Band – Deep Cross/Khost
Album – Split
Country of Origin – USA/UK
Genre – Industrial
Release Date – July 2, 2021
Label – Roman Numeral Records
Author – Hayduke X
Today, we have the pleasure of premiering one track from EACH of the bands involved in the split. There is also a video for each. Be sure to check both videos, then head on over to order the split. I’ll have my full review below the music too.
Khost – Reading Between The Lines
This track is some of the grimiest club music you’ll ever hear. It’s as if Satan opened a nightclub and hired Beelzebub to DJ. Check out the video, but be warned – it’s bleak and sometimes kinda strobe-y.
Deep Cross – Diamond Form
On the flip side, Deep Cross presents post-punk tinged industrial, in a way that is utterly engaging. It feels like rolling in the ashes of a burnt out city, then alternately crying and laughing. The strobe warning applies here as well.
Full Review
Many years ago, I used to be a fairly big fan of industrial music and other dark, angry electronica. This was in the mid-90s when the music was angry, bleak, subversive, and felt dangerous. Since then, the genre has evolved (which is only right), but it was transformed into something that doesn’t do much for me. I think the easiest way to put it is that modern industrial has lost its edge. Mostly more electronic than metal these days, the genre generally fails to capture and hold my interest. That said, there are exceptions. This split demonstrates the different takes of two such exceptions.
Khost hails from the UK and present a more traditional (read, ‘closer to the stuff I used to obsess over’) feel to them. Their three tracks are bleak and nightmarish mid-tempo bangers that have me nodding along in rhythm. There is an oppressive feel to the tracks, and they they also feel danceable – if you fancy leather bondage gear. These three tracks suggest them to be worthy descendants of the industrial scene of old.
Deep Cross, from Texas in the US, present a bit more openness and accessibility by weaving post-punk texture into the mix, especially in some of the vocal attack. Make no mistake, their three tracks are also bleak and dark, but perhaps lean a little more towards a mix of grief and anger, versus the spiteful anger of Khost. Though this project is more of a hybrid, it still holds the flag of industrial high by being exceptionally gripping.
None of these six tracks will let you down. I’m on my fourth near-consecutive listen, through the process of preparing for and writing this review. I only find myself deeper in – no boredom, no wish for something else. My hope is that more modern industrial will once again find the harrowing, ominous soul of the genre, as these two projects clearly have.
Find preorders through the label Roman Numeral Records.
Biography: Hayduke X has been writing for MoshPitNation since June of 2016. He is also a contributor to The Metal Wanderlust. Prior to joining the MoshPitNation team, Hayduke published reviews on his own blog Rage and Frustration. In addition, he has DJ’ed an online metal radio show of the same name as his blog, written for TOmetal.com, done interviews for Metal Rules, and collaborated with The Art of B Productions to create video interviews with a wide variety of bands.
