Few New Reviews from Malignant Records...

Hyios - Consuetudines-CD (Malignant Records)

Droning and Ritualistic sounding ambient music has drawn me in for many many yres and with Hyios we have another German force much like Troum/Maeror Tri . The difference here is the like to go into a bit more dark and haunting areas where projects like Schloss Tegal and Kerovinan have traveled. I really feel the sounds that Hyios create are the sounds and feelings you will hear when you travel between life and death. There is a kin ship to bands like Coph Nia, Nordvargr, Sleep Research Facility and even Aube from time to time. The tones are down right unnerving to say the least and it gives you a heavy low end in the bass mixed with odd percussive items that sound like bones and metal grinding at a few places through out the release. Malignant seems to be one of the few labels that really still care about experimental dark sounds any more CMI is going martial and noise and Dark Vinyl and Eibon seem to be sadly M.I.A these days and I haven't been following Cold Spring as they refuse to send me promotional material to review ... Again Jason from the wonderful digi-pak packaging to the stellar production of the audio . Hyios is just that a fabulous dark ritualistic ambient release needed for a scene that seems to have dug way underground again...

http://malignantrecords.com/




Collapsar- Beyond the event horizon-CD (Malignant Records)

Cold , Desolate, Massive and Noisy all in the same breathe. This is what Dark Industrial music is all about and this French unit is all that and more. Collapsar is a wall of sonic drones, drifts and low end rumbles and tones that you can feel to your very bones. I like the slow ebbing what sound like horns from ships passing in the sea's at night. I wonder if this is what the universe sounded like while it was forming. There is a chaos to this that seems to sound like creation itself and that is what makes it all the more interesting. This is much noisier then I expected but I like it all the more for this. There is a harsh almost punishing sound to it then it peaks and goes back to the more middle and calmer grounds again. Collapsar is a labor of love and you can feel it with every layer of this project. Collapsar isn't an easy listen even for the more adventurous industrial / noise fan. Collapsar is a CD that you need to give a few listen at minimal to fully hear all that is going on this is my 2nd full listen and I know there is much I am missing here. Just with the last CD the packaging is in an amazing digipak with a production second to none. This is a mandatory listen for this reviewer.

http://malignantrecords.com/