Sometimes a band needs many years before they find a stable line-up, or before they have the opportunity to record and release decent material. Soulwound is such a band. Actually, the origins go back to the Nineties, when the brothers Niko and Janne Huusari started jamming and gigging. They wrote some pieces, which they did record as a demonstrational release, and there were permanent line-up changes going on in the meantime, which didn’t make it easier to perform live, evidently.
I admit that I easily refer to defunct Cold Meat Industry when talking about the glorious days of Industrial (that specific scene in a very wide and general sense), even though back then there were lots of other superb labels existing as well - nowadays it’s even getting better, again and again, yet still, the heritage... The ‘cult’ status remains, for ever.
One exception aside, I honestly adore and admire every single release done, until now, by French top-label Les Acteurs De L’Ombre and their sub-label Emanations. So I was quite aroused when I did receive an untitled split-album, compiling material by three French acts that surely suit to the roster they’re on right now. I was trusted with one of them, hailing from the internal outback from pre-Alpine France, In Cauda Venenum.
Not that long ago I started co-operating with Antiq Records, which crew did send me a couple of (great) recordings (check out the review I wrote for Syrian one-man army Chained, for example, posted on March 21st 2017). But this release was brought to my attention by Noémy from Solstice Promotions, just like new material from Ayin Aleph or Digital Nova, for instance (to be heard of quite soon).
Almost three years ago, five musicians from the region of Nantes (France) joined forces under the Clouds Of Dementia banner. Their aim: paying tribute to the greatness of the Heavy / Doom Metal scene of Old. They composed a couple of tracks, which the band performed live on stage, often alongside known acts such as Svart Crown, The Bottle Doom Lazy Band or Ataraxie.
If I’m not mistaken – and since I’m a smart guy the chance is almost nihil – ‘Arkona’ is the name of a cape on the Rügen island, nowadays in Germany (Baltic Sea, close to Poland), where the Slavic fortress Jaromarsburg was built. Like many castles, it has been a source of inspiration for many Metal bands. Behemoth’s first recordings, for example (at the time that they did still play ‘real’ Black Metal), referred to that era / area, but there are quite some bands named after that specific historical place too.
I knew an act from Brazil called ColdBlood, being active during the first half of the Nineties. And because this release (which was send to me, the kind way, by my dear colleague Aleksey K. from e.g. the Abigorum project and Satanath Records), did deal with a Rio De Janeiro based act with the very same name, I was kind of wondering: is this the very same band? So, here I seemed to suffer from a period of total amnesia.
Keys of air, keys of fire, throw my soul, rise it higher…
Frenchman Arthur Arsenne is quite an occupied person within the international Drone / Ambient / Noise / Experimental scene. He runs the labels Arsenic Solaris and Death Carnival Records, and he’s involved in different projects, both as solo artist or in co-operation with others.
In late Summer 2016 I somewhere, somehow ‘discovered’ another excellent great Russian label (actually residing in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, close to the river Ob, and ‘only’ about 350 kilometres away from the border with Kazakhstan), called Black Mara, sort of specialised in Dark Ambient, Drone, Esoteric and Ritual Music. They did release some stuff for great acts such as Paul Minesweeper, Creation VI, Ugasanie or Carst, and this review deals with Welcome Black, a project led by Alexandr Smirnov (who took care of mix and mastering duties as well).
