The Belgian electro label Alfa Matrix releases the twelfth volume in its “Matrix+ Downloaded” series to coincide with the label’s 24th anniversary. The digital-only set collects 69 tracks across the label’s current spectrum – EBM, dark elektro/industrial, synth pop – and newer Spleen+ additions spanning post-punk, goth rock and coldwave. The compilation is offered as a free/pay-what-you-want download via the label’s Bandcamp page and also includes a PDF booklet.

On the cover you will recognize Erica Dunham from Unter Null.

Artists included on this free download compilation include: Studio-X (feat. Kyoko Baertsoen), Rector Scanner, Aesthetische, Cut.Rate.Box, Kant Kino, Frontal Boundary, C-Lekktor, Acylum, Diffuzion, Implant, Neikka RPM, First Aid 4 Souls (feat. Aux Animaux), Noemi Aurora, Suicidal Romance, Llumen, Hanging Freud, Lederman/De Meyer, The Ultimate Dreamers, Aiboforcen, Digital Factor, Armageddon Dildos, Helalyn Flowers, Krystal System, The True Union, Freakangel, Totem Obscura, Lovelorn Dolls (feat. Dero Goi), The Breath of Life, The Names, ImJudas, Synapsyche, Miseria Ultima, Unter Null, Alien Vampires (feat. Dani Divine), Venal Flesh, Helle9, To Avoid, Pouppée Fabrikk, Stahlgeist, Nigra Nebula, Aengeldust, Circuito Cerrado, Matthew Creed, Cubic, Metroland, The Psychic Force, Komor Kommando, First Aid Tech, Die Robo Sapiens, ELM, Plastic Noise Experience, AD:Key, Elektroklänge, 808 Dot Pop, Avarice in Audio, Elektrostaub (feat. Echo Image), Cryogenic Echelon, Entrzelle, Neuroactive, Technoir, Mondträume, Star Industry, Stray, Psy’Aviah (feat. Sorrow Stories), Zombie Girl, Darkness on Demand, Circumpolar, Dunkelwerk, and Lights A.M.

A&R manager, Sebastien Dolimont says: “In 2025, Alfa Matrix proudly celebrates 24 years of existence. Nearly a quarter of a century fighting for dark alternative music, discovering new talents, and keeping the underground alive. This anniversary is not just about us and our artists – it’s about you, our fans. Because without your constant support, there would be no label, no releases, no future for the scene we all love.”

And he add: “In a world where indie labels are disappearing, streaming revenues collapse, and risks of signing new talents are higher than ever, we are proud to still stand strong — but we can only do it with you by our side. By downloading this compilation, you are not just enjoying music — you are actively supporting 69 artists and helping keep our scene alive, fresh, and forward-looking. From all of us at Alfa Matrix and Spleen+, and on behalf of all our artists: thank you for 24 years of loyalty, passion, and support. Together, we’ll keep writing the future of the dark underground.”

About Alfa Matrix

Alfa Matrix is a Brussels-based independent label founded in 2001. The catalogue focuses on electronic subgenres including industrial, EBM, dark elektro, and synth pop, later expanding into post-punk/coldwave via the Spleen+ division. The label’s team includes label & artists manager Seba Dolimont, promo manager Bernard Van Isacker, and head of design Benoît Blanchart.

From the early 2000s, Alfa Matrix used series-based releases to build international reach. Notable strands include “Sounds From The Matrix” (label samplers), “Re:Connected” (digital label overview), and the club-oriented “Endzeit Bunkertracks” multi-CD anthologies (first “Act” released 21 March 2005, featuring 60 tracks with 50 exclusives).

In 2023, Alfa Matrix inaugurated Spleen+, a division centred on post-punk and adjacent styles, and followed with multi-artist projects and catalogue building, including the “Resurgence” 7-CD box that assembled 133 contemporary bands from the post-punk family.

The label has since the very start focused on a direct contact with its fans and customers via their online webstore and 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.

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In our latest interview, Maxx Maryan, the creative force behind IMJUDAS and co-founder of HELALYN FLOWERS, delves into the intricate dualities of his recent EP, “I Love You Go Away“. He discusses the thematic contrasts between tracks like “Go Away” and “I Love You,” reflecting on personal experiences and broader human emotions. Maxx also shares insights into the collaborative process with remixers, the fusion of diverse musical influences, and the visual artistry that defines IMJUDAS’s identity.

SL: “I Love You Go Away” presents a striking duality between the aggression of “Go Away” and the melancholic vulnerability of “I Love You.” What inspired this contrast, and how do these songs reflect your last album “Viscerheart” and your personal journey in general?

M. This is a duality that reflects the conceptual basis of the album itself, starting from the title, “Viscerheart”, which ideally sees in the heart the point of congestion of everything from below (the viscera) that still cannot free itself and ascend to our superior, “celestial” part. The songs “Go Away” and “I Love You” are only apparently dichotomous, probably because of the different sounds that each of them proposes, because both are based on resentment and the inability to forgive and love unconditionally.

SL: The EP delves into themes of betrayal and false friendships. Was there a particular experience that influenced the lyrics, or is this more of a universal reflection on human relationships?

M.  I don’t think I’m usually one to write hate songs, at least on purpose. I don’t go around “shopping” for things against which to show off presumed hatred or anger. In the case of “Go Away” it was very simple and direct: yet another scroll on Facebook, you find yet another post from one of the people you know very well for who they really are, one of those people who only think about accumulating people in their life just to gain approval. Then I feel nauseous, and I think: “ok, you’re like this but I’m the exception to your rule, I’m not part of your human inventory, GO AWAY”. And so on with the song. It’s an honest song, in which the curtain of common sense and diplomacy of human relationships falls; “go away” is a real go away, gritted between the teeth and with the eyes fixed on those of the hypocrites.

SL: You’ve brought in an impressive lineup of remixers, from PEOPLE THEATRE’s dreamy electro-pop to IMPLANT’s industrial grit. How do you feel these reinterpretations expand on the original themes of the EP? How difficult is it to have other people “touching” such personal songs?

M. Honestly, it’s not something I think about much. I appreciate these remixes for what they actually are musically. There was a time when I used to be much more “jealous” of my songs, and very sensitive towards possible nuances and stylistic choices or arrangements by some remixers, but probably because still I hadn’t learned to “close” my work once the mix and master were done. Today I have much more fun in this sense, because, regardless of everything, doing these remix things is mainly fun.

SL: IMJUDAS blends elements of Dark Pop, Post-Punk, and Cold Wave, often evoking artists like THE SOFT MOON or GARY NUMAN. How do you balance these influences while keeping your sound uniquely your own?

M. Simply by not thinking about it! When I start writing new music for ImJudas I let myself be guided by the feeling I have for this project and by the emotional and rational reins that keep me tied to it. There are undeniable influences, like Gary Numan that you mention, but when I write I don’t think about this. If anything, it’s a pleasant game to find in hindsight the various artists whose presence is somehow felt in my songs. My background lies mainly in the music of the 80s, a lot of heavy metal and electronic pop or dance of those years, and in sacred and operatic music.

SL: Your music often carries a strong visual and conceptual identity. Can you tell us more about the artistic direction and imagery behind IMJUDAS?

M. There is no desired evolutionary line. I let myself be carried away every time by the concepts linked to my albums. For example, with the debut, “YrJudas”, I based everything on pop art, taking inspiration for the cover image from a Tattooed Lady by the artist Peter Blake (the one from the cover of “Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band” by The Beatles, to be clear). Revolving the album around the idea of the tiredness of carrying the weight of culture and history, I found it providential to have come across the mix of the current album in this art history book with the print of this canvas. Synchronicity! The pictorial choice of the album, with the outlines of the body’s silhouette split in different colors, comes from Andy Warhol and especially from the cover of the double LP “Love You Live” by Rolling Stones that I have always adored. These “phase shifts” of lines and colors for me symbolize the peace of our higher self that awaits us, not far away but one step away from us. With the second album, “Viscerheart”, I went in the opposite direction; no more pictorial and artistic stuff but rock artist photos in which the concept is made by the choice of location, namely a canebrake. The cane is a symbol in nature of instability because it is hard but fragile at the same time. It represents our uncertainty, and so the whole concept of the album. This canebrake that you see in the photos is behind my house.

SL: Out of curiosity. Now that you and Noemi both released solo albums. Can we dream of any come back of HELALYN FLOWERS for 2025?

M. I would like to say yes, but at the moment I see it as very unlikely. There has been a lot of talk between Noemi and me, we even have an archive full of voice memos and even something tracked on DAW, but we feel that it is not yet the right time to return and that, rather, our solo paths still have a lot to say. Being Helalyn Flowers is not easy. This is not one of those projects in which one person does everything and the other just sings, absolutely not, and in this sense I think everyone now has before their eyes and ears the evidence of Noemi Aurora with her debut album, “Kintsugi”, in which she did everything by herself, from writing and playing to mixing and mastering, because it has always been like this in Helalyn Flowers: everything was done and established in equity. And, believe me, it is not easy for two hotheads like us! Today we feel relieved in not compromising anything of our stylistic and musical decisions and then we do not have to argue anymore. Remember that we are a couple even in everyday life and an argument in the studio is also an argument outside the studio. As Helalyn Flowers we have made 6 albums plus a ton of EPs and mini-releases in which we really think we have never contained ourselves. And above all we have done everything staying in the present and never looking back. Today it would be different, because, in light of what we have done, the first thing that comes to mind is how to account for all our work and how to continue with respect to it. And this is not good because it would hold us back. After all, Helalyn Flowers is Noemi and I who have a lot of fun making our music. And it will surely happen, but not now.

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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ImJudas, the solo project of Maxx Maryan (from electro-goth/pop metal duo Helalyn Flowers), is back with a brand new EP, “I Love You Go Away“, out now on Spleen+. “I Love You Go Away” is the 3rd single from ImJudas latest album “Viscerheart“.

The EP holds no less than 6 tracks including “Go Away” and “I Love You” plus 3 remixes of “Go Away” by Ok Lion!, Aiboforcen and Implant. As an extra you also get a remix of “StJudas” by People Theatre.

About ImJudas

ImJudas is the solo project of Italian artist Maxx Maryan, known as the male half of the electro-metal duo Helalyn Flowers. Established in 2016, ImJudas began as a noir-dyed electro-pop endeavor and has since evolved to incorporate rough guitar elements, reflecting Maryan’s diverse musical roots in electronic dark wave and primordial rock.

In April 2022, ImJudas released the debut album “Yrjudas,” showcasing a blend of electronic dark wave and rock influences. The album features tracks like “Outcast,” “Ritual,” and “So Untrue,” highlighting the project’s signature fusion of synthetic lines with sharp guitar riffs and emotive vocals.

Following “Yrjudas,” ImJudas continued to explore and expand its sound with several EPs and singles, including “So Untrue EP” in January 2023, “People Of The Blame EP” in January 2023, “I Love You” in September 2023, and “Stjudas EP” in December 2023. These releases further delve into the melancholic 80s pop-wave and post-punk territories.

In May 2024, ImJudas unveiled the album “Viscerheart,” an exploration of love, suffering, obsession, and self-discovery. This release pushes sonic boundaries by venturing into EDM/Dance-Pop and sonic abstraction.

The project draws inspiration from the aesthetics of the New Wave movement and artists like David Bowie, Gary Numan, and Depeche Mode, resulting in a unique sound that should please with fans of dark pop, post-punk, and cold wave genres.

You can order the “Viscerheart” album below.

ImJudas videos

Below are the single for “Go Away” and “I Love You”.

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 Brussels-based Spleen+ label (a division of Alfa Matrix) has prepared a deluxe 7CD collector’s edition – “Resurgence” – which brings together 133 active bands from across the globe, spanning the diverse sub-genres born from post-punk’s iconic roots. You can order it now from the Alfa Matrix webstore and in digital download format from Bandcamp.

The release comes housed in a luxurious vinyl-sized box, and comes accompanied by a 28-page book. The book holds interviews from renowned producers like John Fryer and Jean-Marc Lederman, label managers, journalists, and iconic artists (including Red Lorry Yellow Lorry, William Faith, No More, Skeletal Family, Mona Mur, KaS Product, And Also The Trees, Clan Of Xymox, Attrition, Das Ich, Merciful Nuns, The Names, The Breath Of Life, etc).

Spanning 23 different nationalities, the music included is a genre-spanning mix of post-punk, cold wave, dark synth, ethereal, and minimal EBM with such bands like Boy Harsher, A Cloud Of Ravens, No More, Skeletal Family, Collection D’Arnell Andrea, Underviewer, Attrition, Merciful Nuns, Lederman/De Meyer, Local Suicide & Sekelesys, Star Industry, Ataraxia, Czarina, Helalyn Flowers, Ascii.Disko, Je T’Aime, The Ultimate Dreamers, Lycia, Opera Multi Steel, The Breath Of Life, Auger, The Names, Whispers In The Shadow, Lovelorn Dolls, Astari Nite, Chiasm, Saigon Blue Rain, Omnimar, Still Patient, Creux Lies, Golden Apes, and many more.

You can already check out a few tracks here.

Apart from the 7CD vinyl size deluxe carton box format, “Resurgence” will not be available on mainstream digital platforms, except exclusively via the label’s Bandcamp page.

There is also a special combi pack including the 7CD set plus Darkness On Demand’s “Panic In Reserve” CD and To Avoid’s “All Gods Are Gone” 2CD.

“Resurgence” Tracklist

Cd 1

1. Bestial Mouths . Hex (The Spell)
2. A Cloud Of Ravens . Parable
3. Boy Harsher . Give Me A Reason
4. Czarina . Wonderland
5. Collection D’arnell Andrea . Waiting For Meaulnes
6. Krystal System . La Lame Dans Ta Main
7. Je T’aime . Out Of Sight
8. Aeon Rings . Fully Operational
9. The Ultimate Dreamers . Polarized
10. Partikul . Nothing Good In Me
11. Cosmobrigade . Spacepit
12. Aeon Sable . From Witchcraft To Deviltry
13. Stereoskop . Deep Down
14. The Breath Of Life . Slowly Crushing
15. Faust Project . Rats Lullaby
16. Al . Mistake
17. N.E.L. & J.P . Desinteresse
18. Zeitgeist Zero . Scream
19. Voyna . Moulding Heart

Cd 2

1. Blackbook . You Are Strange
2. Auger . My Heart Is Glass
3. Dekad . A Deadly Show (Video Edit)
4. Love In Cage . A Logical Secret Collection
5. Helalyn Flowers . Halos
6. Soft Scent . No Wounds
7. Sweet Ermengarde . Sweet Sacrifice
8. Martin Dupont . Bent At The Window (2023)
9. The Names . Far From The Factories
10. Boxes Of Blow . Melting Faces
11. Mirror Of Haze Feat. Primitive Heart . Reckless
12. A Slice Of Life . Seven Days
13. Then Comes Silence . Pretty Creatures
14. Nite . Inside Of My Head
15. Astari Nite . Bowie In Daydreams
16. Korus . Złote Światło Pierwszego Zachodu
17. Lovelorn Dolls . A Heart Cries
18. Whispers In The Shadow . Revenants
19. Merciful Nuns . Oneironauts

Cd 3

1. Lederman – De Meyer . Heartbeat
2. Local Suicide & Skelesys . Surface Of The Sun (Radio Edit)
3. Punx Soundcheck Feat. Ascii.Disko & Princess Superstar . Gasoline
4. No More . Sleepers And Trains
5. Mitra Mitra . Memories For Company
6. A Copy For Collapse Feat. Simona Pietrucci . Faded
7. Alien Skin . Depress Me
8. White Mansion . Cancel The Sky
9. Apnoie . Splash Your Bile
10. Celluloide . Compte Les Ombres
11. Risk Risk . Streetwalk
12. Total Chroma . Northern Lights
13. Opera Multi Steel . À Nos Moments Perdus
14. Lycia . Simpler Times
15. Noemi Aurora . Blood As Lipstick
16. Novus . Ess
17. I Ya Toyah . Death’s Kiss
18. Katcross . Rest
19. Winter Severity Index . Speak To Me

Cd 4

1. Systeme Paradoxe . Comme Le Sable En Hiver
2. Aiboforcen . Break The Black Ice (Original Mix)
3. Chiasm . Cut Right Through (Emileigh Rohn Edit)
4. Saigon Blue Rain . Dolls Dresses
5. Her Own World . Mistrust
6. Still Patient Feat. Minu-Schirin Samimi . Blind Vision
7. Creux Lies . Playtime
8. Der Klinke . Curtains (Your Life On Hold Remix)
9. On The Floor . Crying On The Dancefloor
10. Numa Echos Feat. Red Zebra . Waisted Items
11. Factheory . The Day (Ok Lion! Mix – Short Version)
12. Antiflvx . Crystal
13. Flor Concreta . She’s Closer
14. Golden Apes . Ash Trees
15. Glis . Blue Sky Night
16. Ataraxia . The Source
17. Hanging Freud . Grooming
18. Ok Lion! . Get Away
19. Yuzna . Queen Of The Eels

Cd 5

1. The Breath Of Life Feat. Implant . The Last Record
2. The Halo Trees . Happy Man
3. Palm Ghosts . Tilt
4. Your Life On Hold . Imprisoned (Merciless Radio Edit)
5. Götterdämmerung . Common Existence
6. Jenni Sex . Sin Chimes
7. Denner . She Radiates Darkness
8. Imjudas . I Love You
9. Black Needle Noise . Dollhouse On Fire
10. Dead Souls Rising . Dysmorphobia
11. The Waning Moon . Annabel
12. Korinthians . Leader Of The Night
13. Elektrostaub Feat. Stefan Netschio . Mantis (Auger Remix)
14. Omnimar . The Matrix
15. Synapsyche Feat. Chris Harms (Lord Of The Lost) . The Last Dying Flame
16. Dance My Darling . Criminal
17. First Aid 4 Souls Feat. Emke Of Black Nail Cabaret . Das Messer
18. Supernova 1006 . Tell Your Name (Mix)
19. Suicidal Romance . Runaways

Cd 6

1. Ascii.Disko . Loslassen
2. Vioflesh . Emotions
3. Dina Summer . Who Am I (Club Version)
4. Pleasure Victim . Rascheln
5. Pink Opake . Pronta
6. Thewalkingicon . The Trail (Radio Edit)
7. Psy’aviah Feat. Sorrow Stories . Healing
8. Seasurfer . Collapsing
9. Lakeside X . Fire In The Sky (Radio Version)
10. Darkness On Demand . Hang On (Winterhart Remix)
11. Star Industry . Selling Icons (The Dreamside Remix)
12. Alphavox . Dark Satellite
13. Yama Uba . Shapes
14. Lifeless Past . Anxiety
15. Pink Turns Blue . Not Gonna Take It
16. Social Union . Waiting For Red
17. Sine . Until (Clan Of Xymox Remix)
18. Sorry, Heels . She Burns (We Burn) Version
19. Lights A.M . Clouds

Cd 7

1. Useless/You . Echo
2. Attrition . The Great Derailer
3. Children Of Zeal . Taking Over
4. Octolab . Friend Or Foe
5. Vague Phonique . The Last Man
6. Midnight Poetry . Black Hole
7. The Overlookers . Undercover (Edit)
8. La Machine . Vamos A La Playa (Radiomix)
9. Die Sexual . House Of God
10. Carrellee . Morning Sun
11. Underviewer . Was Soll Ich Tun (Aiboforcen Remix)
12. Night In Athens . Words Unspoken
13. Neila Invo . Alienation
14. Skeletal Family . My Own Redemption
15. The Murder Mystery . A Girl Named Red
16. Princess Ugly . For A Moment I Forgot The Desolation
17. Instant Lake . Ivory Dreams
18. Vision Video . Balaclava Kiss
19. La Scaltra . Dancing On Debris

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 took nearly six years for Brussels-based Lovelorn Dolls to release their latest album, “Deadtime Stories.” Similar to their previous work, “Darker Ages,” the production was entrusted to Maxx Maryan (HELALYN FLOWERS, IMJUDAS). The duo’s style remains rooted in Gothic elements, now infused with a heavier, more Metal-like sound. Comparisons with The Birthday Massacre are still relevant, but the overall production has significantly matured. The guitar riffs are sharper, providing a well-balanced contrast to the melodic Electro arrangements. Kristell Lowagie’s vocals, both fragile and passionate, imbue the album with a distinctive sensibility. Noteworthy are her duets with Dero Goi (former Oomph! singer) and American rapper Vvitchboy. “Deadtime Stories” marks a successful evolution for Lovelorn Dolls. (Rate:8).

Listen to “A Heart Cries”:

Read the news on ‘Deadtime Stories’.

About Lovelorn Dolls

Lovelorn Dolls is a gothic and electro-metal duo from Brussels, Belgium, fronted by vocalist Kristell Lowagie and co-founded with the late Bernard Daubresse. The band released “Darker Ages,” produced by Maxx Maryan of Helalyn Flowers and Imjudas, before returning with “Deadtime Stories” in 2024, again produced by Maryan and featuring duets with Dero Goi and rapper Vvitchboy. Bernard Daubresse died in November 2025; the following EP, “True Crimes,” released in October 2025, was the last Lovelorn Dolls material shaped by him, and the band went on to welcome new bassist Fabien for the 2026 single “Call Me Your Ghost.”

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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“Viscerheart” is the second album by Italian artist Maxx Maryan, well known for his work with Helalyn Flowers. Released by Spleen+ (a subdivision of Alfa Matrix), this new project revisits the 80s Electro-Wave nostalgia but infuses it with a personal, harder Pop style. Compared to its predecessor, “Viscerheart” has a slightly softer edge and explores a kind of ‘freestyle’ that adds a touch of originality to the album. The opening tracks are particularly compelling, and the production quality is noteworthy, especially the vocals, which are both sensual and powerful. (Rate: 7½).

Listen to “Red Bridge”:

Read the news on ‘Viscerheart’.

About IMJUDAS

IMJUDAS is the solo project of Italian artist Maxx Maryan, also known as the male half of Helalyn Flowers. He launched the project with the debut EP “Tulpa” in November 2017, followed by the EP “Ritual” in November 2021 and the debut album “Yrjudas”, released as a limited double CD in February 2022. Maryan also records as Black Shine Fever, a separate project that released the album “Via Negativa” in 2020. IMJUDAS followed with the single “I Love You” and the EP “Stjudas” via Spleen+ in 2023, before “Viscerheart” arrived on Bandcamp and CD via Alfa Matrix in 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.

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I had the chance to interview The Italian artist Maxx Maryan, who is nobody else but the male half of cult band HELALYN FLOWERS, for the release of his new album, “Viscerheart”, of his solo-project IMJUDAS that is fusing dark pop, post-punk and cold-wave. He brought us behind the veils of this poignant and so intimately  intense release…

You can get the album right now from Bandcamp as download and on CD (plus special packages) and all other digital stores.

SL: “Viscerheart” is described as an exploration of love, suffering, obsession, and self-discovery. What inspired you to delve into these intense emotional themes, and how did they shape the overall narrative of this IMJUDAS album?

MM: I like to think that this new album was born from the unsustainability on my part of keeping inside many of my emotional and sentimental disorders and instabilities, because at a certain point I found myself feeling like I was scratching the bottom, so I pulled myself by the ear and I poured my discouragement into music and words. Above all the words, those throughout “Viscerheart”, are very important because they are my sung confession, my most tormented prayer. This is an album of cowardice, because I sing things that I would never have had the courage to say if not by singing them, just as I sing in the title track of the album “I have the courage to shout it but not write it. Why this cowardice? What doesn’t flow between heart and gut?”. Or again, in the song “Lost my faith in nirvana”, with clenched teeth I emit my most painful mantra “my chest is the seat of hate”. Here I call for help. This is not the album of the stupid basking in negativity as a banner of one’s nihilism, NO. There is great hope here.

SL: Your music has been characterized as ‘Electro-synth Pop with a Goth soul.’ How do you balance these genres, and what elements do you incorporate to maintain this unique blend in “Viscerheart”?

MM: As far as I’m concerned, I’m convinced that knowing how to bypass intentionality can give rise to the manifestation of part of our authenticity. At least that’s what I hope for and what holds together everything I’ve written and done. Probably my extreme curiosity on a musical level, therefore my not being stuck in just one musical area, the joy that learning from different styles and genres gives me and a certain shamelessness and contempt for the ‘safe mode’ are all elements that go to stratify my music. “Electro/Synth-Pop” is technically the result of everything, the ‘roof’ under which everything takes shape. While “Goth soul”, in fact, is what animates it. With this I am referring to a precise spiritual approach inherent above all in early Gothic.

SL: The album features a fusion of synth pop, dark wave, and post-punk. Can you discuss your influences from bands like DEPECHE MODE and GARY NUMAN, and how they have impacted your sound on tracks like “Tazebao” or yet “Go Away” for example?

MM: I think Depeche Mode are now so ingrained in me that any reference to them is unintentional! I discovered them as a child when they showed video clips of “Personal Jesus” and “Enjoy the Silence” on TV, between 1989 and 1990, and I haven’t left them since. With all the importance of an album like “Violator”, when I think of them my heart can only turn to the follow-up “Songs of Faith and Devotion”. When it came out it shocked me and from then on it remained for me a cornerstone of the meeting between electronic music and pop and rock. This is why I think that a song like my “Tazebao” is in some way the daughter of that inspiration, even if this is a consideration I make in hindsight; when I write and record, I don’t think about who or what my music might remember. Only when I listen back then do I enjoy finding correspondences, a ‘vice’, this one, quite journalistic and probably reminiscent of my very distant background as a fanzine-maker, ha ha… I can’t tell you how much Gary Numan in my opinion can be in a song like “Go Away”, probably a lot, according to many, given that in almost everything I do people find a reference to this great artist who I listened to a lot in a certain period of my life which coincided with the first years of Helalyn Flowers. I have to say that I really like his more pop records from the 80s.

SL: “Viscerheart” pushes sonic boundaries and ventures into EDM/Dance-Pop and sonic abstraction. What was your creative process in incorporating these diverse sounds, and how do you feel they enhance the album’s emotional journey?

MM: It’s all about picking up the signs. It is a simultaneity of inspiration between words and the “first” sequence, the “right” one. For me it’s all about abandoning yourself to this but also knowing how to control the creative flow so as not to disperse it between the jaws of reason. I think a certain underlying principle of reversibility is also fundamental in this; the more the container fills with beats the more it is about to pour out to empty itself, and there the beat becomes abstraction, absence of beats, rarefaction. The song “Lost my faith in nirvana” is a perfect example of this. But it’s like a yin-yang; these two concepts are not separate but mutually confluent, so that in one of them there is also a part of the other. This is why it happens that even in songs with a strong dance-pop flavour you can hear a ‘cosmic’ dimension in the background made up of hiss, manipulated and dilated vocoders, noise, drowned in the metaphysical distance of the reverb.

SL: The track “I Love You” from the previous single release is described as a Dark Pop / Post-Punk / Cold-Wave anthem. Can you talk about the creation of this song and what message or emotion you hope to convey through it?

MM: “I Love You” was one of the first songs written for the new album, so I think it represents a bit of its embryo and potential state. The love I speak of is not “another” love, because love is only one when it is authentic. I’m talking about how some ways of achieving it can hurt. Possessiveness, for example. When we are possessive, like someone who ends up excluding you from the world to protect you, we do it because in our minds we think we are pursuing a positive goal, but what results is disastrous. It’s about how good can turn bad, but only because desperation in love can get out of control and turn bad. In this case, evil, if you think about it, is a form of good, albeit degenerate, because it derives from it. It is up to us to discern and recognize these metamorphoses. However, I don’t want “I Love You” to remain, in its meaning, a mere description of how certain things happen (I think that in this song each of us can find at least a piece of our own existence) but that it transcends them, and that do through forgiveness.

SL: Your production on this album features intricate instrumentation, driving basslines, and wave-y guitars. How did you approach the production process to achieve this lush and polished sonic palette?

MM: It’s like a kind of multidimensional awareness. Once you have explored, for example, the rhythmic dimension, then you set off on a new journey such as the search for harmonies, and then again for noise etc. It all depends on how I conceive these emanations and how I don’t so much superimpose them as make sure that they flow into each other. Obviously, an important ingredient is fun. I enjoy. And a lot, too. For example, when, in the production phase, I find myself dealing with the bass, I enjoy thinking about putting into it something of what I have learned from listening to dub music. Or, for guitars, to use tones and drives that I loved hearing on an Andy Summers album and so on. I bring with me pieces of my experience as a true music lover, on a universal level.

SL: “Viscerheart” is said to invite listeners on a hauntingly beautiful journey through human emotions. What do you hope your audience takes away from this journey, and how do you want them to feel after listening to the album?

MM: I would like them, when they have finished listening, to feel a desire for joy. And that “Viscerheart” makes them reflect on not hiding from their own fallibility, so that they can admit all the evil inside us before letting it go and forgiving it. You must know how to cry to love this album. The emotional journey that “Viscerheart” guides is a warning: pay attention to your emotions and nourish your feelings instead. The world needs this, and we need it even more.

SL: As a solo project, how does IMJUDAS differ from your work with HELALYN FLOWERS, and what new creative freedoms or challenges did you encounter while producing “Viscerheart”?

MM: When you’re in a band what you must do is also consider a general vision, agreed with those who share the journey, so your individuality works at the service of a sort of entity, and however intimate your communicative style may be, never this must become synonymous with arbitrariness and mere selfish satisfaction. There are several good ways to be selfish but some of them will never match the needs of a band. This is why the solo-project path exists. And at least for me, having a side-project means transposing your person as much as possible without intermediaries, which might seem like an enviable freedom, but implies total responsibility. At the same time, the constant mirroring of yourself is a double-edged sword that you must know how to handle through periods of waiting. It’s like hunting yourself. Returning more specifically to your question, I think my “challenge” is to obtain a non-analytical but synthetic vision of myself. And I think this challenge is still ongoing. I love the idea of going beyond musical analysis and exegesis, beyond the charm of fragmentation and instead going to the heart of musical inspiration, the one of which I am the vehicle. Regarding, however, my creative freedoms, well, there is no doubt that my love for the most exotic soul of post-punk, the one that has its roots in black African music, as in dub-reggae and the Middle East, has been revealed, at least to the most attentive ears. I think the same also applies to certain industrial abstractionism as well as to a decidedly new wave and non-metal approach to the guitar.

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

Lovelorn Dolls, the Belgian goth metal pop band, is making a comeback with their fourth album, “Deadtime Stories”, after a five-year hiatus. During this period, the band’s frontwoman, Kristell, expanded her artistic horizons under the alias Kristell In Wonderland as a photographer and visual artist, an experience that has heavily influenced the band’s latest work.

The new album comes after the teaser EP “Beautiful Chaos” which was released earlier this year.

The album will be out on Alfa Matrix / Spleen+ on CD and as download (and streaming). The new album was produced by Maxx Maryan, known for his work with Helalyn Flowers and ImJudas. “Deadtime Stories” also features a guest appearance by Dero Goi, the former singer of OOMPH!.

Lovelorn Dolls Discography

Albums:

• “The House Of Wonders” (Alfa Matrix, 2013)
• “Japanese Robot Invasion” (Alfa Matrix, 2014)
• “Darker Ages” (Alfa Matrix, 2018)

Singles & EPs: Read the review of ‘Deadtime Stories’.

• “An Intense Feeling Of Affection” (Alfa Matrix, 2011)
• “After Dark” (Alfa Matrix, 2013)
• “The Thrill” (Alfa Matrix, 2014)
• “Happy Valentine” (Alfa Matrix, 2015)
• “Lament” (Alfa Matrix, 2017)
• “Dreamworld” (Spleen+, 2023)
• “Beautiful Chaos” (Spleen+, 2024)

Lovelorn Dolls 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!

side-line.com

ImJudas, Maxx Maryan’s individual endeavor distinct from his collaboration in the Electro-Goth/Pop-Metal duo Helalyn Flowers, is set to unveil his latest album, “Viscerheart,” on May 24th through Spleen+. The album will be out on CD, as download and as streaming.

Pre-orders are available now via Bandcamp and via the Alfa Matrix / Spleen+ webstore.

Announcements regarding the album’s first details and pre-order information were made earlier today. “Viscerheart” delves into themes of love, suffering, obsession, and the journey of self-discovery, challenging traditional storytelling. The album’s sound is characterized as ‘electro-synth pop with a goth soul’, merging elements of synth pop, dark wave, and post-punk.

Two tracks from the album, “I Love You” and “Go Away”, are already available, the latter comes accompanied by a lyric video accessible below.

About ImJudas

ImJudas is the solo project of Maxx Maryan, known for his role in the electro-goth/pop-metal duo, Helalyn Flowers. Initiated in the winter of 2014, ImJudas represents Maryan’s exploration into electro-pop, marked by a progression of sound through several EP releases.

The project’s significant development is showcased in the double album “YrJudas” which also holds “Via Negativa”, an album from his death-rock/goth metal project, Black Shine Fever. “YrJudas” itself combines elements of 80’s synth pop and cold wave mixed with his dance rock and industrial rock/metal roots.

“Viscerheart”, the project’s second album, blends cold wave and dark-pop with a softer approach to rock, creating a broad spectrum of melodies against a backdrop of melancholy, reminiscent of early British dark wave. Read the review of ‘Viscerheart’.

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

Female-fronted Brussels-based dark gothic synth-rock duo Lovelorn Dolls presents a new music video, for their track “Happy Valentine”. “Happy Valentine” was one of the most popular songs from the band’s second album “Japanese Robot Invasion”. This song is a somber reminder that not everybody’s love story has a happy ending.

All profits from Bandcamp downloads will directly go towards supporting CVFE (Collective against Family Violence and Exclusion), a Belgian association combating domestic violence. €10 can accommodate a victim for 1 night in the CVFE Shelter. €60 can improve the quality of accommodation for victims (hygiene, cooking, textiles, children’s toys, etc.), €100 can feed 5 mothers with 2 children for a day, and €300 provides shelter to a victim for one month. More info on Bandcamp.

About Lovelorn Dolls

Lovelorn Dolls is Kristell Lowagie (lyrics, vocals, arrangements) and Bernard Daubresse (music, programming, guitars, production). Produced, mixed and mastered by producer Maxx Maryan, known for his work with electro-goth metal duo Helalyn Flowers and ImJudas, the “Deadtime Stories” album will be released this summer via Alfa Matrix / Spleen+.

Just recently, Lovelorn Dolls also released “Beautiful Chaos”, previewing their fourth album “Deadtime Stories”.

“Happy Valentine” can be obtained via Bandcamp. The “Beautiful Chaos” EP is also out now, available everywhere, including Apple Music, Spotify and Bandcamp. The full ‘Deadtime Stories’ album will be released on May 24.

Your contribution makes a difference!

Here’s what your donations mean:

• €10: Accommodate a victim for 1 night in our Shelter.
• €60: Improve accommodation quality for victims (hygiene, cooking, textiles, children’s toys, etc.)
• €100: Feed 5 mothers with 2 children for a day (breakfast, lunch, snack, and supper)
• €300: Provide shelter for a victim for 1 month

If you are a victim of moral, psychological and/or physical violence, do not hesitate to speak to the associations that can help you. This is the list of helplines in 46 countries (Europe).

• Austria : Women’s Helpline Against Violence (Frauenhelpline gegen Gewalt) +43 800222555
• Belgium : Ecoute Violences Conjugales : +32 0800/ 30.030.
• Finland : Zeroline against domestic violence and violence against women (Nollalinja) +358 80005005
• France : ligne d’écoute pour les femmes victimes de violences : +33 3919
• Germany : Violence Against Women Helpline (Hilfetelefon Gewalt gegen Frauen) +49 116016
• Greece : SOS Helpline (Γραμμή SOS) +30 15900
• Hungary : NANE Helpline (NANE Segélyvonal) +36 80505101
• Italy : National helpline against violence and stalking (Numero nazionale antiviolenza e stalking) +39 1522
• The Netherlands : Safe At Home (Veilig Thuis) +31 8002000
• UK : The freephone, 24-hour National Domestic Abuse Helpline +44 0808 2000 247
• US : National Domestic Violence Hotline
1-800-799-7233

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

Following up on his previous single (“I Love You”) as ImJudas, Maxx Maryan (male half of the Italian electro rock industrial duo Helalyn Flowers) now releases a new wave ballad, “Stjudas”. The EP is out now via the Alfa Matrix sublabel Spleen+.

The EP, includes the previous single as well and a dark cover version of The Cure’s “Boys Don’t Cry”. This EP is another teaser for the upcoming ImJudas album “Viscerheart” which will offer melancholic 80s pop-wave mixed with post-punk ingredients.

ImJudas was initially started as a noir-dyed electro-pop project in 2016 and has since incorporated a rough guitar component. The project’s debut album, “Yrjudas”, showcases a blend of electronic dark wave and a few rock elements. You can read a full interview with Maxx on ImJudas right here.

ImJudas discography

Albums

• Yrjudas: Released in 2022 under Alfa Matrix

Singles & EPs

• Tulpa (2017): This EP, consisting of 5 trackd files, was released under Alfa Matrix
• Ritual (2021): Another release under Alfa Matrix, “Ritual” is a 6-track EP
• People Of The Blame (2023): Released by Spleen+ holding 7 tracks
• So Untrue (2023): On Spleen+, “So Untrue” holds 6 tracks
• I Love You (2023): A single release under Spleen+
• Stjudas (2023): 3-track EP

Compilations

• Sonic Seducer Cold Hands Seduction – Vol. 246 – Various – Sonic Seducer (2023)
• Matrix + Downloaded 011 – I Love You – Alfa Matrix (2023)
• A Strange Play.2 – Tribute To The Cure – Boys Don’t Cry – Spleen+ (2023)
• Anthologies 4 – Ritual – Je M’en Fish (2023, JMF202302)
• The Zombietapes (Face The Beat 7 Megamix) – Various – Side-Line (2022)
• Gothic File 22 | 1 – People Of The Blame – Alfa Matrix (2022)
• Sonic Seducer Cold Hands Seduction – Vol. 237 – Various – Sonic Seducer (2022)
• The Dark Hits Of Tomorrow Vol. 4 – Ritual – Orkus (2022)
• Face The Beat: Session 7 – Ritual (Reichsfeind Remix) – Side-Line (2022)
• Sounds From The Matrix 21 – Apostatik – Alfa Matrix (2020)
• Matrix Downloaded 009 – Apostatik – Alfa Matrix (2020)
• matrixx – 20 Years Of Alfa Matrix (Best Of Electro, Synthpop, EBM, Darkwave) – Without Us You Are Nothing – Alfa Matrix (2021)
• Face The Beat: Session 5 – Various – Side-Line (2019)
• Endzeit Bunkertracks [Act VIII] – Tulpa (AD:Key Remix) – Alfa Matrix (2019, AM1276FCD, [Act VIII])
• Alfa Matrix Re:Covered Vol.3 (A Tribute To Depeche Mode) – Various – Alfa Matrix (2019)
• The Other Face Of Evil – Zombie – EK Product (2019, EKPCD062)
• Sounds From The Matrix 20 – Without Us You Are Nothing – Alfa Matrix (2018)
• Matrix Downloaded [008] – Without Us You Are Nothing – Alfa Matrix (2018)
• Matrix Downloaded [007] – Tulpa – Alfa Matrix (2017)
• Sounds From The Matrix 19 – Tulpa – Alfa Matrix (2017)
• Orkus! Compilation 127 – Tulpa – Orkus (2017/12-2018/01, 127)
• Matrix Downloaded [006] – People Of The Blame (Alfa Edit) – Alfa Matrix (2016)
• Recovery>For You< (An Alfa-Matrix Tribute to Front 242) – Various – Alfa Matrix (2016)

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-Wave, Dream-Pop, Wave-Pop, Cold-Wave, Electro.

Format: Digital, Vinyl. 

Background/Info: Brussels (Belgium) based Je M’En Fish strikes back with the fourth installment of their “Anthologies”-compilation series.

Artists: The Frozen Autumn, Noemi Aurora, Helalyn Flowers, The Dreamside, The Neon Judgement, Flesh & Fell, Imjudas, Am Tierpark, M73.

Content: The compilation features a few artists which are already familiar with Je M’En Fish, Alfa Matrix-artists (Italian formation Helalyn Flowers and the band members’ side-projects Noemi Aurora and Imjudas) plus a few other  names. The content is quite diversified and features songs from the 80s, 90s and 00”.

+ + + : Diversified compilation covering songs from very different and sometimes distant eras; from the very 80s Flesh & Fell Electro-Experiment (1985) to Ethereal-Pop of The Dreamside (1994) to the melancholic Dark/Cold-Wave of The Frozen Autumn (1996) to 80s inspired Electro-Pop from Danish Am Tierpark to contemporary Electro-Metal-Pop of Helalyn Flowers. There also is a live version from The Neon Judgement’s “Tomorrow In The Papers” from 1984 revealing the band during their early, glorious, days.

– – – : This compilation series sounds to me more as an item for collectors instead of DJ’s. No bad thing but maybe a reason why this compilation will remain under the radar.

Conclusion: Diversified Electro-underground music and related genres throughout the years.

Best bands: The Neon Judgement, Imjudas, Noemi Aurora, Am Tierpark, Flesh & Fell.

Rate: 7.

Label: www.facebook.com/JemenfishBE

Listen to the compilation:

About Je M’En Fish

Je M’En Fish is a Brussels (Belgium) based project running an “Anthologies” compilation series that gathers Dark-Wave, Dream-Pop, Wave-Pop, Cold-Wave and Electro tracks spanning several decades. Earlier volumes in the series compiled songs from the 1980s through the 2000s from underground and cult acts in these genres. “Anthologies 4” is the fourth installment, featuring The Frozen Autumn, Noemi Aurora, Helalyn Flowers, The Dreamside, The Neon Judgement, Flesh & Fell, Imjudas, Am Tierpark and M73.

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

Maxx Maryan, one half of the popular Italian duo Helalyn Flowers, has just released a new free single called “I Love You” on Bandcamp. He’s releasing it under the name ImJudas, and it’s available through the Belgium-based label Spleen+. This single is a preview of ImJudas’ upcoming album, “Viscerheart.”

The song “I Love You” is a dark pop track that will appeal to fans of ’80s pop-wave and post-punk music. It sets the tone for an album that will focus on dark pop.

ImJudas started in 2016 as an electro-pop project with a dark twist. The music blends elements of electronic dark wave and post-punk. Since then ImJudas released several EPs (“Tulpa”, “Ritual”,”So Untrue”, and the recent one “People Of The Blame”) and one album, the 2CD “Yrjudas”. You can download all releases from the ImJudas Bandcamp page.

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

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 Breath of Life was formed in 1985 and the band immediately stood out thanks to a creative originality, as a result they are the best known cold wave gothic rock band from Belgium. The band has now signed to the brand new post-punk label Spleen+ (division of Alfa Matrix) where they will be releasing their 11th album.

A first excerpt in the format of a 3-track EP is out now via Bandcamp (and all other platforms): “Down We Go”. The EP evokes good old ethereal moments from the 4AD cult years merged with their classic darkwave roots. Also added to this 3-track release is the band’s take on The Cure’s “The Lovecats” which got turned into a much darker version. As 3rd track you get a more electronic song which is their very own reinterpretation of Implant’s “The Last Record” featuring Len Lemeire himself on backing vocals.

Anno 2023, The Breath Of Life are Isabelle Dekeyser (vocals), Philippe Mauroy (guitar, drums programming), Giovanni Bortolin (violin, keyboards), Didier Czepczyk (bass).

Below is the video for “The Lovecats”.

About The Breath Of Life

The group was formed in 1985 in Gembloux when Isabelle Dekeyser (vocals), Philippe Mauroy (guitar), and Benoît Sokay (bass) first met. In 1990, with the addition of Giovanni Bortolin (keyboards & violin – formerly of Jo Lemaire + Flouze) and the decision to incorporate a drum machine, the group independently produced a 10-track cassette. In 1991, the band embarked on a tour in Czechoslovakia, followed by another tour the following year, which is reflected in their debut CD “Live in Praha 92”.

That same year, they released their first studio album “Painful Insanity,” recorded by Gilles Martin, a renowned producer of Coldwave (Minimal Compact, Tuxedomoon, Anna Domino, Colin Newman, Malaria, The Names, Indochine). 1993 marked their breakthrough with the release of “Taste of Sorrow,” also produced by Martin, featuring the title track “Nasty Cloud,” which became a gothic classic.

In 1995, the band released “Lost Children,” showcasing a more ethereal wave style. They subsequently signed with Hall of Sermon for their next album, “Sweet Party,” which came out in 1997 and marked a shift towards a more pop and electronic sound. In 2000, they released “Silver Drops,” once again with Martin at the mixing desk. The album combined melancholic pop with elements of trip hop. Shortly after, Mauroy departed the band, and Didier Czepczyk took over on guitars.

With the albums “Everlasting Souls” (2005) and “Whispering Fields” (2012), the band returned to their gothic roots and introduced a real drummer, Marc Haerden. Benoît Sokay, the bassist since the band’s inception, left in 2014, and in January 2015, Philippe Mauroy rejoined the band, almost 15 years after his departure.

In May 2017, the album “Under The Falling Stars” was released, marking the return of Gilles Martin as the producer. In 2020, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and while Belgium was still under lockdown, the band decided to record their 10th album. Each member recorded their respective parts at home and shared the files using WeTransfer. However, when COVID-19 restrictions allowed, two band members traveled to France and met with Gilles Martin for the final mixing process. The resulting album, titled “Spark Around Us,” was released in November 2020.

During the lockdown in Belgium, the band recorded three cover songs: “Winning” by The Sound, “Ashes To Ashes” by David Bowie, and “Inner Station” by Minimal Compact. These covers were exclusively released on Bandcamp. In 2022, they were approached by the Belgian record label Alfa Matrix for various compilation projects. The band was asked to cover a song from the Belgian electro project Implant, a song from the electro-pop band Psy’Aviah, and a song from the Italian project Imjudas.

As one thing led to another, the band was soon approached to join Alfa Matrix’s post-punk sublabel, Spleen+.

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

As we reported last month, Alfa Matrix has launched the sublabel Spleen+, which is created to accommodate more post-punk/minimal synth related releases. We already talked about the Belgian post-punk act The Ultimate Dreamers, who launched their label debut with the “Polarized EP”, and now we will present you the newest EPs from the Italian new wave act ImJudas.

ImJudas presents us 2 new EPs in one go, “So Untrue” and “People Of The Blame”, each featuring these songs as an exclusive edit, remix, or even demo versions.

The rock-wave ballad “So Untrue” is for instance completely remixed by Phil of Belgium’s cult ethereal darkwave band The Breath Of Life while the German electro pop act Elektrostaub turned the title track into a more future pop club tainted track. You also get to hear the 2016 demo version of “So Untrue” and “Outcast”.

On “People Of The Blame” Madil Hardis offers a dark ethereal version of “People Of The Blame”, while the Swedish duo Octolab turns it into an upbeat mix featuring female backings by singer Arielle Andersson. Neikka RPM from their side give a break beat dimension to “Ritual”. And also on this second EP we find two demo versions from 2016, the title track “People Of The Blame” and “Tulsa”.

You can check the rest of the back catalogue of ImJudas right below.

• Tulpa EP
• Ritual EP
• Yrjudas (album)

And here are the official videos for “Ritual” and “People Of The Blame (canned anger)”

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 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:

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Genre/Influences: Industrial-Pop, Metal-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info:  Maxx Maryan got some recognition as member of the Italian duo Helalyn Flowers. He also set up his own solo-project Imjudas and released two EP’s. “Yrjudas” is the artist’s debut album which is also available as limited edition featuring one extra disc.

Content: The main influences of Imjudas are clearly getting us back to 80s Electro-Pop music. There’s a catchy 80s Pop touch running through the work which makes me often think of Duran Duran. But there also is an ‘evil’ side in this work which is empowered by harsh guitar play and reminding me of Marilyn Manson.

+ + + : “Yrjudas” is the sonic fusion between Pop and Industrial music. I like this mix which has something original; catchy and yet harsh! The second half of the album features the best cuts and I especially recommend listening to “People Of The Blame (Canned Anger)” and “Origin”. You’ll also rediscover cool songs from the previously released EP’s like “Without Us You’re Nothing” featuring female backing vocals by partner in crime Noemi Aurora.

– – – : Side-projects are cool but often from a lower level as the main project. The first half of the album is missing a climax.

Conclusion: “Yrjudas” is an interesting debut album for its influences and global approach but not a major success.

Best songs: “People Of The Blame (Canned Anger)”,  “Origin”, “Without Us You’re Nothing”, “Outcast”.

Rate: 7.

Artist: www.facebook.com/IMJUDASofficial

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

“Yrjudas” was released on 1 April 2022 through Alfa Matrix.

Listen to “Yrjudas”:

About ImJudas

ImJudas is the solo project of Italian musician Maxx Maryan, the male half of the electro-metal duo Helalyn Flowers. Established in 2016, the project started as noir-tinted electro-pop and later took in rough guitar elements, drawing on Maryan’s background in electronic dark wave and rock. The project cites the aesthetics of the new wave movement and artists such as David Bowie, Gary Numan and Depeche Mode.

“Yrjudas” is the debut album, released in April 2022 and carrying tracks including “Outcast”, “Ritual” and “So Untrue”. Maryan followed it with the “So Untrue EP” and the “People Of The Blame EP” in January 2023, the single “I Love You” in September 2023 and the “Stjudas EP” in December 2023.

The second album, “Viscerheart”, arrived in May 2024 and moved further into EDM and dance-pop territory. Maryan discussed it in ImJudas interview regarding new album: ‘My most tormented prayers…’. In December 2024 Side-Line reported that ImJudas returns with brand new EP: ‘I Love You Go Away’, which the artist discussed in a further ImJudas interview on duality and betrayal in March 2025.

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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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Out now is “Yrjudas”, the debut album by ImJudas, the electro-rock solo project by Italian artist Maxx Maryan, founding member and male half of the electro metal duo Helalyn Flowers. Initially started as a noir dyed electro pop project back in 2016, ImJudas over the years added a rough guitar component.

Note that the 2CD version of the album ( available from the Alfa Matrix webstore ) holds a bonus disc featuring “Via Negativa” by Maxx’ deathrock metal project Black Shine Fever. On Bandcamp you can get both releases as seperate albums: “Yrjudas” / “Via Negativa”.

But let’s first dive into “Yrjudas” together with Maxx who we contacted earlier this week.

SL: Maxx, “Ritual” is an excellent example of 80s synthpop which has something of the typical anthems produced back then. Some Duran Duran, some Nick Kershaw and definitely lots of Killing Joke, it has it all. Were those eighties the perfect era for you musically speaking?

IMJUDAS: As a decade, the 80s represented my very first one of life, so it seems natural to me that I was heavily influenced by those sounds. Especially if you think that there is always a lot of music in my house, between my parents and my uncle who is himself a keyboard player, singer and lyricist. So, my first years of life were set to music by a very large part of what were Pop and Rock of that period, before, at the age of 7, I began to choose my records to buy and to take an active interest in the music scene. In particular, I remember that I have always paid a lot of attention to sounds and productions. The sound and the production of those years were space! So technological, atmospheric, full of effects and reverbs, keyboards to go, electronic drums … but above all great melodies.

That of the melody is a fundamental aspect for me and today I see that a lot of current music is lacking it. Yes, the 80s were the throne of good music for me. Alongside them are the 70s on one side and the 90s on the other, both mirrored and united by the desire to experiment and graft various types of sound. Above all, great cultural epicenters were spontaneously created. Most of the CDs I buy are usually albums from the 80s, be it Pop, Metal, Dance and more, and that reflects a lot of the music I make. Either way, mine isn’t a retro operation or kind of attitude, at all. I realize afterwards that I actually own entire skyline columns of CDs from that era! It’s simply because I really like it!

SL: Another track that has this feeling is for me the absolute hit track from your album, “People Of The Blame (canned anger)”. What is it about actually?

IMJUDAS: It is a protest song against the preset patterns of alleged protest that the system provides. It is above all an individual stance against the polarization processes of public opinion. Today people are exasperated, pressed about the mess that happens around and pushed to create an opinion and a kind of credibility in a few minutes, with a few clicks. But often the positions taken are those of the official factions. Expressing oneself freely is equivalent to being a fascist nowadays. Just look around, ‘politically correct’ reigns and it has the tones of a soft but exhausting dictatorship.

SL: Is there a perfect formula as far as songwriting goes for you?

IMJUDAS: In the initial approach I would say no. In “Yrjudas” there are songs born from the guitar (“Lost Boy”, “Without Us You’re Nothing”), from the voice (“People Of The Blame”, “There’s A Stranger In Your House”) or from synth and electronic programming (“Tulpa”, “Outcast”, “Apostatik”). Sometimes, since I always have so many lyrics already written without music, I improvise melodies on the sound of the words and so on. There is, however, a recurring element in my writing: inconvenience and devotion to chance. These are very important factors for me because they trigger a reaction in what is my primordial stream from which I extract my music.

SL: A track like “Origin” is fully industrialized as a song. On purpose to offer a black duck in the whole nest?

IMJUDAS: This is a very instinctive song. Paradigm of the raw idea that is refined thanks to the dynamics of pure chance. It all started with this tribal drum beat in my head and the obsessive “Guess who? Guess what?” chorus, which then kicked off the lyrics. I wanted the track to be dark and tricky. I knew I was doing something different than the rest of the album. It’s a bit like my signature, if you notice well it’s the same thing with “Spiritual Critical Gothic” on the Black Shine Fever album. I think it’s a way to take space inside me. Musically, I think “Origin” is very tied to my love for Coil.

SL: The project already exists since 2016, I have seen you gradually polishing your sound, how do you look back at your first recordings?

IMJUDAS: Actually, the project was born in the last days of 2013. The refrain of “People of the blame” was the first thing that went through my head, on the road with Helalyn Flowers, back home. I approached a few weeks later in the studio and the opening octave notes of “People of the blame” were the very first to be put on track. From there then in a chain with the rest, but not immediately in a fluid way. At that time I was very focused on what was to be the album “Sonic Foundation” by Helalyn Flowers (to which I will always be particularly connected to). It was only at the end of 2015 that I was able to put on a first 4 tracks demo that I ran among very few ‘experts’ (you were the very first) so far unreleased (but which I will publish as a bonus in the next EP / single taken from the album).

Initially, IMJUDAS was more an opportunity for me to go back to singing, and do it with my lyrics, since I have always written so many, always nourishing the need to interpret them through singing and music. I was born as a singer, before everything else. The first band I sang in I had when I was 13. So it was a bit like going back to basics for me. My voice, my words, a lot of melody on a synth carpet and a drum machine. Stop. This is how it all started. I think in my head it should have offered something really different than Helalyn Flowers (since I have never understood side projects that are almost the same as the mother-bands). This is why there were initially almost zero guitars.

But it already had a total rock soul. I don’t think you have to have high volume guitars to be rock. If I hear Depeche Mode or an album like “The Art Of Falling Apart” by Soft Cell I can see absolutely relevant rock and glam influences. This ‘format’ has survived over the span of the first released singles and covers I made of classics from Depeche Mode, Front 242 and Death SS. Then something started to get tight. I was born plunged in rock and the guitar is fundamental for me. Ok pure electronics, but, you understand, it is a PART of me, it cannot represent me 100%, but rather its hybridization with rock. I have therefore overcome my fear of somehow replicating my work with Helalyn Flowers, also because in IMJUDAS I can show further influences of my background, such as black music and rock n’roll of the 60s and 70s, otherwise outside context.

There was, therefore, a period of further layering of the songs with the guitar recording sessions, in which I can say that I had the feeling of having hit the heart of the project. A music band is a process of self-knowledge, it goes step by step, and each member offers his/ her slice of background. In the case of IMJUDAS, I had to dismember myself and then reassemble myself, like the deities of the old myths.

SL: Your usual partner in crime Noemi was not involved in this project, I guess she did act as a mirror to give you feedback no?

IMJUDAS: Obviously not in a main way, but still she is! Apart from the amazing art design that she was able to create in representation of her art factory Toxic Visions ( http://www.toxic-visions.com ), not only for IMJUDAS but also for “Via Negativa” by Black Shine Fever, logos, photos, artwork, everything!, but also for her writing contribution for the song “Cruel Times”, starting from her own idea of ​​voice, then for the guest soul choirs on “Without Us You’re Nothing” and finally for the electric bass parts on the track “Uranian (Ad Gratiam)” by Black Shine Fever that she actually played.

Yes, since the very beginning of the project she has always been a beacon for me, a source of encouragement and inspiration. It was she who encouraged me to share IMJUDAS with the world, at a time when I was withdrawn and wanted to keep these songs just to myself. Always precious advices on how to make the most of my voice. Usually I don’t follow anyone’s advice, nor do I go in search of external opinions, but her point of view is always very close to my heart, as well as for everything that binds us besides music, precisely because I have a huge esteem for her as an artist in toto. She is the only one with whom I have ever agreed on the approach on how to make a band and how to stand in the public eye.

SL: What was your modus operandi to record your material? Can you describe the process from demo to finished track?

IMJUDAS: As I said, I have a lot of respect for what chance can bring with it. I always start by not curing one component at a time before moving on to another, but I quickly try to pull up in the shortest way what looks like a definitive shape as much as possible. A sort of transparent primordial chaos, in which the final song is perfectly outlined. Synth, electronic drums and bass are the first instruments to be abused. I get very carried away by the sound banks I can come across, so I don’t start with a rigid conception, but with the general idea of ​​the song, because for me it is important to be able to make good songs and you can do a good song in infinite versions, with endless different sounds and it will always remain a good song. What I always do is sing, even improvising if I didn’t already have the scores in mind, on what comes out, even at an embryonic level.

It happens that I take my lyric book and I start pulling down melodies based on the phonetic sound as well. Then begins a series of overwrites, especially in terms of groove and dubbing of the instruments themselves. I am a lover of the wall of sound and large and airy productions, I am not a simple type, rather a very baroque one who, even when aiming for simplicity, always does so with a particular architecture. I try to have as much rhythm material, keyboards and electronics as possible (and even some choir-guides) before moving on to the guitars which represent a very creative and laborious phase within the recording sessions. As can be heard from listening, in this case I have a double soul: that of the rougher rock and the liquid and toxic one of dark and new wave.

Finally, the voices, for which I always allow myself a margin of improvisation that I like to ride as a chance to create new things that know how to amaze me and not make me remain closed in the fixity of the first expectation. I spare you the painful mixing and mastering processes because I still have to soak up the hangover from them!

SL: You also included an album of Black Shine Fever, a death rock/metal project, as a bonus disc with the ImJudas album on CD, that will be a shocker! Can you tell a bit more about the genesis?

IMJUDAS: Black Shine Fever was born spontaneously alongside IMJUDAS. Probably in the beginning one expressed what the other did not do. It started as an evolution in dark / punk and death rock terrain (but coated with black and death metal, the primeval one of Quorthon and his Bathory, so to speak) of an old black metal project of mine dating back to 1995, then took its own specific path, not only at a musical level but also at the level of an introspective path of self-knowledge, dismembering and dissecting parts of me under the effigy of spiritual torment and doubt.

This is why there is a perversely sacred air inside “Via Negativa”. I think it’s an album that has taken on the importance for me as a book that changes your life. In that case, I had to write and play it myself and then decipher its meaning. It was a very important experience and one that I will never forget. “Via Negativa” did not start out as an actual album project, it went through various stages of processing (there is also a three-track demo from 2015) before reaching its final form.

It was supposed to be released for a small indie label, but then the project vanished and I found myself holding one of my most important works in the drawer. “Via Negativa” was the black sun of “Yrjudas”, “Yrjudas” would not exist without the experience of Black Shine Fever. For this I asked Seba of Alfa Matrix to be able to release this double album, rejoicing in the final result.

SL: Was this a one off album or do you plan to do more with this, I actually like it a lot and it sounds so much better than what is usually available in that scene.

IMJUDAS: This double IMJUDAS / Black Shine Fever album is the result of spontaneous events, a story written by itself, not started with the intent of the final form. For this reason, its expressive power is perceived, which is authentic and disconnected from commercial targets and expectations. It would be great to repeat. Not so much because I have unreleased material from Black Shine Fever, but more than anything else it would consolidate my personal format capable of expressing my artistic soul.

SL: Where did you get the choirs from the “Metanoia” intro?

IMJUDAS: It is an excerpt from the Kyrie, mass for 4 voices by William Byrd, English Renaissance composer and organist. I have always loved sacred music (and liturgical too), thanks to my father who is himself an organist and tenor. The idea of ​​incorporating Byrd’s Kyrie was inspired by an old Paul Chain song, “Armageddon”.

SL: How have you kept yourself busy besides writing music these past two dreadful years?

IMJUDAS: … writing music! Not so much for me, but on commission, see for example all the work I have done and am doing for Elyose, among others. I recently completed the album of my very first black metal project Okkultum Magnificentia (out now and available on Bandcamp ) which I founded in 1994, releasing various cassettes and vinyls between the 90s and the early 00s, before freezing everything and exhuming it in the last few years, closing the circle with an album such eagerly waited in the scene for two decades now. In the meantime, I am helping Noemi with the recording and production of her solo work which will be wonderful and will amaze many as well as further affirm her as the great artist she is.

Truth be told, the past couple of years haven’t been that bad for me. There was, yes, some boredom due to some limitations, but nothing that could define this period as “bad” for me. In the end I always do what I want, I’m a lawless. I am not afraid of institutions, I always keep myself informed and know my rights, so as not to be fooled by the authority on duty. For the rest, I keep going. I’m a master of getting by, epicurean, if you like. I live on the edge of society, I can consider myself an X-citizen. Music, the street and nature are my life.

SL: I lived during the cold war, you weren’t born yet I think? But it’s back again…. what is your take?

IMJUDAS: I was born in 1979, the golden year of disco music!, so, yes, I was there during the cold war. As a child, I experienced the end of the old Soviet Union live. My position is solely in favor of those who are suffering, losing, dying for something they never asked for. This is a war in which the mistakes of the world’s major economic blocs are being counted. When too many errors are recorded, then wars are waged to make a clean sweep. It is always like this.

This is a war fought by civilian volunteers and soldiers, both Ukrainians and Russians, who fall like flies for the interests of governments, greyness incarnate armored in the Kremlin, the White House and the European Parliament. People are treated as anthills and lands are exploited for resources. My empathy goes out to the poor people who are truly losing the important things in their lives. Both Ukrainian and Russian. And also to those who died during the war in Donbass from 2014 onwards.

We must not fall into ostracizing the Russian population, as I already see it happening. Culture is peace, it is unity. War is driven by the magnates and technocrats, not the people, unless they are systematically brainwashed at the cultural and media level by the states. This is a war for territory. In any case, talk is cheap. The fight costs life itself. As well as escape. And also to stay. Fuck the world, save yourselves.

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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Out on April 1st as a very limited 2CD is the debut album by the Italian punk wave act ImJudas. ImJudas is the solo project of Italian artist Maxx Maryan, founding member and male half of the electro metal duo Helalyn Flowers.

Started as a noir dyed electro pop project back in 2016, ImJudas has gradually added a rough guitar component. On the debut album you can expect electronic dark wave mixed with guitar rock and dance elements.

The first pressing of this album comes as a limited double CD digipak holding the bonus album “Via Negativa” by Maxx Maryan’s pre-ImJudas project Black Shine Fever offering dark goth rock reminiscent of both Christian Death or even Quorthon and Bathory. “Via Negativa” holds 12 tracks. The limited double CD set holding this bonus album is available now for pre-order from the Alfa Matrix website.

On Bandcamp the double CD is available as 2 seperate downloads, the ImJudas album “Yrjudas” and the Black Shine Fever album “Via Negativa”.

Out now is also the band’s newest video for “People Of The Blame (Canned Anger)” which perfectly acts as a teaser from what you can expect on the debut album. Read the review of ‘Yrjudas’.

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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Spotify, Apple Music, Deezer, … all have released 10 new streaming albums and EPs this morning from the Belgian Alfa Matrix label from artists such as Armageddon Dildos, Circumpolar, Cubic, Elektrostaub, First Aid 4 Souls, Imjudas, Rector Scanner, Siva Six and Suicidal Romance.

All in all a mix of good oldschool darkwave, EBM, synthpop, electropop, industrial and harsh electro.

If your prefer HQ audio downloads, then you can head for the Alfa Matrix Bandcamp page where are all available as well since a few days.

Below are the releases in alphabetic band-order. Enjoy!

Armageddon Dildos – Destruction EP

Circumpolar – Awaiting The Dawn

Cubic – Phonic Lessons Part 3 EP

Elektrostaub – Reliance

First Aid 4 Souls – Beyond The Galaxy (Rework)

ImJudas – Ritual EP

Rector Scanner – Das Mädchen Aus Dem All EP I

Rector Scanner – Das Mädchen Aus Dem All EP II

Siva Six – Deathcult

Suicidal Romance – Love Promise EP

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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Since the release of the “Tulpa” EP in 2017, ImJudas has appeared on various compilations, including our very own “Face The Beat 5” with the track “Without Us You Are Nothing”. With the 6-track EP “Ritual”, Italian artist Maxx Maryan – male half of the electro rock duo Helalyn Flowers – launches the last EP before the launch of his debut solo album “Yrjudas” scheduled for an early 2022 release.

Besides the title track we also find an Aiboforcen remix of the B-side “So Untrue” featuring Noemi Aurora, and 4 remixes of “Ritual” by 808 Dot Pop, Cubic, Reichsfeind and Acylum.

You can download the EP right now from Bandcamp, check the previews below.

And this is the debut EP which was released in 2017, “Tulpa”.

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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Genre/Influences: Industrial, Industrial-Rock, Metal-Pop.

Format: Digital, CD & 2CD.

Background/Info: TheItalian act Helalyn Flowers duo strikes back with their sixth full length to date, which comes three years after the astonishing “Nyctophilia” (2018). This album wants to be a reflection about our lives and habits or as the work has been introduced as ‘the antidote against sterile chatting, obsessive mechanization and the excessive culture of hype’.

Content: One of the first aspects that caught my attention is that Helalyn Flowers don’t repeat themselves, but try to explore new paths with each new album although their sound remains easily recognizable. First of all there’s the great, sensual and passionate way of singing of Noemi Aurora who literally injects a soul into the music. And next there’s the music itself composed by Maxx Maryan and Noemi. It’s hard to define the sound, which clearly appears as the offspring between different- and sometimes opposite genres. The result is a hard piece of music mixing elements of Rock-, Industrial- and Metal music, which are polished with an unexpected –but already familiar, Pop touch.

The bonus disc features remixes by Jean-Marc Lederman,  Mario Rühlicke, Junksista, Implant, Alien_Nation, ImJudas, Planet Pop, ExoPhantom feat. Xyren Version, Digital shadows and DJ Und3rmin3r. There also is an interesting “2015 Version” of the song “Skyland”.

+ + + : Helalyn Flowers is a band you can’t really compare to others; they have something very personal in the global sound production being a true sonic osmosis between styles, but also –and mainly, driven by one of the best female singers from this alternative scene. Noemi Aurora not only has a great timbre of voice, but she injects different emotions to her voice. She can be sweet and passionate and even enraged. There’s a great balance between her vocals and the music. But the music itself resulted from a perfect harmony between guitar and electronics; guitars to inject rage and electronics to bring some extra melody and even elevating moments.

Among the remixes I salute the work of Jean-Marc Lederman, the punching remix by Mario Rühlicke, the more electro-driven remix by Implant and the club-friendly remix by Planet Pop.

– – – : It’s sometimes pretty hard to catch Helalyn Flowers; that’s what makes them original, but at the other side the songs aren’t always the most accessible. They this way create a perfect symbiosis with the concept of the album -an antidote against the excessive culture of hype. I already heard better works from the Italian duo.

Conclusion: Helalyn Flowers became a true antidote to established music genres, mixing all these genres together in a very own sound.

Best songs: “Metropolis Necropolis”, “Cosmic Ants”, “Halos” + “Suicidal Birds – Trensity Remix by Mario Rühlicke”, “Suicidal Birds – Waves, Trash And Garlic Mix by Implant” and “Before The Sunshine – Planet Pop Remix”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/helalynflowers

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

About Helalyn Flowers

Helalyn Flowers is an industrial rock duo from Rome, Italy, formed by vocalist Nøemi Aurora and guitarist/producer Maxx Maryan (credited as maXX). The pair drew attention in 2006 with the singles “E-race Generation” and “Voices” before signing to Belgian label Alfa Matrix, which released their debut album “A Voluntary Coincidence” in 2007. Subsequent albums followed with “Stitches of Eden” (2010), “White Me In // Black Me Out” (2013), the “Beware of Light” EP featuring Chris Pohl (2015), and “Sonic Foundation” (2016), the last of which reached the Top 50 of the iTunes Rock Charts in the United States. “Nyctophilia” followed in 2018. “Àiresis,” reviewed here, is the duo’s sixth full-length album, released via Alfa Matrix.

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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Out today is “Àiresis”, the brand new 6th studio album by the Italian female fronted electro-rock act Helalyn Flowers. The release is available in 3 formats, a normal 10-track CD (available here), a 21-track double CD (available here) and a download via Bandcamp (available here) and on all other download and streaming platforms.

The double CD includes a 11-track “Skepsis” bonus disc featuring remix collaborations with Jean-Marc Lederman, Implant, Imjudas, Junksista, Alien_Nation, Planet Pop, Exophantom, Digital Shadows, Mario Rühlicke and DJ Und3Rmin3R.

The limited deluxe edition of the new album features exclusive artwork design by Noemi Aurora herself (www.toxic-visions.com).

Videos

Featured on this new album are also the 2 tracks “Metropolis Necropolis” and “Suicidal Birds” which both got the video treatment.

Official video clip for “Metropolis Necropolis”

Official video clip for “Suicidal Birds” Read the review of ‘Àiresis’.

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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(Photo by Noemi Aurora / Toxic Visions) Black Shine Fever is the newborn project from Maxx Maryan, who we know from the female-fronted electro pop-metal sensation duo Helalyn Flowers and the industrial rock act ImJudas. He also used to be the behind some rather well-known black metal acts such as Okkultum Magnificentia and Arimonium Rex as well as various extreme metal side-projects like The Wet and Blackcore.

It’s that black metal and dark/ goth side which we now find back in this all new project Black Shine Fever which now debuted with the album “Via Negativa”.

Note that there is a collaboration with G/Ab Svenym Volgar Ustorh Dei Xacrestani of Deviate Damaen who delivers some spoken word on “Diakrisis”. The splendid artwork and photos were executed by his real life partner in crime Noemi Aurora for Toxic Visions.

You can check out the album right below and get it here on Bandcamp. Worth your attention!

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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At of the moment of publishing, Italy is still under complete lockdown, with extra rules being implemented, and this to cope as much as possible with the fallout of the Corona virus causing the hospitals to be inundated with victims. We spoke with Noemi Aurora and Maxx Maryan from the Rome-based electro metal act Helalyn Flowers and the electropop project ImJudas, plus with Audioglobe boss Sebastian Koch to know what this lockdown actually means.

Coincidentally, Helalyn Flowers’ recently released EP is called “Suicide Birds”. But I don’t hear suicide birds when speaking to the couple who is locked up in their flat in Rome.

But first here’s a report from Sebastian Koch, from Audioglobe, one of if not the most important distributor for the alternative scene in Europe, based in Seto Fiorentino.

SL: How has the corona outbreak touched you as a company manager and how is it affecting you in a personal level?

Sebastian Koch: We as company (Audioglobe Srl) will decide today, whether we send home all workers for next (hopefully only) 2 weeks. As all shops in Italy have to remain CLOSED from today, we can only continue supplying mailorders/online-shops (Amazon, Feltrinelli, Mondadori, Internet Book Shop etc. etc.). We will offer our workers the option, to choose themselves, whether they want to stay home, or continue working. There is enough work, also with shops closed.

On a personal level: As I have the sole custody for a 12 years old daughter, and with schools closed until (at least) April 6, I have to organize day by day – find a place, where my daughter can stay during the day – or remain at home myself. With some mothers of other children, we created a sort of ‘help yourself group’, and on Tuesday it was my turn, to have 4 Girls at my home. We were cooking together, playing, doing school homeworks, and we had a walk in the village, to buy some Ice Cream and play at the playground. But… as of today, also such elemental necessity as buying Ice Cream has become a big problem: The few food shops, that are still open, have a strict limit, of how many people may enter the shop at the same time – so each shop has a looooooooooooooooooooong queue in front, and you have to wait up to 2 hours, to be allowed to enter a shop. A good way to avoid these queues, is to go to tiny small food shops – like I did this morning. There was no queue at all, but each shop has a small table in front with disinfection fluid, and you must disinfect your hands, before entering the shop.

SL: What’s the atmosphere like with you and your family and friends? Is it a complete lock down as only seeing your own family members?

Sebastian Koch: For the time being, we are still able to go to work. But this might change within the very next days. Let’s see. The atmosphere in my family (consisting of my daughter, our cat and myself) is VERY bad. My daughter is crying a lot and very scared – myself I’m worried about the near future of our company, Italian economy (which is already bad without Virus…), our family, our life. My daughter is missing school and is very sad and down. Same for myself… It’s no ‘fun’. It’s like living in a bad ‘Science Fiction’ movie, really. Only that’s it’s for REAL.

From Seto Fiorentino we head for Rome to talk with Noemi and Maxx…

SL: How is it to live in Italy now that it is under complete lockdown? What do you notice as restrictions?

Noemi Aurora : We are trying to live as calmly as possible on these days, even if the situation is of an extreme emergency. Italy was officially declared a protected area yesterday evening. Cinemas, museums, schools have all been closed for days and any type of public assembly is prohibited. There are restrictions and hygiene rules to be followed to keep this virus from spreading. We are respecting every rule of course in these dark moments.

We are not really alarmed though, by respecting these precautions you can easily avoid being contaminated. Nevertheless, there are people who feel these rules are too invasive for the private life, they are rebelling in a rather childish way, looking for loopholes which in my opinion are useless. I believe that a short-term sacrifice by all of us is the bare minimum to avoid even more drastic measures in the future.

Maxx Maryan: The situation is constantly changing and in the last few hours the alarm has spread and the whole nation has been declared a ‘red zone’. I haven’t been out since yesterday morning, to go shopping and have some supplies for a week, but since our Prime Minister last night declared the maximum alert and quarantine, people stormed the supermarkets. As if someone had told them that food and food resources would end shortly after. Let’s say collective stupidity is always a highlight and in cases like this it makes its way more than ever (laughs).

The biggest restriction is that of being segregated at home, but, believe me, it doesn’t bother me in the least since everything I do, even professionally, happens here in the house and I am absolutely not someone who has a great social life! (Laughs)

SL: The area where you live has 100 confirmed infections, what are the precautions you take?

Noemi Aurora: It is spreading rapidly, and the local structure is forced to transfer cases that require intensive therapy to the Spallanzani hospital in Rome which as you can imagine has a limited number of beds, despite having increased them by 50%. There is a sort of manual of behaviors to be followed or avoided to combat the epidemic: first of all wash your hands frequently, therefore avoid touching your mouth, nose and eyes if you have not had the opportunity to do so, and avoid attending crowded places.

We appeal to our individual responsibility, we ask ourselves whether going out is absolutely essential and we hope that others will do the same.

Maxx Maryan: First, avoid going out, except for specific emergencies. This is the biggest precaution we can take. Others, like washing your hands often, is not a problem for me since I am obsessive in nature and I always wash them for anything! (Laughs) There’s more, do not greet each other warmly with kisses and hugs, no problem: I hate to be touched! So, it’s kind of like I always live under virus alert, now that I think about it, ha ha!

SL: How has your daily life changed now? You are not allowed out I guess, how do you kill your time?

Noemi Aurora: Personally we are not experiencing this period with panic or extreme discomfort. Fear feeds the disorder which is the worst enemy of these situations. We rationally agreed to stay in the studio and took advantage to focus even more on our musical projects. After all, it doesn’t differ much from our habits. We have always had a similar lifestyle, spending hours and hours in the recording studio to compose and create without realizing the time that passed. In some cases it is better to grasp the positive side of what happens to us. I will certainly remember this period as the most profitable on a creative level!

Maxx Maryan: It is also not a problem for me, since I always have a thousand things to do at home and everything I plan and implement takes place at home. I do what I always do: I spend hours in the studio, especially now that I’m working as a producer / engineer for a French band that I will be able to mention in due course! Not to mention that I’m also finally finalizing the latest tracks for the ImJudas debut album. In addition, I always study guitar, I read piles of books and magazines and I listen to piles and piles and piles of records!

SL: What effect does it have on the local music scene besides concerts being canceled?

Noemi Aurora: It is definitely affected. Most of the concerts have been canceled. Major names like Dardust or Modà are forced to postpone their dates. The thing that does not fit at all is that access to public transport, gyms and shopping centers should also close, which has not yet been done. It’s a bit of a contradiction …

Maxx Maryan: I am now reading the updated list of the concerts canceled so far and I can tell you that there are many and especially those announced in the stadiums for next summer. No name for which I go to tear my hair, of course. I just hope this will help to kill pay-to-play and to change jobs for so many assholes who don’t give a shit about music.

SL: In Germany a band called K.I.Z. said during a concert that Corona only hits white old males… I suppose that this kind of nonsense would not be tolerated in Italy?

Noemi Aurora: It is not even something I want to comment on … I am noticing a sort of mass reaction in giving the worst of oneself during these days of tension. Unfortunately there are always those who say stupid sentences, it is inevitable. If you think that in Italy there have been cases of beating by young boys against Chinese people, accusing them of being the cause of the Coronavirus. This form of injury is intolerable. Fortunately, there are also many people who contrast this delusion with solidarity and empathy. I hope they remain a majority.

Maxx Maryan: I don’t know that band, so I don’t even know if they said that by provocation, but, even if it were, this is not the scope and the period to make situationism about this thing. So, I would say that it is a bit like some stars and stripes big red-cock-head that insists that “a flue must not stop life and the economy”.

I simply think that much of what will come out of so many mouths these days will end up anonymous in the web’s algorithms. The smart thing would be to ask questions about what’s going on, but always not underestimating the dangers of the virus, because “the threat is real”, as someone sang.

SL: The news we get here says that hospitals are really under pressure or near collapse due to the huge amount of sudden influxes of sick people to hospitals. Do you hear anything from this?

Noemi Aurora: Yes it is the truth. It is necessary to select the patients to be hospitalized on the basis of age and pathologies. This is terrible. Any of us would like to avoid living this experience. For this reason we must comply with the prevention and contagion measures so that the health system is not brought to a definitive collapse.

Maxx Maryan: It is happening in Northern Italy, and more precisely in Lombardy where 6000 cases have been recorded. There are already rumors of doctors who choose who to live and who to die … Obviously, conspiracy fiction is also a virus!

SL: Here in Belgium, up until today life continues as if nothing happened, measures are not forced, but just advised (as of March 12 there are finally some restrictions in place). I see countries like France, Austria taking a lot more measures. What do you think of that?

Noemi Aurora: Probably the number of cases is very low and does not put the population in a state of alert. But preventing the spread of Covid-19 would be the most intelligent move you can make, just to not end up like Italy.

Maxx Maryan: Here everything happened very quickly and who knows that in a few hours the same will not happen in other European countries.

SL: Do you have friends or family up north in the most affected regions? What do they tell you?

Noemi Aurora: No we don’t. But I know that people are very upset about this situation because until a few days ago in northern Italy people continued to frequent bars, restaurants and crowded places as if nothing had happened. I understand avoiding an attitude of panic or paranoia, but I do not share this attitude of carelessness and selfishness. It harms them and others.

Maxx Maryan: No, no family members, but a bunch of friends and acquaintances who are all well. They only had to face specific restrictions orders before us Romans.

SL: I saw images of people queuing early in the morning to get access to supermarkets although the Italian government said there would be enough goods delivered everywhere. Is this panic omnipresent? And how do you see it?

Noemi Aurora: Some people have no balance. First they pretend that nothing happens, then they unleash compulsive panic shopping. Disrespect is also noted in these attitudes. Stocking up for a whole year and leaving the shelves empty is a form of exaltation. It only feeds the atmosphere of fear.

Maxx Maryan: It is stupidity that is omnipresent. Mass hysteria is a proven phenomenon of psychology. I have heard of people who have emptied the shelves just to deprive others of their purchase and therefore to resell that merchandise at exorbitant prices at a later date. Can we say that situations like this allow the rottenness that is already inherent in people to emerge freely?

SL: A friend of mine who lives in Sicily said that Italians really act very correct as far as respecting the anti-contamination rules, like keeping 1 meter distance in coffee bars etc.. Is that typical Italian? Here in Belgium people still kiss, give handshakes and go to concerts.

Noemi Aurora: Not everyone is so respectful. I don’t think it’s an Italian or Belgian problem, it simply depends on the individuals themselves. What distinguishes us Italians at the moment is an efficient public health system. I hope, however, that all will end as soon as possible with the least possible number of victims. It is only up to the collaboration of us individuals to know how to stem it at best.

Maxx Maryan: I don’t know, there is likely to be more civilization in Sicily. As far as I’m concerned, yesterday I had to brutalize a lady who was stuck to Noemi and I see people going to have aperitifs in bars, or people who complain because they want to go out anyway because they get bored at home. One wrong thing, in my opinion, is that the Italian government focuses so much on self-responsibility, when in reality people do not understand a shit and, on the contrary, need a gendarme who reminds them of the ordinances.

SL: And good advice you can give us?

Noemi Aurora: I believe that the moment we are living must make us think and cheer on the things we have taken for granted. Virtualization, climate change, taking human relationships and reciprocity for granted. It seems it’s time to tidy things up and enjoy these days of falling smog, enjoying the moments of reflection and taking advantage of these days to find our passions that routine had made us forget. If we join forces we’ll make it!

Maxx Maryan: What I would like to advise is not to be afraid and to always maintain a strong objectivity in processing the news and information that come to us. The reasoning extinguishes the ardor of the disturbance. Use this period of segregation as a chance for yourself as an individual, as the smog is disappearing from the cities so your heads will also lighten, perhaps never being afraid to ask you questions about what is happening.

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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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!

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Out now is the brand new single/EP by the electro metal / rock act Helalyn Flowers!

With “Suicidal Birds”, the band offers the first material from their forthcoming album announced for Spring 2020: “Àiresis”. On the EP you can expect Noemi Aurora’s unique vocal dimension mixed with solid electro sequencing intermingled with edgy guitars.You’ll discover a mix of the band’s roots and background references including early electro wave, 90’s nu-synth era and 21st century industrial pop.

On the EP the Italian duo collaborates with 3 bands offering radically different versions of the title song “Suicidal Birds”. 808 DOT POP offers a mix with old-school EBM patterns and pumping basslines while Llumen opted for a more orchestral rendition of “Suicidal Birds”. The 3rd collaboration is with the pop electro from ImJudas.

You can download this single / EP as a HQ audio from Bandcamp or stream it right here on Spotify (and of course also on other platforms)

Check the official lyrics video for the title track on YouTube.

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

After 2 highly successful Depeche Mode tributes (you can find more details here), the Belgian label Alfa Matrix is now back with a 3rd volume. Titled “Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered Vol​.​3 – A Tribute To Depeche Mode”, the tribute is a 2CD with 32 brand new cover versions reinterpreted by Alfa Matrix artists.

Since the label has since added a lot of new names (Mental Exile, Imjudas, Synapsyche, Llumen, H.O.W., …), you can enjoy renditions of your favourite Depeche Mode tracks in a total new sound pallet.

The tracks have been covered in different ways: from electro pop to dark elektro, from pop wave to goth metal, from industrial to techno pop. Below is the total tracklist of this brand new tribute which can be ordered as a 2CD via the label’s webstore, and as download via Bandcamp).

Available formats for this new Depeche Mode tribute:

• V/A – Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered Vol​.​3 – A Tribute To Depeche Mode (Bandcamp download)
• V/A – Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered Vol​.​3 – A Tribute To Depeche Mode 2CD

The 2 previous compilations can be found here:

• Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered – A Tribute To Depeche Mode (Bonus Tracks Version)
• Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered – A Tribute To Depeche Mode – Vol. 2 (Bonus Tracks Version – 2013 edit)

Here’s a preview of the complete album!

Different title on other platforms

Note that the release has a completely other name on other digital platforms where it comes as “Alfa Matrix Re:Covered (Vol. 3)”.

For more on Depeche Mode, see Depeche Mode synths mounted as a single instrument – Neikka RPM reports on Side-Line.

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

After 2 highly succesful Depeche Mode tributes (you can find more details here), the Belgian label Alfa Matrix is now back with a 3rd volume. Titled “Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered Vol​.​3 – A Tribute To Depeche Mode”, the tribute is a 2CD with 32 brand new cover versions reinterpreted by Alfa Matrix artists.

Since the label has since added a lot of new names (Mental Exile, Imjudas, Synapsyche, Llumen, H.O.W., …), you can enjoy renditions of your favourite Depeche Mode tracks in a total new sound pallet.

The tracks have been covered in different ways: from electro pop to dark elektro, from pop wave to goth metal, from industrial to techno pop. Below is the total tracklist of this brand new tribuet which will be out later in March but which can be pre-ordered already (as a 2CD via the label’s webstore, and as download via Bandcamp).

Available formats:

V/A – Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered Vol​.​3 – A Tribute To Depeche Mode (Bandcamp download)

V/A – Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered Vol​.​3 – A Tribute To Depeche Mode 2CD

The 2 previous compilations can be found here:

Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered – A Tribute To Depeche Mode (Bonus Tracks Version)

Alfa Matrix Re​:​covered – A Tribute To Depeche Mode – Vol. 2 (Bonus Tracks Version – 2013 edit)

Here’s a preview of 2 tracks already!

For more on Depeche Mode, see Brand new Depeche Mode tribute out now via the Belgian electronica… on Side-Line.

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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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!

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Background/Info: The

Read the news on ‘Nyctophilia’.

About Helalyn Flowers

Helalyn Flowers is an industrial-metal duo from Rome, Italy, built around Massimiliano Campagna, known as MaXX, on production and guitars, and Noemi Aurora (Noemi Rotondi) on vocals.

The band released “Sonic Foundation” in 2016 on Alfa Matrix, followed by the “Kamikaze Angel” EP in 2018. MaXX also records solo as ImJudas, whose “Beyond” duet with Noemi Aurora appears on the limited two-disc edition of “Nyctophilia”. Announced as the band’s fifth studio album, “Nyctophilia” was recorded and produced in the duo’s own studio in Rome.

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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It’s finally there, the brand new album by the female fronted electro-rock act Helalyn Flowers. “Nyctophilia” is the band’s 5th studio album and was recorded and produced in the band’s own studio in Rome (Italy). As you will hear below “Nyctophilia” is infested by 80’s New Wave moody catchy melodies but in a 21st century production.

The album is available on the Alfa Matrix label’s webstore as a normal CD version, a deluxe download edition on Bandcamp which is based on the limited 2CD edition which is available here. The limited 2CD edition of the album holds a 12-track bonus disc featuring 3 remixes by the band itself plus remixes of the band’s last single “Kamikaze Angel”. Also included is a duet on “Beyond” with the excellent electropop project ImJudas.

Warmly recommended! You can listen to the deluxe edition of the album below.

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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Genre/Influences: Metal-pop, hard-pop.

Background/Info: Italian duo Helalyn Flowers are back on track preparing their fifth album entitled “Nyctophilia”. While Noemi sung and collaborated with multiple other artists mastermind Maxx launched his solo-project ImJudas. “Kamikaze Angel” is a look on the next opus of the band.

Content: The title song is pure power and seeing Helalyn Flowers moving further exploring pop fields merged with their powerful metal/industrial sound. Guitar and electronics became one and are carried by the charisma of Noemi’s vocals. The other new cut entitled “Beyond” is more polished and much more than simply a B-side track.

We next get remixes by Adam Kult, Six Faces and label mates Junksista and Psy’Aviah.

+ + + : “Kamikaze Angel” is a great new song, which reveals the never-ending progress of Helalyn Flowers to experiment with new ideas. Well, it’s even more than that as their simply go further experimenting with pop and especially how to mix it with their very own industrial/metal style. The great vocal parts get this song fully accomplished. I also have to mention the cool B-side track. Among the remixes I want to give a special mention for the contribution of Adam Kult and the less familiar Six Faces.

– – – : I have never been a huge fan of remixes and even if all bands did a proper and honest job, none of the remixes really add a bonus to this EP.

Conclusion: Helalyn Flowers confirms their status of leading formation from the Belgian Alfa Matrix stable and this EP is a solid teaser to the announced full length planed to be released later on this year.

Best songs: “Kamikaze Angel”, “Beyond”, “Kamikaze Angel – Six Faces Rmx”.

Rate: (7½).

Artist: www.helalynflowers.com / www.facebook.com/helalynflowers

Label: www.alfa–matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix

Read the news on ‘Kamikaze Angel’.

About Helalyn Flowers

Helalyn Flowers is an Italian electro/industrial-metal duo from Rome formed by Noemi Rotondi and Massimiliano “Maxx” Campagna. The pair self-released the “Disconnection” EP in 2005 before signing to Alfa Matrix for the debut album “A Voluntary Coincidence” in 2007. The catalog continued through “Sonic Foundation” (2016) and “Frozen Star” (2017), while Campagna also records solo as ImJudas. “Kamikaze Angel” previews the band’s fifth album, “Nyctophilia”, both released in 2018.

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 review of ‘Nyctophilia’.

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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Brussels based goth-rock formation Lovelorn Dolls is back on track. The band’s third album “Darker Ages”, released on Alfa Matrix, is their first new opus in four years. Core members Corpus Christi and Ladyhell went through personal issues, which explains this hiatus, but it also had a positive effect on the global production process. The new work is without a shadow of a doubt their most mature and accomplished opus to date. There’s a brilliant harmony between gothic-, rock-, metal- and pop influences. Corpus Christi and Ladyhell told me a bit more about this new work.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: The first album is always something special and magic, the second album is often difficult as you’ve to confirm your potential, but a third album is a kind of milestone in a band’s career! Do you agree with this statement and how do you look back on your career so far? 

Corpus Christi: Well I think the third album is what was meant to be at this moment of our lives. Ladyhell and me went through some personal issues and this impacted the compositions a lot. It is like a catharsis.  Now looking back to the past… Well I’m proud of all the albums we recorded. I cannot say that I do prefer one among the others. Each one of them was composed in the mood of the moment. On “House Of Wonders” there were a lot of more happy songs like “No-Life” or “Euphoria” because we were in a good mood. The themes were more generics and less personal.

Q: “Darker Ages” has been introduced by your label Alfa Matrix as your darkest work to date reflecting personal issues and horrible events of our daily life. Tell us some more about these themes and what do you think about music as a therapy or cure to exorcize feelings of pain? 

Corpus Christi: I’m personally unable to compose when I’m in a bad mood, it’s only when I take some distance with the events related in some songs that I’m able to put them in music. When I had some troubles I had no taste for anything even listening to other people’s music. Then it came back. For me it started again with songs from the French band Kyo. I discovered that almost all the songs from this band are related to sentimental problems, end of relationships and I recognized myself in the lyrics and the music.

Q: “Darker Ages” is without a shadow of a doubt your most mature and accomplished work to date. What do you see as the main evolution(s) and challenge(s) between this work and previous albums and what has been the impact of Maxx (Helalyn Flowers, ImJudas) on the sound production?  

Corpus Christi: The third album was entirely recorded and mixed in my very small home studio. Maxx took care of the mastering. He did a great job in order to give the final touch that was required to enhance the mixes. I wanted to take some responsibilities and so I wanted to have less external input this time even if there are some mistakes in the production.

Q: I’ve been always fascinated by the contrast between music, which is mostly meant to give people a good time or to get them happy and bands dealing with dark themes. But we also know it sometimes happened the other way round (reminding the impact :Wumpscut:, Marilyn Manson ao had on teenagers). I would like to have your opinion on this theme?

Corpus Christi: In my opinion music is only meant to give people emotions, the emotions could be joy.. or sadness.  Also all of the songs in “Darker Ages” are not sad. It’s more like a concept album with the theme: from darkness to light. The order of the songs is important and we took some time to sort them out. In the previous albums we had more ‘commercial’ views I must admit so we wanted to put the most catchy songs first.

Q: What’s the importance to play live and what can you tell us about further performances in Belgium and abroad and will your fans discover new elements on stage? 

Ladyhell : It’s important to play live to meet your fans and reach new people. We are not going to perform this time because the search of live dates is getting harder and harder. We prefer to put our energy in studio.

Q: Kristell, I noticed you’re part of the worldwide community ‘Eve’s Apple’. What is this community all about and how does it work? I also want to get your opinion (maybe experiences) about being a female artist in this music scene (considering items such as sexism, equality between male- & female artists etc)?   

Ladyhell: The community Eve’s Apple has disappeared around 2013, I think, so it’s no longer on the market. I don’t really had bad experiences about being a female artist. It’s the contrary, being a female surrounded by males can be really nice, you’re like the ‘precious’ thing and the guys take care of you (laugh). As the lead singer, you are the one in front of the audience. It gives pressure, but it’s also nice because you have most of the contacts with the fans. I always liked to be surrounded by men only because girls can be really mean with other girls. Actually the only problem I had was with the girlfriends/wives of the musicians… there was always a problem, jealousy issue, … and I was really not the problem, they just missed lack of confidence.

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: Body-pop, electro-pop.

Background/Info: ImJudas is a solo-project set up and driven by Helalyn Flowers mastermind maXX. This is the first EP of the artist.

Content: The title song is a powerful electro-pop creation, which has been accomplished with some EBM influences plus a very own touch on top. The song is carried by a solid chorus. Remixes were done by People Theatre, AD:Key and Inertia. There also is a kind of B-side cut.

+ + + : ImJudas is not a copy of Helalyn Flowers, but a band with a very own approach, which explores the wider fields of electro-pop. It also is an exit for maXX to walk on more explicit electronic fields and that’s a genre he already masterfully experienced with on Helalyn Flowers. I like the title song, which is a muscled pop cut driven by a solid kick, a carrying chorus and cool vocals. Another interesting aspect of the EP is the choice of the remixers, each adding a different touch to the work. People Theatre did an amazing job transforming the original version into a more retro-like style with explicit strings. Ad:Key transposed the electro-pop style into EBM while Inertia added guitars coming closer to the Helalyn Flowers format.

– – – : The B-side cut is nothing more than a… B-side cut and didn’t really catch my attention.

Conclusion: “Tulpa” stands for a cool title song, some hot and sexy remixes and also a poorly inspired B-side track. I’m really wondering what the debut album of ImJudas will sound like!

Best songs: “Tulpa – People Theatre’s Tragedy Mix”, “Tulpa”, “Tulpa – AD:Key Mix”.

Rate: (7½).

Band: www.facebook.com/IMJUDASofficial

Label: www.alfa–matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix

Read the news on ‘Tulpa’.

About ImJudas

ImJudas is the solo project of Italian artist Maxx Maryan, also known as the male half of Helalyn Flowers. He launched the project in November 2017 with the debut EP “Tulpa”, reviewed here, followed by the EP “Ritual” in November 2021 and the debut album “Yrjudas”, a limited double CD released in February 2022.

Maryan also records as Black Shine Fever, a separate project that released the album “Via Negativa” in 2020. ImJudas continued with the single “I Love You” and the EP “Stjudas” via Spleen+ in 2023, before the album “Viscerheart” followed on Alfa Matrix in 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

Speaking of a big promotion campaign, the Belgian electrolabel Alfa Matrix has handed out over 4000 copies of the CD-sampler “Sounds From The Matrix 019” at the double concert of Front 242 this past weekend in Brussels. Also playing as support act were the electropop label mates of Front 242, Metroland.

On the CD sampler you find no less than 20 bands from the label’s roster with mostly new and/or exclusive material.

For those who missed the event, the compilation also comes as a free CD which each order that is placed on the label’s CD/DVD/vinyl webstore or as a download compilation at album price on Bandcamp. Each volume of the compilation series is a much sought after item as it regularly pops up on online auction sites reaching ridiculously high prices, especially when no longer available.

On this new volume you’ll find material from Elektroklänge, Metroland, Ad:Key, ELM, Mildreda, The Psychic Force, Star Industry, Crytek, Mondtraüme, Kant Kino, Junksista, Psy’aviah, Helalyn Flowers, Lovelorn Dolls, Sin.Sin, Imjudas, Komor Kommando, Mentallo & The Fixer, Implant and Schwarzblut. A very diverse compilation which showcasts very well the current line-up of the label.

You can stream the release below, or get it right here on Bandcamp. But if you place an order for a physical product, you’ll of course get it for free on CD!

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 Belgian electrolabel Alfa Matrix has launched it’s 19th (!) volume in their popular ‘Sounds From The Matrix’ series. On “Sounds From The Matrix 019” you find no less than 20 bands from the label’s roster with mostly new and/or exclusive material. The compilation comes as a free CD which each order that is placed on the label’s CD/DVD/vinyl webstore or as a download compilation at album price on Bandcamp (and if you use the code november84546 you’ll instantly get 30% off on top).

Each volume of the compilation series is a much sought after item as it regularly pops up on online auction sites reaching ridiculously high prices, especially when no longer available.

On this new volume you’ll find material from Elektroklänge, Metroland, Ad:Key, ELM, Mildreda, The Psychic Force, Star Industry, Crytek, Mondtraüme, Kant Kino, Junksista, Psy’aviah, Helalyn Flowers, Lovelorn Dolls, Sin.Sin, Imjudas, Komor Kommando, Mentallo & The Fixer, Implant and Schwarzblut. A very diverse compilation which showcasts very well the current line-up of the label.

You can stream the release below, or get it right here on Bandcamp. But if you place an order for a physical product, you’ll of course get it for free on CD!

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

Read the review of ‘Tulpa’.

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, dark-electro, electro-pop, gothic.

Background/Info: 2016 has been a particular year for the Belgian label Alfa Matrix. They celebrated their 15^th anniversary and the 35^th anniversary of the Godfathers of EBM: Front 242. Next to astonishing and luxurious Front 242 –re-releases the label closed 2016 by a surprising ‘celebration’ album featuring 32 bands of the label covering Front 242.

Bands: Metroland, Komor Kmmando, Ad:Key, Plastic Noise Experience, Imjudas, Sin.sin, Neikka RPM, Cosmic Armchair, 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, Xmh.

Content: I was honestly a bit afraid to discover this massive cover-tribute to the greatest EBM band in history. I’m still convinced there are some bands –like Front 242, you’d better avoid covering, but on the other side I think it also is quite exciting to hear non-EBM bands re-interpreting some of the most famous and legendary ‘242’-hits.

Most of the chosen songs belong to the glorious 80s period of the band. Songs like “U-Men”, “Kampbereit”, “Operating Tracks”, “gvdt”, “Body To Body” “Lovely Day”, “Don’t Crash”, “Lovely Day”, “No Shuffle”, “Commando Mix”, “Moldavia”, “Never Stop”, “Headhunter”, “Welcome To Paradise”, “Tragedy For You” and many, many others have been selected.

The result is quite diverse and of course not always that EBM-like, but clearly accomplished with a real devotion and I dare to say respect for this unique band in history.

+ + + : One of the first highlights is the modern adaptation of “Moldavia” into the pure Komor Kommando style. “Body To Body” has never been so sexy thanks to Neikka RPM. Ayria probably covered the biggest hit (cf. “Headhunter”) into a fully enjoyable body-pop style. Avarice In Audio transposed “Welcome To Paradise” into a technoid inspired cut. Acylum remained dark-electro inspired, covering “Serial Killers Don’t Kill Their Girlfriend” into their unique style. Regenerator (which has been produced by Daniel B) did a fantastic job covering “Religion”.

Elektroklänge (one of the new label signings) reworked “Funkahdafi” into a sterile, but cool robotic version. In the purest EBM vein I noticed great contributions from Elm (cf. “Operating Tracks”) and Kant Kino (cf. “No Shuffle”). Circuito Cerrado vs. C-Lekktor is another great dark-electro artist injecting a dark-electro boost into “Moldavia/Neurobashing”. Növö probably is one of the bands, which is the most close to the early analogue experiments of Front 242 and logically covered one of the early songs (cf. “Kinetics”). I also noticed a surprising and high-tech cover of U-Men” by Llumen.

– – – : There’s only one Front 242 and that’s precisely what this sampler confirms! I heard many cool cover versions, but none is better than the original version, that’s for sure.

Conclusion: Some will call it a blasphemy, but others (young fans) will maybe discover Front 242 thanks to this kind of compilation. I heard an entertaining album!

Best bands: Komor Kommando, Regenerator, Circuito Cerrado vs. C-Lekktor, Növö, Llumen, Kant Kino.

Rate: (7½).

Label: www.alfa–matrix.com / www.facebook.com/Alfa.Matrix

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

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!

side-line.com

Whilst checking out the recent free Alfa Matrix download compilation “Matrix Downloaded 006“, one new name popped up: ImJudas with “People Of The Blame (Alfa Edit)”, a dark wave track that already caught the attention of many especially thanks to it references to bands like early Alphaville, Deine Lakaien and related acts. Well, we can now reveal that ImJudas is in fact the brand new electro dark wave solo-project from maXX of the Italian dark/gothic electro metal duo Helalyn Flowers!

We contacted maXX a few days ago to give us some info on this well hidden project from him. But first, here’s the track (which you can download for free from bandcamp now).

SL: I had expected a guitar-powered project from you, but you totally went synth/electropop with ImJudas, talking of a real surprise!

M: Actually nobody was expecting this! You know, many figure me as a rude guy attached to his guitar but the truth is that I simply live my life as a manifesto of self-expression. Why Synth Pop? I didn’t wake up one day and sat at the studio trying to do something different. I don’t plan my projects that way. They all come from a voice within and that voice is the singing in my head. It happened that I was touring with Helalyn Flowers and on the road back to home I had in my mind two of the ImJudas songs. When I started working at the studio I simply followed my instinct and sang my lyrics on a synthesizer and a drum machine. It worked so I stuck that line. It’s a part of me that still I hadn’t time or a chance to let come out.

The main focus is on my voice and on the rhythm as well. There are almost no guitars on purpose because they would saturate the sound too much and these songs need more room within, a sort of something untold. Secondly, I already have other projects that unleash me as a guitarist, like Helalyn Flowers, that all you already know, and Black Shine Fever (formerly known as BlackCore) that is my other solo-project which EP is going to be released this Winter and that sounds like a blend of Post-Punk, Heavy Metal and Goth Rock.

I don’t know if the ‘synth pop’ label is appropriate for describing ImJudas, at least on my personal level, because there is this current tendency to have everything so polish, so clean, with clinic productions that all sound the same and that I keep my distance from. What I love in the early works in this genre was just the dirt, the slight defects, the image of the machines replacing traditional electric instruments and not humans. When I put ‘play’ on albums like ‘The Art of Falling Apart’ of Soft Cell or ‘Dark Star’ by Deine Lakaien I can feel that Rock n’Roll element that was typical to the genre. I am still in that mood, that’s the way I like it (sorry K.C.). I’d like that people accept the fact that ImJudas is not a ‘nice’ act’ and that there is a bloodline of Rock music within it. Well, sonically ImJudas may have all the rules of Synth Pop but I wish that everyone will catch the dark/wavey blood of ImJudas too.

SL: Any special references next to the aforementioned acts?

M: I like to think that ImJudas is some kind of ‘double’ that I exhaled when I was a kid and watched at the ‘Silence of the Lambs’ movie. That’s when I heard for the first time that dark and dancy stuff from Colin Newman and Q Lazzarus. I started searching for those records so I ran into Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Dead Or Alive, Visage, Talk Talk and all that great 80s stuff before I went deeper and deeper with acts like Coil, Deine Lakaien and Virgin Prunes. The common source of all these acts were always icons of the 70s like Bowie and Roxy Music that I love so much. Also the new-romantics were influenced by that stuff and in fact they inspire me as well.

ImJudas is now the face of that ‘double’, it’s the voice of that child ravished by a beautiful underworld of black and white shapes.

SL: You have been working in total secret on this project, I guess Noemi was aware of your tendencies? 😉

M: How couldn’t she? Eheh… She is aware of all of my tendencies as well as of all the music that I write and that still is imprisoned in hard-disks and CD-R’s! Simply, my ‘secret’ is based on my belief that if I have to unleash something then that something must be ready for me. I can wake up tomorrow and put all of my unreleased music on Bandcamp just for a compulsive share-thing but it wouldn’t be true to myself.

A project of mine should live its own life in the dark before being launched. It must have its own story. Noemi has been my muse, my advisor and always pushed me to bring this to the light of day. I was in the studio listening to these songs over and over again with other music trying to come out of my mind… so at a point, it’s been healthy to me to unleash everything. It’s like freeing a flock of wildened birds imprisoned in the house. And Noemi was always there at my side telling me wise words. I thank her everyday. She’s a part of ImJudas, she takes care of the whole visual and she is my vocal trainer too!

SL: How does it feel to finally come out of the closet?

M: Hah! I feel like I’m still in the closet! Jokes apart, I always try to not think at this kind of things. I learned to feel detached. I ain’t the kind of emotional guy, I want to turn emotions into feelings. But… How good is the human circle of emotions when it allows you to lose yourself in the tide, even just for a while? ?

SL: what’s in the pipeline for ImJudas?

M: My next song to be released after “People Of The Blame (Alfa Edit)” is going to be a cover version of the Front 242 classic ‘Don’t Crash’ on an Alfa Matrix tribute 2CD out next 16 December. I want to release my debut album next year because this stuff is tired to be played among these four walls and I can’t afford to get insane, at least not now! ;-))

You can find ImJudas right here on Facebook.

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 6th edition of the now classic free “Matrix Downloaded” label digital compilation, Belgium’s Alfa Matrix label prepared the perfect industrial / electro soundtrack for your end of year season holiday. If you like what you hear, then don’t hesitate to support the label with a few euros.

“Matrix Downloaded 006” represents the label’s most recent singles and albums while giving a preview of some promising forthcoming 2017 productions including new releases by Alien Vampires, Pouppée Fabrikk, Metroland, The Psychic Force, Kant Kino, Mondträume, Neikka RPM, Aiboforcen, Sin.Sin, Elektroklänge, Llumen, Diffuzion, Cosmic Armchair, etc. as well as from the label’s recent recruits: the German EBM duo Ad:Key and Imjudas (the new synthwave pop-rock project of Helalyn Flowers’ Maxx).

This free (or pay as you wish) compilation is once again downloadable in mp3/flac quality via the label’s extremely successful Bandcamp page where you can also still find the 5 previous editions in case you were trapped in another universe for the last few years and did not catch these yet: “Matrix Downloaded 001” / “Matrix Downloaded 002” / “Matrix Downloaded 003” / “Matrix Downloaded 004” / “Matrix Downloaded 005“.

Check and download below:

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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With “Recovery >for you<”, the Alfa Matrix label is closing this double-celebration year 2016 in beauty. For its 15th anniversary, the Belgian record label also celebrated in many ways the 35 years of existence of Front 242. Therefor the Alfa Matrix label family decided to pay homage to the band.

32 fellow label bands have each covered one song from Front 242’s music repertoire, picking songs from the full discography of the band, from “Geography” to “Pulse”. The release is already up for pre-order on the Alfa Matrix webstore plus also on their Bandcamp page.

“Recovery >for you<” resulted in a collection of 32 songs reflecting the Alfa Matrix band roster’s high diversity by bands such as 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.

Classic Front 242 tunes covered include amongst others “Headhunter”, “Happiness”, “Lovely Day”, “U-men”, “Commando Mix”, “Masterhit”, “No Shuffle”, “Tragedy for You”, “Take One”, “Funkhadafi”, “Moldavia”, “Operating Tracks”, “Don’t Crash”, “Body To Body”, “Welcome To Paradise”, and many more. The full tracklist can be viewed here.

Below is a first exclusive preview which Front 242 have posted on their Instagram account earlier this evening.

#Front242 #tribute “Recovery>for you<” now available via www.alfa-matrix-store.com 32 tracks, this is an exclusive preview! @alfamatrix #alfamatrix

A video posted by Front 242 – Official (@front242official) on Nov 2, 2016 at 11:49am PDT

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