cold meat industry - reviews CMI.80

Every 10 releases, Cold Meat Industry publish a sampler. "Nihil" is the 80th item to bear the mark of CMI, and it brings together four noisy young bands from Sweden (IRM, Institut, Nod and Sharon's Last Party) on two vinyl, which reminds a lot of the sampler "The hearts of shadow gods", which, back in 1996, featured stuff by Arcana, Aphrael, Puissance and Penitent on two 7". It's very intersting to see that, 4 years later, the four bands presented on this sampler are far noisier and more aggressive than the one on "The hearts of shadow gods". "Nihil" is also the second release, after "Esthetiks of Cruelty", to show a clear evolution toward harsh noise and power electronics for this swedish label.

It starts with 5 tracks by IRM, a band that has released two albums (including the recent "Oedipus Dethroned") also on CMI. Nothing really surprising here: IRM play a clean, heavy and majestuous power electronics. Unlike recent acts of the genre (Slogun, Control), IRM music is not overly aggressive, but concentrate on the delicate mixture of a violent but quite introspect deep voice, a distant wall of noise and religious samples. These 5 tracks are very good, and could well have fitted on "Oedipus Dethroned". IRM is without a doubt part of the interesting new brand of power electronics to have appeared recently.

On the second side of the first LP, Institut, a couple who released one of my favorite CD of 2000 ("A great day to get even") present two atypical track, in the form of longs progression of noise than don't contain as many rhythms as their album. Vocals are also present, but are less articulate than on the CD. All in all, these two tracks are a bit more elaborate, but also less violent and catchy than the album, with less heaviness but some interesting work on the texture. Still, Institut know how to create very interesting noise tracks. "Autohypocrisy" is a long track that reminded be a bit of their offering on "Esthetiks of Cruelty", while "No<->W<->Here" has some non distorted sound that give to the band a less old-school feeling. Overall, Institut and IRM make of the first part of the compilation an excellent disc, that would alone justify the purchase of "Nihil".

But then come Nod, a project whose track on "Esthetiks of Cruely" had really raised my curiosity, and which appears here to be extremely promising. I can't really tell you anything about this band, except that at least one man and one woman are part of Nod (considering the vocals), and that here comes another very misanthropic / angry couple. Nod's tracks between distorted male vocals supported by quickly evolving noise (not unlike Institut), and others that are focused on a dark and hateful poetry read by a woman, with some cut out distortion on the background (this could be a cleaner version of November Növelet's "From Heaven on Earth"). These "songs" are really impressive and weakedly seducive. This girl's voice has a lot of charisma, and the half noisy / half melodic sounds that go with her fills the atmosphere very well. This is maybe less noisy than the rest of the sampler, but really good too (for example the incredible "And in the beginning there was an end"). I'll be sure to keep an eye on Nod.

Finally come Sharon's Last Party, a new band in which sings one guy the same vocalist as in IRM. In consequence, these 6 tracks sounds quite a lot like IRM's, but have a less sacred feeling, and are a bit less heavy. Quite good too, but I would have liked a bit more of noises on some track, on which the voice is maybe a bit too prominent. Not bad at all, Sharon's Last Party may maybe suffer from the resemblance to IRM and the fact that the tracks are not as good as this act's. Anyway, this is well done "soft" power eletronics, and the ironic touch of "Love never ends" bring a good ending to this masterpiece that is "Nihil".
"Nihil" is as good as you could expect. CMI has here four bands ranging from really good to excellent. With several tracks for each of them and a good choice of compositions, you almost get a small album by each (maybe not from Institut, who have chosen to present two longer tracks). Cold Meat Industry is really doing great recently, and which such energetic and talented new blood, I can't say anything but stay enthusiastic.

Nicolas, February 8, 2000