Year: 2025
Label: Zoharum

Whilst at first the name Scrotum+N. might strike you as confounding, upon closer inspection it turns out to be quite informative. For, you see, this is a joint venture of Polish Scrotum and Italian N.

Out of these, especially N. is a project with some gravitas. Their early releases were on the legendary label Slaughter Productions, and they have a long discography from the late 90’s to this day. Scrotum seems to be a much less prolific project, with no releases listed on Discogs, for example. However, its sole member has released dark ambient as Fomalhaut and contributed lyrics to projects such as Ohtar and Selbstmord – so he’s not a totally unknown factor!

With both projects being active in the industrial scene, I guess it comes as no surprise that this is where one can also pigeonhole Scrotum+N. And I guess nobody is surprised when I throw in adjectives such as old school and traditional, right?

To classify …Dead Sessions… a bit more, I’d put it somewhere between decidedly old school power electronics and death industrial. The tape release is all about analogue synthesizers: distorted, crackling, pulsating, roaring, beeping and whirring synthesizers. More traditionally harsh noise elements such as junk noise, amp abuse and feedback torture are relegated to a rather minor, even negligent role. In that sense, the mode of expression harks back to some earlier classics of the genre.

The death industrial angle comes from the fact that the music isn’t – within the context of industrial noise – particularly harsh or abrasive. Yes, the usual disclaimer applies: this is an inherently violent and harsh form of music; but within the spectrum of noise, …Dead Sessions… is far from the most extreme. It focuses more on an oppressive, ominous atmosphere whilst still containing plenty of “active” elements that keep it well and truly away from dark ambient.

To put it quite bluntly, and to drop a name as reference, if classic death industrial acts such as Brighter Death Now are up your alley, then here’s something for you.

Ostensibly, this is a theme album focusing on Polish serial killer Edmund Kolanowski. However, the highly abstract and entirely instrumental form of the music mean this is not conveyed very effectively to the listener. Does this passage of distorted, crackling synth reference something in Kolanowski’s life? Is this shrill bit of blaring noise symbolizing of some violent act? Who knows.

But that notwithstanding, there is something decidedly oppressive and vicious in the timbre and sound of …Dead Sessions…; there is no mistaking the negativity. Which is, of course, par for the course when it comes to death industrial. Negativity is a standard death industrial emotion.

In general, the whole album can be described as “standard death industrial”. It contents itself with sticking to a very classic and often used audial blueprint. There doesn’t seem to be much ambition to reimagine death industrial or create a unique, strongly individual take on it. In other words, stylistically, …Dead Sessions… is a bit run of the mill.

But that’s not to say it’s a boring let alone a bad recording. A bit predictable and generic in sound, perhaps, but at the same time, there’s plenty of what to enjoy here. The music is put together well, the sound is sufficiently abrasive and the negative atmosphere unmistakable. Standard, but highly enjoyable at that.

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