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…
Reviews
Polygon – Omnon
November 12, 2001 by
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
November 12, 2001 by
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”…
Wumpscut – Blutkind/Bloodchild
November 12, 2001 by
:Wumpscut: must be one of the most succesful electro acts of the last years. This double album, called Blutkind (Bloodchild in English), is a compilation with many rare tracks. The cd also has a nice, elaborate multimedia part showing lots of images, sounds, and text, including artwork sent in by fans…
Solitary Experiments – Final Approach
November 12, 2001 by
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.
Will – Déja-Vu
November 12, 2001 by
Will is the legendary side-project from Rhys Fulber (Frontline Assembly) and Chris Peterson (Frontline Assembly, Decree). Cop Records has released “Deja-vu”, a retrospective album that collects the material from Will’s two previous releases (1988-1992): “Word*Flesh*Stone” and the mini album “Pearl of great price”…
Sepia, the – Demo
November 12, 2001 by
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…
Uebermenschen – Shattering the myth of God
November 12, 2001 by
In a nice purple box came a promo cd from the US band Übermenschen. With such a bandname you can expect anything, but the outcome was not so extreme. The band produces solid ebm/industrial, that is pleasant to listen to. The sound is not very modern, it reminds e.g. me of early Velvet Acid Christ stuff. The synths are very good, atmospheric and catchy…
Second Disease – Dogma
November 12, 2001 by
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…
Le Triste Sire – Exordre
November 12, 2001 by
This album is released by World Serpent, not bad for a debut. I don’t know too much about this act, only that it is a French one-man project, that makes very agreeable neo-classical music. The music is piano dominated, reminding me of acts like Ozymandias, Regarde Extreme or Remanence. The overall mood is melancholic and romantic…
Red Harvest – Cold Dark Matter
November 12, 2001 by
Oslo is the homebase of this Norwegian band, that released the album “Cold Dark Matter” a few months ago. And let’s get straight to the point (just as the album does), Red Harvest makes heavy industrial metal, not suited for too sensitive listeners…
Strand, The – In the Trench
November 12, 2001 by
Electro formation from Arizona, consting of Dave Strand (vocals, engineering, songwriting) and Kimberly Brown (female vocals). This cd (I think their first) was released by themselves in 2000. Ten tracks, whose titles like ‘chicks suck’ or ‘i hate my f***ing job’ predict the worst, but the music isn’t that bad…
Ostara – Never weep / Overworld
November 11, 2001 by
A beautiful picture disc in a series of 7″ singles released by World Serpent. Two new songs from this English neo-folk formation, who continue in the poppy style they featured on their album ‘Secret Homeland”. Great melodies, nice singing, and songs that remain in your head for some time. Overworld is a beautiful folksong, with piano and strings, Never Weep has more of a 80’s feel to it…
Ostara – Operation Valkyrie
November 11, 2001 by
A one-sided single, I think I did not posses such an item yet. The one track on this 7″ from Ostara is the well-known and excellent ‘Operation Valkyrie’, the ‘hit’ on their album “Secret Homeland”. So, no new material here, only a nice picture disc. Conclusion: for fans and collectors only. And don’t try to play the ’empty’ side, as I did the first time by accident. Your needle won’t dig it…
Ostara – Whispers to the Soul
November 11, 2001 by
This time a release from Ostara on the German label Eis & Licht, a 10″ with no less than 6 songs. First ‘The Trees March North’, which I already knew from their mp3 page, a good catchy song that will stick in your head. Then two songs that I already knew from a previous Ostara single, Overworld and never Wepp, both folky popsongs with good melodies…
Sol Invictus – Eve
November 11, 2001 by
This single from Sol Invictus comes as a beautiful picture disc (a new part in a series released by World Serpent) with on one side artwork from Tor Lundvall, an artist whose work I admire, and on the other side an old woodcut from Lucas Cranach. On side A of the single we find the song Eve, one of the better tracks of their latest album Hills of Crosses…
Sophia – Aus der Welt
November 11, 2001 by
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…
Current 93 – Immortal Bird
November 11, 2001 by
Splendid track from Current 93 taken from the “Sleep has his house” album. A slow waltz, dreamlike and captivating, one of my all-time favourite songs of David Tibet and co. On the B-side of this nice red vinyl single another beautiful song: ‘Crippled Fish’ by troubadour Anthony and his Johnsons. Highly romantic, sentimental music, with some nice strings and Anthony’s distinct way of crooning.
Sturmovik – Feldweihe
November 11, 2001 by
An LP on impressive heavy vinyl, released by Tesco, limited to 750 copies. The bandname sounds threatening, and so does the music. War is the theme here, and the musical style is not too heavy industrial, often more ambient/soundscape like. Feldweihe could be the soundtrack to a WWII movie. Many samples are used, from U-boots, aircrafts, military speeches and the like…
Belborn – Seelenruhe / Phoenix
November 11, 2001 by
This new German band already impressed me with its debut album. Now there is a single from Belborn with two new excellent tracks, following the line of that album, folk with some wave influences, acoustic guitar with synthesizer. I like the song ‘Seelenruhe’ the most, a romantic piece about “flammende Seelen und brennende Schmerzen”…
