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This month's ten tracks you should hear:

And So I Watch You From Afar
If it ain't broke, break it
And So I Watch You From Afar

One of the unexpected star turns of Damnation the other week, yet another instrumental "post-metal" band, but not one that sound like everyone else. For starters, they rock like bastards, they have an ability to make lengthy songs - and a lengthy album - consistently interesting, and their marvellously deranged song titles suggest that there is a sense of humour in there somewhere, too. Anyway, this song. A lengthy, muscular build-up breaks to a single, insistent guitar riff, before it all kicks off again with an impressive guitar solo at the heart of it all, and then doing it all again, in an even better way. Just for once, can the mainstream music press focus on a truly great band/album like this rather than those wannabe-baggy fuckwits in Kasabian?

[:SITD:]
Rot V1.0
Rot

I've felt in the past that while good at what they do, [:SITD:] have in recent years become a bit one-paced, and indeed the last album wasn't half as good as it could have been. I've still not had the chance to listen to all of the new album yet, but this track leapt out as a perfect example of what they can do. Finally, they've upped the BPM somewhat, and this pounding track is their best track probably since their debut album got us interested in the first place. The change in choice of those doing the mastering - it's X-Fusion this time - also appears to have made a big difference - this sounds massive, and certainly club-bound. Maybe a few changes and tweaks were all they needed after all.

The Twilight Sad
I Became A Prostitute
Forget The Night Ahead

I've noted before that it took me a while to discover this band, but now I've caught up I've picked up the new album pretty quickly. It's a bit special, too. Broadly, it's more of the same - shoegazey rock with a gut-wrenching emotional core that allows the band to transcend what would otherwise be a torrent of accusations that they are yet another My Bloody Valentine clone. Really, they aren't, and they aren't really like anyone else much, either. A little bit special, a little bit precious, one of eleven more songs to make you reflect, think, and every now and then shed a tear in sympathy with the heartbreak displayed here.

Assemblage 23
collapse
Compass

I make absolutely no apologies for including two of the bands here for the second month on the trot. There is a good reason, of course: both artists in question have album tracks even better than the preludes I enthused about last month. The new A23 album keeps up the quality we've come to expect - this is top quality melodic electro-EBM-industrial with a songcraft second-to-none - but like previous albums, there is one song that simply stands head, shoulders and probably a bit more over everything else. Collapse is that song here. Lyrically a little darker and more pessimistic than usual, it retains Tom Shear's seemingly unique ability nowadays to shift through the gears to a chorus that sends shivers down the spine. It's bouncy, quick-paced beats are going to be great for dancefloors, too.

Sunna
Spider
TWO MINUTE TERROR

I said last month that "if the rest of the album is of this quality, I'm all ears". The good news is that it really is all of this quality, even the cover of ASHES TO ASHES. There's a lot more power and drive than on the debut album, in my view, less ballads and more uptempo stuff. This is the opening track, opening with bubbling, churning electronics before a simply monstrous drum loop stomps over everything and fills the speakers: and even more amazingly, it keeps building, keeps getting more complex and louder, and never once loses it's grip. It's spectacularly good - ok, I've no idea what the vocals are going on about, but then they ain't really the focus here. Welcome back folks, and this time, please don't leave the next album so long. And when are the live shows coming?

W.A.S.T.E.
Marked For Extinction
A Silent Mantra Of Rage

W.A.S.T.E.'s long-awaited (and long-delayed, it seems) return has been worth the wait, although things aren't quite the same as before. Not that this is a bad thing - on first listen, many tracks are more rooted in pure industrial noise, and only a few tracks rush headlong into rhythmic noise. Either way, this is brutal stuff and will be guaranteed to have some people running away quickly. It'll just have me turning it up, though. This track is probably the most dancefloor, er, friendly: five-minutes of unrelenting industrial beats and distorted, uncomfortable vocal samples. A full review will follow in the coming weeks.

Katatonia
The Longest Year
Night Is The New Day

The lead singer of Opeth, Mikael Åkerfeldt, has been vocal in recent weeks about how brilliant this album is, and now it's out and I have it, he wasn't kidding. Katatonia have simply continued what they have done so well for the past few albums - that is, pitch-dark, brooding gothic/doom metal. The bit that sets them apart from their peers, though, is vocalist Jonas Renkse. It's his clean, melodic vocals, coupled with his lyrics that always have that hint of malice and simmering fury, but never are inaccessible. Instead these are almost dark-pop songs at their heart. In short, this album is bloody glorious, and Katatonia are the primary reason I'm going to the Paradise Lost gig tomorrow.

Fuck Buttons
The Lisbon Maru
Tarot Sport

I knew next to nothing about this band until I stumbled across the video for single Surf Solar of late, and they are rather different to what I had expected. They are rather irritatingly described as "noise" in the music press (note: the term "noise" in music I understand to be much harsher and louder than this - in fact, see W.A.S.T.E. above - it is not a bunch of indie-kids playing with electronics), when in reality they are much more, listenable. Andrew Weatherall's production hand here has resulted in a sun-drenched, lazy sound that allows each of the seven songs here to unwind in their own sweet time - five of the songs are around nine minutes long or more. Remarkably, it's never boring, either. This track has a nagging, incessant martial beat that underpins it but never dominates, but keeps driving things on while all kinds of things sweep in and out of the speakers. To me, it's perhaps the kind of sonic effect you'd get going deep into the sea, as schools of fish sweep past you, and you head back towards the sun-drenched surface. It's a bit good, this.

Hope Sandoval & The Warm Inventions
Trouble
Through The Devil Softly

The return of Hope Sandoval after a long absence between albums is most welcome, and even after all these years her songs and voice remain as sensual as ever. And on this track more than any other on the album, the ghost of Mazzy Star looms very large indeed. So if you know Mazzy Star, you know what to expect - slow and sparse instrumentation, and Sandoval's rich voice dominates the song as it should (and not to mention that this song can only be described as sexy as hell). So, anyway, about that reported Mazzy Star reunion...

XP8
Want It
Want It EP

After the quantum leap that was The Art Of Revenge, I have been looking forward to what this band did next. This is the lead single from the forthcoming album, featuring Daniel Graves of Aesthetic Perfection, and it's pretty good. Dominated by a twisting electro-beat, the filthy-minded lyrics suggest all manner of bad things, and is a much more effective take on this subject than the previous album's Cracked.

sarakthx's top albums (overall)
1. Nevermore - Dreaming Neon Black (1956) 2. Soundgarden - Superunknown (1632) 3. Tori Amos - Scarlet's Walk (1426) 4. Porcupine Tree - Deadwing (1423) 5. Placebo - Battle For The Sun (1263) 6. Tori Amos - From the Choirgirl Hotel (1249) 7. Opeth - Watershed (1244) 8. A Perfect Circle - Mer de Noms (1207) 9. Tori Amos - Boys for Pele (1046) 10. Katatonia - The Great Cold Distance (1036) 11. Tori Amos - The Beekeeper (818) 12. Strapping Young Lad - Alien (797) 13. Assemblage 23 - Storm (698) 14. Josh Groban - Closer (690) 15. Mindless Self Indulgence - Frankenstein Girls Will Seem Strangely Sexy (678) 16. The Smashing Pumpkins - Greatest Hits (658) 17. Assemblage 23 - Defiance (650) 18. Evanescence - The Open Door (589) 19. Alice in Chains - Facelift (555) 20. Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral (551)

Playlist:
Tyrondai Braxton - Dead Strings (From the brand new Central Market album, out on Warp September 14)

Black Devil Disco Club - Dangerous Mix (From The Strange New World Of Bernard Fevre out on Lo Recordings September 11th)

Martial Canterel - Hausmann (Off the album Refuge Underneath on Wierd Records)

Contra - Obsessionism (From their new release on DTrash Technologies called Enter the Winter)

Rotersand - Waiting To Be Born (From their brand spankin' new album Random Is Resistance, out on Metropolis October 27th)

Gatekeeper - optimus maximus (Out on Fright records, a brand new imprint of Kompakt. This single just came out on Halloween, yay)

Apoptygma Berzerk - Non-Stop Violence

Automelodi - Buanderie Jazz

royksopp - This Must Be It (Apparat Remix)

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Heads Will Roll (Tommie Sunshine Remix)

Zero 7 - All Of Us

Things Kat's Excited For:
Seeing Skinny Puppy in Vancouver this week!

I also can't wait to here more from Mesh's new album, A Perfect Solution. I've been hearing bits here and there but I can't wait to receive the album in its entirety. It's truly going to be awesome (unlike the disappointment I have felt over Assemblage 23's new one... don't get me started)

New Releases October 12th, 2009 - November 1st, 2009
October 13, 2009: Hudson Mohawke - Buter (Warp)
October 13, 2009: Terrorfakt - RE/Evolution (Metropolis)
October 13, 2009: My Robot Friend - Soft-core (Double feature/Worried Rainbow)
October 20, 2009: Assemblage 23 - Compass (Metropolis)
October 20, 2009: Electic Six - Kill (Metropolis)
October 23, 2009: Raz Ohara & The Odd Orchestra - II (Get Physical)
October 23, 2009: Mesh - A Perfect Solution (Metropolis)
October 27, 2009: Velvet Acid Christ - The Art of Breaking Apart (Metropolis)
October 27, 2009: [:SITD:] - Rot (Metropolis)
October 27, 2009: Rotersand - Random Is Resistance (Metropolis)
October 31, 2009: Gatekeeper - Optimus Maximus (Fright)

1.Dissection
First Song: Maha Kali
Song I fell in Love With: The Somberlain
Current Favorite: Night's Blood

2.X JAPAN
First Song: Kurenai ...8 years ago and I still remember the first time this song hit my ears...
Song I fell in Love With: Kurenai (the first time I heard it)
Current Favorite: Sadistic Desire

3.The Birthday Massacre
First Song: Kill the Lights
Song I fell in Love With: Kill the Lights (again as soon as I heard it...I can usually tell if a band is going to become a favorite pretty quick)
Current Favorite: Lover's End

4.Bloodbath
First Song: Outnumbering the Days
Song I fell in Love With: Bathe in Blood
Current Favorite: So You Die

5.Carpathian Forest
First Song: Shit...ummm One With the Earth (I think)
Song I fell in Love With: One With the Earth
Current Favorite: Christian Incoherent Drivel

6.CKY
First Song: 96 Quite Bitter Beings
Song I fell in Love With: Escape from Hellview
Current Favorite: Lost in a Contraption, but all of their songs have been favorites of mine at some point

7.Misfits
First Song: We Are 138
Song I Fell in Love With: Skulls
Current Favorite: London Dungeon

8.Akira Yamaoka
First Song: ...i feel (First heard back in my DDR days didn't really get into his Dark Ambient works until MUCH later)
Song I Fell in love With: Promise (Reprise)
Current Favorite: Promise (Reprise)

9.Theatres des Vampires
First Song: Woods of Wallachia
Song I Fell in Love With: Woods of Wallachia
Current Favorite: Unspoken Words

10.Xasthur
First Song: I don't know
Song I fell in Love With: Purgatory Spiral
Current Favorite: Summon the End of Time

11.Assemblage 23
First Song: Bi-Polar
Song I fell in Love With: Let Me Be Your Armor
Current Favorite: Decades (V2)

12.Burzum
First Song: War
Song I fell in Love With: Jesus' Tod
Current Favorite: Erblicket die Töchter des Firmaments

13.Orgy
First Song: Blue Monday (like everybody!)
Song I fell in Love With: Stitches and Vague (I sort of got into them twice)
Current Favorite: Vague

14.hide
First Song: Tell Me
Song I fell in Love With: DICE
Current Favorite: scanner, D.O.D., and HONEY BLADE. I won't even attempt to decide between them.

15.Arsis
First Song: The Face of My Innocence
Song I fell in Love With: The Sadistic Motives Behind Bereavement Letters
Current Favorite: Maddening Disdain

Overall Top 10:
01. Rome - Flowers From Exile
02. Brillig - The Red Coats
03. TriORE - Three Hours
04. Church of Misery - Houses Of The Unholy
05. Psyclon Nine - We The Fallen
06. General Surgery - Corpus In Extremis: Analysing Necrocriticism
07. Khanate - Clean Hands Go Foul
08. Meg & Dia - Here, Here, and Here
09. Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue with the Stars
10. Awen - The Bells Before Dawn






11 Storm Unit - Dark Messiah
16 - Bridges To Burn
23 Trublion 23 - Cheval Pyromane
A Challenge of Honour - Leonides
A Challenge of Honour - 1666 - The Great Fire Of London
Abigail - Sweet Baby Metal Slut
Absu - Absu
Aethenor - Faking Gold and Murder
Against Nature - Action At A Distance
Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Agorapocalypse
Alcoholic Faith Mission - 421 Wythe Avenue
Alien Vampires - Fuck Off And Die
All Hail The Transcending Ghost - All Hail The Transcending Ghost
Altar of Plagues - White Tomb
Amesoeurs - Amesoeurs
Amy Millan - Masters Of The Burial
Anaal Nathrakh - In The Constellation of The Black Widow
Andrew W.K. - 55 Cadillac
Antagama - Warning
Apati - Eufori
Arcana Coelestia - Le Mirage De l'Idéal
Arckanum - ÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞÞ
Area Bombardment - Iron Will
Asobi Seksu - Hush
Asphyx - Death... The Brutal Way
Assemblage 23 - Compass
Austere - To Lay Like Old Ashes
Awen - The Bells Before Dawn
Babyland - Cavecraft
Bad Sector - CMASA
Beirut - March Of The Zapotec and Realpeople Holland
Big Business - Mind the Drift
Biomekkanik - State Of Perfection
Black Math Horseman - Wyllt
Black Moth Super Rainbow - Eating Us
Blue Tape for a Blue Girl - 10 Neurotics
Blut aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II: Dialogue With the Stars
Brighter Death Now - Breaking Down Nihil
Brillig - The Red Coats
Brutal Truth - Evolution Through Revolution
buckshot facelift - Anchors Of The Armless Gods
Bye Bye Bicycle - Compass
C/A/T - We Are Still Alive
Caïna - Caïna
Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
Caustic - This Is Jizzcore
Church of Misery - Houses Of The Unholy
Cities Last Broadcast - The Cancelled Earth
Coke Bust - Lines In The Sand
Cold Cave - Cremations
Colosseum - Chapter II: Nunquam
Combichrist - Today We Are All Demons
Converge - Axe To Fall
COUM Transmissions - The Sound Of Porridge Bubbling
Courtney Tidwell - Boys
Cult Ritual - Cult Ritual
Culted - Below The Thunders Of The Upper Deep
Current 93 - Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain
Daniel Johnston - Is And Always Was
Dark Castle - Spirited Migration
Darkness And Silence - The Traumatization And Torture Of The Victim
Dead Man's Hill - Songs From The Forthcoming Apocalypse
dead mellotron - Ghost Light Constellation
Delorean - Delorean
Der Blaue Reiter - Nuclear Sun
Der Blutharsch - Flying High!
Der Weg Einer Freiheit - Der Weg Einer Freiheit
Desire - II
Destroyer - Bay Of Pigs
Diamatregon - Crossroad
Die Weisse Rose - A Martyrium Of White Roses
Do Make Say Think - Other Truths
Dragonette - Fixin To Thrill
Drudkh - Microcosmos
Eldar - Sapere Aude
End - III
Ephel Duath - Through My Dog's Eyes
Epic45 - In All The Empty Houses
Extinction Algorithm - Extinction Algorithm
Fen - The Malediction Fields
Frozen Plasma - Artificial Evolution
General Surgery - Corpus In Extremis: Analysing Necrocriticism
Genocide Organ - Live In Japan 2007
Genocide Organ - With heard And Hand
Giant Squid - The Ichthyologist
Gigantic Brain - World
Glorior Belli - Meet Us at the Southern Sign
Golgatha & Birthe Klementowski - Cycles
Golgatha - The Waste Land
Gorgoroth - Quantos Possunt Ad Satanitatem Trahunt
Grammal Seizure - Dedicated To COUM & TG
H.E.R.R. - XII Caesars
Hail of Bullets - Warsaw Rising
Hatred Surge - Deconstruct
Heroin and Your Veins - Nausea
Horna - Musta Kaipuu
Horrific - Your Worst Nightmare
Hummingbird of death - Show Us the Meaning of Haste
Hypocrisy - A Taste Of Extreme Divinity
Immortal - All Shall Fall
Inade - The Incarnation Of The Solar Architects
Infernal Stronghold - Godless Noise
Inner Vision Laboratory & Roto Visage - Cinema Strain
Instinct of Survival - North Of Nowhere
Interface - Visions Of Modern Life
In[Perfektion] - Vultures Among Us
IN[TOXIN] - UFO Rave
Isis - Wavering Radiant
IXXI - Elect Darkness
Jesu - Infinity
Jesu - Opiate Sun
Jóhann Jóhannsson - And In The Endless Pause...
Jonsi & Alex - Riceboy Sleeps
Julie Thompson - Feeling The Corners
K. Meizter - Tetraphobia
Karen O and the Kids - Where The Wild Things Are OST
Karjalan Sissit - Fucking Whore Society
Katharsis - Fourth Reich
Kazeria [KZ] - Credo Nostrum
Khanate - Clean Hands Go Foul
KMFDM - Blitz
Knifeladder - Music/Concrete
Lethian Dreams - Bleak Silver Streams
Lifelover - Dekadens
Local Natives - Gorilla Manor
Locrian - Drenched Lands
Longmont Potion Castle - Volum 7
Lordamor - Lordamor
Luigi Rubino - A Theme For The Moon
Magrudergrind - Magrudergrind
Marduk - Wormwood
Marissa Nadler - Little Hells
Martyrdöd - Sekt
Matt & Kim - Grand
Metaconqueror - Of Steel, Bone, And Fire
Nachtmahr - Alle Lust Will Ewigkeit
Nadja - Belles Betes
Nature Destroyed - Hassliebe
Nebelhexë - Dead Waters
Nekrasov - Tramp And Void
Nicole 12 - Nippon Ballerina Voyeur
Nile - Those Whom The Gods Detest
Noisuf-X - Voodoo Ritual
Oranssi Pazuzu - Muukalainen Puhuu
Owl City - Ocean Eyes
Pandique - In Sturm Und Leben
Parlamentarisk Sodomi - De Anarkistiske An(n)aler
Peaches - I Feel Cream
Pensées Nocturnes - Vacuum
Pestilence - Resurrection Macabre
Piano Magic - Ovations
Pilory - Until The Day Dawn
Portal - Swarth
Portion Control - Crop
Propagandhi - Supporting Caste
Psyclon Nine - We The Fallen
Punch - Punch
Rammstein - Liebe Ist Für Alle Da
Rammstein - Pussy
Raoul Sinier - Tremens Industry
Rise and Fall - Our Circle Is Vicious
Rome - Flowers from Exile
Rome - To Die Among Strangers
Rose Rovine e Amanti - Demian
Roses Never Fade - Roses Never Fade
S.E.T.I. - Corona
Satan's Revenge On Mankind - Supreme Malicious Necro Terror
Say hello to my kids - Say Hello To My Kids
Secrets of the Moon - Privilegivm
Shattered Hand - Thrown Into The Fire
Shattered Hand & Svart1 - Spring Wind Brings Water
Skagos - Ást
Solanaceae - Solanaceae
stereomotion - SehnSucht
Sunn O))) - Monoliths & Dimensions
Tegan and Sara - Sainthood
Temple of Dagon - Book of Azathoth
Terrorfakt - ReEvolution
The Axis of Perdition - Urfe
The Big Pink - A Brief History Of Love
The Cavalcade - Meet You In THe Rain
The Chasm - Farseeing The Paranormal Abysm
The Dutchess And The Duke - SunsetSunrise
The Fauns - The Fauns
The Flaming Lips - Embryonic
THE HARE AND THE MOON - The Hare and the Moon
The Hidden Cameras - Origin:Orphan
The Mayfair Set - Young One
The Moon and the Nightspirit - Ősforrás
The Ruins of Beverast - Foulest Semen of a Sheltered Elite
The Silent Years - Let Go
Throbbing Gristle - The Third Mind Movements
Throne of Katarsis - Helvete - Det Iskalde Morket
Thy Catafalque - Róka Hasa Rádió
Tony Wakeford - Not All Of Me Will Die
Toroidh - Eine Kleine Marschmusik
Totalt Javla Morker - Sondra & Harska
TriORE - Three Hours
Trist - Willenskraft
Trist - Za Hranicí Skuteçnosti
Uzi Suicide - Moshin' N' Thrashin'
VNV Nation - Of Faith, Power And Glory
Valravn - Koder Pa Snor
Velvet Acid Christ - The Art Of Breaking Apart
Vestigial - Solar
Von Thronstahl - Germanium Metallicum
White Mice - Ganjahovahdose
Wino - Punctuated Equilibrium
Witch Hunt - Burning Bridges To Nowhere
Wolves in the Throne Room - Malevolent Grain
Wolves in the Throne Room - Black Cascade
Wormrot - Abuse
Wumpscut - Fuckit
X-Fusion - Ultima Ratio
XBRAINIAX - Hail Fastcore
Xentrifuge - Converting Infinity
YACHT - See Mystery Lights
Z'EV - Sum Things

I heard it on Pandora while I was either on my Laibach or Heimataerde station. I somehow downloaded it while scrounging around on Safari's activities tab. I don't remember the title or artist, but I like it a damn lot. It's some sort of German EBM/Industrial. You can download it here.


In Strict Confidence
Dawn of Ashes
KMFDM
Assemblage 23
Velvet Acid Christ
Combichrist
Grendel
Retrosic
:wumpscut:
Front 242
Frontline Assembly
Suicide Commando
Tactical Sekt
Kraftwerkt
Skinny Puppy

Live to air every Monday from 10pm-Midnight AEST on 4ZzZ 102.1fm (Brisbane, Australia).
Catch us on our live stream via http://stream.4zzzfm.org.au (Mon. Midday-2pm GMT/UTC)

http://www.myspace.com/dark_essence

1. Centhron - Testosteron
2. Detroit Diesel - Serenade
3. C/A/T - We Are Still Alive
4. stereomotion - Filth
5. Bow Ever Down - Perfect World
6. Roughhausen - Dirty Little Secret

Interview with Brodie & Glen from Felinedown
7. Felinedown - Push
8. Felinedown - Sweet Remix By Daleese

9. Mindless Self Indulgence - Never Wanted To Dance [Pansy remix by The Birthday Massacre] **req**
10. Portion Control - Brain Scraper Death Dive [rebuild]
11. U.M.M. - EBM
12. wertstahl - Identify Second Pass [Funker Vogt remix]
13. Atari Teenage Riot - Death Star **req**
14. X-Fusion - House Of Mirrors
15. Sycophant Project - Resurrection
16. Moodorgan - Treasure [Assemblage 23 remix]
17. State of the Union - Radioman [Club mix]
18. Lutherion - Katharsis
19. V2a - Jesus Loves You [Centhron remix]
20. Nachtmahr - Mörder
21. Mental D-struction - Discharge
22. Grendel - Chemicals And Circuitry [Studio-X Hard Dance remix]
23. Comaduster - Warning Call
24. Diduct - Messfit