Cosmo Cocktail - Cosmotronic Racing [Full length] (2015, 30th Floor Records)

Oversaturated neon-nostalgia

Cosmo Cocktail's album comes courtesy of 30th Floor Records, a label dedicated to the synthwave genre. Though not a veteran per se, they were definitely one of the early movers within the scene to organize and release synthwave albums from independent artists. Cosmo Cocktail, based in Italy, prides himself on his use of hardware synths, sequencers and drum machines, and with good reason. With a morass of new artists emerging from the scene every day there's more than a few who rely solely on standardized VSTs and digital sequencer software, often resulting in an amateurish feel to otherwise groovy synths in a rude and entitled celebration of the fact that nowadays "anyone can make music".

Should you somehow be in doubt of what sort of music an artist with a striking alias like Cosmo Cocktail and an album title such as Cosmotronic Racing would compose, you needn't look further than the cover artwork and the tracklist itself. Complete with neon racecars and titles like "Neon Tokyo Nights", "Sunrise at 180MPH" and "Speedlove", there really can be no doubt as to the intentions of the artist. Rolling neon synths, pounding plastic drums and dark, exotic ambience is all part of the game. And game may well be the right wording in this context, because Cosmotronic Racing - apart from the fact that the title itself feels like it - sounds daringly close to the soundtracks of late eighties to early nineties arcade racing games!

"Cosmotronic Racing seems not like a quick grab for attention or success, it is far too sincere for that."

The Italian races down the nighttime highway, but rather than doing so in a proverbial Testarossa, Cosmotronic Racing drives more like a nice, unasuming black Honda. The album cuts through the night at a brisk pace, hinting at times to previous decades through token gestures to Tangerine Dream and Vangelis' Blade Runner soundtrack in the company of dubious drum types. Cosmotronic Racing seems not like a quick grab for attention or success, it is far too sincere for that. Rather, while engaging in every concievable cliché of the genre, the half-hour tour through the colourful eighties grasps at straws and hangs on by the skin of its teeth to find a foothold. There's the insisting speedway track, the cruisin' down the road track, the darker track - The only thing missing is the power-pop ballad.

With accomplished songwriters such as Mitch Murder, Dynatron, Power Glove and Lazerhawk dominating the scene, there's little room for mistake if you want to join the big leagues. Synthwave needs drive in order to not fall victim to the dreary and samey nature of simple electronic drums. Mitch Murder gets around it by adding a funky groove, Power Glove are masters of creating and breaking flow, Dynatron has great buildup and hooks. Cosmo Cocktail loses ground in all these fields. The album opener, "Speedlove", has a combination of the above to some degree, but sincerity and nostalgia aside Cosmotronic Racing feels rushed to the point of being a slew of good ideas thrown into the trunk of a car together with a drum machine, whereupon being transported through a minefield. 5/10 guitars.

Tracklist:

1. Speedlove

2. Neon Tokyo Nights

3. Wangan Midnight Club

4. Cosmotronic Racing

5. Do Androids Dream of Electric Human Beings?

6. Sunrise at 180MPH

7. The Blackbird

8. The Bayshore Route

COSMO COCKTAIL on Facebook

COSMO COCKTAIL on Bandcamp

30th Floor Records official site

Silent Carrion - Suprematism EP I - IUPITER [EP] (2013, Self-released)

Silent Carrion has always been progressive and boundary pushing. It's the bread and butter, the heart and soul of the project. An amalgam of trip hop, electronica, dark ambient, prog and trace amounts of a myriad of other components. Established upon the first release, Ruins, in 2010 in Northern Italy, 2013 welcomed the beginning of an EP-based trilogy starting with IUPITER, the first Suprematism EP.

Right off the bat the Suprematism EP starts off heavier than previous Silent Carrion incarnations. Caustic aggression and hostile chaos ensues through heavily distorted guitars, programmed blast beats and an assortment noisy invocations, a bleak piano sometimes finding its way through the cacophony. There is a rich theme of turmoil and anxiety embedded in this work, a subject that may very well continue on or contrast with the remainder of the trilogy.

But where previous efforts were finely balanced, well-adjusted dark symphonies of careful instrumentation, Suprematism's discord borders on the outright offensive. Noise and industrial can achieve some sort of appeal through atmospheric courses and harsh moodsetters, but in that sense Silent Carrion belittles the very notion that this could be classified as structurally sound. It's entirely possible that their is a point to be made once the EP trilogy is complete, but at the time of writing that point is lost to me.

It is not until the final track (the live recording of "The Ground Seems Hollow" from Andras being considered a bonus track) that we can finally recognize the Italian ordeal. Silent Carrion has come full circle and yet again relies on synth-driven ambience, which again contrasts highly with the first ten minutes of IUPITER. There is little structure to be found, and even so the compositions don't even feel complex as much as merely disorganized anarchy. 3/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Suicide
2. I'm Calm Now
3. Malphas
4. Human Maggots Swarming Round Her Bed of Death
5. Suprematism (Mercy)
6. The Ground Seems Hollow (Live)

All Silent Carrion's releases are available as free downloads here
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Read or re-read my previous SILENT CARRION review

Sathanas Urine - Everything You Need To Know About Witchcraft [Demo] (2013, Dipsomaniac Records)

From the very beginning of black metal the quest for the ultimate rush of aggression, pugnacity and offense has always been a driving force within the scene. From the scenic Veneto region in northeastern Italy comes Sathanas Urine, a group supposedly consisting of 5 members, true to that offensive nature of black metal, taking the style to the outmost reaches of "music" with their anarchic, cacophonous approach to the genre on their latest demo release, "Everything You Need To Know About Witchcraft".

The Italian band greets you with a friendly punch in the dick. Droning noise, riffs distorted beyond recognition and vocals screamed from beyond the grave assail your ears at every twist and turn as you mentally fight your way through the demo. By now they've established that the harsh discord of Sathanas Urine is their main attribute and characteristic, and the pursuit of music as jarringly horrid as possible seems to take precedence over the actual enjoyment of the music.

Black metal can absolutely be offensive and abrassively hideous and still be enjoyable. Void Meditation Cult and Culte des Ghoules have it down to an art form to make it as repetitive and groaning as humanly possible, but they do it with taste. The riffing and composure of their material is sufficiently original and innovative to support that form, but to hold Sathanas Urine to the standards of the afforementioned bands seems just embarrassing. Ever listened to obscure live rehearsal 90's bootleg recordings of Gorgoroth? This is kind of like that, only infinitely worse. 

On some tracks, Dead Men Bones Devourer in particular, their ideas shine through the irksome cacophony of their droning sound, and once in a while there's a thing or two that under other circumstances would be okay, but Everything You Need To Know About Witchcraft doesn't meet any of the criteria for listenable music. It's loathsome and repetitive to the extreme. I would consider the ability to find this to be good music a superpower.

Judging from the cover art I can't imagine that Sathanas Urine can possibly be serious, but then again they might be, and that almost frightens me. According to the band's profile on Metal Archives Sathanas Urine consists of 5 members, which I find very hard to believe. For one person to find pleasure in sucking this much is one thing, but for 5 people to get together and circle jerk around this abomination? Count me out. 1/10 guitars.

Tracklist:

1. Starkblast

2. The Goblin Spell

3. The Frozen Wizard

4. Dead Men Bones Devourer

5. A New Horizon

6. An Ode to the Side of Darkness

SATHANAS URINE official Facebook

Dipsomaniac Records official site

Should you choose to torment yourself, listening for yourself would be a great place to start. The demo can be downloaded for free HERE

Agamotto - Agamotto [Full length] (2012, Cosmic Swamp Records)

There can be no doubt about it, Agamotto is ambient with a capital A. Mixing different elements from ambient like Brian Eno or Steve Roach, dark ambient like Lustmord or Stupor and industrial like Throbbing Gristle and Nurse With Wound Agamotto makes for a varying experience. The first track "Solomon Grundy", named after a comic book villain like Agamotto itself, is predominantly dark ambient with some serious hints toward some of Throbbing Gristle's more creepy output like Hamburger Lady. The second track "Eric Dolphy" moreso captures the feeling of complete chaos and as such was the hardest track to sit through, while the last track "Antonio Margheriti" managed to recap the album by succesfully creating an amalgamation of the dark ambient sounds of the first track and mixing them with the chaotic industrial un-melodies of the second.

Agamotto aren't metal at all, but I chose to review it anyway. I did this because I for one am not a metal only kind of guy, but more importantly I did it because Agamotto features many of the same aesthetics as metal music. It may not have loud guitar, howling vocals or powerful drums, but it has the same eerie atmosphere that I connect with some of the more esoteric and tenebrous bands.
When all a band has to offer is atmosphere, that atmosphere better be damn effective. And with Agamotto this is just the case. The Italian project manages to perfectly mix the grittily chaotic noise of industrial music with the more deliberately sinister and considerate aspects of dark ambience.

The self-titled album takes us on a journey through bleak soundscapes with many surreal and horrific attributes. However Agamotto fails to deliver the otherwise well-produced atmosphere with the zest that I have come to expect from groups and projects of this sort. It's not that it's unmemorable, because music of this type seldomely has hooks or anything of the sort, but the whole effort at times feels a bit unmotivated and particularly unambitious. I wouldn't say Agamotto's album is a disappointing experience, and I wholeheartedly recommend it to any industrial and dark ambient maniacs out there, but I wouldn't recommend the album to people who are looking to get into the genre. For that it is simply too unremarkable. 6/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Solomon Grundy
2. Eric Dolphy
3. Antonio Margheriti

AGAMOTTO official site
Cosmic Swamp Records official site

Listen for yourself!

Furthermore, the entire album is available for free download HERE

Dark End - Grand Guignol - Book I [Full length] (2012, Self-released)

It's funny how symphonic black metal isn't played by that many bands, and yet there are several very well known bands to emerge from that scene. I suppose the mix of easily accessible melody mixed with the extremity of black metal makes it a good combo for many people. One might argue that the reason there aren't that many bands in the genre is because of the needed musicianship. To create good symphonic black metal you can't just write up simple melodies in shitty classical VSTs over equally shoddy black metal riffs, you need to actually be able to write captivating and preferably eerie symphonies that also fit together with, again preferably, complex black metal.

A band that perfectly encompasses what I described lastly is Italy's Dark End. Having just toured with large names like Cradle of Filth, God Seed and Rotting Christ, one my say they have their work cut out for them. Can they dethrone bands like Dimmu Borgir, Cradle of Filth or Emperor? In 2012 Dark End released their third album, entitled "Grand Guignol - Book I", and while I haven't heard their previous material I feel safe in saying that they could very well be the next big thing in the genre.

The Italian band aren't doing much out of the ordinary, but by playing a genre that doesn't have a lot of bands there's a certain imbalance in supply and demand. That said, Dark End aren't just resting on their laurels - Grand Guignol: Book I is a phenomenal album. Animæ's characteristic vocals go in perfect unison with Antarktica conveyance of classical symphony, which in turn fit perfectly with the black metal parts vomited forth by Ashes, Nothingness, Specter and Valentz. You can tell that Darkend is a band that wants something with their music. There is absolutely nothing half-assed about Grand Guignol - Book I. It's extremely well-executed and thorough in almost every aspect, and it just seems so... complete. One of the things I like the most about Dark End is their take on the genre: Not as extreme or fearsome as Anorexia Nervosa, not as dark and esoteric as Limbonic Art, but way more catatonically climactic and immersive than Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir.

Whilst writing the review I thought to myself that Dark End would be a great alternative to Dimmu Borgir. Then it occured to me that a band such as Dark End are probably sick and tired of being compared to that band, and while Dark End don't possess the same pop-ish easy listening "qualities" as Dimmu Borgir, their styles are alot alike. Especially in songs like "Spiritism: The Transmigration Passage" and "Dawn: Black Sun Rises" does this become apparent when the parts with clean vocals much like the way Dimmu Borgir utilized those of ICS Vortex come in. But Dark End just make it work so well. So much so that I've been listening to Spiritism almost non stop since I noticed it. That shit is CATCHY!

If you don't like symphonic black metal, I don't think Dark End will be the band to change your mind. They're great, and Grand Guignol - Book I is something truly special, and if you're into that kind of stuff I strongly recommend it, as it is probably the strongest album to emerge from the genre in years. Even if Dark End aren't bringing anything new to the table they still managed to create a masterpiece of symphonic black metal where you can actually still hear the black metal elements, which is more than you can say about Dimmu Borgir's latest albums. 8/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Descent/Ascent (II Movement)
2. Æinsoph: Flashforward to Obscurity
3. Doom: And Then Death Scythed
4. Spiritism: The Transmigration Passage
5. Bereavement: A Multitude in Martyrized Flesh
6. Grief: Along our Divine Pathway
7. Bleakness: Of Secrecy, Haste and Shattered Crystals
8. Pest: Fierce Massave Slaying Grandeur
9. Decrepitude: One Last Laugh Beside Your Agonies
10. Dawn: Black Sun Rises

DARKEND official facebook

Listen for yourself below

Silent Carrion - Andras (Full length) [2012, Self-released)

Scaia, the only member of the Italian underground project Silent Carrion, is what can best be described as an invocator of ritualistic and industrial sounds beyond this realm. Suffice it to say that some will find his music to be the soundtrack to certain nightmares while others will enjoy it endlessly.

The Andras album is something out of the ordinary. It suffers from a lot of inconsistency in the way that some of the tracks seem completely out of place, maybe even as if they were created with a completely different mindset. The tracks are a fair mix of pseudo black metal with that familiar and unwelcome tinge of programmed MIDI-drums, so often heard in conjunction with innumerable bedroom black metal one-man bands, and above-average dark ambient with influences from both industrial, noise and even some hints of 80's video game music.

In spite of the wide mix of genres and influences on Andras, Scaia's efforts as Silent Carrion makes for a rather fluent and impressive journey through his twisted mind, although tracks like Mist and Copper almost turned away from listening to the album entirely. Those two tracks were what I was referring to when I talked about inconsistensy - They are out of place and much below the otherwise high quality of the rest of the tracks on Andras, and I feel that if you cut those two away you would be left with a better listening experience.

Andras invokes an atmosphere that reminds me of old video games like Castlevania, or perhaps dark 80's sci-fi flicks with hinted horrors. A solid experience for those who seek some dark ambient out of the ordinary. 7/10 guitars.

Tracklist:
1. Mountain (An Invocation)
2. Mist
3. Fear Spread like Plague
4. The Ground Seems Hollow
5. Echoes from a Deep Chasm
6. Copper
7. Suprematism (Sickness)
8. Krieg

SILENT CARRION official site
Want to listen for yourself? Get the album for free right HERE