FluxEuropa - dark music and more

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COLD MEAT INDUSTRY

PO Box 1881, 581 17 Linköping, Sweden. Fax/phone +46 (0)13 10 39 06

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RAISON D'ÊTRE

In sadness, silence and solitude (1997 CMI.57 CD) is the fourth full-length album from Peter Andersson as Raison d'être, a project he began in 1991.

This dark ambient CD combines rumblings and drones with plainchant, all set in an expansive filmic landscape. While these elements are hardly unique in this genre of music, this work is a particularly convincing and pleasing implementation at the chilling-out end of the spectrum.

Rik 16 October 1997

ILDFROST

Ildfrost are a Norwegian duo formed around 1992-93 and have now followed their earlier album, Autumn Departure (CMI.28), with Natanael (1997 CMI.51). This features spoken-word and some magnificent music with the grandeur of a classical requiem or romantic symphony.

Another highly recommended CMI release!

Rik 6 August 1997

THE Swedish-based Cold Meat Industry is a key label for music ranging from industrial-noise to dark ambient. It was started in 1987 and is run by Roger Karmanik - artist and sole member of the power-electronic-style Brighter Death Now, with assistance from Lina of Deutsch Nepal.

The main label is specifically devoted to Swedish and Norwegian artists of which the most well-known is probably In Slaughter Natives, while the Cruel Moon International and Death Factory imprints feature groups from outside Scandinavia.

Artists with releases on the CMI label include Aghast, Arcana, Brighter Death Now, Con Sono, Deutsch Nepal, In Blind Embrace, In Slaughter Natives, Ildfrost, Memorandum, Mental Destruction, Morthound, Mortiis, MZ.412, Ordo Equilibrio, Penitent, Proscriptor, Puisance, Raison d'Etre, Sanctum, Tombstone, and Valefor.

IN BLIND EMBRACE

IN BLIND EMBRACE is Paul Lemos and Joe Papa and in Songs from the Shadows (1996 DEATH-962) they manage to run the whole gamut of the neo-folk, neo-classical, ritual, experimental and industrial genres without tripping up or even making it all seem like a clever 'crossover' marketing ploy. They achieve a stable, convincing and enjoyable hybrid, and good luck to them.

ORDO EQUILIBRIO

ORDO EQUILIBRIO was formed in 1993 following a split from Mikael Stavöstrand's Archon Satani. A male-female duo, it's issued two CDs, Reaping the fallen...the first harvest (1995 CMI.32) and The Triumph of Light...and Thy Thirteen Shadows of Love (1997 CMI.44).

Besides being adept at long titles and suspension marks, the duo make good music. Reaping the fallen... has an impressive sacro-decadent opening - bells and all, some ambient-industrial material and apocalyptic folk. I particularly liked 'Thou can not Love them all, when the Trumpet sounds' (track 4) which has a distinctly Boyd Rice-Douglas P-style. At the other extreme, 'Carnival (festivity in flesh)' (track 7) has a great melody but is played on what sounds like industrial hammers, giving it a magnificent grandeur. Other tracks manage to combine all these styles and qualities. And, after all that, there's the hidden 13th track...

Altogether a varied, interesting and appealing album. If I had to sum it up in one word it would be 'atmospheric'. I loved it. Highly recommended.

PROSCRIPTOR

Proscriptor McGovern's The Venus Bellona (1996 Cruel Moon) is themed around an ambitious Scottish-inspired sword-and-sorcery fantasy. The promising incantational beginning (Macbethan?) is later followed by an extended sample of modern military pipes and drums which is too obviously what it is to fit this Tolkienesque assay. From there it's downhill all the way. The very short ninth track could be used in an Adams Family sequel, while other parts have a Gremlins potential. It may well appeal to children and Americans (ha, ha) but I found it embarrassing.

VALEFOR

VALEFOR is an American goth cult duo who style themselves as Baron Drakkheim Abaddon and Darkat-SL LeJeune and describe their music as "Sacro/Ambient/Black Horrific Death Industrial". Besides a promo cassette, Burning Corpses, the group has a CD album, Death Magick (1996 DEATH-961 CD), which was released on the CMI imprint, Death Factory.

The CD can be adequately described as 'dark industrial-ambient'. Valefor aim to create ghostly soundscapes, images of nocturnal horror, and heavy, intense and deathlike atmosphere, and they succeed. It's alright if you like that sort of thing.

Rik

C.M.I.-ASSOCIATED ARTISTS/BANDS INDIVIDUALLY FEATURED

EXTERNAL LINKS

COLD MEAT INDUSTRY (OFFICIAL SITE)

Updated: 7 May 1997