10 best EBM industrial tracks on the Endzeit Bunkertracks VII Soundcard (and they'r free!) | Top Tuesday, 11 August, 2015

Last week (ok, two weeks ago but I got sidetracked) was about the five best tracks on the Endzeit Bunkertracks VII compilation. If you haven’t come across it yet, this massive compilation comprises a four-disc box, a bonus CD, plus a 50-track download. It spans no less than 136 tracks in total with a whopping 10:18:50 play time.

Such a volume of EBM and industrial music is not something one gets through in one sitting or digests in a week. In fact, it’s taken more than three months (I bought the set in April) to get through the lot.

I can tell you that one of the surprises was the quality of what was on the Soundcard compilation. It has some outstanding EBM / industrial / aggrotech / dark electro / dark electronic stomping music / call it what you want tracks; yet the fact that it’s all on a free-to-download industrial music compilation is even more amazing. Seriously, you can get it here: Endzeit Bunkertracks [Act VII] soundcard.

Endzeit Bunkertracks Soundcard

As mentioned, the Endzeit Soundcard has 50 tracks. While many are bog-standard music in this genre, there are many more that are brilliantly quirky, if not outright weird in the best possible way. The Endzeit Bunkertracks VII Soundcard is hardly a storage bin for the cut-offs and filler. The overall standard actually well above average, and as mentioned, amazingly enough, it’s a free compilation. So when you grab it, make an effort to buy something. Induce the label that releases amazing compilations like this one to do it again.

If you need convincing, here are the 10 best* industrial tracks from the Endzeit Bunkertracks VII Soundcard.

Durandal X Xiescive: Rabid

Industrial music is always at its best when it’s doing one of two things. The first is when it’s being thunderously, face-meltingly intense. The second is when it’s being skin-crawling creepy.

Rabid is a somewhat minimal electronic track that firmly fits into the latter. Even though it has some of the old screamed cookie monster vocals, they’re kind of in the background. Most of the track is left open to allow for a long, spoken word sample, which sounds like it’s lifted straight from a medical lecture from the 1940s. The title is a giveaway, as the sample eerily describes the increasingly horrific effects of a rabies bite.

The final line says it all: “The patient becomes quieter. He lapses into a coma. Which is followed, inevitably, by death”

Third Realm: Deliverance

An amazing track that’s best appreciated by actually listening to the damn thing. This is mid-tempo, ‘contemporary’ (whatever that is) industrial music with a slight hint of guitar. The driving force behind this is the superbly shouted vocals, electronically processed in a way that gives the whole thing that much more of a tortured edge without actually reverting to the cookie monster effect.

It’s also repetitive, in the hammer-the-point-home kind of way that ensures there’s zero doubt about what the message is and where it’s going.

Diverje: All The Fakes (Touched By Stahlnebel & Black Selket)

A little bit like the above, but more tongue in cheek. It’s still slightly above mid-tempo and the vocals are still harsh (but still no cookie monster here) but slightly less so than the above.

This track is all about the soaring chorus. In fact, give it a couple of listens and the vibe of the entire track is that the whole thing is one big chorus.

I’ve got no idea what the topic is bemoaning. Something about how “All the fakes… Come together… To take over.” But it makes you want to come back again and again.

Shadow Lady: Species (Endzeit Mix)

Processed, semi-vocodered electro-ed vocals are easy to get wrong, and can work wonderfully when done well (usually if you’re Daft Punk or can otherwise afford to spend three continuous days working on three-second sequence).

Species (Endzeit Mix) has a kind of simple, catchy 4/4 electro vibe which on its own wouldn’t stand out from the pack. The inclusion of heavily processed vocals, not so much chopped up as reshuffled, is what makes this track. I don’t know the vocalist’s name but what she’s doing works.

There’s something very quirky about. Maybe it’s her disarming accent?

Synapsyche: Breath Control

A slightly generic but catchy EBM / future-pop (does anyone even say “future pop” anymore?) synth-line with some equally generic and shouted male vocals. There is, however, one dominating vocal sample: a short, repeated loop (from the vocalist herself?), that somehow just works.

They must have had thought that less is better. I’d like to fantasise that when they were making music, they somehow recorded this vocal snippet and decided to keep it and see what they could do with it.

As with the Shadow Lady track above, maybe the secret is the vocalist’s rich accent? They’re from Italy after all.

M.O.D.: Without Regrets

You’ll love or hate this. Dancey and kind of cheesy-sounding synths, with heavily accented, shouted, girly (very girly) vocals. If you’re not into this kind of thing then you’ll likely see it as somewhat whiny.

If, like me, you think it rocks, then you’ll dig the pace, danceyness, and quirkiness. This ain’t cookie monster mush; but it’ll make you want to move in just as much.

Hasswut: Nicht Für Mich

Honestly, when making EBM industrial music, who needs any sort of singing talent, let alone awareness of the concept of staying in tune? All that’s required is an utterly commanding (and, preferably, somewhat gravelly) German speaking voice.

Nicht Fur Mich (which translates as “Not for me”) is all about rather basic, sort of uplifting trancey uplifting synths, put in their place by that utterly commanding, not-even-shouted-but-still-awesome German voice.

In the finest tradition of EBM and industrial music, this track compensates for melody — and even basic singing in tune — with raw vigour and energy.
And German.
Especially when your band name literally translate as “hate-anger”.

Antibody: Shrimps

The mandatory tongue in cheek powernoise track. The track would be little more than knuckle-dragging, super-distorted, ear-bleeding industrial noise — until you realise that the ‘ingenious’ overlayed spoken sample that forms the basis of the track is none other than Bubba from Forrest Gump recounting the enormously long list of variations on shrimp recipes. In German of course.

It’s funny enough in the translated dub but it ought to work just as well for English speakers.

Hey, remember what I said last week about gimmicks in industrial music?

Neonsol: Manipulation

Once again, this track proves that less is often better. Like Synapsyche’s Breath Control, the hook on this track is very much based around a single sampled and much-repeated vocal sample.

In German, of course.

Which means that it’s reminiscent of Hasswut’s Nicht Fur Mich, only that it’s less gravelly and somewhat more… authoritative?

Add to that vocalists Nina’s contribution. She skips the accent entirely and goes straight for the German vocals instead (although I hear their home country is Denmark).

Neonsol call themselves “solar-powered electronic dance beats”. Seriously, it’s on their Facebook page. Whatever that is, it’s got a hard-to-ignore quality to it.

Psychiocold: Burn In Hell

Take a simple but cool synth line that sounds moody and a bit fatalistic. Play it long — perhaps overly long — until it becomes more about effect or hypnosis rather than variety. Then add some slightly ephemeral vocals.

If this had less production going on behind it they might call it darkwave.  But it’s atmospheric, vaguely spooky and gothy, yet epic without being excessively stompy.

I can see the goths furiously swirling their capes to this while the scowling rivet heads (you’re not allowed to smile so this is how they show feelings of joy) stomp their boots accordingly.

* I say “10 of the best” tracks because, if you check back to last week, the best track on Endzeit Bunkertracks VII is Aim & Execute: Phantom Energy. It’s an absolute barnstormer and in my view, it’s the best track on the whole compilation.

Endzeit Bunkertracks VII | Top five Tuesday, 28 July, 2015

It’s been an EBM-industrial kind of week. Specifically, the EBM gothic industrial electro aggrotech (or whatever the kids call it these days) stompin’ dancin’ music released by the Belgian Alfa Matrix label on this year’s Endzeit Bunkertracks VII compilation.

The Endzeit Bunkertracks compilations are some of my favourite industrial music compilations. First released in 2005, teach of the Endzeit series releases is based on a four-CD set, packaged in a cardboard box with some nice artwork to boot. A graphic artist who knows what they’re doing is usually commissioned to do the cover art, layout, and separate artwork for each CD sleeve. The basis of each compilation is a mix of primarily rare and unreleased music (more on this later) by well-known artists alongside some new or incredibly obscure ones.

Earlier this year I acquired the Endzeit Bunkertracks VII compilation. Echoing the commercial state of CDs and other physical media, Alfa Matrix now offers the Endzeit compilations with a considerable amount of added value, which is of course awesome if, like me, you love physical media.

 Say what you like about physical media, I still love and buy CDs.
This is actually an older photo and I’ve added another shelf or two since.

Endzeit Bunkertracks VII

This year’s compilation is huge, comprising the four-CD set, plus the ‘generic’ label-wide Sounds From The Matrix 16 CD compilation (I believe they offer the Sounds From The Matrix compilations as bonuses to other paid for packages), plus the download-only Endzeit Bunkertracks VII: The Bonus Tracks compilation.

This last one is a free download compilation so one could argue that it’s not ‘true’ value. Personally, I choose to see it is a legitimate component of the official package – plus I got a plastic card with a download code.

All told, the complete Endzeit Bunkertracks VII compilation including Sounds From The Matrix 16 CD and the Bonus Tracks counted 136 tracks for a total duration of 10:18:50. Yes – 10+ hours!

That’s some package. It takes more than a few listens to properly digest that amount of music!

Now that I’ve finally gotten round to it, here are five of the best tracks from the Endzeit Bunkertracks VII compilation.

Aim & Execute: Phantom Energy

As mentioned, one of the best qualities of every Endzeit Bunkertracks releases since the 2005 debut lies in the fact that they offer a superb mix of well-known and obscure artists, with all track ostensibly rare and unreleased.

10 years later the ‘rareness’ of tracks is something of a moot point due to the instant gratification that everyone expects from streaming and downloading.


Nonetheless, as I said, I still love physical media and physical media packages that offer bonus download content. I also love the fact that this compilation has been curated — compiled, since it is an industrial music compilation after all — with the intention that it be enjoyed in a specific order, balancing the well-known with the obscure.

The track Phantom Energy by Aim & Execute is an example of how an obscure artist gets to be heard in the same breath as the likes of Combichrist, Noisuf-X and Alien Vampires, all of whom feature on Endzeit Bunkertracks VII.

I’ll preface this by saying that, in my view, so many of the best dancefloor-orientated EBM goth industrial Endzeit aggrotech whatever you want to call it anthems have what I call a gimmick — usually a sample (come on… Exterminate Annihilate Destroy) or something derived from a sample.

Don’t get me wrong, I love gimmicks with all my heart, but what grabbed me about this track was that it still kills, but without any obvious gimmick.

Phantom Energy features some superb Noisuf-X / Agonoize-style stomping, accompanied familiar distorted cookie monster vocals. What makes this track stand out — apart from being well-written and having just the right level of stomp and swagger — is the addition of non-distorted, actual human shouted metal-punk vocals, instead of those traditional distorted growls. It’s something you rarely hear with this style of music and it sounds absolutely demented, while still fitting in beautifully with what this music ‘ought’ to convey — whatever that is.


Listen to this track, especially the second half, and try and tell me that Phantom Energy isn’t a raging stormer of a track, superb for both listening and stomping. My only criticism? The recorded volume on those angry human vocals relative to the rest of the track is a tad conservative. They’re maybe on a 5 out of 10 and deserve to be on at least a 7.
Otherwise, this is angry, demented dancing music at its very best. I truly hope this becomes a club hit and Aim & Execute: Phantom Energy is my favourite track on the whole Endzeit Bunkertracks VII compilation.

Amazingly, for such a quality track, Phantom Energy by Aim & Execute appears on the free download set.

PreEmptive Strike 0.1: Epos Of The Argonauts

Hey, remember what I just said about gimmicks? Epos Of The Argonauts by Greek artist PreEmptive Strike 0.1: takes a gimmick — and amps it up to epic proportions.

I ain’t complaining that sooooo much industrial music sample science fiction / horror / war movie films, but nonetheless, it’s awesome to hear a track that so quirkily pulls off not just samples — but the entire vibe of a track — from a very different kind of movie.

Specifically, the fantastically camp, 1963, stop-motion special effects, sword and sandal epic that is Jason And The Argonatus.

Yes, this is an industrial track — seriously, the artist is called PreEmptive Strike 0.1 — and the track is about a bunch of ancient Greek heroes going on an adventure, fighting mythological monsters and giant bronze living statues, and taking that Golden Fleece. It works wonderfully. Great stuff.

Diabolic Art: Fortitude (and every other previous Diabolic Art track)

Google [Diabolic Art industrial] and see what you find. Not much, right? I’ve discovered precious little about this artist, which is a real shame considering how awesome he, she or they are.

“Mysterious” is definitely the right term for Diabolic Art. So far I’ve determined that Diabolic Art is most likely from Japan, goes under the alias of DJ Taiki or Taiki, and has put out a few tracks and remixes that I can only describe as transcendentally dark and creepy.

You really have to hear it for yourself (good luck finding much!) to really get it. I would describe it as kind of vaguely dark-psy, but stripped down to a more minimalist sound.

Everything I’ve heard from this artist has ranged from very good to excellent. If you want downright dark, maliciously hypnotic, eerie industrial music, this is it.

Now if only Taiki — whoever that is — would be a bit more open about their music, then I could get my hands on an album or release.

Amduscia: Una Esperanza Rota

So for some reason I always thought Amduscia had a very close association with Hocico, or were one half of Hocico, or something like that. They’re both from Mexico. They make terror banana aggrotech industrial. They’re practically the same group, right?

Well obviously not. But whatever it is about Mexico, there’s something about the place that gives these artists an uncanny ability to make amazing electronic music based on tunes and sounds that, on their own merit, should not reasonably be considered to stand out or be awesome. That is, these Mexicans have a superpower whereby they make music that is more than the sum of its parts.

Amduscia’s track Una Esperanza Rota is a case in point. It features what ought to be a generic as all hell bass-line, vaguely reminiscent of the famous 90s hard trance track by Überdruck, Drugface. The main synth sound should also, on its own merits, be considered generic. The production is rough and there’s even some of that low-end electrical interference buzz sound (you know, the sound a power unit or amp makes when it’s just sitting there, plugged in).

There’s nothing mind-blowing going on in this track, yet the sum of its parts as a whole amounts to something much greater. It sounds powerful, compelling, angry, dark, and somehow just works.

How do they do it? I’m guessing if you want to make ostensibly simple music that sounds this good you obviously need to go to Mexico.

Lovelorn Dolls: Happy Valentine

Oh boy. It’s all good to sing about Armageddon, the machines taking over, war, famine, disease, the Occult, violence… but it’s unsettling when a goth-sounding group sings mordantly (I think… it’s hard to tell) about domestic violence.

Lovelorn Dolls do well-produced goth rock, leaning heavily on the polished electronic side with an excellent vocalist in Kristell Lowagie. This one came from the Sounds From The Matrix 16 CD and while I rarely pay much attention to EBM lyrics, here are the quite audible opening lines to the track Happy Valentine.

“Slap my face with your fists”

“Crush my head on the wall”

“And then come back again”

“With some flowers in your hands”

So this the goth track Happy Valentine is the odd one out from this group. It’s an undeniably catchy song, well-written, but subject matter makes it hard to ignore.

Some may feel that the unpleasant, shocking subject matter is what makes this track noticeable. Other may feel that a goth rock band, who play dress-ups and all that, can’t be taken seriously while attempting to deliver sharp social commentary. Either way, this track stays in your head.

When your objective in life is to get heard, then hasn’t your mission been achieved? At the moment it seems to be their second most popular track so they’re evidently doing something right.


Check it out here (the embedder ain't working for me for some reason)


Coming next week…
Endzeit Bunkertracks VII honourable mentions. There are 131 more tracks to choose from. Plenty of more good ones.

Endzeit Bunkertracks VI

I’ve been a fan of the Endzeit Bunkertracks compilations ever since I got my hands on the first edition of this excellent EBM, industrial, electro, aggrotech (or whatever the kids call it these days) compilation back in 2005.

The complete Endzeit Bunkertracks compilations, from Act I to VI.

The Endzeit Bunkertracks are by Alfa Matrix — a Belgian record label that specialises in EBM, industrial music and a whole loads of other darker-leaning electronic sounds. And what I like about every Endzeit Bunkertracks compilation CD is the fact that it’s a straightforward yet somewhat daring concept given that we live in an age of instantaneous digital gratification.

With Endzeit Bunkertracks you basically get four compilation CDs of tracks (typically remixed tracks) from various artists, combining established artists with a whole lot of up-and-comers. The compilations CDs are beautifully packaged in cardboard sleeves, which sit in a box that has traditionally come with commissioned artwork. Though the notion of “rare” tracks is close to redundant in a digital age, the majority of published tracks are said to be rare or unreleased at least as far as the physical release is concerned.

I can happily say that to date these compilations were responsible for introducing me to some of my all-time favourite dark, growly, stompy electronic music tunes. And yet, I’d be lying if I said I could readily identify as much as 75 per cent of the artists without referring to the liners notes or looking at my screen.

Despite this, I always eagerly anticipate the imminent release of a new Endzeit Bunkertracks instalment. Last year, this came in the form of Endzeit Bunkertracks Act VI.

Endzeit Bunkertracks VI including Endzeit 6 Sound Card. Sounds
From The Matrix 13 was also included as part of the package (not shown).  

 As has always been the case with the Endzeit compilations, there’s an inevitable proportion of filler (probably one of the reasons why I find it so hard to remember so many of the artists on these compilations). But that aside, the first thing that struck me about this last compilation was its astonishing value for money. In addition to the four CDs it also comes with what I call “standard issue” label compilation; that is, a “regular” compilation from the label, in this case Sounds From The Matrix 13. In addition to this, Endzeit Bunkertracks VI also came with what the “Endzeit 6 Sound Card” — a piece of plastic with a download code for 40 more tracks.

This means the compilation came with no less than — get this — 126 tracks. As one friend pointed out upon discovering this fact: “That’s too much music.” On one hand, a true cynic might suspect that the download-only tracks didn’t pass the cut for the pressed product. On the other, all this value kind of worries me because it shows just how much further an independent record label like Alfa Matrix has to go to just to register on people’s consciousnesses (apparently that’s not a word) .

The fact is, I like physical media, and I feel this is an important part of the Endzeit Bunkertracks package. You could call it artful packaging or trim; for me it comes down to being a pleasing product, much like the polished chrome on a motorcycle or the leather interior on a new car.

Another point. I rate Endzeit Bunkertracks as some of the very best industrial music compilations from a record label. I say that because record label-derived compilations have traditionally been kind of sketchy in my view as their objective is inevitably to push a roster. Those free CDs on magazine covers? They tend to be less hit and miss (depending on the originating magazine) and in many cases can be downright excellent — for the simple reason that they’re not bound to an individual record label.

But in this case, Endzeit Bunkertracks VI has 126 tracks from 108 artists. Not a bad effort for a small independent label.

Do you have a favourite? 

I’m fortunate to own all six Endzeit Bunkertracks compilations to date. I’ve also heard that some of them are difficult to come by, especially Endzeit Bunkertracks IV. Do you own any Endzeit compilations? Are you hunting down a particular edition? Do you have a favourite?