Cold Fusion * Simmetria (cd 2007 war office propaganda)
I can’t help thinking of a young and new band when hearing the name Cold Fusion, but they have actually quite a few releases out. “Simmetria” is the band’s latest release (but already followed by a reissue and a side-project) and seems to be regardless of what is hip and new. A couple of years ago there was a flood of orchestral and bombastic (martial) industrial, but nowadays the poppy sound seems to be more popular. Cold Fusion just releases an album with a sound between Sophia, the older material of HERR and Thorn/Agram. Not too original indeed, not sounding brilliant, but not boring either. “Simmetria” became just another nice, bombastic industrial release and what I heard from the Across The Rubicon (the side-project) Myspace site, the same goes for this project.
Cold Fusion, Waroffice Propaganda (nowadays called Rage In Eden).
-2.5-
As mentioned in the review of the 7″ with the same name, this is again the last Der Blutharsch release. The 7″ proved a good indication for the cd. The music is still recognisable for Der Blutharsch, but different from earlier releases, also the later ones. The style has gone more into a poprock direction, but also with a more industrial sound than before. “The Philosopher’s Stone” is more tranquil than the last more rock-oriented cds and after a few listenings I might say, not as good either. The last cd certainly is a bad one, and there are some very nice songs and melodies here, but I have to admit that I hoped Herr Julius would leave the arena with a blow.
I didn’t really know Institution D.O.L. I thought that they were one of these old power electronics projects and never tried to hear some of their music. A while ago this project would play somewhere around. I haven’t been there, but I did listen to some of the music on their Myspace and the like and figured I might try an album some time. Tesco describes the album as “noise pop” and since I happen to enjoy the Haus Arafna, November Növelet, Thorofon, etc. development in industrial music, I ordered Institution D.O.L.’s latest album. “Weakniks” for a large part lives up to my expectations of before, since it contains extreme noise terror with screamed vocals and little structure, but there is also more ‘ambient noise’, loud industrial and other extreme sounds. These harsch tracks are interchanged with ambient, danceble tracks and even real songs . One of two tracks may remind a bit of Haus Arafna, but for the most part, Institution D.O.L. have a style of their own which varries from power electronics to “noise pop” and strange experiments.
Recently I discovered David Lynch as a writer and accidentally I found out that the man also makes cds. Recently released is a cd called “The Air Is On Fire”, but already six years ago David Lynch made a cd with a guy called John Neff under the name “Blue Bob”. How comes that I never heard of it? “Bluebob” can be described as dark and slow bluesrock with here and there an industrial touch and of course jazzy tunes. The album opens magnificently with great and greasy tracks. The music is slow, raw, with low-tuned guitars and deep vocals. Our duo has used a wide range of very old guitars and equipment to make a rather unique sound. Some tracks are instrumental (not the best ones), others have weird lyrics and Neff’s great vocals. In total this became a really dirty rock album; usually not my kind of music, but it seems that Lynch can turn many things into something great. I believe that while waiting for this cd, I read somewhere that there is a new Bluebob coming up, but I don’t know if I mixed it up with the soundscapes cd “The Air Is On Fire” of David Lynch alone. “Bluebob” used to be available only through Lynchnet.com, but I just got my copy from 
However Cold Meat has contributed to the “martial scene” with bands such as Sophia, Karjalan Sissit and Rome, I had not expected a ‘real martial industrial’ album on this label, especially not from a Balkan project. The first release of Sturmast opens with two very typical martial industrial tracks that remind of Wappenbund, but fortunately they prove to have musical ideas of their own as well. With the also typical use of looped (folky) samples Sturmast manages to create some very nice tracks. “Kraft” (3) starts nice, but lacks variation, but “The Big Play” (4) is a nice track with a guitar sample and subtle orchestrations and “For Everyone Circus And Bread” (5) really lives up to the title, very amusing! After this, two quite typical martial industrial tracks close the 35 minute album. Not great, not always too original, but overall an agreeable album that you can buy if you want to keep your “martial” collection complete.
I am afraid that Stormfågel is one of those new projects that make me conclude that not every new CMI release is a ‘must buy’. In 2005 the band released their first cd on CMI (after a release by themselves) called “Den Nalkende Stormen”. This is a rather boring atmospheric album with singing and appears to use folk music melodies here and there. A couple of months ago the new album saw the light of day. “Ett Berg Av Fasa” is better than “Den Nalkende Stormen” but far from a masterpiece. It seems that some real instruments have been added to the sound and also more folky melodies, samples and orchestrations. Unfortunately the improvement is only marginal. Tracks 3 and 4 are quite nice, but the awfull track from the “All My Dead Friends” compilation (the only track that I skip when playing this compilation) is on the new album too (6) and the rest doesn’t really rise above a level of dullness. Let us just say that the music of Stormfågel is not my taste.