Another month, a day late following the Resistanz weekend, and it’s time for another ten tracks. Yet again more had to be cut or held over, one of these days I’ll post another catchup to push the rest of this awesome stuff out to my readers.

Playlists:
Spotify
YouTube
Soundcloud

This really is something of a comeback list this month. The CD version of the EP was something of a surprise to find it appear at the Resistanz merch tables, and I’m glad I shelled out the (somewhat steep, frankly) £10 for a four-track EP. Ok, so the quasi-dubstep remix of Don’t Need The City is kinda forgettable, but the three new tracks are all examples of exactly why Sasha Klein’s project was so loved in the first place. Pride of place on the EP goes to the lead track, though, this emotional club belter that has one of those amazing hooks that was being sung along by most of the crowd on Sunday night by the time it came around a second time. (Note: the Soundcloud playlist includes another track from the EP, Former Me)

The long-rumoured comeback is finally actually happening – they play The Water Rats tomorrow night (Thursday), and new album LOVE AND PEACE AND SYMPATHY is out in June – and it has been heralded by this monstrous, nine minute epic that nods back to their greatest moments. A glowering, drawn-out build of stalking guitars and ominous organs finally break like a thunderstorm, and this track is no doubt going to sound absolutely fantastic live.

Doomy, industrial-tinged metal, this is ugly, brutal music that sounds awesome really loud. That they are labelmates of the one-man noise machine Author & Punisher is no great surprise – it would appear that Seventh Rule have found themselves a niche where extreme metal and industrial technology cross over. The whole album – all six, long tracks of it – is crushingly heavy, both in riff and in tone, kinda like Neurosis if they stripped away all the introspection and pushed the hatred and fury to eleven. Pick of the tracks, though, is the jaw-dropping opener, which has the unstoppable momentum of a very large bulldozer.

The ever-sardonic SNOG return, with frankly their poppiest, catchiest song in a long while, but otherwise, most things are broadly “as they were”. The music riffs on something else that I can’t quite put my finger on, the lyrics drip with sarcasm (and scan as wonderfully badly as Richey Edwards’ lyrics used to), and there is that usual hatred of capitalism involved, of course. What has changed, apparently, is that the band is now an all-female three-piece, with David Thrussell now Dee Thrussell, and having recently completed the process to become a transgender woman.

It’s been a while since the best EBM-revival act in the scene were around, but their new album proves that they are still ploughing the same furrow, and it sounds pretty damned good to me. They still sound an awful lot like Nitzer Ebb, particularly, in the vocals, but with dancefloor attacks as good as this who’s complaining?

The first song to be released from their forthcoming new album, this track has been played in recent live sets, and is clear that there is a burning, furious anger that still courses through the veins of this band. A slower, heavily rap-influenced metal track, like all the best Senser material it leaves the vocals high up in the mix to ensure the message is heard, without affecting the powerful crunch of the music.

It’s been some years, but industrial-black-metal hate purveyors The Amenta are back, and their corner of Australia is clearly a really fucking hateful place. Musically not a lot has changed here, either, going on this track at least. Vicious, electronically-assisted blastbeats, dry-as-hell howls of vocals, and squalling riffage. Good to have them back.

Talking of comebacks, the return of AiC post-Layne Staley was an unexpected joy. And on the evidence of this track from the forthcoming follow-up, it looks like that astonishing purple patch post-reunion is going to continue. A sludgy, slow, filthy grind, it is instantly recognisable as the work of the band, and is made even better by the soaring harmonies that make up the chorus. Fingers crossed for more live shows, eh?

Anyway, back to a new artist – to me, anyway. Talked up by a number of my North-American based friends, having picked up the album I can see why. Signed to Basic Unit Productions (Daniel Myer of Haujobb’s label), this perhaps is a pointer to how high quality a release this is. Gorgeously produced, complex electro-industrial with a pop edge that reminds me of genCAB in it’s fusion of the two, what is even more interesting is the sheer variety of styles that the rest of the album rushes headlong into (see also the video for Voices on the Youtube playlist).

Finally, a brutal reminder of straight-up, rhythmic noise nastiness from Shane Saw’s project W.A.S.T.E., whose material over time has become a little more cerebral at points, rather than the beat-driven carnage of the first album. So recent songs appearing online – including this and Are We Just Animals – that hark back to those times are definitely welcome from me. This track starts slowly, before a hulking beat kicks the door through and carries off the furniture.