Release year: 2024
Label: Steinklang Industries

A couple of years back, we took a stab at pulling apart and reviewing Belgian In Search Of Death’s previous release, simply titled II (see here). It contained material recorded in the early noughties, recently dusted off and mastered for release. Now, with follow-up release I, In Search Of Death goes even further into the past with material from 1999 and 2000.

And listening to this album, the age of the material is good to keep in mind.

You see, II was pretty focused and consistent; somewhere between dark ambient and death industrial with elements from other industrial music genres. I is pretty much all over the place. There’s far less consistency, the tracks can be wildly different from each other, and the overall feel is of a musical entity still seeking out its identity.

From time to time, this yields to some pretty dubious results. There are tracks where disturbing sounds and layers work against otherwise passable industrial compositions. There are tracks where some odd rhythm or jarring – jarring in the wrong way – element steals the focus.

And at other times, things click. There are tracks with nice atmospherics and suitably daring, unprejudiced compositional and structural choices which most likely stem from a youthful will to experiment and try out things.

And that’s why it’s good to keep in mind the age of the material. This sounds very much like a somewhat fledgling artist or project trying their wings, trying out things. Some things work, others – well, not so much. There’s nothing on here that makes one slap one’s forehead and go “Well, this is shit”; some of the tracks just don’t hit home.

Stylistically, this is even less extreme than II. It’s not necessarily even death industrial. I guess calling this industrial, pure and simple, is enough… even though that descriptor means precious little. Instead of rumbling noise, jarring and grinding machinery and droning, pulsating synths, this focuses more on rhythmic percussion, sweeping layers of synths and odd effects.

Even in its occasional clumsiness, I reminds one charmingly of those days gone by, of the late 90’s and early noughties and the somehow far less focused stuff people were prone to release then. I guess one can chalk that up to youthful exuberance, joy of creation and in many cases, a lack of both experience and understanding of how to create truly coherent albums. Lord knows I fell into all of those pitfalls in my early years as a musician!

So: whilst far from a perfect gem, I possesses a certain charm. You really do need to love that late 90’s industrial sound to get much out of this. And even then, you sort of need to be a bit lenient towards some of the clumsier moments on the album. But when you do, then I is certainly an enjoyable blast from the past and a portal into a bygone time.

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