Dernière Volonté - Les Blessures de l'Ombre (2003)

Synth-heavy, martial-industrial-neofolk. A perfect example of the kind of music I tend to listen to when I'm sick, which I am.

Track listing:
1. Ouverture
2. Le Poison
3. Vienna
4. Les Orages du Crime
5. Les Yeux Fermés
6. La Foudre et le Tonnerre
7. Un Dernier Crépscule
8. Vers la Lumière
9. La Source
10. Ton Visage de Papier
11. Les Blessures de l'Ombre
12. Souvenir de Demain
13. Si...
14. Au Revoir

Choosing to suffer

More like this:

Ordo Equilibrio -
The Triumph of Light... and Thy
Thirteen Shadows of Love (1997)

The Days of the Trumpet Call -
I Saw No Temple in the City (2001)

Sturmast ‎- Ibis Redibis Nunquam In Bello Peribis (2007)

Hungarian neofolk-infused martial industrial. An anxious yet mesmerizing world of bombastic horns, pounding percussion, echoing, distorted shouts, samples, sharp acoustic strumming, various folk instruments, and massive drones. I honestly didn't know what to make of this album when I first heard it, but it has aged extremely well, gradually revealing itself as a remarkable, singular work.

Track listing:
1. Solum Ipsum
2. My Prayer Is My Inner Armour
3. Kraft
4. The Big Play
5. For Everyone Circus and Bread!
6. Veni Vidi Vici
7. The Regiment Is Departing

Compromise is not possible

If you like this, you should also hear:

Ordo Equilibrio - The Triumph of Light...
and Thy Thirteen Shadows of Love (1997)

Combative Alignment -
Everlasting Sun (2003)

N.K.V.D. - Hakmarrja (2014)

Suffocatingly heavy, martial-industrial-infused black metal. Hakmarrja is utterly crushing, yet hypnotic in effect, with huge chords ringing out over mid-paced, programmed drums, as monstrous vocals and samples echo throughout the abyss. The sound of a world burning to ashes.

For those of you who are wondering: No, N.K.V.D. are not a Nazi band. They're a concept band dealing exclusively with totalitarian and otherwise oppressive systems throughout history, but they're not endorsing any of them, or painting them in anything other than a terrifyingly negative light.

Track listing:
1. Exordium
2. Hakmarrja
3. Wolfschanze
4. Za Krajla
5. The Invisible Empire
6. Travail-Famille-Patrie
7. Batallion Vostok
8. U.C.K.
9. Red Silence
10. Excipit

Under the blood of centuries

You might also like:

Borgne -
III (2007)

P.H.O.B.O.S. -
Atonal Hypermnesia (2012)

Sophia - Sigillum Militum (2000)

Atmospheric, epic martial-industrial perfection. Thunderous, reverb-saturated percussion, pitch-shifted voices, deep drones, and sinister, minimal horns. Not sure if it's supposed to be great music to get high to, but it is.

Track listing:
1. Sigillum Militum 1
2. Sigillum Militum II
3. Sigillum Militum III
4. Sigillum Militum IV
5. Sigillum Militum V
6. Sigillum Militum VI
7. Sigillum Militum VII
8. Sigillum Militum VIII
9. Sigillum Militum IX
10. Adeptus / Last Movement

Downfall

Also listen to:

Deutsch Nepal -
Deflagration of Hell (1991)

Combative Alignment -
Everlasting Sun (2003)

Frostwinter - The Hour of Decline (2010)

German martial industrial. Cavernous, clanging percussion, thick sheets of rumbling noise, and fatalistic dialogue samples. Devoid of all traces of light or warmth.

Track listing:
1. Geistloser Wille
2. Il N'y A Aucun Progres
3. Revolution Ist Krankheitskraft
4. Vivisection Chamber
5. Something About Amorality
6. Ressentiment
7. Praying for Extinction
8. Jene Anthropofugale Notwendigkeit
9. One Day Without Existence
10. Wound of Dasein
11. Pour L'éternité
12. Wolves Among the Ruins
13. Epilogue (From Beyond)

If there is no struggle, there is no progress.

You might also like:

Brighter Death Now -
The Slaughterhouse (1993)

Deutsch Nepal -
Only Silence Among the Filthy (1994)

In Slaughter Natives - Enter Now the World (1992)

Martial industrial at its finest. Thunderous percussion, layered synths, cacophonous sample-scapes, and deep, rasping vocals. Makes me feel like I'm in a city that's getting bombarded and burnt to the ground by our enemies.

Track listing:
1. Sacred Worms
2. To Mega Therion
3. Beauty and Bleeding
4. Angel Meat
5. Skin Sore Eyes (Final Structure)
6. Transcendental Carnation
7. Saducismus Triumphatus
8. Total Decay
9. Human Ashes
10. Temple of Flesh and Metal

Give me your flesh

More aural terrorism:

Puissance -
Let Us Lead (1996)

Karjalan Sissit -
Karjalasta Kajahtaa (2004)

Ordo Equilibrio - The Triumph of Light... and Thy Thirteen Shadows of Love (1997)

First-rate Swedish industrial-neofolk. Because, much like that of black metal, the neofolk scene is riddled with racist shitheads, it might please you to know that Ordo Equilibrio (now Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio) are quoted as stating that "nazis, racists, and homophobes [have] no place in [their] scene."

Track listing:
1. Victory Starts Here, in the Land of Completion
2. Walpurgisnacht in the Grotto. Dancing with Lilith
3. Marching Across the Stupid and Ignorant
4. Thou Cannot Love Them All, When the Trumpet Sounds
5. Entering the Masturbatory / Luxuria My Rubber Angel
6. This Absolute Supper, Second Consecration
7. Carnival (Festivity in Flesh)
8. Invocation ov Prosperity, Pleasure, Progress, and Love
9. Under the Rose, Cuitus Excelsi. Pain, Bondage, and Subjugation
10. After Reign Cometh Sun
11. Living By the Sword. Dying By the Sword. The Lustrous Banquet
12. And So Forth...

Stand alone

If you like this, try:

Steven Stapleton & Tony Wakeford -
Revenge of the Selfish Shellfish (1992)

Matt Howden -
Hellfires (2000)

Matt Howden - Hellfires (2000)

Related:
Sieben - Ogham Inside the Night (2005)

Experimental, psychedelic neofolk-rock with ever-so-slight tinges of martial industrial. Massive, reverb drenched atmospheres; sharp, dramatic strings; and dissonant guitars wrapped around a core of thundering drums and desperate, distorted vocals.

Track listing:
1. Hell on Earth
2. Down
3. Shu - Lord of Light
4. The Lament of Hades
5. Hell's March
6. Pool of Peace
7. Thor's Oars
8. Hellfire
9. Down, Down
10. In the Hall of Truth
11. Down, Down, Down

My dead-end pact

You'll probably also like:

Moon Far Away - Sator (2000)

Tony Wakeford - Not All of Me Will Die (2009)

Combative Alignment - Everlasting Sun (2003)

Combative Alignment is a one-man German dark ambient project. Cavernous soundscapes filled with monolithic drones, pitchshifted voices, and distant, reverberating percussion.

Track listing:
1. No Words
2. Everlasting Sun
3. Ceremonial Harm
4. Lost Between the Two Worlds
5. Beware False Prophets

They disemboweled him

Puissance - Let Us Lead (1996)

Puissance is a longstanding Swedish martial industrial duo (one of whom is the sole member of Octinomos, a rad black metal band who I'll probably get around to posting at some point [EDIT: I did]) who advocate the extermination of all life on earth. I'm emphasizing "all" because it's a key piece of information, as their totalitarian-esque imagery and bombastic sound can and has fooled some into believing that Puissance are fascist/racist, a conclusion that my semi-in-depth research tells me is absolutely false.

Still, there's plenty here to make your skin crawl. From the pounding percussion, droning keyboards, and tortured screams of "To Reap the Bitter Crops of Hate" to the claim of "Control" that "to own, to manipulate, to instruct is to love" to the lyrically wrenching "Whirlpool of Flames", an apparent remembrance of the nuclear annihilation of Hiroshima or Nagasaki, Let Us Lead is sure to rub some of you the wrong way.

Track listing:
1. Burn the Earth
2. Control
3. To Reap the Bitter Crops of Hate
4. Behold the Valiant Misanthropist
5. Dance in the Sulphur Garden
6. March of the Puissant
7. Global Deathrape
8. Whirpool of Flames
9. Warfare [bonus track]

Got to sleep, little city
Your shadows are burned in the wall

Karjalan Sissit - Karjalasta Kajahtaa (2004)

Fantastic martial industrial/power electronics/dark ambient from Swedish artist Karjalan Sissit. Cavernous samples, nocturnal hums, and haunting strings give way to thunderous drums, blasts of distortion, and tortured screams.

Track listing:
1. Heili Karjalasta
2. Sika Setä
3. Kunnia Isänmaa
4. Elämän Kovat Koulut
5. ESS
6. ...Soon the Stroke Strikes
7. Jesus Ställde In
8. Haulikolla Hommat Järjestykseen
9. Tulipunaruusut
10. Kapitulieren? Nein!
11. Avioero
12. Juokse Sinä Humma

Stabby