Another band the Ripple crew found exciting enough to review twice. Here's Odin's take.
A few months ago my brother and I were at a show and Dying Fetus was one of the bands on the bill. We were listening to all the people talking how they kick ass, rule, and various sorts of comments about how great Dying Fetus are. At one point we just looked at each other and laughed, because only at a metal show would you find people extolling the virtues of a dying fetus.
And then here we have NUNFUCKRITUAL, and wouldn’t you know, I’m going to spend some time telling you how great they are. Metal is so awesome!!
If you are looking for something to lift your spirits and soothe your soul, look elsewhere. Like now. This is some seriously bleak, filthy, raw, evil black metal. Listen to this a couple of times and you’re going to feel like you got dunked in a 55 gallon drum of putrefied remains, then dumped out and rolled through a room full of broken glass, and finally hosed down with battery acid.
This music is truly unrelenting in its corruption. It is absolutely some of best black metal I’ve heard in a while. Sometimes you hear bands that play black metal and you wonder if they are really into it. There is no doubt, when you listen to “In Bondage To The Serpent”, that these are guys are into it. They live it, they breathe it, and the end result is that you, the listener, feel it.
Each track clocks in at 6 minutes or more. They go together, they fit together, yet each track is unique and none of them sound like the others. That’s a huge point in this genre. The tracks stamp their individual marks of evil upon you and the cumulative effect makes you glad to be alive, if you’re into this shit.
NUNFUCKRITUAL have crafted an amazing album that does everything a black metal release should. The evil seeps from every note, every riff, and if you are not in league with Satan, then these 6 tracks tell you what you have to look forward to. And none of it sounds even remotely enjoyable. And that’s the point.
Around the Ripple office, Mrs Racer and I don’t often agree on music. A dance music fan, she’s one to lose herself in the repetitive, synthesized trance music that she loves but to me is just an annoyance that makes me to want to drive pencils through my eardrums.
Let’s face it, I’m a rocker, not a clubber. But, that don’t mean I don’t like to dance. Heck, I can boogie just as good as the blue wind-up robot on my desk. I just need something with some meat to it. Some drive, some crunch and muscle. And for that perfect combination of metal and maven, we have industrial.
Industrial fills that middle ground between me and the Mrs. A place where we can both feel the groove and embarrass ourselves in front of our kid. And with two industrial legends releasing new albums simultaneously, I thought now would be the perfect time to fire up our dangling crystal ball, hit the strobe lights and party at Ripple north.
Front Line Assembly – Improvised. Electronic. Device
One band that clearly falls into the category of “legendary” in industrial circles, is Front Line Assembly. Cranking out mind-boggling juggernauts of dance mayhem since the late ‘80’s, Improvised. Electronic. Device is just as explosive as the name hints. Roaring on like a super-charged Rammstein-megalith,FLA comes out of the smoke and haze with all guitars crunching and lays waste to all imitators in their path. FLA’s not getting older, they’re totally hyper-fueled.
“I.E.D.”” chugs along with a metallic, sonic fury that could easily be the blueprint for what Industrial Metal is supposed to sound be. “Release” is a guitar-heavy, cranium-shattering, darkwave assault of dancefloor theatrics. “Pressure Wave,” is about as feverishly punk as Industrial gets. But these killer cuts don’t mean FLA has totally embraced metal. “Shifting through the Lens,” is a synth-mad, pulsating rave, while “Hostage,” is a hyper club killer.
But one thing that FLA does so well is nuance. Bring in the ambient tones of the opening to “Angriff.” Bring in some bubbling bass, throbbing in a pre-sex rant. Let the tension build, the foreplay heat up, the sweat begin. Then finally layer in those massive, chugging guitars, crunching and pulverizing all subtlety. Vocals are dark and heavy, as ominous as a dance club for the Cylons. This is metal. Strob-light inducing, XTC ingesting metal.
Despite the mechanized nature of everything, the synths, programmed beats, effect-layered guitars, FLA manages to keep a warm human heart front and center throughout. Some industrial music is so dissonant, so cyborg-ly robotic that it’s off putting. Not here. Warm tones keep me drawn in. Breathy vocals remind us of the humanity behind this mechanized monster.
Nothing to fear here. FLA is back. And the world makes sense once again.
My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult – Sinister Whisperz – Volume One: The “Wax Trax” Years (1987-1991)
And in the other corner of legendary Industrial bands, we got My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. As the first in a series of retrospective compilations, The “Wax Trax” Years finds the dance legends revisiting their early industrial roots and breathing new life into the cuts with fresh remixes and sparkle.
And when it comes to industrial dance, few did it as well as the Thrill Kill Kult. Here we get some energized remixes of some classics like “And this is What the Devil Does,” “Burning Dirt,” “A Daisy Chain for Satan,” and “The Days of Swine and Roses.”
Ugly, brutal, lurid, and totally intoxicating. Plug this one in. Prepare thy ass to boogie.
Dark, heavy, and with a killer groove! That's the brand-spanking new album from New Zealand's Darklight Corporation. Equal parts industrial and thrash, Darklight blew the Ripple office into a frenzy of ugly white boy metal dancing! Could wait to share a beer with them on the Ripple couch. When I was a kid, growing up in a house with Cat Stevens, Neil Diamond, and Simon and Garfunkel, the first time I ever heard Kiss's "Detroit Rock City," it was a moment of musical epiphany. It was just so vicious, aggressive and mean. It changed the way I listened to music. I've had a few minor epiphany's since then, when you come across a band that just brings something new and revolutionary to your ears.
What have been your musical epiphany moments?
Well I grew up in a very musical house, we had a lot of classical mixed with the top40 music of the time like, Abba, Bay City rollers, Neil diamond etc. But when I had enough money to go and buy my own records I bought this compilation album called Heavy and I dropped it on the turntable and the first track was Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, and the hair just stood up on the back of my neck and I couldn’t stop playing it over and over, drove my parents crazy, but that was the pivotal moment in my life that I knew I wanted to devote my life to this music I was hearing. Like you say, there were other minor epiphany’s but that was The Moment and I will never forget it.
Talk to us about the song-writing process for you. What comes first, the idea? A riff? The lyrics? How does it all fall into place?
The guitar is my primary instrument so I pretty much come up with the riff first then throw down some drums so I can get a real feel for the song, if at that stage it doesn’t get me excited I will pass on it and try some thing else, I know pretty quick if I am onto something or its just dead in the water hahahaha. But I will pretty much get a full demo together of the song without vocals and take it to the rest of the band to get their input, then we record the music for real and Fabio takes it away and writes the lyrics and melody over the top of the finished music.
Seems kind of strange from a songwriters point of view but it definitely works for us. I think because I am more musically inclined I like the music to be able to stand on its own so if you heard the track without vocals you would still think, hey that’s pretty cool.
Where do you look for continuing inspiration? New ideas, new motivation?
Inspiration is a bit of a mysterious thing. Most of the time when I sit down to write music its just crap, and I’m going, man what are we gonna do, I think I have lost it. And you can go or weeks like that then one day you sit down and just pick up the guitar and this magic comes out without even thinking about it. It’s defiantly the joy of music, you can’t force it, it just happens.
As for motivation, I think once you tap into that magic there’s no going back, you are always looking for That Moment when it all comes together and you write something purely from your soul. And it’s all about the mood your in to what comes out, that’s why music is such a personal thing. I’m just after that moment where I go, Fuck yeah that’s cranking hahahaha.
Genre's are so misleading and such a way to pigeonhole bands. Without resorting to labels, how would you describe your music?
Yeah I don’t really mind when people try to pigeonhole us into some sort of genre, we are what we are and people only do it so they can see if they can identify with you or not. If we say we are a metal band some people go, I don’t like metal, but if they hear us they go, that’s pretty good for a metal band, hahaha. I think we will go with the Euphoric Metal tag for this question hahaha
What is your musical intention? What are you trying to express or get your audience to feel?
I think we would like our music to give the listener a real sense of excitement and escape and make them feel stoked at that moment in time. Like we do when we are playing it. We want our music to be explosive and exciting.
In songwriting, how do you bring the song together? What do you look for in terms of complexity? Simplicity? Time changes?
We try to keep it simple really, I think the more simple the idea is the more people get it. Too many ideas in one song are definitely a vibe killer. We really work on getting different parts of a song to mesh together organically and to keep it flowing.
The business of music is a brutal place. Changes in technology have made it easier than ever for bands to get their music out, but harder than ever to make a living? What are your plans to move the band forward? How do you stay motivated in this brutal business?
The changes in technology have been awesome for us as we self produce our music and we can do this to a very high level and compete with “studio” releases. If we had to spend $50000 on recording each album it would cripple us.
As for staying motivated, we do this cause we really love what we are doing and even if we are not successful we would still do it, it’s in our blood. We are self managed and self produced but we use professional companies when it comes down to business, In the US companies like Twisted Hillbilly Records, Blastzone Distribution and Rainmaker PR are all doing what they do best for our album release and this is the way of the future for indie bands I think. Do what you do best and make the music then delegate the other jobs to industry professionals who know how to get your music into the right places.
And I think it’s really important to connect with the people who like your band and really work on the fan/band relationship, do not take them for granted and treat them with the greatest respect.
Come on, share with us a couple of your great, Spinal Tap, rock and roll moments?
Live our drummer triggers samples from a laptop with a drumpad unit, and this had not been set properly and the vibrations from the PA were setting off samples in wrong places etc pretty bloody embarrassing at your first gig, but we sorted that problem out pretty quick hahahaha
Other than that the usual, pissing your pants onstage, dropping Fabio’s pants mid chorus and generally getting feral hahahahahaha
What makes a great song?
When you listen to a great song, nothing else matters and you get lost in that moment. It’s the ultimate escape and it can’t really be explained in words, it’s the emotional response that tells you.
Tell us about the first song you ever wrote?
Man I thought it was the best song ever hahahaha turns out it sucked, but it planted the seed and hopefully the songs have got better since then.
What piece of your music are particularly proud of?
I am really proud of some of the new songs we are doing, I think I am really developing as a guitarist and producer and I love the results we are getting.
As far as one song, I think it would be "One Man Revolution" off the debut album cause it really nails down what we are about and the Darklight sound.
Who today, writes great songs? Why?
There are a lot of great artists writing great songs and it’s easier to discover them now. Deftones, Beyonce, Muse, Disturbed, Massive Attack, Rammstien, Slipknot to me, all write great songs. A great song can’t be measured, or forgotten easily. There are so many great songs that never reach the mainstream, that’s the excitement of music you never know where you will discover a great song that resonates with you.
Vinyl, CD, or digital? What's your format of choice?
Vinyl is definitely the sexiest format for music, it just looks and feels fucking cool. But I don’t think it really works with most of the modern music made today, in our genre I don’t think it would have the same sonic impact that it does in digital. Cd is still the king when it comes to audio quality in the digital age. Mp3 is just shit really, but people still put up with it for some reason. We need to have a more audiophile format as the standard. Standard wav file or cd is my choice.
We, at the Ripple Effect, are constantly looking for new music. When we come to your town, what's the best record store to lose ourselves in?
In Wellington there are a few great record stores, Real Groovy would have to be the best. Big store with everything you would want and if they don’t have it they will get it. Loads of secondhand music too. Its real music lover’s paradise and you can spend hours in there listening to vinyl and cds.
Any final comments or thoughts you'd like to share with our readers, the waveriders?
Well a great big “good on ya” for actively discovering new music instead of just being feed it from the media. That’s the great thing about the internet, you can get out and explore and discover so much great music that you didn’t really have access to before.
You know, the undead like to dance just as much as the rest of us.
They just need something hideously special to get those gangrenous limbs and rigamortis-locked joints to move. Here it is, Darklight Corporation's stunning debut of horror-scope industrial speed metal.
Industrial speed metal may not sound like something you’d expect the ‘ol Racer to be digging right now. Those who know me know that I have a low tolerance for metal who's goal is to assault me like a bazooka blast to my temple. Rather than excite me, it has a bizarre paradoxical effect – it puts me to sleep. I mean mouth-open, drool-spilling-asleep. The louder and more bombastic in my face it is, the quicker I nod off.
Not the case with this tremor-inducing slab of depth-charge bass, grinding guitar, and non-stop beat that is the debut from New Zealanders, Darklight Corporation. Destroying all hardcore dancefloors with a combined assault of equal parts Rammstein, White Zombie, Metallica, enough melody to make it all hang together and some serious fucking groove. Sometimes the industrial grind of metal can get a little repetitive, but Darklight Corporation throw in enough twists and turns, maniacal choruses, and just flat-out-good songwriting to make the album a burner from start to end. Like some graveyard spawned combination of Helltrain's death-and-roll and Ministry. It's what Slayer would sound like if they were set up on a blind date with a zombie and decided to go clubbing. Imagine that, let your brain lock that down, then prepare yourself and put on the disc
“One Man’s Revolution,” kicks it right off the bat, battering my inner ear like a prize fighter going to town on an opponents face. Give me some crushing guitar that rages like two pieces of machinery scraping against each other. Tie it together with some percolating synth, bringing in the electronica flavor, and then hit me with that colon-shaking bass and groove. Oh yeah! I’m not a fan of larynx-shredding vocals, but they work here. Big time. Rough and sputum-filled, this is aggressive, angry, assailant dance music. Industrial madness. Electronica for the criminally insane.
Every track here pulverizes with the same homicidal intensity, aiming for full on listener-dancefloor-evisceration, but the standout tracks are so fucking good you don’t even mind that they're splitting your belly opening and stealing something vital. “Sweet Sickness,” starts off with some mutated guitar, quickly launching into that all-important groove. Adding enough space and time, melody and synths, to make the song stand out from the previous two tracks, it’s like a breath of fresh air. Granted its fresh air laced with the stench of the recent dead. And it could only be the dead who don’t dance to this song. More fucking infectious than the black plague. You just wanna get infected with this one. Never thought someone could come up with a chorus “Your presence makes me sick/I don’t believe your sickness,” that could become a crowd-chanter. But there I was, screaming the words right along with the band in my best (worst) throat-shredding vocals. Yeah, my wife left the room, but I didn’t care. I had my groove on.
“Lockdown,” is about as much a commercial metal song as you’ll ever find that has the lyrics “Eat my blood/eat my body.” Complete with a massive air-guitar riff and damn-singable chorus, this song will get even the most dead of the undead to crawl out of their earthen tombs and crawl off to the dancefloor. “Propaganda,” ups the ante with the most Rammstein-esque blitz on the album. Synths stutter and strut, guitars wail, scream, cry and howl. Dancebeats swirl in orgasmic frenzies. This intensity rages with fury all the way to the amalgam of electronica beats and slicing industrial guitar that is the closer “Ramrod 69.”
Darklight Corporation’s debut isn’t a pretty album. It’s one horrific, demented, seriously-in-need-of-therapy mess of rotting corpses and anger. It’s an album of life-pounding intensity, anguish, and ire. And it’s all served up hot and steaming with some of the best industrial beats I’ve heard in ages. Not for the faint of heart, but not one to miss either.
Now leave me alone, my zombie-bride dancing partner’s got her groove on and I ain’t missing it.
KMFDM is a band that needs little introduction. One of the few originators of Industrial Music still releasing tracks today, they’re nearly legendary in some circles. My own wall of CD’s is weighted down by a hefty KMFDM section, each one wrapped in their distinctive, striking artwork, and each one well-worn, well-played, and well-danced-to. Now go ahead and add Krieg to that list. An album of remixes from their last disc, Blitz, Krieg is an exploration through the throbbing hallways of electronic/industrial dance, blending in some serious crush of metal admist it’s incessant bop and beat.
Now, any album of remixes is always a dicey bag. Rarely does a mixer bring something new enough to a track to outshine the original, and often, depending upon tastes, can really muck the whole thing up. Simply adding a faster beat behind a track doesn’t make it better, it just makes it . . . faster. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Fortunately on Krieg, it works more often than it fails.
“Strut – Disco Balls Mix,” in particular is just a killer freak out of buzzsaw metallic guitar slicing through a non-stop, got-the-boogie-in-me dancefloor rave-up beat. Toss in the percolating synths and a dancing good feeling and this one’s got us bouncing off the Ripple walls. As ballsy as that mix is however, just wait until you hear what Tommy Victor of Prong lays down on “Bait and Switch – Sacred Cow Mix.” The Prong man brings all the metallic tendencies of the German noisemakers right to the front, including massive, verse ending harmonic runs, and keeps the industrial dance beat kicking and screaming. Anyone who’s ever wanted to know what truly danceable metal sounds like, here it is.
But don’t go thinking this whole disc is a rampant mirrored-ball metal terror. “People of the Lie – Requiem Mix,” is devastating in its slowed intent, haunting in its execution and mesmerizing in it’s result. “Never Say Never – Confessional Mix,” thumps and pounds at it’s mega-BPM rave pace, while the other mix of “People of the Lie – Crooked Illuion Mix” brings a late-night, post-XTC downtempo vibe to the party, without losing any of its hypnotic effect. “Davai – Bloody Fog Mix,” pounds with a German harshness sounding like something that could’ve been on the last Rammstein album.
Of course not all the mixes work to my taste, but that’s expected. I like the heavier ones, the more buzz saw slashes through the dance crowd versions, rather than the more straight-ahead trancey ones. Pop Will Eat Itself’s “Bitches – Pop Will Eat This Mix” is just too straight ahead techno to be of interest to me. But as part of the larger whole, it still works. This is an album of power and groove. Of pounding intensity and rhythm. KMFDM fans have nothing to fear here. People curious about the band have lots to discover.
Me, well, I’m done typing. I got me some dancing to do.
KMFDM is a band that needs little introduction. One of the few originators of Industrial Music still releasing tracks today, they’re nearly legendary in some circles. My own wall of CD’s is weighted down by a hefty KMFDM section, each one wrapped in their distinctive, striking artwork, and each one well-worn, well-played, and well-danced-to. Now go ahead and add Krieg to that list. An album of remixes from their last disc, Blitz, Krieg is an exploration through the throbbing hallways of electronic/industrial dance, blending in some serious crush of metal admist it’s incessant bop and beat. 
