The Electric Hellfire Club - "Electronomicon" [2002]

Artist: The Electric Hellfire Club

Title: Electronomicon

Genre: Industrial Metal

Country: USA
Year: 2002

Track List:

1. Into Thee Abyss
2. Wired in Blood
3. Sons of the Serpent
4. Hypochristian
5. Stockholm Syndrome
6. Whores of Babylon
7. Broken Goetia
8. I Dream of Demons
9. Nordland
10. Tannhäuser Gate
11. This is the Zodiac…
12. Hymn to the Fallen
13. Keys to the Kingdom

I found out about EHC long time ago after reading the infamous "Lords of Chaos" book, and they quickly became one of my all-time favourites on the industrial rock scene. While their early albums (including their best one "Calling Dr. Luv") aren't metal, this album definitely is, and it's much better than the previous one ("Witness the Millenium"). Just like all EHC albums, it's full of cultural references (Blade Runner, the Zodiac Killer etc.) and occult imagery that's too over the top to be taken seriously. According to the release notes, it was recorded at the Abyss Studios in Sweden (the first American band ever to do so) with producer/engineer Tommy Tägtgren and guest appearances by the members of well-known Scandinavian metal bands such as Hypocrisy, Dark Funeral and In Aeternum. Too bad it was the last album they've recorded, although the band still seems to be active.

There's a very good review of "Electronomicon" on metal-archives.com which deserves to be quoted extensively on here:

"Industrial metal is essentially divided into two categories: stupid bands that inadequately use samples for the sake of doing so, and intelligent groups that know what they’re doing with programming systems. The number of acts that mindlessly poop out electronic noises is measureless in number, yet only a few factions could be considered good at what they do...

...I’m actually a fan of The Electric Hellfire Club’s bizarre discography, and it’s quite interesting to experience the identity transformation they underwent during their decade of activity. The Electric Hellfire Club started out as an industrial gig during the early 1990’s before acquiring a metallic edge with the critically-acclaimed “Witness The Millennium” in 2000. The group’s anomalous theorem of industrial-laced heavy metal was certainly an absorbing metamorphosis, but The Electric Hellfire Club had no sign of stopping their special blend of electronic heaviness. In 2002, the futuristic faction had opened the metal aqueducts, and the unearthly liquid once again flowed into industrial streams on their final record entitled “Electronomicon.” Now this album might seem like an ordinary pseudo-Ministry plunder at first gaze, but it’s actually one of the best industrial metal albums ever made on several levels. It has everything that makes industrial metal fantastic: heavy riffs, crushing drums, strange vocals, amazing samples, trippy keyboards, and a unique atmosphere that only computerized effects could make.

Anyone looking for insight about “Electronomicon” can obtain a decent understanding of its ingredients by viewing the image on the record’s cover. The art is simply a demon with a normal half and a robotic half, but each hemisphere gives key indications about this CD’s sound. On the right side, we have the beast’s normal skin that clearly represents the metallic nature of The Electric Hellfire Club. Fantastic riffs and solos that are intact with traditional heavy metal are commonly used with a clear emphasis on crushing guitar distortion while great double bass hits and steady snare beats echo underneath the guitars...

...This disc isn’t just The Electric Hellfire Club’s finest hour, but a landmark release in industrial metal and how such diverse ideas can turn heavy music into something universally exclusive. A must have for fans of Ministry, Godflesh, or other industrial metal acts"

L'Acéphale - "Malefeasance" [2009]

Artist: L'Acéphale

Title: Malefeasance

Genre: Noise/Black Metal, Dark Ambient, Neofolk

Country: USA
Year: 2009

Track List:

1. Väinämöinen Nacht
2. Hitori Bon Odori
3. A Burned Village
4. From A Miserable Abode
5. Sleep Has His House

After a decade of waiting, the new full-length album by L'Acephale is finally out, and it's quite good (just as expected). Today, however, I'll post a much earlier release, recorded during 2001-2007 when L'Acephale was an one-man project of Set Sothis Nox La. While L'Acephale is primarily known as a black metal band (albeit a very unorthodox one), "Malefeasance" has little to do with black metal in terms of sound.

The only song that can be called black metal (with a healthy dose of noise, not unlike the tracks on "Mord & Totschlag" which was the debut demo by L'Acephale) is "A Burned Village" which is a cover of an obscure French band A.A.A./Sadastor. All the other tracks on "Malefeasance" are covers/remakes as well, and they delve much further into the industrial/noise territory. "Väinämöinen Nacht" is a dark ambient/drone piece based on Finnic folk chants by Veljo Tormis, and "Hitori Bon Odori" is a rather repetitive (yet not boring) instrumental acoustic track based on a song by a famous Japanese "acid folk" singer-songwriter Kazuki Tomokawa. (I've listened to Tomokawa's full discography, and while it's quite interesting and unusual stuff, it certainly requires a good knowledge of Japanese language and cultural context, not unlike the songs by Soviet/Russian singers-songwriters).

The second half of the album is significantly more noisy, with "From A Miserable Abode" (which is very loosely based on the song ‘Mi Peublo’ by Japanese doom metal band Corrupted) being a lengthy power electronics piece with black metal style shrieking vocals. You probably already have guessed that "Sleep Has His House" is based on an eponymous song by Current 93 which is performed in the same style as the previous track. Overall, "Malefeasance" is a highly experimental concept work which would rather appeal to industrial fans, but open-minded fans of black metal are going to find it interesting too. If you want to learn more about the concept behind this album and other works by L'Acephale, here's a lengthy interview with Set Sothis Nox La where he discusses his influences (from early 80's metal and punk to industrial and classical music) and his fascination with Georges Bataille's writing (where the name "Acephale" came from) in detail.

Schiz - "Voj Pyr" [2016]

Artist: Schiz

Title: Voj Pyr

Genre: Death Metal

Country: Russia (Komi)
Year: 2010

Track List:

1. Pemdöm
2. Kor loktöny najö
3. Antus
4. Us'ködchöm
5. Kulöm gizhöd
6. S'öd pytshkös
7. Jöktöm bipur doryn
8. Sin'töm yaj
9. Yuköm
10. Kyk dzhyn
11. Enlön chuzhöm
12. Yugdöm
13. Me tehnö lyja (bonus)

Schiz are a death metal trio formed in 2012 in a small village in the far north of Komi Republic, near Izhma (one of the few places where the Komi language is still spoken daily). Other than being probably the only metal band with lyrics in Komi (Vör's lyrics are in Russian), they're not partucularly original when it comes to music, but good to know that people from such a remote area are trying. "Voj Pyr" (which means "Through the forest" if I'm not mistaken) is their 5th album, so they're quite productive as well.

Download

Beati Mortui - "Let The Funeral Begin" [2010]

Artist: Beati Mortui

Title: Let The Funeral Begin

Genre: Dark Electro, Harsh EBM

Country: Finland
Year: 2010

Track List:

1. Painting...
2. Vision of Hell
3. Prey
4. Let the Funeral Begin
5. Deathrow (feat B. Kramm)
6. Sanctimonious
7. Soulreaper
8. All Is Good (The Demon)
9. Touch Me Not
10. Alone
11. Musta Surma
12. ...Obsequiae

Finland is primarily known for producing a lot of metal, not dark electro (unlike, say, Mexico), yet DE sounds great with lyrics in Finnish - just check out the track "Musta Surma" off this album. The rest of the tracks are in English, but it's still very high qualty "hellectro" with great fmale vocals (both clean and distorted). Unfortunately nothing new came out from Beati Mortui after 2010, apart from one song on some Finnish gothic compilation in 2014.

Dai Kaht - s/t [2017]

Artist: Dai Kaht

Title: Dai Kaht

Genre: Avant-Prog, Zeuhl

Country: Finland
Year: 2017

Track List:

1. Karaouh
2. Wakü
3. Helvet Sttröi
4. Gnyynlaggör
5. Addurrenn
6. Kadett Mozamï 
7. Advent
8. Doover Üouh

This new avant-prog band from Kajaani, Finland, proves that not only French and Japanese bands can produce good Zeuhl. Unfortunately most of the info about Dai Kaht is in Finnish, but here you can find a very lengthy and interesting English-language interview with their vocalist/bassist Atte Kemppainen, and here you can find some reviews.

Syncopated Silence - "Idem" [2010]

Artist: Syncopated Silence

Title: Idem

Genre: Avant-Prog, Zeuhl

Country: Russia
Year: 2010

Track List:

1. Bytovaya
2. Gusi
3. I Yo Mave
4. Se-Tu-A!!
5. Silence

A trio from Moscow that's closer to Zeuhl than any other Russian prog-rock band I've heard so far. I found out about them thanks to this video (unfortunately, this song isn't included in the EP):

...Well, Christian Vander should be proud of such followers :) On RYM, they're being described as brutal Zeuhl in the vein of Runaway Totem (not familiar with this band, perhaps another one to check out) and Koenjihyakkei:

"When drummer Olga Nosova starts singing, This trio from Moskow sometimes sounds like a stripped down version of Koenjihyakkei. Along with the interesting Fedor Fokin on guitar and Anton Kolosov on bass and various effects, the pieces have a more experimental character, without improvising too much. A mostly noisy brew with a penchant for Zeuhl"

Antillia - "Последний звездопад" [2013]

Artist: Antillia

Title: Последний звездопад

Genre: Power Metal

Country: Russia
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Шаман
2. Последний звездопад
3. La diosa fredda (Metal cover)

Antillia was started in 2009 by two members of Butterfly Temple (both of which are no longer in the band). Their style is fairly straightforward symphonic power metal, but even if you think you've grown out of such music and already have heard it all, I still would recommend this EP since it features surprisingly good songwriting, and powerful female vocals by Elena Belova. I personally like this one more than their full-length album that came out in 2015.

Download

Avercage - "Hyperpolis" [2012]

Artist: Avercage

Title: Hyperpolis

Genre: Prog/Power Metal, Alternative Rock

Country: Russia
Year: 2012

Track List:

1. Hyperpolis
2. Ultra Sonic
3. Fjordborn
4. Jinna
5. In My Dream
6. Wind Against

Another band which I was initially sceptical of because their genre description contained "Russian Alternative", but turned out better than I expected. While their later EPs are indeed close to alternative rock than to anything else, this debut album is pretty interesting progressive/power metal with beautiful female vocals. The band themselves describe their style as a mix of "Nordic severity, southern ardor, oriental depth and western energy".

Mezolit - "m13" [2012]

Artist: Mezolit

Title: m13

Genre: Alternative Metal, Metalcore

Country: Russia
Year: 2012

Track List:

1. Intro
2. История
3. Дай мне день
4. На краю земли
5. m13
6. Дотла
7. Помоги мне
8. Падаем
9. Нас больше нет
10. В моих руках
11. Outro
12. На краю земли (acoustic)
13. Падаем (acoustic)
14. Море (2016)
15. И вспыхнет пламя (2016)

I usually avoid listening to anything that has "Russian alternative" in the genre description, because it's more than likely to be another poor Linkin Park clone for teenagers. However, I checked out this band solely because of the name, and wasn't disappointed. "M13" turned out to be alternative metal / melodic metalcore of the variety that was very popular during the first half of 2010s, with dual male and female vocals. The female vocals, performed by Polina Sitnikova, are predominant, and they're quite good. The quality of production is a bit poor by 2010s' standards, but still okay.

No idea if the band is still active by now, when this sort of melodic metalcore is largey out of style. The last news from them were from 2016, when they recorded two new tracks which were much better produced than the early ones, and in my opinion are the best out of all they have recorded. I decided to include them too:

Download

V/A - "Metalstorm (The First Georgian Metal Compilation)" [1998]

Title: Metalstorm (The First Georgian Metal Compilation)

Genre: Metal

Country: Georgia
Year: 1998

Track List:

1. Mzime Jvari - Heavy Cross
2. Mzime Jvari - Dream in Reality
3. Tattooed Monk - Tattooed Monk
4. Tattooed Monk - Nightmare Lullabye
5. Blackends - Planet D'Earth
6. Blackends - Handful of Blood
7. Last Supper - Red Snow
8. Last Supper - Hope
9. Sadizm - Genocide
10. Sadizm - Nothing Come Through
11. Pergamo - Through the Soulfrosted Infernal Flame
12. Pergamo - Insanity Is the Cemetery of My Rolling Dreams

Another highly interesting find on YouTube: the very first compilation of Georgian metal, released on cassette in 1998. All the bands featured on there, except for Mzime Jvari, have never released anything else, so it's extremely rare stuff. The quality of recording is surprisingly decent, given that it was made in a country which suffered from rampant poverty during the 1990s, and where the public attitude towards metal was very hostile. Here you can read an interview with a former member of Pergamo (and some other Georgian black metal bands) and get some idea of how difficult it was to be a metal musician (or even just a man with long hair) in Georgia back then. Now the situation is apparently much more relaxed, and while Georgia remains a non-metal country as a while, Tbilisi has a more active metal scene than any other place in the Caucasus (which isn't saying much, though). Hopefully I'll visit Georgia soon and get some first-hand experience.

Stylistically, "Metalstorm" is quite varied: Mzime Jvari (aka მძიმე ჯვარი, "Heavy Cross") and Tattooed Monk play traditional heavy metal, Blackends play thrash metal, Last Supper - doom metal, Sadizm - death/grind, and Pergamo - black metal. You can listen to the whole thing on YouTube:

Playlist

Ambersmoke - "Une femme est une femme" [2013]

Artist: Ambersmoke

Title: Une femme est une femme

Genre: Post-Rock/Punk/Black Metal, Noise Rock

Country: USA
Year: 2013

Track List:

1. Longing
2. Girls In Merzbow Shirts
3. Making Suicide Pacts With Britty Drake
4. Iridescent Memories
5. Cat Burial
6. Beautiful Hands
7. Rune
8. Everything, Forever.

All I know about Ambersmoke is this description from YouTube:

Ambersmoke is an independent, one man project that utilizes gloominess and slow pacing. The music is not very heavy at all, even with vocals. The first song, Longing, is probably the heaviest on the album. The music is meant to be more introspective than loud or abrasive and most of the lyrics are samples taken from movies or whatever else. Not sure what most of them are from but the one used in Suicide Pacts is an excerpt from The Perks of Being a Wallflower, which to me seems really arbitrary but, I don’t know, maybe it struck a chord with the artist. Unfortunately, Ambersmoke has become pretty bitter of late and announced that he refuses to play live shows now because people aren’t taking his music seriously.

 "Une femme est une femme" is his debut full-length release, and it turned out to be surprisingly pleasant guitar noise rooted in post-rock and post-punk, even with some hints of atmospheric black metal. Yes, I know this kind of music is listened mostly by hipsters, but who cares?..

Unfortunately, this album (along with some other early releases by Ambersmoke) was deleted from Bandcamp, so I have to post a YouTube stream instead:

Nevermore - "Dreaming Neon Black" [1999]

Artist: Nevermore

Title: Dreaming Neon Black

Genre: Progressive Metal

Country: USA
Year: 1999

Track List:

1. Ophidian
2. Beyond Within
3. The Death Of Passion
4. I Am The Dog
5. Dreaming Neon Black
6. Deconstruction
7. The Fault Of The Flesh
8. The Lotus Eaters
9. Poison Godmachine
10. All Play Dead
11. Cenotaph
12. No More Will 
13. Forever

I can't believe I haven't posted this album on here yet (although I did mention it in my review of "Omnio" by In The Woods). "Dreaming Neon Black" is included in many lists of best metal albums of all times, and for a good reason. This album was reviewed by other people many times before, so I don't have much to add, except to say it's my favourite album in the whole discography of Nevermore (all the other albums didn't impress me much). Tracks like "Beyond Within", "Cenotaph" and "Dreaming Neon Black" are true masterpieces, and the rest of the album doesn't lack in quality either.

Some people categorize this album as technical thrash metal, some - as groove metal and even speed/power metal (no idea why), but as for me, it's quite similar in atmosphere (if not sound) to the best death/doom metal albums released during 1990s, as well as the stuff from early Agalloch or the aforementioned "Omnio" by In The Woods. What else to say? "Dreaming Neon Black" is more depressive than most DSBM albums, and more complex than quite a lot of progressive metal albums (and it requires quite a few re-listens to get into). Since I'm not really interested in dealing with DMCA complaints after posting albums released on bigger labels like Century Media, and since the download links for such well-known albums are easy to find elsewhere, it'd be enough to post a YouTube video:

P.S. RIP Warrel Dane, one of the best and original vocalists and one of the greatest songwriters in the history of metal...

Behold... the Arctopus - "Nano Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning" [2006]

Artist: Behold... the Arctopus

Title: Nano Nucleonic Cyborg Summoning

Genre: Avant-garde / Technical Death Metal

Country: USA
Year: 2006

Track List:

1. Exospacial Psionic Aura
2. Estrogen/Pathogen Exchange Program
3. Sensory Amusia
4. Alcoholocaust
5. You Will Be Reincarnated As An Imperial Attack Space Turtle + live tracks

Another band that's definitely not like most other metal bands, whose sound once was described as "Metal in Opposition" as a reference to Rock in Opposition. Their later releases like "Horrorscension" were completely trashed by critics for being unnecessarily complex and technical, and while I agree that this kind of music is more interesting to play than to listen to, I like BtA's early stuff like this EP (the 2006 edition also contains two songs from their 2003 demo and some live tracks). As it was described in the Bandcamp comments: "Like looking into the eyes of Cthulu, this album cannot be described. Even trying to will melt your brain. Insane". Now combine it with the track names like "You Will Be Reincarnated As An Imperial Attack Spaceturtle":

Assacre - "Fantastic Illusions Worth Dying For" [2005]

Artist: Assacre

Title: Fantastic Illusions Worth Dying For

Genre: Avant-garde Death Metal / Noise

Country: USA
Year: 2005

Track List:

1. Fantastic Illusions Worth Dying For
2. Satyriasis De Minimis
3. Gayer Than God
4. Kalos K'agathos Gorgos
5. Cyclops Genesis
6. I Have Fifteen Legs
7. Thy Crystal Obelisk Shall Ascend Into Stormclouds of Mechanical Mystery
8. The Ultimate Value of Human Life

One of the things I find the most annoying about the (English-speaking) metal fans is their constant use of the word "gay" as an insult against everything they deem not cool enough for them. "Listening to deathcore is so gay", "Cradle of Filth is gay shit for faggots", etc., etc. Not even trying to be politically correct here, just saying that Seth Putnam wasn't even exaggerating that much in his parodies. Moreover, the aesthetics of heavy metal were extremely homoerotic from the very beginning, thanks to Rob Halford who was very much into half-naked men in spiked leather. However, he didn't came out as gay until 1998, and I don't think there were any openly gay metal bands until 2003, when Ben Aqua started Assacre. Since I already have posted on here about a band that's literally named The Homosexuals, the one and only full-length album by Assacre won't seem out of place here either.

In terms of sound, "Fantastic Illusions Worth Dying For" is... well, quite queer. While it definitely can be categorized as "melodic death/thrash metal" (per Metal-Archives), the riffs sound very mechanical, more resembling of industrial metal, and the extensive use of samples adds more to that feeling. Some of the tracks are quite noisy, i.e. "Kalos K'agathos Gorgos" which doesn't sound like metal at all and even borders on breakcore at times. Overall, the whole thing sounds as if God Is My Co-Pilot started playing death metal, and does manage to be really original, even leaving aside the sexual orientation of the man behind the project. By the way, he actively performed live around the time when this album was recorded, and some of his performances were quite wild:

By now, that man in a dinosaur mask doesn't release any new music, yet, he's still active on Facebook where he posts lots of weird stuff in ALL CAPS:

"NOTHING IS REAL" SAID THE COLD GENTLE CYBORG TO THE WARM WEAK HUMAN WHO CONTINUOUSLY OBSESSED OVER VILE POINTLESS PRE-CONCEIVED FOCUS GROUP-CRAFTED EMPTY FANTASTICAL NOTIONS OF "REALITY"

WHAT IS "GAYER" THAN "LIFE" ITSELF?? "GODS" ARE CREATED CONCEPTS AND CAN BE DESTROYED BY THY SAME HANDS THAT FEEEEEED

 As for "Fantastic Illusions Worth Dying For", now you can chack out that atrocity on Bandcamp:

Black Ash - "PIDØR" [2018]

Artist: Black Ash

Title: PIDØR

Genre: Darkwave, Industrial Rock

Country: Russia
Year: 2018

Track List:

1. Anima
2. PIDØR
3. No Drugs No Illusions
4. 2024
5. Where Are Your Children
6. Tell Me Your Story

Who would listen to a release which name literally means "Faggot"? Well, I did, and it turned out to be not bad at all. Actually, "PIDØR" was a name of a craft beer brand produced by some Russian immigrant in Norway initially as a joke:

The combination of an infamous homophobic slur with the slogan "You are what you drink" turned out to be surprisingly successful, although the author decided to close the project before the joke becomes stale. As for this EP, I decided to give it a listen because of the name, but it turned out to be at least as interesting as "Inside the Monolith" by TTMTD.

It's described by the band as "our new and completely spontaneuos release recorded by three completely different people in one room during a single week; we don't known if it's a manifesto or a parable, all we know that it's PIDØR". Those "three completely different people" are Gleb Filonskiy (vocal, bass, programming), Anton 'Dirge' Moiseev (synths, programming) and Roman Yurtaev (guitars). Black Ash was founded as a solo project in 2012 by Gleb Filonskiy in Volgograd, and now they're a full band based in St. Petersburg: