Out on July 26 via COP International is the newest album from the industrial metal act Beasto Blanco, “Kinetica”. The new release features tracks such as “Run For Your Life”, “Nobody Move”, “Heavy Is The Head”, “Unreal”, “Kill Us Off With A Smile”, “Skull Rider”, “Slide”, “Lowlands”, “Diamond In The Dirt”, “Bad Thoughts”, and “Fight”.

Calico Cooper says this about the creative process and influences behind the album: “We were looking for a sound inspired by Rob Zombie, Ministry, and Glenn Danzig. Chris Harms (Lord of The Lost) instantly got that vibe. We flew to Hamburg to track the vocals and finish the writing in February, and the sessions were just amazing. Great energy in that city!”

Chris Harms adds, “Working with Beasto Blanco was one of the most creative and exciting productions of my career. For a few months, I was allowed to dive into the band’s world, so deeply that it felt like I was part of the band. We wrote, recorded, and produced songs together, with great attention to detail and no genre boundaries. Everything that felt good was right. I’m very proud of this album, which for me is a milestone in BB’s career!”

Beasto Blanco was formed in 2012 by Chuck Garric and Chris Latham, and also includes Calico Cooper, daughter of Alice Cooper, and a German rhythm section. The band consists of Chuck Garric on vocals and guitar, Calico Cooper on vocals, Brother Latham on guitar, Jan Legrow on bass, and Sean Sellers on drums.

“Kinetica” was produced by Chris Harms, mixed and mastered by Benjamin Lawrenz and Chris Harms at Chameleon Studios in Hamburg, Germany. The engineering and editing were handled by Benjamin Mundigler and Gerrit Heinemann, with programming by Chris Harms and Corvin Bahn. Additional guitars and bass were provided by Benjamin Mundigler and Chris Harms. The cover art was created by Greg Rolfes, with layout by DCore.

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.

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Metropolis Records welcomes the legendary 16volt on its roster. The new release “NegativeOnArrivals” features a selection of tracks from the band’s two self-released albums, “The Negative Space” and “Dead on Arrivals”, that have been selected by the band themselves.

In addition 16volt’s founder, songwriter, lead vocalist, programmer, and rhythm guitarist Eric Powell, is working on a new album that is slated for release later this year, to be released under the title “More of Less”. “NegativeOnArrivals” is available today via Metropolis Records on CD and through all digital and streaming platforms.

About 16volt

Eric Powell signed his first record deal in 1991 at a very young age and subsequently delivered three albums: “Wisdom” (1993), “Skin” (1994), and “LetDownCrush” (1996). On those albums he worked with several co-producers including David Ogilvie (Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy), Keith “Fluffy” Auerbach (Ministry), Jeff “Critter” Newell (Ministry, Angels & Airwaves, Blink-182), and special guests William Tucker (Ministry), Marc LaCorte (Schecter Guitars), and Bryan Black (Black Asteroid).

16volt then brought on producer Bill Kennedy (Nine Inch Nails, Megadeth, Sepultura, Mötley Crüe) to make the album “SuperCoolNothing” (1998, Mercury/PolyGram) featuring film composer and musician Joseph Bishara (Insidious, The Conjuring, Marylin Manson, Danzig), Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails), Mike Peoples (Skrew), and Kraig Tyler (Crazytown). With Polygram being acquired by Seagrams shortly before the album release, 16volt found themselves in the middle of a legal battle while Mercury lost all funding and moved the album to Island Records as a catalog item.

In the end the band bought the rights to the album in 2000 and signed an agreement with Sony Entertainment to feature the album within the Playstation game “Primal” as well as being a double release in Europe with the game on one disc and the album on another. The band was also skinned into the game as characters and included in interviews as in-game bonus material.

In 2007 16volt signed a multi-album deal with Metropolis Records and released “FullBlackHabit” (2007), “American Porn Songs” (2009), and “Beating Dead Horses” (2012) with guests such as Paul Raven (Ministry, Killing Joke, Prong); Steve White (KMFDM); Bildeaux (Lance Herbstrong) and mix engineer Shaun Thingvold (Strapping Young Lad, Lamb of God).

In early 2016 16volt entered the recording studio in Portland, Oregon to begin writing and recording a new album with producer Marc Jordan (Velvet Revolver, The Cult, Stitched Up Heart, The Mowglis, Hyro Da Hero, Bleached, Die Antwoord). The new album titled “The Negative Space” was released independently on September 14, 2016. In early 2017, 16volt entered the studio to begin work on their 10th album effort “Dead On Arrivals” which was self-produced and released in October of 2017.

During the summer of 2021, Eric began working on material again in his private studio. In the Fall of 2022, 16volt announced resigning with Metropolis Records and began work on a new album titled “More of Less” slated for a 2024 release. In addition, Metropolis now re-issues a combined version with select tracks of the albums “The Negative Space” and “Dead On Arrivals” titled “NegativeOnArrivals”.

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.

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Out on May 3rd via Metropolis Records is the release of the 16Volt album”NegativeOnArrivals”.

It holds condensed versions of the two most recent albums are being reissued on 3rd May as the single disc “NegativeOnArrivals”, with Powell stating: “I am excited to get this material out to a larger base through Metropolis! The collection of tracks was created during a hard time in my life and to feel them set free together is a great exorcism, I hope everyone enjoys them as we get warmed up for our new album.”

You can pre-order the album right here. Below is the artwork.

In further news, after a period of inactivity that saw 16Volt unable to tour, Powell began working on new material in his studio and re-signed with Metropolis Records for a brand new album entitled “More Of Less” to be issued later in 2024.

Here’s already the video for “The Last Time” featured on the new album.

About 16Volt

With roots dating back to the early days of the industrial rock genre, 16Volt have been successfully crossing over into multiple related genres for over three decades and retained a healthy worldwide fanbase while doing so.

Group founder, songwriter, lead vocalist, programmer and rhythm guitarist Eric Powell actually signed his first record deal in 1991 while still in his teens and delivered three albums in swift succession – “Wisdom” (1993), “Skin” (1994) and “LetDownCrush” (1996) – that saw him working alongside co-producers such as David Ogilvie (Nine Inch Nails, Skinny Puppy), Keith ‘Fluffy’ Auerbach (Ministry) and Jeff ‘Critter’ Newell (Ministry, Angels & Airwaves, blink-182), as well as guest musicians like William Tucker (Ministry), Marc LaCorte (Schecter Guitars) and Bryan Black (Black Asteroid). Earning both critical praise and pole positions on the US Alternative Chart and at College Radio, the band also built a significant live following as they toured extensively around North America and eventuallly signed a major deal with Mercury Records.

Producer Bill Kennedy (Nine Inch Nails, Megadeth, Sepultura, Mötley Crüe) was hired to help make “SuperCoolNothing” (1998), which featured appearances from film composer Joseph Bishara (Insidious, The Conjuring, Marylin Manson, Danzig), Chris Vrenna (Nine Inch Nails), Mike Peoples (Skrew) and Kraig Tyler (Crazytown), but the group soon found themselves in the middle of a legal battle shortly before album release when their label was bought by Seagram and its funding was cut. However, in a genius move, Powell was able to buy back the rights and made a deal with Sony to feature it within the Playstation game “Primal” as well as a two-disc European release that included both the album and the game with the band skinned in as characters and utilised as in-game bonus material.

The mid-’00s saw 16Volt sign to Metropolis Records and release the albums “FullBlackHabit” (2007), “American Porn Songs” (2009) and “Beating Dead Horses” (2012), which featured guests such as Paul Raven (Ministry, Killing Joke, Prong), Steve White (KMFDM) and Bildeaux (Lance Herbstrong), as well as mix engineer Shaun Thingvold (Strapping Young Lad, Lamb of God).

Meanwhile, an extensive touring schedule was maintained that included stints with KMFDM, Korn, Filter, Chemlab, Orgy, Prong, Stabbing Westward, Revolting Cocks, Fear Factory, Front Line Assembly, My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult, Front 242 and more, as well as multiple successful headlining tours in their own right.

2016 saw the release of “The Negative Space”, produced by Marc Jordan (Velvet Revolver, The Cult, Hyro Da Hero, Die Antwoord), with “Dead On Arrivals” following a year later.

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.

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You for sure know Brant Showers as member of ∆Aimon. A few years ago now the American artist also set up Sølve. This is a solo-project wherein he can deal with more personal and occult themes. After the debut album “The Negative” (2016) he this year unleashed “Earth Inferno” which has been released by Re:Mission Entertainment. It’s a dark and sophisticated piece of music which is hard to define but clearly dealing with Industrial, Witch-House and Cinematic influences. I talked about Sølve and the new album with Brant Showers.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: What does this solo-project means to you and what place does it take -next to  ∆Aimon, in your artistic odyssey?

Brant: Initially the Sølve project was meant as a way to work through some personal experiences unrelated to my relationship with my wife and partner in ∆Aimon. It was also an opportunity to explore pieces that were more Ambient and Experimental with a heavier dose of occult themes. As the project developed though, it has become a very important outlet of expression for me. I keep the style fluid and open so I can explore any influences or ideas, that appeal to me, whereas ∆Aimon has a much more consistent and solid aesthetic that we work within.

With ∆Aimon we approach everything as a duo so the subject matter and compositions reflect our relationship and the blend of our influences -my solo project tends to be inherently a lot more self-indulgent and often harsher in style because of my particular interests.

Q: Your debut-album “The Negative” originally released in 2016 and re-released plus remastered in 2021 was a very personal work. How was it to get back to this album and the themes that inspired you?

Brant: I actually had a really difficult experience going back to those works. “The Negative” came from some pretty dark thoughts and revisiting that headspace ended up taking a heavy toll on my frame of mind and emotional state. I definitely wasn’t expecting to be hit so hard with the ramifications of pulling up those sessions, but in the end I think it was really important and helpful for me to see it all from a relatively healthier perspective and to reflect on what I’ve accomplished since then -emotionally and artistically.

Q: Your new album “Earth Inferno” is directly inspired by the book of Austin Osman Spare. This is an interesting ‘artist’ as he got involved with different forms of artistic expression. I like him for his connection to  Symbolism and Art Nouveau, but you seem to be more inspired with the darker and occult side of the man. Tell us a bit more about it and especially the way you transposed the influences into music?

Brant: My introduction to Austin Osman Spare was through his occult writings and influence on Chaos Magick, so that’s where my mind went when I started working on the “Earth Inferno”-album. The album came about during quarantine at a time when police brutality, school shootings, alt-right rallies, political insurrection, and the numerous nation-wide protests were all boiling up to a breaking point. It’s all still incredibly pervasive, divisive, and intense everywhere, but the quarantine really seemed to push people past their limits. The themes in Austin Osman Spare’s “Earth Inferno” and my album share a similar distress over the bleaker side of the human condition and the nightmare of life. Spare’s own antisocial tendencies and way of condensing ideas into concise and blunt aphorisms has always been an influence on my writing as well -not to mention his specific occult work.

My first album was a lot more laden with magical significance, but there’s always a bit of it in my music as I’m a very ritualistic person and it’s an important way for me to process and develop.

Q: What have been the different stages, difficulties and maybe challenges you’d to go through to achieve this new album?

Brant: I Initially didn’t have any plans to work on a Sølve album at the time, as I had several other projects in the works, but sometimes inspiration just makes things happen. Within a few days I suddenly had the sketches for an EP underway and that quickly grew into a full length release.

As I mentioned, the circumstances regarding the political and social temperature was an important theme I wanted to convey but last year I went through an incredibly tragic loss of a close family member as well as the blessing of news that my wife and I were pregnant with our first child. These highs and lows had a profound impact and have me re-evaluating everything important to me. So the direction of the album changed pretty dramatically half-way through production. Everything took on a more directly personal context. Instead of focusing on the state of the world and my place within it, I found myself looking at it from the perspective of how deeply we are connected. How love and loss are intertwined. The cost of letting people into our lives is the heartbreak we endure when we lose them. Likewise, a new set of anxieties surfaced in regards to the world my daughter would inherit and all the insecurities and fears that come with it. The framework of “Earth Inferno”-shifted in a way I couldn’t have anticipated -a reflection of how my own philosophy and focus on life has shifted. It still carries a lot of the initial idea, but more intensely pointed.

Q: I think it’s nearly impossible to label your music, which also makes the strength and originality of your composition. How would you describe your album to people who never heard of Sølve before? And I’m wondering about criteria and references you’re using to compose and produce your music?

Brant: I struggle a lot with trying to describe my music to others. I’ve always listened to music in a sort of vacuum without associating it within any context, so I never really know how to categorize what I listen to or write. My brain doesn’t do well with trying to fit things into a framework and I find it really difficult to place music into any particular classification. I would say the elements I aim to bring to the forefront of my works are all emotional rather than stylistic, so I tend to describe it in those terms… ritualism weighed by melancholy -sentimental and sad. No idea if that helps anyone contextualize the music, but it’s how my reasoning works.

For what it’s worth, I’ve been heavily inspired lately by a lot of other difficult to categorize bands. Stuff like Health, Godflesh, Haunted Horses, Uniform, Witch Fever, and Profligate. All are artists that operate without fitting into any particular genre, and maybe that’s part of what is appealing to me. I can only describe what I write as an accumulation of decades worth of listening to a wide range of music -all pieced together from whatever speaks to me personally through all those years of absorbing sounds and styles.

Q: You’ve just released a new single, which is a cover version of “Blood And Tears” originally written by Danzig. What does the original song mean to you and how did you adapt the song into your own music universe? Any further plans?

Brant: I have a tradition of releasing new Sølve material every year on my birthday and always try to use it as an opportunity to do something outside of the usual style and themes that the project encompasses. Last year’s track was a rather emotionally heavy one (a cover of Lorn’s “Acid Rain”) recorded as a way to work through some of the grief I was experiencing -so this year it was really important for me to step outside of all the difficult subject matter I’ve been dwelling on lately.

Danzig happens to be an artist I’ve enjoyed since my teenage years and “Blood And Tears” is a song that I have a very strong nostalgic attachment to. It felt right to adapt a song that has such a positive personal significance but is still so moody and romantic. There is a bit more material from the “Earth Inferno” period that I’ll be putting out as a follow up EP -so I’ll be diving back into those heavy themes again, but in the meantime I’m thankful to have had the Danzig cover as a mental break.

Next up will be that satellite EP and then I’ll be following it with something on the noisier side in line with my Drone, Ambient, and Experimental work. That’s currently only in the beginning stages though, so we’ll see how that develops. Things will always evolve and change.

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: IDM, minimal-electronics.  

Format: Digital, Vinyl.

Background/Info: Liebknecht is the meeting between Daniel Myer (Haujobb, Architect ao) and Rinaldo Bite (Destroid, Static sky). Both musicians already worked together under the Destroid moniker and are now joining hands back again.

Content: If Liebknecht has been introduced as an exposure of Daniel Myer’s numerous projects transposed into a technoid soundscape with analogue sequences made by Rinaldo Bite on top, it first of all appears to be truly vintage, IDM and minimal-electro work. There for sure is a link with techno music, which sometimes reminds me of some intelligent techno productions from the 90s and the ‘Frankfurter’-scene. The songs are carried by solid bass lines and icy, analogue sound treatments. Some arrangements remind me of Haujobb, but here stops any further comparison.

+ + + : I was deeply impressed by this new project. The genius of Daniel Myer is a point we no longer have to discuss, but Liebknecht is much more than simply a new project or challenge! This music reveals the magic of electronic music and reminds me why I like this underground scene. The production is the fruit of a creative and deeply, artistic process revealing outstanding sound treatments, great sonic manipulations and irresistible effects. This is a brilliant fusion between retro-elements composed with vintage electronics revealing a refreshing electronic work. The “Ursuppe Remix” sounds close to perfection!

– – – : Both last cuts are less powerful and reveal a rather electro-ambient direction. It still sounds minimal and accomplished, but can’t compete with the other tracks.

Conclusion: I think there’s no better way to launch a new project by unleashing such a sonic bomb!

Best songs: “Ursuppe Remix”, “ICE Over Erfurt”, “Danzig”, “Saint Pete”.

Rate: (9). 

Artist: www.facebook.com/LiebknechtOfficial

Label: www.ant–zen.com / www.facebook.com/antzen.official

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

Original members of Sex Gang Children come together for a live tour in support of the forthcoming release of the complete Sex Gang Children A & B sides Singles (1982-1983) album. The line-up will exist of: Andi Sex Gang – vocals, Terry MacLeay – guitar, Mathew James Saw – bass, Rob Stroud – drums, Bari Goddard – cinematic visuals.

Formed at the beginning of 1982 by vocalist Andi Sex Gang, the band quickly made a name for themselves in the London underground scene with their intense theatrical live performances and unique brand of sound and onstage visuals.

Cited as an early influence by the likes of Jane’s Addiction, Soundgarden and Danzig, Sex Gang Children have never compromised in their approach to the art, with songs such as “Deiche”, “Sebastiane” and “Mauritia Mayer” remaining to this day alternative and Goth club favourites all over the world.

Concert tickets are available here.

The dates confirmed so far:

• 4th Oct 2016 Dublin Workman’s Club
• 6th Oct 2016 Belfast Voodoo
• 8th Oct 2016 Manchester Fac251 The Factory
• 9th Oct 2016 Glasgow Oran Mor
• 10th Oct 2016 Nottingham The Doghouse/Seetickets
• 10th Oct 2016 Nottingham The Doghouse/Wegottickets
• 11th Oct 2016 Birmingham The Rainbow
• 12th Oct 2016 Reading Sub89
• 13th Oct 2016 Cardiff The Globe
• 14th Oct 2016 London Dingwalls
• 15th Oct 2016 Southampton Engine Rooms
• Tba

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.

side-line.com