After their debut 7" and their track on the "Hoera! Een Hex voor thuis!" album compilation here comes the AGENT SIDE GRINDER debut vinyl album. The platter opens with the two tracks released on the 7" but here presented in a different version. The first unreleased track we find is "Voice of your noise", an obsessive track which pair a rumbling bass guitar with background industrial noises and desperate vocals. No drum. "Lashes of flashes" is less "destructive". On this one the Swedish duo bring to the attention of the listener an hypnotic retro experimental electronic tune. "The leading role", instead mix Suicide with Soft Cell, while "Brave new age" leads the audience through six minutes of slow electronic melancholy. A track which sounds good for a noir movie. "String strikes" is the one I prefer and on this one Agent Side Grinder sound like an electronic version of Gang Of Four/Pere Ubu on acid. This tune is the most melodic of the lot but it has a lot of tribal percussions along with catchy synth lines. Also "Container baby traffic blues" is less experimental, melodically speaking, but it has always that tormented vocals/attitude which fast became the band's peculiarity. The album closes with "Remnants of my sight", a track which reminds me of the less depressed Joy Division. I'm glad to notice that the duo didn't stick on their initial Cabaret Voltaire approach and proposed on this album a wider collection of songs which explore electronic experimentation as well as something more melodic.

First issued by War Office Propaganda in 2005 into a 200 limited edition CD-r, REPORT was the second full length by Cold Fusion. The eight tracks of the album are a good example of well mixed elements of industrial/martial music with a deep fascination on militaristic rhythms/samples. Even if the tracks haven't a real title (we have "Report part I" to "Report part VIII") they are capable of creating tense and hypnotic atmospheres: like mantras, the looped samples and the rumbling percussions are crying out loud their was stories. It isn't simple to create such atmospheres uniquely with samples, percussions and few melodic lines but Marcin with REPORT succeeded into creating a good example of industrial music which is sounding so human by creating a sound scenario which shows so well the worst part of human race.

After a line-up change (Iván Muñoz is now the only one left who's helped out on live gigs by Lucía Ponticas - Keyboards and Daniel Duarte - Guitars) Vigilante are back with their second full length. The eleven new tracks have enhanced the crossover with the modern industrial metal genre and if tracks like the opening "Fair flight", "Fire" or "Victims" are still referring to the old industrial metal e.b.m. because of the way the sequencer is used, tracks like "Get in the ring" and "Black day" sound respectively influenced by Fear Factory and Korn. Refreshing a solid genre based on heavy rhythms and sounds isn't that easy and trying to do something new is a good thing but, as usual, everything depends on the response of the lovers of the genre. Anyway, the album sounds solid even if it doesn't contain impressive songs that will become classics. It contains some good ones that you'll spin more than others but there isn't a re-visitation of the industrial metal e.b.m. genre. For the lovers of remixes, the first press of 1000 copies has a free CD containing remixes of "Fair fight", "Fire", "Forever" and "The other side" for a total of twelve tracks (thanks to Reikka RPM, Dreamside, Lamia, Sophya, Amateur God, Deadcell, etc.). If you won't hurry you'll be able to enjoy the "Fire" video of CD1.

Sect is a new Polish act and GREAT DESIRED UTOPIA is its first official full length. In balance between industrial clanging sounds and martial percussions the album is divided into two major sections: "Great desired utopia" (with 11 tracks) and "Machine's amok" (4 tracks). The first part is the most influenced by industrial music while on the second one we have also some dilated ambient parts with synth pads and choirs along with the treated percussions. On both the sections of the album there's a social common path which deals with the fall of a civilization. At first there's the rise of the armies ("Thy legions come", "Here is no salvation", "Armament race part I ( Doctrine in practice ), "Armament Race Part II ( Prepare For Self destruction )), then there's a pause where people tries to re-build their cities and their lives ("Breath", "Reconstruction of human nature") just to realize that there was something else that was going on ("Last Command", " Dusk", "I ( slaves constitution)", "Never Ending War") and that they should fight against it ("They dying for idea"). On the second part the titles let us imagine a different scenario, where the war is over and we find an apocalyptic sci-fi society ruled by machines ("Product", "Machine's amok", "All that ages" and "This is not the end"). This is my personal "version" which I deduced from the titles and from the general album ambience since the tracks have no lyrics.

After a first introducing compilation release, we like to welcome the North-Eastern US-based label Radio-Active-Music on top of the scene. It’s not at all the label business in which kind they work, they’re also active as promoters, distributors and gig organizers around the VA/D.C./MD-area. Several more or lesser known have found in them a reliable partner to reach some more exposure. Same has happened with this release by the Milwaukee-based duo of CYNERGY 67, who play a sort of Electro/Metal-Crossover music, very much following the lectures of the Coldwave-movement. 16 VOLT, IDIOT STARE or CHEMLAB are surely the outstanding names for this genre and in this direction also CYNERGY 67 can be sorted in, while they still leave some space for development in all terms of production. The tunes of CYNERGY 67 seem to be generally more dedicated to the Metal-genre, some "real" basses and hand-played drums instead of the use of a drum computer are rather witnesses of a more organic sound. The Electronica-elements got reduced and placed mostly in the background of the mix, with the one exception of the track "Escape The Violence", which fulfills any need for some dancefloor action of the Alternative-minded audience. Since this EP seems to be the debut for this duo, it comes out quite satisfying. A refreshing of the used sounds and a stronger dedication to offer something different, which can be more easier recognized as an own signature stands still on their "to-do-list", but this can be delayed until they return with new full-length album.