March Of Heroes / Phragments / Across The Rubicon - "Scontrum Act VIII" [2008]

Artist: March Of Heroes / Phragments / Across The Rubicon

Title: Scontrum Act VIII

Genre: Martial Industrial

Country: France / Slovakia / Poland
Year: 2008

Track List:

1. March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 1
2. March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 2
3. March Of Heroes - Stalingrad... Our Last Hope Act 3
4. Phragments - Utopia
5. Phragments - Eruption
6. Phragments - Tragedy
7. Across The Rubicon - A Soldier
8. Across The Rubicon - Survivors
9. Across The Rubicon - A Ghost

"Scontrum Act VIII" is the 8th installation in the "Scontrum" series of (mostly) 3-way splits released by a Poland-based label War Office Propaganda. This particular split features March Of Heroes, Phragments and Across The Rubicon - from France, Slovakia and Poland respectively. "Act VIII" stands out of other martial industrial compilations because its participants aren't only making good music but also certainly aren't Nazi Germany sympathizers which are too commonly found in martial industrial and neofolk scene. Well, at least March of Heroes and Phragment certainly aren't. I don't know much about Across the Rubicon, but their part of the split is the most interesting music wise. As for the download link, try this Chinese site (it isn't hard to locate the download button there ;))

Electric Uranus & X-NAVI:ET - "Voices Of The Cosmos II" [2013]

Artist: Electric Uranus & X-NAVI:ET

Title: Voices of the Cosmos II

Genre: Dark Ambient, Noise

Country: Poland
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Northern Lights
2. Geomagnetic Storm I
3. Solar Wind
4. Geomagnetic Storm II
5. PSR B1933+16
6. In Aurora Point
7. Solar Activity
8. White Dwarf B
9. Silver Star

"This Dark Ambient album features original extraterrestrial sounds captured from space by radio-telescopes. "Voices of the Cosmos II" is the continuation of the previous album. In this case the radio signals, related to the activity of the Sun, became the main source of inspiration. The record was created during the 2013 solar maximum (activity cycle no. 24).  In the compositions, a whole range of signals, accompanying the aurora borealis can be heard. They originate in the bombarding of the Earth’s magnetosphere with charged solar wind particles. While listening to these pieces they fully realise the permanent interaction between the Sun and the Earth. The project was partially financed by the Scholarship of the Grudziadz City in the sphere of the Culture and Art. 6-panel digipak"

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Electric Uranus & X-NAVI:ET - "Voices Of The Cosmos" [2011]

Artist: Electric Uranus & X-NAVI:ET

Title: Voices of the Cosmos

Genre: Dark Ambient, Noise

Country: Poland
Year: 2011

Track List:

1. Start (Mercury-Atlas 7)
2. PSR 0950+08 (Close Encounter With An Alien Ghost)
3. The Astrophysics (1952-1960)
4. PSR 0833-45 (Vela Pulsar)
5. Pulse 5, 6, 7 And 8 (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus And Neptune)
6. PSR 0950+08 (X-Ray Emission)

"VOICES OF THE COSMOS is a duo of Rafał Iwański a.k.a. X-NAVI:ET and Wojciech Zięba a.k.a. ELECTRIC URANUS.

Astronomical consultation: Sebastian Soberski.
Sound sources/instruments: radio telescope sounds of aurora and magnetosphere + analog synthesizers, digital drummer, effects.

Performed & recorded in Planetarium and Astronomical Observatory in Grudziądz, Poland, May 8, 2013. Edited & mixed in June 2013.
Mastered by Łukasz Miernik"

Most people know Wojciech Zięba as a member of a martial industrial project Krepulec, but his works as "Electric Uranus" are worth checking out too. This particular collaboration is unique due to its "scientific" approach to the music, although one might compare it to Bad Sector and other science-themed space ambient/noise projects. Wish I had been listening to this album while studying radiolocation in my university (we've studied radio astronomy and ionosphere physics there too). Alas, it was a few years before the release of this album, so I was listening to "Cosmic Genesis" and "Visions from the Spiral Generator" by Vintersong instead.

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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.

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Zaraza - "Slavic Blasphemy" [1997]

Artist: Zaraza

Title: Slavic Blasphemy

Genre: Industrial Death/Doom Metal

Country: Poland/Canada
Year: 1997

Track List:

1. Zakazany
2. Every Day is a Funeral
3. Necessary
4. Cell of Skin
5. Zaraza

Like in case with Demilich, this Polish/Canadian band has managed to record one of the most interesting yet underrated experimental releases of the 90s. Zaraza was started in 1993 in Montreal by Jacek "Doomhammer", a newly arrived Polish immigrant, and Grzegorz "Haus ov Doom", a local industrial artist which has Polish roots too. They've released 2 CDs before disbanding in 2005; now all their music is officially available for free and highly valued among the collectors of early industrial metal. The band's name means "plague" in Polish (to a Russian-speaker this word sounds rather funny than scary, though).

The band members describe their style as "born out somewhere in the void between SWANS, old Laibach, Winter, Unholy, Skin Chamber, Napalm Death, Godflesh, etc." I'd say "Slavic Blasphemy" reminded me of "The Machine" by Dead World - albeit not quite as dark and misanthropic, but less repetitive and with higher level of songwriting. According to the legend, after the release of "Slavic Blasphemy" the members of Zaraza were unable to eat due to spending all their available money on recording. No idea if it's true or not, but the album is well-produced by the standards of its time, and certainly worth listening to.

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Cruentus (PL) - "Event Horizon" [2003]

Artist: Cruentus

Title: Event Horizon

Genre: Industrial Black Metal

Country: Poland
Year: 2003

Track List:

1. Industrial Beat Machinery
2. Absolute Dominium
3. In The Name Of Lust
4. Universal Dementia
5. Pale Textures Of Reality
6. Silicon Dreams
7. Paranomia
8. Digital Glow
9. Synthetic Voices Of Wonder
10. Juxtaposing The Patchworks
11. Dread Rock (Archetype Energii)

There are at least 4 bands under the name Cruentus, and this one is from Poland. Aesthetically, they got everything right, but musically... well, it isn't bad, but there certainly is a lot of better industrial black metal releases. However, the band obviously had a lot of potential - too bad their second release ("Terminal Code") turned out to be exactly the kind of "modern metal" I dislike. The quality of production on "Terminal Code" is much better than on this album, but that's all. However, if you like Mnemic, Sybreed, and later albums of Fear Factory, you might find "Terminal Code" interesting too.

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At The Lake - s/t EP [2006]

Artist: At The Lake

Title: At The Lake

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Poland
Year: 2006

Track List:

1. Wolf's Heart
2. Silvae
3. Last Drop of the Waterfall
4. Decision
5. White Angels
6. Arrow of Oblivion

 This EP features pretty much the same tracks that appeared on the first demo by At The Lake (with addition of two new ones), but the quality of production is completely different. Of course this EP is much more "professional" than the demo, but, like in case with Deafknife, I find the "rough" demo versions of these songs more appealing to me. The EP is still remarkable and definitely recommended to any fan of female-fronted metal (and for those who are searching for metal songs with lyrics in Latin language - the track "Silvae" is for you!). Unfortunately, At The Lake never released anything else like this (they have a full-length album called "Māÿā", released in 2012, but it turned out to be a big disappointment for me)...

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At The Lake - "Silvae" [2005]

Artist: At The Lake

Title: Silvae

Genre: Symphonic Metal

Country: Poland
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. Decision
2. Wolf's Heart
3. White Angels
4. Silvae

Very interesting demo from an young Polish band, released in 2005. Their sound isn't typical for gothic/female fronted metal, with a lot of folk elements and active use of violin. The 4 tracks on this demo are among the catchiest melodic metal songs I've ever heard, and even the vocalist's heavy accent makes them only better. Highly recommended, especially for those who are looking for good but lesser known bands in this genre!

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Merkabah - "Lyonesse" [2011]

 Artist: Merkabah

Title: Lyonesse

Genre: Post-Metal/Sludge, "Jazzcore"

Country: Poland

Release date: 2011

Track List:

1. Narwhals
2. Deconstruction Mass
3. Occultation

First I read about this Polish band in one of the blogs dedicated mostly to RIO and related genres. Their LP "A Lament For The Lamb" didn't leave me disappointed - 6 pieces of heavy, gloomy "jazzcore" (as they call it). You can download the whole LP from last.fm (the bitrate is low, though). As for "Lyonesse" - it's a live EP released in 2011 and officially available for free download. Not as heavy as "A Lament...", but still as awesome.

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Cracked Core & Brandkommando - "The Root Causes of Social Dysfunction" [2011]

Artist: Cracked Core + Brandkommando
Title: The Root Causes of Social Dysfunction
Label: Mental Excitement
Genre: Industrial / Noise / Power Electronics
Country: Russia / Poland
Release date: 2011

Track List:

1. Bioconverter
2. Ma$$ Media
3. Under Pressure
4. Social Phobia
5. TV Noise

This product of collaboration between two experimental/industrial musicians - Cracked Core (Russia) and Brandkommando (Poland) - is one of the most interesting noise/PE albums of the last year, and the first release I'll post here in this year. AFAIK Brandkommando is known for his laconic manner of speech, so I'll follow his example and be brief: it's very noisy release. Much more noisy than any of the solo works by Cracked Core.

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