Optimum Wound Profile - Lowest Common Dominator (1992)

UK industrial metal/hardcore. Thrash-y punk riffs, gated drums, distorted vocals, sample-heavy industrial atmosphere.

Track listing:

1. Drain

2. Tranqhead

3. Ego Crotch

4. Downmouth

5. You're Weak

6. Blindfold

7. Incision

8. Responsibility

9. Skin

10. Melt

11. Damage

12. Crave

13. Core Melt

I said: I'm not gonna hurt you. I'm just gonna bash your brains in. I'm gonna bash 'em right the fuck in.

You should also listen to:

Counterblast - Balance of Pain (1996)

Lard - Pure Chewing Satisfaction (1997)

Nothing - The Grey Subaudible (2000)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Nothing - The Spine Overshadowed by the Rope (2001)

Black industrial ethereal-wave. Whispered vocals and mournful synths over funereal martial rhythms and a reverberating industrial atmosphere.

Track listing:

1. To Draw the Things...

2. Working Through the Nail

3. In Command of the Constellations

4. The Precision in Drowning

5. Explosive Chain of Lethal Transmission

6. An Intimate History of Insignificance

7. ...That Come to Corpses

The surface of existence turns black

Also listen to:

Lycia - The Burning Circle and Then Dust (1996)

Dernière Volonté - Les Blessures de l'Ombre (2003)

Kallabris - Njonto (1988)

10 untitled tracks of weird-ass experimental sounds from the German industrial underground. Droning accordion, rumbling noise, warped keys, and disjointed whispers. At times, almost sounds like a lost LLN project.

Did you dream last night?

More club bangers to get this fucking party fucking started:

Ruth White - Flowers of Evil (1969)

Mother Tongue - Open in Obscurity (1988)

Wilt - Wither (2001)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

The Rita & Wilt - Werewolf in the Black Space (2008)

Wilt - M Y T H O S (2016) + Funeral Song (2016)

Utterly unmusical dark ambient/noise from Wisconsin (now Illinois) musician James P. Keeler. Crackling flames of harsh noise, droning black winds, and shimmering echoes of the void.

Track listing:

1. Passage of Seasons

2. A Bridge Between Two Drums

3. Soiled

4. Shivering Spine

5. Mud

6. Bloodletting

7. Still... Violent Waters

8. Black Amphora

9. The Burden of Flies

10. Taunting the Raven

11. Fallen Harvest

12. From Dying Branches

13. Untitled

14. Autumn Calls

15. Winterkill

Terror management

Also listen to:

Hollow Earth - Dog Days of Holocaust (2006)

Aymrev Erkroz Prevre - Noir Voyage Obstrué de Rencontres Difformes (2006)

S·Core - Pretension (1988)

Uneasy experimental sounds from Japan. Frail keyboard figures floating amidst abstract, analogue drones and muffled industrial noise. Music for ghosts to listen to when they're alone.

Track listing:

1. Plasmodium

2. Giaour

3. Lame Meter

4. Somnus

5. Concussion

6. Hard Words

7. End All

Set: The leathery skin of a female straddling a furnace. Illuminates in blue. Hands melt against the burning surface. Feel no pain. Kiss the burner. Lips fall away. Blood runs down the inside of her thighs. She tightens her grip in one last exaggerated movement and falls to the ground. A pile of ashes. The furnace stands triumphant over the mound.

If you like this, you should hear:

Attrition - Death House (1982)

raison d'être - Residuality (1993)

Mz. 412 - In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi (1995)

Related:

Pouppée Fabrikk - Rage (1990)

Black industrial from hell. Ugly drone, harsh noise, industrial excrement, throbbing martial rhythms, distorted synths, movie samples, and Satanic incantations.

Track listing:

1. In Nomine Dei

2. Salvo Honoris Morte

3. Necrotic Birth

4. Black Earth

5. Daemon Raging

6. God of Fifty Names

7. Regis Satans

8. Paedophilia Cum Sadismus

9. Hail the Lord of Goats

Everlasting hedonistic rhapsody

More gnarly industrial:

In Slaughter Natives - Enter Now the World (1992)

Brighter Death Now - The Slaughterhouse (1993)

Dissecting Table - Ultimate Psychological Description II (1993)

I'm been visiting with family back east, and won't be back to normal life for another week and a half, so posting will be slow-to-non-existent until then. That said: here's Dissecting Table. As I mentioned in my Zeni Geva post, I couldn't decide which Dissecting Table record to post and in the end, as with that post, I just went with my personal favorite. Ultimate Psychological Description II is a panic-stricken controlled cacophony of industrial noise, hectic percussion and synths, and distorted vocal ejaculations. Starting in the mid-aughts, Dissecting Table started releasing harsh noise albums at an absolutely insane rate, so there is a staggering number of DT albums that I have never heard; any tips on which of those are most worthy would be appreciated.

Track listing:

1. Hymn

2. Kill the God

3. Accomplishment

4. Execution

5. Dead Gods

6. I Get My Slogan

7. Control Matter

8. Untitled

9. Silent Violence

10. Camouflage

 Never ending trip to hell

More laid-back tunes for sunshine, good times, and fine wine:

Ramleh - Hole in the Heart (1987)

Stratvm Terror - Germinal Chamber (1994)

Mother Tongue - Open in Obscurity (1988)

A one-off collaboration between Andrew McKenzie (The Hafler Trio), influential experimental/industrial musician Z'EV, and poet/writer Dorothea Franck. Side A is an 18-minute mass of droning, textural musique concrète; Side B incorporates percussion and Franck's voice into the mix. 

Track listing:

1. Geelgalayah

2. Who

3. Wind Carved My Face

4. Lying in the Desert

5. The Humble Man

6. Heart

This is not enough

You should also hear:

Ron Geesin - Right Through (1977)

Zero Kama - The Secret Eye of L.A.Y.L.A.H. (1984)

GOD - The Anatomy of Addiction (1994)

Related:

Final - One (1993)

The Bug - Tapping the Conversation (1998)

The Blood of Heroes - The Waking Nightmare (2012)

GOD was, as far as I know, the project that first put Kevin Martin (The Bug) on the map. The project's sludgy, noise-rock-by-way-of-industrial-metal core sound was certainly indebted to Godflesh, and this similarity was not lost on Justin Broadrick, who produced the first GOD record and played guitar on the rest of them. However, they're no clones, as GOD occupied a generally more expansive, out-there space that also encompassed free jazz, experimental psych, and more.

Track listing:

1. On All Fours

2. Body Horror

3. Tunnel

4. Lazarus

5. Voodoo Head Blows

6. Bloodstream

7. White Pimp Cut Up

8. Driving the Demons Out

9. Gold Teeth

10. Detox

You wake up screaming

Similar listening:

Cable Regime - Kill Lies All (1993)

Painkiller - Execution Ground (1994)

Psychosis - Death in Utero (1992)

Previously on OPIUM HUM:

Stillbirth (1995)

Fantasies About Illness (1996)

Garden of Remembrance (1999)

DREAMS (With Pollutions When Virile) (2002)

Forever Is Forgotten (2006)

Sentient (2008)

Last Halloween-ish, on my post about Forever Is Forgotten, I wistfully mentioned that it would probably be the last time I posted something by Oneiroid Psychosis, "barring the remote possibility of my finally tracking down a rip of Death in Utero [...] or the even more remote possibility of a new album." Within 24 hours, I had tracked down a copy of Death in Utero, and they had released a new album. Apparently they'd been crowdfunding for it and I missed the whole damn thing. So what I'm trying to say is: I am God.

Oh, the music? It's very much in line with their first two records -- driving, synth-y, and grim -- but the horror theatrics are less over-the-top, and, as one might expect from a demo cassette, it has that fuzzy, lo-fi distortion that we all love. Released before they added the “Oneiroid” part.

Track listing:

1. Dejected Recollection

2. Taint of Blood

3. Impressions

4. Assuage

5. Lies Within

6. Pleasant Dreams

7. For One to Go Insane

8. One Very Young

9. Existence

Do you feel like hurting other people? Do you feel like hurting yourself?

Also listen to:

Twilight Ritual - The Ritual (1982)

Antoni Maiovvi - Shadow of the Bloodstained Kiss (2009)

Monte Cazazza - Power Versus Wisdom, Live (1996)

Horror-themed experimental industrial from Monte Cazazza, who's been involved with a bunch of seminal industrial groups (most notably, Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle, and Factrix.) Murky synths, industrial rhythms, movie samples, and ritualistic vocal intonations. Chris & Cosey make an appearance on "The Womb Is a Happening Thing". My apologies for not having posted this years ago, it's a bonafide Halloween classic around OPIUM HUM headquarters.

Track listing:

1. Introduction / Witches Curse (Macbeth Mix)

2. Mark of the Devil

3. Six Eyes from Hell

4. What Is Death

5. Eros and Death

6. Heavy Metal (Power vs. Wisdom Mix)

7. The Womb Is a Happening Thing (Pro Choice Mix)

8. Climax (Virgin Witch Mix)

9. Outro

10. Leeds Ripper Song

11. First / Last

You look but you do not see

You listen but you do not hear

You talk but you do not speak

You touch but you do not feel

Similar vibes:

Black Funeral - Moon of Characith (1998)

Vond - Green Eyed Demon (1998)

The Axis of Perdition - Physical Illucinations in the Sewer of Xuchilbara... (2005)

Terrifying English industrial black metal. A pitch-black cacophony of razor-sharp guitars, frenetic drumming, and distorted screams, punctuated by extended passages of dark ambient and harsh noise. Apparently this band's whole aesthetic is wrapped up in the Silent Hill video game franchise, which is something I know nothing about because I don't really play video games, but it's probably pretty fucking rad if it inspired music this intense.

Track listing:

1. Interference from the Other Side (Pendulums Prey)

2. Where the World Becomes Flesh

3. Pendulum Prey (Reciprocating Horror)

4. Reopening Wounds of the Transition Hospital

5. Heaving Salvation in the Paradise of Rust

They have come to witness the beginning

The rebirth of paradise that was spoiled by mankind

Also listen to:

(V.E.G.A.) - Cocaine (2002)

Abigor - Fractal Possession (2007)

Nmesh - Absolut Hell (2004)

Dark electronic abstractions from American musician Alex Koenig. A 1-hour-19-minute, acid-addled bad trip through ghostly clouds of synth, anxious rhythms, sputtering glitch, blasts of harsh noise, dark voids of drone, disembodied voices, car alarms, and other aural panic-inducers. Apparently Koenig used to play in metal bands, and although there's nothing specifically metal about this, it shows.

Track listing:

1. Remember the Old Farm, the Treehouse

2. Monk Blotter

3. Car Bomb (Up-Down)

4. Winston Eats Zab Zoober

5. Trilogy of Acid (Part I)

6. Trilogy of Acid (Part II)

7. Trilogy of Acid (Part III)

8. The Red Barn

9. Moonsick (Version 3)

10. La Romana Dectara Ingergio

11. What Lurks in the Catacombs

12. Ancient Blotter

13. The Feast

14. Float Nighttime Garage

15. A Rainbow Descending into Hell

16. Dysorea

17. Mad Cow Disease

18. Black Ocean

19. Fallen

20. Morphine Can't Ease the Pain You're Feeling

21. The Void

22. The Great Depression

I want you to come with me, I have something I want to show you.

If you're for some reason trying to continue feeling like this, try:

Adam Bohman - Last Orders (1997)

John Weise - Collected Tracks (2000)

Melek-Tha - Astrum Argentinum (1996)

French occult industrial/dark ambient. The first of approximately 1,000,0000 albums by this project. Dense clouds of droning synths, hellish choirs, distant drums, cursed incantations, Lovecraftian horrors, and Satanic black magick. Doesn't really sound like a horror soundtrack so much as it sounds like you're actually listening to a horror movie.

Track listing:

1. Evil Conjuration

2. Hymn for the Dead

3. Black Wizard

4. Midian Graveyard

5. Slava Tchortu

6. Kabbalistic Flames

7. Tabernacle of the Hatred

8. Supreme Evil

9. Templis Infernalium

He has his father's eyes

If you like this, listen to:

Black Funeral - Moon of Characith (1998)

Apoptose - Nordland (2000)

Nate Young - Blinding Confusion (2013)

Creepy-ass sounds from Michigan artist Nate Young. Somewhere adjacent to synthwave or dungeon synth, but too dissonant/experimental/singular to fall in with either one. If synthwave is the Winkie’s, Nate Young is the evil hobo behind the dumpster.

Track listing:

1. Forever Day

2. Beneath the Mist

3. When Nothing Works

4. Worlds Behind

5. Escape with Nothing

6. Only Fallen Heads

7. Between

8. The Bastard Gums

To get rid of this god-awful feeling.

Also listen to:

Jay Chattaway - Maniac (1980)

Runes Order - No Future (1993)

Theologian - Some Things Have to Be Endured (2013)

Dense, heavy death-industrial-rooted sounds wrapped in a dark, ethereal shroud. Within the confines of death-industrial, Some Things Have to Be Endured manages to cover a great deal of stylistic ground -- I hear traces of darkwave, noise rock, and power electronics -- and demands to be listened to as one piece. Seriously jaw-dropping stuff. So glad they gave it that fucked-up album art (and released it in a DVD case) or I might never have stumbled across it while sifting through the stacks at my old work.

Track listing:

1. Black Cavern Myopia

2. The Conjoined Deviant Procession

3. Writhing Corpus Landscape

4. Gore-Stained Ramparts

5. Like Love, Only Real

6. Grand Guignol

7. Ectothermism

8. Welcome to the Golden Age of Beggars

Worship our grave

Cherish our mother

Also listen to:

Brighter Death Now - The Slaughterhouse (1993)

Combative Alignment - Everlasting Sun (2003)

Cindytalk - Camouflage Heart (1984)

Experimental post-punk/other from two ex-members of The Freeze (UK not US). Songs of sheer dread vomited into existence as if by The Birthday Party playing in a pitch-black industrial cavern.

Track listing:

1. It's Luxury

2. Instinct (Backtosense)

3. Under Glass

4. Memories of Skin and Snow

5. The Spirit Behind the Circus Dream

6. The Ghost Never Smiles

7. A Second Breath

8. Everybody Is Christ

9. Disintegrate...

Some language of love gets me down on the floor
All arms flailing
It was a violent kind of sex
And some fucked up baby lies staring at me

You should also hear:

Pain Teens - Pain Teens (1988)

Death Ride '69 - Death Ride '69 (1989)

Machines of Loving Grace - Gilt (1995)

Dark, grimy, very 90s alt rock with juuuust enough gestures towards the band's electro-industrial past -- a sample here, a drum machine here, a serrated guitar tone there -- to associate them with bands like NIN and their legions of followers. This record was, I'm guessing, an attempt to capitalize on their having landed a song on the extremely popular soundtrack to The Crow, but they just didn't have much mainstream appeal, and called it quits midway through recording the follow-up. I honestly can't even tell if Gilt is any good or it's just nostalgia that keeps me coming back year after year.

Also, I don't know what is wrong with me, but I've been on a dubious old favorites kick, and before this, I wrote a fucking diatribe (I'm serious, it's without a doubt the longest post I've ever written for this blog) on the first Psychotica record, an album and also-ran band that literally no one has cared about in over two decades. That post probably ain't gonna see the light of the day -- we have top men working on it right now. [Edit: I posted it, and I wasn't lying about how fucking long it was.] I even briefly considered doing a post on Extra Fancy, who are one of those alt rock bands who kinda sound like noise rock by default simply because they're utterly incapable of writing an effective melody. Somebody send help.

Track listing:

1. Richest Junkie Still Alive

2. Kiss Destroyer

3. Suicide King

4. Animal Mass

5. The Soft Collision

6. Solar Temple

7. Tryst

8. Casual Users

9. Twofold Godhead

10. Last

11. Serpico

"Something's gone wrong," I thought I heard the old man say

As the insides spilled out into the cold mountain air

You might also like:

Cop Shoot Cop - White Noise (1991)

Skrew - Shadow of Doubt (1996)

Struggling Harsh Immortals - 死 (2015)

Anthemic, thrash-y Japanese hardcore colored by programmed drums and serrated industrial noise. The brainchild of Katsunori Nishida, who's been in a bunch of notable Japanese punk/hardcore bands. I'm too lazy to do another "new records that I've been listening to" post, but if I did, the new S.H.I. record would definitely be on it.

Track listing:

1. Theme

2. Green Horse

3. Rejection

4. Empty Inside

5. Lucifer Rising

6. Suicide Solution

7. New World Order

8. Enter the Hell

9. Suicide Solution (Dub Version)

The reaper is you and the reaper is me

Also listen to:

Chaos U.K. - Chaos U.K. (1983)

Rocky & the Sweden - Total Hard Core (1998)

Excessive Force - Conquer Your World (1991)

Related:

KMFDM - Virus (1989)

My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult - Confessions of a Knife... (1990)

Rock-tinged industrial-dance from Buzz McCoy (My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult) and Sascha Konietzko (KMFDM). Truly sounds like a cross between the two projects. Like everything early-KMFDM-related, Conquer Your World sounds gloriously dated and makes me want to smoke cigarettes and drink vodka-Fruitopias on a playground somewhere in suburbia.

Track listing:

1. Conquer Your House II

2. Conquer Your World

3. Blow Your House Down

4. To Death II

5. Ride the Bomb

6. We Like War

7. Worship Me

8. Finger on the Trigger

9. Conquer Your House III

Rip the system

Similar vibes:

Noise Unit - Response Frequency (1990)

Bile - Suckpump (1994)