Genre/Influences: Industrial, Experimental, Dark-Ambient, Noise.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Vadge Moore (previously involved with Dwarves) and Wendy Van Dusen (Neither World) were active as Chthonic Force releasing a few productions during the late 90s and early 00’ years. This ‘best of’ was originally released as CDR format in 2007 and reissued in 2020 as CD.

Content: Chthonic Force is a project reminding me of the early years of Industrial/Experimental music. So it’s not a coincidence you’ll find interesting guests like Boyd Rice, Monte Cazazza, Peter Sotos (Whitehouse) and Thomas Thorn (Electric Hellfire club) featured on a few songs. The songs are characterized by dark atmospheres mixing Industrial-, Ambient- and Experimental music together with on top narrative vocals. The lyrics have something controversial, somewhat shocking and yet also philosophical.

+ + + : I think Discriminate Audio had a real good idea bringing this album alive on CD format while the digipak looks pretty cool. The front cover perfectly illustrates the dark and controversial atmosphere hanging over the music. Together with the music it all reminds me of the early 80s and some of the pioneers in this music genre. To see Boyd Rice and Monte Cazazza being featured only reinforces the early 80s spirit of the work. The tracks have something disturbing, but still revealing a critical perception about different topics. Sound-wise there’s a great fusion between different noises sources and electronic manipulations.

– – – : The album is maybe missing an absolute highlight, but on the other side I prefer an album catching your attention for the entire run instead of a few great tracks. No doubt about it the front cover will be censored on some social media because of its explicit content and that’s too bad!

Conclusion: This work brings us back to the roots of Experimental/Industrial/Ambient music and yet it was composed years after this magic decade.

Best songs: “Agathodaemon”, “Assume The Position feat. Boyd Rice”, “White Logic”, “Mouth Pigs feat. Peter Sotos”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.vadgemoore.com / www.facebook.com/chthonicforce

Label: www.discriminateaudio.com / www.facebook.com/discriminate.audio