The common analogy of man fused with machine, metal and flesh, is best realized metaphorically through the artistic creations we bring. Lex Decimate (The destruction of all law) is a project that aptly pays tribute to this philosophy as it is the history of it's creation and the story through which it lives on. Lee Duis is a man with music in his veins and whose life was once shattered through loss and pain. Resurrected, he became his own salvation under the incarnation of Lex Decimate. Musically this project vears wherever the creative imagination of Lee brings it and does not set limits on genre, style, tempo, structure, or anything else. Lex Decimate sways dreamlike between varying degrees of intensity; ambient, dark, rhythmic. It's difficult to cram into a box of 'name' when someone is this heartfelt with thier art. Will have strong appeal to those into dark synthpop, darkwave, gothic, EBM, and industrial with experimental electronic elements. You will even find this project breaking it's bounds on tracks like "Light the Way" which seems more related to Ant-Zen and Hymen label sounds than anything typical of the Darkwave/EBM. Lex Decimate is definitely a unique fusion of a wide variety of elements. Like thier label Silencer Records they are definitely intending to push boundaries and test limits while bringing something unique to the underground music 'scene'. In their words; "We are ready to caputre your fears and emotions. Let go and find yourself in a place where there is no 'law'. Find your inner peace through resistance."

Rock-n-roll with a sound of influence from 80's bands like Echo & The Bunnymen and Killing Joke; raw guitar riffs and melancholic vocals. Reminiscient of the college rock scene that R.E.M. and The Church came out of but with all the original hard-edge and punk undertones, evidently these influences have made their way to Italy where Temple of Venus hails from. ToV also has experimental interludes such that one usually only finds in indie rock, "Silent" is a good example of this, experiemental ambient noise backing slow guitar strums and solitary vocals, almost reminds me of Love & Rockets. "Settle Me" gets a bit Joy Division on us and "The Knowledge" almost turns gothic sounding. Sometimes the Italian accent sliding through on the English vocals sounds a bit odd but musically this band has great potential. While being mostly guitar driven there are some keyboards features subtly on the overall project and with some professional guidance and studio time this band could likely produce a very nice album. Being self-released and not electronic oriented I'd say they've done a very nice job. Along with this one I also received a preview of their upcoming fourth release which shows even further improvement. with enough exposure they could possibly gain a similar following as The Bunnymen or Jesus & the Mary Chain for example as this is mostly where they fit in genre-wise, something I've not heard much of in recent years and it's a nice change.

If you are a fan of Hagalaz Runedance you'll love the solo debut of Andrea Haugen (aka Nebelhexe). Nebelhexe (meaning fog–witch), is dark Nordic rock with elements of folk, darkwave, rock, gothic, industrial, classical, and other forms of music creating an eclectic blend. Hagalaz Runedance and Nebelhexe have much in common with their peers at NorthSide records ( www.noside.com ), especially Hedningarna, for their expansion outside of traditional Nordic folk into other areas of musical exploration. Like Loreena McKennit, Nebelhexe moves traditional, classical, and folk elements into a more acceptable listening format suitable for a modern audience. However, Nebelhexe goes a bit further and goes into Darkwave and Industrial sounding sectors with tracks like "My Visual World" and "Celtic Crows" for instance. The first adds a bit of electronics giving it a suitable darkwave feel while the latter adds a throbbing mechanical, industrial rhythm. All of the works of this artist have very strong pagan spiritual significance with a focus on Scandinavian mysticism. Andrea Haugen has been active in variuos occult orders and pagan groups since 1990 and is the author of her 2000 book The Ancient Fires of Midgard. She is reportedly at work on a musical project and theatre play with Sabbat/Skyclad creator Martin Walkyier. She is also handling Norwegian translation of Anton LeVey's Satanic Bible. Her label, Candlelight Records, is also planning a reissue of Hagalaz Runedance's highly revered Friggas Web and Volven albums.

Revolver Modele is a band from Minneapolis, MN which seems to gear toward the post-punk rock-n-roll sounds leaning on heavy influence from the Rockabilly genre as well as early goth act Joy Division. They seem to have refined the sound so as not to even come close to gothabilly but instead recreate the Joy Division sound with a modern edge and a bit more variance. "Serenade" actually sounds like it could be a cover song and is reminiscient of New Order, the later incarnation of the band after Ian Curtis' death. While I like Revolver Modele they sound too much like thier sound is taken too much from the band which saw it's demise before the 1980's really got started. However, they do not rely on drum machine and do use all live instruments. I like what they are doing and it's nice to hear this sound come back but I think the band should spend a bit more time on restructuring so as not to sound like a copycat project, they obviously have the potential as they have even continued the 'artistic' bent that Joy Division started with. From the few reviews I've seen of their live performances and from the last track on this EP which is also live they obviously have a good vibe going with their audiences and create a nice ambience. Definitely something to build upon. They also capture the early punk feel of just raw expression with their music, especially vocally and I think there is much potential here. They will obviously appeal to fans of the late Joy Division but will hopefully introduce some fans to a 'new' sound as well. I think in order to get an accurate impression of this band we'll just have to watch them over time and see what their full-length CD brings and how they grow as time passes.

On their second full length release, "Glo", Hungry Lucy take their dark trip-hop sound and lighten it up a little. The duo beat the sophomore curse by producing an album that not only rivals 1998's "Apparitions" but surpasses it in songwriting, performance & production. The mellow grooves & beautiful melodies remain and are augmented by more diversity both in songwriting and performance. Not content to only present their own ideas, Hungry Lucy also includes a second CD with Glo that contains remixes from bands such as Chandeen, Claire Voyant, bloodWIRE (ex Battery) & Trigger10d (+others). From dance floor to chillout room these remixes put an alternate spin on the original productions and serve as nice companion to the main disc. Eclectic spiritualists will take special note of "In The Circle", a song about transformation and the pathway to enlightenment and growth as well as the discrimination that many of us face in our 'different' path. A song that is very heart touching to any modern pagan. Also, note such titles as "Rebirth" and "Her Song". I was so impressed with this release and the song "In The Circle" that thanks to communication with Alfa-Matrix, the band, plus additional work by Louisa John-Krol (www.louisajohnkrol.com) fans can expect an exclusive remix of this song to appear on the Latex Records release "Primal River Valley".