
Here is a self-released MCD by Aphotic a metal band from the well known metal capital of Green Bay. The only way to describe this band is with the vague "Dark-Metal" label. The band describes itself as "Ambient Death" but I fail to see the "death" part and although they have doom-metal tendencies, I wouldn't call them that.

Way too long has been the wait for new Blood Axis material. The "Blot" live album on Cold Meat Industry was released back in 1998, and the debut album "The Gospel Of Inhumanity" even six years ago.

I always regret it when I discover a really good band that I've known for years, but never really took the time to listen to. As you might've guessed, this happened with the Norwegian band Motorpsycho. I've even seen a documentary about them on national television, but I still didn't bother. So I'm glad I picked up their last studio album Phanerothyme after a friend of mine recommended it to me recently.

An analogy has often been made between Vader's overall sound and how Slayer(Reign in Blood to Season in the Abyss era) would sound if they were adeath-metal band (and better, if I may say so).

Tactile Gemma is the name of the band consisting of the sisters Edvardsen and Rune Sörgård. Ann-Mari has been in The 3rd & The Mortal and Monika has her own band Atrox. Rune studied sound engineering and recorded his own stuff on harddisc.

The Dutch musician Jaap Blonk has been experimenting with sounds for quite some time, in all kinds of musical areas. Braaxtaal is one of the many projects Jaap Blonk is involved in, together with Rob Daenen and Theo Bodewes.

Echo Image apparently is the newest synth-pop / EBM sensation from Norway. In September 2001 the band signed with the Hard:Drive label, home of Apoptygma Berzerk, and later this year they will be supporting the same band during their European tour.

First of all, the material on this disc is not new. It is a recollection from various Eps that have been previously released, and actually this whole "album" with the six bonustracks was released already a year ago in Japan.

Björk has always been a little different from other pop music artists. "Vespertine", her first new album in four years time proves this again.

Eric Vloeimans is a jazz musician from Rotterdam, Holland. As both a teacher and composer, he is one of the few Dutch jazz artists who have gained an international reputation to be proud of.

Finally a best of album of the famous french-canadian artist Mylène Farmer.

It's impressive what people can do nowadays with technology. Suppose you are an inspired musician but can't or don't want to find a band for various reasons; lets say that you want your vision to keep a maximum of integrity and make a minimum the artistic compromises (something that a democratic group can bring) or simply can't find interesting band-mates.

Does the words "Alternative Metal" and "Industrial Metal" even mean anything anymore? They probably are seen as pejorative by many these days so I'll try to refrain from using them to describe Electric Hellfire Club's fifth album: Electronomicon.

Just as Tori presents us a different face on the fold out booklet (filled with pictures or herself dressed up in various styles), she offers us a lot of different musical faces on this CD.

"It's Understood" is the debut album from the band Estradasphere, the five crazy musicians from Santa Cruz, California.

The history of Green Carnation goes back to the early 90s and it's surprising to see that they still exist now considering everything that happened:

Velvet Acid Christ’s emphasis has always been on the “Acid” part. This one-man project of Bryan Erickson revolves around heavily drug-influenced electronic music. Often taken shape as twisted, danceable techno music, glorifying drug use.

The story is probably known to you already. The first album of this German band was a success in their home country, but it lasted quite a while to get the rest of the world used to the harsh German lyrics.

This is one of the most diverse cd's I heard in quite a while. Meringue is a very talented Dutch band who mix different kinds of music to a succesful blend of rock, death metal, funk, electro, comedy, ska, pop and much more.

Scholomance is a band composed of Scott Crinklaw (guitar, piano, keyboards, percussion), Jimmy Pitts(vocals, piano, keyboards), Jerry Twyford (bass) and an unnamed drum machine. This is their second album on The End Records after 1998's "A Treatise on Love".

Anenzephalia is a cult name in the underground industrial scene, but its releases have always been extremely limited and thus hard to get for the regular industrial public. Lucky for them, Death Factory has now released a untitled live album of this band.

When looking for medieval gothic music, Italy is the place to look. After Ataraxia and Gothica, it doesn't come as a surprise that Nova is also from the country of spaghetti. But if the band live up to its name, we can expect something "new".

When you take things too seriously, you often miss the essential. I find it quite ironic that this band that doesn't take itself very seriously is probably the closest to the true metal spirit (whatever that is).

Following the success of Aphex Twin, abstract techno is becoming more and more popular. The Rosenheim based producer duo Funkstörung have settled in this musical corner too. "Vice Versa" is their latest effort, a compilation with remixes.