Der Prosector – Egregious EP

Examining every inch of the senses and psyche as it throws you round the dance-floor is the Egregious EP, the debut release from UK/US industrial cyberpunks Der Prosector. Unleashed through UK indie label Armalyte Industries, the infestation of sound and emotional irritation is a ravenous often rabid tempest of industrial punk sure to instil a real hunger for more in a great many.

Almondbury hailing Der Prosector consists of Ged Denton (Cyber-tec Project), Digby Denton (Frogs of War), Jules Seifert (The Sepia), and Neil Hester (Downcast, The Sepia). Together the quartet dive head first into the tempestuous explorations of themes such as “sex and death, ever eroding freedoms, wilful mind control and the continued brutalization of the innocent” within Egregious, conjuring sounds and sonic trespasses to match the intensity of word and emotion. It pulls no punches from its first breath, each track an abrasing and bracing confrontation withering the senses as it incites feet and body to rampage.

The EP starts up with Sun Dogs, its initial atmospheric coaxing already fraught with threat and intrigue which only escalates as the track rises up with infection fuelled lures and flirtatious rhythms. As the vocals of Ged Denton spring their attitude lined invitation, synths and guitar weave an invasively catchy web as beats thump with matching contagion. At times like a raw fusion of Prong and Rabbit Junk, the song continues to impose and incite as it devours body and spirit.

Strangled brings a new visceral air and tone next up, its prowling beats and stalking sonic probing an interrogation with its own compelling contagion. Second by second, its touch and breath intensifies, its irritancy breeding greater enmity yet it never lessens its infectious persuasion on hips and spirit. There is a touch of Pitchshifter to its punk causticity which is even more pronounced within the following virus of The Instrument though it is fair to say that the song and its companions are all firmly stamped Der Prosector. The third track stomps around with exasperation; vex soaking every note and syllable as its industrial punk exploits brews a maelstrom of creative enmity before the inescapably addictive Subject 7 imposes its specific contagion with punk bred, industrial brewed enterprise and threat.

The rapacious energy and unbridled catchiness of MotherHack, a track which bubbles with lava-esque determination, brings things to a mighty conclusion though the digital release of Egregious comes with the treat of three remixes of Sun Dogs; each of the 2Bit Heroes edit, DigitalMetal mix, and Sere Remix revealing distinctly individual alter egos of the song to complete the pleasure and fascination nurtured by the EP.

Though each of its members has experienced acclaim and success with their previous projects, Der Prosector is a whole new ball game which the Egregious EP suggests has the potential to out do anything before.

The Egregious EP is out now through Armalyte Industries and available @ https://armalyte.bandcamp.com/album/der-prosector-egregious-ep digitally and on Ltd Ed blood splattered vinyl.

https://www.derprosector.com/     https://www.facebook.com/derprosector

Pete RingMaster 24/10/2017

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Seeds in a wasteland: engaging with Remnants of Hope

Forging a potent reputation with a sound going against the general trend of their local music scene, Remnants of Hope is an Atlanta bred band on the rise. Their Industrial/punk rock sound has seen the band have their most potent year yet since forming in 2014, the sharing of stages with the likes of Eyes Set To Kill, Famous Last Words, Wednesday 13, Allegaeon, Byzantine, and Not Tonight Josephine among numerous all adding to the reputation of Remnants of Hope. With thanks to vocalist Alexander Death, and guitarists Nykii Nightmare and Paul Graveyard, we grabbed the opportunity to find out more about this growing force…

Hello and thanks for taking time out to talk with us.

Hello and thank you for having us!

Can you tell us about the band and how it all started?

We’re a band called Remnants of Hope from Atlanta, Georgia. We started out covering songs from bands we liked then making our own music videos and putting them up on YouTube. After we became more passionate we started writing our own material, not long after that we came up with the name “Remnants of Hope” and started performing.

Is Remnants of Hope your first foray into music or have you been involved in previous outfits?

Group: We’ve not been in any bands before this one.

What inspired the band name?

Group: We’re an industrial band and most of our songs take place in a post-apocalyptic setting. We wanted a name that would describe fighters for the greater good in that setting.

Was there any specific idea behind the forming of the band and also in what you wanted it and your sound to offer?

Group: We wanted to be an industrial rock/metal band. We wanted to have flaming guitar solos as well as screaming and singing. We wanted to put on a very theatrical live show, when we’re afforded the time to set-up and we’re allowed to bring extra stage items we take fog and lights with us, as well as stage props.

Do the same things still drive the band when it was fresh-faced or have they evolved over time?

Group: Our passion for music. That will never change.

Since your early days, how would you say your sound has evolved?

Group: Heavier with much more complexity.

Has it been more of an organic movement of sound or do you deliberately push yourselves into trying new things?

Group: Both, as artists we want to progress and do new things, that plus the natural maturity of our song writing progressing makes our sound change.

Presumably across the band there is a wide range of inspirations; are there any in particular which have impacted not only on the band’s music but your personal approach and ideas to creating and playing music?

Zander: Danny Worsnop. His vocal style on Death to Destiny was very intriguing and encouraged me to change up my own style.

Nykii: Bullet for my Valentine. The way their songs are composed is inspiring to me in creating my own compositions.

Is there a process to the songwriting which generally guides the writing of songs?

Nykii: I compose all the music then Zander and I get together for the lyrical content of the songs. After that we go down the list of what vocal style the song needs to sound the best. Once the vocal style has been selected me and Paul write the guitar solos. That’s the process and steps we usually go through each time we write a song.

Where do you, more often than not, draw the inspirations to the lyrical side of your songs?

Group: Real life experiences, video games we’re playing…Possibly horror movies for some songs (Afterbite).

Please give us some background to your latest release and some insight to the themes and premise behind it.

Group: Mirroring My Pain. We put it out last April. The EP is about dealing with and defeating your demons.

Mirroring my Pain [the intro] is the start of the story line, the realization that the character of the story can change certain aspects of his life. See Me Fall is about the character confronting his demons, saying how they only want to see him bleed. Every time he looks into the mirror his demon self is threatening to slit his wrists. At the end he confronts and defeats his inner demons. Digging Graves is the part of the story where he buries the worse half of himself, once and for all letting go of his pain. The character has inner turmoil as he fights against his darker emotions to move on. Worth Fighting For is the final song on the EP. The character has taken care of all of his inner demons, but his emotions that lash out are still plaguing him. He fights and kills “Anger” and “Pain” in a symbolic measure that he now has them both under control.

Are you a band which goes into the studio with songs pretty much in their final state or prefer to develop them as you record?

Group:  Yes, we do a lot of pre-production to make sure we get things right once we start recording them.

Tell us about the live side to the band, presumably the favourite aspect of the band?

Group: Whether we play for fifteen minutes or forty minutes, we give it our all the whole time. To us it’s what we live, breathe and train for. The live show is everything to us.

It is not easy for any new band to make an impact regionally let alone nationally and further afield. How have you found it?

Group:  Sometimes, we’ve been really really lucky this year with opportunities to open for bigger bands. Last year we were not nearly as fortunate, so we were basically just trying to push out as much online promotion and campaigns as possible.

How has the internet and social media impacted on the band to date? Do you see it as something destined to become a negative from a positive as the band grows and hopefully gets increasing success?

Nykii: Where we’re from bands are either death-core or pop-punk. This has put us in both a fantastic and a terrible place at the same time. Thanks to social media other band members from different bands can quickly go to one of our sites and comment on the fact in a negative manner that we’re not exactly the same as them, making the exact same music as them. On the other hand, we’re different and we fit better on some shows than others would. I think social media for the most part is already becoming a negative thing at our current place. Keeping it working to your advantage is just a massive game of X’s and O’s. Every time you get three in a row the game appears to restart and you need to find a new corner to try and occupy with your work.

Once again a big thanks for sharing time with us; anything you would like to add or reveal for the readers?

Group: Once again, thank you for having us. Our music video for A Warriors Heart is out now! (or will be by the time this interview is posted). You can watch it here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94ZNBLFhA8c

https://www.facebook.com/RemnantsOfHopeBand/   https://twitter.com/RemofHope

Pete RingMaster

The RingMaster Review 26/09/2016

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Cold Cold Ground – Lies About Ourselves

Having been enlisted into their dark rock sounds with the excellent Blue Light Circus EP of 2008, Finish industrial punks Cold Cold Ground have continued to whip up our passions here but now really gone to town on them with their new album Lies About Ourselves. An intensive brew of seductive atmospheres around a carnivorous predation which stretches and pushes the release the release is a riveting mouth-watering furnace of energy and startling noise sculpted invention, an industrial punk/metal fury with a devilishly twisted intent. It is the Helsinki quartet’s finest moment to date, ten rapaciously ravaging slices of heavy, dark, and exhausting brilliance.

Cold Cold Ground was formed in 2004 by Hauptmann D, NooZ, Mr. Bunny, and John Paul Jr, and was soon grabbing attention through their trio of EPs, the Lamb and Custom Built EPs of 2005 and 2006 respectively as well as the previously mentioned Blue Light Circus. With an all senses engulfing live show and their well-received debut album This Side of Depravity of 2010, the band only enhanced their stature and fan base which Lies About Ourselves now takes to another level. On their second album the band quite simply is at its most inventive, volatile, and furiously impacting yet.

The album instantly is savaging the ears with opener My Fist And I, the track a tornado of energy and aural spite from its opening second, and though it has moments where it takes a step back in aggression it feels like it is merely taking closer straighter aim for the next tirade of thrilling voracious intensity. The vocals of Hauptmann D prey on every syllable given, fuelling them with a venom which matches the hunger of the riffs from Mr. Bunny and the prowling bass of NooZ. With the unforgiving rhythms of drummer Hoker Dine puncturing the punk storm brewed, the track is a stunning slab of intensive defiance and industrial antagonism. It rampages like a blend of Pitchshifter and Rabbit Junk with essences of Rammstein and Lard, but equally has its own rabidity driven uniqueness.

The following Welcome to Hell has a less intensive and more electro based presence but is still fuelled by a punk voraciousness which snarls at and chews the imagination excitingly. Less instant and commanding than its predecessor the track still grips a wildly attentive appetite for the varied and inventive sounds offered. Its successor Suck and Pay feeds that same hunger with its exceptional fire of cantankerous energy and invention. Like Fuckshovel does Fear Factory whilst on a sonic hallucinogen, the track is a glorious charge of ingenious enterprise and daring, unpredictable and wholly addictive.

The pleasure and ravenous craft of the album continues to excel, through firstly Model Citizen where thumping rhythms frame an intensive brawl of riffing before taking centre stage whilst coaxing in further scythes of guitar and electronic teasing. The bass also finds a new darker growl which excites the ear and helps create a Marilyn Mansion toned presence as the track hits its stride. It like the following venomous We Are the Sun slip a little below the plateau set by the album but with bodies of inventive hostility and imaginative provocation neither leave satisfaction or hunger wanting, the same as the contagious Tourist, another song which cannot quite match the highest pinnacles but forges its own memorable dark rock heights.

The brawl of the insatiable punk fuelled Cocaine In My Ass slaps another major highlight down on the senses and passions, the great bass taunting and esurient challenge of the riffs and rhythms colliding for an illustrious aggravation which is viciously anthemic and barbarically addictive. The song puts up a real test for those following to equal which none do but certainly they all make valiant impressive attempts, Drive the first stepping up to take the listener on an exhausting and highly satisfying charge of caustic rock ‘n’ roll to be followed by the stalking and compellingly imaginative title track, a song with melodic flames and bold textures as gripping as its extensive intensity, and finally the smouldering electro embraced Things Fall Apart. The last offering continues the great diversity across the album, its melancholic beauty and seductive balladry mesmeric if maybe lacking the wonderful addiction brewing toxicity of previous songs.

     Lies About Ourselves is a scintillating confrontation, a thunderous and greedy assault of industrial seeded punk and rock excellence. Cold Cold Ground just gets better and better.

http://www.coldcoldground.com/

9/10

RingMaster 18/11/2013

Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright

Listen to the best independent music and artists on The RingMaster Review Radio Show and The Bone Orchard from

http://www.audioburger.com