Nycterent – S/T CS
Last Mercy Recordings
This self-titled tape represents a new name and a new perspective, but those familiar with Jon’s previous project, Erroraeon, will find solace in the fact that Nycterent is every bit as mangled and painful, perhaps even more so.
No track names are given, and in this case it works well…you have no way of anticipating the next movement because the tracks blend together seamlessly (or maybe it’s one track with several movements…). The layers of writhing tones upon one another is a strength of this …

Will Over Matter – Visio ja toteutus CS
Freak Animal Records
Will Over Matter has been briefly mentioned around here for the fact that the man behind the project plays in the raw and grotesque black metal band Ride For Revenge as well as a number of other projects. Visio ja totetus is an album of discarded innards of patterned minimalism, with a focus on microscopic nuances and shifts.
Repetition is no problem, but there is a fine line between looping on and on til the needle breaks and building out something …

Cyst – Demo C15
Danvers State Recordings
Give a man a guitar, a damp basement and a four track/tape machine and you can expect a few different outcomes-shitty one man black metal, garbage drone metal, Fred Frith experimentalism, or, thankfully, this crude and sickening demo from Cyst. Cyst is the product of a member of the “dual-bass weed-grind” Suffering Bastard (they rule!) and much of the content of that band revolved around anger, hatred, and social commentary of a vile variety in short blasts.
Instead of revisiting old sounds and themes, …

Aeoga – Triangle Of Nebula-Devourers & Palace For Vultunales CD
Aural Hypnox
Designed as a compilation, Finland-based Aural Hypnox has decided to re-release two of Aeoga‘s previous albums on one CD along with hand-crafted packaging, showcasing some solid dark ambient with industrial edges.
The first album, Triangle Of Nebula Devourers, is comprised of three expansive tracks that ooze organic and elaborate sounds. They are absolutely vast and ritualistic. The tracks are quite different front one another and feature a varied but consistent technique of cascading different movements into one another using …

Charnel House – Voiceless Hymns C70
Auris Apothecary
Voiceless Hymns is essentially a compilation of instrumentalist Adam Sommers’ work before his collaboration with vocalist Priestess Hellfire over two major pieces of music – a Self-Titled album and a split with a band called Agakus. As such, it has all the charm of a demo including inconsistent recording quality, tape machine flaws and other unintended recording artifacts – necessary naivete. So these charming recordings contrast significantly with Charnel House‘s current sound.
The Self Titled side can be divided into two …

Koufar – Lebanon For Lebanese
Fusty Cunt Records
Koufar has kind of taken a back-seat to A. Chami’s other projects, lately. It is probably the most notorious of his monickers, spurring confusion and apprehension amongst outsiders because of the project’s nationalistic overtones. It’s often that his politics have become his calling card to some who have little understanding of Koufar from a musical standpoint. Moreso than Purity Of The Cedars, Lebanon For Lebanese is an unpolished shrapnel of destruction, flowing from sonic cannonballs of rhythmic scrapes and detonated with …

Pleasure Strain – Illness Attraction C32
Starved Relations
I’ve really been digging this quick release lately and I say quick because billing this as a C32 is a little decieving. It has the same material on both sides so it’s closer to a C16. Either way I have no previous experience with the project so I’m going at this review based on this release alone. Artwork is typical photocopied high contrast black and white which fits the rough sound very well.
Pleasure Strain offers up a sick combo of power electronics and …

Stone Wired – Umbral Depth Of Shade
Exabyss Records
I have never heard of Stonewired before and I don’t think I would have sought them out. Sadly, many of the same maladroit artistic implementations that plagued the Voidmorf release I reviewed are present here (and I shall not go into details). This would have been a shame as Umbral Depth Of Shade is a bleak and crushing work of death industrial that covers a wide variety of styles.
The minute “Regressed Back To The State Of Primal Being” thumps in your speakers, …

Babelfishh – Writhe In The Elements EP C20
IHAA Records
While there is an underlying hip-hop current going on here, Writhe In The Elements traverses a pretty large and almost insurmountable spectrum of sound sources, influences and composition choices. In the twenty minutes that this beast unfurls its wings and bellows foul noxious fumes, Writhe… has the touch of an artist wearing many masks but still retaining a tangible humanity – one of frustration, contempt, self-analysis, and self-ridicule – in spite of being beaten back by the elements, one that hopes …

Ochu ‎– Tvärsnitt LP
Verlautbarung Label
Ochu is an experimental music group from Sweden that focuses on creating improvised instrumentation not unlike Musique Concrète. Some of it involves samples and loops while other portions revolve around rhythmic clanging and metallic scraping underneath various drones.
Obviously, this type of stuff isn’t for everybody and it could come across as a music conservatory mid-term for some. For me, it does have a concept art mystique about it, as it appeals to my visual senses and appreciation for natural elements used musically. “Der …