Genocide Organ - :Leichenlinie: 1989/2009

Genocide Organ - :Leichenlinie: 1989/2009, (TESCO - TESCO80) 89%


Over 20 years since the original cassette issue of the most important release of German post-industrial noise and early power electronics - and 10 years after the first digital imprint, TESCO give :Leichenlinie: their distinctive workover. The hard-hitting glossed photographic image of a pile of bodies lying inert, lifeless on the white snow against the backdrop of a pine forest's edge in stark monochrome with a black border and solid white text on a black matt digipak platform represents perfectly the sounds housed within.

The electronic fodder is militant and assertive, grounded by the pounding and disorienting kick drum, leaving its captivating imprint indelibly stamped in our minds. There are warped vocals that hint at something of an appreciation of early proto-black metal, with none of the farce. And with songtitles such as opening invocation 'Ave Satani' this is further evidenced. Other songs such as 'Negros In Sky-Wars' and 'Stalins Orgeln' are monikered in such a way that the band's apparent right wing views come to the fore. I say apparent as the band never gave/give interviews - so forgive me if I'm wrong. Going back to the first track - 'Ave Satani' this is as close to the perfect black metal intro as you could possibly wish for and as the last rites are sounded, you are left firmly in the mood to be terrified. As the opening EVP-style tortured vocals and electronic distortion, coupled with the sort of bass-wobble in more leftfield dubstep today open 'Mind Control' there is nowhere to run - like rabbits caught in a stormtrooper's headlights you can but yield, frozen in awe as the Genocide Organ steamroller reaches hysteric levels of terror.

It is hard to think of a black metal band this terrifying and paradoxically guiltily alluring other than perhaps Abruptum at the peak of their powers. The samples include dictatorial speeches, tortured reminiscences of a special forces agent and each one fits like a white glove into the album's vision. Fifth track and more typically titled (for a power electronics release) 'Come Orgasm' is one of the most noise-drenched affairs, beginnning like a Sewer Election piece and although it builds up more structure than that might suggest, there is a noise aesthetic introduced with this track that is not so prominent elsewhere. The quieter, more sample-led verses such as 'Face Of Horror' are equally important as they give the mood changes neccessary to declare the album the masterpiece it undoubtedly is.

I can give no higher recommendation than to assure you that even now at 17:59 on a friday afternoon in May, I am genuinely unsettled listening to this for the third consecutive time.

Ramleh - Hole in the Heart

Ramleh - Hole in the Heart, 2010 (Dirter - DPROMCD73) 95%

Originally issued in analogue format on the legendary Broken Flag Records back in 1987, Ramleh's seminal, haunting power electronics meisterwork is finally available on CD thanks to Dirter Promotions. Indeed it's been quite a year for Ramleh lovers, with their first new album since 1997 - the bleak, unique Valediction on UK label/distro/shop Second Layer Records. For the uninitiated how to describe Ramleh? Well, forget conventional musical references and think of subaquatic half-heard melodies played through darkened tunnels occupied by the ghosts of a thousand prematurely dead sailors each emitting charges of pulsing electricity, captured in the form of EVP. Occasional vocals permeate the swirling sonic chaos, adding their own haunting fuzz to proceedings - working in perfect symbiosis with the incessant buzzing feedback.

The stark monochrome artwork is perfect and is reminiscent of the recent backdrop to the cinematic rendering of Cormac McCarthy's equally bleak, post-apocalyptic vision - The Road.
At times the impact of the vocals is almost like the Islamic prayers of a mosque filtered through a dense fog of evil static. I can guaranteed that even if this release is not to your taste, that if you track it down and give it your full attention, it will leave its imprint on you. It's an album that will not leave you, even if you wish it to. 2 discs so heavily charged with the voices of the dead that they practically levitate into your petrified CD player. The word essential has never been so apt.

NDE - Krieg Blut Ehre Asche

NDE - Krieg Blut Ehre Asche, 2009 (Cold Spring - CSR110) 74%

Like a solitary figure making his way through dense fog on a winter moor, NDE are shrouded in veritable smog of mystery. Two Belgians, no website, no details and a penchant for blending acidic black metal rasps with marching martial beats, ruthless death industrial monotony and crunching noise, one thing in however is visible in crystal clarity, NDE mean serious business. ‘Krieg…is disseminated into eight brutal parts, the pinnacle being the sixth, in which the digitally affected black metal shrieks duel with distant female operatic chants amidst a blizzard of evil noise until we are suitably cowered. Scene 1: Satan offers man immortality in exchange for an album that can be used to strike fear into mortal man. Scene 2: NDE enter studio. Scene 3: Krieg Blut Ehre Asche is laid down. Scene 4: The fucking end. No rulebooks have been torn up, no ground broken, but my speakers are wailing with the threat the world’s end.