A special release to celebrate the 30th year of existence for this German Dark Electro project – but the same time also a kind of requiem. Consisting of Torsten Schröder (vocals) and Erick Miotke (machines), Trial have been one of the „big numbers“ in the German dark scene started back in 1991 and have been influential to the then just upcoming so-called „second wave“ of mostly young German Dark Electro music projects in the early 90s. You know, just the music sound created after the well recognized EBM movement of some prominent Belgian pioneers.

Trial as a music project and especially their very first years between 1991 to 1994 can be named in the same row with Placebo Effect, Mortal Constraint, Evils Toy and/or yelworC as being part of the true inventors of this German Dark Electro music phenomenon. Sure, it has been quite helpful for them and their first steps to be right in time and place and to get special support by people like Matthias Rewig (music / studio production) and Kai Lotze (Project Management) and so being in area of the up and coming rise of Project Pitchfork. This fact including the consequently fast signing to the south German label Hypnobeat Records and so the same label of the early Pitchfork years has helped too – but yes, no one would come up to deny the talent of the both protagonists. Being the support act for Project Pitchfork for a Germany tour in 1992 and being under the hood of Kai Lotze regarding management issues has been another advantage for them. Have you ever seen Torsten and his ecstatic movements on stage and his interactions with his audience? Also check with their first press photos taken on a graveyard with their grim faces and Torsten's mohawk haircut.... duuh, what a spooky band project... they MUST be cool... ;-)

This also brings back some remembrances to the days when I discovered them for the first time. Their demo tape „Conflict“ with their first recorded 8 tracks (and yes, „Blut und Eisen“ in a very early version was already included...) has still its place in my collection and I am quite sure that I purchased this goody from the Hannover-based tape label Tecdance. It might be possible that this happened nearly to the same time, when Trial released their 4-track debut EP „Blut und Eisen“ (this one features the brilliant Dark Electro hymn „Circles“ - a must-listen-to-track...!!!) on Hypnobeat. The overall dark and mystic sound design out of Erick's pulsating synthesizer park accompanied with Torsten's out-of-the-grave-Like vocal performance has left an impact not only on me.

„Zero Feeling“ was their debut full-length album out on Hypnobeat in autumn 1992 and this one can be seen as a true classic and groundbreaking album for them. „Blut und Eisen“, often and misleadingly named as their only „one-hit-wonder“ track, has been available in its most matured version, while I find especially with the title track or the slow „Diabolic“ my favorites. This album was like an earthquake and with some well-placed compilation appearances of non-album tracks like the brilliant „Too Late“ on the Hypnobeat label compilation „Hy! ...To Hypersonic (The Hyperium Compilation - Part II)“ or „Force“ on the Gothic Arts Records label compilation „Art & Dance (Volume II)“ they made their way into the home entertainments and collections.

Further gigs with among others like Oomph!, Evils Toy or Endraum made it happen that Trial were about to support Front Line Assembly on a European tour in 1993 – we all know, that this tour never happened after cancellation from the sides of the main act. 1994 then saw the suspiciously witnessed label change from Hypnobeat to Electric Blue / Ausfahrt Musikverlag and the release of their second full-length album „Secret Pain“. This was actually an album I wasn't too much impressed with to that time. Somehow I always had the impression that this album was created with lesser dedication into the production as well as the cover art compared to „Zero Feeling“, it also somehow felt unfinished. Sure, it brought another well recognized club hit with „Is It Worth It?“ but actually this album could never fulfill the expectations of the audience after the brilliant debut. If I look back today on this album I actually ask myself if it was a mistake that this album stood so much in the shadow of the mass of releases back in the days. Nowadays and with a lot of distance I find here pretty good and thoughtful produced Trial tracks with „Hunter“, “Sin”, „Fear“ or „Quid Pro Quo“ so that I tend to say that this is one of the most underrated albums in my collection.

Also pretty much contra-productive for their mutual music career was their break shortly afterwards. Both protagonists have chosen different career paths and gradually drifted apart – we shouldn't forget in this context that Trial was still nothing else than a time-stealing hobby and no one was able to make a life out of it. Erick studied Arts and English, while Torsten decided to become a barber. In 1997 they reunited for a short time to record the never released „No Fate“ EP which was about to include 9 different versions of the title track. Unfortunately their label didn't accept their efforts as being „not commercial-oriented enough“ and so Trial were subsequently dropped off the roster. Trial was nearly down and buried but both protagonists united again to perform at the famous WGT festival in 2001 and delivered an unforgettable live-show. This was a quite important gig since the following years after the turn of the millennium brought not really news out of the Trial HQ.

A new Trial release came out in late 2008 with their third album „No Fate“ (2CD), released on their own established label Maxsoniq Recordings. This DCD featured a lot of new recordings and picked up the path left after 1997 but it also several included new remixes of their classic compositions like „Blut und Eisen (Whiper Mix)“, „Too Late (Fools Mix)“, or „Diabolic (Fog Mix)“. Unfortunately also this new DCD set went pretty much under the radar of the audience and didn't receive that much coverage than it should.

2011 then marks the end of Trial as Torsten decided to leave the band and to focus on his career. Trial offered an exclusive track entitled “Brothers in Arms - Old School Mission” to the „bible”, the famous quadruple compilation “Old School Electrology” box-set out in 2011 on Electro Aggression Records and so the last mutual composition of this duo to end their 20-year collaboration.

The story doesn't end here because Erick founded Trilogy to continue his music path together with his new singer / front man Jens Müller. Trilogy is undoubtedly the follow-up project of Trial just with a new name, which can be seen as a direct development. This new duo has released three EP's, created several remixes for foreign bands and participated on a few tribute collections (Depeche Mode / Front 242) so far and during their gigs they also play one or another of the Trial classics. There's something in the pipeline and the future for them looks bright as a new album entitled „Forced Perspective“ is announced to be out at the fall of 2021.

Finally this brings us to this special release and also because I surely rambled fairly enough about things of the past. This beautiful and elaborately designed box set-set in front of me consists of 3 audio CD's and one DVD with the highlights of live clips out their now 30 years longing career. It is meant to cement their status and it collects the last and mostly unreleased tracks in special versions and produced to the final end. The artwork with its 16-pages booklet full of nostalgic photos has been mostly conceived and well worked-out by Tom Grigat (including 3D-modelling) who has also been responsible for this job on the 2008 release “No Fate”. The idea to transform the protagonists into a robot-like steel-outfit isn't that unfamiliar and reminds a bit on some Kraftwerk-ideas.

This box-set itself and its breathtaking packaging is surely kind of a non-plus-ultra and the ideal collector's item (limited to 500 exemplars) – you can't ask for more! Please remember: THIS IS A HARDWARE-ONLY product, although there's available a 4-track teaser downloadable release with the same title which features following tracks: “Für Zwei (Montana Mix)“, „Alles“, „Für Zwei (Extended Singlemix)“, „Deeper (Under Zero Mix)“. Just the ideal download-able energizer to purchase the physical product.

Somehow the concept behind especially the first CD “Für Zwei” is relatively comparable to their 2008 release “No Fate”. You'll get mostly revamped versions of the tracks composed during the years in between and here and there some alternative versions of classics. It's also a learning effect not only for me, that Trial during the last 20 years have developed a lot in their style and musically expression compared to their early years. You will hardly find any slower and more ominous sounding “Diabolic”-like tunes on here, they rather move forward to more energetic and faster-driven tunes. More tempo of the tracks and also the integration of some Tribal-like rhythm and percussion elements can be noticed too. Also the beloved deep growling voice of Torsten has changed to a more angry timbre mostly provided in a higher register than before. The raging and pounding title track “Für Zwei” with German lyrics is available in three different versions, from which the Extended Single Mix with its nasty bass-lines does it the best for me. Additionally worth a mention is the new remix of the already mentioned OSE exclusive track “Brothers in Arms” in the new “Check Up Remix”, the “Shifter Mix” of “No Fate” and the ominous sounding “Feels Like” with its tricky drum programming.

Not too happy I am with the renewal of the classics “Blut und Eisen (Torfeuer Mix)” and “Sleeping Dogs (Fury Pack Mix”. I generally accept the need of dedusting 30 years old compositions even if it comes that these classics play a valid role in the repertoire of the follow-up project Trilogy during gigs, but on the other hand it annoys me to hear how much density of the haunting original compositions can be removed or ruined in this process. What was, was great – and to transform these pearls into the current times is an experiment which seldom ends in good results.
Additionally and to complete the Trial phase, two foreign band remixes in renewed versions can be found with Grandchaos' “God Is Dead” and Brain Leisure's “Defect” on here too. Both these remix contributions have been available in its original recording on the respectively releases of both band around 2006 – 2007.

The second „Live CD” is what it is. You'll get a well-sorted and well-recorded album with their best live gig moments recorded at their Hannover, Leipzig, Cologne und Magdeburg shows in between 2006 – 2009. I am highly impressed with the really good sound quality of the live recordings and I guess it has been a terrible and time-robbing job to polish and re-arrange them and to master them perfectly to be pressed on this CD format. Kindly note, that the track list and some of the recordings differ to the content of the DVD included into this box-set. However, simply to consume this audio CD of Trial live on stage means purest entertainment. The energy and power they provide here makes it impossible not to take part on any of their upcoming shows – this is the ideal audio set of perfectly worked-out EBM power full of sweat and action from stage.

The third CD brings us the so-called „Classic Anthology“ in so lots of the content I've rambled far too much about in this review above. This CD recovers the years 1991 to 1995 and mainly the albums „Zero Feeling“, „Secret Pain“ and additionally the „Blut und Eisen“ CDEP. 18 tracks in all give the neutral listener a quite good overview on the early years of Trial but unfortunately there's actually no surprising content for the experts which are pretty familiar with the Trial discography. The exception of this are the last two tracks, „Suicide“ and „Fly My Soul“, which both have been released originally on the „Conflict“ demo tape. Both later got re-recorded and added to the re-release of „Zero Feeling“ by Hypnobeat in 1997 – so also in this case no special goody for their die-hard fans. That's a pity because to leave out those rare compilation appearances like the above mentioned „Too Late“ or „Force“ in their respective original version available only on long-out-of-print-releases would have been a great deal. I find it relatively unnecessary to include all main tracks of the both mentioned albums but to leave out the few limited pearls of the manageable discography of Trial.

Part 4 of this box-set then brings us the visual content, a nicely filled DVD with the best of the best of their energetic live performances. Kindly note that the track list differs to the audio content available of CD2 out of this box-set so this DVD isn't at all a simple repetition, although for most of the clips could have been recorded during the same shows. Once again I am highly impressed with the performance of the both artists and how they are able to banish their audience. If you haven't had the chance to see their live action, I strongly recommend to check here with this item out of this beautiful designed quadruple release.

Yes, this release is surely a nice-to-have-item, kind of luxurious too and not a cheap one. The featured content itself asides the beautiful packaging legitimates for sure a higher purchasing price. Also be kindly be reminded that only 500 exemplars of this treasure will be available. When they are gone, they are gone!

Tracklist:

CD1: FÜR ZWEI
Für Zwei (Extended Single Mix)
Alles
Brothers In Arms (Check Up Mix)
Feels Like
God Is Dead (Extended Rework)
Deeper (Under Zero Mix)
War Bitter (Synthetic Mix)
Defect (Rework)
Für Zwei (Montana Mix)
Blut Und Eisen (Torfeuer Mix)
Beat Back
Für Zwei (Styler Mix)
Living The Dream
I Speak To You (Finished Mix)
You Want It
Sleeping Dogs (Fury Pack Mix)

CD2: LIVE
Don't You
Für Zwei (Bunker Mix)
Is It Worth It
Obey
Brothers In Arms
Dreamstalker
No Fate
Deeper (Under Zero Mix)
Feels Like
Blut Und Eisen
Snow
Prisoner
Drumsection
Aids
Too Late

CD3 CLASSIC ANTHOLOGY
Zero
Strange II
No More
Diabolic
Blut Und Eisen
Aids
Prisoner (Edit)
Star
Circles
Sin
Hunter
Secret Pain
Is It Worth It
Obey
Fear
Sleeping dogs
Suicide 2

DVD
No Fate
Is It Worth It
Prisoner
Dreamstalker
Hunter
Sin
Diabolic
Secret Pain
Fear
Snow
Für Zwei
War Bitter
Deeper
Don´t You
Obey
Brothers In Arms
Feels Like
Blut Und Eisen

Let's have at first a look on the publishing label Nadanna which is kind of joint venture between the German Marc Schaffer with his famous Anna Logue record label, and the Canadian Nader Moumneh, who's better known as Mr. EAR and label owner of the classic Dark Electro / old-school EBM institution Electroaggression Records. While Marc's Anna Logue label focuses since its initiation in 2005 to release mostly undiscovered, rare gems of early 80's analogue Electropop, Synthpop, Cold Wave and/or Technopop artists and music projects, their mutual joint venture Nadanna concentrates to represent the styles in between the above mentioned like Italo Pop, Minimal Synth and Electropop.

A well recognized name here on our site is the Swedish contemporary artist Tobias Bernstrup who nowaddays returns to Nadanna after his 2019 album release „Technophobic”. Bernstrup is one of the very few internationally renowned artists who has been touring worldwide since the late 1990s providing visually his artistic vision. He has positioned himself successfully as one of the leading re-inventors of Italo Disco music provided through with his unique mix of Italo, Synthpop and Gothic Noir. Not to forget his own unmistakable stage persona wearing androgynous outfits in shiny latex and heavy make-up.

“Petrichor” is his 6th full length release and continues globally his musically outfit although a development can be noticed on here too. Although still relying on his pretty 80s inspired equipment with the beloved analogue warmth of among others the Oberheim DMX and/or the legendary LinnDrum drum machine, Bernstrup seems to reduce the often recognized tendencies to perform his artistic expression mostly into the Minimal Synth genre. „Petrichor” doesn't sound too minimal and it looks that he turns his head forward and allows himself to install contemporary styles like Synthwave-/Outrun-inspired genres too („Loderunner”).
The music arrangements, the sequenced bass-lines and pad programmings are sounding more opulent and better placed into the mix than ever before, maybe also because „Petrichor” got meticulously mastered by Doruk Ozturkcan (She Past Away). This album sounds more charming and catchy produced than ever before while he generally acts under his Neo-Italo- / melancholic Synthpop-style umbrella completed with up-to-date production skills. So „Petrichor” offers the listener quite entertaining 11 tracks of well-arranged, contemporary Synthpop music under the influence of his beloved Italo impact and with the analogical warm sounds of his 80's synthesizers.

Since Bernstrup can count on a wide ranging internationally based fellowship and thanks to the fact that he has released a few teaser tracks digitally before (“Challenger”, “Private Eye” or “Stranger”), this album collects his work of the last two years. Asides my personal, quite futuristic sounding favorite “Loderunner”, I tend to name “Only One” to be one of the catchier sounding highlights, while the more raw and cold sounding synthesizer lines of “I am Become” are sounding impressive.

This CD release is limited to 300 exemplars and offers additionally an extremely interesting bonus section with various remix contributions by such internationally renowned projects like Xeno & Oaklander, Ash Code, Qual, Supermatik (Doruk of She Past Away), We The North, Mexican DJ DMT Berzerk and Westcoast based DJ legend SanFranDisko. The Ash Code remix of “I Am Become” has my vote for its layered pad programming and the supportive guitar drops thrown into the mix.
Qual's so-called “World Wide Web Killer-Remix” on “Private Eye” is surely the most drastically formulated interpretation on a Bernstrup composition with its slow stalking kick-and-snare work and the harsh robot-like noisy placed in.

The good things do not end here as there will be two different vinyl editions of this Bernstrup album available, first, a black vinyl edition (limited to approx. 100 copies with printed lyrics inner sleeve, DIN A3 poster, hand-numbered and signed double-sided postcard), and secondly, a colored vinyl edition (limited of approx. 200 copies 140 grams transparent magenta, DIN A3 poster, hand-numbered and signed double-sided postcard).
Difficult to say, which of the both vinyl releases are the “must-have” item but I guess true collectors have to take both of them.

It also comes to the quintessence of this review because you also need this CD version of “Petrichor” too, especially with a fair look on the valuable bonus content featured here. Of course, this one can be directly purchased by Marc Schaffer's well working mail-order service reachable at the given contact details here.

The Moscow-based Electro-/Industrial-label Insane Records currently expands enormously its label roster with some talents out of the scene. The old-school EBM project Pro Patria originally out of Belgium isn't at all a newcomer as they have been established already in 1988 by Peter Vercauteren and Bert Depuydt. First tape releases came up and the band evolved into their classic EBM style and released their first demo tapes from the beginning in 1991. “Spasmaticae” (1993), “Militaria” and a live-recording tape “Veni Vidi Vici” (1994) followed and their track “hard Times” became a tiny underground hit in some middle European clubs.

This duo signed in 1996 with the German label Celtic Circle Productions and recorded their first CD album “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” and the accompanying “Hard Times” EP. Unfortunately CCP called its quit and went off from business activities just before this album was announced for a release. All attempts to release “Quod Erat Demonstrandum” signed to any other label have failed and at least in 1998 Peter and Bert split due to artistic disagreements. Peter finally has taken care for all further musically responsibilities but unfortunately his personal situation had changed into bad conditions and altered any motivation.

Pro Patria became forgotten until 2007 when Peter was asked to participate to the legendary “Old School Electrology” 4CD box-set compilation brought to us by Electro Aggression Records. Too bad that this appearance couldn't remotivate Peter to pick up the line again and Pro Patria remained vanished. The reanimation of Pro Patria happened surprisingly 10 years later when Peter received an invitation to play at the “Familientreffen” EBM festival in Sandersleben / Germany where he shared the stage the stage among others with Leaether Strip.

This festival was a success and brought Peter back into his studio and he recorded the album “Back To Basics”, exactly 20 years after “Quod Erat Demonstrandum”. Returning to music for Peter meant also to look back on his darker, personal tales he has walked through. Meanwhile he has left Belgium and settled over to Italy, surely one remarkable result out of his crisis. So Pro Patria is back and after “Back To Basic” (2017), “Executioner” (2019), this project presents us with “Godless” the 4th album, if we don't count the early demo tape phase of this project to the album discography.

With the signing deal to the Russian Insane Records label, “Godless” is next to its availability in all digital formats, now world-wide available as a physical product, a CD. Not only this, all previously released albums can be at least downloaded via the Insane Records resources like Bandcamp. Somehow Peter and his production remains to follow on relatively comparable paths compared to the early-years recordings. Lyrically themes are still represented on “Godless” belong to the terrible state of our planet and the general disinterest or even unwillingness to do something about it. Typically EBM-related, don't you think?

There's also still a stimulating form of old-school EBM with torturous, raw pound sequencer basslines mostly offered in fast and furious speed. Please note that Pro Patria doesn't sound like your next-door-NEP-Anhalt-EBM-cloning-project, actually I tend to go that far to grant Peter a relatively own and authentic sounding form of EBM. What is new is the fact, that he has developed to reach a more aggressive, straight-in-your-face sounding outfit, the new tracks are definitely more drastically formulated musically and lyrically. That goes that far, that in combination with his angry shouts and the addition of some guitar-like sounds (“Angel”, “The End”) he can integrate a constant Punk-like attitude in his tracks.

Personally I miss here there a bit more musically depth and variation, some darker-minded layers and pads in combination with slower tune would add more diversity. Best tracks to me are the more accessible tracks like the already mentioned “Angel”, “The Power is Mine”, and “Limits to Madness”. Pro Patria offer all in all 14 very aggressive produced tracks and therefore an ideal soundtrack to sweat out your inner dissatisfaction. Be ready for the rage!

Already more than 25 years active in German Ambient- / Industrial music scene and also not at all an unknown project on our website here – but Spherical Disrupted have tarnished themselves perfectly from my personal music radar so far. Actually it has been their brilliant remix for Villaborghese available on their last “Remixed” release earlier this caught my interest. Nearly unbelievable that this one-man project of Mirko Hentrich has made it to such a huge amount of releases in its discography as well as with plenty of live performances on some highly recognized Industrial-/Noise-events like “Maschinenfest”, “Elektroanschlag”, “Schlagstrom” and/or “Summer Darkness”. this all has brought a high level of recognition.

Secondly, the foundation of the own managed Audiophob label in 2004 (with Mirko being the co-founder – Carsten Stiller of Alarmen represents the other responsible half...) and with projects like Mandelbrot, Zero Degree (also being active on ant-zen...), Wesenberg (yes, the rather Experimental-oriented solo effort of Krischan Jan-Eric Wesenberg – better known for his being in Rotersand or Straftanz and well recognized as one of the best producers / studio magician for mastering processes), or the Swiss-based duo of Skalpell, was at least a clever initiative to provide a professional audio resource.

The history of Mirko under his main project Spherical Disrupted once started in 1995 and so during the heydays, when underground music projects normally recorded tapes. Same it was also with Spherical Disrupted and the tape “Zerschellt, Zersplittert”, the very first release of this project. Thanks to this release, it was the right time to celebrate this anniversary and to give the listeners an overlook to some rare available recordings, highlights out of the long discography, long-out-of-print compilation appearances and also the possibility to invite some guests / friends for contribution purposes.

Therefore the fitting title “25” for this output, initially released during the end of the last year as a special 3CD box. Actually, this special box-set consisting of a carton box, three CDs in two digi-packs, three inlay prints, and as a special gimmick a "Granite hardware remix kit" (two stones), strictly limited to 100 hand-numbered exemplars only, is completely and long-time SOLD OUT. Both the CD albums, “25 - Past” (2 CDs) and “25 – Future” (1 CD) now can be purchased directly via the Audiophob website, several mail order services, or at Bandcamp.
I personally prefer to review this release as being as a whole item and so I will spend attention to both albums separately.

“25 (Past)”
As already mentioned above, the double-CD “25 (Past)” offers new and revamped versions of past recording, rarely available compilation appearances and remix contributions for other projects (Bloody Dead And Sexy, Experimentum Crucis, Yipotash, The Trial, KiEw, Mimetic Dancing, The_Empath, Xabec, Mandelbrot, Still Patient?) taken out several epochs during the 25 years. A lot of this tunes have been available on strictly limited, out-of-print releases, mostly on tapes for example, and do see the light to be pressed on CD format for the very first time. Some of them have been completely unreleased so far and to collect all of these old recordings, to polish and to transform them into the present was surely challenging.
For statistic nerds I recommend to have a detailed look to the website of Mirko, www.disrupted.de, under the tab “Oscillation” you can find a table with every track recorded is listed there alphabetically and where it has been released before. Move then towards to Discogs to explore the wide ranging release catalog of Spherical Disrupted.

Musically, Spherical Disrupted acts mainly in the wide field of Electronic-based Dark Ambient music. Mirko produces a relatively static form of dark and at times noisy Electronic music often accompanied with slow-stalking EBM-oriented beats and bassline work. The noise elements often occur through massive pitch shifting and filter frequency manipulations of changing in velocity, dynamic or harmony. There's definitely a high factor of a DIY mentality listenable, several tracks offer various FX manipulations seemingly live recorded and with a strong field recording behavior, “Solar Luminosity (Terminal Mix)” is a perfect example in this sense. One of the strongest moments I found in “Cavity Block (Not The :W: Master)” which reminds me on slo-mo Orphx combined with some lengthy tracks out of The Klinik / Marc Verhaegen's archives.
Another striking factor for the music composition process of Mirko seems to be his strong interest in astronomy as he often names his tracks after the discovery of remarkable objects and phenomenons out of this science area (“Through Homunculus Nebula”) .

The second CD out of this “Past” edition then offers us 9 remix contributions fabricated by Spherical Disrupted for foreign band projects and friends, as per listed above. Best and rather IDM-related Electronica entertainment I've found with the breathtaking remix on The_Empath and the track "Second Earth (Down To The Ground Mix)”, for sure one of highlights here. The overall sound outfit of Spherical Disrupted comes out pretty much abstract and provides a strong hypnotic impression, although it and there gets monotonous and offers at times unnecessary lengths too.
But generally Mirko's music is an oppressive sound outfit and to me additionally the ideal sound environment to confuse the neighborhood.

“25 (Future)”
As initially described above, the “Future” edition of this fascinating release offers at least completely new tracks, new remix contributions and for the first time guest vocal appearances. We have here the track “Basalt” with Tino Claus out of the TC75 / Amnistia fame and not only because of Tino's timbre this mid-tempo track with its nicely installed bass lines sounds quite comparable to Tino's TC75 recordings. Also Jana Komaritsa of the Russian Dark Industrial project Darkrad (among other recording for Audiophob or earlier for Cold Meat Industry...) offers the listener a haunting vocal performance on this mutually composed track.

Generally it comes the impression that the first 5 tracks of the newer compositions of Mirko show a tendency to keep the music a bit more accessible which in case of tracks like “Crust” or “Comet” can be noticed within a higher level of Electro-/EBM-like beat- and percussion-elements. On the opposite, tracks like “Pluton” or “Granit“ are drowning deeply into the Dark Ambient genre and rather focus to express the oppressive mood.

Remix contributors can be discovered excellently with Slovakia's Dark Electro-duo Disharmony and their very calm and catchy interpretation on “Comet”. Again, their ability to mix smooth synthesized, piano-sounding fragments with dense and darker-minded layers still thrills and impresses totally. Also Mr. Wesenberg gives a lighter-minded remix contribution on “Basalt”, the mutually composition of Spherical Disrupted with TC75.

Well, at least 225 minutes playing time of variable and thrilling produced Dark Ambient / Experimental music with the tendency to integrate a valid amount of Dark Electronica available on three CD's totally available for a price of two releases should be a good reason for a purchase. Yes, the 100 hand-numbered exemplars are gone and should become collectible rarities.

The Kaliningrad-based Russian trio of Hired.Life returns after several years back to the front of their homegrown scene and got recently picked-up the Hungarian-based Advoxya Records for the signing to this new release. As you may know, Hired.Life was established out of the ashes of the Russian Dark Electro project Denergized, which had made a massive impact out of the Advoxya roster from 2006 ongoing.

Hired.Life has been founded by band-leader Serge Vorobyov after the sudden and unexpected split with his former partner DS (aka Andrey Kuznetsov) in 2008. Under the Hired.Life moniker and with different co-musicians throughout the years, this project could release one full-length album entitled “End Of Line” on the Russian Gravitator label, a download-only sort of compilation named “We Don't Promise You A Rose Garden”, out on the now out-of-business Russian net-label Synthematik Records and also a few self-released, dowmload-only items available from their very own Bandcamp website (for example “Terminus” in 2015).

Hired.Life in its current formation exists of Sergey Vorobyov (programming, vocals), Pavel Blagov (programming, guitars), and Darya Revizonskaya (programming, keyboards). “Her Demoversion” is their latest album and kind of a final statement to end the era of Denergized, it tells us stories about memories, edited memories and about living the whole life in memories. Finally without any happy emotions, it's rather sort of depressive sounding outfit. The beautifully designed 4-panel digipack-wallet with its rather Synthwave-/Outrun-music style looking cover art is stunning for sure, but musically Hired.Life have developed into other territories.

After the ominous and haunting start under Denergized, the music itself has turned forward into a kind of straight and linear produced Electro-Rock outfit with a constant Dark Wave influence. The addition of Pavel Blagov also integrated Rock-/Metal-like guitar insertions into the musically outfit of this trio. “Her Demoversion” and its tracks surprise with its generally straight direction and compositions following a classic verse-chorus-bridge scheme. Actually only Serge's voice reminds on earlier days but also the integration of the Russian language into one or another track is no longer a no-go. “Empty Cell” is a relic out of the Denergized days, here reinterpreted in two different versions to close this chapter. “13th” is a classy danceable tune with howling Rock guitars and well installed synth lines.

My rather electronic-minded heart in me misses a bit a more tricky outfit here and there in the synthesizer arrangements but that's just me. Hired.Life have opened themselves to reach a wider musically oriented audience and their album title sounds anything else than a demo version, although the lyrically message is still a twisting one.
Overall quite consumable darker-minded Electro-Rock music.