information blitzkrieg
Folkstorm is the new side project from one of the members of the legendary Cold Meat act Maschinzimmer 412. Musically, the project falls in the realm of harsh death industrial and power electronics, similar to BDN, Genocide Organ, Soldnergeist, and the like.
Opening the CD is "Einleitung," which consists simply of a sample of an old German (?) song with slight distortion. Rather bizarre, but not unlike "You're Just A Toy" from Deutsch Nepal's "Erosion" for a comparison. We get down to business with "This Is War," a driving track of dense power electronics that is broken occasionally and unpredictably by high-frequency squeals of noise. Nicely done, sort of reminding me of some of Con-Dom's stuff. "Haus Betula" and "Alle Sagen Ja" tread more predictable ground, with loops of dense low-frequencies without much variation throughout. Fairly typical death industrial. "Violent Strain" picks things up again by putting a little more variation in the mix, moving various elements in and out of the track, along with sudden changes in tempo and volume all over an unsettling vocal sample. "Beedigung: Opus Rex," the final track, is another highlight, with a pseudo-marching tempo created by what sounds like a distorted synth while underneath a corrosive frequency rages and builds in pitch.
All in all, the tracks on this album are nicely done and well executed. However, it would be nice to see a little more dynamism on a lot of the tracks, especially as most of the ground here has been tread before. However, while maybe not BDN or Genocide Organ, "Information Blitzkrieg" is still a worthy debut showing a lot of potential. Apparently, there is yet another Folkstorm CD shortly to be released on Cold Spring, so we'll see what the future holds for this project.