Saturday, January 9, 2016

Neutral - "When Angels Are Neutral" [1994]

Artist: Neutral
Title: When Angels Are Neutral
Genre: Aggro-Industrial
Country: Russia
Release date: 1994

Track List:
  1. Intro (For The Sacred Idea)
  2. Smile
  3. Neutral
  4. Extreme & Unreal (Meet You Now)
  5. When Angels Lie
Neutral is mostly known as a neofolk project led by a man nicknamed "Ash" and several guest members - one of the first in Russia, along with Romowe Rikoito and Moon Far Away. However, in its early days Neutral was a full band playing industrial metal/hardcore. After its breakup in 1995, Ash started a new  project under the same name, initially playing darkwave and completely turning to neofolk by the end of 1990s.

Ash decided to become a musician circa 1986 when he first heard some heavy metal - namely, Judas Priest and Ozzy Osbourne. Later, after listening to "Killing Technology" by Voivod (which motivated him to learn playing bass guitar), he decided to play technical thrash metal. Some tapes from that period still exist in his personal archive, but he refuses to release it to the public. After taking part in several short-lived projects, he joined Neutral in May 1994.

Frankly speaking, this demo doesn't offer anything interesting or original to anyone who has listened to a lot of 90s' aggro-industrial. However, it's one of two Ash's personal favourites from his early works (the second is the subsequent demo "The Dream That Destroys The Dreamer", and it's also one of the first industrial metal releases from Russia (if not the very first) - although I personally think it's based rather on hardcore than metal.

All the release notes are available on Discogs. This 2014 interview with Ash was a major source of information as well.

No comments:

Post a Comment