SAVAGE CULT / GERMAN ARMY “Split” (NEN)


Savage Cult and German Army are peas in a pod. The pairing of the Rennes, France, producer with the San Bernardino, California, misfits is an inspired one. Kudos to Russia’s NEN Records for roping these two together and allowing them to share some space, one side of a cassette tape to the other.

We know German Army, the tribal-industrial duo ripping the curtain back on the atrocities committed on a global scale. Sifting through their discography reveals an annotated anthropological record of Herculean proportions, each tape and record and compact disc a reminder of cultures/languages that are dying/have died. The extinction of human branches due to active interference from others is an incomprehensible evil, and GeAr do their best to bring awareness of that evil to the forefront.

Savage Cult brings a similarly sinister vibe to the table, with dank, tom-heavy percussing cutting through vile ambient synthetic atmospheres. His side A moves effortlessly to GeAr’s side B, and you can really see a theme here with the tracks: “Ashes at the Gates,” “A Solemn Procession,” “Blood in the Throne Room,” “A Master without Power,” and “Only Darkness Speaks to Him.” I wasn’t going to list them all, but then I couldn’t stop. These heavy themes seep into the music, filling every second with constant discomfort and dread. As such, it’s easy to love.

German Army does THEIR THING. Every time I put on one of their releases, I’m enraptured to the point of losing myself in whatever it is they’re calling out at that point. I often find myself in a Wikipedia rabbit hole or something. Dear German Army: Don’t ever change.

This split explores World War IIera Japanese American internment camps through harsh electro-industrial beatscapes. Always the proverbial “jagged little pill” with these guys.




--Ryan