Sweet Ermengarde, a German Gothic/Dark-Wave group, has been active for quite some time. Following the release of several albums on Equinoxe Records, they return after an eight-year hiatus with “Sacrifice” on Solar Lodge. The production is polished, paying homage to 80s Dark-Wave masters while infusing a personal touch with a more melodic and Dark-Rock approach. Personally, I favor the harder tracks. (Rate:7½).

Listen to “Viscera”:

About Sweet Ermengarde

Sweet Ermengarde is a German Gothic/Dark-Wave group that built its catalogue on Equinoxe Records across several albums before going quiet for eight years. The band’s sound pays homage to 1980s Dark-Wave production while adding a more melodic, Dark-Rock edge. “Sacrifice” marks the group’s return, released via the Solar Lodge label.

Inferno Sound Diaries

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

www.side-line.com

The new EP from Merciful Nuns serves as an addendum to their recently released opus, “Oneironauts”. This EP stands out by featuring two singles alongside two B-sides, each track bringing its unique flavor to the collection. The songs vary in style, ranging from the Dark-Rock vibes of “Demons” to the more intense, Dark Wave-infused “Elysene.” This diversity extends to the B-side tracks as well, showcasing different vocal styles and atmospheres. Personally, I find “Elysene” to be the standout track. (Rate:7).

Watch the clip of “Elysene”:

About Merciful Nuns

Merciful Nuns is the German post-punk/dark-rock project of Artaud Seth, who was previously part of The Garden Of Delight and also leads the project Near Earth Orbit. Seth is additionally the head of the Solar Lodge label. Merciful Nuns released the album “Kvltan” in 2022, four years after its predecessor “Anomaly”, and followed it in 2025 with “Oneironauts”, described by Seth as the second part of the story around Kvltan’s origin. The “Elysene/Demons” EP extends that release with two singles and two B-sides.

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: Industrial, Metal, Crossover.

Format: Digital, 2CD.

Background/Info: New album by the established German formation Merciful Nuns. The album features the main disc plus an extra disc, a kind of EP featuring four extra songs.

Content: The main disc takes off with the title songs featuring 4 parts. We next get 4 more songs which all together create a heavy, powerful Industrial/Metal/Rock composition driven by front man and core member Artaud Seth’s deep timbre of voice. The second disc reveals a more bombastic production creating a kind of dramatic expression. I also noticed organ sounds injecting a psychedelic touch.

+ + + : Merciful Nuns has clearly evolved throughout the years moving towards a more personal sound approach. The new work doesn’t sound that different and brings different influences together. The songs have been meticulously crafted while carried by heavy, Metal-like guitar playing. “Requiem For The Departed” is my personal favorite cut for its menacing atmosphere recovered with melodic synth parts. I once again want to salute the great, artistic, artwork of the album.

– – – : “Oneironauts XII” doesn’t sound as a bite-sized bite but needs a few listening before you really get into it.

Conclusion: Artistic and original but not what I would label as their best album to date.

Best songs: “Requiem For The Departed”, “Oneironauts” + “Oneironauts – The Lesser Light”.

Rate: 7½.

Artist: www.mercifulnuns.com / www.facebook.com/MercifulNuns

Label: www.solarlodge.de / www.facebook.com/SolarLodgeRecords

About Merciful Nuns

Merciful Nuns is a German dark rock project based in Berlin, led by Artaud Seth, who also fronts The Garden of Delight and Near Earth Orbit and runs the Solar Lodge label. The band numbers its albums with Roman numerals, from “Liber I” through “Anomaly X” and “Kvltan”, released in 2022 four years after “Anomaly”. “Oneironauts XII” followed as a 2CD set on Solar Lodge, and an exclusive version of “Oneironauts” also appears on the “Resurgence” 7CD Solar Lodge label compilation.

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

Near Earth Orbit, sometimes just called NEO or N.E.O., is an experimental/apocalypse goth rock project by Ashley Dayour and Artaud Seth founded in 2015. The project recently launched the video single “Hypersonic Asylum” from the upcoming album “Echoes of the Future” which you can see below.

The new album will be available in multiple formats:

• “Echoes of the Future” DigisleeveBook (matte finish, CD) with booklet
• “Echoes of the Future” limited edition DigisleeveBook (matte finish, CD) with booklet and E.V.E. (bonus CD)
• “Near Earth Orbit – The Encores” (4CDs collectors pack), a collection of all 4 previous “add ons” to the limited NEO first editions of “Echoes of the Future,” “Outerworld,” “A.T.O.M.,” and “The End of All Existence”

But first there’s the new video.

NEO’s music explores the idea of what would happen if premonitions turned into reality, and there were no guidelines on how to deal with such events. Their music delves into the concept of unknown technology being used to manipulate humanity and the Earth becoming increasingly inhospitable as a result. They pinpoint five realistic threats in their work: meteorite impacts and alien invasions, nuclear war, artificial intelligence, global warming and extraterrestrial worlds.

Over the years, Near Earth Orbit has released a series of albums:

• “End Of All Existence” (2015) – Released by Solar Lodge (SL030), this limited edition CD marked the beginning of the band’s discography.
• “Trans Neptunian Objects” (2015) – Also released by Solar Lodge (SL031), this limited edition CD continued the exploration of cosmic themes.
• “Mission E.D.E.N” (2016) – Solar Lodge released two versions of this album.
• “A.T.O.M.” (2017) – Three versions were released by Solar Lodge.
• “Artificial Intelligence” (2019) – Solar Lodge released two versions of this album, delving into the theme of AI and its potential impact on humanity.
• “Outerworld + Innerworld” (2020) – Solar Lodge released two versions of this album, exploring the connection between the external universe and the inner workings of the human mind.
• “M.A.S.S. Extinction” (2020) – The latest release from Near Earth Orbit, this CD (SL055) by Solar Lodge focuses on the theme of extinction and its implications for humanity.

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

Merciful Nuns this year released their eleventh opus in history. Driven by Artaud Seth –who will be always connected to The Garden Of Delight, “Kvltan” is a new and fascinating production wherein the band composed a sonic fusion between different music genres. Somewhere in between Industrial, Gothic and Psychedelic the album released on Solar Lodge stands for a totally accomplished and professional production. Dark atmospheres and powerful sound blasts will lead the listener to explore the origins of all earthly existence. I talked about it all with Artaud Seth.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Merciful Nuns is now active for more than ten years and can look back at a true accomplishment. Can you draw up the balance sheet of this successful story? What have been the main satisfactions versus the biggest frustrations/disappointments?

Artaud: There is no frustration at all. It’s all about art and doing what I want to do. And I love what I do. I also have the privilege that people listen to me. So all about the Nuns is a positive thing for me.

Q: When getting back to your first album “Lib. I” which was strongly influenced by one of your favorite bands (cf. The Sisters Of Mercy) and you next listen to your newest opus “Kvltan” I can only but affirming the band went through a serious evolution. How do you perceive and analyze this evolution as artist(s) and band? How much of the early songs do you still recognize in “Kvltan”?

Artaud: Of course, “Kvltan” sounds a lot different than “Liber I”. Although I still love this album to this day.The original idea to make an album like “Liber I” was to sound like bands from the mid 80’s. Actually, it was supposed to be just one album. I had no idea that it would end up being so successful. And then it went on. But just writing such, rather simple songs on and on is not enough for me in the long run. That could have been a bit more complex.AboutThe Sisters Of Mercy, they had some good numbers, especially older songs. At the latest after “Floodland” I was out. They became more and more of a simple MTV Rock-Pop thing. It’s strange that a band that hasn’t released anything new in 30 years is still relevant.

Q: Let’s talk about the new work “Kvltan”. How did the album come true? How did you prepare this work and what have been the different stages to achieve this work?

Artaud: To be honest after “Anomaly” I actually thought I was empty and burned out, and that I couldn’t write anything new. Obviously, I was wrong. In addition, someone died here at the Lodge and a deep sadness and melancholy lay over everything. All together were probably the reasons for the decision at that time. Maybe I just needed a break to regenerate. But afterwards you are always wiser than before. Incidentally, “Black Halo” was not originally planned as a Merciful Nuns-EP. I was actually trying out a few new things for a new project, but then quickly realized that it sounded very similar. I then asked myself whether I really couldn’t think of anything new. And suddenly the concept of the origin of all came to me. Actually, that was the logical consequence of all my themes: going back to the origin.

Q: I can’t get away from the idea that you’re a perfectionist in the production of your music but still about the entire ‘concept’ and artistic part of Merciful Nuns.  How do you perceive yourself and how exigent are you with your own creation? What have been the main difficulties and challenges in the production of Kvltan XI”?

Artaud:It’s also important to me that we sound good. That’s why I attach great importance to a good engineering and mixing production. Writing an album like “Kvltan” takes forever. I worked on it for over a year. And that every day. For “Liber I” it took a month. This has a lot to do with the fact that I don’t use factory sounds. All the sounds you hear on “Kvltan”, whether synths, drums, guitars or bass sounds, have all been reinvented. This is extremely time-consuming. But in the end you have your own, incomparable sound. And that’s important to me.

Q: No need to say “Kvltan” and the entire artwork of the album reflect your fascination for rites and occultism. What are the threads of the new album? And do you think there’s any possible connection between rites plus occultism and the world we’re actually living in?

Artaud:I would call myself an agnostic. That is, as someone who does not believe in any god or deity that we know of, but still assumes that there is something undefined we have no explanation for. All my work will always incorporate the mother of all questions: Where do we come from (as a species)? And where are we heading (humankind)?

The philosophical aspects in my lyrics and conceptual art are those which surround me generally. Ancient advanced cultures like the Sumerians, Egyptians, Maya and their adoration for divinities from ‘beyond’ always appear to me as an effigy of the future. By now I have arrived at the inescapable conviction that we have already been visited by these so called advanced cultures. Nowadays these visitors are worshipped as God or Gods by us.

Q: Because of the ongoing pandemic artists were no longer able to play live. How did you experience this situation and how important is it to play live? How do you prepare live shows and what do you need to speak about a great performance? 

Artaud:These are tough times right now. At least compared to what our generation has experienced so far. The current political-, economic- and pandemic situation is fatally reminiscent of the 1920s to 1940s. And those were certainly not good years. We learned nothing, absolutely nothing from them. In addition, we are destroying our basis of life, nature, sustainably. Man is naive, not capable of learning and simply too stupid to realize that we are slowly but surely wiping out ourselves. Also, I’m tired of all the power-crazed autocrats. Maybe we should only put power in women’s hands. I am sure that the world would then be significantly more peaceful, loveable and worth living in.

Of course it is important for us to play live. Fortunately, Omikron is no longer as dangerous as its predecessors and the whole thing is slowly starting to roll again. We have a lot to do: concerts, festivals, a kind of split EP… I hope the pandemic situation stays reasonably stable. Or better, at best.

A good concert? We always try to get a good balance between music, lighting concept and visuals. The overall mood has to be right. Then we are satisfied.

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: Industrial, Psychedelic, Goth-Rock. Rock.

Format: Digital, 2CD.

Background/Info: Artaud Seth (in a previous life involved with Garden Of Delight) and his acolytes Jawa Seth and Jón Tmoh have unleashed their newest album. It became a double disc featuring eight songs on the main disc and four extra cuts on the bonus disc.

Content: The sound universe of Merciful Nuns remains a true sonic enigma which you simply can call a fusion between different genres. It sounds Industrial-, Rock- and Gothic like but supported by a Psychedelic touch. The common color between all influences is black while artwork and themes are definitely into rites and mysticism. The songs have been progressively built-up, mixing guitar playing and overwhelming electronic sequences. The songs are extended with over the top powerful vocals which have something exclamative.

The bonus disc features 2 alternative edits of the main song “The Kvltanians” plus 2 extra songs which are rather short. One of these songs sounds like Cinematic music.

+ + + : First there’s the sober, ritual and artistic artwork of the CD. Next you’ll discover a band with its own sound which remains the main characteristic and originality of this band. Merciful Nuns is hard to label and definitely the result of multiple influences. I noticed a Psychedelic touch on top of the production which makes it even more original, and I dare to say visionary. The songs have been progressively built up and mainly carried by solid, Industrial-like guitar play. My favorite song -which also appears to be the ‘main’ one (cf. “The Kvltanians”) features an irresistible electro sequence merged with overpowering guitar play. I like this song for its progression and total climax.

– – – : Merciful Nuns are hard to label so it’s not easy going music but at the other side it also makes their strength.

Conclusion: Merciful Nuns remains a true discovery and revelation.

Best songs: “The Kvltanians”, “Altered States”, “The Kvltanians – The greater Hight”, “Kvltan – The Origin”, “The Flood”.

Rate: 8.

Artist: www.mercifulnuns.com / www.facebook.com/MercifulNuns

Label: www.SolarLodge.de / www.facebook.com/SolarLodgeRecords

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

(Photo by Werner Nowak) The Devil & The Universe now look back on nine years of band history. In 2013, Ashley Dayour and David Pfister founded the band, which Stefan Elsbacher complemented to a trio. In the beginning the band focused on musical experimentation mixing soundtrack-like ambient sounds and driving beats. Their goat masks and humour are also immediately part of the package.

On their recent album “Goatopia” the band picked up the psychedelic feeling from the previous album “:Endgame 69:” and added new musical sounds. “Goatopia” was released on the German label Solar Lodge on January 28th and “Viva! Goatopia” is the 2nd output from the new The Devil & The Universe album “Goatopia”. Expect electronica mixed with a load of drums.

Here’s the video for “Viva! Goatopia”.

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

Out on the Solar Lodge label on January 28th is the all new album, “GOATopia”, by the Viennese band The Devil & The Universe. “GOATopia” will be released as a 6-panel CD Digipak with special matt finish. The album is the follow-up to “Endgame 69”.

Conceptually, “GOATopia” is based on utopians such as Thomas Morus who with his novel “Utopia” (1516) formulated a possible future way of life or social order. The Devil & The Universe use ideas like these to create their own ‘goat utopia’.

Check out the video for “The great God Pan is dead”.

About The Devil & The Universe

The band was founded in 2013 by Ashley Dayour and David Pfister with Stefan Elsbacher completing augmenting the band to a trio. In the beginning the band focused on musical experimentation mixing soundtrack-like ambient sounds and driving beats. Add to that goat masks and a very own humour.

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: Gothic, Dark-Wave, Goth-Rock.

Format: Digital, CD.

Background/Info: Belgian Your Life On Hold last year released its third full length album. The title of the album wants to be ‘a metaphor for the main idea behind Your Life On Hold. It’s the in-between world, that no-man’s-land between different stages in your life, between relationships, between darker days and better days. It’s the very core of what Your Life On Hold is all about’. Driven by the creative spirit of ‘John Wolf’ (aka Jan Dewulf), 2020 has been a real prolific year for this musician. Next to this work he also signed to Dependent where he’ll release a new Mildreda-album and he also composed the music for the newest Dive-album.

Content: This album moves on where “My Name Is Legion for We Are Many” stopped. You get a similar mix of powerful guitar playing mixed with Electronic arrangements and the deep, growling vocals of John Wolf, which once again reminds me of Wayne Hussey. Most of the songs have something melodic (let’s not forget Jan Dewulf was active for years with his Electro-Pop project Diskonnekted), but there’s still a part of rage emerging from this opus. The work also features a few softer cuts, the long-during “I Can Feel Every Part” being for sure the most noticeable one. Notice one of the songs is featuring vocals by Artaud Seth.

+ + + : Your Life On Hold doesn’t innovate, but simply seems to compose the music they like. It’s an entertaining work alternating powerful passages –and even true speed rhythms (cf. “Let’s Start A War”) together with softer, dark-dreamy songs. I prefer the hardest cuts, “Erase Me”, “Save Me From The Void” and “Anywhere Out There” being the most noticeable songs. I already mentioned “I Can Feel Every Part”, which is an interesting piece for the way it has been built up while featuring some Gregorian chants in the background. The last point I want to mention is the great lyrical writing from some songs.

– – – : This album is absolutely pleasant and entertaining and you can hear some passion emerging at the surface, but the main point that hurts is that the songs are somewhat predictable after a while. John Wolf is a great vocalist, but I sometimes miss a more spontaneous way of singing.

Conclusion: This work is a pleasant listening, but I’m convinced this artist can do better.

Best songs: “Erase Me”, “Save Me From The Void”,  “Anywhere Out There”, “I Can Feel Every Part”, “Nowhere Train”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.yourlifeonhold.com / www.facebook.com/yourlifeonhold

Label: www.solarlodge.de / www.facebook.com/SolarLodgeRecords

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

Coitus Interruptus Productions and Crunch Pod are to release “Channeling The Solar Lodge”, a free Coil tribute compilation next month. The tribute will offer 20 different electronic and experimental projects covering their favourite Coil track.

Bands featured on this compilation will be the following ones (next to their names you’ll find teh respective tracks they will cover):

• AkA – Artillery Night Space
• Brien Hindman – Boken Fabiola
• Dead Receptors – Defrag
• Dreamscape Invocation – Empusae
• Fetal Distress – Flint Glass
• Fluxion A/D – God Module
• Grave of the Opal Golem
• Law-Rah Collective – Manufactura
• Morlox – Michael Idehall – NDSTRY
• The Present Moment – Pyroclastic
• Snowbeasts – Sylvgheist Maëlström
• Talvekoidik – Theodor Bastard – XISIX

About Coil

Coil were an experimental music group, founded in 1982 in London, England and concluded in 2005. Initially envisioned as a solo project by musician John Balance (of the band Psychic TV), Coil evolved into a full-time project with the addition of his partner Peter Christopherson (formerly of pioneering industrial music group Throbbing Gristle).

Balance and Christopherson were the only constant members; other contributors throughout the band’s career included Stephen Thrower, Danny Hyde, Drew McDowall, William Breeze, Thighpaulsandra, and Ossian Brown.

After the release of their 1984 debut EP “How to Destroy Angels”, Coil joined Some Bizzare Records, through which they released two full-length albums, “Scatology” (1984) and “Horse Rotorvator” (1986). After departing from Some Bizzare, Coil established their own record label, Threshold House, through which they produced and released “Love’s Secret Domain” (1991).

In 1985, the group began working on a series of soundtracks, among them the rejected score for the first “Hellraiser”.

Financial difficulties slowed the group’s work in the early 1990s before they returned to the project on releases such as “Astral Disaster” (1999), and the “Musick to Play in the Dark” series composed of “Vol. 1” (1999) and “Vol. 2” (2000), as well as releasing several projects under aliases such as Black Light District, ELpH, and Time Machines.

The group started several smaller independent record labels, including Eskaton and Chalice. The group’s first live performance in 16 years occurred in 1999, and began a series of mini-tours that would last until 2004.

Following the accidental death of John Balance on 13 November 2004, Christopherson announced via that Coil as an entity had ceased to exist, ending the Coil discography with “The Ape of Naples” (2005).

Bernard - Side-Line Staff

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

side-line.com

Genre/Influences: Industrial, Experimental, Cinematographic, Ambient.

Format: Digital, 2 CD.

Background/Info: Cold Spring brings us a re-release of this Coil-compilation, originally released in 2001 on Feelee. This is a Russian label and the compilation was meant to mark Coil’s first live performance in Moscow (Russia). This is an opportunity to get back to the creative spirit of Avant-Garde artists John Balance and Peter Christopherson who unfortunately died much too young.

Content: The first disc is mainly driven by great atmospheres, creating an ominous sensation, which became one of Coil’s trademarks. From pure Cinematographic passages to Experimental music, the work brings us back to essential songs such as “At The Heart Of It All” from the legendary “Scatology”-album to “Are You Shivering”, “Where Are You” and “The dreamer Is Still Asleep”.

The second disc moves on with more sonic anthems like the unforgettable “Panic”, “Solar Lodge” and “The Anal Staircase” –bringing us back to one of early 12” from the band. This second disc sounds a bit harder and definitely more Industrial, but is still revealing a visionary style. I here refer to the somewhat Technoid-driven “A.Y.O.R.”.

+ + + : This compilation available in a 8-panel glossy digipak is more than simply an opportunity to get back to the genius of this band. Coil remains a very unique sound experience, a band you can’t totally label, but that has been for sure a reference. They mixed Industrial together with Experimental, Ambient, Neo-Classic and even Trance. This album is a sonic journey throughout some of their most prominent albums. I remain a huge lover of “Scatology”, which I consider as one of the Industrial-cult albums in history. But I also have to mention other works such as “Horse Rotorvator” and “Musick To Play In the Dark“. Coil was not just visionary; it was an intelligent and eclectic project, creating disturbing atmospheres like no other.

– – – : Even a double disc can’t totally cover the impressive discography of Coil so in the end there are always songs missing.

Conclusion: This work can be seen and considered as the sonic legacy of the brilliant Coil.

Best songs: “At The Heart Of It All”, “Panic, “Solar Lodge”, “The Anal Staircse”, “Are You Shivering?”, “The Dreamer Is Still Asleep”, “Further Back And Faster”.

Rate: (9).

Artist: www.facebook.com/Coil-189787564422

Label: www.coldspring.co.uk / www.facebook.com/coldspringhq

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: Goth-rock.

Background/Info: Jan Dewulf is a Belgian artist who’ll be always linked to the electro-pop project Diskonnekted and the electro-industrial project Mildreda. It’s already seven years ago now that the last Diskonnekted album has been released and in the meantime Jan Dewulf became ‘John Wolf’ to start a new and totally different project. We now welcome the second full length by his new band.

Content: This band has nothing in common with their frontman’s aforementioned projects. This is good-old gothic music with some extra rock and even garage-rock elements on top. John Wolf has a perfect timbre of voice for this kind of dark music while he sometimes reminds me a bit of Wayne Hussey. The songs are carried by strong guitar, dark bass lines and electro-melodic arrangements. From softer, melancholic pieces to harder cuts there’s a perfect balance between the songs.

+ + + : Your Life On Hold is clearly inspired by good-old 80s productions in the genre, but I can’t say it’s a cheap copy from an established formation. There’s something personal running through the work and especially the hardest cuts (cf. “Tension” and “Cold Fever”) are little sonic jewels. “Cold Fever” is an accomplished song, which also evokes shoegaze and garage-rock influences. This album reveals the right harmony between cool guitar playing and electronic arrangements while I also like the vocals of the singer.

– – – : Next to some outstanding cuts the album also features a few ‘softer’ and a bit disappointing cuts. I especially refer to the more melancholic final parts such as “System Failure” and “Dead Tree”.

Conclusion: Jan Dewulf has accomplished a successful metamorphosis as John Wolf. Even if all of the tracks can’t totally convince me, it however is a band I highly recommend.  

Best songs: “Cold Fever”, “Tension”, “Bruised”.

Rate: (7).

Artist: www.yourlifeonhold.com / www.facebook.com/yourlifeonhold

Label: www.solarlodge.de / www.facebook.com/SolarLodgeRecords

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