Zyklon-B
Review: In the face of nihilism, some choose the course of invention and others choose rage. Somewhere between the two is Zyklon-B, an obvious side-project of simple, almost only sketched in songs in the black metal and grindcore tradition with a strong melodic noise arrangement and production tendency.
Indeed one of the distinctive characteristics of this music are the blasting pumpbeats racing by under the kicking double-bass and wailing snare; above it a cymbal whips and a slashing tempo upholds the high-hat, hit. With all guitar buried in the wash it neatly integrates with the drums to produce a clipping pattern interrupting a sonorous but vapid melody.
Far from the worst of this genre this music nevertheless takes it nowhere and seems to be less serious than raging, unrepentant energy; the culmination of this style of work is in the final song "Warfare," which adds a more sublime melodic sense and ripping guitar solos under a keyboard wash to create a scary, brutal song. Like other songs, it is built from abrupt changes and decorated with samples, but here the combination works in an altogether more powerful aspect than the previous two songs.
This is an EP of three songs, at eleven minutes of music, and as such may seal its fate as the first of the truly outrageous side projects in black metal. Boasting Ihsahn on keyboards and Samoth on guitars from the band Emperor, this plays into the simple but effective formula of the side project: sketches of inspiration laid out for amusement.