Just looking at the title line this all sounds somewhat scary doesn’t it? Well it should do too, as anyone naming themselves after The Russian People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs is not someone you would want knocking at your door and you would probably be wise thinking twice about even allowing them access to your stereo. Russian this is actually not but French. The man behind it is Loïc.F also responsible for the equally terrifying Autokrator. Where his interest in Stalinist Russian history stems from I am uncertain but it makes a great theme when researched and utilised into music in the fashion that he has done. It makes a change from bands whether as a point of historical reference or with more sinister pretensions harping on about the Nazis too and what are the misguided types in Antifa going to make of it all if Loic ever decides to interpret his musical visions into the live environment?
‘Totalitarian Industrial Oppression’ is actually a compilation comprising of his 1st EP Diktatura (2007) and debut album Vlast (2011). Original pressings of these are both long since sold out and so anyone like myself who stumbled across the most recent album Hakmarrja (2014) will no doubt be pleased to hear where things all started. The first thing that is noticeable is the sound quality is great even on the EP which unlike the album has not been re-mastered. Ominous tones swirl in transporting you into a dreadful time of utter paranoia. The intro piece ‘Ch.R.I’ moves into the militant, industrialised clank of ‘Kadyrovski Klan’ and no doubt you can look up all the track titles and get more insight into exactly where the narrative derives from. You can tell by the tone of the music however that it is already a horrible place to find yourself in, even more so when you realise that you have a whole hours-worth of material to enjoy / endure. At times I am reminded of an anti-Laibach but there is nothing tongue in cheek about any of this, it is really grim. Vocals are ghastly at full body and spaces within the music are littered with sound samples of sinister spoken passages or speeches in Russian.
Despite a gap of several years between EP and album the 2 works flow together in a near seamless fashion. Musically ideas haven’t been hugely built upon but there is a development in the vocals which at times strike as reminiscent of the hideous gargles of Attila Csihar at his most dictatorial. ‘Incipit SSSR’ is featured on both EP and album so is a good point of reference to compare and contrast. It’s the mood and atmosphere of everything here though has you nearly dripping in fear as though you are waiting for a sharp rap on the door that will change your life forever. You may well be taken off in a black limousine never to be seen again or end up in a harsh Gulag. It’s the musical equivalent to infamous Russian film ‘The Green Elephant,’ I would say seek it out but that’s not particularly advisable. As tracks almost robotically get beneath the skin there’s something that almost dangerously makes you want to stand and march along to their militant beat like a mindless automaton. From almost classical fugues through harsh industrial blackness it drive onwards stomping in a jackboot fashion with strident occasional jagged guitar squalls and a gargled babble of voices all with hate, obedience and destruction at their heart. If you fancy stepping back in time (quite apt as the clocks have just changed and reviewing this is disorientating enough as it is) then this is going to take you to a dreadful place. It should be particularly advisable for history students studying the era and total misanthropists, serial killers and other deviants but anyone wandering in accidentaly is likely to find themselves delving in a musical vision of pain; you have been warned!
(7.5/10 Pete Woods)
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https://krucyator.bandcamp.com/album/n-k-v-d-totalitarian-industrial-oppression
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