#010 - Angels and Agony

A Dutch futurepop quartet Angels and Agony was formed 1995 and they've have now released three albums and four EPs. Surprise surprise, they are also signed to German industrial label Out of Line and Metropolis Records in US side. Of course situation in this industrial genre is not that centralized that it looks based on these first bands I've checked. It's just seem so that Out of Line and Metropolis have their catalogue available in Spotify.

Angels and Agony sound overall OK, but nothing that interesting can be found from their sound. I'd say based on quite small sample that this is more or less the sound that futurepop means. Little too bland for my taste though. Some edges would be really nice addition in here.

Not that much material available in Youtube, but Spotify has almost all of their releases. Here's a sample from their 2001 released album Eternity that was re-released in 2007. This is Van Helsing Video RMX of song Revelation.






Some links:
http://www.angelsandagony.com
http://www.myspace.com/angelsandagony
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angels_and_agony
http://www.last.fm/music/+noredirect/Angels+and+Agony
http://open.spotify.com/artist/18cJjI3i4uyRVhql17jNHy

#009 - And One

Wow, this rocks (or should I say pops). German synthpop group And One has a long history behind then starting already 1989. The band formed after Steve Naghavi and Chris Ruiz met in 1989 at a Berlin club and since that they've released nine albums. For some reason I hear some traces of former The Smiths vocalist Morrissey in these songs (and I have to say I like Morrissey quite a lot). I don't know why i get that image constantly since the music has more or less nothing to do with the gloomy world of Morrissey. But works for me.

Using both English and German in their lyrics creates nice variations in their songs. Especially I've been listening their latest original album Bodypop (what a nice name and maybe even genre of their own). Released in 2006 this album just sound really really good. They have released a cover album (Bodypop 1 1/2) in 2009 covering for example Depeche Mode and The Cure and it includes also live versions of various synthpop hits like New Order's Blue Monday and Pet Shop Boys' It's a Sin.

Here's one sample from that Bodypop album, Military Fashion Show.






Some links:
http://www.andone.de
http://www.myspace.com/andoneofficial
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/And_one
http://www.last.fm/music/And+One
http://open.spotify.com/artist/6OAueBADydAjR5lP5NqTvv

#008 - American Head Charge

This is something that I would have listened ten years ago and then I'd have said that sounds quite good. But nowadays...This is just too "mainstream american alternative metal to the masses" to me. Some harsher parts of that sounds still quite nice, but overall I just get bored.

I've actually seen these guys, who actually called it quits just end of last year, once in Finland when they were supporting Slipknot about 8 years ago. Wasn't too impressed then either though, just wondered then why the hell they need to have two keyboard players on stage, when you actually can't hear either of them. All they did there was headbanging with their keyboards.

I was kind of surprised when I now noticed that they actually released that one major label album they made via American Recordings owned by legendary producer Rick Rubin. Seems that even Rick can make bad calls when signing bands.

This is one of the better tracks from that The War of Art album released 2001. No idea what this video is, but seem to feature Christian Bale killing many "troopers".








Some links:
http://www.headcharge.com
http://www.myspace.com/americanheadcharge
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Head_Charge
http://www.last.fm/music/American%2520Head%2520Charge
http://open.spotify.com/artist/6Ig4qybKXgMN2FLSM7GKau

#007 - Amduscia

I have to admit I don't know that many Mexican bands. Lot of pop stuff is from Mexico, but these other genres are more or less unknown here at least. But there seem to be at least one aggrotech artist, Amduscia is from Mexico City. They are signed on the same labels than the other aggrotech bands so far - German Out of Line and American Metropolis Records.

Amduscia is again duo, run by Polo Amduscia (vocals, lyrics, sampling) and Edgar Amduscia (synth programming, sampling, mixing). Or are they actually trio, hmmm... In many place there are listed only these two guys, but in their picture there's a third guy. Metropolis Records pages mention one extra name, Raul. So I assume they are then trio anyway.

What about music. To put it out shortly: too trance for me. This reminds me too much about discos. I understand the concept though, but this is not for me. I don't hate this, but it's just one notch too far right (or left, who knows). Check out for example this Impulso Biomecanico taken from taken from their 2006 released From Abuse to Apostasy.










Some links:
http://www.amduscia.de
http://www.myspace.com/amduscia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amduscia
http://www.last.fm/music/Amduscia
http://open.spotify.com/artist/3nasc5I5Nmzq7KgKENcetM

#006 - Agonoize

This alphabetical list seem to be interesting since now when first six is checked I've had two industrial black metal bands, two Belgian EBM due and now I got second aggrotech artist in row. German Agonoize is somewhat familiar to me earlier. I have that Evil Gets an Upgrade v2.0 EP from 2005, but to be honest I haven't even looked that CD in years.

Duo format seem to be quite common in here. Agonoize was also originally duo, but they recruited vocalist quite soon. Agonoize has already quite long back catalogue even though they are not even 10 years old. Of course those "smaller releases" increase the catalogue easily, but still they have done quite a lot of stuff in last couple of years.

The newer stuff sounds really interesting. Some of the songs have german lyrics, which of course mean nothing to me, but I've never had that much interest on the lyrics (of course some exceptions exist). The sound of the vocalist is much more important to me. And Chris L, the vocalist of Agonoize, handles that area really nicely. Aggressive and commanding interpretation is pleasure to listen.

Here's a quite nice fan video of A Hellgate: London video game featuring Agonoizes song Glaubenskrieger taken from their 2006 released EP Ultraviolent Six.


Some links:
http://www.agonoize.de
http://www.myspace.com/agonoize
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agonoize
http://www.last.fm/music/Agonoize
http://open.spotify.com/artist/76gauxdapMkInaQG5fl2Xv

#005 - Aesthetic Perfection

Aggrotech, now here's a genre that I've never even heard. But in practise I've actually listened some of these bands, for example Agonoize, Combichrist, Funker Vogt and Suicide Commando are familiar names. Wikipedia says the following about this genre: "Aggrotech (also known as hellektro or Terror EBM) is an evolution of electro-industrial and dark electro with a strong influence of techno that first surfaced in the mid-1990s. Its sound is typified by harsh song structures, aggressive beats and lyrics of a militant, pessimistic or explicit nature. Typically, the vocals are distorted and pitch-shifted to sound hoarse, harsh and synthetic."

Sound pretty good to me. This is more or less the kinda stuff I mostly like. And I have to say that this Aesthetic Perfection sound really good. Aesthetic Perfection is quite new name in this scene. Brainchild of American Daniel Graves has released two albums, both of those are available in Spotify. There's so many things in right place in his music, at least to my ears. I seem to have some sort of "dance perversion" at lesat. But since I've no interest on the poppier side of the dance scene, this seem to be just the right kind of combination of harsness and electro. Also that pessimistic view to the world must have something to do with this enthusiasm. Anyway I'm from Finland, where sun is not that common visitor at least winter time.

Here's the official video of The Great Depression taken from the second album A Violent Emotion.


Some links:
http://www.aesthetic-perfection.net
http://www.myspace.com/closetohuman
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aesthetic_Perfection
http://www.last.fm/music/Aesthetic%2520Perfection
http://open.spotify.com/artist/1Jgp0YCPHCJx5XD7nlfGVN

#004 - Aborym

Industrial black metal from Italy strengthened with some Norwegians. Previously they used drum machine, but nowadays their drummer is Faust who is best known for his work on early Emperor albums. They've had also Attila Chisar (known his work on De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas by Mayhem) on their line-up previously, so Aborym's "black metal credibility" is quite OK.

I've actually always thought that Aborym is just pure black (or death) metal. In practise their sound is really mostly black metal, but they seem to use also lot of industrial sounds. But this is anyway "too black" for me. There's not enough variations in the somgs either for my taste. There's some nice things definately. For example Chernobyl Generation from With No Human Intervention album is really nice little industrial piece.

Here's one sample from their latest album Generator released in 2006.


Their fifth album is also coming this year. Their Myspace pages tells that "they will enter the studio again the 19th of February. This new opus will be a concept consisting of only one track, a harsh monolith of sickness, violence and depravity."

Some links:
http://www.aborym.net
http://www.myspace.com/aborym666
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aborym
http://www.last.fm/music/Aborym
http://open.spotify.com/artist/2PCSfHYHZ87Wcf5GfYi3qF