Sektor 304 - Subliminal Actions

With the multiplicity of so called oontz-oontz EBM oriented bands in industrial music which conquered the scene recently, the new album of Sektor 304 sounds like some kind of escape to the roots or rising of dinosaurs from oblivion. In my opinion, 'Subliminal Actions' will talk mostly to the people whose brain was fucked up by Coil, S.P.K., Test Dept and others somewhere during late 80's when the exploration of sound was based on taking the garbage from a backyard and expressing oneself through this junk by hitting, scratching, drilling or all kind of raping it in all possible ways.

Being a really fresh meat on the market, Sektor 304 contains four guys united by one common idea, to reveal their personal experience and vision of industrial music through the prism of their own influences. While being affected by different bands from the past, Sektor 304 keeps a high level of independence in how exactly do they sound. The dish that they prepare on their new record, tastes like a ton of garbage in a good meaning of the expression.

I have to confess, that I haven't heard any of their albums ever before. But being a fan of the products that arrive from Malignant records, I couldn't pass by this CD. That's why I started listening to it without any preconceptions and with my mind clean to receive any kind of a blast.

The opening track, "A Carving On Metal Skin", welcomes me with the wall of agonizing sound, the cacophony of something drilling, sawing and scratching is covered over with the splashes of radio noise. After listening to this kind of an intro, I was ready for one more power electronics album. But the second track deceived my expectation. Suddenly music transformed to be much more rhythmic, where the rhythm is guided by a drum session played on empty barrels. Brutal vocals session joined the scene, hand grinding machine added from its agony as well. The guitar riffs and regular drums turned the track to be almost on the edge of death metal, but all the background machinery kept it on the side of industrial music.

The third track "By The Throat" becomes even faster while all the drums present there as well along with brutal vocals and drilling special effects. "Full Circle", the fourth track, is a slow, a little bit monotonous creation, though it keeps a morose and terrifying atmosphere alive again with different machinery effects, overloaded guitars and tribal drum session, which merge in one painful mixture at the end of the track. "Vultures" is a mid tempo composition similar by its sound to "A Vessel of Guilt", and I think it to be the less interesting track, maybe because it lacks of any significant gesture that could have separate it from all the rest. Suddenly, "Friction" appears to be almost dark ambient composition, which brings a strong post-apocalyptic atmosphere, full of obscure visions, and it reminds me a bit of late Raison D'etre creations.

And then comes "Terminal Stage", which I liked most of all in this album, slow and dense track, which starts with a heavier part of drilling subdued sounds, once again overloaded guitars, noisy weather interferences and evil vocals, but slowly transforming into almost drone ambience, opening the gates towards vast wastelands of mechanical terror and human destruction. Following the previous hypnotic atmosphere, "Concrete Islands" arrives to wake me up from my dreamy journey, and blasts the dynamics with its almost marching rhythm, and of course the special drums are here again to rule and dictate the tempo and give it a significant taste of mass murder, hatred and fear. "A.A.D.S" is one solemn passage to oblivion with deep drones and sawing elements, taking a step forward to its powerful conclusion around the 6th minute of its run with a total madness of crashing industrialized cacophony, grinding my brain or whatever that was left from it until now. In "Prismatic Sun" the hypnotizing effect of those so called drums reaches its apogee, guided by drilling effect and jerking bass guitar together with a vast background ambience that all together come to create almost danceable track.

Even though the Portuguese guys don't have a large portfolio of various releases, they reanimate good old days of rise of industrial music that seemed to be forgotten already. They prove that you don't have to be some kind of a scene monster in order to create a really entertaining and fresh music.

The release is out on Malignant Records. Go and grab yourself a copy of 'Subliminal Actions' instead of jerking to the oontz music. Apr 02 2012