Industrial music reviews

Based on the rave reviews and sound clips from the band's website, I bought this CD and popped it in yesterday. My first impression was that the backbeat was more 80's revival than 21st century electronica which gives this avantgarde group a somewhat dated sound. The lead singer's voice is sweet but not as powerful like the leads in Evanescence and Lacuna Coil. Occasionally the music drowns out the singer entirely, though that might be a production flaw. Their music can't be put in one category and there's quite of experimentation going in the album to make listening an interesting experience. But after one sitting, I'm not sure whether I like the album or not. The lyrics are fab though and hopefully over time this group will win me over. This album is definitely for the open-minded. Ideally, I'd give it 3 1/2 stars for now but 4 is fair.

"Eternal" is my first Butterfly Messiah cd. I was given a copy as a gift recently. The moment I heard the crisp synthesized beats and the angelic vocals of Shannon on "For Today", I knew I was going to be in for a treat. Butterfly Messiah takes the best elements of synthpop and dance music, and combines them to create an intoxicating mix. I loved all of the songs on the entire cd. The lyrics are beautiful. They give hope and meaning. One of the most beautiful songs on the cd is "With Roses" which has Robert singing lead vocals/spoken word. The song is a gorgeous ballad. I just loved the combination of downtempo electronic beats with piano melodies. Ever since I received "Eternal" I have not been able to stop playing it. The cd is addicting to listen to.

This is one of the most incredible EBM/Darkwave albums I have heard in my life. I recommend it to fans of both of the aforementioned musical genres, as well as ANY AND ALL Witches, Pagans and magickians. The album is profound, transcendental and most definitely dancable.

If I met Butterfly Messiah, I would give them kisses on the hand and speak words of adoration. This creation should NOT go unappreciated. Buy this album--it's one of the best investments you'll make ^_^

~DJ Raven~
Missoula, MT

Personally, I'm more of a metal fan, but Pulse Legion got me interested in the industrial scene... I really think that both cd's are excellent, I really like the last track on the second cd... has a bit of a metal feel to it... It's very unfortunatly that PL split up.. I know one of the members, Sam P., He's now with Imperative Reaction, another really awsome group... Alas, I will miss PL.

"Pulse Legion is graphic evidence that strong electronic dance music need not come from outside the North American borders. Powerful and infectious, the music of Pulse legion is driven by implacable mechanical beats and aggressive percussion, intricate sampling, intense musical progressions, haunting keyboards, and supported by disturbing vocals."
-metropolis

The contemplation in the unique workings portrayed by 'Pulse Legion' is absolutely astonishing. The enticing rhythm and industrial sounds, penetrate the mind to where you would indulge in reverie! Very creative and original. The songs flow real well and keep ya satisfied.

If you don't have bought it yet you'll better do it now.
This is a really awesome remix album from Mr. fatboy slim.
Funky beats and cool effects makes it just so cool. Everybody big
beat's and fatboy's friend should buy it.
Om du ?lskar en STOR beat du m?ste k?pa det skiva! Heja Sverige!
Ostakaa hyv?t ihmiset t?? levy jos l?yd?tte jostain. Aikamoista
fatboy slim revittely? loistavine beatteineen...

I don't like waiting around for music to become catchy.
If you're like me, you'll love this album! This album rocks! Put it in your car stereo and crank up the volume! The best tracks are Fat boy's remixes of Underworld, Lunatic Calm and Wild child! Buy it and be happy!

This stuff goes straight to your soul, questioning your entire existence. I have to keep this to about a twice in a year listening rate, because its just too emotionally overwhelming. Even then, i only give it a listen when im in a depressed state of mind. When i actually want to feel this sad. The reason for this being only given 4 stars is something that i cant quite put my finger on. Maybe its the overly trebly production. I guess this is what they call "gothic metal", but this is the first "gothic" band ive heard that can stop my heart, going to the deepest and scariest corners of my soul, bringing out fear and hope and wonder simultaneously. This band also has some progressive qualities to it. Many moments of time changing, Dream Theater styled riffing and drumming. I reccomend this album to anyone who is aware and cautious of the emotional strength and power it holds. Not to be abused

This is widely acknowledged as the most creative, unique progressive metal around. The bandmembers, there are five - Sebastian Elliot, Vora Vor, Robynn Naylor,Eiki Masumoto and notorious - have entitled their music, Progressive darkwave. Every independent review I have read on these guys have given glowing recommendations.

Fear Itself is their first studio album, released in 1995. They also have a more recent album released in 2001, Redemption. Fear Itself has 11 tracks totaling about 66 minutes in length. As mentioned before the music is original and unique dark progressive metal often augmented by the insertion of movie dialog. It is a very interesting combination. If you get a chance to pick this or Redemption up you really should.

Amazing... Produced in 1995, although you'd never guess it. Stunning guitar and bass riffs, impressive percussion, and an amazing vocalist makes up this NY based "progressive/gothic" band.
Vora Vor (guitar) and Sebastian Elliot (vocals) write beautiful music: ballads and heavy pieces. At times it resembles the fast progressive sound of Liquid Tension Exp. or Dream Theater. Vocals are often compared to those of Type O Negative or Moonspell. If you enjoy this, the band's new album, "Redemption," should definitely be on your list.

I grew up on pigface and kmfdm. i remember so many nights trippin out on fook when i was like twelve....surely a little young to be listening to fook yet alone tripping out. but it was worth it. when i finally came around to listening to more popular music, found little that competed and have found myself always coming back. oh, yeah, the remix album "washingmachinemouth" is even trippier. nevermind nin, pigface rips em apart and martin atkins is one of the best drummers of our time-i hear that his elbows have been known to split from playin so f-in hard! and you cant turn down en esch. a must buy for all collectors of american underground and far out music in general.

THE alternative music source begins with pigface. i'm sure you've heard nin and ministry and even skinny puppy. but underground, raw, energetic, hate life, love life, comes from pigface. Everything about pigface contradicts everything, everything has ever stood for about anything. ? Even members from nin, ministry, and even skinny puppy have come together to make Pigface possible. Trent Reznor? You bet he got his start in Pigface. So, once you get past the notion that anything means anything you can appreciate the level of chaos pigface stands for. Everything is for nothing thus nothing must be for everything. Pigface rises out of this chaos to bring you the REAL drunken poets residing on the planet Earth. Fook is the album to start with if you're interested in Pigface. Pigface. What a band. What a lifestyle. What a choice.

You have not heard industrial (or, as the members of pigface would say, "industrious") music until you've heard this album. it's the kind of music that goes far beyond the commercialized and over-done typical Marilyn Manson-esque sound, rather incorporating various new weird musical styles.

Some of the highlights of this album include:

ALLES IST MEIN (feat. en esch from kmfdm)- crazy reincarnation of the old en esch song "ich bin" but with fast drums and massively distorted rapid vocals. i brought this into my german teacher and the only word he could make out was "mein"!

TEN GROUND AND DOWN - one of the most excellent songs i have EVER heard. featuring WONDERFUL vocals from Lesley Rankine and Chris Connelly (from ministry, kmfdm, and revolting cocks). strange slow guitar/violin combination creating an almost gothic dark sound. my favorite pigface song.

I'M STILL ALIVE (feat. en esch) - a nice cheesy industrial song with an obvious en esch musical/lyrical influence. funkay!

all of the tracks on here are innovative and creative, this is a must-have album. so what are you waiting for?

If you like dark ambient minimalism, this is for you. Sounding like it was recorded in Hell itself, Lustmord has created an eerie, affecting piece. All of the tracks flow into one another as though they are one, giving an experince of a single, foreboding journey into complete darkness. The sounds of tortured animals and humans are scattered here and there, lending to the overall sense of doom and dread, yet you cannot help but be drawn deeper and deeper into this hellish work. If fascinates as much as it scares.

Truly a unique and powerful work.

Don't pay too much for this. You can get the new remastered edition directly from the Soleilmoon label.

In Lustmord's series of phenominal dark ambient you can findsome truely terrifying, illusterous releases. Ohterworldly soundscapes. Music in which shadows abide.
A few of them you can call concept albums as well.

With the collaboration of Robert Rich, Lustmord composed "Stalker", a musical `insular' in seven pieces, inspired by the classic Russian. Andrei Tarkovski's metaphorical, autistic cinematic tour-de-force had a stunning soundtrack of its own but Lustmord's one, how different it may be from the original, could fit right in, with the images, and still manages to be a truely singular piece of art in which theme's of desolate landscapes and alienation are transformed into pure poetry.

Under the pseudonym Arecibo, Brian Lustmord made "Trans plutonian transmissions", an album that uses cosmic sounds (like pulsars, quasars, thermal radiation, electron partical interaction and even the remains of supernova explosions) as pirmal source and creates music that seems to come from light years away and is, on certain moments, as dark and old as the universe itself.

And here, with "Heresy", Lustmord has another winner. A requiem for lost souls. A hymn for those who dwell in the twilight. The soundtrack to the Revelation of John.

Recorded live in subterranean locations like cripts, caverns, mines, deep shelters, catacombs and devided into six nameless parts, it's in the most literal sense music from the underworld, howling and crying from the underbelly of the earth itself.

This one demands your faith. Your true believe and commitment.
This is a record you want to pledge your allegiance to, way down in the core of your worst nightmares.

When speaking of certain types of music, one can (in most cases) identify the artists who define the various genres. When one thinks of grunge: Nirvana; when one thinks of jazz: John Coltrane; when one thinks of blues: Robert Johnson; and when one thinks of dark-ambient: Lustmord. You may already be asking the question, "Hey Amneziak, is dark-ambient really a genre, and is it even large enough to consider it on the same level as the others?" The answer is both yes and no. No, it's not as large as the others, but yes, it is an ever-growing movement that has congregated a number of supporters.

Not only does dark-ambient music have quite a following, but it has motivated many musicians to incorporate its dark atmosphere into their own works: particularly in the doom, black, and death metal sub-genres. Now, chances are you haven't heard much of anything about Lustmord, so why should this name immediately come to mind in regards to dark-ambient music? For starters, Brian Williams, the solo performer of Lustmord, made Heresy before the dark-ambient genre had been clearly defined. In a sense, he started the entire movement with this recording; or at least that's what some people believe. And second, because there have been so many albums since its release that have tried to imitate the atmosphere and imagery that it so greatly possesses.

Broken up into six parts, Heresy defines a sound that embodies cold, dark, and empty surroundings. The album was recorded in several cavernous locations, and then it was manipulated in the studio with help from London-based artist, Andrew Lagowski. The cover art, which is the painting "The Great Day of His Wrath," by John Martin, is the best indicator of what Heresy sounds like. You have a sense of being trapped deep in the bottom of a deep cave where you are forced to listen to some eerie rituals taking place; only these ritualistic activities are just far enough away that you can only imagine them in your head. Echoing drones and noises are the best examples of how this album gets its ambience, while the rest comes from distant cries of humans and animals. The imagery it portrays is not something you'll have to work too hard at to find.

Brian Williams has gone on to record many great albums since, including work for movies, commercials, and collaborative material with Robert Rich. However, Heresy is my favorite of the lot. It's an album that executes everything perfectly. I love my music dark, and it never lets me down. There aren't too many albums that encompass the same consistency as it does. Even though there are albums with darker and scarier themes, this should be the first thing you hear if you are new to this type of music. Once you have, the name Lustmord may even be the first name that pops into your head the next time you think of the dark-ambient genre.

Note: "The Great Day of His Wrath" can be seen here. http://cgfa.sunsite.dk/m/martin1.jpg

es un muy buen disco aunqueella dejaron de tocarquien sabe porque razon me parece un excelene disco

me sorprendio muchisimo este disco, despues de oir la cancion horas decidi comprar el disco que resulto ser buenisimo.
lastima que se me perdio y no lo he podido volver a comprar.

Hace bastante tiempo que no escuchaba un grupo tan bueno como Aurora y la Academia, todas sus letras son excelentes, la voz de su cantante realmente hipnotiza, adem�s realmenye son artistas, no solamente caras bonitas (aunque realmente son MUY bonitas), lo unico malo es que al parecer su disco no ha salido de M�xico pues aqui en Colombia es imposible conseguirlo pero si tienen la oportunidad de hacerlo comprenlo no se arrepentiran.

Sully's debut album, I Have Much to Report, is an intense set of industrial-tinged alterna-rock with slight dance undertones. Although the group has some trouble writing solid, memorable hooks, they have an intriguing,cathartic sound which makes I Have Much to Report a promising debut. Sully's music tends to be dark and very atmospheric. While it's often composed out of jamming, the resulting songs are very focused and intense. But at the same time, the vocals are usually driven by sound rather then lyrics.

I was walking through BEST BUY, and noticed this CD named Sully, being my nick name is Sully, I bought this without a second thought, thinking if it stunk, I'd toss it. I usually listen to top 40 stuff, but also really like Enigma, NIN, and others. When I listened to this CD, I was very suprised how much I liked it. This CD, like Enigma, is one that you want to listen to from start to finish. The songs are similar to one another, but have a very good sound, not something that has been copied, or done before. Looking forward to their next CD.

I buyed this CD cause I liked to remix "anotherd" on Plastic Compilations volume 1. You find this track on this CD too, including another nice remix named "scrubbable". The rest ist mostly pop/metal style with not so nice lyrics but a great sound.

This album has a lot going for it, namely plenty of bass & beats, and decent vocals and lyrics. However, the latter two are made basically inaudible on most tracks, thanks to the former two. Also, more songs on this album (as opposed to other CS albums) are just, well, not up to par. But, in true CS fashion, where they shine, they SHINE -- "Useless" and "Fault" come to mind here. In all, a good album, but definitely not a timeless classic by any means.

GREAT!,... I saw these dudes in Alternative Press & just had to pick this up... GLAD I did - What a kool sound they have with great hooks & many interesting electronics happening. If you like Front Line 242 XMarks, get this now!

If there is such a thing as "electronicA - Industrial" then this cd is that ! I really like bands like the Cure, Information Society and Beck the most but this sound is very unique to me. With lots and lots of dark-pop songs and the electronics, I reccommend this one for all fans of "Alternative" music alike.

I've been listening to In Strict Confidence for about 6 years now and I've been fortunate enough to see him live in Germany, and I think that Holy is a better release than Dennis's previous album, Mistrust the Angels. Holy is a quiter and less aggressive album than many of the earlier ISC releases. Like many of Dennis's other albums, Holy splits the line between darkwave and EBM. This album features a number of female guest vocals thus reminding me of Thomas Rainer's L'ame Immortelle or perhaps Chris Pohl's Blutengel. In particular, fans of industrial styled male / female duets will enjoy the tracks "Closing Eyes" and "The Darkest Corridors". Guitar industrial fans might find that "Another Night" will appeal to them, while fans of female only vocals will be treated to "Emergency" and "Sleepless". However, there still is no mistaking that this is Dennis's album, and his vocals both distorted and undistorted are excellent.

However, no review would be complete without mentioning that I think the true treasure of this album is the last track "Alpha Centauri". Being over 13 minutes long, I doubt you'll hear this on the radio or at a club, which is a true shame. For those of you whom have ISC's Face the Fear, this last track is an ambient industrial piece a bit like "Ein Mensch, Ein Kampfer und Ein Schlachte". It is very nice to end an album on a piece that you can reflect upon, and I could very easily see "Alpha Centauri" being used in a film or to help set the mood at a party.

There really are enough good tracks on this CD that if you like general darkwave or more traditional dance industrial music, I'm sure you'll find yourself adding more than one track to your regular set list.

This is a gem in my collection. The music is dark industrial/gothic yet softer and less gritty than their other stuff. The album is almost all in English and has the accompaniment of a few female vocalists (not sure who they are). The combination of Dennis's voice and the female vocalists are very complementary and give a wonderful quality to the music. I read one reviewer complain that the singing was monotone. Yes, I have to agree, it is rather monotone in some songs, but it creats a very surreal, troubled, and somber feel to the music. There is a lot of emotion and passion in the music.

Dennis's voice sort of reminds me of Jean Luc DeMeyer a bit; he as this low, gruff, sexy singing style. The instrumentation is wonderful as well. There is a lot of layering and building with strong beats in the music; very danceable. I guess the instrumentation could be compaired to Front Line Assembly.

The lyrics are immersing and a bit controversial. The bare breasted nun on the front cover should have been a dead give away to anyone who is shocked and appalled by their many references to religious figures in their music. My favorite track on the album is `Closing eyes'.

The artwork on the album is remarkable as well. I guess a lot of stores like Hot Topics have a problem with it though and are refusing to sell it. It's a shame too because it's a beautiful picture; very artfully done. It's still amazing me some of the crap and violence that is allowed in our culture (like on TV), yet tasteful art is frowned upon.

First we have "Holy"...then the was "HOLY: ALPHA OMEGA"....and then there was "HOLY: THE HECQ DESTRUXXION" "HOLY" is a wonderful thought provoking EBM/ Darkwave cd. Filled with epic songs with deep sonic lush back ground music, this music will haunt you for days, even months to come. From the brutal nun photography and artwork, down to the chilling sounds and disturbing lyrics, this album is near perfect. "Closing Eyes" is the stand out track for me, next to "The Darkest Corridors""HOLY: ALPHA OMEGA" is the "HOLY" cd, plus a bonus single song cd, the booklet is bigger and longer, plus 2 stickers,and 6 beautiful photo postcards of the nun and band suitable for framing. In Strict Confidence is famous for their artwork...and this nun will echo in your mind.The pictures of her are creepy and seductive. Almost S & M like, in a tight corset, she is topless. And bleeding. "HOLY: THE HECQ DESTRUXXION" is a very rare find. Only 1,111 copies made, it takes the whole "HOLY" album with a different approach. Where "Holy" was more EBM/ DARKWAVE and danceable, this is more ambient/ trance inducing. However, the stand out track here is "Another Night" It mixes a near house/ trip hop beat with demonic vocals, and disembodied angelic background vocals. The angelic vocals enhance the story and add depth.I originally was disappointed with the version of "Closing Eyes" here, but after repeated listenings, I can hear the words in the syths....it has to be played loud to hear them, but the synths are singing the words It's hard to describe, but the production is brilliant.Oh, and now Antje Schulz {Formerly of the German group CHANDEEN} is a new member since the "Seven Lives" single!