Genre: Black Metal, Noise
Label: Hell’s Headbangers
Havohej’s Kembantinan Premaster is a disc full of a lack of focus, and interest.
It takes black metal and noise, with a somewhat Ministry flavor, and throws it into a blender. The end result is a disc full of songs that just don’t catch my ear or attention for very long.
4 out of 10.
Havohej on MySpace.
Genres: Industrial, Noise
Label: Independent
It’s been awhile since I’ve listened to some straight noise, and I realize now, as I listen to Necronoise Twin, how much I’ve missed it. The odd soundscapes, the fucked up rhythms that happen when two noises collide, the pure abstract thinking that can happen while listening to it.
One thing I’m most enjoying about 102 is that it’s one of the most original sounding noise releases I’ve heard in awhile. It’s not like most noise releases I’ve heard where it’s just abstract sounds being thrown together, but rather it’s got a beat, it’s got a planned structure, which is why I’m including industrial up in the genres tag. It’s too structured to be abstract, but it’s too abstract to be straight industrial.
Fans of hard industrial like iVardensphere, Panzer AG, and Noisuf X, you might like this. Fans of noise like Bastard Noise, Ezcaton, and even KZ9, you might like this even more. I fucking love it.
7.5 out of 10.
Necronoise Twin on MySpace.
I understand you’re starting a graphic design company now. What kind of art are you going to be specializing in?
I’m going to specialize in highly layered and textured dark surrealist imagery.
Do you have an approximate price for each piece, or are you going to be charging on a piece-by-piece basis?
The base price is 50 dollars for a CD-R cover, 100 for a CD cover, 15 for a cassette, 16 for a MySpace icon and 200 for an LP.
How about your music? Are you continuing on that front as well, or has graphic art taken over?
I’ll always do music.
Are there any Blood Escutcheon releases in the works right now, or finished and still unreleased, that we can look forward to?
In the next coming months I’m releasing a split cassette with Cloak of Displacement, a split CD-R with Zebulon Kosted, and a solo CD-R called Soil. Plus I’m doing a digital only EP this July. So I’m keeping busy.
Blood Escutcheon on MySpace.
When: Saturday, March 20, 2010.
Where: New City Suburbs, Edmonton, Alberta
As the doors opened and the line of excited ticket holders began to file in, DJ Greg Gory was spinning some electro, hard industrial, EBM, and futurepop to get the crowd warmed up. And it worked.
When the opening band, iVardensphere, hit the stage, we were ready to move.
My second time seeing iVardensphere, this experience was even better. Scott and Chris were tighter, working the classics from Scatterface for all their worth as well as playing some new stuff which brought up a third man, Peter E., to help the beats.
About these new songs: They rocked. I think the followup to Scatterface is going to bring a ton more fans, and shake up the old ones. Awesome stuff.
If you’re ever seeing what’s happening at your local clubs and you get a chance to see iVardensphere, do it. You will not regret it.
After Scott and Chris cleaned up the stage, the legendary VNV Nation took it, and the crowd (including me) lost it’s shit. I know there are some throats that are still sore from the screaming. Mine is.
Running the gamut from Advance and Follow to the newest album Of Faith, Power, and Glory, VNV’s set was electric. Ronan barely stood still for most songs, only taking a mic stand onto the stage for slower songs. He also was getting the crowd involved intensely (hence the sore throats), getting us to sing along, to cheer, and even chatting occasionally between songs, or having shots with Greg Gory, and even downing some Jim Beam after the encore (“Ugh! That’s not whiskey!” – Ronan).
He even went on to say how much the band loved Edmonton, and that some people ask him why they wanted to come here. And it was because of the crowd. Which got the band even more cheers.
In the end, we made enough racket to get not one but TWO encores, which was just unreal for me, and the rest of the crowd too.
After the show was over, it was time to finish the night with the Black Polished Chrome afterparty with DJ Dervish (Scott Fox) and DJ Blue Jay. Awesome enough, you’d think, but then Ronan, Mark and Co. all joined in on the fun signing posters, shirts, and the like, taking pictures, and just chatting and hanging out with the crowd.
A perfect night.
Download iVardensphere’s “Calibrating the God Machine“.
Genres: Dark Ambient, Industrial, Noise
Label: Shadowgraph Records
Another disc full of odd stuff from Shadowgraph. This time it’s the band ManiFest, a Turkish ambient project whose aim is to dig deep inside the mind and soul.
And dig this lady does.
This is a very creepy disc, full of depressing music that is also thought provoking and beautiful. I don’t recommend it for everyone, unless you’re willing to sit and listen to something that could very well unnerve you, and it’s not something for all times either. It’s not a “hey, let’s play some cards and listen to some tunes” album. It’s a “hey, let’s grab a bottle of white and a cigar and just be quiet and listen to this” album.
In fact, I think I’m going to try just that when I have the opportunity to get a cigar and a bottle of white (it’s not really red wine music).
7 out of 10.
Manifest on MySpace.
