Out now is the brand new Frontal Boundary single “Shutting Down”. The EBM / dark electro single’s lead track is backed by two remixes by unitcode:machine and Panic Lift.

Frontal Boundary is a Los Angeles-based dark electro trio and with “Shutting Down” they release their second single and title track from their forthcoming album, the follow-up to their 2021 full length “The Fall”.

According to the band, this new single “explores the universal struggles we all face – the internal battles of balancing our emotions and those of the people around us. It’s a reflection of the constant effort to move forward, even when it feels like we’re never quite enough.”

The single is out now on all platforms via Re:Mission Entertainment.

Brendin Ross started Frontal Boundary back in 2008. A first album, “Lost and Recovered”, was never released on any platform, and consisted of mostly instrumental b-sides that Ross had written between 2005-2008. There are a few tracks floating around the internet from that. After moving to Los Angeles, in 2014, he started focusing more on the other bands he was in such as Dawn of Ashes, INVA//ID and Bornless Fire. First out were two mini-albums, “Electronic Warfare” and “Electronic Warfare V2”, which were both centered around his time in the US Army and his divorce that were both happening at the same time. Note that for “The Fall” album Krz Souls would take over the vocal duties in the band. Read the review of ‘Shutting Down’.

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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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Set up in 2001 by Kristof Bathory, the Los Angeles (USA) based Dawn Of Ashes is a band that went through different periods. The early records, released by the now defunct NoiTekk, revealed a dark- and tormented electronic sound. Quite progressively the band started to explore new sonic paths, composing albums driven by heavy industrial-metal music. There was a break in between 2013 and 2016, but DOA stroke back releasing new material. The newest opus “The Crypt Injection II (Non Serviam)” released on Metropolis, is a kind of back to the early dark-electro sound mixed with elements of metal music. It’s a powerful and fully accomplished opus, which incited me to get in touch with Kristof Bathory and… Johan Van Roy (Suicide Commando) who has been invited to do guest vocals on one of the tracks.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Your new album “The Crypt Injection II” clearly sounds as a back to the roots, but still featuring the industrial-metal approach from the recent years. What incited you to go back to the early sound of Dawn Of Ashes and where do you place this new work in the band’s history/discography?

Kristof: There has always been a high demand about returning to our earlier sound from fans that have been following us since the beginning, and there are fans that understand how we have the capability of blending both metal- and industrial music. I feel that I did neglect the origins of where DOA started from, but also know that I initially wanted Dawn Of Ashes to be a blend of metal and industrial from the beginning. Dawn Of Ashes is an industrial-metal band that experiments with various sides from different types of metal- and industrial music. I wanted to pay homage to the first “Crypt Injection” while throwing in what we do now. This album was meant to tell older fans that we hear you and that we don’t have to bury who we used to be any longer.

Q: So how did it feel getting back to dark-electronics and how would you compare writing an industrial-metal album versus a dark-electro album?

Kristof: This first attempt emerged when I wrote the debut “Bornless Fire”-album. Toying with synths again has been something I really missed. There is definitely something special about the combination of synth sounds and metal music. Not a lot of bands can pull it off and if they do, it sounds amazing. The dark-electro era had a very simplistic style of writing, while writing industrial-metal is a lot of work. The mixing process is very different and working with others and having them capture my vision of the sound is challenging. I feel that there is a sense of maturity difference between both “The Crypt Injection 1” and “The Crypt Injection 2”. Both unique in different ways and both have their own charm.

Q: What has been the main focus in the composition- and production process of this work and what are the elements you’re particularly proud of?

Kristof: The focus was to achieve the sound of the original “Crypt Injection” while making it completely different. The style of writing dark-electro / industrial and writing metal and putting them together while doing the math was very interesting. Mixing this album with Brendin Ross was the biggest nightmare and probably the hardest album to mix in my opinion. I feel like I’m mostly proud that I was able to pull this off and bring back that old sound, but also making it unique.

Q: I’m intrigued by the cover inspired by the Sephiroth, the famous ‘tree of life’ from Kabbalah. What does this ‘symbol’ means to you and what’s the link between the artwork and the lyrical content of the album?

Kristof: It’s actually the ‘Tree of Death’ or the Qliphoth. I have made it public that I am an active practitioner of The Left Hand Path and Black / Dark Magick. While in the middle of this album, I was studying and working with the Qliphothic Magick in a LHP order that I am involved in. The concept of the Tree of Death went well with the theme of “The Crypt Injection 2”. Death as a symbol of transformation or the mysteries in darkness and injecting this symbol within the knowledge of the mind. 

Q: The song “Hexcraft” is featuring Johan Van Roy who’s accentuating the dark-electro side of the work. How this featuring did happen and what makes Suicide Commando that special to you?

Kristof: Johan has always been a friend even though we still have not met in person. I felt that he would be the perfect person to do guest vocals since this album was meant to pay homage to the early years of dark-electro. I have always loved his work so it just happened.

Q: Johan, do you’ve some personal criteria when you accept to get featured on an album and what was your personal experience on “Hexcraft”?

Johan Van Roy: In theory I don’t have any personal criteria to accept any guest vocal requests, after all I’m just an electro whore, so I do all for money …:-)

No seriously, basically my only conditions are that I like the music and/or the song, and the artist behind this music. I would never sell my soul to an artist I don’t like personally. I know Kristof Bathory of DOA for many years now, and we always had much respect for eachothers work, so for me it was an honor to do guest vocals on “Hexcraft”.

Q: I always have experienced Dawn Of Ashes as a rather versatile formation and I here refer to numerous line-up changes, the band’s break in between 2013 and 2016 and the evolution in sound. It looks pretty rock’n’roll like, but how do you look back at all these different topics and how do you see the further years of the band?

Kristof: One of my top favorite bands is Nine Inch Nails. All of Trent’s albums sound very different, but it still is NIN. Every album has a sound and its own charm. Each DOA album is different, but it still is DOA. The equation is metal and industrial equals who we are. I am going to stick to both, but not alienate one or the other. That is the future of Dawn Of Ashes.

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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Genre/Influences: Dark-electro, industrial.

Background/Info: Bornless Fire is a new electronic music project set up and driven by Dawn Of Ashes front man Kristof Bathory. The debut work “Arcanum” (still available as a digital ‘deluxe’ edition featuring extra remixes) is a kind of move back to dark-electro fields.

Content: “Arcanum” is the right work to set dark-electro dancefloors on fire. There’s this obscure and tormented dark electro sound mixed with the artist’s harsh vocals. It sounds pretty doom-like while also reminding the coldness of Suicide Commando and co. The songs have been supported with impressive strings.

Both last songs are remixes by Tactical Sekt and Suicide Commando.

+ + + : You directly will notice this album has been composed by an experienced artist. The songs are sophisticated and well-crafted, featuring all requested ingredients to get a great dark-electro work. The power emerges from the tormented atmospheres and doom passages. The harsh vocals only accentuate the suffocating feeling you might experience. The strings hanging over the songs are somewhat old-school like, but simply brilliant. A              very last, but essential aspect of the work is the industrial input, which you can hear in some crashing percussion sounds and arrangements. Last, but not least I have to mention a great remix by Tactical Sekt and the one by Suicide Commando is a very cool last song.

– – – : The only single reproach I can think about is that Bornless Fire doesn’t add anything new to a music genre, which is repeating itself.

Conclusion: “Arcanum” is a hard and captivating debut work by Bornless Fire. Let’s now wait if Kristof Bathory will move on with this project, but I sincerely hope “Arcanum” is not a ‘one-shot’ release.

Best songs: “Becoming The Divine”, “Feel The Rage”, “RUNA”, “The Miserable Image Of Abrahamic Slavery”, “Eclipse Of The Soul – Tactical Sekt Remix”.

Rate: (8).

Artist: www.facebook.com/bornlessfire

Label: www.metropolis–records.com / www.facebook.com/MetropolisRecords

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.

Background/Info: Last year Suicide Commando released the album “Forest Of The Impaled”, which Johan Van Roy introduced as his most personal and intimate album to date. “Death Will Find You” moves back to this album featuring several remixes of 2 songs originally featured on the album plus 2 new cuts.

Content: Let’s start with both new cuts, which perfectly stand for the ‘obscure’ sound of Suicide Commando. One of the songs (cf. “Black Hole”) was written together with Mario Vaerewijck (live drummer and ex-Insekt). Both songs totally fit with the inhibited style of the full length.

Among the remixes you’ll get an interesting selection of bands (The Firm/E-Craft, Ruined Conflict, Binary Park and Bornless Fire). Notice by the way Suicide Commando made a remix of each song as well.

+ + + : It’s quite interesting to get 2 new songs featured on this EP although the best exponents are 2 remixes by Binary Park and Ruined Conflict, both reworking the original versions of “We Are Transitory” and “Death Lies Waiting” into cool dancefloor-killers. There also is a cool remix of The Firm/E-Craft.

– – – : I’m disappointed by the new cuts, which don’t sound like the best and most inspired work I’ve heard from Suicide Commando. I think this EP was the right place to put them on.

Conclusion: This EP is a nice addition to the latest Suicide Commando-album. It first of all is an item that will be purchased by the heaviest fans of the Belgian master of dark-electronics while it doesn’t bring that new for the others.

Best songs: “Death Lies Waiting – Binary Park Remix”, “We Are Transitory – Ruined Conflict Remix”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.suicidecommando.de / www.facebook.com/IIXIII

Label: www.outofline.de  / www.facebook.com/outoflinelabel

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