Mazakon Tactics - Adorable Atrocities FLAC download

Reviewed via digital copy.Sascha Mandler of Namazu Dantai brings us a half hour cassette of bleak power electronics focused on whispery electronics, clanking metal, looping industrial rhythms, and guttural growls. On Adorable Atrocities, Mazakon Tactics hits the dark ambience hard with some fantastic, plodding moody aural arrangements. It’s the power electronics bent that he takes with his screams, however, that really throw off the listen.Opener “It Must End Here” carries on with a single, droning tone accompanied by varied poetical vocal outbursts. Where the calm of the background would almost ensure a hypnotic trance with its unwavering but solid pitch, Mazakon Tactics adds various screams and growls to the tone; while these screams might be good on a brutal death metal album, Mandler never really hits a solid range of vocal screams. Instead, they’re kind of all over the place, some growls and some higher pitched screams that become almost laughable in places. It’s only when Mandler finds a pattern with a closed-mouth snarl of “It must end here” that the track finds a happy medium, and at that point, it’s over.“Promise” brings things back to form a bit, an atmospheric opening with a nice whirl of abyssal drones, squeals, and then a looped pattern of scraping metal that sounds a bit like a gun hammer cocking and scraping throughout. Again, Mandler sees fit to growl over this pattern with unintelligible words and noises, and I would much rather the track be allowed to play out without that excessive riffing, because without the vocals that track is truly unsettling. Afterwards, the growls cut out for some waves of static played on top of the drone, and this part of the track really shows the depth Mazakon Tactics can hit without the need for vocals, although when they’re added on top it does create a tense display of anger.“Sliced Core, Spiked Lips” has a nice build to it in the beginning, and I will say that the harsh guttural vocals add a layer that juxtaposes that serenity of the droning tones behind it, where some instruments almost sound like subtle piano plinks. And the disturbing nature of the track’s latter half, with screams that echo like those of a prisoner in a dank cave, work well with the Mandler’s powerful growls, as though he is the Captor and we are the Captives. And Mandler certainly captures the industrial side of power electronics as well – the sharp clanks of metal and scraping that permeate through the thick noises are some of the best spectacles on this release.“Aries Axiom” has a spectacular build, the best track on Adorable Atrocities. Full of chaotic static with seriously pissed vocals rocketing through it, then scrapes and and an ambient whir that somehow grows to a climax, this track has got to be the harshest here because of its unrefined brutality. It is here, without the growls that seem to lack believability, that Mazakon Tactics cements the sound of absolute frustration the power electronics genre can achieve.Adorable Atrocities has a disturbing undertone to it, and that’s more apparent on the B-side of the cassette than the A-side (besides the almost throw-away “Almost There”). “Prostration for a Fathomless”‘s rich crumbles and looping create a catharsis hard to ignore, and if you can get over the guttural vocals that can be overwhelmingly cloying, Mazakon Tactics creates a soundtrack to a world that, while not dead, soon will be, and filled with the deepest darkness one can imagine.http://memorywavetransmission.wordpress.com/

The Mazakon Tactics CS is pretty damn good too. Heavy and harsh industrial that has touches of power electronics as well. This is actually an amazing tape that you really need to hear. There's an mp3 on the NVS site that you can hear, and it's pretty indicative of what is on this tape.The feeling I get when playing these tapes is something like this: Something is amiss in the house, and it's quite obvious, but I'm not sure what it is. Whatever it is, I don't want to see it, because it is going to force me to look in the mirror and probably reevaluate things - do I want to live, or do I want to get away? I can't do both, that much is certain. I'm just gonna have to live with this hanging over me for the rest of my life... which may not be long.http://hammersmashedsound.blogspot.com/

Here is yet another quality release from this consistent tape label. Mazakon Tactics presents the darkest of death industrial sounds in this brutal 30 minute cassette.Merging the death industrial influences of Brighter Death Now with power electronic death grunts and some clanking metallic sounds Mazakon Tactics has formed one of the most dismal and hopeless records I have heard in recent memory. The cover is quite fitting as this could definitely be the soundtrack to someone being pulled down into the layer of the BTK killer or something.The tape has a good mixture of grit and clarity that compliment each other well. If I were to make any comparison to acts that are out there I might say mix BDN together with Dodsdomb and you have Mazakon Tactics. The album is consistent throughout, not letting even one beam of light into your darkened cell. There are some moments of droning isolationist tones which almost make me think that the sound will transition into a dark ambient atmosphere but the intense industrial always clangs back in before it actually happens.This is my first exposure to the project and they’ve certainly got my attention. Very nice work, only for fans of the most perverse and blackened industrial sounds out there.http://existest.org/ee_v3/?p=2480

"Sascha Mandler is behind Mazakon Tactics and he uses electronics, stringed instruments, metals, lyrics and vocals. Mandler is apparently also from Namazu Dantai, whom I don't know. The music is that of power electronics, but doesn't always sound that harsh or loud per se. Voice seem to be an important ingredient for Sascha and there is definite cold atmosphere about these pieces, clinical and reminded me of the early of Anenzephalia. You expect any moment some doctors voice coming in to tell you about the patient's condition, who is lying in his bed, coughing. Pleasant is a word that hardly applies to this, but in terms of 'noise', not being super loud, or just distorted, but actually well balanced, ear damaging low end bass sound and a crash of metal/voice makes this a nicely affair. After all, nice" Vital Weekly (FdW)http://www.vitalweekly.net/768.html

"Heavy electronics/PE along the lines of more recent Prurient, Yellow Tears, and older Anenzephalia from Sascha of Namazu Dantai fame. Well, that's the label description, not mine. I don't necessarily see the Anenzephalia comparison. In fact, this strikes me as more death industrial than anything, and I want to say I find more reference points to Steel Hook Prostheses (particularly in the vocals), Control, or perhaps earlier Schloss Tegal, just more stripped down and straightforwardly rough around the edges and crude. In So, effective in that respect and certainly recommended to folks that appreciate that style, like me!" Jason(Malignant Records) http://www.malignantrecords.com

"This is nuts. Right off the bat you get twisted and erratic harsh noise. Not a wall but a cacophony of stabbing and scraping noise. Then right as you are getting your mind around this someone with a very fucked up voice starts screaming at you. Dark and blackened howls that totally carry this release. Often times you get what sounds like a mix between vomiting and dying from the singer. It's pretty grim and it's right in your face all the time. Really excellent work on this release.Limited to 50 copies and packaged in a 7" bag. Find it."http://www.devdformats.blogspot.com/