I think the fact many "open minded" metal labels started producing bands that are far from being metal overall is a great thing. I knew Beyond productions mainly for its "metal" (the word itself it's a bit generical, forgive me) rooster, but Tvmvlvs Seraphim together with Sostrath Tinnitus it's more post-industrial, dark-ambient. I think "Fortress ermetica" should be addressed to all those glorifying Cold Meat Industry and there's no doubt Tvmvlvs Seraphim sometimes it's right in-between dark-ambient and post-industrial. Some war-movies' samples and classical-lyrical (or gregorian) singing scratch the surface of the synth-magma. "Hidden war behind the door" and the title-track (judging from the song titles and from the artwork war outta be one of the authors' favorite subjects) evoke a dark pool made of drones borne out of synth, in "Fortress ermetica" you can even sense a melody growing underneath, it slowly changes vanishing into a gregorian chant outro. While "Decay of the hierophant" and "Europe after the rain" (the second version) keep on following the same dark ambient-apocalyptic thread, "The Burnt-out spa" refers to a more radical noise (power noisy!?) root or at least that's the impression you get from the mechanical drill that erupts all of a sudden in the middle of the scene. Without any doubt this release its far better than many recent releases on Cold Meat, "gut...gut!".

Coming in a nice styled digipack filled with some beautiful space photos we have this Czech music project which makes a musically addition to the currently available EBM or Dark Electro inspired label stuff of Monopolrecords. The music of this project is based on experimental electronics with a lot of improvisation talent. Some tracks are sounding a bit like "live" recordings and it seems to be a re-release because this stuff seems to be already 3 – 4 years old. The officially 4 tracks here (plus a hidden fifth track) are ranging between the styles Electronica, Trance and Powernoise without falling into any cliche. There are no further informations on this band given, no website or a contact address, so I am not sure if this is a regular band, or who’s standing behind it. One flaw is for sure the not very long running time of almost 38 minutes including the hidden track. Globally this project brings out some good ideas without creating something individual. Please make your contact out to Monopolrecords for more info on this.

Coming in a beautiful dark digipack, here we have the debut of H.E.E.L., a musically and visually side-project of Patrick Lev, one half of the soon to be giants DEPPRESSIVE DISORDER and Martin Pavlik. Compared to the main project, H.E.E.L. offers us a music far away from the Dark Electro/EBM inspired style, while not forgetting it. The music remains dark and scary and features some angst-driven voice samples. The mood here is based on Ambient/Electronica styled music, vocals are very sparse filled in here and almost distorted or revamped with vocoder effects. The whole musically concept leads me to some comparisons to old GRIDLOCK at their best times and to their label comrades of DISHARMONY from Slovakia. This is mind-blowing dark Industrial stuff reaching at times phrases taken out of the Powernoise/Industrial genre ("Heel"), Dark Electro ("Alien" or "Nerve"), Electronica ("Transmission") up to slow and monotonous Ambient stuff ("Convulsion"). Globally very thick and scary music stuff here which you should check out under a good pair of headphones. The visual part of this release was done and arranged by Tom Galle. It features a nice done data track "Hell for You" which includes several manipulated photos and graphic experiments plus a viewer program with which you are able to check out all of that stuff while listening to music. While I really dig the music content of this release (don’t listen to a track like "Alien" at night times – it can cause nightmares!!!) I am also thankfully to get an insight of the graphically ideas for what this project stands. Both, music and visual art, are marvelous produced. Excellent work, gentlemen!

This release follows Cria Cuervos appearance on the split sampler (together with Bio and The Beautiful Schizophonic) on the portuguese label Thisco. This new cdr is out on Mystery Sea and if you never heard about this label I think you'd better give a check to their full catalogue. I think this guy is on the right way to find his "personality" or at last that's my impression while listening his "concrete-isolationism" or maybe "field-droning" is better. Call it the way you want but the matter of "Leitfossilen" remains the same: no "melody" (just some distant drones completely absorbed by the audio "landscape"), every once in a while the scenario is randomly (not so "randomly" anyhow) crossed by new sound-sources kept in a constant and slow evolution. There's a great "bushido" (read "self-discipline") sensation carved inside these suites. Imagine Main gone "bad", or the isolationist answer to the "H.I.A.+Biosphere" project, and what if I say Thomas Koner and Eclipse caged in the ice of the arctic sea? This music somehow presents a constant duel between the composer's idea and the patience of the listeners and you can bet Eugenio Maggi should have had a lot of fun while trying to bring the listeners into a "desolated place". This record is far from the "music where something is happening all of a sudden" idea, elements are slowly and accurately combined like if it was a classical-piece. Koner once said: "My music becomes fully connected to my retirement from external life", I can't say if Cria Cuervos has the same opinion about his music, but that's the impression that "Leitfossilen" can give.

Crash Frequency is the name of a new community of bands out of Down Under, Australia. Force through unity, so could maybe the motto sound. It is target to help each out, sharing opportunities, organizing gigs, doing promotion – simply to speak with a mighty voice of a whole Electro/Industrial scene – no matter if and where the bands are signed or not. So this 10 tracks represented by the members of this community is a first mutual sign of life, I must say, a musically very diverse one. ANGELSPIT, opener on this comp and a driving force of this community start with a danceable, classic Industrial inspired track, distorted female vocals and some guitar riffs, comparable somehow with an act like MMTM. ANGEL THEORY is surely one of the most acclaimed and known act here, signed to Australia’s Ground Under Productions, and here present with a good remix done by New Zealand’s THE MERCY CAGE (signed now to DSBP) of their track "Ease the Pain". Next remarkable piece comes from THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT which combine beautiful female vocals with Electro and some Trip-Hop elements. Globally nice done and finally no wonder, that the Polish label Black Flames picked them up. Australia’s Gothic-Rock legend IKON is also available here and can satisfy with good vocals and a rich amount of electronics. LUX VOLTAIRE prove that there is enough humor in Down Under with a track name in German "Ich liebe mein Oberheim" – well, music seems to produced with synths of this manufacturer. Best track to me – obviously following trendy hypes like Futurepop – is the piece of RESURRECTION EVE, also signed to Ground Under Productions. Well worked out sequences, no minimal structures, good vocals made an easy to following track of this mentioned genre which deserves a wider recognition. Also TANKT offer a good and diverse piece with "Bush on Fire" – be sure that they do not referring on forest fire. Unfortunately this comp stops after 10 tracks and almost 49 minutes. I can see on the members list that there are a lot of more bands involved, and especially my personal favorite STARK is missed hard here. Anyhow, there are a lot of different music styles here and a nice proof of activity and life still to come from Down Under. Next releases in co-operation of this community are already in plans, look out for this comp as well as for new releases by ANGEL SPIT, TANKT, IKON or THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT.

Track listing:

1.ANGELSPIT – Head Kult (Head Fuck Mix)
2.ANGEL THEORY – Ease the Pain (Placebo Mix by THE MERCY CAGE)
3.THE BOM – Machine Men
4.THE CRYSTALLINE EFFECT – Why Do I Hate Myself?
5.DANDELION WINE – Begin Journey (Rejiggered)
6.DOMINO THEORY – Kill You
7.IKON – Psychic Vampire
8.LUX VOLTAIRE – Ich liebe mein Oberheim (Electrolux Mix)
9.RESURRECTION EVE – Wine
10.TANKT – Bush on Fire (John Von Ahlen’s Leather Mask Mix)