Four years have passed since the previous Suicide Commando-album (cf. “When Evil Speaks”). Johan Van Roy had to struggle with a burn out, but he finally found the energy to beat his inner demons. This experience inspired him to compose one of his darkest and maybe most ‘atypical’ albums to date entitled “Forest Of The impaled” (released on Out Of Line). Suicide Commando remains one of the leading ships of dark-electronic music and I’d a chat with the captain on board.

(by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: I think to have understood that “Forest Of The Impaled” probably is one of your most intimate releases to date, right? What is it all about and is there any particular meaning/symbolic behind the title?

Johan: Yes, it definitely became my most intimate and personal release to date. “Forest Of The Impaled” turned out to be my own private therapy to fight my fears and monsters which I had to conquer in the last 2 years.

There’s a lot more emotion and feelings in this new album then in my previous works. Maybe not because of the vocals, but surely because of the dark music and atmosphere. In fact there’s no real meaning behind the title, I just thought it fitted the cold and apocalyptic atmosphere I wanted to create pretty well.

Q: I remember one of your songs “Death Cures All Pain”, but don’t you think music can cures all pain as well?

Johan: Oh sure music can cure pain, actually I’m a perfect example of that. Music helped me to overcome my burn out, “Forest Of The Impaled” is the result of that. Half of the tracks on the album were already written 2 years ago before my burn out, the rest was written in the last few months and for me was the perfect therapy to fight my inner monsters. That’s why “Forest Of The Impaled” isn’t a happy album and probably my darkest album ever.

Q: “Crack Up”, “Death Lies Waiting” and “Chasm Of Emptiness” are quite refreshing songs; it feels a bit like you’ve reinvented the Suicide Commando sound by adding subtle treatments and ‘new’ influences. Are you aware of this evolution and did you’d a particular sound in mind when starting the writing?

Johan: I never really start with a plan. These things have to come spontaneously, you (well, at least I can’t !) can’t write something on command, it wouldn’t work for me. The only thing that in some way was done deliberately, was the plan to have more slower songs on the new album. Either I’m getting too old, or call me stubborn, but I really wanted to go into the opposite direction of all those copycats of today. In times where each song has to be over 120 bpm I only have 3 songs this time going over the 120 bpm.

Q: How did you convince Jean-Luc Demeyer to sing on the already familiar, but still surprising “The Pain That You Like”? How did the writing and recording of this song happened?

Johan: I’ve known Jean-Luc for many years now, but only got to know him better in the last 3 or 4 years. Since I’ve always been a big fan of his works for Front 242, I thought it would be a good idea to ask him to do some guest vocals. So when I was writing “The Pain That You Like” I thought that song might fit his voice pretty well, so I just asked and to my surprise he immediately agreed on doing so. After having Dirk Ivens who did guest vocals on my very first album back in 1994, I now finally could have one of my other heroes do guest vocals on a Suicide Commando song. So now I can die in peace… (laugh).

Q: “Forest Of The Impaled” will be released in different formats. What does the vinyl format means to you ano 2017 and what are your impressions about all the Suicide Commando songs that have been covered by other artists for the ‘fan-box’ edition?

Johan: I grew up with vinyl in the eighties, so for me it’s more of a nostalgia thing to have the new album on vinyl as well. It sure ain’t something to get rich with, but I’m really glad Out Of Line wanted to do a vinyl edition as well.

I’m really happy how the ‘tribute’-album turned out. It wasn’t an easy decision to pick the best covers as I received so many covers, but I think in the end it has the best mix of old and newer songs covered by bands that in some way or another have been influenced by Suicide Commando.

Q: I can easily imagine, Suicide Commando has changed your life. What’s the real impact of getting recognized and famous on the ‘person’ hiding behind the ‘artist’ and do you sometimes think what will come after Suicide Commando?

Johan: Sure it has changed my life in different ways. I was and still am able to live from and thanks to my music, with the goodwill of the company where I work to allow me to keep on working half time and spend the other half on my music. My music brought me to places all over the world where I otherwise never ever would have been able to go to. My music brought me satisfaction, friendships…

But sadly enough it also had a downside, the never ending work and stress, the killing combination of work + music + family got me into this burn out. Being recognized didn’t have much impact on my life, especially since this scene is so small in Belgium, I can still walk around on the streets without getting recognized… (laugh).

When you’re getting older you obviously start to think about things like what will come after Suicide Commando… When I started making music back in 1986 I never imagined I still would be doing this after 30 years, but I’m still doing music with the same old passion and love for this kind of electronic music. I guess that’s the main reason why I still do this music, my eternal love and passion for this kind of cold electronic music.

I have no idea how long I will continue, but I can easily imagine I’ll do this until death do us part…

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

Suicide Commando is a long-time leading formation from the dark-electronic scene. The band is an important source of inspiration for numerous new bands. So I got the idea asking a question to artists who are or have been related to Johan Van Roy. What do they think about his music, about the man hiding behind the artist…

I got in touch with Torben Schmidt, Dirk Ivens, Jean-Luc De Meyer, Jan L., Nero Bellum, Markko Barientos and Sakis (aka SynthetiC).

Speaking for myself I got the opportunity to work with Johan on a common project called Toxic Shock Syndrome. That was quite a long time ago now, but all over the years Johan remained the same kind and accessible guy for which I can only express my admiration for the talented artist he is and my respect for the great person hiding behind the artist. There where some artists are ‘struggling’ with their egos, he simply remains himself…

(by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Torben Schmidt is the owner of Infacted Recordings, member of Lights Of Euphoria and Binnary Park plus long-time live member of Suicide Commando.

Q: We all know Johan Van Roy as an ‘artist’ and ‘performer’, but what kind of man is he behind the scenes?

Torben: I know Johan since more then 20 years now and I have to say that he is one of the most loyal and kind guys I ever met. In fact he turned from an artist I respect into a real friend. We experienced so many cool things in the last 17 years being a part of his band which really made us friends. I’m really happy that I got to know him and that we had the chance to expand our friendship.

Dirk Ivens is a living legend of the electronic underground scene, front man of The Klinik, but still involved with Dive, Sonar, Absolute Body Control… he also was a source of inspiration for Suicide Commando.

Q: The Klinik definitely was one of the main sources of inspiration for Suicide Commando. How much of The Klinik do you recognize in Suicide Commando?

Dirk: It looks like more than 30 years after the release of the first album of The Klinik that these songs are still very much alive and were a big inspiration for a lot of bands during the years.. including Suicide Commando. Johan was one of them and especially his early work before he developed and finally found his own musical touch.

Jean-Luc De Meyer is the singer of the pioneers of EBM, the one and only Front 242! He’s also involved with 32 Crash, Underviewer and Modern Cubism. Jean-Luc De Meyer did some guest vocals on the song “The Pain That You Liked”, which was originally released as EP and featured on the newest Suicide Commando album as well.

Q: Jean-Luc, you already sung in multiple projects and did multiple guest vocals, but I never expected you singing on a song of Suicide Commando. What kind of experience was it for you and what’s your perception of the Suicide Commando sound?  

Jean-Luc: I’m not that sociable you know so I lately met Johan, maybe 3 or 4 years ago now. But I’d seen numerous concerts of Suicide Commando before. Singing on “The Pain That You Like” was a rather easy job because music and lyrics both were already written and I only had to interpret the song. It was quite simple and a bit of an evidence for me as I felt like a fish in the water singing on this kind of music…

Jan L is for sure another leading artist from the electronic underground scene. From Noisuf-X to X-Fusion to Stoppenberg he ever ever set up Kombat Unit together with Johan Van Roy.

Q: You ever set up Kombat Unit together with Johan Van Roy. What did you keep in mind from this experience and what’s your perception of Johan Van Roy as an artist/performer?

Jan L: Yes, we started Kombat Unit some time ago.. and we had a lot of fun making music together. We both have very different ways of working.. but it worked very well in the end, even if we only finished 2 songs. Our problem was only our lack of time. That´s why we stopped with Kombat Unit.

You maybe know that we both know each other since a very long time and we are close friends. I respect Johan as a very nice person and as a great artist. I also love to work with him, when it comes to mixing/mastering his Suicide Commando stuff. His music inspired countless bands since a very long time and he is a very important person in our scene. Without him our scene would be very different.

Nero Bellum is the front man of Psyclon Nine and get featured on the opening song of the new album.

Q: How did you get in touch with Johan Van Roy and what kind of experience was it for you contributing to the opening song (cf. “The Gates Of Oblivion”) of the new album?

Nero: I believe that my first correspondence with Johan took place just as “Mindstrip” was being released. I had just formed my band Psyclon Nine and had just begun work on our first album. Suicide Commando was one of my biggest influences at the time and Johan was happy to give me advice.

“The Gates Of Oblivion” gave us an opportunity to collaborate in a much deeper way. While Johan had most of the music written when he approached me, I was able to bring live, modular synthesis into the picture as well as my lyrical contributions. Performing the track at ‘Wave Gotik Treffen’ 10 minutes before my shuttle arrived was something that I won’t soon forget.

Markko Barientos is without a shadow of a doubt one of the leading artists from the Mexican dark-electro scene, but he in the meantime became a word-wide recognized artist involved with C-Lekktor, Circuito Cerrado and Kromak.

Q: Do you remember the first time you’ve heard Suicide Commando and what did you think? What means this band to you?

Markko: Yeah I still remember that day, the first time I heard Suicide Commando here in Mexico city we have a ‘Music Market’ named “El  Chopo” and I got the “Critical Stage” CD by luck. At that time there wasn’t internet and to find original CDs was something that became a real pain in the ass, but fortunately I found it and it was so blasting that it changed my own panorama from what I was listening to those days. ‘COLD-VIOLENT AND CATCHY’ are my favorite 3 words when it comes to dark electronic music. I just wanted to get more and more from Suicide Commando.

Suicide Commando had already released the “Stored Images”-album around that time I found the “Critical Stage”-album (so you can see how hard it was to find music in Mexico during that time?) From that day I always knew that I was so engaged with his sound and after all these years I still consider it as one of my biggest pleasures and influences in my music. For me “Construct-Destruct” is and will be always one of the best albums. To keep it short, ‘I’M A SUICIDE COMMANDO ADDICT, aren’t you?

Sakis aka SynthetiC from Nano Infect is a Greek artist who definitely found his inspiration in the cold electro sound of Suicide Commando. Johan Van Roy was guest singer on the Nano Infect’s song “Lifeless”.

Q: Suicide Commando clearly sounds like a source of inspiration for numerous dark-electronic bands. What makes the sound of Suicide Commando that special and what specific elements in this sound do you like?

Sakis: What makes Suicide Commando so special to a point that, at least to me, literally everybody is inspired, is the man behind the project; Johan Van Roy himself. He’s a loyal and simple guy while his sound features a straight forward structure plus a melody that gets stuck in your head from the very first moment. Needless to mention the groovy bass lines and that super fat sounding signature snare!
As for the lyrics, you get to see that Johan Van Roy is an everyday normal guy with thoughts like yours and mine… Songs about depression, death, the way the mind works… simple thoughts of a man who feels he has to express them…

It has been an honor to know him and I would like to thank him in public again for everything.

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

(By our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange) After walking through the pouring rain towards Tøyenparken and the opening day of the 2017 edition of the Øyafestivalen in Oslo, Norway, my friends and I quickly took shelter in the big tent stage called Sirkus, waiting for our first act of the evening, Bel Canto from Tromsø. As were 5000 others too, all unusually early in place for a festival concert, a point also made by singer Anneli Drecker: “Lucky for us it’s raining this much – we brought the weather from Northern Norway!”. It was indeed THE rainiest day in Oslo so far this year!

The set was about 50 minutes long with a good mix of songs from all their albums, and many songs in new or updated arrangements too, even totally acoustic like ‘Spiderdust’ (which some may have heard live before). Most surprising was probably ‘Rush’ with Anneli’s throat singing as a new element!
Ending the set with ‘Unicorn’ was the perfect closer, sending the audience away to the rest of the evening on a musical high.

Songs played at Øyafestivalen:
White-Out Conditions / Dewy Fields / Birds of Passage / Shimmering, Warm & Bright / Paradise / Rush / Spiderdust / Bombay / Agassis / Rumour / Unicorn

We also managed to get some comments from Anneli afterwards via Facebook chat.

Side-Line: What was the occasion for playing this festival just now?

Anneli: We had long discussed with the festival to do a Bel Canto concert and found that the 2017 spot in the Circus tent would be perfect since it is now 30 years since our first album “White-Out Conditions” was released on Crammed discs. Also this year it is 25 years since our album “Shimmering, warm & bright” came out, which was a big hit in Norway in ’92. SW&B was the first Bel Canto release as a duo and not with Geir Jenssen in the band.

SL: We noticed some new members on stage…

A: Yes, we have a new member, and it is the magnificent and legendary Erik Ljunggren (Seigmen, a-ha, Vampire State Building, Zeromancer…). Erik is an old acquaintance of ours. We are very proud to have him in the band, alongside with Andreas Eriksen (percussion, since 1990) and Jane Kelly (backing vocals, since 2000).

SL: Anything else you’d like to add about the concert or other upcoming news?

A: We worked long and hard on this live set for Øya. The gig was immensely important to us, since it was a special gift to our long-time fans. We also hired a new light guy from the north of Norway (Tord Eliassen) who turns out to live in Brussels! So it was all meant to be. All in all we feel that we have never had a better live set than what we have now and after all the great response after the Øya concert we got inspired and are absolutely keen on doing more jobs, also abroad!
And possibly also recording some new songs! But first we need to see how the response abroad is…

Some snippets from the concert:

“The Evil Within” is a 2017 American horror film written and directed by Andrew Getty, an American oil heir. Originally titled “The Storyteller”, the film was a personal project of Getty, who largely self-financed the estimated cost of four to six million dollars of the production that took 15 years to complete. It was released in 2017, two years after Getty’s death in 2015.

The film was inspired by the childhood nightmares of Getty. Filming began in 2002, and the film was shot largely in Getty’s own mansion. The production however would often be halted due to funding issues and conflicts with the cast, including a lawsuit from a studio assistant.

Getty continued to work on film for many years after the filming, creating his own special effects and trying to perfect the film. He died in 2015 before the film was finished, with the coloring and editing not completed. Producer Michael Luceri, who had also edited the film, finished the film.

The plot goes like this: A special-needs boy begins to talk to his own reflection in a mirror, which soon becomes a demon who haunts his dreams, first telling him to commit murder and then slowly torturing him psychologically to achieve the same goal.

Here’s the trailer!

Jean-Marc Lederman posted a rather funny story on his Facebook profile relating some of the early story of his band The Weathermen. We were given his ok to make an article out of it.

After releasing “Ten Deadly Kisses”, things were looking good for The Weathermen. The band’s release schedule (a 12″ single every 4 of 5 months) since “Old Friend Sam” was paying off as both the band’s profile and their sales were picking up steadily. Not only that says Jean-Marc Lederman: “It was a rhythm that was perfect on an artistic point of view: quick enough so we would always have new stuff out to keep shops, the press and the fans excited and slow enough so we could go to the studio with fresh ears.”

Use whatever you find

The band didn’t have any equipment at the time, except a new Ensoniq ESQ-1 bought thanks to Jonas Van Espen, their manager at the time, and Herman van Laar (Jean-Marc’s publisher at Les Disques du Crepuscule as Kid Montana was still going on). Jean-Marc recalls: “We were dependent on going to the studio to record, something that was pleasing me a lot as the tactic was to use whatever we found there, especially if it was some new (to us) drum machine or synth.”

The studio was Ludo Camberlin’s, one of Belgium’s finest producer ever. Jean-Marc: “A man with great ears, not always easy to go along with, but so was/am I so it was a good fit. The place was in PIAS’ early Cureghem office, it was in the basement and pretty much a dump to be honest. But it felt good to be making music just below our record company as it made us feel part of a family with a common desire: making good music known.”

“As usual, we had nearly nothing when going into the studio,” Jean-Marc notes. “I had brought my Ensoniq and Bruce Geduldig a copy of The New York Times. We hooked up the Esq-1 to Ludo’s system (a Commodore sequencer driving a DX7) and Ludo made fun of the lone two midi slots in the american synth: ‘What?! No thru slot?!’.” You can hear it in Poison in the chorus brass sound and the bass drum, mainly. Jean-Marc also brought a 7″ to the studio, one that had made a great impression on him at the time: “Human”, by The Human League.

The track had a great drum beat and Lederman wanted to start from that: “Ludo programmed the sequencer which was driving an RX7 drum machine, I think. So, we got a drum beat going, of course it was weathermenized, and it had not a lot in common with what The Human League had. One can hear it in the toms playing in “Poison”, it’s the low drum hit that is going as a back beat. We hooked up the DX7 and worked out a real nasty bass sound starting from one Ludo had and then I played around for a while until we found a good groove which pleased us all. Once we had that, it was really fast, we sequenced a few ringing sounds and there was the skeleton of “Poison”. It was all written before the voice, as usual.”

Using the desk as an instrument and the arrival of Susanna

Ludo was also playing at the desk, using it as an instrument, not only as a mixing device. He would process lots of the channels through different effects, his favourite tool of the time being the Yamaha SPX90. Jean-Marc: “After a few hours of hard work and many, many laughs, we came up with a track that was ready for vocals. As usual, Bruce would open a carnet with bits and pieces of scribbling he had done and we were going through them. He wanted to tell a story about pollution, any kind of pollution, be it in the air or in the news or in human relationships, so it was very large. That is one part of the lyrics: the serious content embedded in a humorous song. The other part is, well, Susanna Stammer, Bruce’s alter ego and somehow the representation of a groupie going awol.”

Susanna was with the band since “Deep Down South”, it was the perfect Californian blonde in love with a bleek-and-far-too-serious electronic band. Jean-Marc: “She was dear to us and somehow fighting patriarchy and male clichés as much as showing how vain being in a band can be. Let’s not forget The Weathermen did came along a little bit because we found the electronic bands of the time so fucking grey and whining. She would also be our reality check meter, balancing our ideas and how we implemented them in the songs. Here, she found her way into the lyrics and into the track as she would appear as a pitched-up Bruce, switched on and off as explained below.”

As usual the band were trying to have a laugh and Susanna would in this song take the upper hand, making them look miserable and herself like a goddess-like creature that would go after the band members, after the drummer, after all the myths of being in a band, the groupies, etc.. Jean-Marc: “So, there you are: a very serious political stab at everything toxic in our life watered down by the story of Susanna. Finding the right vocal melody however wasn’t going to be easy, but eventually Bruce found something pleasing all of us. Now, you have to remember this was 1987 and Ludo had only an eight track tape machine and we had such need for all the effects that we had to “rehearse” all the mixes as all the effects had to be played “live” and be injected in the song in real time. It took us a long day to be able to coordinate it all and make no mistakes as the three of us were on the desk, switching channels on and off, going through the SPX90 as we prepared them. Ludo exercised more of his magic touch and there we were: on the second evening (I never work at night), “Poison” was on the tape.”

The release

Jean-Marc: “I recall going up to Kenny the day after and all excited I gave him the final tape. It was released a few weeks later and immediately rocketed up: people loved it, PIAS’ salesmen loved it, we loved it and there you go it started to sell real solid. It actually was doing so well that Kenny wanted it to be remixed, something I never liked, but we were ok with it. Finally, three 12″ came out, the original version, one version I remixed with Ludo and the Snap remix (Ancilloti remix).”

And this is the story of Poison, the song that walked by itself. The 8-track tape itself was lost and never to be found again.

UK artist Jay ‘Rocky Dead’, also known for his project You Love Her Coz She’s Dead, launched a new project in 2016, Def Mod. It took him some time to complete the first material, but now his first single has gone live: “Wish”.

“Wish” is a synth wave track that heavily incorporates more EDM minded elements from Jay’s other project You Love Her Coz She’s Dead. You can listen to the track below.

German duo Robert Grolms – Niko Kötzsch are active under the Gimme Shelter moniker for a couple of years now. They signed to Space Race Records and have released 2 albums so far. The band doesn’t label their sound as any particular genre, but their audience will be mainly find among the lovers of electro-pop and EBM. A few months ago now they released the album “Kosmodrom” revealing great writing skills and a mature production process. This interview is a look back at this work.

(by Inferno Sound Diaries)

Q: Do you remember how you get contaminated by the electronic music virus and how did you come to set up Gimme Shelter?

Robert: Well, in 1990 I was ten years old and I became a great fan of Depeche Mode. Their music influenced me very much and I founded my first band at the age of twelve to emulate them. Afterwards, I was active in several bands and founded Gimme Shelter in 2008. A short time later, Niko joined in and since then we have released two albums and played some concerts. But not only electronic music has shaped me. For this reason, there is no electronic virus for me, but we make the music because we want to clean up our inner life. The fact that the music is very electronic is due to the fact that we are not so well trained on classical instruments.

Niko: I remember the first CD I bought was “Moosehair Underwair“ from Cat Rapes Dog. I next discovered artists like FrontLine Assembly, Front 242, And One and many many more (yes of course a little bit Depeche Mode but I wasn’t a huge fan ). I was 17 years old when I started going out in German Clubs to become a DJ. Ten years later I stopped DJ-ing. I experimented with some synthesizers and music programs. Robert came to me and asked me if I could help him to play live synths for the first Gimme Shelter live gig. I said to first have a listen at his stuff, but the problem was it sounded like a demo tape. I finally composed a demo for him and he liked it. That was the beginning of Gimme Shelter.

Q: For numerous people Gimme Shelter will for sure evoke one of the most famous Rolling Stones songs in history… or the cover version by The Sisters Of Mercy. What inspired you to choose for this band name and what can you say about potential sources of inspiration?

Robert: Well, the band name fits to the content of our music. I do not know what is so funny about being named after a title of the Rolling Stones. Their music is still very good and has shaped the music world enormously. We are included. We of course are also inspired by the life we live and the experiences we get. Love, relationships, desire, loss. All this flows into the music of Gimme Shelter. Musically, we are both very open-minded. We are inspired by a lot of things, but we do not jeopardize anybody, but create our own sound -regardless of whether we are successful or not.

Q: I experience your music as a mix between electro-pop elements and harder EBM influences. What do both genres evoke to you and how would you analyze your own sound?

Robert: This is hard to say. There probably is no other band that sounds like us. This is simply because we do not want to sound like other bands. We consciously allow all possible influences, from Depeche Mode to Johnny Cash. In general, a musician sees his own music quite differently than the listener conceives. We find -like every other band, that we naturally fit into no drawer. On the contrary, we think that we sound extremely independent and can only make comparisons with individual songs. The aforementioned influences play naturally also in it.

Furthermore, we have certainly also shaped Front 242, And One, Nitzer Ebb and above Kraftwerk. But that is only unconscious in us and we do not sit down and want to create a certain music style. We just do our thing. And what is going on here can be described as a whole. But generally, these whole subgenres do not matter.

Niko: I´ve many influences. I like artists like Royskopp or Deadmau5, but I like the sound of the 80s, too. I do not care how a song sounds. If I think that the sound fits the song then we go on working on it until we are both satisfied.

Q: You this year released your second full length album “Kosmodrom”. What is the album all about and what kind of work (sound-wise) did you try to accomplish?

Robert: Basically the answer is quite simple. The album is of course love. It is about, which forms of love exist and how they can develop. The title “Kosmodrom” is a good metaphor for this. It stands for the beginning of something great, just like at the beginning of a love. After the start, everything can develop well or badly. But the hope for something beautiful drives human beings. We also found that the cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin, who was the first human being to cross space, deserved to get an appreciation from us. In the Western world, his name often falls into oblivion; but he showed courage and opened a new door to humanity. But we also use his figure as a metaphor for the album “Kosmodrom”. It is only at first sight around the space on our current album. But the concrete content must be accessible to every listener himself. One’s own fantasy when listening to music is the great thing that music can do.

Niko: “Kosmodrom” is a bridge between the analog and digital world. We’ve worked a lot with analog synthesizers such as KORG MS20, NORD Modular, Yamaha Cs1x and many other synths. Each synth has its own flair and I like them all. Each song takes a lot of time to achieve. Robert writes  most of the melodies while. I’m more into the rhythm thing. When Robert comes up with a ballad I make a dance pop song out of it because I think it fits. You also have to try something different and not always repeatinbg yourself. That’s why we’re not letting anyone talk about how we should make our sound. I learned most of what I did from my friend Daniel Myer. He showed me programs and VST’s how they work. I thank him again and again that I can do what he showed me. That is why we decided to master the album by Daniel. He knows exactly what he’s doing and is worth every penny. I can only say to every musician to give away the mastering work. Do not be concerned with so many trifles. I had to learn that too. Therefore “Warnemünde” has lasted nearly 5 years (hahaha).

Q: Do you see main changes or an important evolution in the writing process and production from your debut album “Warnemünde” towards “Kosmodrom”?

Robert: Of course. “Warnemünde” has emerged in a much longer period of time. This is why the album is less self-contained -unlike “Kosmodrom”. But many bands like that. You need a few albums to find yourself as a band. Therefore, we would like to thank our fans, who have followed us through the early days and gave us the chance to further develop our music and bring it to a higher level. Of course, the process is not over yet. But “Kosmodrom” was already a real development in comparison to “Warnemünde”. The writing process has not really changed because we have a good view upon the tasks of each other. I usually write the songs and lyrics and Niko gives these songs a better and final touch. We keep on working until it sounds good for both of us. This can sometimes take a long time and a song can go through several versions until the final product is finished. But that is precisely the exciting thing about making music. It is very democratic, so it can be frustrating if your own idea is not implemented, because the other is not at all satisfied. But that’s exactly what a band does. In the end there is a work that took blood, sweat and tears.

Q: What means music generally speaking and Gimme Shelter more specifically to you and are there some plans/dreams you actually want to accomplish?

Robert: Music is a big part of our lives. We are fortunate that we have found a way to put our soul into music expression. This is a good valve. We also have a lot of fun and love to give concerts and get in touch with our fans. Gimme Shelter helps us giving our feelings a bit of air, and we can preserve beautiful and few situations with songs. At the moment, we are back in the studio and are working on new ideas and songs, because we are still not finished with Gimme Shelter, but we still have a lot to say and want to develop further. We hope that this year we can release some new songs on an EP and maybe release another album next year. But this also takes a lot of time and we are just at the beginning of another album. There are also new concerts planned. Next year Hannover and Hamburg will be on the agenda.

Niko: At my side I would like people understand what we want to express with our music. It always depends from the emotional state you’re going through when you’re listening to our music. And every time one understands and feels the songs different. Of course the goal is to reach more and more people with it. But I prefer 100 real fans than 2000 ‘likes’ at Facebook. We are available for everyone and are available for all questions to Gimme Shelter.

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

Marilyn Manson was crushed by two giant pistol stage props after he tried climbing it. The singer midway through singing the Eurythmics track “Sweet Dreams” at his New York concert on September 30th when the incident took place.

Manson was stretchered off minutes later after breaking him free from beneath the props. He was later rushed to hospital as you can see in the tweet below.

First picture of Marilyn Manson on his way to the hospital. pic.twitter.com/wBHMmKUJsC

— Pop Crave (@PopCrave) October 1, 2017

Below is the video of the incident.

Video of Marilyn Manson getting injured on stage. pic.twitter.com/8EN0z9Qku5

— Stav (@Stav_Per) October 1, 2017

Out now is the newest video by Null + Void for the track “Where I Wait” featuring Dave Gahan from Depeche Mode. The track is taken from the upcoming album “Cyrosleep”. The video itself was directed by Tim Saccenti and was written together with Steven Graf. In the new video, you follow a desperate character in his attempt to transcend a physical space and escape his addictions via a hallucinatory female.

Kurt Uenala aka Null + Void may not be a familiar name for many music fans, but chances are you’ve heard his work. The Swiss-born New Yorker first made his name in 2003, debuting as Kap10Kurt on the compilation “The Sound Of Young New York”. It eventually landed him a gig recording with Depeche Mode singer Dave Gahan next to artists such as Moby and The Kills.

You can watch the video below.

Ritualz is a music project started by JC Lobo from Mexico City in 2010 and with a handful of self-released EPs, Ritualz is best known for its dark and experimental approach to electronic music, creating heavy and dense sounds. that have gained him a following in the depths of the underground around the world.

“I’m excited to sign with Artoffact Records and join their ranks alongside so many great artists. It’s a great label and this new album couldn’t have found a better home,” says Lobo about the recent signing.

Ritualz’s debut full-length album “Doom” comes almost four years after his last release, packed with 11 tracks mixing industrial and synth-pop infected darkwave, and will be released in early 2018 by Toronto-based Artoffact Records.

Below are a few gigs which are planned in November.

The #MeToo campaign is having an impact on Marilyn Manson’s band as well. Manson has fired his bassist Jeordie White aka Twiggy Ramirez, after White was publicly accused of rape by his former girlfriend, Jessicka Addams of the band Jack Off Jill. Below is the message which Addams posted on her Facebook page.

The change in personal was announced via a simple tweet reading “I have decided to part ways with Jeordie White as a member of Marilyn Manson. He will be replaced for the upcoming tour. I wish him well.” Manson also added: “I knew Jessicka and Jeordie had a romantic relationship many years ago and I considered and still consider Jessicka to be a friend. I knew nothing about these allegations until very recently and am saddened by Jessicka’s obvious distress.”

White has not responded directly to Addams’ accusations, the only statement he released read: “I wish to spend this time with my family and focus on maintaining my several years of sobriety. I will be taking a leave of absence from Marilyn Manson and regrettably will not be performing on the upcoming tour.”

Bad news keeps on pouring in. Former Faith No More singer Chuck Mosley died aged only 57 after battling for almost his entire life against his addiction.

The singer’s death was due to “the disease of addiction” so his family informed: “After a long period of sobriety, Charles Henry Mosley III lost his life, on November 9th, 2017, due to the disease of addiction. We’re sharing the manner in which he passed, in the hopes that it might serve as a warning or wake up call or beacon to anyone else struggling to fight for sobriety.”

Chuck Mosley is survived by long-term partner Pip Logan, two daughters, and a grandson. The family was not only haunted by Mosley’s addiction but also by financial problems as they announced that they “will be accepting donations for funeral expenses”.

Mosley, co-writer of Faith No More’s groundbreaking 1985 debut album “We Care A Lot” and its follow-up, “Introduce Yourself”, departed from the band due to his struggles with addiction. The split seems to have been amicable as he had since joined the band on stage for a number of shows. The band also performed live with him last year in a reunion style when they re-released their very first record.

Here’s Faith No More with Chuck Mosley with “We Care A Lot” live at The Warfield, San Francisco on April 14, 2010.

Belgian musician Thomas Andrew Barman,better known as Tom Barman, is caught up in the #MeToo storm as he has been unmasked as a stalker and sexist. When after expressing strong opposition towards male sexual harassment on Belgian national tv, several women came forward accusing him of sexist and stalking behaviour including a scene where Barman insisted to get a blowjob from a young woman in order to have access to a cafe toilet. He also followed a women for hours yelling sexist comments all the time.

And that’s only the tip of the iceberg so many believe.

The story doesn’t come as a surprise, Barman was also part of the close friend circle of the notorious Belgian politician Steve Stevaert. The socialist politician committed suicide after – surprise, surprise – it was revealed he was a serial rapist, something the Belgian press had known for years but which had always been covered up.

“Pora Sotunda” is a brand new very limited 7” by the cult band The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices featuring Dead Can Dance vocalist Lisa Gerrard. “Pora Sotunda” is the first release of new material by the choir written in over 20 years. Included on this single are the tracks “Pora Sotunda” and “Ganka”.

The single is released in a limited edition 7″ vinyl format only, and is sure to become a sought-after collector’s item. It precedes the release of a forthcoming The Mystery Of The Bulgarian Voices album scheduled for early 2018. Orders can be placed right here (tip: it’s an investment, so if you order a lot you’ll be in for quite an ROI – don’t say we didn’t tell you).

Check the trailer:

The choir became famous after the English independent record label 4AD reissued a pair of anthology albums in 1986 and 1988 with the title “Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares”. The choir is not a newbee as it has recordings dating back as far as 1957. 4AD founder Ivo Watts-Russell had been introduced to the choir via a third or fourth generation cassette lent to him by Peter Murphy, singer from the band Bauhaus, who himself had been entranced by the music.

According to the Norwegian outlet Dagens Næringsliv, Tidal (a subscription-based music streaming service of lossless audio) is close to shutting down as it has just enough money left “to last another six months”. The news doesn’t come as a surprise, the start-up has been going from bad to worse since it started.

The company, fronted by rapper Jay Z, gathered a staggering $44 million in losses in 2016 and has had trouble getting traction from day one, although they keep on claiming they are doing well. ‘Well’ is subjective, the service only has 1.2 million subscribers (and not 3 million as Jay Z always claimed).

And there’s more. The claims that it pays the highest percentage of royalties to music artists and songwriters within the music streaming market can be taken with a big grain of salt as it has a very bad track record when it comes to reporting sales, let alone pay, especially to indie labels. But not only indie labels, Kayne West for instance terminated his contract with Tidal, claiming that the service owed him $3 million.

According to various reports, 66-year old industrial music pioneer and percussionist Stefan Joel Weisser (aka Z’EV) died yesterday. Last year Weisser survived a derailed Amtrak train accident in Dodge City. It took him months of revalidation but it seems that he was slowly recuperating. It’s yet unclear what caused his death.

In a reaction to the news Boyd Rice posted this: “Just received word that long time friend Z’EV just died. Cause uncertain at this time, but he had spitting up blood recently. He spent last winter in our guest bedroom pursuant to the train derailment he was airlifted from, because his doctor told him he met get not survive a winter in Chicago. And the man we met at Denver international airport was a shadow of the person I’ve known for over four decades. His spirit was still tough as nails but physically he seemed devastated and had difficulty ascending the stairs to his room.

Three and a half months later much of his strength seemed restored; he had survived the winter and the outlook seemed good. We had recently heard from him that he was doing some shows in Mexico and was going to spend this winter in Santa Fe. I’d assumed that even if he would never be 100% again he was at least back on his game. I had convinced him to release a box set of recordings through a German company that would chronicle his entire career and that I would write the perfect liner notes for it. I would say that Z’EV was to the avant garde what Iggy Pop was to rock and roll: total intensity, energy and raw power and he often left the stage in the early eighties cut up and bleeding from the injuries he received from his own instruments.

I’d made extensive notes for my text and look forward to promoting the life and career of a man I thought was one of the most under appreciated figures in modern music. A linguist, an ethnic musicologist, a scholar, a mystic; but a man who could distill all this into a performance so intense that it could captivate an audience in a punk rock venue. That was his unique gift. He was one of the most talented people I have ever met. And there has never been any performer akin to him.”

The Z’EV discography is spread over various labels: Backstreet Backlash Records, Subterranean Records, Staaltape, Coercion, Atonal Records, Dossier, Atavistic, Avant, Soleilmoon Recordings, Crippled Intellect Productions, Cold Spring, Tzadik, Touch, Die Stadt, SmallVoices, Blossoming Noise, Ars Benevola Mater and so on.

When ego-tripping musicians want to start an online catfight there is always something funny going on. Take Liam Gallagher (ex-Oasis) for instance. Gallagher tweeted this uncalled for message (2 minutes before Christmas midnight – you’d think stars have other things to do that late at night): “Miserable Xmas to morrisey as you were LG x”.

Note that Gallagher misspelled Morrissey (it has 2 s’s), which of course got him a reply by actor David Morrissey saying “It’s MORRISSEY mate! And thanks very much!”

Gallagher – still drunk as it seems – proceeded to quote several Smiths lyrics.

Miserable Xmas to morrisey as you were LG x

— Liam Gallagher (@liamgallagher) December 25, 2017

It’s MORRISSEY mate! And thanks very much!

— David Morrissey (@davemorrissey64) December 25, 2017

Mind.In.A.Box has released its new album “Broken Legacies” on their own label THYX Records. It’s a new sonic voyage throughout futuristic- and psychedelic electronic-pop fields. The Austrian band set up and driven by the creative spirit of Stefan Poiss became an instant success after their debut work (cf. “Lost Alone”) released in 2004. Every new production only increased the recognition of the critics and the enthusiasm of the fans. I got in touch with Stefan Poiss to know a bit more about the new work.

Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries

Q: “Broken Legacies” is the newest Mind.In.A.Box album, which took 2 years to get achieved. Can you tell us a bit more about the procedure and the way it all happened to compose this work?

Stefan: There was no need to rush anything. I mean in the end only the quality counts. It just has to be as good as we can make it. So we really spend a lot of time fine tuning the album till we felt it was done.

For this album Josh Kreger wrote all the lyrics and also the story and I’m extremely pleased with it. He did a phenomenal job. But I expected nothing less from him if I’m honest.

Q: Are there some aspects of the production you wanted to improve? Or maybe change? And are there innovating elements running through the album as well?

Stefan: Some time ago I invested in new speakers and thats the first mind.in.a.box album I could mix on them. They are just amazing and they helped me a lot. Productionwise I still work like always. Adding stuff and removing what sounds bad.

Q: “Broken Legacies” has been introduced as ‘an album clarifying several major themes from previous albums’. It only becomes more confusing to me, so what is it all about?

Stefan: Yeah its not easy isn’t it? If you really want to understand it you have to read through all the stories we published, maybe several times. But even then I guess you have to ask me some questions.

“Broken Legacies” goes back in time about 20 years ago. It was even before “Lost Alone”. The Friend is this time our protagonist. He was the guy Mr. Black killed on the “Lost Alone”-album in the song “Forever Gone”. But he is not really gone. Don’t tell it to anyone.

Q: What does the title of the album reflect and how did you transpose this content into the artwork and the music?

Stefan: The Friend designed a system what the Agency is using to control everything. At that time he thought it was a good thing, but then he realized what he has done and joined the Rebels. Since then he is trying to repay his dept.

All the artwork was painted by Polina Sofronova. She is an unbelievable good painter. I Was very glad to had her onboard.

Q: You clearly are not a ‘typical’ electro-pop band so what’s your perception on electro-pop and where do you place M.I.A.B. on the map?

Stefan: Mind.in.a.box is more like an electronic music-movie for your mind. It’s more complicated but it still has some electro-pop elements. Its more soundtrack orientated.

Q: I don’t want to compare M.I.A.B. to another band because you simply are incomparable, but for the very first time I hear atmospheres, arrangements and even the vocals reminding me of Michael Cretu (Enigma). What makes your sound that ‘special’ and ‘different’ from other bands and did you find inspiration in the work of Cretu and/or other artists/genres?  

Stefan: Cretu is for sure an amazing producer. I liked a lot the album what he released with Peter Cornelius, a famous Austrian singer years ago. I think our understand for music is like everything else branded in our childhood. And I listened mostly computer music from the demo scene at that time. Thats the reason I think why mind.in.a.box sounds different. You want to arrange the music-puzzle pieces like you learned it in your childhood.

No Trust In dawn has been set up in 2016 by the German duo ‘Soykut Gür’ (Down To Reality) and ‘Rio Black’ (Atomic Neon). They one year later released their official debut album entitled “As We Fall” on Alice In…/Dark Dimensions. From the very first tones and vocals you get the impression awakening somewhere during the 80s while listening to The Cure. No Trust In Dawn doesn’t strive for innovation, but simply compose the music they like. The result is a fully enjoyable work. Singer ‘Rio Black’ give me a bit more details about this promising debut.

(Courtesy by Inferno Sound Diaries / Picture by Oliver Stein)

Q: I got the feeling that No Trust In Dawn was set up by two friends who were listening to their favorite band, which must be The Cure! How did it really happened?

Rio Black: Not Really! We met for the first time during the last year! ….and yes, we are both big Cure-fans, but not only. There are many other bands we like from that time and, which have influenced us! But now we are friends and we make the kind of music we like! (laugh)

Q: You both have been previously involved with other bands so how much of these past experiences can be heard on “As We Fall” and tell us a bit more about this debut album?

Rio Black: I’m still the vocalist of the bands Atomic Neon and Rio Black & Band. I of course got some experience being involved with other bands, but No Trust In Dawn is different!

The advantage in this band is that we are only two members so we only have to do what we love and what we want. We don’t have to discuss different elements of the production with other musicians, which simplifies everything!

The album “As We Fall” manifests our innermost; the music comes directly from Soykut’s soul and my lyrics just fit perfectly. I sing about love, sadness, magic and failure and all kind of things we feel concerned in life. The entire album is a reflection of what we feel about living in the 21^st Century!

Q: And what is the title-song all about?

Rio Black: “As We Fall” is a song about failure; the feeling you get when you don’t want to fight anymore. It’s about giving up and being exhausted!

But there also is a positive impetus to more look around… ‘don’t let the people around you run in the open knife’… some people are just too weak to ‘save’ themselves! We must not fall!

Q: Your sound clearly sounds inspired by good-old 80s and new-wave music. What makes 80s that special and still very inspiring, even for ‘young’ musicians? 

Rio Black: We both loved the music our siblings were listening to and often sat in front of the turntables of sister and brother and enjoyed the songs of New Order, Talking Heads or even The Cure!

I think the great thing about 80s music is the mix of new electronic sounds, the beautiful melancholic wave, the colorful punk, the dark post-punk and the unbelievable musical freedom, that still affects the young people today!

Q: You got directly signed to one of the leading labels of the scene so how did it feel becoming part of Dark Dimensions/Alice In… and what are your expectations?

Rio Black: I know Francesco from Dark Dimensions for quite a long time now. We got in touch because he likes Atomic Neon as well. I send him the demos of No Trust In Dawn, just to get his opinion, but he liked it that much we got an offer to get signed. The day we signed the contract was a real cool moment and a great honor to release our debut work directly on Alice In…/Dark Dimensions!

We expect a great cooperation and the best support as possible. But we are sure that we will not be disappointed!

Q: What can you say about the video clip you realized and what’s the importance for bands going on releasing clips?

Rio Black: Videos are not so important as they used to be these days, but they are part of us!

We had some good ideas and a great film team from Rookie Entertainment to do the whole thing. We’re into videos and have already a few more in the pipeline. The next clip will be the song “Come Closer” and next we plan a clip of “Dystopia”.

(by our Norwegian correspondent Jan Ronald Stange)

The Russian band WANT/ed, with Sergey Surkov (music, sampling, production) and Yury Aryasov (music) from Kaliningrad, just released their fourth album “Unthinkable” this week. As they yet again have increased their guest vocals we had to ask Sergey about this quite international release.

Side-Line: It’s noticeable that you’re expanding the use of different people on vocals, more for each album, and lots of foreigners. Can you tell us about the process of finding all these people and where they come from?

Sergey: As you know, for the first two albums we had a permanent singer, Evgeny Rodionov. After his departure, of course the question arose, “what to do?”

On the horizon was Holger Müller from Germany, he sang a couple of songs. As other songs for the album “Fringe” were created, the idea came to involve other singers in this process. He became a transition period in the sound and approach to music.

And now we’re at the fourth album; “Unthinkable”. We wanted to change something in ourselves, our personal attitude to music and its creation. In 2016, about four compositions were prepared. The question “who will sing?” constantly arose – we wanted something new…
We started with involving Holger Müller again, along with Patrik Hansson and Tomas Gustafsson from Sweden. On the Internet I found a girl named Miranda Cartel from Poland, real name Emmanuella Robak. While she sang, Tomas made an arrangement on the guitar for a song that has become «My Pride». I liked the result, later we made it a single. The real guitar was new to us.
Then Tomas recorded the vocals for the song “Nothing To Fear”, and again I asked him to play something on the guitar. And for this single we made two acoustic versions.

Then I saw an ad on the Internet from the group “SoftWave” from Denmark … They were looking for remixers, I made two remixes for them, later they were published on their CD “Together Alone – the remixes”. After that I suggested to their vocalist Catrine Christensen to contribute on a song. It became “A World Within A World”, and the result really encouraged us!
Her voice was a real discovery for us and I invited her to sing another song, which became “When Nightmares Bleed” – the most dynamic song on this album.

Another new and interesting voice for us this time was Teemu Salo from Finland, who did the vocal on “World Empty of Stars”.
This time Patrik Hansson only sang one song; “Fall”, and Holger sang three songs – excellent vocals!

In this album we also included a new version of the 2014 track “Future Rhythm”, with vocals by Tomas, and we also recorded extra guitar distortion to the chorus.

The guys and girls gave all 100%, and maybe more. As you said Jan Ronald, the whole album turned out around the Baltic Sea. We like that our geography is expanding and the music gives us so many different emotions. It should have been called “BALTIC” – maybe next time!

Preorder the album: http://www.poponaut.de/wanted-unthinkable-p-17015.html

Listen & buy: https://wanted.bandcamp.com/album/unthinkable