Black Tribe – Martial Industrial Metal

When I put on Martial Industrial Metal for the first time, I immediately guessed the band was German – and I’m not talking about the accent. There’s something about the martial industrial aesthetic that’s inherently Nazi, no insult meant.

Black Tribe is a band which is interesting in its total lack of visual presentation or promotion. The only trace I could find of them is their Bandcamp, whose color-code is white. Just white. There’s nothing but dates to differentiate the releases, which can be an annoyance given the speed at which they come out. Seriously, there have been eleven of them in the past seven months, I can’t keep up with that (Note: They put out 2 records by the time I got around to writing this). While a lot of them are one-off songs, Black Tribe does have a couple of longer records, including Martial Industrial Metal.

Once you get past the two-song intro, Black Tribe shows you who they really are. It’s not the most abrasive album I’ve ever gotten into, and there’s some comfort to be found in the lo-fi rhythmic weirdness that is MIM. The title track is probably the best one on the record, with a doom feel to the riffs as well as that signature military-style beat marching on. The vocals are your average black/noise distorted screams, which always work well in conjunction with the fascist music pulsing behind.

The album includes a number of covers, including one of Charles Manson. Don’t roll your eyes just yet, there are no kitsch samples off of Youtube. Instead, you get to experience what Manson would sound like if he were to compose droning black metal dirges. As the album moves on, the music gets darker and darker, Niemandsland being the first to actually delve into uncomfortable territory. As a side note, isn’t that a cool name? Anyway, I am the God… ends the album with some of the best stress-inducing synths I’ve heard in a while. The guitars sound like they’re thigh-deep in a swamp, trudging their way towards the void.

Try it out, it’s weird and fun.

Giuseppe Fitzsimmons

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