ZWIELICHT is without a shadow of a doubt a celebrative release. It contains one CD with twelve remixes of L'Ame Immortelle's classics remixed by well known industrial electronic bands. Bands like: The Protagonist (with a classical version of "Erinnerung"), Janus (which does a good electro goth version of "Epitaph"), Yendri (which remixed "Licht Und Schatten", confirming that she's one of the best electronic German band), Ms Gentur (which rape "Voiceless") just to name few. The package, along with two posters, contains also one video CD (which has got a less video quality than a DVD but it's nice as a gift for the fans of the band) with fiftyfive minutes of interviews and a concert. I never hid the fact that I don't like that much this band, but this double feature it's a good release and not only for the hard fans of the band.

As I was thinking by listening to their first release "The Fall E.P.", this first Cesium 137's album is a killer one. The seven new tracks (seven new ones, because there's also "The Fall" as opening track and two remixed version of "Effigy", remixed by J. Singer and Lost Signal) are the sum of all the 80's ebm music and by listening to this album you'll have forty nine minutes of electronic music that won't loose its bite. I mean, each track has got catchy sounds and rhythms and during the listening I've got the feeling that someone is chasing me and this keeps me wanting for some more. You know what this means, don't you? It means that this music has guts and energy and because of ADVANCED/DECAY Cesium 137 will gather a lot of consideration within the electronic scene.

This is the best Hocico's album to date. SIGNOS DE ABERRACION contains all the elements that made of the band a successful one into the ebm realm but this time the two cousins fixed the right things (they also bought new gears).
The album has got more melodies, more catchy sounds and one hundred percent more compression/power. Don't expect nothing revolutionary, we are always talking about ebm, you know, but the eleven tracks are really pumping and the distorted vocals are well mixed and you can also understand the lyrics (I'm not joking... you know, when you've got a lot of distorted or compressed sounds it's difficult to have a good mix). The instrumental tracks "Pandemonium", "Child's Eternity", "Un Alma Y El Vacio" and the final "Callate El Hocico" aren't a blast but they're functional because they keep the audience waiting for the explosive ones. Of the album there's also a boxed version that along with some merchandising contains a bonus mcd "Silent Wrath" with the following tracks: "Silent Wrath", "Final resource (therapy version)", "Poltergeist (slave version)" and "Instantes de perfección".

Two projects (if I'm not wrong, from the same person) splitting this cd on the French label Divine Comedy (which has also issued H.I.V.+, A Challenge of Honour and Othil – see archive for past reviews). S.A.T.K.A start off with a dark ambient noise track, then switch to rhythmic industrial electronics - really repetitive beats, which reminded me of Esplendor Geométrico or their label-mates H.I.V.+ - then back to a gloomy, chilling ambient track, very horror movie like. Then back to the heavy beats, and so on. I'm glad there are practically no techno or electro hints, but I wish the programmings were a bit more articulate; the ambient tracks are quite good, instead. Sedarka start with a mix of dark ambient and ear-piercing high frequencies (à la Ikeda), then switch to rhythms like their counterpart, but the beats are definitely more interesting and various, with lots of samples (from classical music to massacred d'n'bass to full-on noise) and glitches/click'n'cuts shit going on, and I feel they're actually closer to this experimental current than to boring club rhythms. Good.

Born from the ashes of hardcore band The Draft Poets, the french techno-industrial-rockers Muckrackers follow the trail of Germany's glorious ebm tradition (they sign in German although they're french) but integrate the old-style with some kick-ass new school post-core metal guitar riffs and industrial beats. The result is pretty interesting. As a lover of the industrial-metal stream, I was immediately fascinated by these guys' sound, even though after several listening sessions I still feel like something's missing, something's not quite there... Muckrackers are definitely on the right path, but their growth is obviously not over and I'll be looking forward to check out what else they can come up with to fill the gaps left by the five tracks of this MCD.
It's interesting to note that the term "muckracker" refers to those who "rack muck" (stir up shit), but in the US the expression was used to describe the work of the two D.C. journalists who uncovered the Watergate scandal and forced Nixon to resign in '72. The political involvement of the band is further accented by their lyrics, which deal with delicate subjects such as the anti-Milosevic regime, Otpor support (Serbian student movement), anti-totalitarian regimes etc.
Keep rocking the dancefloors!