Neon Judgement (The) - Blood & Thunder

Name: The Neon Judgement
Album: Blood & Thunder
Year: 1989
Style: Cold Wave, Industrial, EDM/EBM
Similar Bands: Borghesia, Ed Schrader's Music Beat, KMFDM, Front 242, Cabaret Voltaire, Nitzer Ebb
"One-Word" Review: Electric Propeganda Cow Punk
Based Out Of: Brussles, Belgium
Label: Play It Again Sam Records, Waxtrax

Cover, Sleeve, Record

Back, Lyrics, Record

Blood & Thunder (1989)

1. Facing Pictures 5:27
2. 1313 4:44 (single)
3. Damned I Love You 4:41
4. Games of Love 4:06 (single) /
5. Don't Wish Me Luck 3:58
6. This City 4:36
7. Ritual of Earth 5:43
8. Le Suicide Beau Serge 7:18

Album Rating (1-10): 5.5

Members & Other Bands:

• Jean-Marie Aerts - Producer, Slide Guitar, Percussion, Bass (Lala, Louisette, Luk Vankessel & Spirit, Specimen & the Rizikoos, TC Matic, more)
• Luc Van Acker - Producer, Guitar, Backing Vox (Arbeid Adelt!, Danceable Weird Shit, MLYTTKK, Noise Abroad, primitive Race, Revolting Cocks, Spinegrinder, Three Angry Poles, more)
• Dirk Da Davo - Vox, Guitar, Samples, Synths, Korg DDD1, Bass, Percussion (Neon Electronics, Implant, Dave Inox, If It Moves, Vandal X )
• TB Frank - Guitar, Vox, Korg DDD1, Bass, Synths (Aimless Device, Neon Electrics)
• Beatrice - Backing Vox 
• Fats (Mark Devroy) - Harp
• Stoy Stoffelen - Hi Hat, Drums (De Ritme Kings, Lenny & De Wespen, Luk Vankessel & Spirit, Machitun De Chile, Specimen & the Rizikoos, The Centimeters, The Millionaires, Raymond van het Groenewoud, Big Bill, Snaar, Urbanus Van Anus, JM Troisfontaine, Garden, Chirojeugd, Walter Verdin, Jan De Wilse, Jean Blaute, De Kreet, Pas De Deux, Roland, Kazzen, Anne Mie Gills, De Nieuwe Snaar, Dr Feestkapoentjes, Hugo Matthysen, Koen Crucke, Kamagurka, Won Ton Ton, De Kreuners, Tom Wolf, Bart Kaell, Johan Verminnen, The Choice, Suske En Wiske, Bart Van den Bossche, JMX, K's Choice, Yevgueni, Raf Coppens, Aroma Di Amore, Wreed & Plezant, De Grugblavers, Stef Gie & Chris)
• Christian Ramon - Remastering
• Michel Dierickx - Engineer
• Ferre Baelen - Bass (Afro Erotica, Aimless Device, Air of Gloom, Edwards & Armani, inocube, Lala, Le Mystere, Little Little, Panthera, Partisan, Revenge 88, Rossi, Sleepwalker, Stagebeast, TC Matic, Trance Trax, Two Thumbs, Von Coburg & Armani, Zsa Zsa "La Boum", Tjens Couter, Sonia Dufour, Jo Lemaire, Ginger Morris, Niki Mono, Kamiel Kafka & Co, Arno)
• JP Everaerts - Engineer
• Jean Le Belge - Percussion, Bass, Vox 
• Daniel Muffat - Congas (Patrick Nuissier, Johan Verminnen, Vaya Con Dios)
• Wim Wenders - Sleeve Pics 
• Hugues De Wurstemberger - Inner Sleeve Pics
• Stephan Barbery - Sleeve Design

Unknown-ness: I've never heard of this band, but from the bleak photo and an americana mid-western landscape. I can only imagine this will be a sort of western sweeping soundscape record. The packaging reminds me of the band Lone Justice for some reason. 

Album Review: The album does begin with a harmonica, but the synth drum beats added in give it a sterile western vibe. The vocals have an authoritarian Eastern European delivery to them, not unlike Ed Schrader. Some of the tracks are a little dancier, but still with that cold propaganda appeal. The band consists of two members, who have programmed mechanical cold dance tracks since the early 80's, and are somewhat considered to be pioneers in the EBM genre. The album before this one was their first break into the US market. Their last effort (as of 2020) was in 2012.

Stand Out Track: Facing Pictures

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La Muerte - Death Race 2000

Name: La Muerte
Album: Death Race 2000
Year: 1989
Style: HardCore, ScreamCore, Metal.
Similar Bands: Kukl, Megadeath, Helmet, Fantomas (musically), Melvins, Sepultura
"One-Word" Review: "Kill Your Melodic Face"
Based Out Of: Brussels, Belgium & Spain
Label: Play It Again Sam Records USA, Waxtrax,

Death Race 2000 - Cover, Sleeve Photo

Death Race 2000 - Back, Sleeve Info

Death Race 2000 - Record

Death Race 2000 (1989)

1. I Would Die Faster 4:07
2. Black God White Devil 4:41
3. Ecoute Cette Priere 3:26
4. Make it Easy 3:21
5. Shoot You In the Back 4:52/
6. Death Race 2000 5:19
7. Burst My Soul 4:04
8. Killing Is My Business 3:59
9. Scared Flame 7:14

Album Rating (1-10): 5.5

Members & Other Bands:
Paul Delnoy - Producer (Qui)
Marc Borgers - Cover Computer Painting, Pictures
Marie Beaunom - Tech Assistance
Hugues Wurstenberger - Photo Assistant
Marc du Marais - Screams

Dee-J. - Distortion (Ether, 3 Angry Poles)
Paul "Dunlop" Delnoy - Vibrobass
Michel De Greef - Drums

Unknown-ness: I've never heard of these guys before, but I like the cover art of a T-Rex caught at what I believe to be the extinction of the dinosaurs. The pictures of the back make me think that the band will be some kind of industrial punk music, and the motivation behind the album title could back that up.

Album Review: “I Would Die Faster” begins with a driving dark drum and bass beat, and low growl-singing, which reminds me of Bjork’s older band Kukl. The power guitar riffs and growls all over the place add accent to the lyrics. The singing has advanced to higher pitched scream-talking. The song keeps up the driving rhythm with the unchanging bass and drum beat and power single chord of the rhythm guitar.
“Black God White Devil” sounds like it might actually be a heavy pop number. The vocals are angry spoken words with a slight growl. This reminds me a little of Megadeath. The song is very steady and does not stray from the formula that you encounter at the get go. There is a power guitar instrumental section, but it returns to the predictable guitar hook driven verse. Even the chorus does not change too much from the main song structure, although it does incorporate a different dual tone shouting vocal for the chorus. “Ecoute Cette Priere” has howling guitars and vibrating weirdness to start off. Then growling angry vocals shout, but do not follow the driving music melody. Like spoken work poetry set to unrelated music. It is dark and has a lot of built up aggression. Musically, it reminds me of a nice combination of Faith No More and Helmet.“Make it Easy” starts off with a sleazy metal guitar hook, but has barely audible deep growling vocals. The song has a very bold presence. The chorus is a yelling of the title over and over again in rhythm with the melody“Shoot You In the Back” begins with a country western influenced slow guitar. Like a western showdown, it drags on slowly with determination. The vocals are grueling and grating. This song, musically, reminds me of Tomahawk. But the vocals detract from the potency of the song. It should be mellow and focused, but the shouts seem careless.

“Death Race 2000” has a head down, stomp progression. The start and stopping of the music, while carried along by the bass line reminds me of the song “War Pigs.” The vocals are barely more than a hushed whispering, but there is still tension in the hisses and syllables of the whispers. The song breaks form and releases an aggressive rush of vocals and music before adding what sound like heavy orchestral strings to accent the underlying melody.“Burst My Soul” is fast paced from the get go. It drives and rumbles on. The vocals are barely there, which let the catchy melody take the main stage. There is a breakdown after 2:20 where the music stops and metallic guitar string screeches echo. Then 20 sec later, the song picks back up with the driving chorus.“Killing Is My Business” starts with cop cars and some kind of hot pursuit audio sample. Then repetitive driving music begins and shouting lyrics with no music basis begins. The chorus is a nice change up with depth and a nice hook but the vocals just scream. The song ends with the music fading out and the hot pursuit sound clips finish up the song in dramatic fashion.“Scared Flame” begins with a dark off-timed bass line and cowboy electric, echoing steel guitar and a steady drum beat are added. The rough vocals are filled with aggression, and shout at the listener. The music rolls on, unaffected, as if it’s playing to its own audience, and the vocals are just layered overtop. The vocal and music do actually overlap in the middle of the song, and remind me of the limited stuff I’ve heard from Sepultura. The song relaxes in the end and calms down to a single tone echoing for a few seconds.

Stand Out Track: "Burst My Soul"

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Borghesia - No Hope, No Fear / Surveillance and Punishment

Name: Borghesia
Album(s): No Hope, No Fear* / Surveillance & Punishment ^
Year(s): 1987* / 1989^
Style: Industrial New Wave
Similar Bands: Einsturzende Neubauten, Nitzer Ebb, KMFDM
"One-Word" Review: Industriganda-Synth-Fear-Wave
Based Out Of: Slovenia (ex Yugoslavia)
Label: Play It Again Sam USA*^, Wax Trax Records*

No Hope, No Fear - Cover & Record
No Hope No Fear - Back & Record

Surveillance & Punishment - Cover & Record

Surveillance & Punishment - Back & Record

No Hope, No Fear (1987)*

1. Ni Upanja, Ni Strahu (No Hope, No Fear) 4:30
2. Na Smrtno Kazen (Sentenced To Death) 5:15
3. 133 4:15 /
4. Blato (Mud) 5:16
5. Lovci (Hunters) 3:19
6. Mi Smo Povsod (We Are Everywhere) 5:41

Surveillance & Punishment (1989)^

1. Discipline! (Punish Them) 5:06
2. Raga (In Memorium Goran Devide) 4:13 /
3. Am I? (VersionTwo) 4:20
4. Discipline! (There Is Rebellion In The Wind) 5:06

Album Rating (1-10): 5.5* 6.0^

Members & Other Bands:Dario Seraval - vocals, programing (1982 - 1991)
Aldo Ivancic - drums, programing (1982 - 1995) (Bast)
Zemira Alajbegovic - video (1982 - 1989)
Goran Devide - video (1982, died in Maribor in 1988)
Neven Korda - video (1982 - 1989)
Igor Leonardi - Guitar*
Karmen Mihajlovic - Vox*
Silvo Znidarsic - Engineer*^
Janet Krizaj - Engineer*
Borut Berden - Engineer*
Steinberg - Software Support^
Imre Caki - Conductor Vodice Primary School^

Unknown-ness: I’ve never heard of these guys. But from the album art, they look like an electronic dance / new wave band. Although the albums were donated to a thrift shop amidst other gothic and dark new wave acts, so perhaps they will be more depressing or droning. I did take note that their song titles were in a different language, and just from the name and art work I assumed Russian or German.

Album Reviews: “No Hope, No Fear” starts off with the title track, with a synthesized drum beat and synthesized electronic bass. Nitzer Ebb style drums are added as well as other electronic beats. The low vocals are sung in their native tongue, and sound like propaganda chanting, rather than singing, but the dark, cold atmosphere is created. The song gets a little new wave funky at times, thanks to some keyboard effects, but they come in small spurts. After some sampled vocals, the singing becomes more aggressive, shouting as if the audience has grown bigger, and his voice is trying to reach the back of the courtyard. “Sentenced to Death” begins with more dialogue sampling, and is followed up with an industrial clanking rhythm. The music is sparse, with lots of empty space between the instruments, creating the barren cold instrumental songscape. There are distorted vocals layered, but they do not constitute as lyrics. The industrial rhythm comes in for a short break, overlapped with a little bit of klezmer style. “133” beep beeps along, sounding like a intensive care ward in a hospital. The industrial rhythms (a hard working heart, maybe) enter into the rhythm for a minute, and the synthesized keyboards come in. The pulsing heart beat is never lost, but the song evolves from a hospital room to a dream state. It is instrumental again in the sense that vocals are distorted and add more rhythm rather than lyrical purpose.

“Mud’s” metallic stomp-drum intro creeps into sinister existence, and security announcement vocals drone overtop for half of the song. It really evokes images of patterned movements by a vast armored army and cold war fear. “Hunters” possesses a quicker drum beat with loud whisks of air that could be odd screams over top. A haunting whine/cry/vocal adds to the oddness and confusion. This is the music inside the E-Protectorate’s labyrinth of a fortress in Solarbabies. It is just repetitive shouts, chants, noises really that inspire fear. “We Are Everywhere” ends this mini 6 track album with everything that has come before it. A sinister jaws/spy hunter bass line drives the song with its two drum beats percussion. And what follows is a mix of buzzing sounds, spoken word commands, mechanical marches and frightening synthesizers.

“Discipline (Punish)” begins the ep, 2 years later in the making. It sounds like Michael Jackson’s Smooth Criminal without the pop element or any musical diversity. There is a haunting chorus of kids chanting over the music, accompanied by bells and cheery synth sounds. That becomes over run with more propaganda shouts, as the warden takes musical hold. “Raga” is a Middle Eastern instrumental, punctuated with a bassy repetitive alarm effect. It still has an empty, bleak feel, as there is a lot of space and echoy effects layered deep down in the production.

“Am I?” has more musical beats than most of the other tracks that have come before it. This is more along the lines of industrial techno. It is still more empty than rave music, but it is more than these guys have offered as of yet. There is an choral chant that is echoy and evil and mixed down in the music. And they use a squeaky animal sound too, which kinda seems odd when compared to the mix. Also mixed in are distorted lyrics from “Sex Machine” “get on up.” Finally “Discipline (Rebellion)” finished off their EP with more stripped down “Smooth Criminal” elements. And more repetitive dialogue, set in different tones, is added. Since this and the first track are both called Discipline, it makes sense that they have the same characteristics. Actually, thinking about Smooth Criminal, perhaps this was an inspiration for the song, since the video for it was very industrial, and there is that one part with industrial vocals over the musical break down.

Stand Out Track:

No Fear, No Hope*

Discipline! (Punish Them)^

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