Predella Avant is a new project by a musically very talented, and very productive guy from The Hague (the Netherlands). He has released tons of other releases in quite different musical styles and with Predella Avant now focuses on neoclassical-industrial, a style that I guess was once started by Laibach.
With its martial drumming, flutes, classical samples and melancholic stringparts, it certainly reminds me of Puissance’s ‘mother of disease’ and of Sophia or of the more bombastic parts of Der Blutharsch. The 10 tracks on this cd are quite diverse and range from very bombastic and threatening parts, to more melancholic and dramatic parts and even to ambient parts. This variation within a more or less clear theme makes this cd very enjoyable.
The CD comes in a very nice cardboard digipack, and should definitely appeal to fans of Cold Meat Industry, Tesco, Loki, and the bands mentioned earlier.
TD
The music on this cd already impressed me when I heard them on a demo cdr over a year ago, then still under another bandname. Predella Avant is a Dutch project, which already impressed many people with a concert at the Thorns of Avalon festival in Nijmegen (December 2002) and the track on the Trition III sampler. That song is also present on this debut album, along with nine other untitled tracks. The sleeve of the cd gives no background information at all.
The listener is treated to quite bombastic neo-classical music, with a heavy orchestral sound and fierce percussion. The tracks are completely instrumental, apart from some sampled choirs and speech samples. The music sounds very mature and is quite diverse in style and mood, ranging from tranquil classical and ambient pieces to more threatening, militant parts. My favourite track is the third one, highly moving and powerful, with a nice melody and great percussion. Predella Avant surely proves to be a highly promising act with this album, with a monumental sound and rich of ideas. Essential if you like acts such as Sophia, In the Nursery, Karjalan Sissit, Toroidh and The Protagonist.
HD