DARK AWAKE: Abaris Hyperboreios Release year: 2023Label: Steinklang Industries If you’d go by what artists are mentioned in various social media groups and forums, you’d think neofolk and martial industrial basically consists of Death In June, Arditi, Blood Axis, Forseti, … Continue reading Hyperborean awakening
ABSOLUTE KEY: Lauluja laaksoista Release year: 2023Label: Tampereen levyt My issue with music and artists labelled as “experimental” is that if the artist has an established sound, is it experimental anymore? Take for example various artists within post-industrial music: from … Continue reading Songs from the valleys of Nangijala
KRASCHAU: Ultrakonservativ Schlagerparade Release year: 2022Label: Gradual Hate Records In comparison to the album I reviewed yesterday (African Imperial Wizard’s Nzinga Mbande), Kraschau has always been considerably less enigmatic and without all the layers of subterfuge. The martial industrial project … Continue reading Traditionalist hit parade
AFRICAN IMPERIAL WIZARD: Nzinga Mbande Release year: 2022Label: Tesco Organisation So… according to the descriptions found online, African Imperial Wizard are a group based in Luanda, Angola, and were formed the day after the ceasefire was signed which ended the … Continue reading African industrial wizards
ARDITI: Emblem Of Victory Release year: 2023Label: Blooddawn Productions Few are names are regarded as highly in the martial industrial scene as Swedish Arditi, who have been in existence for over 25 years and whose debut album Marching On To … Continue reading Emblems of Arditi’s victory
KAARNA: Kultataivaat, hopeaveet, unet helmiäistä Release year: 2022Label: Anima Arctica The eccentric and ever-shifting Kaarna have had a pretty steady release schedule. Since the one-man project’s debut album Comitatus Savolaxiae in 2019, the steady pace has been one album per … Continue reading Kaarna’s reveries under golden skies
ABSOLUTE KEY: The Third Level Of Decay Release year: 2022Label: Signal Rex Previously, we reviewed Finnish one man act Absolute Key’s Sundust (here), calling its combination of industrial and black metal “an album of intriguingly twisted esoteric electronics”. The prolific … Continue reading Keys to the three levels of decay
ABSOLUTE KEY: Sundust Release year: 2022Label: Nekrogoat Heresy Productions Describing something as a mixture of industrial and black metal will most likely conjure up all kinds of rather disparate images in people’s minds. Some will think of machinized beats and … Continue reading Absolute keys to fire and dust
It’s been a while since we did one of these. In fact, looks like in all of Only Death Is Real’s history, we’ve only done one year round-up. High time for a second one, don’t you think? So, here are … Continue reading A year in summation: 2022
ADRIANO VINCENTI & PAOLO BANDERA: Ossido Di Cromo (Anamnesi Mediatica Ricostruttiva) Release year: 2022Label: Steinklang Industries As the liner notes of the thick booklet that accompanies this CD highlights, the cassette tape was a revolutionary musical format. On one hand … Continue reading A love letter to cassette culture
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