Out on July 22 is an all new Suicide Commando album and this time Johan Van Roy also hired the voice of Charlotte Nuytkens, finalist of the Belgian edition of “The Voice” on the track “Land of Roses”.

The regular edition comes as double-CD in digipak, featuring a full length bonus-CD with exclusive remixes of album tracks by Suicide Commando itself and befriended artists such as Cryo, Assemblage 23, C-Lekktor, Dead when I found Her, Tactical Sekt and others.

The album is also out as a limited edition double clear vinyl featuring all 10 main tracks of the new album, 3 tracks from 2 deleted singles and an exclusive version of “Kill all Humanity”.

And finally there is also a limited deluxe boxset (666 copies worldwide) which contains:

• The regular digi2CD
• Exclusive bonus 2CD: CD1 contains a ‘Collective Suicide Best of” Album, featuring a selection of the most popular tracks by Suicide Commando, while CD2 is a ‘Collective Suicide’ of rare tracks-compilation
• Customized Suicide Commando cross body bag
• Hand-numbered certificate

Below are some visuals from the 3 versions.

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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The fine Canadian label ArtOfFact records has launched a mega-sale with tons of releases priced at just 1$. You can visit this special sales page right here on Bandcamp.

Included in this special Bandcamp sale action are releases by such bands as Controlled Bleeding, Dead When I Found Her, Seeming, Out Out, Legend, Encephalon, Ghost Twin, Glass Apple Bonzai, Valhall, Noise Unit, SÓLSTAFIR, Nash the Slash, 3teeth, Mirror (Dave Gahan), Slow, Mobile Clones, Images in Vogue, …

Happy hunting!

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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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.

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Storming The Base has started what it calls a Freaky Fall Sale offering you the opportunity to order a huge amount of vinyl and CD releases at bottom prices. What’s more, if you live in the US, you should keep in mind that all orders reaching 100 US dollars will see their shipping costs waved, yep, they’ll be sent for free.

You can view the selection of items for this sale action right here.

Included are releases by 3TEETH, Out Out, Dead When I Found Her, Noise Unit, Haujobb, Controlled Bleeding and many many more. Moreover, some of these items come in test pressing versions, in other words: MEGA-RARE !

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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Genre/Influences: Dark-electro.

Background/Info: Behind Dead When I Found Her is hiding the creative outlet of Michael Arthur Holloway. Based in Portland (Oregon) this artist is maybe not the most famous one from the Artoffact roster yet probably one of the most talented ones. “Eyes On Backwards” is the fourth full length album for Dead When I Found Her, which comes one year after the successful “All The Way Down”-opus.

Content: I once more have to make a comparison with the legendary Skinny Puppy. Both bands share a similar taste for elaborated music structures and sophisticated sound creation. It even is one of the main characteristics of this formation. “Eyes On Backwards” invites the listener to join a pure horror experience in dark-electronics.

The atmospheres are almost more important than elements like rhythm and power. The power emerges from the intelligent and dense sound atmospheres reinforced by samples of screams. It’s dark and dreamy while once more accomplished by some space-like sound arrangements. There’s a part of bombast mixed with subtle arrangements always carried by impressive sound sculptures.

+ + + : You have simple and efficient EBM on one side and more sophisticated and intelligent EBM on the other. Dead When I Found Her is an ambassador from the intelligent side. This new opus excels in sound treatments and overwhelming terror-atmospheres. It sounds dreamy, but always tormented. The beauty of this work is hidden in the oppressive ambient element. It’s a complex sound although pretty accessible while revealing several noticeable cuts.

– – – : I didn’t find many differences in the evolution in sound with the previous work. Despite of the multiple great cuts, there’s not what I would call a real hit on this album while it remains a sound, which is not exactly setting dancefloors on fire.

Conclusion: Dead When I Found Her remains a reference when it comes to speak about contemporary, intelligent dark-electronics where the power and beauty of the production are hidden inside the dense and dark atmospheres.

Best songs: “Shining Path”, “High Anxiety”, “The Big Reverse”, “Tantrum”.

Rate: (8).

Band: www.facebook.com/deadwhenifoundher

Label: www.artoffact.com / www.facebook.com/artoffact

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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The most successful edition of Chicago’s ColdWaves Festival was held recently, and was completely sold out. If you missed the fun, you can still grab a copy of the “Coldwaves 5” compilation on which 14 bands have supplied exclusive tracks or remixes.

You can expect exclusives from: Bloody Knives, Stabbing Westward, Meat Beat Manifesto, Cubanate, Clock DVA, Kanga, Chant, 16Volt, Pig, Vampyre Anvil, Dead When I Found Her, Hide, Polyfuse, Not Breathing.

The 14 tracks are available now for ordering at a pretty low price right here.

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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(By Fiona K.) Looming on the summer horizon is the UK’s premier electronic music festival, Infest, on 26th – 28th August in Bradford, near Leeds in northern England. Now in it’s 18th year, Infest’s now fully-announced 2016 line-up is 3 glorious days of heavyweights of the electronic music genre, old and new.

Playing are Pop Will Eat Itself, Atari Teenage Riot, 3Teeth, Dead When I Found Her, Leaether Strip, Vigilante. to name but a few; and you’ll also get 3 days of top quality DJ’s to add to the fun.

Last year’s festival continued Infest’s long-standing reputation of impeccably-chosen line-ups of musically interesting and entertaining bands. Some of the highlights from last year included:

• a beautifully messed-up and rowdy electronic assault by ex-Ministry/Revolting Cocks’ frontman’s current incarnation, COCKSURE;
• a darkly-twisted techno set by the electronic trailblazers EMPIRION;
• an introduction to the primal industrial sound of CHANT all the way from Texas (which was a festival highlight);
• a sojourn in the incredibly polished theatrical-gothic niche that Germany’s L’Ame Immortelle dominate;
• the intense, emotive and diverse sound of KLANGSTABIL;
• the Pink Floyd of dark electronica, MIND IN A BOX, delighted with an intelligent, diverse and musically-rich performance.

And then there was the karaoke (yes, your read that correctly!), the dance-floor shenanigans and the after-parties and mayhem.

Here’s the thing about Infest though. It’s human-scale. It’s one stage. There’s no running around from venue to venue; no having to chose which of your bands you are prepared to miss because of cross-over scheduling. The staff are super-friendly; there’s food stalls and shots and outdoor seating and a general welcoming party atmosphere. If you haven’t been, go. It’s not one to miss.

Additional info on the official website. Tickets can be purchased right here. You can already watch here what to expect!

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

Genre/Influences: Dark-electro, apocalyptic-pop, industrial-ambient.

Content: Dead When I Found Her unleashes its 3rd full length album, which features 10 new songs plus a bonus disc (for the limited edition) with 6 extra songs.

Michael Arthur Holloway progressively becomes a real reference when it comes to speaking about intelligent electronic acts. This is not a stereotypical dark-electro formation getting the title of x-cheap emulation of an established band. “All The Way Down” confirms a sophisticated approach in writing and a great mixture of influences.

I don’t want to make any real comparison, but if you can imagine a hybrid between the evasive, icy sound of Haujobb, the complexity and industrial electro sounds of Skinny Puppy and the astral-pop style plus a similar way of singing as Mind.In.A.Box you’ll get an idea about this album.

“All The Way Down” is a perfect sonic balance between different elements, but where complexity remains fully accessible. Holloway composed a kind of sonic enigma, which is hard to decipher, but easy to listen. The work takes off a rather electro-rock way evolving into a complex cinematographic composition taking the listener in a dense sonic web for more than 6 minutes. “The Unclean” coming up next is quite different revealing a short and bombastic cut with samplings. The contrast between both songs already shows the eclecticism and impressive sound arsenal of this work.

Things progressively get more and more fascinating with the kind of space-like atmospheres upholding the songs with an icy blast. “Downpour” is an absolute masterpiece in the genre, but I also have to mention “Misericordia” for its beautiful sound treatments and intriguing choir parts while the vocals remind me of Stefan Poiss (Mind.In.A.Box).

“Blood Lesson” is one more song to pay attention to and I here got the impression of embarking on an apocalyptic-pop voyage mixing wafting atmospheres and beautiful sound sculptures.

The album finally comes to end a rather dreamy way. The sound comes pretty close to a real soundtrack experience at “The Noise Above Us” while there’s no better- and appropriated title than “At Rest” to bring this work to an end.

The extra disc features 6 songs, which you really have to discover. The limited edition of this album is a must have. The songs are a bit more danceable and harder while holding on to their main sources of inspiration, but they simply are beautiful songs as well.

The hardest cut probably is “Spitting Seeds”, which comes close to a kind of terror-electro creation. This is the kind of song that will more appeal for the real dark-electro heads. The most surprising song and yet one of the absolute attention grabbers is a cover version of Ministry’s “You Know What You Are”. This song is a kind of challenge as covering Ministry might be considered as a blasphemous exercise, but Michael Arthur Holloway did it with bombast and intelligence like injecting a new life to this legendary, early hit of Ministry.

The opening song “New Drugs” is one more noticeable song, which is a bit more into EBM. Last, but not least I also have to mention “So Cold” for its familiar complexity and brutal guitar riffs.

Conclusion: This album already got a very positive reaction and I can only, but agree that Dead When I Found Her has accomplished a brilliant opus. It’s not the most accessible song in the genre, but this is not electronic music for dummies, but for music lovers in search of creative, artistic minds.

Best songs: “Downpour”, “Misericordia”, “Bloodlesson”, “Threadbare”, “The Noise Above Us” + “Spitting Seeds”, “You Know What You Are”.

Rate: (DP:8½)DP.

Band: www.facebook.com/deadwhenifoundher

Label: www.artoffact.com / www.facebook.com/artoffact

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 last album by the ArtOfFact signed act Dead When I Found Her, “All The Way Down”, was such a great release (and so thought many of you as the 2CD edition of the album sold out in less than a month – that’s 500 units) that we absolutely wanted to know what this musician’s musical Top 5 were.

And although he already cited bands such as Haujobb, Skinny Puppy, Mentallo & The Fixer, Doubting Thomas and Gridlock on his Facebook page, there is way more to discover in this absolute TOP 5 from Dead When I Found Her.

Here’s a Top 5 best of from Dead When I Found Her, the solo project by Portland (Oregon) based musician Michael Arthur Holloway. The 1CD version is still available directly from the band’s label, if you haven’t yet picked this one up, do it now.

1. Haujobb – “Blendwerk”

Michael Arthur Holloway: “Lyrics about Ice Cream, didn’t Skinny Puppy already do that on their last album? There must be some new connection between our venerable industrial elders and every kid’s favorite treat, because this can’t be coincidence…

Ok, it probably is coincidence. Anyway, this album is infectious from start to finish. Slick production, precision-honed analog synths, aggressive yet understated vocals (Daniel Meyer has become a master of this approach), and an overall cohesion from track to track this is enviable. A deeply satisfying Haujobb release, and one of their best.”

A white vinyl 2LP version off this album is available right here.

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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Out this Friday on Artoffact Records is Dead When I Found Her’s newest album “All the way down”. “All The Way Down” is released as a limited edition double CD in a digipak.

The second CD includes 6 rare cuts and outtakes, as well as a cover of Ministry’s “You Know What You Are”, check below. The album also comes as a 1CD jewel case edition. Both editions come with a booklet and can be ordered right here.

Dead When I Found Her is the solo-project of the electronic musician and producer Michael Arthur Holloway, based in Portland, Oregon. The project was founded in 2010 and has since then gradually been increasing its fame in the industrial scene.

Portland fans can grab a copy directly from Michael at the album release party at the Lovecraft Bar on Thursday, November 12.

Here’s the Ministry cover.

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