Pieter's 2012 in dark music

We have survived the 21st december doomsday, and that means i am now forced to write this, because its that time of the year! The lists of best releases and stuff from the writers. Marco is busy with his tour the force (of which he seems to have missed part 10), i just keep it at this. I am pretty sure other writers of BR chip in their opinions. There is always lonely Christmas to write a nice piece for BR!

2012 has been a particular bad year if you are into the traditional industrial/goth scene. The quality level of releases has dropped substantially and i hear stories worldwide about dropping attendance at parties. I experienced it myself on parties i spin as DJ, and even in homeland Germany it is going down now. The times are changing and i notice a sense of panic in the more business side of things. Germany has been a love/hate thing for some people because of how closed off that country's scene is for outsiders. Labels, magazines and promotors have basically formed a cartel which led to a standstill over there. I came to realise that when i visited the Amphi festival in 2010. We were sitting on the beach (yeah, that festival has a beach!) with some friends, and i noticed a guy wearing a shirt of the Blackfield festival the year before. At least half of the acts on that lineup were also playing the Amphi festival we were at. It dawned on us there and then we were in decline. I just saw the line up of Amphi this year, and like last year i decided not to go. It is one big boring same old same oldie goldie line up.

But there is always a need for dark music, so when the Germans and their followers only produce mediocrity and failed commercial shitbands, other people will take over and their infuence can now be felt worldwide. It is a fascinating sight to see one scene dying and another coming up feeding on the old scene's dying corpse. Currently we see Witchhouse, Indie-goth and Doomcore on the rise and i myself (and a lot of other people) are very excited by the new sounds and style they bring.

Which bring us to the stuff i liked in 2012. I just provide a list here, since i have a hard time making up numbered "this CD is slightly better then this CD!" lists, and usually i find stuff which has to be in the list in January the next year and thats pretty frustating.

The Albums:
Displacer - Foundation
Grendel - Timewave: zero
Omkara Techichi - Dreamonic Vamperor
Greyhound - Prototype
Embrionyc - Another Sleepless Night
Parallels - XII
W.A.S.T.E. - Humanity Needs An Upgrade
Dirty K - Torrent Of Fury
Light Asylum - Light Asylum
God Seed - I Begin
Spark! - Hela Din Varld
Hidden Rooms - Greyland
Trust - TRST

EP's and singles:
Triarii - Exile
Persona Non Grata - Trail of Galactus
Raum 107 - Lucifer
Sei2ure - Dark matter
Mindustries - Therapy EP
Frame Of Mind - Electroviolence
∆AIMON - Flatliner
The Relic - Mind Battle Part III: Shattered Heroes
Cold Cave - A little Death To Laugh
Stormtrooper - The narkotikz
Cubic Nomad - Seeker

There are also a lot of runners up, but these is basically the material i find interesting for most of the tracks. There have been many good tracks on albums which i feel have more filler, but all in all it follows the same pattern as in my lists above. Old scene industrial material i deem for a large part inferior to new scene stuff.

What to expect in 2013? Well, if the major economic depression doesn't strike and we all go down, i expect more decline for the German magazines, parties, labels and ultimately festivals. Indiegoth will be pushing more and more into the mainstream like bands as The Cure, Siouxsie and the Banshees and Depeche Mode did in the 80's. For harsh industrial the focus will be on the Netherlands and the USA because the sheer power of the doomcore bassdrum wil shred everything industrial to pieces and the Americans are already taking notice of the Dutch based on some very interesting collaborations coming up in this new "Dutch American Friendship". Being part of this gives me some insights, but all of you have to wait a bit how this plans out. Witchhouse i am not really sure off, but i still see a lot of people interested in it, so i guess it will go on. EBM i see largely in decline because only a few acts seem to go next level, while most keep on imitating Suicide Commando or Hocico on an amateur level.

Offcourse this is all heavily coloured by my own hopes and expectations, so i guess everyone might see that different. I wish everybody a very good 2013 filled with good music, good vibes and a lot of happiness. Keep on reading Brutal Resonance, one of the few truly independent music zines in the world!