Formed in 2008, Liyr is a martial industrial project coming from France. Stephane years ago was involved into industrial electro with Skoyz but his new project has nothing to do with those sounds. FRAGMENTS OF DUST sees Stephane taking the moniker of Sven Mann to give his vision about human passions and disgraces. Inspired by Celtic esoterism (Liyr is the God of Sea in Celtic myths), musically Liyr mix classical music and bombastic percussions, succeeding into bringing to the lovers of these sounds a strong album full of pathos. It's not easy to build a strong and rich sound using mainly samples without risking to have a mishmash but despite the lo-fi approach to sound (I hear there's a bit of brilliance missing), Sven Mann on all the tracks is able to create powerful sounds where melody and percussive blasts join perfectly.

Is reissue time for Von Thronsthal. Cold Spring the last year reissued "E Pluribus Unum" and "Imperium Internum", Trutzburg Thule has just printed a 2 CD deluxe edition of "Return Your Revolt Into Style" and Eternal Pride "Bellum, Sacrum Bellum!?". Into this flow of releases, Cold Spring issues CONSCRIPTUM, a double CD of hard to find, remixed, collaboration and unreleased tracks which didn't match the concept of any album. With a total of twenty eight tracks, the casual listener could have a good idea of the different sounds the band covered during these years as well as the fan could have into his hands a bunch of unreleased tracks and unfinished ones which could satisfy the curiosity of who would like to hear what a work in progress sounds like or a track that has been thrown away was. We could find martial classical tunes with powerful upfront choirs, neo-folk tunes with punk/electro influences (like the new "Deutsche passion", born from a collaboration with Spreu & Weizen), different versions of classic tunes (like the opening "Reisswolf", "Junges Europa" and "Domovino"), punk industrial folk songs that sounds like Dead Kennedy's "California uber alles" ("Zerstört Und Auferstanden"), collaborations ("Nem Nem Soha" is a dark martial industrial track born from a collaboration with Sturmast) and new tracks like "Patientin, 25 Jahre", "Götterdämmerung In Ruinen" or "Flut, Trance, Traum" which fortunately didn't get lost (I liked their dramatic touch where choirs, industrial percussions and melody blend). There's also a nice fast version of Death In June's "Runes & Men" (a sort of country folk song with guitars, flutes and tambourines), one of the Skid's "The Saints Are Coming" (an upbeat industrial goth version) and of Leonard Cohen's version of "The blind partisan". "Mars Macht Mobil III" sounds like a bit unfinished (it has an hip hop distorted rhythm with a synth line and different vocal lines) but you have 140 minutes of music to enjoy!

If you are asking who could be the moneyed partners of Lost Incorporated, the Italian band White Pulp which could potentially act as their supervisors seems depicting just their traits and their ways without naming them. Politicians, disco bitches, drunkards, drug addicts and even cliched dark or goth followers seem to crowd the rich imaginary inspiring their lyrics, even if the band created by Nuke and Sonny ' the bassist and the anti-hero looking front leader respectively - after a long and satisfactory experience playing covers from Marylin Manson's arsenal looks not so interested neither in celebrating summary executions nor in toadying the mentioned categories. Starting by some impetuous and scornful invectives of a track entitled Malediction (it seems referred to some fashion victims "drinking cups of rum and coke until their brain is afloat'') could belie such a consideration, but the general impression is that they are lenient towards sinners as they maybe partially feel as a part of them!

From the stylistic viewpoint, they improved the music formula they exhibited in their first full-length Ashamed of Yourself by filling the furrows traced alongside their artistic pathway up with more electronics - sometimes surrounding the classic goth-rock line up - and therefore I personally appreciated more those tracks whereas this electronic vein pulses stronger (such as Full Time Bitch - it's really funny the parodistic incipit based on the usual techno-trance tune turning into a solid goth-rock movement, highlighting the pitiless portrait of...you know what...just read the title! -, STFU - an attempt of invective against mass media frightening strategies -, A Lie In Everyone or Misunderstood Sweetnes - being definitively my favorite 'intimate' moment as well -), but it's undeniable they should work more on a really personal music language, too influenced by the mentioned experience as a Marylin Manson cover band as it seems they reprise its music which appears just filtered by fashionable eletropop soups a-la-Depeche Mode or slightly scratched by some industrial-rock clutches, but I argue they're on the right way. Paradoxically some listener could even appreciate more the 3 bonus tracks, which are just 3 acoustic versions of songs previously issued on Ashamed Of Yourself, revealing the melodic skeletons of White Pulp's composition. Maybe we should be patient and wait till the moment the value of Lost Inc. shares goes up...

EightFourSeven is a Sacramento-based four piece and they just came out with their new full length album "Lossless" after a debut EP in 2002, a self-released full-length in 2004 and another EP in 2006.
"Lossless" is a powerful blend of rock and electronica. Be warned reader, there is more of the former than the latter, but if you have an open mind and you like some of the West Coast sounding more adventurous bands I would give this a spin. The sound is powerful and the sonic impact is grand. They reminded me of The Dreaming (Stabbing Westward's lead singer's project) and in a way they might remind a bit of Linkin Park, but they will also remind you of a bunch of other bands with this new rock sound...
For "Lossless" EightFourSeven decided to break out the big guns. They enlisted the help of producer Eric Stenman (M.I.A., Senses Fail, Thrice) and local heroes Far's guitar player Shaun Lopez and took the whole show down to the big Red Bull Studios in Santa Monica. It took them four years of work but the results paid off qualitatively speaking and hopefully it will be same in terms of exposure and feedback.

The Blood of Heroes is what gets spilled when masters of industrial, dub and dancehall get together and record music session after session, for a year. The heroes of this battle are guitarist Justin Broadrick from Godflesh and Jesu, bassist Bill Laswell from Material, Praxis, Painkiller, electronic artist Submerged and Enduser and vocalist Dr. Israel.
The name of the super group is inspired by Rutger Hauer's Bladerunner-sequel. I haven't seen the film but I imagine that if it is anything like Bladerunner, the post-apocalyptic scenarios are a perfect visual representation of what is going on here sonically. Apocalyptic, dark, sinister and menacing, The Blood of Heroes summons and blends industrial, dub, metal, drum'n'bass, dubstep, ambient and noise in a masterful and relentless way. The album also features live drumming by KJ Sawka (Pendulum) and Balazs Pandi (Merzbow, Venetian Snares) and additional sounds/guitars by M. Gregor Filip (an Ohm label founder).
If the sum of these people's talents and their other projects is not enough to convince you to visit the Ohm Resistance website and get yourself a copy of this CD, then go to the website anyway and listen to the tracks and you'll be convinced for sure.