Maschinenzimmer 412 - Macht Durch Stimme [Cold Spring - 2022]Originally released in the late 1980's Macht Durch Stimme was the first darkly bleak and crudely bombastic sonic statement from the Swedish Black Industrial project Maschinenzimmer 412, a.k.a. MZ. 412. Here from the folks at Cold Spring is a much-deserved reissue of the release, with the CD adding one bonus track to the original six-track release. The CD comes presented in a four-panel digipak- this features a yellowed scroll and black ink look, taking in minimal texts, and a line drawing of a pulled-apart-with-hooks four-headed insect-like demon on the front cover. And on its back a line drawing of a goat looking away- so all very grim and necro.
Macht Durch Stimme was first released in 1988 on tape by Swedish label Mechanik Cassettes- it appeared in a pressing of just fifty copies. This new CD is the definitive edition of the release- with the four tracks carefully remastered from the original master tapes.
Things open up with “Ecaf Dloc” which blends together snaping roller-like percussion, sinister phaser-like chops, and muffled/ broodingly swarming male voices- which may or may not be running backwards. We have the cold stabbing meets buzzing lo-fi malevolence of “Dissekt” with its creepy looped bubbling liquid textures and whispered/ digital slurred vocals. There’s the stark clunking junk tones and hissing sinister sear of “Aptionstheorie”. Or the layered bashing, forking, and dragging metals of “Sequela”. The bonus track is a 1991 tape manipulation version of the album track “Rood”, which finds backward tone spins, bleak junk drags, and eerie whistling- all creating a darkly devilish torture chamber vibe- where limbs ‘n’ souls are serrated & ripped.
Macht Durch Stimme pulls us back to the blackly bleak and painful Industrial sound scaping of the late 1980s. And it’s certainly not an easy or formally pleasing trip- but if you crave Black Industrial that’s hard-hitting and tar black, this will most certainly fit that need. Roger Batty
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