Music review: Thee Maldoror Kollective - New Era Viral Order (Dogma Slaughterhouse and the Children of Anaemia) (2002)

Now for a very underground gem; by underground I mean "less than 100 ratings on RYM and not on streaming platforms".

An Italian band that started life as a pretty complex symphonic black metal effort named Maldoror, stepped into the weirdo Y2K cyber black metal club with their second LP - club also containing Dødheimsgard's 666 International, Abigor's Fractal Possession and Mayhem's Grand Declaration of War - before finally going full industrial with their new name.

This album, despite a few lemons, has tracks that simply won't leave my brain, even if it's now been 4 months since my discovery of it. Culprit? The suitably cold drum machine playing its intoxicating staccato rhythms backed by al dente synth lines.

Well, that only describes the highlights like "Rythmagick Disturbance", not the interludes "Drain-Wound-Cosmosis" and "La flamme vivant" which I would simply remove; even if I understand their purpose as calm breathers to introduce contrast between very similar tracks.

Indeed, one of its major strengths can also be seen as a weakness: the sound doesn't vary much outside of the aforementioned fillers. This gives a very psychedelic dimension to the full album experience, but might bore a bit (just a bit) during intent listening.

Not much else to add, without those two fillers it'd be a lean and mean affair, very (almost too) consistent. The sound might be quite bizarre to uninitiated ears, but I think it is an approachable entry to its niche genre.