Release of the Day: Akitsa - Grand Tyrans

Akitsa's Grands Tyrans covers a lot of territory. It shouldn't be that much of a surprise, though. Outre-Tombe (real name Pierre-Marc Tremblay) is also the brainchild of Contrepoison, Guerre Solitaire, in addition to running the Quebec label Tour-De-Garde. On Grands Tyrans, he uses his background in underground music to his utmost advantage, welding together his interests in the experimental, the electronic, the dark, the visceral, and the strange.

On select tracks, Outre-Tombe incorporates full-on, distortion-less singing. Though a song with more melodic vocals, like "Chimeres," would seem more at home on a deathrock record, it makes sense in reference to the whole. Of course, Tremblay knows this. That's why he'll follow such a song with a straight-up burner like "Noire Bete Ailee" pounding the listener with blast beats, shrieks, and cold riffs.

That's how it succeeds so brilliantly. Grands Tryans gets its strength from its variety, its brutality, and its commitment to fuck with its audience. Where black metal records often become tedious through uniformly-belabored structures, lyrical themes, and vocal style, Akitsa transcends.

Akitsa will also be performing at Berserktown II at the Observatory in Santa Ana, CA.

Release of the Day: Alberich - NATO Uniformen

Alberich's NATO-Uniformen was originally released as a set of eight cassettes in an edition of 50 on Hospital Productions. It's findable online, but those cassette sets are few and far between and expensive to boot if you manage to find one. A set has sold for $300 on Discogs. Lucky for those of us who slept on the original set, Hospital has reissued it as a somewhat abridged 2 x LP in two editions: 250 white vinyl and 450 black vinyl. While there were 30 songs in the original set, this 2 x LP contains 19. In my opinion, it's a bit of a tour de force, and an expansive overview of much of what falls into the Industrial genre.

Obviously, Alberich is most widely described as a power electronics project, but NATO-Uniformen is more varied. That's not to say that there isn't straight power electronics here with rhythmic crunch, feedback, and distorted vocals, because there is. It's just that Kris Lapke also likes to throw in surprises, like a strangely danceable drumbeat at one point or a piece that might be more in the vein of dark ambient. This variety stops the album from becoming monotonous, which is the easiest pitfall for an industrial record.

If you're in Chicago, I know that Reckless gets stuff from Hospital, but other than that, I think you're best bet is to order online, and I'm not sure how you can get the white vinyl in the states. I know Heaven Street got the black vinyl and if Sean didn't get the white ones, then I don't know who did. I had to order my copy from Europe actually, but I'm collector scum so that's what I get.

Below is a full album stream.

Release of the Day: Various Adversaries - Around the Dragon's Broken Neck Hangs The Medal of Saint Lazarus

ATDBNHTMOSL was the first thing I bought from Hospital Productions, Dominick Fernow’s excellent label that releases everything on the darker wavelength of the music spectrum. I bought this cassette because of the Contrepoison songs - “I Keep on Searching” was something of a transformative song for me. A lot of the beauty lies in the simplicity, but it was also hearing that someone could make such a powerful song without a ton of resources. It probably changed the way I approached music on the whole.

This was my first foray into power electronics and industrial noise. I never really looked at the track list on this 2 x CS until recently. And my friend Erik is on there as Kama Rupa. This sounds totally ignorant, but I just had no idea. It’s funny how after a few years sometimes you become more acquainted with surrounding details that can make a piece of work more meaningful. I bought the 2 x CS because of the poppy song “I Keep on Searching,” and while that had a lot of impact, I’m equally impressed by the noise and electronic work of some of the other artists on here. Alberich, Blus De La Lum, FFH, Kama Rupa, Lussuria, Prurient, and Vatican Shadow all make appearances. It’s a great opening to the Hospital Productions roster.

Surprisingly, it's on Spotify too so you can listen to it Here