the years. Four great albums were made by ISN and they still sound as powerful as when they came out…

After various demo’s and cdr’s this is the first regular cd of the Dutch act A Challenge of Honour, released by the French label Divine Comedy Records. This isn’t the only French connection, because a few paintings of the great artist Jean-Marc Dauvergne were used for the cover artwork. A Challenge of Honour was founded by a German guy, Johan K. He was joined by Dutchman Peter S…

After a few sampler contributions this is the debut album of this German project, that makes neo-classical music, in a rather bombastic style, mostly with synthesizers. Perhaps it is surprising that this album is released (in 2000) by Black Rain, who are mostly known for danceable electro bands like Feindflug and Davantage. TDOTTC consists of Raymond P., who wrote all the music…

Sophia is the new solo project of Peter Petterson, member of Arcana. Arcana is known for its beautiful, heavenly music, with Dead Can Dance influences, Sophia follows a different path, making more bombastic powerful music, in the vein of The Protagonist or Turbund Sturmwerk, although the sounds still have a similarity to Arcana…

Shortly after the debut album comes a new 4-track vinyl relase by this solo-project of Arcana’s Peter. This 10″, on brown coloured vinyl, follows the same line as the debut of Sophia, bombastic ritual music, especially the title track is majestic and overwhelming…