Rage of Light - "Imploder" [2019]

Artist: Rage of Light

Title: Imploder

Genre: Electronic/Melodic Death Metal

Country: Switzerland
Year: 2019

Track List:

1. Light
2. Enraged
3. Fallen
4. I Can, I Will
5. Away With You
6. In The Shadow
7. Battlefront
8. Imploder
9. Mechanicals
10. Nothingness
11. Twilight of the Thunder God (Amon Amarth cover)
    

"Modern metal" is, frankly speaking, quite meaningless term that's mostly applied to bands like Amaranthe nowadays. Rage of Light also fall in the same category but, unlike Amaranthe, their music is unquestionably metal and can be described as a mix of MDM and trance with dual male/female vocals (mostly female). Their vocalist Melissa Bonny (ex-Evenmore) is quite charismatic, and her acting in music videos definitely should be seen. She's also in a symphonic metal band called Ad Infinitum, and the Bandcamp preview of their debut album sounds very good as well. As for "Imploder" by Rage of Light, it's exactly for you if you want futuristic metal that sounds melodic and catchy but not as "poppy" is Xe-None or the aforementioned Amaranthe.

Lacrimosa - "I Lost My Star" [2009]

Artist: Lacrimosa

Title: I Lost My Star

Genre: Gothic Rock/Metal

Country: Switzerland
Year: 2009

Track List:

1. I Lost My Star In Krasnodar (Russian Version)
2. I Lost My Star In Krasnodar (Album Version)
3. The Last Millenium
4. Siehst Du Mich Im Licht (Live)

Without a doubt, Lacrimosa is the best known gothic act of the 90s which played a major part in shaping the goth scene as we know it nowadays. That said, I have mixed feelings about them. They do have some great tracks (including the best known one, "Alleine zu zweit"), but a lot of mediocre material as well (in particular, "Copycat" is also considered to be one of their best tracks, and one of the heaviest as well, but I never could get into it). In general, their discography is quite diverse, including darkwave, gothic rock/metal, and even alternative rock albums, but out of all their releases, I'll post a single that's rather unknown outside Russia.

"I Lost My Star" was written by Tilo Wolff under the impression of visiting Krasnodar, where Lacrimosa have played for the first time in June 2008. Two years later, it was performed on stage in Krasnodar with the local folk/classical music collective Krinitsa (whose members initially were reluctant to work with such "heavy" band, but later realized that Lacrimosa's music is more influenced by classical composers than they initially thought). It was released in 2009 as an exclusive Russian single by Irond Records, featuring two versions of the title song (actually, the "Russian" version differs from the album version only with the refrain sung in Russian close to the end of the song) plus two bonus tracks and one short multimedia track, and the artwork by Alla Bobyleva made in standard Lacrimosa style. I have some hopes of visiting Krasnodar in the end of this month, so now is a good time to post this single on here:

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Samael - "Exodus" [1998]

Artist: Samael

Title: Exodus

Genre: "Dark Metal", Industrial Metal

Country: Switzerland

Release date: 1998

Track List:

1. Exodus
2. Tribes of Cain
3. Son of Earth
4. Winter Solstice
5. Ceremony of Opposites
6. From Malkuth to Kether
7. Static Journey (hidden track)

Samael are a band that doesn't really need an introduction. One of the most innovative and influental Swiss metal bands along with Celtic Frost, they're among my favourite bands of all times. While their early 1st wave black metal stuff was way ahead of its time too, I very much prefer their later albums beginning from "Passage" where they play music commonly described as "industrial metal" (yet they sound quite different from most other bands in this genre) and "dark metal" (which is a non-descriptive label that could mean anything, at least according to Metal Archives rules), with rather non-provocative lyricsal themes such as space and spirituality. In particular, "Exodus" and "Eternal" were the albums which first introduced me to Samael, and both of them still remain among my top favourites.

Unlike their preceding release, the much acclaimed "Passage", "Exodus" is a quite overlooked EP that received mostly average marks from reviewers and was deemed a release "only for serious completists" (which I probably am, at least when it comes to the electronic/industrial releases from Samael). Actually, I like it at least as much as "Passage", which is widely considered to be the best album by Samael. In the beginning, "Exodus" sounds very much like "Passage", but its sound gradually becomes more and more electronic and experimetal closer to the end. My personal favourite are the piano parts in "Winter Solstice".

Mordor - "Csejthe" [1992]

Artist: Mordor

Title: Csejthe

Genre: Funeral Doom Metal, Industrial/Ambient

Country: Switzerland

Release date: 1992

Track List:

1. Bloody Comtess
2. First Birth Of the Cruel Nymph
3. Last Demoniac Invocation
4. Self Immolation for my Sweet Goddess of the Dark Dawn
5. The Moment of the Worship of Total Evilution
6. In Search of the Pure Negation
7. Agony: The Ascent of the Mountain

Mordor, initially formed in 1987 as a proto-black metal band Arög, are one of the pioneers of funeral doom and drone/doom. Surely, these genres have gained a rather poor reputation by now due to the influx of numerous low-effort projects, but back then, a release like "Csejthe" was groundbreaking, even if the band members weren't too concerned with creating something unique and just played what they could (pretty much the same story as with Вой and early Thergothon).

"Csejthe" is often called an industrial doom metal release, and while I can see where it comes from, there are not that many metal elements. Its sound is mostly guitar-based dark/drone ambient (and even martial industrial at times); while doom metal riffs are present, they don't play a leading role. The lyrics are said to be about the exploration of what goes beyond the ordinary view of the world and human nature (which basically means the usual occult/horror stuff typical for lyrical themes in black metal). Overall, the value of this album is mostly historical, and it's definitely not a release for everyone's liking, yet it's interesting to see another innovative band from Switzerland that deserves to be mentioned among bands like Samael, Celtic Frost, Coroner, etc. And, with all honestly, "Csejthe" quite resembles some of the music I was trying to write as a teenager (of course I'm not going to show it to the public, though)...

Rain - "Starlight Extinction" [2002]

Artist: Rain

Title: Starlight Extinction

Genre: Industrial Metal

Country: Switzerland
Year: 2002

Track List:

1. The 4 Messengers of Neptune
2. Annihilation of the Centuries
3. The Cyclic Flood
4. Aurora Borealis
5. Like Dying Fireflies
6. Narcotik 00
7. Starclouds & Cosmic Seas
8. Dance of Infinity
9. Dead Planets
10. Meteor Rain
11. Amethyst
12. The Final Extinction

Rain was the first project of Drop C, the founding member of Sybreed. He recorded his first (entirely instrumental) demo in 1997, when he was only 13 years old. Year later, he found a vocalist and recorded the first full-length album, "Sephiroths". By the time when their second album, "Natural Order", was released, they became a 4-piece band. "Starlight Extinction" is their third and the last album before Void and Drop C left the band to form Sybreed. Surely it isn't the best industrial metal out there, but I like this album more than any of the works by Sybreed - maybe because it's more influenced by late-90's "dark metal" bands (such as their compatriots Samael) than modern MDM and groove metal.

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Mirrorthrone - "Carriers of Dust" [2006]

Artist: Mirrorthrone

Title: Carriers of Dust

Genre: Progressive Black Metal

Country: Switzerland
Year: 2006

Track List:

1. A Scream to Express the Hate of a Race
2. Mortphose
3. De l'Échec et de son Essentialité (point I. Marginalité Démystifiée)
4. Ils Brandiront leurs Idoles

"Mirrorthrone is a one-man Melodic Black Metal band with Symphonic and Avant-Garde influences born in June 2000, Switzerland, when Vladimir Cochet, the sole member of the project, decided to create a more eclectic and symphonic music than what he was used to do in his other musical activities. Two demo CDs were recorded respectively in February 2001 and December 2002. The latter drew the attention of Red Stream Inc. who released in May 2003 the first official Mirrorthrone album entitled “Of Wind and Weeping”, a collection of early recording and demo tracks. This debut CD got an overall positive welcome from the specialized press and other music enthusiasts worldwide.

In 2006, Mirrorthrone released “Carriers of Dust”. Keeping the radical Romantic and Baroque base lead by a blasting extreme metal pace that had built the identity of the previous release, this new opus integrated more diverse influences which give an almost progressive taste to the music. Benefiting from a massively improved production, this especially on the drum level, “Carriers of Dust” was a real step forward in the development of Mirrorthrone.

After remaining silent for two long years, Mirrorthrone is now about to unveil its new album “Gangrene”, still on Red Stream. Musically, this latest recording is an instable stream where extremities tend to gather constantly; hence the unusual cohabitation of powerful and epic tones alternating with suicidal and desperate colors.

Regarding the title and lyrical content of the song “A Scream to Express the Hate of a Race”, Vladimir states:

“This is an answer to the polemic which is current at the moment on the Internet. No, Mirrorthrone is NOT racist, nazi, white pride or whatever you call it. The lyrics of the song “A Scream to Express the Hate of a Race” target the human race in its entirety. It attacks what is called the “nihilism” of a certain form of society that has been spreading around the globe and that envelops the “moral, social, religious and scientific” paradigms. I am not going to develop more for my aim is not to offer text analysis of what I have written; I only want to clarify the situation”" - Last.fm

Well guys, now here's a masterpiece. It's very hard to believe that "Carriers of Dust" was recorded by an one-man project, the music is very rich and well-produced (on the level of the world's best metal bands). It's my favourite out of all 3 Mirrorthrone's albums, and the only thing I can complain about it is the predominate use of French language in the lyrics. Yes, that's only my personal opinion, but I don't like most Francophone metal bands, so "A Scream to Express the Hate of a Race" (with lyrics entirely in English) is my favourite track off this album ;) Some people also find the cloing track to be too lengthy, and the music in general to be too "mechanic" and "inorganic" (as all the instuments on there, other than guitars, were programmed/synthesized), but I don't have a problem with any of that.

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The Hillbilly Moon Explosion - "Buy, Beg or Steal" [2011]

Artist: The Hillbilly Moon Explosion

Title: Buy, Beg or Steal
Genre: Rockabilly
Country: Switzerland
Release date: 2011

Track List:

1. Buy Beg or Steal
2. Broken Heart
3. She Kicked Me To The Curb
4. Natascia
5. Trouble & Strife
6. My Love For Evermore
   
7. Night of the Living Ted
8. Imagine A World
9. Goin' To Milano
10. Touch Me
11. Rock'n'Roll Girl
12. Chalk Farm Breakdown
13. Enola Gay

The Hillbilly Moon Explosion is a well-known Swiss act playing "vintage" rockabilly / hillbilly / surf rock with predominately female vocals. Their newest album is called "Buy, Beg or Steal", and of course you can "steal" it - but it's better to buy it, if you have an opportunity ;)

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