Versatile - Les litanies du vide (2025)

With a moniker like Versatile, I think you're setting yourself up for certain expectations. Possibly disappointment, if you wind up with a rather typical, commodified sound, or perhaps victory if you're using that branding as an inspiration to head out as far as possible into broad and wild musical amalgamations. I won't say that this debut Les litanies du vide quite achieves the latter, but they definitely mix it up enough to the point where you're never going to get bored headbanging along to their industrialized black metal mash-up. I would compare them to their countrymen Borgne, whose new album I recently covered, but whereas that group simply filters its more conventional black metal sound through some mechanical beats and atmospheric keys, this one does embrace the 'industrial' element a little more boldly.

Lots of grooves; choppy, churning rhythms that feel machine-like or robotic in nature, but then smothered in the atmosphere of the chants, sirens, and sinister, thick rasped vocals. I'd almost liken this to Fear Factory if they'd had more of a black metal foundation than a death metal one. Perhaps The Kovenant is  a better comparison, but despite having a similar set of crazy costumes, Versatile is a little less quirky, and they're delivery is equivalent to the harshest and most serious material of those Norwegians. This album is also soaked in this menacing, Gothic personality, with lots of organ sounds that make you feel as if you're in some haunted house cosplaying as an assembly line. They would be far on the heavier side of a lineup at some European fetish/Goth/industrial festival. There is a little bit more of a dated techno vibe here, too, which might seem cheesy, but this band never plays it for laughs. They even go straight EBM in places, like "Ieshara", but even that is taken dead serious, and for such reasons the record doesn't devolve into the sort of aural circus that you usually associate with bands using the masks, gas masks, contact lenses, prosthetics and all such dressings.

I give the band points for being quite catchy, and having these loud walls of chugging guitars, drums, deep rasps and synthesizers all crashing into one another with a solid level of coherence. There are moments on this album where the heavier instruments drop away and it feels like a horror soundtrack, and others where they embrace a slightly more dissonant industrial metal sound circa Godflesh, though the vocals and the melodic organs and such offer majorly different vibes. It's definitely a muscular debut, and while its acceptance will (as always) rely heavily on the particular preferences of the metal audience towards the adjacent genres on parade, there was undoubtedly a good deal of effort in its writing and recording. The 'black metal' here is largely through some of the vocals, so I think this one's headed more towards rivet-heads that like the noisier guitars and pounding drums, but if your listening habits are open to something like a more brutal, and yes, rhythmically versatile alternative to Neue Deutsche Härte, without the moody male vocals, then have at it.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

https://versatilemetal.bandcamp.com/

Borgne - Renaître de ses fanges (2025)

Of all the black metal bands out there that go relatively unnoticed, I think that Switzerland's duo Borgne might be one of the most worthy. 27 years of material, much of which is good, and has only gotten better with their infectious recent records like Y and Temps morts. Renaître de ses fanges does seem like a slight step backwards in quality to those, but all of the bands captivating mechanisms are retained for an experience that is overall rewarding. This is 'industrial' black metal, largely delivered through the beats, which are certainly caustic, cold and machine-like, but they're not layering in a lot of the clanking and whirring and techno instrumentation that defines a lot of other acts that hybridize the genres. Really, this is atmospheric and even traditional black metal with the programmed drums and just a few embellishments like spacey, ambient, slightly noisy passages, striking piano sounds, etc. It's not corpse-painted Ministry.

The production is pretty great, just like the last couple efforts, but with an added sheen of rawness, where everything simmers in its glorious, fell majesty. The tracks are almost all on the longer side, from 7-10 minutes, but I rarely felt like any inherent monotony outweighed the immersion. The guitars have a real noxious distortion to them which seems to hover around the chords like an aura of decay, but the melodic tremolo picked lines just blaze straight through, and Lady Kaos' keys settle just below them to create a constant, oppressive level of atmosphere without sapping away from the aggression of the guitars. Bornyhake's vocals are nothing too terribly unique for the genre, but they always sound like they're hovering over the brink. Some of the tunes have a blasted structure, others a more melancholic, mid-ranged flow like the closer "Royaumes de poussière et de cendre". There's still a little bit of a death metal subtext to some of the lower riffing patterns, but not as prominent as on the excellent "Swords of the Headless Angels" from 2021.

And that's pretty much the most negative thing I can say about this, it's just not as packed with hooks as the albums leading up to it. This combines a slightly more primal production with some chord patterns that feel a little rinsed and repeated, not only in the canon of Borgne themselves but black metal as a whole. Renaître de ses fanges is still an effective mood-inducer, you can almost feel like you can close your eyes to this and see the spectral cover figures drifting through an apocalyptic industrial bombed out urban landscape, and there are a few riff patterns in the depths of some of the tunes that are pretty glorious once they're rolled out. The balance of the ambiance to the aggression is also quite nice, I just think the metal progressions don't stand out to me nearly as well as some off Temps morts or Y. Still a pretty dependable effort, from a band I've kept in rotation since at least 2010's Entraves de l'âme, and one that's built itself an enduring legacy nearly as comprehensive as some of their French peers.

Verdict: Win [7.75/10]

https://borgne.bandcamp.com/

Gardens of Gehenna - Mechanism Masochism (2003)

With a title like Mechanism Masochism, you'd expect that the little industrial footprints on Dead Body Music might have taken full control of the Gardens of Gehenna style on their third label in just as many albums. The elements are still present, but by and large the Germans maintain their brand of loping, patient death and doom without much of a payoff by way of tempo shifting, nuance or progression. It's more or less a direct continuation of the sophomore with little difference, a handful of the guitar riffs might have more of a traditional doom vibe about them, but when mixed in with the light use of the synthesizers and the occasional, other electronic influences, it still resorts to a lot of the simple chugging moments that just aren't that effective unless they can lead up to some payoff riff, which almost never happens...

They've got some perfectly passable background noise though, if you just want to hear some growling and low guitars off in the distance, struck through by an occasional keyboard for some gravitas and alarm. I find that the more exotic this album grows, with even more electronic beats ("Sestra") and occult atmospheres, it peps up and becomes a little more interesting, and in those few moments we've clearly come as close to the proper industrial metal as we're going to. The strange thing is that the industrial components are more groovy-oriented but then they go into the melancholic doom real heavy with the melodies in something like "Opus Noctis", and it becomes perplexing just how these two things are really going to work out together. And they don't, and Gardens of Gehenna strides forward only with baby steps, apprehensive to go all out into an industrial metal attack...

That said, I don't hate this one, it arguably has the best production, surpassing Dead Body Music, and the vocals have a cleaner grit to them, though I can't say I liked them much more. The band itself sounds on disc like its interest in this whole affair is draining away, but it's by no means awful, there were just so many more enticing options at this time and you wonder what audience Gardens was truly going to appeal towards. Decent ritualistic lyrics, somber melodies, a few compelling moments where the electronics support the grueling vocals and guitars, but otherwise forgettable.

Verdict: Indifference [5.75/10]

Gardens of Gehenna - Dead Body Music (2000)

Gardens of Gehenna swapped over to Last Episode for their second recording, and it marked a small if insignificant shift in style as they began tiptoeing around the inclusion of some industrial elements into their Gothic, drudging death/doom framework. We're not talking the full rivet-head package here, but in tracks like the opener "Requiem" they have that one grating industrial tone in the verses along with the guitar that gives it a bit of a weird, crunchy groove. The synthesizers are more prominent, not always just following along the rhythm guitar as they often did on the debut, and they are continuing their mix of haunted house tones and slightly more industrial effects. Overall it's an incremental evolution for the Germans, but one that at least makes this more interesting than the tawdry Mortem Saluta.

There's a little more depth in everything, from the roil on the rhythm guitar, to the grunts and growls, which while stylistically are the same, have a little more variation within them, a bit more ugliness too which casts its shadow over the listener. The bass is present but rather mundane here as on the prior effort, but the lead guitar melodies are more mournful and effective to compensate. They are also willing to strip some of the flourishes away at moments to do something like the churning "Tod und Teufel", a more frightening sort of tune where the synths are more used for the background to create a mix of horror and martial/industrial for the chugging guitars to brood upon. These songs usually falter when it comes to becoming truly 'catchy', but there are a few simple passages and configurations that are at least fun enough to nod or bang head along to while you're in the moment.

It's almost like someone shoved some keys and other electronics at Paradise Lost between Lost Paradise and Gothic and told them to have at it, or a pauper's early Therion, so if that sounds appealing you might make it through at least a couple listens of this sophomore outing. It's pretty harmless, and shows some modicum of growth, but I still feel as if there's not enough payoff that they can build to in these tracks. Still, the better production, the fractional increase in atmosphere and mysticism make this a much better starting point to the band's catalog than the first album.

Verdict: Indifference [6/10]

Gardens of Gehenna - Mortem Saluta (1998)

I could not remember this band's name for the longest time. When I first flirted with the idea of covering some Gothic metal stuff for a change, I had this vague inkling of a band whose albums I either bought cheap at the local import shop, or received to review back in the zine days of the 90s. I thought I had finally stumbled upon them but that was Garden of Shadows, a different beast altogether. Alas, I recall not liking the albums that I did have very much, but wanted to go back and give them another chance, because who knows after such a long gulf of time I might feel about this stuff. I often find that albums I once head a lukewarm view to improve over time just because their sound ages well from such a unique period of style or production.

Mortem Saluta is the Gardens of Gehenna debut, and it's very basic, crunchy death/doom with a guttural vocal not unlike what other bands were doing in the wake of a Paradise Lost or My Dying Bride. The difference here was that they would often have a keyboard or organ constantly following along with many of the riffs, rather than just arriving at sporadic moments to provide atmosphere. The drums mix steady, basic rock beats with some double bass rolls, but the latter sound kind of irritating in the mix, like a piece of plastic sheeting that is fluttering in a strong breeze. The songs are definitely dark and daunting, but they can also grow rather dull over their 4-5 minute song-lengths. Thankfully there is some degree of variation in how the riffs are put together, as well as the percussion, but I wouldn't mind a lot more, once they lay into some hook they a little too confident with it, and it becomes a slog. 

The mix is overall not much to write home about, but it's fairly crisp and steady. I wish the drums were a little heavier, and the backing instruments like synths were mixed in a little better, it feels more like a demo reel than a production with much depth. The guy has a decent growl that he can sustain, but a lot of his delivery sounds the same between tracks, which makes this overly monotonous. At best, the vocals and some dark doom ("Those Who Walk the Shadows") come together to create something appropriately ominous, and there's no fairy tale bullshit anywhere, this is all pretty gloomy stuff in outlook, like a death/doom to complement old black & white horror flicks; it just needs a better mix for more impact.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

Minneriket - Gjennom meg går ingen til hvile (2022)

Gjennom meg går ingen til hvile comes not only after the biggest gap in Minneriket releases, but also as the biggest single leap in progression that the band has made to date. The hallmarks of the project's original style are still present in the rasped vocal and the raw black metal guitars, but these have been joined here with a far more Romantic, prominent use of pianos and keyboards, and a large cast of guest musicians who are providing everything from female guest vocals, to strings, cello, harp, flute, gongs, and saxophones...this was clearly not an album to be given anything less than the full-on, almost overblown artsy treatment, but even if this might seem pretentious when compared to his early work like Vargtimen, it's still quite the alluring album.

I'm particularly impressed by how he's able to slap together a dreamy piano instrumental like "Hjemlengsel" and then flood you with an operatic piece like "Begravelsens hjertseslag", on which the female vocals are very chilling and the lead snarls are as evil as ever. The pianos creep alongside this and other tracks, used as an almost cinematic accompaniment to whatever the guitars are doing beneath. The drums here don't need to blast or anything so you can feel out the beats more, and probably the biggest surprise was the bass guitar, which is groovy and moody and finally creates in own layer of mood that fits write in with the spooky esoterism of the album's classical side. It's so good that I could just turn off everything but the rhythm section and I'd still be bobbing my head along to this one.

This might have more appeal to the Gothic/black metal audience more than those who valued the original Minneriket recordings, but I think its quite an improvement at maintaining my own interest level. There's just so much going on here, and it's both seductive and evil while still doing its own thing and not aping other bands that have mixed the styles. Not entirely avant-garde in structure, but definitely building a unique identity among a scene of so many other great bands that have progressed into their own distinct realms. I don't even know what to really compare it to...Peccatum? The few extra years off were put to good use, and this is one absorbing listen.

Verdict: Win [8/10]

https://www.minneriket.com/

Déhà - Decadanse (2022)

Decadanse is an interesting album for me to approach, for while I've heard a few of this artist's myriad projects in the past (Yhdarl, Silver Knife and Wolvennest to name but a few), he's been on a massive productivity streak with this 'solo' act...dozens of full-lengths and collaborations in just the last 4-5 years, part of which was possibly spurred on by pandemic-era isolation, but is showing no signs of slowing down even today. From what I've just briefly been able to read, the Déhà project is one that intentionally avoids pigeon-holing itself into too narrow a niche, but if I had to describe this, it's almost a horror landscape terraformed through a mixture of drone, doom, black metal, industrial and electronic ingredients, programmed drums with extreme vocals ranging from a prolonged rasp or growl to whispery nightmares or soaring mid-range harmonies.

There are but two tracks, each 22-23 minutes in length and obviously narrating a creepy, grandiose concept through musical construction that transforms from careful control to calamity, but always focused on forming oblique and harrowing imagery in the listener's mind. There are times when this is lurching along like the most stolid funeral doom, and others when it intensifies into blasting frenzy and tremolo picked note progressions. The guitars vary from rather predictable trudges and black metal melodies to more spacious, eerie anomalies that are constantly offering up a higher dimension beyond the aggressive substrate of the songwriting. His vocals are splayed out almost like paints of blood and ichor splashed on a canvas, becoming a part of the atmosphere just as often as they're a metallic, percussive focal point. And what's more, there is a tendency to lurch into some unexpected electronic/techno part which is quite fun despite sounding a little less dire and serious than the rest.

I'm not going to claim I was totally bowled over by Decadanse, I mean it delivers what is advertised and successfully transfers the feelings of gloom and fright into the mix, but occasionally it relies on some repetition, or riff patterns that are a bit predictable or repetitive. In the span of 20+ minutes, there could certainly be a few more interesting riffs or atmospheres on exhibit, I don't know if they struck often enough through this particular album's play-length as they might have on some of his others. But having said that, when I pull myself back about a mile from the details, and just appreciate the dark and monolithic atmosphere, the obvious amount of work places in the tortured vocals, and the placement of segues like the electronic parts, or the creepy acoustic break in "I Am the Dead" with the filtered vox, this is definitely an imaginative and involved work that fans of lightless, atmospheric dread will get a lot of, and I'm surely prompted to listen to more of what he's done directly under the Déhà handle.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

https://deha.bandcamp.com/

Borgne - Temps Morts (2021)

Industrial black metal acts of note are few and far between, and even when you do encounter them, they're not often the most clever hybrids between the two styles, usually focusing on some superficial elements of one of those constituent genres and then leaning into the other. Enter the creepy Swiss Borgne, a project of the ever prolific Bornyhake and keys player Lady Kaos; and while I cannot tell you that they are approaching this combination with the utmost nuance or uniqueness, their albums have become increasingly more entertaining experiences, peaking with ineffable Y, an album with which his latest, Temps Morts, pairs up quite well. A similar mix of aggressive programmed drumming, eerie tremolo picked notes, grisly vocals and eerie synthesizer atmospheres which is highly satisfying if you're the sort to close your eyes and imagine dystopian wreckage.

I'd actually say that this album is slightly more accessible than its predecessor, in that a lot of the guitar and synth lines seem more immediate to hook onto you, but don't mistake that for some sort of sellout, because this is still frightening and hostile. The beats here range from large, clanking splashes of dilapidated machinery to double bass or blast patterns that seem almost as if the guy is trolling us, only then to lay on the mesmerism through the immortally spooky guitar patterns in pieces like "Near the Bottomless Precipice I Stand" and "The Swords of the Headless Angels" (one of my favorite track titles this year). The atmosphere conjured up across this album is nothing short of revelatory, and while there does exist a fair degree of repetition, the music is so effective that it becomes a strength and not at all a weakness. Whether he's firing on pure industrial drum segues or even the more bouncy groove of "To Cut the Flesh and Feel Nothing but Stillness", there's an urgency and violence to this music that demands your respect, and I'm not sure there are many others out there doing it at this level...certainly this album hit me a lot harder than anything the comparable Aborym has done in many years.

To top that off, Temps Morts is enormous...73 minutes across nine tracks, and extremely consistent in the desolate mood it creates, which I have to say is a perfect fit to the bleak cover art of its industrial looking cathedral and nightmarish landscape. There are a few pauses in the aggression, like the softer piece "I Drown My Eyes Into the Broken Mirror" which relies more on piano lines, smaller scintillating synths and spectral whispered vocals rather than outright harsh rasps, but even there the album retains that sense of a consistently unsettling mood, and it's just another of the many surprises that will hook you throughout the album's considerable depths. Like those long cinematic experiences you patiently sit through because you realize you're getting more bang and quality for your bucks, Temps Morts is a pleasure to experience and then to revisit, even to read through lyrically, and though there's a lot of worthwhile material throughout their 20+ year back catalog, this is yet another of the most impressive albums the project has produced.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10]

https://www.borgne-blackmetal.com/

Prong - Cleansing (1994)

I don't think you could listen through albums like Beg to Differ and Prove You Wrong and NOT think Tommy Victor had a fascination with industrial or electronic music. While those were organic thrash manifestations for the most part, there was clearly an undercurrent of clinical, machine-like riffing, beats and production which made an album like Cleansing almost inevitable. But it's not until this 1994 effort that Prong embarked on a more even split between its thrashing roots and the electronic experimentation; I'm of course excluding the remix EP from a couple years prior which was an abomination. What I'm most impressed with, is that rather than merely aping the flavors of the day, such as Ministry, who were enjoying massive success due to Psalm 69 and steady touring, they made something of their own out of this stylistic crossbreeding. Not to say that there aren't a couple riffs here, as in "Whose Fist is This Anyway?", which Alain Jourgensen might have penned himself, but this one manages to stand out and even outlive a lot of other US industrial rock bands why fell by the wayside somewhere around the late 90s when emo and nu-metal started to bifurcate their projected audiences.

What really surprises me is just how laid back this record is. Similar to Beg to Differ it's exceedingly simple and subliminal in how it's constructed. While there are programmed beats occasionally, they were still leaning on Ted Parsons for the actual drumming, and he sets up a well-produced set of grooves here that give all the guitars, samples, and pluggy little bass-lines room to work upon the listener's expectations. The rhythm guitars are extremely minimal patterns, but even where they feel familiar there is something refreshing about how they serve the overall aesthetic of the album. The tone is punchy and processed, but works equally well whether Victor is cycling through some of his basic palm mutings or the more expressive, dissonant, often warm open chords that are used to detail out some of the verses and choruses. Tracks like "Another Worldly Device" and "Cut-Rate" are still heavily rooted in the thrash we'd come to expect, but the band really stretches itself out with things like the funky guitar line in "Broken Peace" or "Not of This Earth", which twists a riff similar to "Hell If I Could" from Prove You Wrong into something that almost sounds like a darker Jane's Addiction. Another interesting piece was "Home Rule" which reminded me a lot of Voivod with its jarring, wonderful chord progressions and the swerving bass grooves.

Of course, this is all brought into the Prong stable by Tommy Victor's blunt voice, which connects this all to their greater body of work, and fits in really well with the mechanistic blueprints whether he's going straight at the mic or putting a little industrial filtering on their. What further thrusts this into that genre is the liberal use of sampling that sits just behind the main instruments and vocals, almost as if its afraid to truly intrude, but loud enough to matter when categorizing Cleansing. There are political/authoritarian rants, crowd chants, and machine noises in there, all adding to the sonic palette without detracting or distracting. I can't actually pick out a weak track in the bunch...perhaps there are a couple overly repetitive passages on the album, or a few groove metal licks that are a little too generic in retrospect, but this one manages to fill out nearly an entire hour and maintain its consistency and immersion, all the way to the catchy but mellowed thrashing throughout "Test". I've mentioned that the album felt 'laid back' to me, but I don't want that to imply that it lacks energy; it's aggression is simply focused on the robotic nature of its rhythms, the tautness of the lower end guitars that is counterbalanced by the delicious processed open chords which appear later.

Even within this small microcosm of Prong's sound there is a good dynamic balance which leaves me with a fulfilling impression for one of my favorite albums in their whole 30+ year history. This was also the hottest I think the band had ever been thanks largely to the MTV video rotation for "Snap Your Fingers, Snap Your Neck", which was also lampooned on Beavis & Butt-head. And deservedly so...this was a still a band hungry to explore what it could achieve, never balking at stretching its parameters and as a result we've got about a decade of quality albums which build upon their predecessors in interesting ways. For me, the streak didn't end here.

Verdict: Win [8.75/10] (all the spaces between bleed)

https://prongmusic.com/

Blut Aus Nord/Ævangelist - Codex Obscura Nomina (2016)

One of the more esoteric split pairings I've seen lately, there was no way I wasn't checking this out, and much to my satisfaction, it's just as strange and effective a team-up as I might have expected. French veterans Blut Aus Nord are known for a wide body of offerings that range from more traditionally or folk-flavored black metal full-lengths to peripheral release cycles that flirted with industrial-tinged escapism to a fault. Ævangelist is the project which steered prolific US musician Matron Thorn away from the raw black metal musings of his mainstay Benighted in Sodom to a new depth of ugly, atmospheric, compelling death metal which has proven to be among the most unique and alien in an ever-crowding field of cavern core morbidity. How would the two of these groups sound in proximity?

Well, that's not exactly the nature of this release, and I feel both bands distinguish themselves pretty clearly to their own back catalogues rather than rely too much on sounding flush with the other. There is certainly some overlap due to the outsider dissonance practiced by both, but it's almost like a line drawn in the sand where the four BAN tracks end and Ævangelist's 21+ minute opus begins. As for the former, do not expect Memoria Vetusta IV material here, their offerings are more in line with the 777 trilogy, only cast in an even darker pallor redolent of their mid-oughts fare (MoRT, Odinist, etc). An emphasis more on raw industrial or trip hop beats drowned in resonant, gut-wrenching distortion, discordant and unusual effects and guitars, foul whispers and growls, and a general clamor that is in its own way just as oblique and disgusting as any of the harsher recordings they've put out over the considerable backlog. It's almost like a bastard spawn of DJ Shadow and Godflesh, only far more cacophonous and unusual than that union could allude to. Or if the producers of the Silent Hill video game series passed on Akira Yamaoka's eerie proclivities for such beat-driven fare and then greenlit Vindsval and company to 'make it their own' after hearing Sect(s) or The Desanctification. Partly hypnotic, always repulsive.

"Threshold of the Miraculous", Ævangelist's contribution, is rawer still, and spans a much broader gulf of styles within its boundaries than even the four BAN cuts combined. Lots of tinny electronic impulses here, sudden shifts in tempo and instrumentation where the grimy dissonant guitars erupt, and clearer growled vocals than on the band before them. It's par for the course that the band is so disheveled and nightmarish in scope, but I couldn't help feel here that the length of the track was working against it. There were several impressive atmospheric parts, with the French narration and so forth, but a lot of the heavier sequences just sort of randomly appeared and disappeared and it did not gel together as a compelling whole, whereas I've really enjoyed the lest swollen material they've put out on albums like De Masicatione Mortuorum in Tumulis. I was more partial towards the Blus Aus Nord stuff, but even that didn't quite grasp me consistently over its own 20 minute presentation, it was simply fascinating to hear them spew forth those big beats and then slather them in dementia.

All told, this was a pretty interesting listen that is worth hearing if you're deep into either (or both) of the acts involved, but not mandatory when they've got much stronger exclusive material. The two 'sides' of the split function in tandem, yet I didn't feel that they both stood out equally. However, I don't think there's any question that Blut Aus Nord and Ævangelist continue to take chances, and their work will ebb and flow to particular audiences based on what eras or phases of their eccentric histories they were most enthralled by. If you loved the 777 trilogy but desired it to go a little further out on a limb, it's probably worth checking this out, even though it's not quite so immersive and doesn't last the duration of spinning yourself straight through all those records in succession. Daniel Valencia's cover work here is also pretty neat.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

https://www.facebook.com/blutausnord.official 
http://www.newobliviongospelmusic.com/

Empire Auriga - Ascending the Solar Throne (2014)

Much like its predecessor Auriga Dying, Ascending the Solar Throne functions far more effectively as an ambient/industrial piece than a metal one; no doubt what the Michigan duo had intended, and yet still clinging to its black metal inspiration in the use of ungodly snarled vocals and walls of heavily effected tremolo picked guitars, or raw, droning chords that take inspiration from the more suicidal, depressive black metal sources. I suppose Empire Auriga belong in the same sphere as acts like I Shalt Become or Austria's Summoning, only the thematic geography of is a long way from the former's varied-by-album concepts and the latter's Middle Earth fixation. Instead, the duo inhabits a sort of metaphysical/cosmic environment in theory, but the music felt a lot to me the ruins of burnt out, blasted industrial cities on distant world where the hostile, native environments have reclaimed the technological defiance of advanced human civilizations... Radiated memories, floating through the now-empty shells like phantoms while fields of radars still reach to neighboring worlds in hopes of a signal...anything.

Sounds pretty cool, right? If you can subordinate yourself to its sense of escapism and sense of 'background' aesthetics to a bright nightmare, then this is certainly an improvement over their debut, but it does still lack somewhat in the personality department. Walls of distorted, heavily affected guitar are used as an atmospheric cloak to the clunking, minimal sense of percussion, as opposed to the riff-centric structures we associate with most black (or other) metal acts. The vocals range from distorted black metal rasps to more wailing, edge-of-perception haunted tones that seem to blend right into the blinding, fiery ambiance of the guitars. There is no tenable bass element to the music beyond some of the deeper drums occasionally resonating off into this or that speaker, but this is not really the sort of style that would benefit from it. No, tunes like "Jubilee Warlord" and "Are You Worthy of Gold?" feel more like you've just awakened from a cryogenic sleep in a post-apocalyptic survival capsule buried on the edge of a desert, and you nearly lose your sense of sight once the airlock doors open and you behold the fiendish radiance of the sun-stroked wastes...

And then "Waste" takes the sense of foreboding even further: dissonant, raw-as-fuck filtered chords giving the impression that this nuclear wanderer is being stocked by mutant scorpions who have yet to finish proving to mankind who is the new king of the food chain. I kept thinking of the film version of Zelazny's Damnation Alley when I listened through this disc, or Fallout 3, rather than the fields of colliding asteroids and glimmering celestial bodies the band might have intended, but I guess you also do get a small whiff of interstellar radio noise being broadcast through the uncaring void. At any rate, if any of the imagery I've painted in this critique tickles your curiosity, and you'd rather have such music crafted in an uncomfortable, repulsive means rather than that of melodious warmth and harmony, then Ascending the Solar Throne is probably worth the time. It's not too heavily industrial, more reliant on the stinging static of its guitar effects than on beats, so just expect something a little more loosely defined, which leaves plenty of terror for your imagination to fill in, rather than incessantly guiding your hand through a standard pop or rock song structure. I have a feeling there is better yet to hear from this pairing, but the sophomore is undoubtedly more effective and troubling than its predecessor and consistently caustic.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10]

Samael - Era One/Lesson in Magick #1 (2006)

Era One/Lesson in Magick #1 might have come as a surprise to many unaware Samael fans, but it was not wholly unexpected from this sector. One need only peruse some of the various remixes and ambient filler tracks the Swiss had included on their EPs to know they were pretty big fans of electronica and orchestration both, and when you consider the direction the harder material had been taking through Eternal and Reign of Light, then it's hardly coming out of left field that they'd tackle not one, but two full length albums of pure electronica...not entirely EBM, not quite industrial, but sort of a Samael-pop if that makes any sense. But that's not exactly the story, because these albums were pitched a few years before even Reign of Light got out the door, so I smell some degree of contractual filler here, even if Xytras and Vorph were enthusiastic about these being released to their audience in an official capacity. They had, after all, been working on another label and would again for the next heavier disc Solar Soul.

So: two discs, distinct from one another in that the first, Era One, features Vorph's vocals and lyrics, and they're actually pretty good lyrics, far more in depth and interesting than most of what we had to suffer through on Reign of Light. They still fall into that ambiguous, humanist perspective, but the imagery conjured is more complex and compelling than the preachy, let's all hold hands minimalist pap they had been spouting for a few years. Musically, it's throbbing electronic mid-paced stuff which is not unlike Reign of Light sans any of the heavier guitars...they exist here in a cheesy, sampled capacity, but they're nothing more than a chord or harmonic used as percussive backdrop for the lightning rod synthesizer lines. I'd compare it to Theater of Tragedy (Musique, Assembly) without the ethereal, cute female vocals and walls of guitar. Vorph's vocals have a monotonous, dorky consistency to them here not unlike Raymond's lines, robotic and solemn like you'd hear from a bunch of German EBM/New Hardness industrial. It either works ("Night Ride") or does not work ("Universal Soul"), depending on how well the vocals and central pulse figure into the backing ambiance and cosmical electric atmosphere. Oftentimes, when Vorph is trying to sing cleanly in a higher pitch ("Voyage"), it just collapses into hilarity, a mentally challenged version of Tiamat's Johan Edlund in which the pronunciation gets in the way of taking it seriously...

In Summary: ecstasy popping Samael for Euro-ravers, after hours at ski lodges where one employee sneaks his manager's key to let a bunch of freaky friends in. The Samael guys, trying to distance themselves as far as possible from their 80s and 90s legacy of excellence, show up for a few drinks and to look smug and handsome among the younger attendees. Nocturnal Alp clubbing.

The experimentation works FAR BETTER on the second disc, Lesson in Magick #1 which should have been released under the Xytras name. This content moves at a generally consistent pace with the first half of the release, but it's got sweet, throbbing electro bass lines, glimmering cascades of ambient starfall and pulsing arpeggios that convey elegance, machinery and mystique in even measures. Basically it's Xytras doting on his Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre and Vangelis influences and adding a subtext of his considerable talents at beats and orchestration which made records like Passage and Eternal so delightful. A little of The Orb in here, too, and this stuff would make a solid score for a futuristic video game platformer/shooter. I like that there is a good balance of calm and intensity among these tracks. In fact, Lesson in Magick #1 is good enough that I half wish to throw out the first disc so that it doesn't stain the experience when I crack open the CD case...tunes like "Flying High", "Red Unction" and "One With Everything" are simple but well made excursions into that turn of that spiffy, turn of the century FutureVision. I could put this on when I'm playing Android: Netrunner or re-reading Neuromancer for the umpteenth time.

Post-Summary: If you can get this on the cheap, and you love some of the electronica influences I've ascribed to Xytras, then pick it up solely for the second disc. I can't imagine who the first half could appeal to except for some really confused EBM goths whose incursions into metal music go no further than Samael, Moonspell and Nightwish...and stand in denial that the Swiss had fallen off the deep end, not to re-emerge until their hard hitting 'comeback which is not a comeback' Above in the year 2009

Verdict: Summary Indifference [6/10], Constituent Horror [4/10] and Delight [8/10]

http://www.samael.info/Above/index.html

Crematory - Antiserum (2014)

Crematory has always been a pretty hard sell around these parts. Let's face it, their entire 'death/groove metal with keyboards and clean chorus parts masquerading as Gothic metal' aesthetic just doesn't look good on paper, nor is it something the American extreme metal audience is likely to open their minds to and embrace, where you can really see the Euro scene into bands like Atrocity, Dreadful Shadows and Theater of Tragedy digging on it. That said, there have been a number of albums or individual songs by these Germans which I have fallen prey to, because as goofy as the style might seem with Felix's grunts mixed into the barebones chugging and flighty techno/orchestral synthesizers, the band can actually write a catchy fucking song or two. One that never eludes me is "Red Sky" from their 2004 album Revolution, sticks to me like glue and I can't pry it off no matter what solvent I used to dissolve it. But being that they write what is essentially darker 80s New Wave pop circa Depeche Mode or Peter Murphy repackaged into a death metal skin, I can see how they would possess a limited appeal...

Antiserum is an interesting record at first because it takes a visual turn into a possibly conceptual, science fiction territory which is further emphasized by what we might have once considered 'futuristic' keyboard pads, the sort that weren't uncommon in radio house/techno tracks from the 90s; still used a lot in Asian pop soundtracks for dancing video games. So take those sorts of melodies, and apply an undercurrent of dense chugging riffs, which admittedly do at least attempt to be catchy themselves rather than 100% banal palm muted insipidness, then layer on the death growls and cleaner, deep male choruses redolent of Finnish Goth metal bands like H.I.M. or To/Die/For, or for a closer comparison, fellow Germans Darkseed on some of their later output. This is what Crematory have served up here. The production is clean as a whistle, but that doesn't mean the guitars lack an ounce of natural grime, punch to their grooves. Drums aren't exactly intense but they are at the very least level and potent enough to stand alongside the rhythm guitars, and the keys and vocals both distinguish themselves with plenty of clarity. This is quite simple stuff, lacking much by way of musical complexity or innovative ideas, but the one thing Crematory have going for them is that this whole sort of 'rave metal for Euro-Goths' would seem so damn obvious that you wonder why more bands don't go for it, and as a result, these guys automatically sound distinct.

I mean, when I hear a Crematory tune, I know exactly what band I'm listening to, and the fact that they've survived for over 20 years and have just released their twelfth full-length speaks to their perseverance, and a reasonable level of success. SOMEONE is into this stuff, or they wouldn't have had such a long relationship with high profile European labels like Massacre, Nuclear Blast and now Steamhammer. On the other hand, Antiserum is far from the band's most sugary, memorable material. I kept feeling underwhelmed whenever they'd open up to the full-on chords and Felix's singing voice for some chorus, they just never really stick the landing. It all 'works', there's nothing remotely offensive or pathetic about what they've written here, and to be fair there is plenty of variation, from songs that focus more on the electronic/industrial side to those that implement your standard metalcore palm-muted pit slams and then wax atmospheric with them, to the more soaring Gothic metal tunes redolent of the other German bands I mentioned in the first paragraph of this review. 'Heartfelt' might seem a silly contrast when you hear Felix belting out his gutturals in a tune like "Welcome", but these guys (and gal) have always been sincere, and apart from the decision to go from a more pure death metal sound (Transmigration, 1994) to the more eloquent, catchy ...Just Dreaming, they have remained persistent in crafting their sound.

Ultimately, this one sort of disco danced into one of my ears and then raved on out the other, but apart from the cheesy limited edition bonus EBM/techno remixes of the tune "Shadowmaker", nothing was outright bad. They know how to set the stage and develop their ideas out to their natural conclusions, but I just didn't think the note progressions and melodies here were all that interesting, whereas earlier records like Awake and Revolution had a fair degree of staying power. Anyway, Crematory has always faced a bit of an uphill battle...the death growls often prove too much for the Goths, and the industrial components and clean singing parts too accessible for the death mavens. If anyone out there is interested in a happy medium between the two, or loves stuff like Sweden's Pain, Darkseed, Dreadful Shadows' Futile, or meatier European EBM with more guitars, then this may just fill that gap. Still, I'd recommend a half-dozen of their older albums over this any day, several of which I've already named, and here is a case where the cover art proved much more compelling than the musical content. This isn't exactly bad...they're just capable of better.

Verdict: Indifference [5.5/10]

http://www.crematory.de/

Azure Emote - The Gravity of Impermanence (2013)

When first looking over the glorious presentation of this album, I felt the pangs of familiarity, then realizing that I had actually listened to the first, cleverly titled Azure Emote effort Chronicles of an Aging Mammal a few years back. This is essentially a project of the inestimable Mike Hrubovcak, growl god with a resume that includes Monstrosity, Vile, Divine Rapture and XXX Maniak. Joined here by drummer Mike Heller (Fear Factory, Malignancy, etc) and guitarist/bassist Ryan Moll (Rumpelstiltskin Grinder, Divine Rapture, Total Fucking Destruction), the goal is an avant-garde fusion of techno/industrial music, death metal and symphonic ingredients that are provided by a host of guest vocalists, synthesizers, and eclectic instrumentation. Very often, I felt like the actual ambition of The Gravity of Impermanence outdistanced its grasp, but the amount of effort lavished upon its construction and production is inarguable...

By this point, hearing orchestration or techno keys nudged up alongside traditional death metal riffing is hardly novel, but if I can say something for Azure Emote, they totally throw themselves into it. Often when I here such an admixture I feel like its too heavily balanced towards the one end or the other, but here the Mikes and company experiment with genres somewhat evenly. The death metal riffing, for example in the opener "Epoch of De-Devolution", is the major constant through the 60+ minutes of material, but moored in earlier, melodic 90s playing with some slightly catchy tremolo riffs, grooves, or thrashing chug rhythms that serve as a seat to all the flighty atmospherics. There is a sense of virtuosity through the guitar solos (some provided by guests), and the affair as a whole creates a meandering, pompous vibe; as if Beethoven were alive, hanging outside a rave peddling ecstasy tabs while blasting Disincarnate (or similar) from his van; but I have to admire just how quickly these gentlemen are to throw all rules out the window, culminating in some of the truly weird moments of this experience...like the saxophones adjoining the operatic female vocals and arpeggios in "The Living Spiral"...violins, organs, video-game like keyboard runs...industrial hip hop jump up passages?!? ("Obsessive Time Directive"). Samples galore.

It's as hilarious as it is fucked, and produced with incredibly clarity. The bass guitars were probably the only letdown, since they seem like an afterthought, but the bright contrast between soaring, clean male vocals, the ethereal presence of Melissa 'Missy' Ferlaak Koch and Sandra Laureano (both of whom have been involved in a number of other metallic projects in the past), and the growls and rasps of Hrubovcak is well handled and engagingly dynamic. The guitars are crisp and rich, the drums effortlessly cast between blast beats and more experimental, subdued rock segments, and the keyboards run a massive range of sounds, some of which are appreciably cheesy and 70s/80s new wave, some given a more ambient din, and others trying to represent a mythic organ hall. Rarely will Azure Emote retread a particular rhythm or tempo, and even though there are 14 tracks here, none of them feels quite precisely the same. That they can pull off such a rhythmic and conceptual disparity is to their credit, even when the components and sections clash together without much of a natural, transitive flow to them.

Ultimately, though, I came away from this as an album of 'moments' rather than a truly consistent, engrossing experience. I have no question that there are brilliant ideas dispersed throughout the considerable playtime, but it often feels disjointed. Few of the rhythm guitar riffs are all that memorable on their own, and when they are (like in the first song), they are often beaten to death (pun intended). Amazing atmospheric segues will often erupt into some pretty bland, choppy Morbid Angel death metal blast beats and riffs with proggy synth sounds that don't really go anywhere other than to keep the material busy and eclectic. All the vocals are handled well, but the brutal levity of Mike's voice is often gimped by the fruitier instruments surrounding him. There are some very calculated, intense pieces here like "The Color of Blood", "The Living Spiral" and "Marching Forth" with its amazing instrumentation, but I'd say the composition is about 2/3rds inspired and then the last third is spent filling in the blanks.  

Azure Emote is fearless, and the sophomore approaches its electro-symphonic-metal theatrical symbiosis differently than, say, Dimmu Borgir or Sigh, Septic Flesh or Aborym; but it's just that sometimes the spurts of brilliance are too brief and disappear beneath the impetus to keep the riffs flying, varied, busy, and slightly schizophrenic. Contemporary to a fault. Unabashedly 'now'. The poetic lyrics deal heavily in the concepts of the aging and passing of civilizations and individuals, as hinted by the title, and do so intelligently enough. In other words, its relevant stuff and not moored in gore. A good album from individuals who, with just a little more refinement, could have written an amazing album. But you won't hear much else like it this year, and that's saying something.

Verdict: Win [7.25/10] (cringing scars do tell their tale)

http://www.azureemote.com/

Spektr - Cypher (2013)

Now over a decade into their career, Paris' Spektr rank among the more eclectic of French extreme metal acts, drawing upon an even wider palette of sounds than countrymen Blut Aus Nord, Reverence, and the like. Cypher is their third-length, and perhaps their most varied, incorporating elements of down-tempo, industrial, ambient, black metal and even some jazzy percussive tempos into an admittedly unified whole that transcends the minimalistic black/white album artwork and outward appearance of the band, which for all appearances comes across as a purely cult metal aesthetic. That they manage all of this versatility without stepping on the toes of other, comparable acts like Thorns, CSSABA, Red Harvest, and Reverence is a testament to their creativity, but in listening through the album I felt like there was a dichotomy between the commonality of, say, their riffing compositions, and everything else happening.

Spektr love samples, and put them to good use, threading them atmospherically through the tracks, and not just as intros, but saturated with effects to create a deeper, resonant effect. Granted, some are pretty obvious like the Rod Serling/Twilight Zone material ("The Singularity"), but they still fit into the band's oblique and ominous themes, and help provoke a sense of the unknown here. Cypher has a good deal of variety when it comes to its individual makeup of tracks. Some, like "Hermetism" or "Decorporation", are little more than vignettes and interludes of rumbling, dark ambient; whilst others, such as "Teratology" or "Cypher" itself are rather enormous, clocking in at 9-11 minutes. Lengthy bursts of solemn, spacious noise and feedback are balanced off against metallic surges of Scandinavian styled, dissonant/minor riffing, while the bass lines are configured into whooshing grooves that help transform Spektr's obfuscated landscape into something more distinctly interesting and progressive in nature than your garden variety industrial/black. The programming and drums are likewise curious, ranging from a live kit feel to more noise-integrated glitch mode, but often dropping out for long periods of time that the ambient elements cna take center stage.

In terms of riffing style and substance, I did feel like there were a number scattered through the album which felt pretty typical or familiar of old Norse influences; but then, there were moments in tracks like "Antimatter" where they took on a more psychedelic impact not unlike Finland's great Oranssi Pazuzu. This is also more or less an instrumental outing: you might get a muffled growl or a scream, but the samples provide most of the 'narration' for the album. Thankfully there's so much going on elsewhere that it doesn't lose anything by way of this omission. Some leads and snarling, wretched vocals would have helped the album in the long run, but it's nonetheless an effective nightmarescape, frightful and perturbing if not utterly hostile and inaccessible. I'd cite "Teratology" as a particular favorite for that noisy, jungle/jazz intro, and "Antimatter" for how its roiling, textured noise erupts into the sharpness of the black metal guitars, but all around, Cypher is quite something to experience in the isolation of your own slipping sanity; and especially if you dig similar acts like Stagnant Waters or Reverence you'd do well to grate your teeth on this.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

Haiku Funeral - Nightmare Painting (2012)

If you thought Haiku Funeral's name was curious, then wait until you hear the music these Frenchmen evoke from all manner of nightmares. A hybrid of Gothic, industrial and soundtrack elements pulled from a vast number of freakish sources, they create music that would be the perfect fit for some cult, B-movie classic of horror or cyberpunk, only with the caveat that there's an added sheen of complexity without the visual aids present. There's also a metal ingredient here, with the harsh and visceral vocals that often transform into asylum howls, but oftentimes the actual structure of the music is rooted in a progressive pop leaning that best suits its ability to disperse creepy curve balls in the listener's direction. In short, it's not easy to categorize: listen at your own risk, and without any preconceptions, and you might come away having a good, ghoulish time.

Tonally, the songs traverse quite a large spectrum of sounds even within the constraints of a 3-4 minute time frame. For instance, "Blacklight Amniotic Erotica" opens with thuggish, fat and I daresay 'funky' bass-lines over a distorted, driving mid-pace beat, while the vocals take on a brute, conversational quality, and then later it transforms into creeping ambiance and hideous rasping over ghostly, dissonant guitars. "Raining Nightbirds" is a surreal nightscape of electronic sounds that phase into and out of being like the backdrop of some eternally overcast cybernetic city, a distant beat substantiating its abstract momentum. "Your Heart a Black Tunnel" is like what you might expect if Abruptum was to remix a Massive Attack tune, and the vignette "Death Poem" is pretty much pure dark ambiance that wouldn't be out of place for Atrium Carceri. The connecting ligaments to all these pieces come through the vocal inflections which only range to about 3-4 styles maximum, and the associated darkness each of them shares. Some beats and synthesizers will often bear similarities with others, but there's really a plethora of subcultural electronic styles being flushed into this strangely cohesive, progressive matrix and capped with that darker hint of metallurgy.

One thing the album is not is grating, at all. You're not going to experience too many blinding floods of noise or angst. The compositions are fluid, and despite the eccentricity on parade, they're all pretty structured. I thought at times that the poetic, crank world view and atmosphere reminded me of the industrial legends Skinny Puppy, or the eclectic attitude reminiscent of fellow French act Pin-Up Went Down. Some of the swarthier, trip-hop-like passages reeked of Arcturus' The Sham Mirrors. But that's only the tip of the iceberg, and no such comparison can fully define Haiku Funeral's intentions. This record is really like a massive, electrode-tweaked finger painting by some child building its own reality from fragments of horror and outsider musical influence. I won't claim that all of the songs are catchy, or that the band doesn't have a distance to travel in perfecting this uncanny bastardization of forms, but I will state that there was rarely a minute among the 43 of Nightmare Painting that I wasn't, at the very least, interested (if not compelled).

Verdict: Win [7.5/10]

http://www.haikufuneral.com/

Thunderkraft - Totentanz (2012)

Thunderkraft released a fairly excellent debut effort, The Banner of Victory, back in 2005, which provided an interesting spin on the death metal genre involving lots of symphonic elements, a touch of industrial and groove metal and pagan warfare lyrics one generally associates with artists of a more directly heathen/black metal style. It's taken the Ukrainians some time for a followup, but it's arrived in the form of Totentanz, a more accessible and dynamic sophomore. There have been a few changes, namely in the less brutal choice of vocals and a stricter adherence to melodic black metal progressions in the riffing, but in general they paint with the similar broad strokes that such an eclectic hybrid would naturally imply.

A lot of the electronic ingredients tend to accumulate in the intros to pieces like "Mass Defect", "A Crumpled Story" and "Totentanz" itself, frivolous and brief techno sequences that tend to part when the metal riffing arrives, but there are points at which they play a more prominent role, as with "Towards a New Dawn", more or less a martial ambient track into which a beat kicks up and lots of cutting vocals, thumping drums create a pompous atmosphere. Personally I found that tracks like "A Crumpled Story", which balance sampled strings with death/thrash riffs and lots of industrial clanging and more progressive passages provided the most interesting and memorable highlights of the album, but it's a fairly consistent listen throughout provided you don't have an inherent aversion to such major use of synthesizers and lack of a punishing or truly carnal environment in the production and guitars.

Not a lot to compare this to. Perhaps a dash of Germans Die Apokalyptischen Rieter or a more electronically infused alternative to Nokturnal Mortum's folksier exhibitions. Perhaps a metalized, symphonic EBM. A few of the dirtier, groove oriented rhythms felt pretty shabby and 'jump the fuck up' to me, in particular that riff coursing through "The Future World". I also felt that the vocals for the previous album were a lot stronger. But those small gripes aside, the band gets some credit for sticking its necks out and attempting something different. With members of Astrofaes, Munruthel, and other Ukrainian alumni they've drawn upon a wide range of sounds to tread outside their normal proving grounds, and there's quite a lot to engage the ear, even if it won't all stick to the listener.

Verdict: Win [7/10]

http://www.myspace.com/thunderkraft

Thorns vs. Emperor (1999)

The most exciting and interesting aspect of Thorns vs. Emperor is just how well-integrated its components are. Most split recordings or team-up releases feel segregated due to their traditional formatting. For whatever reasons, geographical or stylistic gulfs, each of the two or more acts will be assigned a 'position' on the track list (CD) or a 'side' if it's being released in vinyl or cassette format. Not the case for this cyber-black extravaganza, which feels more like a collaboration being held directly between Snorre Ruch (billed here as S.W. Krupp) and the members of Emperor. Over the course of 48+ minutes, the two parties deconstruct one another's past glories, their own work, and in some cases, offer up new material.

Granted, not all of the tracks here feel equally revelatory, and I'm quite partial to the Thorns contributions over the Emperor cuts, but this is largely due to the newer material. By this time, Ruch's project had only been heard through demos, so Thorns vs. Emperor was likely its first introduction to the larger underground, and he really delivers. "Melas Khole" is an electronic trudge with poignant, excellent lyrics and shifting industrial percussive currents and swerving bass lines that carry the spikes of dissonant, fragmented black metal licks. "The Discipline of Earth" is a mix of straight black metal bursts and almost drunken narrative over a matrix of whacky, frivolous electro sounds. But "Ærie Descent" is likely the best of his pieces here, a tune that was brought forward and expanded from the Trøndertun demo (1992) and slapped with horns and other atmospherics that truly work themselves upon the listener's conscience. I quite loved the trance-like break at around 1:30, and Satyr from Satyricon does a decent job of slavering this tunes with his hoarse rasp and unnerving, clean vocals.

As for Emperor, they include an martial/industrial intro piece ("Exördium") with deep coils of distorted bass and a gradually building cadence. A crazed deconstruction of their own "I Am the Black Wizards" track known simply as "I Am", which spiritually feels like it inhabits the margin between a Third Reich pep rally and some touring carnival carousel. There is also an entirely instrumental, martial/synthesizer orchestration of "Thus Spake the Nightspirit" called "Thus March the Nightspirit" which feels like the boss battle for some obscure Castlevania or Final Fantasy title. Perhaps more interesting, though, is the metalization of Thorns' "Aerie Descent" which is more compact than the reskinned version Snorre has included. Ihsahn and Samoth have festooned this with lurching, slicing and dissonant riffs that give me the aesthetic impression of attempting to weave through one of those swinging pendulum blade trapped corridors you always see in games or action films.

In return, Snorre has broken down Emperor's "Cosmic Keys to My Creation & Times" into the reductive "Cosmic Keys", taking a few of the guitars and dowsing them in Satyr's spoken word alternative, while a throng of industrial percussion beneath. This was actually my least favorite track on the album, but I'd have to say that the rest of the pieces were quite fascinating to sit through, and though such earlier black metal/industrial experiments do not always hold up for long periods of time, I feel that Thorns vs. Emperor retains some freshness, not unlike those Satyricon electros on their EPs, or Mayhem's "A Bloodsword and a Colder Sun (Part II of II)" from Grand Declaration of War. It's not nearly perfect music, but Thorns and Emperor do prove a near perfect match, and even though the split skews towards the former for its more quality content, this is a collaboration that might have yielded amazing results had they decided to release more.

Verdict: Win [7.5/10] (do you ask the purpose of your pain?)

http://www.thorns.no/
http://www.emperorhorde.com/

Samael - Lux Mundi (2011)

Having long harbored an obsequious deference towards Samael's 1996 epic Passage, I have eagerly awaited, with each new album in the band's repertoire, a return to that cosmic plateau of songwriting capability. Through Exodus, through Reign of Light, and then the lacking Solar Soul, the the subtext might not have changed from the Swiss band's electronic/dark metal hybrid, but the returns seemed to diminish as the band would foray into goofier vocals and betrayed potential, all in the name of crass experimentation. Enter Above, the band's last album, and there was a slight angling back towards the path of greatness they once strode mightily upon. It was a heavy album, the heaviest since their formative black metal years, and an enjoyable one, but I could not help but feel something was missing...

Only to be 'found' for Lux Mundi. No, the 8th full-length is not precisely the long awaited return to flawless, iconic composition that I was crossing my fingers for this past decade, but it's about as close as the band has yet come to Passage. A number of the tracks cautiously merge the stomping gallantry of the primal metallic guitar patterns with the extra-terrestrial, ethereal use of choirs and symphonic components that converge upon Vorphalack's garbled prose like alien shadows, backed by an even more realistic feel to the drum programming. No, these are not compositions with the immortal capacity of a "Jupiterian Vibe", "Moonskin", "Rain" or "Shining Kingdom", but you'd be surprised just how close they come in terms of overall atmospheric aesthetic. Pieces like the bombastic "Of War" or "In the Deep" and it's harmonic plucking come startlingly close in theme, riven with crushing philosophical weight in contrast to the beautiful, interstellar aspersions cast through Xytras' keyboards.

There are a few mildly lighter, accessible tracks ("The Shadow of the Sword", "In Gold We Trust") interspersed among the heavier fare that should thrill devotees of Reign of Light or Eternal, only threaded with a greater perceptible ballast. But the majority seem to have a martial pattern to them which recounts "Jupiterian Vibe", with lots of jarring chugs and militant swells that satisfy the listener's sense of wonder and belligerence. To an extent, Lux Mundi does feel like a regression, as if the band were coming full circle towards stretches of space that they had previously saturated in sound, but this is only harmful if you loathed the band's 1994-99 body of work, which I clearly did not. This is at least the best the band has written since its divisive Eternal, and in truth it's better mixed and more muscular sounding. The album feels quite a lot like greeting an old friend through an airlock, the landing bay behind him cast in the glow of a crescent planetary body and manifold of distant stars. Permission to come aboard? Permission granted. Well done. Welcome back. Take off your space suit and stay awhile.

Verdict: Win [8.5/10]

http://www.samael.info/Above/index.html

Empire Auriga - Auriga Dying (2006)

Empire Auriga is yet another example in how black metal is being triumphantly bridged into external mediums of sound, or rather; how the core, lo-fi aesthetics of the genre are adapted to a spacious, martial industrial landscape. If you could picture a middle ground between Triarii and Summoning, then you will be well prepared for the sounds of this Michigan outfit. Bleak repetition, banks of distorted guitars, a mix of rasped and chanted vocals, and monolithic industrial drum programming that feels like a labyrinth of gears and pipes churning out the repressed ambitions of a generations lost to the vastness of civilization and space.

There is a variation of intensity through several of the tracks. Where "Time Expanded" provides but a steady march through sirens, resonant raw guitar tones and distant horns, the more extensive "Sorrowsong" cycles from cavernous electronic noises to massive swelters of sad guitar melodies and oppressive vocals that are barely audible as they hiss against the infernal clanking of the percussion. "Dreaming of Breath and Stars" is a dour anthem for the downtrodden, with more of the mystical, distant guitars ringing off against the central tumult of despair; while shorter tracks like "The Lurker" writhe with the dissonance of speech samples, or the walls of guitar ambiance that characterize "Soul Interrupt". But perhaps my favorite track on the entire effort is the closer, "Dust and Ether", which is a simple, escalating dark ambient track that escalates through a central pier of dense noise, harried by light synths and distant howls and samples.

As interesting as I found Empire Auriga's atmosphere, I do feel like the material is not quite so hypnotic as I might have hoped. Certainly it's interesting, intelligent and has a firm grasp of its minimal nature, but there was a fraction more monotony than I desired, and where groups like Svarte Keiner, Karjalan Sissit, or Megaptera complete suck me into their compositions, I felt a few moments where I was looking at my watch, wondering if something more interesting would occur. This isn't the case so much for the longer pieces ("Dust and Ether", "Sorrowsong") but for those in between, which don't seem to bear the same massive vision. That said, this is only the first recording, and the fundamentals for something enormous are being laid here that might one day thrill fans of the visceral, dark black/ambient and industrial suggestion of obscure artists like I Shalt Become, etc. which are simply more revelatory at this point.

Verdict: Indifference [6.5/10]

http://www.myspace.com/empireauriga