Face The Darkness (Various Artists Compilation)

Artist: V/A

CD Title: FACE THE DARKNESS compilation

Label: Twisted Flesh Recordings

Genre: Industrial, EBM

Website: https://www.tfrecordings.com/

Reviewer: Bill Daniels

Date: 2-14-11

In today’s grim economic times, it might seem a strange form of madness to start a new recording label and expect profitable returns.  It might even be considered lunacy to start a label concentrating on EBM, Industrial, and hard edged electronic Darkwave and Goth music.    However front man Frederik Croona, the genius vocalist behind Menschdefekt and Project Rotten, has decided to take up just that kind of dire insanity with the groundbreaking new label Twisted Flesh Recordings.  Gathering round the best of the seething true underground club crawling chitenous denizens of the dark that the world has to offer, Twisted Flesh Recordings brings forth an introductory compilation of some of the most terrifying yet feet stomping sounds that lurk on the fringe.  In their first epic compilation release as a recording label, FACE THE DARKNESS features a true heart racing lineup.

While it would be a lengthy review indeed to give due attention to each masterfully recorded track on this enormous digital release, there are some tracks that genuinely sink into your mind with razor sharp barbed hooks.  C-Lekktor’s pulse pounding track “Living Dead” rips open this comp with jagged claws.  ES23 with Project Rotten weaves track of eerie dystopian seduction in “This is Anarchy”.  Chilean act Just Say Words slices open a ghoulish delight with “Abandonment of God”.  One of the more unusual trippy acts Suono crafts a frenetic and hypnotic groove with the track “Jungle”.  The album closed with a boot-heel pounding acrid track “The End” by Frederik’s main project Menschdefekt.

What entices and fascinates me in equal measure about this release is the complete raw and truly underground feel the compilation has.  I’ve spent a lot of years working in the Goth and Industrial scene dealing with very solidly commercial acts that I can honestly say didn’t have the passion or drive that many of the acts presented here do.  This compilation presents the real measure of what an underground scene used to mean, making music that by nature defied convention and broke new ground.  Pioneering new shadowy frontiers rather than rehashing tired ventures.  If this is the introduction to Twisted Flesh Recordings, I predict big things out of Fredrik’s burgeoning new label.  The CD is currently being offered for free via Twisted Flesh Recording’s website.  Download and peruse this comp and prepare for a renewed revolution in underground dark music.  Bloody, nightmarish, and moving; Twisted Flesh Recording’s acts will infect the world club scene virulent feverish fervor.