Daidalos - "Through The Shadows Of Time" [2014]

Artist: Daidalos

Title: Through The Shadows Of Time

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Venezuela
Year: 2014

Track List:

1. Deep Ocean
2. Running Away
3. Through The Shadows Of Time

Symphonic metal from Caracas, "Through The Shadows Of Time" is their first demo EP. The music is quite good for a debut, but the vocals put me off, unfortunately. Yes, I admit their vocalist has a powerful voice, but her attempts of doing "operatic" vocals are just over the top. So be warned; but otherwise it's an EP worth listening to (and the cover art is nice as well).

Download

Subliminal Code - "Soldier Of Hell" [2012]

Artist: Subliminal Code

Title: Soldier Of Hell

Genre: Dark Electro, Harsh EBM

Country: Venezuela
Year: 2012

Track List:

1. Open The Door From Hell
2. Soldier Of Hell
3. Sin Of Pleasure
4. Lost In The Loneliness
5. Electro Suicide
6. Muerto En Vida (Kill Version)
7. Lost In The Loneliness (Remix By Traumatize)
8. Soldier Of Hell (Filthy Drop Mix – Sonik Foundry)
9. Sin Of Pleasure (Andro-Dioxin Remix)
10. Electro Suicide (Coexpro Remix)

Dark electro from Venezuela, nothing particularly outstanding or innovative, but a quality work and a good example of the genre. By the way, the band members look rather like rappers on this photo:

Download

Nightmare 34 & King Virus One - "Roter Oktober" [2010]

Artist: Nightmare 34 & King Virus One

Title: Roter Oktober

Genre: Hardcore Rap, Horrorcore

Country: Germany
Year: 2010

Track List:

1. Intro
2. Wenn die Blätter fallen
3. Roter Oktober
4. Kürbisfratzen
5. Gänsehaut (feat. Blokkmonsta & Uzi)
6. Nebel des Grauens
7. Süssigkeitenräuber
8. Ritual
9. Das Böse (feat. Adden)
10. Angst (feat. Lord Gaus)
11. Im Wald 2 (feat. 2Face)
12. Freitag der 13te (pt. 4)
13. Schrei
14. Blutiger Besuch Remake (feat. Kunstfehler)
15. Notruf
16. 2 Frauen
17. Letzte Stunde
18. Outro

This album was tagged "industrial rap" (or something like that) on youtube - so I expected to hear something like Dälek, but with German lyrics. However, it turned out to be just hardcore rap, apparently influenced by lowbrow horror movies, and not similar to Dälek at all. Some tracks on there are very good, though, such as "Kürbisfratzen" and "Im Wald 2" (by the way, the latter track has some lyrics in Russian, close to its end). Germany produces probably the biggest amount of hip-hop in Europe (and one of the biggest in the whole world), but I don't listen to it that much (even though I love the language), with some exceptions like this album. I'd be wary of posting a download link, but you can watch this clip:

Project Silence - "424" [2012]

Artist: Project Silence

Title: 424

Genre: Industrial Metal, Dark Electro

Country: Finland
Year: 2012

Track List:

1. 424
2. Pressure__Revolution
3. My Reality
4. Stardancer (Raven's Whore)
5. Keeper
6. Sky, Space and Twilight Zone
7. Alone (Crushed by Your Lies)
8. Beast
9. Cage of Hate
10. Everything
11. Promise

 I discovered this band while searching for The Sin:Decay's only EP, and they turned out to be better than The Sin:Decay. Nowadays there's a wave of mediocre projects trying to mix dark electro with various kinds of metal (mostly black), but this particular project isn't bad at all. Maybe not on the level of The Kovenant (whom they're often compared to), but still quite good.

Download

Legend / Sólstafir - "Fjara / Runaway Train (Split)" [2014]

Artist: Legend / Sólstafir

Title: Fjara / Runaway Train

Country: Iceland

Release date: 2014

Track list:

1. Legend - Fjara (Sólstafir cover)
2. Sólstafir - Runaway Train (Legend cover)

This split is going to be released tomorrow, and most sites describe its sound by vague terms like "post-metal". In fact, there's very little metal in there. Legend are a synthpop band, and their track on this split is what happens if a band like A-Ha decides to make a cover version of a metal song. It's actually a very good track, quite beautiful and melancholic, definitely for the likes of everyone who likes depressive Scandinavian pop/new-wave. Sólstafir's side is less interesting, despite being more heavier and "metallic". They're considered one of the best metal bands from Iceland, but I didn't like their earlier stuff when I listened to it in mid-2000's. They've changed their sound drastically since then, towards progressive/post-metal, but I haven't listened to any of their later releases yet (beside this split, of course).

Vhernen - "Syberia" [2006]

Artist: Vhernen

Title: .S.Y.B.E.R.I.A.

Genre: Funeral Doom/Black Metal

Country: Denmark (Faroe Islands)
Year: 2006

Track List:

1. Syberia
2. Tundrha
3. Numb
4. Funeral Aurora

When there's a talk about metal from the Faroe Islands, most people can name only one band - Týr. However, this small island community has produced a few other good bands, one of which is Vhernen - an one-man project started in 2005 in Tórshavn. Surely this demo EP sounds raw, but I liked it better than the follow up full-length album. This release is one of few ones that absolutely deserve to be labelled as "depressive", and it's also woth noting that it was recorded using electric cello and orchestral harp (as well as the standard guitars). Very impressive for a debut.

Download

Thergothon - "Stream From The Heavens" [1994]

Artist: Thergothon

Title: Stream From The Heavens

Genre: Funeral Doom/Death Metal

Country: Finland
Year: 1994

Track List:

1. Everlasting
2. Yet the Watchers Guard
3. Unknown Kadath in the Cold Waste
4. Elemental
5. Who Rides the Astral Wings
6. Crying Blood & Crimson Snow

"The band is considered to be one of the pioneers of funeral doom metal, along with Skepticism". Well, I'm not a big fan of this particular genre, but there was a period when I listened to a lot of death/doom metal, so I can understand why this album, along with the earlier demo "Fhtagn-nagh Yog-Sothoth", became one of very high-valued releases of early 90's Finnish metal scene. Thergothon were one of the few H.P.Lovecraft-inspired metal bands that really have that otherworldly cosmic horror atmosphere in their music; maybe that's how their countrymen Demilich would sound if only they decided to play doom metal.

Like Demilich, Thergothon were a very underrated band during the time of their existence. Their members later played in a band called This Empty Flow (no idea what they sounded like, but according to the reviews, their style gradually transformed from gothic/doom metal to ambient/darkwave). Their vocalist/keyboardist Niko Skorpio also participated in a lot of projects which names sound promising, but the further info and recordings are nowhere to be found.

Download

Nord'N'Commander - "Heavenly Barrow" [2002]

Artist: Nord'N'Commander

Title: Heavenly Barrow

Genre: Lo-Fi Gothic Electro

Country: Russia
Year: 2002

Track List:

1. Sonnenmensch
2. Shout of Birds
3. Listen to the Evening
4. Blood of the Virgin Girl
5. Heavenly Barrow
6. Sunny Son
7. Cave of My Heart
8. Teeth of the Hanged
9. Contention

Here comes another cult release from the 90's-early 2000's Russian underground scene. Despite sounding "like a couple of teenage Satan-worshippers that managed to lay their hands on a cheap guitar and synth" (as they were described on some blog), Nord'N'Commander were among the most unique and innovative bands to come from the ex-USSR. In this regard, they're like early Voivod or Bathory - they were just playing whatever they want and could, not worrying much if their efforts would look ridiculous or not.

Nord'N'Commander were initially formed as an "esoteric synthpop/darkwave" project called "Vantit" in 2000. Maxim Belyaev (he was the author of all Vantit's music, and also the majority of the best tracks which later were re-recorded by N'N'C, even though the members of N'N'C themselves don't like being reminded about this fact) left the project after a conflict in 2001, and two remaining members (Alexander Ishutin and Vadim Proskuryakov) decided to change name to Nord'N'Commander - which was an obvious pun on "Norton Commander", and a hint that their music shouldn't be taken very seriously. They always had a somewhat scandalous reputation, what what else to expect from a band like them?..

Despite the horrible quality of production, the songwriting on "Heavenly Barrow" is actually quite good, which alone makes this album standing out of many better-recorded, but generic albums of the same genre. The lyrics may be poorly translated to English, but I decidedly uploaded the English version of the album and not the original Russian one, because the poor English on there adds even more charm to its sound. It's up for you to decide if this album is a total joke or a masterpiece, but one can be said for sure - Nord'NCommander always were one of the most original bands I know of. They've split up in 2009, their vocalist now is an university teacher in Moscow.

I can upload the rest of their discography, if anyone is interested (not right now, though), but keep in mind that their albums are very different from each other. Their debut "Sacred Spear Aftersounds" (2001) is very raw "blackened metal", while "Maps of Shadow Travelling" (2003) is a compilation of unreleased tracks sounding similar to "Heavenly Barrow". "Hermeneutics" (2004) is a return to their "blackened metal" roots, and "Vele" (2006) is a completely weird "accordion black metal" album. There's also a fake "album" called "Introjektion" (2007) consisting of 9 or 10 tracks, of with only 4 are actually by N'N'C (taking from their EP "Technolady"). They also recorded a number of covers, of which "Paris" and "Starfall" (both originally performed by a 90's Russian pop band "Кар-Мэн") are some of the best tracks ever recorded by N'N'C (at least in my opinion).

Download

Currents Of Death - "Cretodoh" [1993]

Artist: Currents Of Death

Title: Cretodoh

Genre: Power Electronics, Noise

Country: Russia
Year: 1993

Track List:

1. Fucking Electricity
2. Urnsfet
3. New Holy Office
4. The Big Chair
5. Strome Des Todes

Power electronics project from Russia which made their first recordings in 1991-92? Yes, you're reading everything right! Currents of Death, coming from Novokuznetsk (in southwestern Siberia), were the second Russian project of such kind (the first was Linija Mass, started by Alexander Lebedev-Frontov in mid-1980s), and their music was on par with the best Western PE projects of that time. They never released anything officially until late 2012 ("Cretodoh" was recorded during summer of 1993 at the Novokuznetsk-based "Level A" studio, but wasn't released back then; in 2003 it was released as a bootleg by St.Petersburg-based label Fight Muzik under a different name; and finally, a Moscow-based label Provoloka released it officially in 2012).

Download

Brandkommando - "Achtung! Achtung! Der Kommunismus Kommt!" [2005]

Artist: Brandkommando

Title: Achtung! Achtung! Der Kommunismus Kommt!

Genre: Power Electronics, Noise

Country: Poland
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. PPR
2. Banda Bieruta
3. O Co Walczymy?
4. 3x TAK!
5. Stalin. Antyhymn
6. Stalin. Wg. Piora A. Wazyka

Debut album of the Polish noise project which I mentioned in my previous entry. The track names suggest that it deals mainly with the early history of Polish People's Republic, namely the period of Boleslav Bierut's Stalinist government in late 40's - early 50's. This period is relatively poorly researched by historians, at least non-Polish ones - even the articles on B.Bierut in Engish and Russian wikipedias aren't very informative and hardly even mention his mysterious death in 1956. Brandkommando himself doesn't support any political ideology, and also doesn't try to glorify any of the regimes he write music about (unlike many other martial industrial and PE artists).

CC describes Brandkommando's manner of speech as "very laconic" (at least he left such an impression when they talked online about making a split). It's also worth noting that Brandkommando has nothing to do with far-right scene, even though one of his tracks has appeared on some stupid "white power electronics" compilation. Actually, it was included in there without his consent, and Brandkommando's own opinion on this like this is best reflected with his track "NS Idiots". Musically, this album is pure noise, even though the cover art would be more suitable for a martial industrial release.

Download