SCONTRUM ACT IX will be the last release of this series and it will be the last War Office Propaganda release also. The ninth chapter, as usual, sees three bands contributing with three exclusive tracks and this time we have Eldar (from Spain they have released different albums which have already been reissued and lately they did an album for Cold Meat Industry), Liyr (from France they have recently released on Rage In Eden their debut album which I have already reviewed) and Der Arbeiter (also from Spain, they just released their second album on Ur Muzik and you can find the review here on CHAIN D.L.K.). Eldar's tracks are in balance from ritual atmospheres and martial industrial sounds and are quite convincing. Liyr, following the style you can find on their album "Fragments of dust", bring in three bombastic neo classical tunes which sound dramatic and passionate. Der Arbeiter is a multifaceted project so, following the same path, present different styles: electronic wave with post punk rhythms, militaristic marches with ambient inserts and a martial/orchestral cover of Amon Duul's "Deutsch nepal". I can't say if this is the best chapter of the lot but for sure is a nice one.

After questioning himself about politics in the previous EP, Ian, with his project Quartersized this time for his fifth release with a bit of irony take a serious problem like fat as theme, packing four tracks which thanks to sonic bass frequencies will destroy fat cells. Mixing the chants of Abelam of Papua Niugini with hip-hop beats on "Getto", covering Throbbing Gristle's "Discipline" making it turns into a dub upbeat tune, using vocals of an unknown preacher on the electronic closing "This earthly frame" and mixing acid bass lines with break beat drums and samples on the opening "Bingowings", Quartersized is playing with sounds and rhythms succeeding into sounding funny but credible at the same time. The release is available as CDr and digital download.

The new album from this duo is loosely inspired by the works of Enki Bilal and, so, it feature an enigmatic black pyramid in the cover. This canadian duo made a guitar driven drone music that stay between Sunn O))) (in their heaviest moments) and Vidna Obmana (in their quietest).
"Phoenix" starts with a guitar drone that slowly prepares the entering of cosmic synths, "Taurus Ten" instead is pure guitar with atmospherics as support. Black pyramid is pure cinema soundscape that took the listener into "Ursa Major" and "2095". "Ursa minor" is a quiet intro to "Shining" and this album ends with beats as a soundtrack for an escape from something, or an end to a dream.
Although they are not particularly inventive in their writing, Martin Dumais and Julie Leblanc comes with a solid work where sounds are well crafted and evocative. So, even if it's not a masterpiece, it's a nice album for all drone lovers.

Can you hear distant horns and drums that make the ground tremble? It's Tenhornedbeast's third album HUNTS & WARS. Recorded over a three year period from 2006 to 2009, the new album sees Christopher Walton redefining Tenhornedbeast sound, introducing, along with the characteristic nightmarish obsessive doom industrial bass guitar riffs, tracks like "Hilnaric", "Ironborn" and "Season Of Wars" which function as interludes between the long percussive suites. Those three are based on treated feedbacks and melodic elements that apparently ease the atmosphere but that really are always hypnotic and only a bit less obsessive. "Ironborn" sounds like a horde of warriors entering into a castle (you can hear the horns announcing them), while "Season Of Wars" has a dreamy hallucinatory atmosphere. The four long suites ("Reaching For The Stars We Blind The Sky", "Father Of The Frosts", "I Am The Spearhead" and "Hunts & Wars") give life to the oneiric visions of Robert E Howard (creator of Conan the Barbarian) and Lord Dunsany (moniker used by Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany for publishing his writings) by creating a blasting atmosphere made of percussions, cymbals, distant grinding guitars and growling bass guitar sounds. Listening to HUNTS & WARS is an experience of sorrow and pleasure and the only thing you are sure of is that... there's no escape.

Denying the Towers Our Words Are Falling From, the sixth album coming from the sweaty scores of the German (from Berlin!) wave-gothic rock band Golden Apes ' a certain affection for Nietzsche writings is evident if you just consider the choice Peer Lebrecht and his trusted bards made to name their band'¦-, could undoubtedly stand as the lyrical, intellectual and musical mountain this band could climb. Most lyrics are anchored to the notorious and inspiring German philosopher (even if maybe we're not sure Zarathustra speaking in song like And thus He spoke, as the author inverted the notorious transformation of the lion turning into a child'¦a sign that maybe times have changed!!!) , but they explicitly mention the powerful mystical visions of William Blake as well as Crowley to complete the glittering Triangle of Inspiration , but a lot of lyrical passages seem to refer to tarots, Wicca set of beliefs, Chaos magic, alchemy, ancient rites such as the explicit references to hierogamy (or Hieros Gamos) in a song entitled Liberation, whereas the deep voice by Peer seems acting as a spokesperson for the male element of the rite, while their refined style could let the listener guess which some of the musical holy pictures embellish Golden Apes' altars features sacred icons of the new wave movement such as The Chameleons (a vein which pulses stronger in compositions such as The Mark Of Cain/And from this Heart it will rise'¦ - whose gentle growing tension is really a caress for listener's soul'¦-, Rays of Light or The Silence[that I call Speech]), the lovely or some obscure portraits of the youngest Peter Murphy and even Pink Floyd (have a listen to Sober Light). The lucid dream of Windlands sounds as the best preface to an album with many catching moments, among them I dare to suggest Song Of Innocence, Taming A Dream and Invidia for lyrical intensity and recommend a careful listening of the moving The Sea Inside, the best song of the whole album in my opinion for the wise song structure and the perfect harmonization with the literal and the semantic cut of the words'¦ If I should be more severe and overly meticulous, I could advice them to use larger quantities of make-up removers in order to better mask their musical idols, but I cannot say their sound is good as it sounds in this well-done release, containing a lot of amazing stuff and high-quality songs for Gothic eardrums and souls.