I knew in advance that there would be an opulent discography behind the Austrian musician Richard Lederer and not only under his Dark Electro / Industrial project Ice Ages. But burying out the depths and richly filled discography of this musician and his uncountable projects and his activities beginning in the mid-90s mostly released under the roof of the famous Napalm Records label then left me speechless.

Black Metal fans surely know about Summoning in which Richard is active under his pseudonym Protector. But the Metal genre isn't the only style which he represents. Next to Summoning he could earn some reputation under the Dark Wave-project Die Verbannten Kinder Evas founded in 1993, although their last release "Dusk and Void Became Alive" in 2006 is already a bit dated. Not to forget his uncountable collaborations with rather Goth-Rock related projects like WeltenBrand or Sanguis Et Cinis. So Richard can be seen as very experienced musician with long-year lasting career who's capable to service perfectly diverse multiple styles.

Ice Ages is of course that one project which fits the most with my preferences. Richard has started this Dark Electro alter ego in 1997 with his debut album "Strike the Ground" (M.O.S. Records), followed three years later with the second effort called "The Killing Emptiness" which got released under the roof of the famous Napalm Records under its side-label Draenor Productions. Some might say that Richard's basically Electronica-minded side-project could swim well in the success of Summoning and its Metal-head audience to that time. This is surely right on target because also long phases of a creative time-out of Ice Ages activities haven't altered his recognition and respect especially in the loyal fan-base out of the Metal genre. "Buried Silence", which is up-to-date his most prominent release, came out in 2008 again under Napalm Records, until Richard took again a longer break until he released "Nullify" in 2019 completely in self-responsibility.

Now we have with "Drain Of Scorn" his 5th album. This album impresses optically with a fine, dark futuristic-looking, sci-fi related artwork created by A Path To Oblivion in which all the lyrics got printed asides the usual credits. As mentioned above, Ice Ages plays a sort of classic Dark Electro-inspired sound outfit in which the tracks are almost very slow arranged. None of the 8 tracks on here would animate the club goers to some wild Pogo-like movements and so the advantages of the gloomy and mysterious sound efforts of Richard have to discovered somewhere else. Actually the sound scenario of this album needs a bit of patience as well as dedication because this album won't reveal its complete content after only one or two listens.

All tracks are clocking to not lesser than 7 minutes and are richly filled with complex arranged rhythm patterns. Especially Richard's rhythm- and percussion-work deserves attention. The drums itself are sounding pretty much metallic and completely prefabricated to undersign a quite authentic form of musically expression – the efforts of a real steel-worker, if you like. Multiple clangs, rattles and steel-sounding rhythm patterns widely placed into the stereo field in combination with the generally slo-mo tempo of the tracks emphasize a broadly based and bombastic mood. Accompanied with a dense and thick installed synth-based pad-and-layer-programming plus Richard's abrasive and raw vocal performance aren't for sure that kind of stuff for your next romantic rendevouz with a hot chick in front of a fire-place.

His music sounds cold, static and mechanical, but it also screws into your head with its obsessive, if not ritualistic outfit pretty much accompanied with a drastic lyrically content often filled of hopelessness and misery. Here and there I would recommend to break a bit with his stalking slo-mo style to a more danceable EBM-like outfit (I'd swear he could do that!) and throw in a faster arranged track as this would add in a bit more diversity, especially consumed on album-length. But on the other hand there's enough different dancefloor-oriented stuff for the club-goers available.

“Vibe of Scorn” consumed as whole album impresses with its anthemic and authentic sound design, it offers an eerie and haunting score-like outfit which is able to touch your inner fears. Even if it flirts here and there with known elements of the EBM / Dark Electro genres, it avoids to leave the impression that this kind of stuff has been copied or heard somewhere else before. The artistically vision behind album and project got pretty well supported with the brilliant cover art.

This album is available at all official streaming portals via Distrokid, (https://distrokid.com/hyperfollow/iceages/vibe-of-scorn?fbclid=IwAR1Gj2cLAPnaalgbXtZRCWe9v7ItahrJ4pzsnjkTIcnRJ6Oe-hZmAb7SsGM) plus also at Richards own Bandcamp site.

It can be too purchased as a physical product via the German retailer Poponaut. Right after the release of this album Richard has created a t-shirt edition which is too available via Poponaut to offer you also optically the complete vibe of scorn...