Posts Tagged ‘Ministry’

FÏX8:SËD8 – Octagram

Posted: 22 September 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Dependent Records – 3rd October 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

I’ve always favoured words over numbers – meaning, maths was never my strong point, and my qualifications strongly favour the arts. But it doesn’t take a maths genius to deduce that there are some serious numerical gymnastics taking place when conjuring the equation for this release. That Octagram extends the love of the number 8 which is clear from the band’s name to a concept, whereby the album features 8 songs with a playing-time of 8 minutes is logical, but when they try to spin it that ‘when the 8 just turns by a little in the context of the German electro industrial project’s sixth album, it becomes the symbol for infinity’, I’m lost. How does infinity fit in, and how does it all sit with being their sixth album, something which really screws up the whole thematic.

The tracks aren’t all exactly eight minutes in duration, but in the eight-minute span, ranging from 8:11 to 8:58, so it doesn’t feel as if the limitations / constraints of the project are so rigid as to inhibit the creative freedom necessary to explore and interrogate the themes flexibly.

We’ve already aired single cuts ‘New Eden’ and ‘Oathbreaker’ here at Aural Aggravation, and it’s fair to say they’re representative of this expansive, ambitious effort. It’s electronic industrial, with expansive, ambient trance elements woven in, as well as sampled snippets of dialogue. It’s perhaps worth noting that the vocal samples consist mainly of recitations quoting the last words of persons that were about to receive the death sentence. It’s all there on the sweeping, cinematic, dark electronic dance opener, ‘The Unborn’. In terms of texture and production, it’s absolutely meticulous, but a bit predictable and of a form. Three minutes or so in, the tone and tempo changes, the atmosphere darkens and the beats get harder, and the gritty, distorted vocals finally arrive and while it’s still quintessential technoindustrial / dark electro, the switch makes the song work in terms of structure and dynamics. And this seems to the strength to which FÏX8:SËD8 play to on Octagram, blending the trancey ambient dance elements with the driving hard-edged aspects of the genre.

Skinny Puppy are an obvious touchstone, to which they themselves draw attention, they seem to have assimilated the entirety of the Wax Trax! catalogue, while pulling from all aspects of cybergoth, and even Tubular Bells to forge a hypnotic hybrid of techno, electronica, dance, and industrial, taking a number of cues from Ministry’s Twitch. It’s true that I often return to the same sources: Wax Trax!, KMFDM, Skinny Puppy, 80s Ministry… but I feel I should stress that this isn’t entirely a reflection of my limited sphere of reference, but the two inches of ivory on which so much of the electronic industrial scene carves its tales of angst. The use of samples does feel rather cliché, the way the beats build behind fuzzy synths which ebb and slow, the minor-key one-finger synth riffs… And that’s fine: you know what you’re going to get. But at least with Octagram, FÏX8:SËD8 push that envelope a bit.

If ‘New Eden’ represents the more accessible side of all this, ‘Blisters’ goes in hard. ‘Tyrants’, too, brings a heavy Industrial throb with a dominant percussion, led by a powerful bin-lid smash of a snare sound. With the distorted vocals low in the mix, it’s tense, it’s intense, it’s claustrophobic. Taking its title from one of my favourite phrases from Milton, ‘Darkness Visible’ brings an interlude of cinematic serenity, at least initially, before locking into another dark pulsing groove. The darkness has rarely been more visible.

‘An Unquiet Mind’ makes for a slow-simmering, brooding finale, cinematic, atmospheric, expansive, as synth layers and beats build, rising from a montage of samples to stretch out an almost post-apocalyptic landscape. It feels like the end… and it is.

The best electronic industrial has an intensely inward focus, and makes you feel tense, restricted, somehow, and as much as it draws on obvious influences, with its taut, claustrophobic feel and dense production, Octagram sits – shuffling, twitching, crackling with anxiety – with the best electronic industrial.

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Watch: ‘On Collision Course [Official Visualizer]’ by Die Krupps

Posted: 27 August 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Industrial metal legends DIE KRUPPS have announced an exclusive tour EP. This hand-numbered collectors’ item, which is entitled Will nicht – MUSS! / On Collision Course, will be sold by the multiple genre-defining band on their upcoming 45th anniversary tour, which will kick off at the DVG Club in the famous Belgian medieval battle-town of Kortrijk tonight, on August 27.

The Will nicht – MUSS! / On Collision Course EP contains guest contributions and remixes from prominent musicians of renowned acts such as MINISTRY with whom DIE KRUPPS have just successfully toured in the US. As a first taste of the EP as well as of the upcoming new album, the Germans have released the advance single ‘On Collision Course’.

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DIE KRUPPS comment: “You may be forgiven to think that ‘On Collision Course’ and ‘Will nicht – Muss!’, which translates into ‘don’t want to – have to’, could have been the working titles for our upcoming European tour”, Ralf Dörper quips. “In truth, the 45 years of influential sounds from Düsseldorf has been our guiding theme. In celebration of this anniversary, we have created this exclusive EP as a treat for all the dedicated fans coming to our concerts. It will give you an impression about what sound is currently happening in our steelworks as the above mentioned singles of the double-title will also provide a first and second taste of our upcoming album. The EP also includes some sonic glimpses of the experiences and friendships made on our recent US-tour with Ministry. Watch out for those remixes!”

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Curse Mackey – Imaginary Enemies

Posted: 7 July 2025 in Albums, Reviews
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Negative Gain Productions – 25th July 2025

Christopher Nosnibor

It’s been three years since Curse Mackey delivered Immoral Emporium. Three years may not be a long time, but a lot can happen in three years – and it has. And very little of it has been good. There has always something about industrial music – something I’ll unpick in a moment – which has displayed a sense of the apocalyptic, to the extent that at times it seems to almost bask in it. And that is not a criticism. The end is nigh, and while it’s always a question of ‘when’ rather than ‘if’, we seem to be ever closer to the brink of total annihilation. These are dark times, which call for dark music.

Industrial has come to mean many things, in terms of musical forms over the years, while Throbbing Gristle were the progenitors of all things industrial, technological advances saw acts more interested in pursuing more structured works with tape loops and drum machines, eventually giving us the more electro-orientated strain of industrial that became synonymous with Wax Trax!, and, subsequently, industrial metal, not least of all due to Ministry’s evolution from one to the other. Curse Mackey’s work very much belongs to that late 89s / early 90s Wax Trax! domain.

Concluding the trilogy which began with 2019’s Instant Exorcism, Imaginary Enemies promises to be ‘his most intense and intimate album to date… A bleak, beautiful meditation on paranoia, grief, and the ghosts we conjure from within’.

And so it is that the listener is lead into the album by route of looped samples, layering across one another, before a pounding beat crashes in, and Mackey, accompanied by a low, thumping synth bass groove, sets out his stall with ‘pressure points’, ‘psychosis’, and ‘decay’ delivered with a processed growl. There are many layers to the arrangements, creating simultaneously an expansive and claustrophobic feel. Single cut ‘Vertigo Ego’ swiftly plunges into darker, denser territories: brooding and ominous, Mackey’s vocals are a barely audible whisper. It sounds tormented, stressed, anguished.

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If ‘Discoccult’ and ‘Time Comes Clean’ (which calls to mind early (electropop) Ministry and Trudge era Controlled Bleeding) find us in fairly familiar industrial territory, something about the production imbues the material with a suffocating intensity. More often than not, there’s a brightness, a crispness, something of a ‘digital’ cleanness about the genre. In contrast, the sound here is murkier, more ‘analogue’ in feel, alluding to eighties synth music – something I’ve never been quite able to pinpoint as a listener and critic rather than a producer.

One can reasonably assume that album centrepoint ‘Blood Like Love’ makes a reference to Killing Joke’s ‘Love Like Blood’, even if only in title, but sees Curse lean towards gothier territories, stark, brooding, yet ultimately layered, graceful, with synth melodies and dramatic piano weaving around the samples and mechanised beats.

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The second half of the album locks into an atmosphere that’s less aggressive and attacking, and more brooding, moody, and introspective, and as such, marks a clear departure from its predecessors. What’s more, it works well, with the more uptempo title track marking a high point in the album, sitting comfortably alongside some of the more contemporary goth classics with its nagging, reverb-heavy guitar line and pulsating bass all held together by that classic, relentless, drum machine sound.

For my money, it’s Curse Mackey’s best release to date.

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Watch: ‘Cold Case’ by Worst Ones

Posted: 13 June 2025 in Recommended Streams and Videos, Singles and EPs
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Industrial Sludge Metal Band WORST ONES Unleashes New EP Cold Case Against Institutions Carrying Out Cruelty.

Philadelphia’s industrial sludge metallers WORST ONES are ready to come back with a new EP, after releasing the single ‘Vex’ in March this year. The new effort is called ‘Cold Case’ and it is composed by the title-track and a remix version of the same.

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‘Cold Case’ is a searing indictment of power, complicity, and the violence hidden in plain sight. Built on punishing industrial grooves, a 303 bassline, and layers of moody textures and noise scorched guitars, the track hits with a menacing, high energy momentum that channels the raw intensity of Twitch era Ministry and Skinny Puppy, the gritty pulse of Die Warzau, and the impactful aggression of The Prodigy.

Lyrically, it exposes how institutions carry out cruelty with precision while society turns away, pretending not to see the blood on its hands. The phrase “just another cold case” becomes a symbol of willful ignorance, where injustice is not buried because it is unsolvable, but because it is inconvenient. The chorusʼ imagery – “up against the wall / going in for the kill” – evokes violent repression and execution, while the line “every sick and nightmare reason comes to life” suggests how dark motives are brought to the surface and acted upon. Even in the face of horror, the masses “rally in their fervor,” a reference to mob mentality and blind nationalism. Violence is not just permitted; it is ritualized. Power is the culture, and the aftermath is “a feast for vultures.”

But at its heart, ‘Cold Case’ is a protest. It ends not just in defiance with “I wonʼt fall in fear,” but with a warning: “Now you’re sick, their eyes can see it.” The mask has slipped. Itʼs a refusal to be complicit and a demand to confront the truth, even when it burns.

‘Cold Case’ was written and recorded by Drew Ew. Mixed and mastered by Jared Birdseye. Promo Photography by Luz Karolina Sanchez. Live photography by Vinny Barreras. Cover and logo by Drew Ew except “deathmetallogo” by Darren Adcock. Music Video by Drew Ew.

WORST ONES is:

Drew Ew – Vocals, Guitar, Programming

Doppleganga – Drums, Programming

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Killer Couture – Everything Is Normal

Posted: 5 December 2024 in Albums, Reviews
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Transylvanian Recordings – 31st October 2024

Christopher Nosnibor

The title is, sadly, true. Somehow, recent years have ‘normalised’ everything, but not least the worst and most cuntish behaviour. Men being sleazy shits is just so normal that ‘grab ‘em by the pussy’ is an election-winning slogan, and a majority – however slim – in the US is ok with electing a convicted felon to the most powerful political position in the world. Somehow, billionaires have been normalised. Genocide has been normalised. These things have just become the backdrop to the every day. Many of us simply reel at this realisation.

But instead of reeling, we need to react. And if we ourselves find ourselves unable, it’s at least something to find there are other out there who are able to articulate on our behalfs. Enter Killer Couture, with their third album.

Gothface celebrate Everything Is Normal as being ‘Not overproduced; just back-to-basics angry, editorial of society style late 80’s/early-90’s music; the kind of stuff you could expect from Skinny Puppy’s and Ministry’s DGAF approach in the 80’s’. The band themselves describe it as ‘a 40-minute violent outburst of pent-up energy, challenging the concept that there ever was a status quo to begin with, the people who feel the need to try and uphold the illusion, and exploring the psychic maelstrom of living in the true chaotic reality beneath the mask.’

From a muffled cacophony of discord and a patchwork of samples emerges the first pulsating beat and blasting riff, from which ruptures forth squalling guitar and the intensity builds as the collage of snippety bits layers up to an unbearable level… and then ‘Terrible Purpose’ barrels in, the guitars thick and fat and dirty, overloading but with that digitally crisp edge, and as much as Ministry and Skinny Puppy so come to mind, while the speaker cone-shredding distortion hits like a two-footed flying kick to the chest, I’m thrown into recollections of early Pitch Shifter, of the searing industrial metal abrasion of Godflesh. The bass snarls, the percussion is simply devastating, and this is proper, full-tilt. If you need more comparisons, and more contemporary ones, I’d be placing this alongside Uniform for its uncompromising, full-on raw industrial attack.

Hot on its heels, the title track is a relentless percussive blast which propels a mess of noise, guitars set to stun, vocals set to rabid punk rage.

The guitars on ‘Teeth’ come on like a wall of sheet metal. If the refrain ‘I’d like to break your teeth’ lack subtlety, it achieves the desired impact. Everything Is Normal is not about subtlety or nuance: it’s about expunging that raw, brutal rage, it’s about catharsis, it’s about venting the fury, and Killer Couture are simply splitting their skins and breaking open their craniums with it.

‘KCMF’ brings another level of overload, the bass crunching and guitars churning and squalling against a relentless mechanised beat, and this is some furious, high-octane adrenalized noise shit. ‘Bastards’ speaks – or rather hollers – for itself, and ‘Composite Opposite’ is as gnarly as hell.

Everything Is Normal is one of the few self-professed ‘industrial’ albums I’ve heard of late which isn’t some Pretty Hate Machine lift, and isn’t essentially an electropop album with a dash of distortion. Killer Couture deliver on their promises with an album that’s brutal and uncompromising, heavy, and properly noisy.

‘Bad Waves’ brings things to a close, combining a certain shoegaze element with the hypnotic throb of suicide, and calls to mind The Sisters of |Mercy’s legendary live renditions of ‘Ghostrider’ circa 1984, often segued into ‘Sister Ray’ and / or ‘Louie Louie’ with the same relentless beat. And yes, my only complaint is that at 4’59”, it simply isn’t long enough by half. But then, the best songs always leave you wanting more, and despite Everything Is Normal being truly punishing album, a little more wouldn’t hurt that much… probably.

It’s important – and now sadly necessary – to distinguish between the red-faced outrage of those perpetuating hate and raging against all things supposedly ‘woke’ and those who are calling out the injustices, who are willing to stand up and point out that we need to be woke, that if you have an issue with antifa, you’re pro-fa, and you’re the problem.

Killer Couture are the voice of anger, the conduit of rage, and Everything Is Normal is precisely the album we need right now.

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False Fed – Let Them Eat Fake

Posted: 11 October 2023 in Albums
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Neurot Recordings – 13 October 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

Let Them Eat Fake may be False Fed’s debut, but the members have between them a substantial catalogue of releases. The band comprises Discharge frontman Jeff Janiak, Amebix guitarist Stig C. Miller, Nausea, Ministry and Amebix drummer Roy Mayorga, and JP Parsons, and collectively, we’re told that this album sees them ‘all stepping outside their musical comfort zones to present an album of discomfort and rage in the face of reality’.

The solid, throbbing bass, glacial synth and squirming guitar that mark the album’s opening with ‘Superficial’ may come as something of a surprise given this preface: we’re deep in dark post-punk territory here, and it’s a huge shift from the hard, attacking pace of either Discharge or Ministry, as well as an immense stylistic departure. Janiak’s vocals, too, aren’t hardcore hollering, but a resonant baritone, at least unto he breaks our roaring and raging toward the end. The vibe is more UK goth circa ’86 than anything else, but this is fitting, given the many parallels between now and then. Yes, so much for progress: we’re right back to the 80s in a climate of fear and a new cold war… and not just a cold war. Instead of coming together to make some kind of effort to address the self-made catastrophe of climate crisis, we seem hell-bent on destroying one another.

‘The Tyrant Dies’ is more what you’d expect from this bunch: industrial-strength hardcore punk with a metal edge: the blasting punk fury of Discharge with the gritty heft of Ministry… but then the bridge slows things and we’re back in goth territory – well, goth as filtered through a strain of Rammstein – and the portentous refrain of ‘we will rise’ feels like a call to arms while at the same time calling on the ‘undead, undead, undead’ refrain of ‘Bela Lugosi’s Dead’: it’s time for a resurrection.

This album hits harder as it progresses: the guitars drive harder, the drums roll heavier, and goth, punk, and metal tropes melt together to forge something devastatingly intense. I haven’t heard anything that amalgamates these elements – and so successfully – since Alaric’s End of Mirrors, released in 2016 – also on Neurot.

‘The Big Sleep’ is all driving fury, hell-for-leather drums, chunky, chugging metal guitars, and high-pomp vocals echoing from the chest. Meanwhile, ‘Dreadful Necessities’ comes on like Killing Joke with its taut compressed guitar sound and driving beat. It’s dense, and probably more accurately described as steely grey than dark, since it brings a strong, melodic chorus.

The title – Let Them Eat Fake – may be light-hearted on the surface – but obviously has darker undertones in terms of its reference to class division, and that’s one of the major factors behind the album’s anger. And this is an angry album. Let Them Eat Fake is also an album that has a clear trajectory, and it builds as it progresses, becoming louder, faster, harsher, more angry with each song. By the end, it’s positively incendiary, a full-on roar of fury driven with guitars that burn. And ultimately, it makes sense as an articulation of ‘discomfort and rage in the face of reality’. We’re all feeling it. Reality is pain. Let Them Eat Fake tells is like it is.

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Listen: ‘Red Pill’ by Alien Creation

Posted: 23 April 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Alien Creation returns after hibernation and consolidation with their previously unreleased track, ‘Red Pill’.  

Taken from a well-known phrase in ‘The Matrix’ movies, ‘Red Pill’ confronts the modern world and our inability to see an obvious scam in our internet-obsessed, neon-lit, high-tech society.

Lyrics in the song address the one mantra we should say to ourselves in the mirror every morning; there is a ‘scam in just about everything’ and no matter what happens in the world, someone somewhere is making money from the misery of others. “Wise Up Sucker!” Take the Red Pill and see the scam in everything.

‘Red Pill’ is a catchy tune enveloped in textured synthesized layers of hard-hitting sound carefully crafted to deliver an incredibly infectious dance track. The song probes deeply into the senses with the power of the bass drum and catchy lyrics, the driving force behind Alien Creation’s unique sound.

Listen to ‘Red Pill’ here:

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Johnathan|Christian – Strip Me EP

Posted: 11 February 2023 in Singles and EPs
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31st January 2023

Christopher Nosnibor

It might sound daft now, but seeing Depeche Mode perform ‘Stripped’ on Top of the Pops in 1986 felt like something risqué. It was a family show, after all, and I was ten years old. It wasn’t your average pop subject matter, and even at that age, I was aware that this was a bit dark and sleazy. It’s not just that I’m now forty-seven years of age, but times have most definitely changed. It isn’t that sex is necessarily more mainstream now – as a kid I’d see my grandad’s copy of The Sun whenever I visited, and Page 3 calendars were commonplace décor in offices and places – but the slant is different. Whereas Duran Duran’s ‘Girls on Film’ video was simply something you wouldn’t see, but Cardi B’s ‘WAP’ wasn’t the only song to have gone stratospheric in recent years which was hyper-explicit on every level.

‘Strip Me’, the lead song from the latest EP from Johnathan|Christian harks back to the mid 80s, both sonically and in terms of how it feels simply ‘a bit naughty’ and ‘a shade raunchy’ rather than full on porny – and besides, it’s more of a metaphor here than anything literal or kinky. It’s a cracking tune, a mid-tempo string-soaked slow-burner that’s as much Kylie’s ‘Confide in Me’ as it is anything by Depeche Mode, and it’s a quality dark pop song.

‘Sway Back’ brings some swing, and ‘This Too’ crunches Disintegration era Cure with Depeche Mode circa 86 to create a slick and expansive song that conveys an emotional depth beyond mere words.

Strip Me is an EP of two halves, with a remix of each of the three tracks following on. And if you’re going to do the remix thing, it probably pays to get some notable names on the mixes – and Johnathan|Christian achieve that with Ministry’s John Bechdel, EBM legend Leæther Strip, and Steven Archer (Stone Burner/Ego Likeness) all pitching in.

Of the three, ‘Strip Me’ still stands as the standout, but the other two are nicely done, with Leæther Strip delivering a dark disco stomper. Solid stuff all round.

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Watch: ‘Strip Me’ by Johnathan|Christian

Posted: 7 February 2023 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Los Angeles-based Johnathan Mooney and Stockholm’s Christian Granquist otherwise known as the Trans-Atlantic post-punk project, Johnathan|Christian have released their latest EP, Strip Me.

The EP tells a story through a trilogy of songs, ‘Strip Me,’ ‘Sway Back’ and ‘This Too’.  The topics addressed in the trilogy include acknowledging the fear of rejection, love’s often finite nature, hitting bottom and trying to find ways out.

The EP also features remixes by Ministry’s John Bechdel, EBM legend Leæther Strip, and Steven Archer (Stone Burner/Ego Likeness), which provide unique interpretations of the duo’s sound.

The music video for ‘Strip Me’, produced by Purple Tree Creative’s Nick Van Dyk, takes a subliminal approach in terms of the cuts and imagery addressing the challenges of a relationship.

The animated video aims to explore the different emotions and experiences that come with the life cycle of a relationship in a unique and visually striking way. By using abstract imagery, the video aims to create a powerful and thought-provoking response that can help those going through challenges to understand better and process their feelings, even if it may be on a subconscious level. The video’s goal is to convey empathy and the chaos that comes with the experience of a relationship.

Watch it here:

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Watch: ‘End Of The World Girl’ by Nervous Eaters

Posted: 30 October 2022 in Recommended Streams and Videos
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Pioneering Boston rock band Nervous Eaters, contemporaries of bands like the Ramones, The Police, Iggy Pop, and The Pretenders, are debuting ‘End Of The World Girl,’ the next single and a video off their forthcoming album titled Monsters + Angels out November 11 via Stevie Van Zandt’s Wicked Cool Records.

Watch the video here:

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Of the track, singer, guitarist, songwriter, producer Steve Cataldo says, "When I wrote “END OF THE WORLD GIRL” last year, I had no idea the song might turn out to be somewhat prophetic. With so many world leaders talking about WW3 and atomic warfare, there’s no telling what might happen. I would say, today, right now, is the best time to “Heat up the oven an get some Good Lovin” going on or better yet, how about a date with a “streetwalking, sweet talking, End of The World Girl”.

Formed in the mid-70’s, the Nervous Eaters would eventually become the house band for the legendary Boston punk rock club The Rat, where they established themselves as a leading punk rock band in the Northeast, playing with a who’s who of punk and new wave luminaries, including The Police, The Ramones, The Cars, Patti Smith, Dead Boys, Iggy Pop, The Stranglers, Go-Go’s and many others.

The Cars’ Ric Ocasek produced the band’s original demos, which got the band signed to Elektra Records, and they went on to tour around the world. However, after a series of poor decisions on the part of the label, their major label debut album failed to deliver on the promise of their legendary live shows.

After dissolving the band, Nervous Eaters returned in the mid-80’s and has been revived over the years with various lineups.

The current version of the Nervous Eaters formed in 2018 and includes three other Boston rock vets, bassist Brad Hallen (of Ministry, Ric Ocasek and The Joneses), drummer David McLean (of Willie Alexander’s Boom Boom Band) and guitarist/vocalist Adam Sherman (of Private Lightning), and between them, they have recorded and/or toured with such artists as Ministry, Iggy Pop, Aimee Mann, Jane Wiedlin, Susan Tedeschi, Jimmie Vaughan, Lenny Kaye and many others.

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Photo: Carissa Johnson

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