Italian EBM and industrial duo Alien Vampires will release their 2010 album “Harshlizer” on vinyl for the first time on November 30, 2026, through Alfa Matrix. The LP is limited to 300 copies worldwide, with no repress planned.

‘Harshlizer’ vinyl: format and tracklist

The vinyl edition carries new artwork designed specifically for the LP format and reproduces the original ten-track album across two sides:

A-side:

1. “No Way Back”
2. “Evil Bloody Music”
3. “She’s On Drugs (more than me)”
4. “See You In Hell (feat. Suicide Commando)”
5. “Harshlizer”

B-side:

1. “Lies”
2. “Control The Universe”
3. “Nothing To Lose”
4. “Far Away”
5. “Her Blood Into My Veins”

“Harshlizer” marked the start of Alien Vampires’ relationship with Alfa Matrix when it was first released in 2010, and includes “See You In Hell,” the duo’s collaboration with Suicide Commando. A digital version of the album, expanded with the “Industrializer” bonus disc of additional tracks and remixes released in 2024, remains available on Bandcamp.

Part of the Alfa Matrix Essentials vinyl series

The “Harshlizer” LP is part of Alfa Matrix Essentials, a vinyl reissue series tied to the label’s 25th anniversary that brings catalogue albums to the format for the first time. Alien Vampires previously released the limited-edition LP “Kinky To Hell” on solid red vinyl through Alfa Matrix in 2022.

About Alien Vampires

Alien Vampires is an Italian industrial, EBM and dark electro duo formed in 2003 by Nysrok Infernalien, who handles guitars and keyboards, alongside Nightstalker on keyboards and drums. The project released its debut single, “I’m Dead Fuck You,” in 2004, followed by the album “Evil Generation” in 2005 through Kold Finger. After the 2007 EP “Nuns Are Pregnant” and the album “No One Here Gets Out Alive” through BLC Productions, Alien Vampires released “Fuck Off and Die!” in 2009.

“Harshlizer” arrived in 2010 as the duo’s first release through Alfa Matrix, a relationship that has continued since. Alfa Matrix issued a deluxe two-CD version of “Harshlizer” paired with the bonus disc “Industrializer” in February 2024, gathering additional tracks and remixes from the same period as the original album.

Alien Vampires continued with the EPs “Clubbers Die Younger” (2012), “Hard Drugs & BDSM” (2014), “World in Denial” and “Destrudo” (both 2020), and the albums “Drag You to Hell” (2015), “Evil Degeneration Offspring” (2017) and “Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse” (2018). “Drag You to Hell” featured collaborations with members of Ministry, Mayhem and Psyclon Nine. The duo’s most recent album, “Return Me To Hell,” followed in 2023 with a cover of Skinny Puppy’s “Assimilate” featuring former Slipknot drummer Joey Jordison, in one of his final recordings before his death.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Miseria Ultima, the Finnish dark electro revelation, has just released its fourth studio album, “Arctic Esotericism”. This album continues their exploration of the cold ethos and philosophy of the North, diving into themes of existence from birth to death.

The album is available now on Bandcamp and on CD via the Alfa Matrix webstore.

The album opens with the powerful track “Displayed For Punishment”, setting a harsh aggrotech tone. This is followed by “In Murder” and “Virtue And Desolation”, featuring fast-paced, icy melodies. “Thorns And Tragedy” stands out with its grief-laden atmosphere, offering the band’s signature Skinny Puppy like style. Other tracks such as “Spiritual Nailbomb” carry desperate undertones, while “Storms of Atonement” is a mid-tempo, depressive piece.

“Arctic Esotericism” will for sure appeal to fans of bands like Amduscia, Suicide Commando, C-Lekktor, Alien Vampires, and especially early Skinny Puppy. You can already check out a few tracks below.

About Miseria Ultima

Miseria Ultima is a Finnish industrial electro band formed in 2016 by Aleksi Martikainen (vocals) and Kimmo Huhtala (synths). Their music blends elements of EBM, aggrotech, and dark electro, creating a unique sound characterized by cold, melancholic atmospheres and intense, aggressive beats.

The band has released several well-received albums, starting with their debut “Phosphor” in 2017. This was followed by “Graygarden” in early 2020, which continued to build their reputation in the dark electro scene. In 2022, they signed with the Alfa Matrix label and released their third album, “In Colors of Void”​​.

Miseria Ultima draws inspiration from the harsh, cold environment of northern Finland, translating the stark beauty and desolation of their surroundings into their music. Their lyrics often explore themes of mortality, grief, and introspection, influenced by their experiences and philosophical reflections​. Read the review of ‘Arctic Esotericism’.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

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C-Lekktor, a leading name in the dark elektro scene alongside Hocico, Rabia Sorda, and Amduscia, celebrates its 20 years anniversary. Markko B. has now released a special “2.0” double-CD deluxe digipak on Alfa Matrix. This release includes fan-favorite club hits and revamped versions of 12 classic tracks.

This 2CD version is available now via the Alfa Matrix website, the download version via Bandcamp. The album is also available in a special combi pack along the new releases from AD:keY and Miseria Ultima.

On this new album Markko B. has breathed new life into frequently requested songs performed at concerts. Updated tracks such as “An Empty Soul”, “Infected”, “Paralisis”, “See My Hate”, “El Comienzo De La Muerte”, and “Our Dark Side” are reimagined and rearranged, while classics like “World Of Fantasy”, “Juicio Final”, “Hellektro Convulsion Therapy”, “Solo En La Oscuridad”, and “Silence Remains” have received powerful makeovers.

The release also features harsh elektro tracks in their original form from recent albums, including fresh tracks like “God Killer” and “Are You Ready For The Bass?” alongside dancefloor cuts “Out Of My Way”, “Cyborgs”, and the track “Animals”.

Additionally, the double-CD set includes the exclusive unreleased track “I Don’t”, originally written during “The Silence Procession” era, and a cover of Depeche Mode’s “Always You”.

You can listen to all of the tracks below.

Fans of dark hellektro music, especially those who enjoy Suicide Commando, Hocico, Alien Vampires, or Noisuf-X, will find this double-CD essential.

About C-Lekktor

C-Lekktor, spearheaded by Marco Antonio Barrientos (Markko B.), has been an important force in the dark elektro scene for over two decades. Emerging from the vibrant Mexican electro scene of the 1990s, C-Lekktor made its first appearance with the demo CD “Re-a-Gression”.

Known for its aggressive and energetic sound, characterized by harsh vocals, pounding beats, and dark, atmospheric melodies, the project gained widespread recognition with performances across Mexico and internationally.

In 2005, the project released the maxi-CD “Words of Evil” and participated in the “Electro Map-Latam Compilation”. The following years saw C-Lekktor performing extensively, including concerts in Peru and Chile, and performances on major events like the “Necropolis Fest”.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Alien Vampires out of print 2010 album “Harshlizer” is available again in a 2CD deluxe version this coming February 14th (pre-orders available now). The re-release comes in brand new uncensored artwork taken from the original photo sessions of the models featured on the album’s original cover.

This reissue holds the “Industrializer” bonus disc, featuring additional tracks and remixes created during the same period as the original release.

This 2CD version is available now from the Alfa Matrix webstore in pre-order, as download via Bandcamp and in a combi pack together with the all new albums from Acylum (2CD), Synapsyche (2CD), and Implant (CD).

To give you an idea what this album was about, check out the below videos.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries) By the end of 2023 Alien Vampires unleashed their sixth full length album “Return Me To Hell” which was released by Alfa Matrix. It also was the Italian formation’s first new studio album in six years. Behind the provocative image of the band hides talented artists who brought different Electronic influences together; from EBM to Dark-Electro to Industrial to Techno and even a touch of Dark-Pop “Return Me To Hell” first of all is the return of a great and unique formation. I talked about the album, image, side-projects and a few more things with Nysrok.

Q: You never stopped releasing EP’s, doing remixes and unleashing the massive boxset “Evil Lasts Forever” but “Return Me To Hell” is your first new studio-album since “Drag You To Hell” (2015). How comes it took that much time to release a new full length and what means this new work in the band’s history and evolution?

Nysrok: Well, I live in London, and my bandmate Nightstalker lives in Milan (Italy); a bit far in terms of logistics, travelling, etc.  As  far as I remember, we had a plan to release the first EP, and then the full length album, but then Covid came, and the rest is Salvatore Brizzi history, let’s see what’s going on next. Our approaching  to composition and recording is not so usual actually, it’s not about an acting, it is Salvatore Brizzi about our life, we are not playing a role, to communicate this kind of feelings it needs more time and accuracy.

Q: The album has been announced as dealing with themes of ‘depths of despair, pain, and personal struggles’, right? Can you tell us a bit more about the themes and how much does this work reflect who you are aside of the artists known as Alien Vampires?

Nysrok: Interesting question, the concept of “Return Me To Hell” was kind of misinterpreted by most of the fans I fear. The concept was all related to the loss of one my closest friends, with whom I had a strong esoteric connection, let’s say it was Cathartic, summoning the Egregore through all my bloods connected. It was creepy, lethargic, near death experience.

Also I can confirm that “Return Me To Hell” is closing the trilogy started with “Drag You To Hell”,  through “Kinky To Hell”. Next year we are going to celebrate 20 years of Alien Vampires!! And the new album will be Industrial-Metal-Goth oriented, end of an era, new one is coming… 

Q: It became a double album featuring twenty one songs. When did the writing process of this album started and how did it finally take shape? What have been the main challenges and difficulties you encountered?

Nysrok: We had many issues, if you consider that  one of our guests was Joy Jordison (ex-Slipknot)… Then unfortunately he died when all the material was ready to be mastered, so we wanted to wait, to be honest with you we were a bit lost… you know we also had a band called Electhrone with him and after his death we took some time off. Then we chose to add the song recorded with him but without his name in order to respect him, there would have been too much attention on that… and then suddenly Attila posted  on Instagram (Mayhem) talking about Jordison’s appearance on our album, at that point almost every magazines were talking about that.  Now you can easily understand, with this kind of issues, and with these kind of guests, the recording process is not  easy at all, when Jordison went to the studio in the US, it took almost three weeks recording the drums, of course if you record at home with your laptop, it’s easier, that’s not our way of working…

Q: So you Nysrok are now living in London. How is it living over there and what are the main differences with Italy and especially the impact/influence of this place to the music you’re composing?

Nysrok: I was living in London due to my parents, since 1993, would take ten interviews, to remember and talk about all the all experiences I had (laugh)… At that time you had a club event every night of the week. I saw both Black-Metal and Industrial scenes rising, so I can confirm, living here influenced me about Alien Vampires for sure, and for my previous band Aborym as well.

Q: Alien Vampires is a band with a strong, provocative, image but how important is this image and what does it reflect from yourself?

Nysrok: We were the first band introducing Satanic, BDSM, porn blasphemy, occultism, I’m talking  about the images and concept, in the harsh scene. For us it’s not important, it’s what we are, the funny thing is that after a while all the bands in the scene started imitating us. I always have an advice:  if you are not a devotee and not into esoterism and occultism, don’t talk about it because the dominating evil is taking everything back.

Q. Like you said you also had some great amazing collabs on this new album but also including guest vocals by cult model Dani Divine? How did you get in touch with her?

Nysrok: We know each other since always, we used to hang out in the same clubs in London, so the collaboration was quite easy, also she likes our music, and we love her style and attitude.

Q. Like you said another noticeable collab is your cover of “Assimilate” by Skinny Puppy featuring stars like Attila Csihar (Mayhem), Istvan Zilahy (Plasma Pool) next to the late Joey Jordison (Slipknot).  Anything more you want to tell us about them?

Nysrok: I used to play with Attila in Aborym, since 1999 to 2007, I became friend with Jordison around 2009 he was looking for members about his project (Scar The Martyr). He was a fan of Alien Vampires! His favorite song from Alien Vampires was “You Wish Me Dead Get In Line”. After some years together with Attila, Nightstalker and Zilahy, we formed Electhrone, the first song we recorded was the cover of “Assimilate”  because we all loved that song, we even got more material recorded, but after his death we decided to put all in a hiatus…

Q: I was really impressed by the mini-album “Death’s Dance” from your side-project Speed Injektion? Any further plans for this project and what about Hell_E9, Infernalien ao? What brings the future?

Nysrok: Thank you. About Speed Injektion we are preparing the new full-length which should be released end of 2024. For Hell_E9 we are ultimating the new EP is gone be released for Alfa Matrix soon… about  Infernalien  we are recording  a cover called “Satan’s Generation” (Impaled Nazarene) which will be included in the next EP, and we will have Faust (Emperor) at the drums. We keep ourselves busy ;-).

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

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Celebrating its 30th year, Audioglobe, the most important distributor in the darkwave scene, just shared a statistical review, revealing the shifts and trends in the darkwave (and related) music genre.

Our readers will surely remember that we have reported on these stats for years, until 2018, the first year that Audioglobe didn’t communicate these stats. Sebastian Koch from Audioglobe explains: “Some customers never really cared that much about these, as they have better things to do than reading boring mails from the undersigned. But… Surprisingly there are quite a high number of customers, that sort of ‘complained’ about the fact, that no stats were being done any longer… The reason is: I was simply always far too busy in past years. Anyway: Here we go with the first new stats since 2017!”

So here are some export facts.

Top 10 Bestselling Labels of 2023 (export)

1. FABRIKA/DEAD SCARLET
   • She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…
2. METROPOLIS
   • Birthday Massacre, Delerium, Front Line Assembly, A Projection, KMFDM, Legendary P.D…
3. ICY COLD/MANIC DEPR.
   • Twin Tribes, Je T’aime, Traitrs, Kill Shelter, Closed Mouth, Talk to Her, Schonwald…
4. ALFA MATRIX
   • Alien Vampires, Front 242, Metroland, Die Robo Sapiens, Elm, 808 Dot Pop, Helalyn Flowers…
5. RUSTBLADE
   • Claudio Simonetti, Ennio Morricone, Lycia Lunch, Spiritual Front, Ketvector, Legendary Pink D…
6. OUT OF LINE
   • Blutengel, Hocico, Solitary Experiments, Suicide Commando, Signal Aout42, Erdling…
7. TRISOL
   • Sopor Aeternus, Rome, Clan of Xymox, Asp, Ostara, Skinflicks, Nachtmahr, Mantus, Soman…
8. DEPENDENT
   • Kirlian Camera, Girls Under Glass, Spectra*Paris, Mildreda, Black Nail Cabaret, Beborn Beton…
9. ARTOFFACT
   • Actors, Noise Unit, cEvin Key, Kaelan Mikla, Ploho, Sacred Skin, Kauan, Ken Mode, Spectres…
10. AUERBACH
    • Spiritual Front, Sol Invictus, Tenhi, Moon and the Night Spirit, Haavard, Hekate, Orplid…

Best Export Territories of 2023

If we look at the Audioglobe stats, we notice that Germany and Greece remain the company’s strongest markets, continuing a trend that has been consistent for ages. However, the 2023 statistics reveal some notable shifts.

Canada, once a prominent market for Audioglobe, has surprisingly disappeared from the export landscape. In contrast, the United States and the United Kingdom have re-emerged as significant territories, marking their return to prominence in the darkwave music scene after several years.

The most unexpected development in 2023 is the rise of Australia as a key market. This growth stands in stark contrast to Switzerland, which, despite its affluence, has seen a sharp decline in sales. Sebastian Koch adds: “The (by far!) lowest sales of all countries where we export to, was to Switzerland… The rich Swiss don’t buy records! Since I left the country (1990), something is wrong back home!”

Here is the top 10 list of export territories:

1. Germany
2. Greece
3. Netherlands
4. Portugal
5. USA
6. United Kingdom
7. Australia
8. Spain
9. Russia
10. Poland

Not in the top 10, but France, Japan, Malta, Brazil, Sweden, Mexico, and Perù are also good export territories for Audioglobe.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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It’s been 20 years since the American synthpop/EBM band Glis, aka Shaun Frandsen, debuted on Alfa-Matrix with the “Balance” album. Glis was one of the 10 first bands that signed to then very young Belgian label.

20 years later Glis returns revisiting “Sunrise”, a single which was a major club hit back upon its release. The track comes in a brand new enhanced v3.0 mix, and is backed by what you can call a showcase of the evolutionary history of the track throughout the years, including two instrumental versions.

The release is out now on Bandcamp with other platforms to follow in the next weeks.

About Glis

Seattle-based Glis was formed by Shaun Frandsen and Andrea Ashdown. They signed to Alfa Matrix after the release of their first album, “Extract”, in 2002. Andrea left after their second album and Shaun continued Glis as a solo project, working with a range of contributors.

The project is characterized by its blend of futurepop—a genre that combines elements of electronic body music (EBM), synthpop, and trance—with other electronic influences.

“Nemesis”, released in 2005 and featuring Jean-Luc De Meyer on guest vocals, saw the act change from poppy EBM to a darker, more industrial-influenced sound.

While Glis’s sound has been compared to other notable acts in the futurepop and EBM genres, Frandsen has managed to carve out a unique niche for the project with his distinctive approach to songwriting and production. Over the years, Glis has released several albums and EPs on Alfa Matrix.

Check out Glis on Spotify.

Glis discography

Albums

1. Extract – 2001 (A.D.S.R. Musicwerks)
2. Equilibrium – 2003 (Alfa Matrix)
3. Balance – 2003 (Alfa Matrix / A.D.S.R. Musicwerks)
4. Nemesis – 2005 (Alfa Matrix)
5. 2001-2008 A Shot And A Bassline – 2008 (Alfa Matrix)
6. Phoenix – 2013 (Alfa Matrix)

Singles & EPs

1. Disappear! – 2004 (Alfa Matrix)
2. Apocalypse Parties – 2012 (Alfa Matrix, AM 3046DJ)
3. 4.4U [2012.12] (amGod / Cynical Existence (2) / Glis / Alien Vampires) – 2012 (Alfa Matrix)
4. Seconds – 2013 (Alfa Matrix)
5. Hate You (Glis & DJ Areal Kollen) – 2014 (Xiami, 12526632667)
6. Sunrise Forever – 2023 (Alfa Matrix)

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro, Industrial, EBM.

Format: Digital, 2CD.

Background/Info: Italian Electro-act Alien Vampires strikes back with their first new studio-album in eight years. “Return Me To Hell” is a double disc featuring twenty one songs. The sixth studio full length comes 20 years after the band’s inception.

Content: Alien Vampires haven’t changed their initial approach composing harsh and merciless Electronic music. Harsh and provocative but still featuring ‘poppy’ melody lines, the work brings different influences together. Most of the tracks are powerful now and then boosted with extra guitar riffs. The second disc sounds more diversified, exploring Industrial-Rave fields -one of the cuts have been composed together with Chainreactor.  A few extra guests have been invited to achieve this work which comes to an end with a cover version of Skinny Puppy’s legendary hit “Assimilate”.

+ + + : Time is going fast but Alien Vampires haven’t lost their power and nose for provocation. Just take a look at the front cover of the album and you’ll immediately seize what this band is made of. But Alien Vampires are much more than an image, it’s a band with a great sound. There’s no true innovation but a perfect balance between elements of Dark-Electro, EBM, Techno-Trance, Industrial and even Dark-Pop. All ingredients have been shaken by powerful rhythms to produce dancefloor killers. The first disc sounds great but the second one moves a step further revealing a band at full speed and driven by adrenaline. Nothing sounds impossible for Alien Vampires and everything they touched turns into sonic gold. It’s hard to give a favorite track as there are multiple smashers featured.

– – – : The single cut that couldn’t convince me is the chaotic-sounding cover version of “Assimilate”. This could be cool to play live but poorly inspired on this album. I think there’s no reason to complain about this single cut as this album is probably the best one the ‘vampires’ have ever released.

Conclusion: A fully accomplished and diversified piece of Dark-Electro made in Italy.

Best songs: “Destroyer”, “10 Bags 10 Lines”, “Hyperbolic Doubt Feat. Chainreactor”, “Ready To Die”, “Automatic Writing”, “World In Denial”, “Time”, “Fuck Borders”.

Rate: 9.

Artist: Official Alien Vampires Facebook page

Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix Read the news on ‘Return Me To Hell’.

About Alien Vampires

Alien Vampires is an industrial, EBM and dark electro project from Italy, founded in 2003 by guitarist and keyboardist Nysrok Infernalien. Synthesist Nemesis joined the same year, followed in 2004 by keyboardist and drummer Nightstalker. The band signed to the Italian label Kold Finger in 2005, releasing the debut album “Evil Generation” that year and the EP “Nuns are Pregnant” in 2007. A 2007 deal with the US label BLC Productions produced the second album, “No One Here Gets Out Alive”.

Alien Vampires signed to Alfa Matrix in 2010, releasing “Harshlizer” that year, followed by the EPs “Clubbers Die Younger” (2012) and “Hard Drugs & BDSM” (2014), the album “Drag You to Hell” (2015) with guest appearances from members of Ministry, Mayhem and Psyclon Nine, and further EPs including “Evil Twin” (2018), “World in Denial” (2020) and “Destrudo” (2020). “Return Me To Hell”, the band’s sixth full-length album, followed in 2023, eight years after “Drag You to Hell”.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Joey Jordison’s final recording was a cover of the Skinny Puppy cult hit “Assimilate”, featured on Alien Vampires’ new album “Return Me To Hell”, out via Alfa Matrix. The band recorded the cover in collaboration with Electhrone, Attila Csihar (Mayhem) and Istvan Zilahy (Plasma Pool) next to the late Joey Jordison (Slipknot).

It was Attila Csihar, Mayhem Vocalist and Jordison’s former bandmate in Sinsaenum, who confirms it on Instagram.

Csihar took to Instagram to spotlight the recent cover of Skinny Puppy’s “Assimilate”, performed with the dark electro act Alien Vampires. He added, “This is, in fact, Joey Jordison’s last recording. RIP my Blood”. Jordison, the former Slipknot drummer, passed away unexpectedly in 2021 at the age of 46.

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A post shared by Attila Csihar (official) (@attilacsiharofficial)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Taken from Alien Vampires’ recently released new album “Return Me To Hell”, comes the brand new 2-track download single “Witchy Bitchy”.

“Witchy Bitchy” features nobody else but legendary alternative sexy model and cage dancer Dani Divine on additional vocals. Coming from London, Dani Devine is a professional model who gained popularity in the alternative modeling scene (fetish, goth, steampunk…). She won amongst others the Ultra Vixen of the Year award.

The new single features an exclusive upbeat remix of the song by the band’s side-project Speed Injektion. Bandcamp fans will also receive the exclusive uncensored video clip that was made for “Witchy Bitchy” by Asako.

Below is the video you get as well via your Bandcamp download.

Since 2003, Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker have been delivering aggressive and powerful dark EBM music under the Alien Vampires moniker. They mix harsh distorted vocals with lots of sexuality and industrial dance.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Alfa Matrix, the renowned Belgian label, commemorates its 22nd anniversary with yet another mastodont compilation on Bandcamp. The latest installment in the acclaimed “Matrix Downloaded” series, titled “Matrix+ Downloaded 011”, is now available as a free download on their Bandcamp page. Packed with 60 tracks, including new signings and a preview of the upcoming Spleen+ label releases, this compilation showcases Alfa Matrix’s diverse music repertoire.

“Matrix+ Downloaded 011” soared to the top of the industrial Bandcamp charts within hours of its release, claiming the coveted number 1 position.

The collection holds 60 tracks in total including several new signings. These are the bands present on this brand new free download compilation: Hanging Freud, The Ultimate Dreamers, The Breath Of Life, Psy’Aviah Feat. Sorrow Stories, ImJudas, Star Industry, Halo In Reverse, Lovelorn Dolls, The True Union, Freakangel, Avarice In Audio, Siva Six, Alien Vampires, Synapsyche, Helalyn Flowers, Neuroactive, Elektrostaub Feat. Stefan Netschio, Technoir, Entrzelle, Llumen, Noemi Aurora, Aiboforcen Feat. Jan D., Reichsfeind, Mondträume Feat. N-Frequency, The Psychic Force, Digital Factor, Implant, Darkness On Demand, Aesthetische, Komor Kommando Vs. The True Union, Matthew Creed, C-Lekktor, First Aid Tech, Pouppee Fabrikk, ELM, Die Robo Sapiens, Plastic Noise Experience, Armageddon Dildos, Stahlgeist, AD:keY, Kant Kino, Suicidal Romance, Miseria Ultima, First Aid 4 Souls, Neikka RPM, Circumpolar, Venal Flesh, Helle9, Diffuzion, Acylum, Circuito Cerrado, Aengeldust, Studio-X, 808 Dot Pop, Cubic, Metroland, Rector Scanner, Elektroklänge, Cosmic Armchair, Lights A.M.

You can download “Matrix+ Downloaded 011” for free via Bandcamp.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Since 2003, Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker have been delivering aggressive dark EBM music under the moniker Alien Vampires, combining harsh distorted vocals and apocalyptic industrial dance. They are now back with their double-CD (21-track) album, titled “Return Me To Hell”. The album also features a cover of the classic Skinny Puppy track “Assimilate” in collaboration with Electhrone, featuring Attila Csihar (Mayhem), the late Joey Jordison (Slipknot) and Istvan Zilahy (Plasma Pool).

Alien Vampires has also invited the techno body act Chainreactor for a jam session on the track “Hyperbolic Doubt”, and the legendary alternative model and cage dancer Dani Devine lends her vocals to “Witchy Bitchy”.

The album is currently available for pre-order on Bandcamp and can be purchased as a 2CD set through the Alfa Matrix webstore. Additionally, there is a special pre-order offer that includes a combination pack with Darkness On Demand’s album “Digital Outcast”.

All other platforms will get a censored version of the cover artwork, you can see the subtle differences below.

When asked about the concept behind this album, the duo explains that it delves into the depths of despair, pain, and personal struggles, symbolizing a desire to confront and embrace one’s inner demons.

“Return Me To Hell” is presented as a deluxe double-CD digipak with an extended booklet and uncensored artwork design by the talented Anna Troedsson, featuring BDSM models Frostslavee and Cindy Rocketheart. Read the review of ‘Return Me To Hell’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Nine years after the release of their first tribute to The Cure, titled “A Strange Play – Tribute to The Cure“, Alfa Matrix and Spleen+ have joined forces to create a follow-up tribute album. The second volume in the series, “A Strange Play (Vol. 2) – Tribute to The Cure“, features 27 tracks, including electro, synth pop, EBM acts from Alfa Matrix and cold wave, post-punk, and gothic rock bands from their Spleen+ division and is out now via Bandcamp, the label’s webstore and all other platforms.

The album includes reinterpretations of classic hits and lesser-known B-sides, shedding new light on the original tracks or giving them an entirely different sonic perspective. The tribute album itself this time is a collaborative effort between both established and emerging artists from the Alfa Matrix and Spleen+ rosters.

Compiled by and for The Cure fans, this new tribute adventure brings together a growing roster of Spleen+ artists, including Noemi Aurora, Star Industry, Imjudas, The Ultimate Dreamers, The Breath of Life, and Lovelorn Dolls. Additionally, the album features synth and electro cult acts, as well as upcoming Alfa Matrix artists, such as Neuroactive, Armageddon Dildos, Implant, Darkness on Demand (formerly Dance or Die), Helle9 (an Alien Vampires side-project), Metroland, Aesthetische featuring Zombie Girl, Aiboforcen, Technoir, Kant Kino, Digital Factor, Regenerator, Lights A.M (an Essence of Mind solo project), Neikka RPM, First Aid 4 Souls, Diffuzion, Avarice in Audio, Elektroklänge, Circumpolar, and Cosmic Armchair.

In conjunction with the release of “A Strange Play (Vol. 2),” goth-metal/darkwave act Lovelorn Dolls has released a single and accompanying video clip for their cover of “Lullaby.” The music video, created entirely using artificial intelligence, tells the story of a girl pursued by a mysterious, threatening, yet alluring man. The video’s creator, Kristell, was inspired by her own childhood experience of being both fascinated and frightened by The Cure’s original “Lullaby” music video.

Here’s the track list for the new volume which is available now on 2CD via the Alfa Matrix webstore and as download via the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page and the Spleen+ Bandcamp page.

Here’s the first volume.

Side-Line also covered The Cure’s ‘s ’.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

The American (Denver-Colorado) female fronted industrial metal act The True Union, aka Azul Far, released the “Love Me Now” mini-album/EP in December last year. The new EP, released on the Belgian label Alfa Matrix , sees front woman Azul Far joined by producer Sebastian Komor and German metal producer Siggi Bemm and Travis Bacon who produced “Love Me Now”.

On the EP we also find a guest appearance of Jamie Cronander’s (Combichrist live guitarist) who appears on the track “Karma”. The EP also features a unique collaboration between The True Union (as guest vocalist) and her producer Sebastian Komor under the Komor Kommando moniker for the track “One By One”, which equally appeared on the Komor Kommando EP “One By One”. The EP also furthermore holds reworks by Alfa Matrix label mates Alien Vampires, Aesthetische and Acylum.

Time to sit around the table with Azul Far…

SL: Your “Love me now (not)” is surprising in, many ways I find! First of all by that intense diversity of sound displayed across these 9 tracks?

AF: I’m glad to hear you’re enjoying the EP! I like to create the music organically. The songs on this EP have been created across the last few years while I was going through different life cycles and experiences. I think those life experiences reflected in the music and made the EP sound more dynamic. But although the songs might seem to be different genre or somewhat different from one another, they all have an order amongst the chaos. The music is just me. I let the music speak for itself. I don’t have categories. I just do what I do because I enjoy doing it and sharing it with the world.

SL: But also surprising for the multiple collaborations featured!? Tell us more about these?

AF: I have met a lot of great people in the last few years. It came down to networking and making new friendships during our shows and through the internet, especially from 2018-2020. People that heard the demos or saw us live really believed in the band. I am forever thankful for their support. For example, Attila (Mayhem) recommended me to producer/musician Travis Bacon. He polished the sound of the band, producing several tracks that ended at the ears of a few record labels. Shortly after, I got signed with Alfa Matrix. Once signed, I started talking with Sebastian Komor who’s also signed with the label. I have always enjoyed his work and really like the music he’s done (Komor Kommando, Zombie Girl, Icon of Coil +). He also produced a few tracks and we even did the “One By One” collab which has been one of the favorites for sure. I also had the opportunity to work with legendary Siggi Bemm. I had him on my radar ever since the release of “Animatronic” from The Kovenant. I recall being a very young teenager back then and thought to myself “one day I’m going to work with him!”. Years later…it happened. Crazy how life works! Siggi produced and recorded the drums for “Blinded”.These are the only live drums recorded in the EP. But I am happy to announce that i’ll have another special guest record the drums for an upcoming release. A very special guest and a friend for years. This guy’s name is Jan Axel Blomberg (AKA Hellhammer). Have you heard about this guy? 😉 hehe.

I also had the pleasure to have Jamie Cronander record the guitars for a few tracks. I met Jamie when we joined a regional tour with Psyclon Nine. Jamie’s band, Striplicker touring along as well. I had a blast watching his band perform live every night and we became really good friends. He was always very supportive and when the time came, he recorded some sick guitars for me. He’s a coveted motherf*cker who is now playing with Combichrist. I am very fortunate to have him as a special guest.

SL: You also shot a stunning video clip for “love me now”? I have the impression you are a multi-talented artist? How important is it for you to do all this on your own?

AF: Doing everything myself has been out of necessity and not by choice. I have adapted to my environment and have learned a lot of magic tricks along the way. Is it ideal? No, but sometimes it is. Working on everything by yourself gives you full control but it can also slow down the creative process. It can be very fulfilling but it can also be aggravating and you can end up feeling like you’ve “hit a wall”. The quote “If you want something done, do it yourself” comes to mind. But as time goes by I have tried to have more people involved in the music process and listen to their input. In particular for the video, I had my best friend invest a lot of her time and energy into this project. This took months of work, practice and lots of trial and error. If it wasn’t because of her, I would have not been able to make this happen. Doing things alone can be fun, but as you grow, I think it’s best to ask for as much input as possible from people that you trust.

SL: Can we expect The True Union on stage soon with these new songs?

AF: Live shows are on my radar but nothing set in stone yet. I think there will be a right time and place to do this. At the moment, I am focusing on new music and my personal life. Believe it or not playing live shows are mostly terrifying for me. They can also be fun sometimes and of course you get the exposure and ability to network.

But you have to consider there is a lot of planning and financial investment involved. I’m sure l’ll know if/when the time is right. For now it’s free time in the studio…

SL: What else can we still expect from you this year?

AF: A full album! I will get into details about the upcoming release with the label soon. We don’t have a set date yet but I’m sure we’ll let you know when this happens. We are also working on the last few details to release a couple of collaboration tracks I did for other artists. Be sure to check us out periodically because you never know ;).

Here’s the excellent video clip for “Love Me Now”.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

The post-punk scene has a new recordlabel with Alfa Matrix launching a sublabel created to accomodate this specific genre and its varieties including coldwave or even minimal synth. Called Spleen+ you can already find 2 bands signed to it, the Belgian post-punk act The Ultimate Dreamers, who launched their label debut with the EP “Polarized”, and the Italian new wave act ImJudas who presents 2 new EPs, “People Of The Blame” and “So Untrue”.

We sat together with Seba Dolimont who is the A&R behind Spleen+ (and Alfa Matrix).

SL: Congratulations Seba with the new endeavour. Why start a side label next to Alfa Matrix?

SD: Since 2001, Alfa Matrix has been showing a quite eclectic approach of our music repertoire and label artist roster. We release EBM music from FRONT 242, POUPPEE FABRIKK, ELM or DIE ROBO SAPIENS, but also harsh dark elektro with ALIEN VAMPIRES, ACYLUM or C-LEKKTOR, minimal vintage synth with METROLAND, future pop with REICHSFEIND, NEUROACTIVE, MONDTRÄUME, BRUDERSCHAFT… Modern avantgarde electro with RECOIL, IMPLANT, KOMOR KOMMANDO, PSY’AVIAH or yet CUBIC! But also without forgetting our darker acts merging industrial with goth darkwave guitars like STAR INDUSTRY, HELALYN FLOWERS or FREAKANGEL.

We have been toying with this idea for this Spleen+ division for many months. It’s not something that comes out on the spur of the moment, you need to prepare such additional activity within our whole Alfa Matrix Label Group concept. We have been following and enjoying this continuous resurgence of the cold wave / post punk / minimal synth scene for some time. We also noticed that new sub-scene walls started emerging from the ground where the fans do not look much over the walls. Dedicated events and festivals get organised. Dedicated blogs, playlists, etc. start gathering more and more dark souls… So the idea from our side is to simply contribute to this movement offering it some structured and more targeted approach cos there are so many talented artists out there in need of support in their DIY efforts. This focused approach should allow us better supporting artists playing this kind of sound and reaching out to a boiling sub-scene, enlarging our scope of activities and bringing complementary fanbases together because eclecticism remains a core value for our work… And this without bringing us too far away from our roots cos the label team is made of 3 friends born in the early 70’s who were fed on JOY DIVISION, THE CURE, SIOUXSIE, SISTERS OF MERCY and other GHOST DANCE, X-MAL DEUTSCHLAND and SKELETAL FAMILY and not only on 80’s synth pop and the Belgian Electronic Body Music movement!

SL: What (new) signings can we expect?

SD: The very active Belgian act THE ULTIMATE DREAMERS is our first new signing in the genre (see the number of concerts they already played this year only! They are amazing! Their new album comes out in March…) while some current Alfa Matrix artists are potential candidates for a next release on Spleen+ including IMJUDAS or yet STAR INDUSTRY for example. Together with Frédéric Cotton (known for decades of activities as concert & party promotor in Brussels behind the famous “Fantastique Nights” but also as lead singer of THE ULTIMATE DREAMERS) we will also release this year a mega compilation devoted to the cold wave/post punk genre showing how prolific this scene can be anno 2023! We are working on it as we speak…

Since the announcement of this new label division, I am also quite happy and positively surprised by the number of proactive connections we got from very great bands who showed interest in working with us. That’s really exciting. Of course some of them are cool Belgian bands, some being living legends, cos it’s always easier collaborating with a local label speaking your language, but we are also in contact with artists from the UK, Italy, South America, etc. Nothing I want to reveal yet, but we will do this on due time. Keep an eye on our pages at https://www.facebook.com/spleen.plus and https://spleenplus.bandcamp.com . A website will follow soon as well.

SL: Will this also mean extra vinyl releases?

SD: The vinyl format is part of the equation on today’s music market. A portion of music fans who are collecting physical products do prefer the vinyl format but not all of them. So already with Alfa Matrix we have been issuing vinyls for some time for selected bands with own fanclubs and/or who are touring a lot. The vinyl format is also very appropriate to the cold wave/post punk genre that is uniting past, present and future. So my answer is a big YES. Absolutely!

Below are the first releases from the brand new label:

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial, Metal, Electro.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Belgian label Alfa Matrix from time to time likes to think out of the box, signing heavier, Industrial- and Metal-driven artists to their roster. The True Union is an American project driven by female artist Azul Far. After having released works under The Union moniker this EP has been released under The True Union. Seb Komor (Komor Kommando) took care of the production.

Content: The True Union in a way stands for the mix between heavy guitar power and electronic treatments. One of the songs even features guitar playing by Combichrist live member Jamie Cronander. Multiple influences are running through the work. From Epic arrangements to D’n’B elements the songs are also featuring enraged, and possessed, vocals by Azul. It’s not a coincidence Seb Komor asked her to sing on the title song of his newest EP “One By One” -which by the way has been featured here as well. You’ll also discover remixes by Alien Vampires, Aesthetische and Acylum while there’s also an alternative edit of “Blinded” featured as well.

+ + + : The True Union definitely sounds as one of the most furious and ‘wild’ artists signed to Alfa Matrix. It’s a shock because of this artist’s uncompromised and totally enraged way of singing. The sound is not only powerful but also a bit anarchistic. The True Union is a bulldozer on speed provoking a sonic avalanche. I however have to say my favorite song is the Komor Kommando-track “One By One” while I also prefer the Dark-Electro accentuated remix of the title song by Acylum.

– – – : I don’t have anything against harsh and powerful music but The True Union is hard to label and hard to seize.

Conclusion: Merciless and without any possible compromises, The True Union exposes you to a true sonic outburst.

Best songs: “One By One”, “Love Me Now – Acylum Remix”, “Blinded”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.thetrueunion.com / www.facebook.com/thetrueunion

Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix Read the news on ‘Love Me Now’.

Listen to “Love Me Now (Not)”:

About The True Union

The True Union is an American, female-fronted industrial metal project driven by Azul Far, released under the True Union moniker after earlier work as The Union. The EP “Love Me Now (Not)” was produced by Sebastian Komor of Komor Kommando alongside German metal producer Siggi Bemm and Travis Bacon, and features a guest guitar appearance by Combichrist live member Jamie Cronander on “Karma” plus reworks by Alfa Matrix label mates Alien Vampires, Aesthetische and Acylum. The release also marks a collaboration between Azul Far and Komor on his own Komor Kommando EP “One By One”.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The female fronted industrial metal act The True Union is back with an all new video, “Love Me Now”, and a mini-album, released as an EP: “Love Me Now (Not)”.

The new EP is out on Alfa Matrix , the Belgian label that already nurtured other female talents as Zombie Girl, Under Null, Helalyn Flowers or Ayria to name just a few.

For this new release front woman Azul Far was joined by producer Sebastian Komor and German metal producer Siggi Bemm and Travis Bacon who produced “Love Me Now”. On the EP we also find a guest appearance of Jamie Cronander’s (Combichrist live guitarist) who appears on the track “Karma”.

Note that the “Love Me Now (not)” EP also features the unique collaboration between The True Union (as guest vocalist) and her producer Sebastian Komor for the release of his new EP under the Komor Kommando moniker.

The EP also furthermore holds reworks by Alfa Matrix label mates Alien Vampires, Aesthetische and Acylum.

Here’s the excellent video clip for “Love Me Now”. Read the review of ‘Love Me Now’.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Those who already received the “Sounds From The Matrix 023” compilation with their recent orders from the Belgian Label Alfa Matrix (or who downloaded it here from Bandcamp) will have noticed two new names on the label roster. The first one is The True UnioN, a Dallas based industrial act, which we talked about yesterday. Today we bring you some info on the second band, Helle9 which opens the compilation with the track “Omen”.

Behind Helle9 we find the members of the dark electro act Alien Vampires. The approach for this new project is totally différent mixing current electro and even techno trends. For now there is only one track released so far, “Omen”. More news later on.

You can check out the track below, it’s the first song on the compilation.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro, Aggrotech.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Clockwork Echo is hailing from Denver (USA). It’s a solo-project driven by Gabriel Ryan. This is the newest work by the artist featuring nine songs plus two remixes.

Content: I honestly never heard of this project before. The work takes off with a mind-blowing piece, which sounds like the perfect offspring between Dark-Electro and Aggrotech. The harsh vocals inject an extra haunting and enraged touch to the production. This song is pretty representative for the rest of the work, which is however characterized by repetitive sequences and saturated vocal effects. Remixes have been accomplished by Alien Vampires and Komor Kommando.

+ + + : The opening song “Embrace The Silence So Cold” is a great cut and even a true smasher to take off. It’s just a pity this is also the best track from the opus. Clockwork Effect is a band that will find its way to underground dance floors. It’s also great to see this project got remixes done by great artists like Alien Vampires and Komor Kommando.

– – – : The sound is ultra-cliché, which is not really a point. But the main point that hurts is that songs are suffering from a lack of variation and elaboration. The sequences are constantly repeating themselves, which is a bit boring after a while. Even the remixes from established artists couldn’t totally convince me.

Conclusion: I heard an impressive debut song followed by stagnating and poorly inspired compositions. There’s more potential hiding behind this artist than what came out!

Best songs: “Embrace The Silence So Cold”, “No Quarter No Mercy”.

Rate: 6.

Artist: https://clockworkecho.com /  www.facebook.com/clockworkecho

About Clockwork Echo

Clockwork Echo is a Denver (USA) aggrotech project started by Gabriel Ryan in 2018. Earlier releases include the EP “Lest Hell Embrace You” (2018) and the album “Anti-Human Death Machine” (2020), self-released and composed and recorded entirely by Ryan. The project has toured with acts including Hocico, Psyclon Nine and SKOLD.

“Death Rebirth Repeat”, reviewed here, followed in 2022 with remixes from Alien Vampires and Komor Kommando.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Out on July 15 but already available in pre-order is the Alien Vampires limited edition vinyl “Kinky To Hell”.

This release is yet another one in in celebration for Alfa Matrix’s 20th anniversary. This exclusive solid red color vinyl is strictly limited to 300 units worldwide and gathers 9 original songs which have never been released in a physical format, and also mixing in songs that appeared previously on the digital-only EP’s “Destrudo”, “World In Denial”, “Evil Twins” and “Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse”.

You can expect the following from the duo Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker: harsh and powerful EBM mixing harsh distorted vocals and more melodic future pop-like backing vocals, in short you could label it as industrial harsh dance.

The tracklist is the following:

SIDE A

A1. World In Denial
A2. Destrudo
A3. 10 Bags 10 Lines
A4. AV Forever E9
A5. London Paranormal

SIDE B

B1. Darkweb
B2. Bring On The Apocalypse
B3. Ready To Die
B4. Fuck Borders

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Freakangel is back with an all new video , “The Last White Dance”, and a download EP with the same name which is available now on Bandcamp. The EP includes bonus exclusive remixes by Dawn Of Ashes, Alien Vampires, Acylum, Avarice In Audio, Freaky Mind and a special bonus in the form of an original demo track from 2009.

“The Last White Dance” is taken from the X Anniversary version of their debut album “The Faults Of Humanity” and, in co-operation with an Estonian film director and adult photographer that goes under the name of Basket Buns, it was turned into a NSWF (Not Are For Work) video. The music video is based on the grindhouse/cyberpunk series “Reval City” directed by Basket Buns which you can watch at www.revaluniverse.com.

The video for “The Last White Dance” includes additional content that was cut from the final version of the movie, so expect kinky footage. It is age restricted and can be accessed here.

Here’s the full EP available exclusively on Bandcamp with other platforms to follow in the next weeks.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: EBM.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: “Destruction” is the second EP taken from Armageddon Dildos’ last album “Dystopia” released in 2020.

Content: The title song was one of the main cuts of the album. It’s a powerful song to take off with while there also is a darker and punchy mix. A few other songs from the album have been remixed. “Ohne Dich” has been remixed by Aiborforcen and Messiaen Noir. Alien Vampires remixed “Burn Baby Burn” and Lights Of Euphoria remixed “Dance On Dead Bodies”. There’s also the new song “Colder”, which sounds simple while carried by a forceful chorus.

+ + + : “Destruction” remains a great EBM song from the “Dystopia”-album. It’s a well-crafted and powerful EBM song. I also recommend listening to the darker “Darkroom Mix”. Another essential piece is the impressive remix of “Ohne Dich” by Aiboforcen. This version sounds more accomplished and carried by a strong and elevating production.

– – – : I expected a bit more out of the other remixes.

Conclusion: “Destruction” brings the “Dystopia”-album back on the map; a great EBM production completed by this cool EP.

Best songs: “Ohne Dich – With Or Without Mix by Aiboforcen”, “Destruction”, “Destruction – Darkroom Mix”, “Colder”.

Rate: 7½.

Listen to “Destruction EP”:

Artist: www.facebook.com/armageddondildos

Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix Read the news on ‘Destruction’.

About Armageddon Dildos

Armageddon Dildos is a German EBM duo founded in Kassel in 1990. The band released through Zoth Ommog in the 1990s, including the CD EP “Fear” in 1993, and returned with “Morgengrauen” on Electric Blue in 2003 and “Sangreal” on Ausfahrt in 2005.

The Belgian label Alfa Matrix has released the more recent albums, among them “Untergrund” (2011), “Herbstzeitlose” (2018), “No Pain Forever” (2019) and “Dystopia” (2020). Side-Line spoke to the duo about that album in a ‘Click Interview’ with Armageddon Dildos in December 2020.

Two EPs drawn from “Dystopia” followed: “War Of The Religions” and “Destruction”, both released in 2021.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Out today via Alfa Matrix is the all new EP by the German cult EBM act Armageddon Dildos. “Destruction” is the 2nd EP taken from their last “Dystopia” album featuring 6 previously unreleased songs and mixes.

Note that Uwe Kanka totally reinvented the title song through his own ‘darkroom’ mix, with different vocals and a fully revamped instrumentations. Also included is the exclusive and previously unreleased EBM cut “Colder” plus remixes by Aiboforcen, Alien Vampires, Lights Of Euphoria and Messiaen Noir. 7 tracks in total.

Note that Side-Line published an interview with Uwe Kanka just yesterday.

Here is the new EP, available right now from Bandcamp with other platforms to follow. Read the review of ‘Destruction’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

While the Italian dark electro act Synapsyche are currently locked in the studio to record all new material, the band’s label Alfa Matrix has re-released the band’s 2016 album “The Abyss Effect” with a bonus track, a rather surprising cover of Moby’s hit “Lift Me Up”.

The reissued album is available on Bandcamp and all other platforms such as Spotify.

Originally released on May 13th 2016, “The Abyss Effect” is the trademark album for Synapsyche offering their by now well known mix of dark electro and harsh EBM. Included are such tracks as “We All Suck”, “Venereal”, “The Flesh Party” and the hit single, “Hate And Psyche”.

The album will certainly please the fans of Combichrist, Alien Vampires or yet Suicide Commando.

You can check out the album below on Bandcamp and Spotify.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

While the Italian dark electro act Synapsyche are currently locked in the studio to record all new material, the band’s label Alfa Matrix has re-released the band’s 2016 album “The Abyss Effect” with a bonus track, a rather surprising cover of Moby’s hit “Lift Me Up”.

The reissued album is available only on Bandcamp for now.

Originally released on May 13th 2016, “The Abyss Effect” is the trademark album for Synapsyche offering their by now well known mix of dark electro and harsh EBM. Included are such tracks as “We All Suck”, “Venereal”, “The Flesh Party” and the hit single, “Hate And Psyche”.

The album will certainly please the fans of Combichrist, Alien Vampires or yet Suicide Commando.

You can check out the album below, right now exclusively available on Bandcamp, later on on other platforms.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Alfa Matrix has been set up in 2001 by three friends. Séba Dolimont, Benoît Blanchart and Bernard Van Isacker were all involved with Side-Line magazine, but decided to start an Electronic label. The label became a home for artists dealing with EBM, Dark-Electro and Electro-Pop, but throughout the years the label welcomed other genres like Gothic, Ambient and Industrial. Front 242, Ayria, Pouppée Fabrikk, Plastic Noise Experience, Armageddon Dildos, Unter Null, Acylum, Implant, Metroland,  Zombie Girl, Helalyn Flowers, I:Scintilla, Mentallo And The Fixer, Leather Strip, Star Industry, Alien Vampires and many others joined the ‘matrix’. And I nearly forget to mention Aiboforcen which was set up by Benoît Blanchart and Séba Dolimont.

(Stéphane Froidcoeur / Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Was there a kind of ‘philosophy’ when you set up your label and did it evolve over the years? How would you define your label activities today?

Seba. Alfa Matrix was created in 2001 with 2 key values: running the label from an artist perspective in our collaboration approach, and focusing on a direct servicing of our customers. All this with the aim to support and market underground Electronic music with attitude with an eclectic approach. Twenty years later, and although the music market situation has drastically changed, we are still active on the same Indie music scene, we still dare signing newcomers and our repertoire confirms our quite open-minded sound range of interest. We do run the label in mutual respect and care with our roster of artists and developed a quite strong direct sales approach for both digital and physical releases.

So we quite sticked to our original mission and simply adapted our operational mode to the constantly evolving music consumption habits and we keep anticipating new trends in order to stay relevant and future proof.

Q: I can imagine you must have specific and explicit criteria to sign an artist/band. Can you give us more details about this aspect and how important is it for you to know the person(s) hiding behind the ‘artist(s)’?

Seba: Through the years, it has become harder and harder to open the gate of the ‘matrix’ simply because we want to stick to a certain maximum number of bands, but also because any new signing to the label should bring something new to the label family, add a new color to our sound/artistic palette. Also important for us is that any new addition to the label must get the green light form the 3 members of the label management team.

The art must touch us for sure, but personally, in my role of artists manager, I pay a lot of attention to the personalities of the artists, probably more today than 20 years ago! Simply because we believe in long term collaborations and to achieve such goal we better construct our relationship on solid foundations and values. So that personal click is also something I need to give my vote…

Bernard: Nowadays it takes time to launch a new unknown artist, and we work slowly, but steadily to get their music heard to the public. There is no magic formula to create instant success, it’s continuous work both by the label and the band. The first has to use the best channels to create the best value for the band while the bands have to work on social presence, and the interaction with fans on several platforms. It’s also why we have started releasing lots of singles, so bit by bit we reach a bigger audience this way via all platforms.

When we started the music market was already in decline so we had to start early on with a new model to get the word out. Know that there are many bands out there and if you actually look at it, too few labels to manage all those great talents.

Q: You are already active for numerous years now so you must have seen a lot of things changing and evolving; think about social media, streaming platforms, Youtube channels… but also economic crisis etc. What are the pros and cons of these changes/evolutions and in, which way did you had to adapt/change your strategy and activities?

Seba: As owners of a company several dozens of artists gave their trust to, the least we can do is running this company professionally through a strong overall financial management and anticipating business and market evolutions to remain future proof. This is why Alfa Matrix was one of the first labels from our scene to be on digital platforms, and I even remember some were laughing about us, especially when we decided to invest a lot in streaming that is still seen as a danger by some today. Like other labels we also went through some tough economic challenges when we faced several bankruptcies from big CD distributors in Germany or in America. But with our strategy of focusing on an international market rather than putting all eggs in one or two baskets, it was easier for us going through all this, and especially with the unmatchable force of having a strong fanbase buying in direct from our e-shops and giving us more financial independence.  So the decisions we make are more guided to the way we adapt our ‘go to market’ strategy: changing distribution channels, deciding how we spread our budgets and investments, etc…

Bernard: In respect to that, we have been continuously checking out new platforms to vet if they were adding value to our media mix or not. For instance Facebook was quickly used by us, but we also knew that this free ride would not continue and that at some point Facebook would close the open gates and restrict the organic reach from their pages. That happened, a bit later than we anticipated, but it did happen. The same for Instagram for example. The free rides are over and done and you can no longer count on getting free unpaid reach for every communication you do. During that process we continued to work on a direct relation with customers. So while some bands and labels have gone that far to only have Facebook as their window we never neglected the own properties we can manage for the full 100%: an own e-shop, a very active Bandcamp page which both have given that what we are looking for, namely a direct link with the fans. So, suppose that Facebook or any other social media platforms stops their activities, we won’t feel any impact as we have a direct link with customers. This under the hood approach has been working very well for us and is something we will continue to do. Social media for us are a nice extra, but nothing more than that, the real value lays elsewhere for us.

I also strongly believe in the streaming market for the future, it’s how most of the music will be digested by music fans alongside HQ audio which people will find on Bandcamp and via physical products. As far as YouTube is concerned, I share the same comment and idea which Dave Heckman made earlier this week to you. This Google moloch pays really peanuts, 10 times less than Spotify, it also offers poor audio, but surprise surprise… everybody wants to be on it. It’s maybe good for the image but not so good for your wallet in the end if you consider the production cost of a video versus the extremely low return you get from it. It doesn’t mean we don’t have to be present there, but I seriously doubt that a lot of money should be thrown at it, it’s not our preferred medium.

Q: The ongoing pandemic has affected all artistic life and activities so what’s the true impact on your label activities and do you think it will also affect your long term objectives?

Seba: First of all the pandemic affected every person behind our Alfa Matrix bands and the label staff itself, most probably first on a personal level, cos they themselves struggled against Covid-19 or lost loved ones around them. What obviously hurts the most is the recurrent cancellation of tours, festivals, shows… this is hard for all bands. The stage remains the ultimate place of communion between artist and fans. The duration of the pandemic crisis also makes it more and more complex for artists releasing new albums and not being able to perform the new songs live.

Economically, so far we have been working hard and increased our promotional efforts to support the bands. As a result we actually managed increasing our label turnover between 2019 and 2020 with over 15% although the lockdown hit us all heavily. It was a combination of efforts: we continued to deliver CD’s to shops in direct -when some of our distributors were obliged to keep doors closed for example, but also from our bands who released more digital music to also bring some nice entertaining moments to their fans in these difficult moments, but also from our fans who continued supporting us massively.

Now unfortunately we all know that the economic crisis that will follow will hurt at all levels, but we will only start experiencing the real impacts in the second half of this year. It’s then that more and more people will continue loosing their jobs, loosing a portion of budgets they usually put into art and leisure. I also hope that this sanitary crisis will lead more people to pay more attention to their health in general. So yes, the world will change for sure, and we will all need to adopt and adapt at some point.

Q: Do you think media (magazines, online platforms etc…) still have an impact and a role to play today? What’s your relationship with ‘journalists’ and how important is their work?

Seba: Media changed a lot in 20 years indeed! Print magazines have been going through tough times. The major challenge is remaining relevant as a print magazine coming out monthly while online news get published instantly and spread a few clicks further. Combining digital with print is not easy. Integrating social medias, streaming platforms, etc… in the overall journalistic equation is tricky.

It’s just like for music, the new generations tend to consider that art and information should be free of access. As a label, of course journalists still play an important role for a certain portion of music fans who still enjoy turning pages while reading and enjoying the pleasure of holding a magazine or a book in your hands. They then also reach out to the digital audience via their blogs and other websites. But the readers tend to identify themselves less than before to some specialized journalists, but will rather trust and follow the advise of some friends posting on social medias, other buyers leaving comments on webstores or other influencers. They also tend to trust themselves more and more and believe in algorithms recommending them the next music to play on their own music radar.

Bernard: Many online magazines do not publish news daily or even regularly which makes it difficult for them to stay relevant in these days of social media. In the past we were able to work with a lot of great web magazines, but these days we have to work with hundreds and most really have a very very small readership, while others have been smart enough to evolve, develop, stay relevant. Those online magazines from the past who did not evolve have seen their visitors go to Facebook and never have seen them back. Most also ceased all activity. It shows clearly that Facebook for instance is not the booster that most had hoped, on the contrary, and it also explains why many magazines are increasingly negative towards Facebook because they have now largely decided what you get to see, what you discuss about etc..  

As a label we must combine all these elements to reach out to our customers/fans and make choices based on gathered experience and acquired know-how, while exploring new grounds… 

Q: What do you consider as your biggest accomplishment(s)? Do you have specific goals/dreams you want to achieve and how do you prepare and see the future of the label(s)? And what are your biggest regret(s)?

Seba: I think our biggest accomplishment is to be talking with you today and celebrating 20 years of Alfa Matrix, each release from our music repertoire between 2001 and now each contributed to this success, from newcomer acts to living legends from our beloved music scene.

The only regrets I might have are first of all not to have 10 days in a week to do all I’d like to do, and maybe having put a couple of friendships in danger by starting a label collaboration with friends without having been enough aligned and synched together on strategic elements. As far as the future, I hope we will still be able supporting talents as long as possible and having the chance to release the great work from our artists, and working with experienced music supporters like you…

Bernard: I personally never expected that this story that started as an idea amongst friends would turn out to be that successful and long-lasting. Seba had the basic idea and then pitched it to Benoit and me. Since I knew Seba as a very trustworthy guy (you introduced him to me remember!) it didn’t take long for me to decide to get on board and invest in it.

As far as the future for the label, or any label, I guess that the love for what we and the bands do will be the biggest power behind it all. I still discover great music in this scene so we are not in desert modus. The biggest challenge will be to keep on making new people warm for this scene’s music. Not a simple task, but we’ll manage alright I think.

My biggest regret… we all know it’s very time consuming and it’s not always easy to find a good balance between family life and work. As far as my two colleagues is concerned, I know how to separate my private life from work, so even if we have some catfights about certain things (we have to agree all 3 on something or it doesn’t happen), we remain loyal friends above all. And as far as how we function together, you can say that the structured thinking of Seba combined with the fuzzy logic style of thinking of Benoit and myself is an ideal breeding platform for great adventures!

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

It has been a hectic year, also for Alfa Matrix, but luckily their bands took the time to work in their studio to record new material. Out now via the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page is the label’s 10th edition in the “Matrix Downloaded” compilation series, again offering you a – free – insight in what the Belgian label is all about. You can discover 64 tracks right here on Bandcamp.

The download holds tracks from Cubic, Psy’Aviah, Aesthetische, Digital Factor, Reichsfeind, Llumen, Zombie Girl, Diffuzion, Matthew Creed, Circuito Cerrado, Circumpolar, Venal Flesh, Mentallo & The Fixer, Freakangel, Alien Vampires, I:Scintilla, Schwarzblut, Totem Obscura, Reactor7X, First Aid 4 Souls, Lederman / De Meyer, Implant, AD:keY, Kant Kino, Die Robo Sapiens, ELM, Pouppee Fabrikk, Armageddon Dildos, Plastic Noise Experience, Synapsyche, Avarice In Audio, Elektrostaub, Junksista, First Aid 4 Souls, Benestrophe, Mental Exile, Star Industry, Halo In Reverse, Lovelorn Dolls, Helalyn Flowers, Essence Of Mind, Rector Scanner, Elektroklänge, Metroland, Lights A.M, Cosmic Armchair, Aiboforcen, H.O.W., 808 DOT POP, Suicidal Romance, Entrzelle, Technoir, Neuroactive, Mondträume, The Psychic Force, Studio-X, Studio-X Vs Simon Carter, Neikka RPM, Komor Kommando, Siva Six, Aengeldust, Acylum, Dunkelwerk and Növö.

Exclusive face masks

Next to that you can also get the download together with a face mask, out in a very limited series. You can either buy them separately or get all 3 in one. Check the set of 3 Face Masks (Blue Matrix + Endzeit + Red EBM Alert) or the separate masks.

Note that EVERY face mask order comes with a free compilation CD on top: “Sounds from the matrix 022” with 20 extra tracks.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro, Industrial.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: “Destrudo” and “World In Denial” are twin productions. They both have been released the same day and are also announcing the return of the infernal, Italian duo –now living in the UK, ‘Nysrok Infernalien’ (vocals, guitar) and ‘NightStalker’ (keys, percussion and backing vocals). The EP also features four songs plus five remixes.

Content: Among the 4 ‘new’ songs we get the already familiar “Destrudo” and “World In Denial”. The difference is that “Destrudo” is opening this EP. Both songs remind us the violent sound of Alien Vampires, mixing Industrial guitar play together with harsh Dark-Electro with enraged vocals on top plus clearer backing vocals. We next get 2 ‘new’ songs revealing an overwhelming, Industrial-Techno driven “10 Bags 10 Lines” and the haunting “London Paranormal”.

We now get 2 remixes of the title song plus 2 remixes of “Wolrd In Denial” by God Destruction, In3briant, Cyberlich, Freaky Mind and Nano Infect.

+ + + : Both title songs from these EP’s are strong and powerful, but just as on the other EP I prefer one of the exclusive cuts. “10 Bags 10 Lines” has something transcendental, but also injecting some diversity to the work while exploring new paths for the band. More than ever before, this EP reveals the unique style and brutal approach of Alien Vampires. They don’t exactly repeat themselves although holding on their heavy sound production. Among the remixes I recommend the one of “Destrudo” by God Destruction. There’s a better balance between electronics and guitar than on the original edit.

– – – : I’m not convinced from all the new cuts I heard both title songs are the best ones. “Darkweb” featured on the EP “World In Denial” and “10 Bags 10 Lines” from this EP are my personal favorites. I also expected more out of the remixes by Nano Infect and Freaky Mind.

Conclusion: Alien Vampires is back driven by rage and fury! Both EP’s are for sure their most diversified work to date.

Best songs: “10 Bags 10 Lines”, “Destrudo – Unholy Mix by god Destruction”, “Destrudo”, “World In Denial”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.alienvampires.eu / www.facebook.com/AlienVampires

Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix Read the news on ‘Destrudo’.

About Alien Vampires

Alien Vampires is the Italian duo of Nysrok Infernalien (vocals, guitars) and NightStalker (keys, percussion, backing vocals), later based in the UK. The project’s early releases include “Evil Generation” (2005), “Nuns Are Pregnant” (2006), “No One Here Gets Out Alive” (2007) and “Fuck Off And Die” (2009).

Alien Vampires signed to Alfa Matrix for “Evil Lasts Forever” (2017) and its related releases, followed by “Evil Twin” (2018) and “Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse” (2018).

“Destrudo” and its companion EP “World In Denial” followed in December 2020, recorded during the band’s home-studio sessions in London. Both EPs pair original tracks with remixes from God Destruction, IN3BRIANT, Cyberlich, Freaky Mind and Nano Infect.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: The Italian gang Alien Vampires is back on track. They this year first launched their terrific side-project Speed Injektion and are now moving back to the Mother Ship. The Italian formation brings us four new songs plus five remixes.

Content: Alien Vampires remain harsh, a tiny brutal and always into provocation. The opening title-song takes off with a speed cadence and pumping beats. The vocals are switching from enraged parts towards a rather poppy style of singing during the chorus. We next get a song (cf. “Destrudo”) with guitar riffs and epic arrangements. “Darkweb” sounds hard and Electro-Industrial driven while “AV Forever E9” is a dark and wafting track.

We next get remixes of “World In Denial” and “Destrudo” by Chamaeleon, Viscera Drip, Distoxia, Reaxion Guerilla and Adeonesis.

+ + + : An EP with 4 different songs is an aspect I particularly appreciate and, which makes the difference with boring EP’s featuring a title song and an endless list of remixes. I can’t say that the title song is the best one as “Destrudo” and “Darkweb” both are great songs as well. Alien Vampires also took care to release songs, which are clearly different from each other. The common element remains the tormented sphere hanging over the compositions. I have a preference for the harder and Industrial-driven “Darkweb”. Among the remixes I’ll recommend the remix of the title track by Distoxia.

– – – : Alien Vampires is back on track and that’s a damn great thing, but even if this is a cool EP, it’s not the best work I’ve heard from those crazy Italian noise terrorists. The remixes are a bit disappointing although they’ve been made by great Dark-Electro acts.

Conclusion: Alien Vampires stand for harsh productions filled with rage, which is an appropriated sound for the title of this EP.

Best songs: “Darkweb”, “Destrudo”, “World In Denial”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.alienvampires.eu / www.facebook.com/AlienVampires

Label: www.alfa-matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix Read the news on ‘World In Denial’.

About Alien Vampires

Alien Vampires is an Italian dark elektro act led by Nysrok Infernalien on vocals and guitars and NightStalker on keys, percussion and backing vocals, with Steve Nine and Guido performing live. The duo recorded “World In Denial” and its companion EP “Destrudo” during the COVID-19 lockdown at their Brick Lane home studio in London.

“World In Denial” was released on Alfa Matrix on 4 December 2020 as a nine-track EP featuring “Darkweb” and “AV Forever E9” alongside remixes by Chamaeleon, Viscera Drip, Distoxia, Reaxion Guerilla and Adeonesis. Alien Vampires later discussed their approach to esotericism and occultism in a 2024 Side-Line interview and issued a deluxe bonus-disc edition of “Harshlizer” the same year.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The harsh electro act Alien Vampires seized the opportunity of the COVID-19 pandemic confinement to spend more time recording and experimenting in their home-studio in Bricklane (London, UK) than being on the road and playing live shows. The duo of Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker have now released two coupled and fully complementary 9-track EP’s respectively titled “Destrudo” and “World In Denial”.

As an extra with the Bandcamp versions you also get a few band pics and… the uncensored super erotic frontcovers which were refused by the digital platforms and taken down by Facebook (that’s no surprise these days).

Each of the 2 EPs start with the tracks “Destrudo” and “World In Denial” followed by 7 more tracks each time.

On the “Destrudo” EP (available here on Bandcamp) the first tracks are followed by 2 additional exclusive songs: “10 Bags 10 Lines” and “London Paranormal”. This EP ends with 3 remixes of “Destrudo” and 2 remixes of “World In Denial” by the dark elektro acts God Destruction, In3briant, Cyberlich, Freaky Mind and Nano Infect.

On the “World In Denial” EP (available here on Bandcamp) the first 2 tracks are followed by 2 more exclusive songs: “Darkweb” and “AV Forever E9”. This EP ends with 3 remixes of “World In Denial” and 2 remixes of “Destrudo” by dark elektro partners in crimes from across the globe: Chamaeleon, Viscera Drip, Distoxia, Reaxion Guerilla and Adeonesis. Read the reviews of ‘World In Denial’ and ‘Destrudo’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial, industrial-trance.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Speed Injektion is a side-project of Alien Vampires members Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker. “Death’s Dance” has been inspired by the Covid-19 pandemic while the sound of this project is dancefloor-orientated.

Content: If alien vampires already took me by surprise with their overwhelming dark-electro & aggrotech sound, Speed Injektion moves towards a total sonic cataclysm! The opening title-song is a merciless fusion between industrial- and trance music. The track has been progressively built up, but the danceable vibes are constant. The other tracks coming up are still mixing influences, but also evoke the rough techno side of Empirion (cf. “Crept Into Your Thoughts”) while “Evil Wins Anyway” has something groovy-industrial like. This is also the perfect club song! The song “King Of entropy” features Hungarian metal singer Attila Csihar.

+ + + : Don’t expect those Italians composing ordinary industrial-techno music; the compositions are well-crafted and masterly produced. They reveal great sound treatments, which have something rough and clearly menacing. The title song is an absolute masterpiece for the way it has been built up and sound treatments that have been used. But “Crept Into Your Thoughts” featuring a few harsh vocals, “Apocalypse (Has Arrived)” and “Evil Wins Anyway” all are sublime tracks as well.

– – – : I don’t see real minus points at this EP.

Conclusion: Speed Injektion takes off with a phenomenal and overwhelming debut EP. This project has the potential to gain a similar reputation as Alien Vampires.

Best songs: “Death’s Dance”, “Crept Into Your Thoughts”, “Evil Wins Anyway”, “Apocalypse (Has Arrived)”.

Rate: (9).

Artist: www.facebook.com/SpeedInjektion

Label: www.digitalworld.audio /   www.facebook.com/DigitalWorldAudio

About Speed Injektion

Speed Injektion is a side-project of Italian act Alien Vampires, formed by members Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker. “Death’s Dance”, released through Digital World Audio in 2020, is the project’s debut EP.

Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker have since continued Speed Injektion’s remix work, including contributions to Alfa Matrix compilations “Evil Lasts Forever” (2017), “Witchy Bitchy” (2023) and “Sounds From The Matrix 24” (2024).

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Available now for free (or pay-what-you-want) via Bandcamp is the 9th volume in the “Matrix Downloaded” compilation download series by the Belgian electro label Alfa Matrix. In the past these compilations have been downloaded by ten thousands of fans around the world and we don’t expect it will be different this year.

The label also announces that it will invest all donations in nurturing new bands and getting their careers launched.

Here’s what Seba Dolimont, A&R at Alfa Matrix, has to say about it: “The music market has shifted a lot over the years and in many ways losing its solid footing. CDs sales are collapsing entirely and the shift from downloads to streaming has not yet shown a revenue that is replacing what has been lost. (…) This evolution has created an environment where many labels have almost stopped playing their key-role of talent scouting, no longer daring to invest in new talents who deserve to be heard by you! Alfa Matrix is one of the very few record companies in this scene who try to keep the right balance between releasing renowned artists and supporting younger bands who still need to catch the attention and reach your ears.”

61 bands and tracks

The compilation holds the work by 61 label bands who joined hands to deliver you 61 songs representing the label’s most recent singles and albums while giving a preview of some promising forthcoming 2020 productions including announced new releases by POUPPEEE FABRIKK, NEUROACTIVE, ALIEN VAMPIRES, HELALYN FLOWERS, DIE ROBO SAPIENS, IMJUDAS, 808 DOT POP, ACYLUM, ARMAGEDDON DILDOS, PSY’AVIAH, AVARICE IN AUDIO, SIVA SIX, NEIKKA RPM, AESTHETISCHE, KANT KINO, KOMOR KOMMANDO, AD:KEY, H.O.W., CIRCUMPOLAR, SYNAPSYCHE, LLUMEN, ENTRZELLE, LIGHTS A.M, REACTOR7X, FIRST AID 4 SOULS, etc.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-electro.

Background/Info: Stephen Bailey and Joel Walker aka ‘Svipal’ are back on track unleashing the second album from their Offerings To Odin project. I discovered the band a few years ago by their debut work “Ravenous”, which revealed some cool ideas although the global production suffered from a lack of professionalism.

Content: “Hoc Voluerent” features 10 songs plus 2 remixes. The sound is clearly influenced by dark-electro although the leads also have something cold-techno like. The global production process became more professional and also the songwriting has improved. Offerings To Odin doesn’t deal with the ‘classical’ harsh and merciless dark-electronics; the sound and especially the rhythmic is more controlled. The vocals remain however harsh and extremely distorted.

The tenth song is a cover version of the famous “Goodbye Horses” (originally performed by Q Lazzarus) followed by two remixes by Alien Vampires and Hocico.

+ + + : I noticed a serious improvement compared to the debut album, which might explain why this work has been promoted by X-Beats (Jan Loamfield from Noisuf-X). This album is totally devoted to dark-electronics and yet there’s something unique running through it. I think it’s maybe of the cadence, which is never exaggerated and the leads having something technoid on top. Both remixes are cool, but especially the one by Hocico, which also is the best song from the album.

– – – : There is still too much linearity in this work. The sound formula is repetitive, the songs becoming a bit predictable after a while.

Conclusion: I can’t say this album is a major success, but it clearly features a band that has made a serious step forward.

Best songs: “Death Throes – Hocico Deathfloor Remix”, “A Delicate Balance”, “Death Throes”, “Mad As Hell – Alien Vampires Remix”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.offeringstoodin.com / www.facebook.com/offeringstoodin

Promoter: www.facebook.com/xbeatspromotion

About Offerings To Odin

Offerings To Odin is a Denver, Colorado duo of Stephen Bailey and Joel Walker, who also performs as Svipal. Active since 2012, the project has drawn on mythology and runic themes alongside its dark-electro and EBM sound. “Ravenous,” the band’s 2016 debut album on Forced Music, was followed three years later by “Hoc Voluerunt,” which closes with remixes from Alien Vampires and Hocico.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

(Interview / photo by Eldrina Mich) While the charity download compilation “Face The Beat: Session 5” is still reigning the charts on Bandcamp, we decided it was time again to speak with Bernard Van Isacker, the brain behind this compilation. He is also Side-Line’s chief editor and resides with his family (and 2 cats) in Ypres, a small town nearby the French border in what’s called the Westhoek or Maritime Flanders. During the First World War, Ypres (or “Wipers” as it was commonly known by the British troops) was the centre of the Battles of Ypres between German and Allied forces, nowadays it’s a bit calmer.

I meet Bernard on a cold Friday evening at The Times, a small pub on the border of the Ypres market square.

SL: The previous interview was in June of 2015 when the 2nd volume of “Face The Beat” had just been released. It’s like yesterday!

B: Time flies very fast indeed. Good to see you are still looking great (laughs)!

SL: The compilation has been doing quite well since its launch, it went straight to the number 1 spots on Bandcamp in the alternative, industrial and goth charts.

B: Yeps, and it even was the 2nd most downloaded release on Bandcamp the day of its release, so yes, quite spectacular. It’s not really a surprise though, all of the volumes kept on being downloaded ever since the project started and I kept getting questions when the new volume would be released. But most importantly, I think we have a very strong list of tracks on this volume.

Next to that, the power of Bandcamp has become very clear here. The moment the new volume was launched Bandcamp’s notification system sent out a huge blast to a massive amount of people informing them and as a result you saw the release climbing very fast in the charts.

SL: I don’t know of any other scene compilation which has succeeded charting that fast and so high on Bandcamp?

B: Me neither (smiles). I have already been asked by a lot of people from inside the music industry how this is possible with a compilation that doesn’t feature the biggest names from this scene like Front 242, VNV Nation, etc.. But it’s especially the fact they can discover new and less wellknown bands that makes people wanting to get hold of it. Speaking of which, I especially want to thank Raphael Beck (darkTunes), Andy Skyqode (Skyqode) and Seba Dolimont (Alfa Matrix) who have been good allies in the past few years – and again this time – in getting the series up and running. They have valued the series since day 1 and I really appreciate that.

SL: Was the start so difficult?

B: When I started with this series a few years ago, in 2011 that is, not many labels believed in the concept, some did like the ones I mentioned earlier. The hesitation was mainly because I decided to feature a lot of smaller and starting bands. For me that was THE reason to do it that way because this is actually the core idea behind Side-Line since day one: being an indie magazine that is a platform for bands to get noticed, unknown and known, starters and established acts. Since the start of the series, the influx of submissions for the compilation never stopped, a lot of bands want to be on it and especially those who stand behind the charity causes that we support.

SL: It took you a while to come up with this 5th volume, I think I have seen some preliminary cover artwork some 2 years ago already?

B: Yes (smiles). It would initially have been released in early 2018, but something came up in mid-2017 that jeopardized the whole project. Let’s say that some mainstream label thought they could just harass us in taking over the concept. It kept on causing problems till mid-2018. I won’t say more about this, suffices to say, we won, they lost (smiles). The first cover artwork you refer too (Editor’s note: you can see it below) was made in November 2017 during a stay in France, at Le Mont Saint-Michel, together with my wife and newborn son Magnus.

SL: The cover artwork produced at that occasion had ‘the final side-line’ as subline? What was the meaning of that?

B: Back then I was really doubting if I would go on with the magazine or not. So that artwork would have been my final word on the matter.

Sorry I didn’t inform the rest of the team, but it was really on my mind to pull the plug. It isn’t all that unlogical, it takes lots of time to keep this doing and with a new baby in the family, I wasn’t sure to be able to handle this all. My other ‘companion de route’, Stef, also has had his fair share of not so pleasant news, so the toxic mix was there and it played around for a while…

I think we all have those difficult moments when there’s too much going on. Plus, and that’s on a personal level, often you don’t really get any ‘thank you’ back for all of the work that you do, and I’m not only talking about Side-Line or so. When you do a lot of (mostly unpaid) work for very little return on several levels, it starts nagging.

Then in February 2018 I was in Oslo with my wife and I visited Jan Ronald Stange, our local correspondent there. We have gotten along really well since meeting I think in 2010 and when I’m in the Nordics I always try to pay him a visit. And believe it or not, his enthusiasm is kinda infectious (laughs). My wife also noticed that, and said something like: “It’s time you get the same enthusiasm like Jan in your work again”. That made me thinking… Anyhow, here we are (smiles).

As a result I binned the first cover artwork idea and went for a completely new approach. But it was only last month after visiting Maastricht in The Netherlands together with my oldest son Sebastian that I found the perfect artwork idea. I saw this great bronze lion face on a big door, watched it closely, took a picture and in the hotel I started playing with some ideas. I sent those to Simon Helm from Cold War Night Life to ask his opinion and we picked the final one.

SL: Why Simon?

B: Long story cut really short. I knew Simon was behind Cold War Night Life, and one thing led to another and I got to meet him a few months ago when he was in Brussels. Jean-Marc Lederman told me he was a decent guy so the more reason to meet up. We ended up talking for hours in a small restaurant, the Arcadi in case you wonder, about all kind of things. And Simon got to learn to eat Stoemp with saussage, a typical dish from Brussels (laughs)! Cool intelligent guy he is with a clear view on a lot of things. I like straightforward people and he for sure is one. On top we kinda share the same humor, something really important. Simon also has been writing some stuff for Side-Line since then. I trust him and value his feedback, hence why I asked for his feedback.

SL: In the press release for this compilation it’s noted that the release is by far the darkest you ever compiled. I tend to agree with this. Personally, it reminded me of “040 Hamburg Strikes Back!”, the compilation released by the defunct label Hypnobeat in 1992.

B: I love that compilation! For me it was the first time I got to hear from Fortification 55, the band formed by Björn Petersen and Jan Kruse. They made some great albums back in the days. Thanks for the compliment, it was really that feeling that I had when going through the selection here!

SL: I noticed you also had a megamix prepared to promote this release, how did that come about?

B: I actually hadn’t prepared this at all. It was pure coïncidence. Shane Aungst, who made the megamix, contacted me a few days after the release was out saying he had picked 20 something tracks of the compilation to create a megamix. It turned out to be one that was 1 hour, 33 minutes and 21 seconds in length featuring 23 tracks and the quality was excellent! After mailing back and forth I created a cover for the megamix and Shane edited the megamix into 2 because Bandcamp was unable to feature the full length in one cut. Perhaps they should increase the 600 MB limit when you want to release a megamix (smiles).

It’s a nice extra on which Shane has been working for hours. We plan an interview with him in the next days actually.

SL: Something else. You informed us a few weeks ago that Side-Line had opened a channel on the mobile app Telegram?

B: Yes, that’s correct. The reason behind this is that Facebook is more and more becoming a no-go for indie news discovery. I for instance use Twitter a lot more for my news digestion, because Facebook really is rubbish at getting decent news in my feed even though I follow some really good sources. At Side-Line we could easily write clickbait articles that would get spread a lot. But that’s not what I want, and on top the team really wants to continue bringing news about smaller bands. But that’s not what Facebook wants, so it deliberately doesn’t push those newsitems to our readers since the ‘engagement’ is lower.

Facebook is really becoming a graveyard as far as non-commercial news is concerned. Unless you pay and even then. I don’t expect Facebook to get any better, on the contrary, it will get worse, because the shareholders will want more and more. Facebook can only deliver this by squeezing more and more money out of our pocket. And with their Libra project becoming a nightmare, you can be sure we the publishers all will have to pay for it (laughs)!

You know, Facebook has censored a ton of our articles because they didn’t like the artwork used by the band’s featured. Rammstein, Apoptygma Berzerk, Siva Six, Alien Vampires, Combichrist, articles from all of these bands and many more were simply censored and banned from the network … pretty frustrating.

SL: So Telegram is the way to go?

B: Yes. The service offers you the possibility to send out newsupdates to an unlimited number of people in one go without it being stopped, hidden away or censored even. I prefer this kind of news updates where I chose what I want to get.

People can join us on Telegram via this link https://t.me/sidelinemag (install the app as well, on desktop or mobile) and they will get our news first before it gets posted on Facebook. The good thing is that the channel is ad free. You just get our news and you can leave a like or dislike, and that’s where the comparison with Facebook ends. I’m personally also using Telegram a lot more to connect with people instead of Whatsapp. If you haven’t got an account yet, make sure to sign up!

SL: What’s coming up next?

B: As far as Side-Line is concerned I’m working on a few projects, but it’s too early to announce anything yet.

SL: Last question, what keeps you busy besides Side-Line?

B: Ha, a lot of things, too many things really. Besides my daytime job as a social media marketeer and CRM responsible at the Belgian branch of a multinational, and running 2 small holiday houses, I’m still heavily involved in Alfa Matrix, Bob De Moor, collecting original drawings by comic masters and a lot of local ‘policy work’, the latter is often draining a lot of my patience (laughs). I also have started running to stay fit. Every 2 days I try to do my 5 kilometers, early in the morning before having a breakfast at the local Panos, which opens at around 5.30 AM. It’s a perfect way to start the day with fresh energy I must say.

Eldrina Mich

As Eldrina Mich I work as a go-between and a devil’s advocate when it comes to Side-Line. If our own staff needs to be interviewed then ask the questions no one else dares to ask.

www.side-line.com

Those familiar with ordering directly with the Belgian label Alfa Matrix know they will always get a free CD sampler from the “Sounds From The Matrix” series with each purchase. With the 20th

With the 20th volume of the “Sounds From The Matrix” label compilation series, being made available for their online CD store customers, the label has now also launched the release as a standalone download via Bandcamp (with other stores to follow).

On this 20th volume Alfa Matrix highlights its current hot releases (from Alien Vampires to Helalyn Flowers and I:Scintilla through Metroland and other Circuito Cerrado, Implant or yet Psy’Aviah) and gives us an insight on what 2019 will sound like.

Alfa Matrix also reveals recent signings like Synapsyche, Reactor7X, Mental Exile or yet the very promising newcomer H.O.W.; and also letting us discover first songs from forthcoming releases by bands like Aesthetische, Dunkelwerk, Llumen, Junksista, Kant Kino, Ad:key, Avarice In Audio, Imjudas, etc..

This new download counts 19 fresh electronic tracks.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

With the 8th edition of their now classic free “Matrix Downloaded” label digital compilation, Belgium’s Alfa Matrix label presents a selection of 55 songs via Bandcamp.

The 55 songs represent the label’s most recent singles and albums while giving a preview of some promising forthcoming 2019 productions including announced new releases by Helalyn Flowers, Synapsyche, Avarice In Audio, H.O.W., Llumen, Mental Exile, SD-KRTR, Diffuzion, Reactor7X, Aesthetische, Armageddon Dildos, Die Robo Sapiens, Junksista, Imjudas, Alien Vampires, Mondträume, Aiboforcen, Dunkelwerk, Komor Kommando, Neikka RPM, Acylum, etc.

You can download it for free or as a what-you-want-to-pay from Bandcamp.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Background/Info:

Read the news on ‘Evil Twins’.

About Alien Vampires

Alien Vampires is an Italian industrial dance/aggrotech act led by Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker, signed to Alfa Matrix since the 2015 album “Drag You To Hell”. “Evil Twins”, one of two paired EPs released alongside “Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse” in December 2018, previewed the band’s then-announced full-length “London Paranormal”. Alien Vampires went on to release “World In Denial” on the same label in 2020.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Background/Info:

Read the news on ‘Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse’.

About Alien Vampires

Alien Vampires is an Italian industrial dance/aggrotech act fronted by Nysrok Infernalien and Nightstalker, on Alfa Matrix since the 2015 album “Drag You To Hell”. “Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse”, released as a twin EP alongside “Evil Twins” in December 2018, served as a teaser for the band’s then-announced full-length “London Paranormal”. The band later released “Destrudo” on the same label in 2021.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Background/Info:

About Nachtmahr

Nachtmahr is an Austrian EBM/military-pop project led by Thomas Rainer, releasing on Trisol since its 2007 debut material, including “Kunst Ist Krieg”. “Gehorsam” revisits that early, harder sound ahead of the then-announced album “Antithese”; Nachtmahr continued on Trisol through later albums such as “Flamme” (2020) and “Verboten!” (2024).

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

Read the reviews of ‘Fuck The Revolution Bring On The Apocalypse’ and ‘Evil Twins’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

The biggest distributor for the industrial electro scene, Audioglobe, has announced its Top 10 in best selling industrial music labels. The numbers were already out there for the labels to look at it, but here they are also for the regular fans. Note that with 2018, Audioglobe also enters it’s 25th year of existance as the distributor set up shop on 6 December 1993. We will of course have a big extended interview and more with Sebastian Koch regarding this great achievement in a very tough market.

But now the numbers many of you have been waiting for!

The Top 3

First the Top 3. The number 1 label in sales is Trisol which has bands such as Clan of Xymox, Rome, Project Pitchfork, Sopor Aeternus, Nachtmahr, Rotersand, Asp, Mantus etc. under contract. The second label in the list is the Belgian based Alfa Matrix which nurtures the talent of Front 242, Underviewer, Daniel B Prothèse, Metroland, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Leatherstrip, Psy’Aviah, Kant Kino and so many other acts. Note that this label also has a very strong e-shop presence (direct sales are not included in this Top 10 list). The 3rd label is Out Of Line with Blutengel, Combichrist, Hocico, Solar Fake, Heimataerde, Unzucht, Solitary Experiments. Also this label has an own e-shop.

The rest of the Top 10

The 4th label is Fabrika/Dead Scarlet (She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…) followed by ArtOfFact (Legend, Frontline Assembly, Haujobb, Psyche, Noise Unit, Dead When I found her, Pankow…) and Metropolis (Birthday Massacre, Aesthetic Perfection, God Module, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy, Delerium…). The 7th place is occupied by Rustblade (Morricone, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Leaether Strip, Lydia Lunch, Legendary Pink Dots, Merzbow…). Also Dependent is still in the Top 10, namely on spot 8 with their label roster (Covenant, Mesh, Pride & Fall, Beborn Beton, Seabound, Encephalon, Frontline Assembly, Clicks..). Place 9 and 10 finally are for Manic Depression (Winter Severity Index, Ash Code, Schonwald, Box and the Twins, Sjoblom, Dear Deer…) and Undo (Marsheaux, Girl One and the Grease Guns, Mesh, Fotonovela, OMD, Nikonn, Mikro, Vienna, Liebe…).

And on spot 11 and 12…

2 labels didn’t make the Top 10, namely Hall Of Sermon (Lacrimosa, Snakeskin, Black Moon Secret, Eyes Shut Tight) and Infacted (NamNamBulu, Grendel, Torul, Reaper, Frozen Plasma, Ruined Conflict, Orange Sector, Syntec…). Both labels ended on place 11 and 12.

Here’s the complete list again. The bands next to the label are listed in order of sales results/total turnover per band in 2017 via Audioglobe.

01 TRISOL (Clan of Xymox, Rome, Project Pitchfork, Sopor Aeternus, Nachtmahr, Rotersand, Asp, Mantus…)
02 ALFA MATRIX (Front 242, Underviewer, Daniel B Prothèse, Metroland, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Leatherstrip…)
03 OUT OF LINE (Blutengel, Combichrist, Hocico, Solar Fake, Heimataerde, Unzucht, Solitary Experiments …)
04 FABRIKA/DEAD SCARLET (She Past Away, Lebanon Hanover, Selofan, Kaelan Mikla, M!R!M, Doric…)
05 ARTOFFACT (Legend, Frontline Assembly, Haujobb, Psyche, Noise Unit, Dead When I found her, Pankow…)
06 METROPOLIS (Birthday Massacre, Aesthetic Perfection, God Module, Lords of Acid, Skinny Puppy, Delerium…)
07 RUSTBLADE (Morricone, Claudio Simonetti’s Goblin, Leaether Strip, Lydia Lunch, Legendary Pink Dots, Merzbow…)
08 DEPENDENT (Covenant, Mesh, Pride & Fall, Beborn Beton, Seabound, Encephalon, Frontline Assembly, Clicks..)
09 MANIC DEPRESSION (Winter Severity Index, Ash Code, Schonwald, Box and the Twins, Sjoblom, Dear Deer…)
10 UNDO (Marsheaux, Girl One and the Grease Guns, Mesh, Fotonovela, OMD, Nikonn, Mikro, Vienna, Liebe…)
11 HALL OF SERMON (Lacrimosa, Snakeskin, Black Moon Secret, Eyes Shut Tight)
12 INFACTED (NamNamBulu, Grendel, Torul, Reaper, Frozen Plasma, Ruined Conflict, Orange Sector, Syntec…)

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Dark-electro, aggrotech.

Background/Info: Set up in 2015, Hannover based SynthAttack became an instant success. Master Schindler has now released his third full length featuring 10 new cuts plus 7 remixes.

Content: The sound formula hasn’t changed. Driven by pumping kicks, carrying melody lines, aggrotech sequences and harsh produced vocals “Harsh Is Black” will take you on a murderous dance-ride. The songs are pretty similar and clearly composed for the dancefloor.

The remixes have been accomplished by AlienNation, [X]-RX, Chamaeleon, Kryonix, Alien Vampires, Device Noize and Sindikhate.

+ + + : If you like dark-danceable underground electronics, “Harsh Is Back” will definitely become a praised album. SynthAttack has found this secret formula to get people dancing. Music can be simple and yet very efficient. The secret of SynthAttack is the perfect osmosis between hard, pumping beats, elevating melody lines and harsh vocals of the ‘commander’. I’ve a preference for the title song and “The Beauty Of Violence” while there also is a noticeable cut composed together with Suppressor.

Among the remixes I recommend the work accomplished by [X]-RX, Alien Vampires and Sindikhate.

– – – : The songs are pretty similar; there’s no real innovation. The lyrics clearly aren’t the main topic of SynthAttack. The texts are totally cliché, but simply made to keep in mind and get some rhymes.

Conclusion: SynthAttack is a kind of dance-ogre and for sure a band DJ’s will play for the greatest pleasure of the clubbers.

Best songs: “The Beauty Of Violence”, “Unleash The Beat vs. Suppressor”, “Harsh Is Back”, Life Is A Bitch”, “Life Is A Bitch – Sindikhate Rmx”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.facebook.com/pg/synthattack

Label: www.darktunes.com / www.facebook.com/darkTunesMusic

About SynthAttack

SynthAttack is a dark electro and aggrotech project from Hannover, Germany, driven by Martin Schindler, who handles production, lyrics and live vocals. Side-Line first covered the act in July 2017 with the Face The Beat profile piece “Side-Line introduces SynthAttack – listen now to ‘Afterlife (Suppressor Remix)’.” The debut album “To The Floor” appeared on darkTunes Music Group in 2015, followed by “Synthattack – Club Takeover” in 2016 and “Harsh Is Back” here in 2017.

Inferno Sound Diaries

I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.

www.side-line.com

The Belgian industrial / electro record label Alfa Matrix has launched a huge Black Friday offer where they are offering 50% discount on all products (which are at least 6 months old)! For the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page there are no minimum orders required, for the physical webstore the discount kicks in the moment you have reached 50 Euro in your basket.

Simply use the code BFRIDAY17 and you’ll get the discount applied on your order. The label has informed us that due to heavy traffic which started last night when the news leaked out (they had been teasing their clients already for a few days) you might encounter some server slowness, but it’s surely one of the biggest sales ever handled by a scene label!

The offer is valid until 26 November included or until end of stock, and will not be repeated soon, so for those who want to get hold of the last limited edition copies of such bands as Underviewer, Prothèse, Ayria, Kant Kino, Acylum, Alien Vampires, and many many other bands, then hurry up!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

It was Record Store Day this past weekend and for the occasion the Belgian label launched a special 30% discount code ( RSD2017 ) which is available to use until the end of this week. You can apply the code in the label’s webshop or on the label’s Bandcamp page. You will get 30% off on everything that is added in your basket (except on the forthcoming Metroland and Alien Vampires box sets).

Happy hunting!

Included in this massive discount action are releases by 32CRASH, Acylum, Aengeldust, Aesthetische, Agonised By Love, Aiboforcen, Alien Vampires, Ambassador21, amGod, Armageddon Dildos, Avarice In Audio, Ayria, Bruderschaft, Cosmic Armchair, Crisk, Cynical Existence, Depeche Mode (the tribute releases), Diffuzion, Diskonnekted, Dive, Dream Recall, Dunkelwerk, Elektroklänge, ELM, Entrzelle, Epsilon Minus, Essence Of Mind, Freakangel, Front 242, Gaytron, Glis, Halo In Reverse, HausHetaere, Headscan, Helalyn Flowers, Hungry Lucy, I:scintilla, Implant, Internal, Inure, Junksista, Kant Kino, Klutæ, Komor Kommando, Krystal System, Leaether Strip, Lovelorn Dolls, Malakwa, Male Or Female, Mari Chrome, Mentallo and the Fixer, Metroland, Mind:State, Mnemonic, Mondträume, Monolith, Nebula-H, Neikka RPM, Nitzer Ebb, Növö, O.V.N.I., Plastic Noise Experience, Pouppee Fabrikk, Prozium, Psy’Aviah, Razorfade, Recoil, Regenerator, Saeldes Sanc, Schwarzblut, Sebastian Komor, Seize, Sero.Overdose, Shaun F, Simon Carter, Siva Six, Star Industry, Stray, Studio-X, Suicide Inside, Tamtrum, Technoir, The Cure (tribute), The Psychic Force, Totem Obscura, Trisomie 21, Unter Null, Venal Flesh, Virgins O.R Pigeons, Virtual Embrace, XMH, Zombie Girl, … plus a long list of compilations.

And in order to save on shipping costs, it’s recommended to combine this with the label’s 2 newest releases although they are not discounted.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

Surprising news from the Alien Vampires headquarters. The band and its label Alfa Matrix have announced the release of a deluxe 6CD box, not only making their full back-catalogue available again in remastered versions, but also adding a bunch of previously unreleased material on CD plus massive exclusive new remixes, alternative versions and special rare songs. In total more than 450 minutes of dark electro à la Alien Vampires.

This massive 6CD set can be pre-ordered right now from the Alfa Matrix webstore.

The set comes packed in a deluxe 6CD box edition augmented with a 32-page booklet full of band photos, original artworks and liner notes by the band members themselves and 3 posters. This anthology box holds remastered versions of the band’s long time deleted early releases “Evil Generation”, “Fuck Off And Die”, “No One Here Gets Out Alive” and “Nuns Are Pregnant”. Add to this, the release on CD for the first time of their highly successful digital EP’s “Clubbers Die Younger” and “Harsh Drugs & BDSM”. The duo also excavated their very first 4-track demo “I’m Dead Fuck You” (originally released in 2004) plus some 31 (!!) exclusive and previously unreleased songs and newly made remixes all spanning the band’s repertoire before the release of the band’s last 2 studio albums “Harshlizer” and “Drag You To Hell”.

Besides collaborations with bands like Suicide Commando, Theatres Des Vampires or yet Spiritual Front we also get remixes/collaborations with such acts as Helalyn Flowers, C-Lekktor, Noisuf-X, Amduscia, NZ, Venal Flesh, Centhron, Cutoff_Sky, Avarice In Audio, Left Spine Down, Nano Infect, and so on.

You can find the full tracklist for this mega set right here. In short, the ultimate Alien Vampires experience.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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“Today he has no means He’s alone and anonymous, but written in his cells he’s got the marks of a genius”, with these Front 242 lyrics (“Headhunter”) the Belgian electro label Alfa Matrix has launched quite an impressive EBM day action offering no less than a 30% discount on all of it’s physical (and download releases) including the much wanted Front 242 vinyls sets.

All you need to do is use the code ebmday242 to get 30% off on all of the labels releases (ltd editions, boxsets, t-shirts, vinyls, …) purchased via the Alfa Matrix webstore and the official Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page.

The code ebmday242 is only valid today and this weekend and will be applied on all products you have added in your basket.

And that’s not all! the label has also added a huge list of VERY low priced compilations right here.

Included in this massive discount action are all physical and download releases by 32CRASH, Acylum, Aengeldust, Aesthetische, Agonised By Love, Aiboforcen, Alien Vampires, Ambassador21, amGod, Armageddon Dildos, Avarice In Audio, Ayria, Bruderschaft, Cosmic Armchair, Crisk, Cynical Existence, Depeche Mode (the tribute releases), Diffuzion, Diskonnekted, Dive, Dream Recall, Dunkelwerk, Elektroklänge, ELM, Entrzelle, Epsilon Minus, Essence Of Mind, Freakangel, Front 242, Gaytron, Glis, Halo In Reverse, HausHetaere, Headscan, Helalyn Flowers, Hungry Lucy, I:scintilla, Implant, Internal, Inure, Junksista, Kant Kino, Klutæ, Komor Kommando, Krystal System, Leaether Strip, Lovelorn Dolls, Malakwa, Male Or Female, Mari Chrome, Mentallo and the Fixer, Metroland, Mind:State, Mnemonic, Mondträume, Monolith, Nebula-H, Neikka RPM, Nitzer Ebb, Növö, O.V.N.I., Plastic Noise Experience, Pouppee Fabrikk, Prozium, Psy’Aviah, Razorfade, Recoil, Regenerator, Saeldes Sanc, Schwarzblut, Sebastian Komor, Seize, Sero.Overdose, Shaun F, Simon Carter, Siva Six, Star Industry, Stray, Studio-X, Suicide Inside, Tamtrum, Technoir, The Cure (tribute), The Psychic Force, Totem Obscura, Trisomie 21, Unter Null, Venal Flesh, Virgins O.R Pigeons, Virtual Embrace, XMH, Zombie Girl, … plus a long list of compilations.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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We enter the final few hours to enjoy a 50% reduction on all of your purchases via the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page. You get a discount of 50% when using the discount code january50432. Just enter it when checking out. The code is valid on ALL of the releases on the label’s Bandcamp page.

Included in this massive discount action are releases by 32CRASH, Acylum, Aengeldust, Aesthetische, Agonised By Love, Aiboforcen, Alien Vampires, Ambassador21, amGod, Armageddon Dildos, Avarice In Audio, Ayria, Bruderschaft, Cosmic Armchair, Crisk, Cynical Existence, Depeche Mode (the tribute releases), Diffuzion, Diskonnekted, Dive, Dream Recall, Dunkelwerk, Elektroklänge, ELM, Entrzelle, Epsilon Minus, Essence Of Mind, Freakangel, Front 242, Gaytron, Glis, Halo In Reverse, HausHetaere, Headscan, Helalyn Flowers, Hungry Lucy, I:scintilla, Implant, Internal, Inure, Junksista, Kant Kino, Klutæ, Komor Kommando, Krystal System, Leaether Strip, Lovelorn Dolls, Malakwa, Male Or Female, Mari Chrome, Mentallo and the Fixer, Metroland, Mind:State, Mnemonic, Mondträume, Monolith, Nebula-H, Neikka RPM, Nitzer Ebb, Növö, O.V.N.I., Plastic Noise Experience, Pouppee Fabrikk, Prozium, Psy’Aviah, Razorfade, Regenerator, Saeldes Sanc, Schwarzblut, Sebastian Komor, Seize, Sero.Overdose, Shaun F, Simon Carter, Siva Six, Star Industry, Stray, Studio-X, Suicide Inside, Tamtrum, Technoir, The Cure (tribute), The Psychic Force, Totem Obscura, Trisomie 21, Unter Null, Venal Flesh, Virgins O.R Pigeons, Virtual Embrace, XMH, Zombie Girl, … plus a long list of compilations.

The discount code only lasts till January 31st midnight, so make sure to use it asap!

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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Read the review of ‘Freaky Mind’.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com

For its 15th anniversary, the Belgian record label Alfa Matrix also celebrated the 35 years of existence of Front 242 and this with the Front 242 tribute album “Recovery >for you<” uniting 32 fellow label bands who have each covered one song from Front 242’s music repertoire.

The release is available on the Alfa Matrix webstore as a 2CD plus also on their Bandcamp page as a download.

You can preview the tracks right below:

The bands who collaborated to “Recovery >for you<” include Metroland, Komor Kommando, Ad:Key, Plastic Noise Experience, Imjudas, Sin.Sin, Cosmic Armchair, Neikka Rpm, Alien Vampires, Ayria, Implant, Avarice In Audio, Acylum, Schwarzblut, Star Industry, Regenerator, Elektroklänge, Elm, Kant Kino, Technoir, Diffuzion, Aesthetische, Circuito Cerrado Vs. C-Lekktor, Növö, Totem Obscura, Venal Flesh Feat. Chase Dobson, Llumen, The Psychic Force, Helalyn Flowers, Essence Of Mind, Armageddon Dildos and Xmh.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

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The 13th track on our free download compilation “Face The Beat: Session 4” (featuring 92 tracks) is by Circuito Cerrado, the hard power noise project of Mexican artist Markko B., mastermind and frontman of the cult dark elektro act C-Lekktor.

“What’s Your Emergency” is a very good example of what to expect on the project’s second album “Arrhythmia” released mid-June 2016 via Alfa Matrix: a mixture of rhythm noise, TBM and industrial rave dance. The album was also released with a bonus remix CD (available via the label directly) next to this Bandcamp release. The bonus material includes reworks by acts like Noisex, Alien Vampires and more having a go at Markko B.’s material.

For now enjoy “What’s Your Emergency”!

Check our “Face The Beat: Session 4” page on Bandcamp to discover the other 91 bands. All donations will go to charity.

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

Chief editor of Side-Line – which basically means I spend my days wading through a relentless flood of press releases from labels, artists, DJs, and zealous correspondents. My job? Strip out the promo nonsense, verify what’s actually real, and decide which stories make the cut and which get tossed into the digital void. Outside the news filter bubble, I’m all in for quality sushi and helping raise funds for Ukraine’s ongoing fight against the modern-day axis of evil. Besides music I’m also an SEO and AI content flow specialist and have an interest in everything finance from stocks to crypto. There is music in everything!

side-line.com