
Today I got my answer. This time I was browsing through the releases to be reviewed when my eye fell on the "martial industrial" tag. I became curious. Here was something new in the old tradition. Furthermore, here is something that seems to combine all of the aforementioned bands. And most of all, here is something that proves that dark ambient, neoclassical and martial industrial are far from dead.'Schism' is an impressive and outstanding piece of work, one that definitely earns a place in between all your favorite Cold Meat Industry heroes.
Personally, I love the level of variation on this album. Dark ambient soundscapes alternate with percussion driven martial industrial music. The latter contain all the right elements too, the repetitive percussion, the orchestral arrangements and the bombastic approach of militaristic march music. Opener 'Otto della Guerra' immediately sets the tone and it immediately got me hooked on this sound as well. Yet, dark ambient fanatic as I am, my favorite track here is 'No divisions among you', a perfectly haunting piece of music.
In fact, there is only one track that I'm not extremely fond of, namely 'Acts and Monuments' but even that one is a convincing piece of old school inspired martial industrial. Perhaps it's too fast for me, who knows, but if you love Triarii, Arditi, Von Thronstahl and so on, you'll love this too. In the end, I can only recommend this album. It brings back memories and it's simply perfectly executed.
Serge