Genre: Martial Industrial

Vae Victus
01 Decree
02 Manifesto Of The Communist Party
03 Exploiter! Massacrer!
04 Workers Revolt In The Factory
05 The Red Guards
06 Kowtow To Chairman Mao
07 Chairman Mao Is The Red Sun In Our Hearts
08 The Fall Of Capitalism/The Party Of Lenin Will Lead Us To Communism

Durch Heer Und Kraft
09 Vorspiel
10 Quis Contra Nos?
11 Чёрная Москва
12 Tábori Mulatság
13 Inside The Warmachine
14 Cháteau De Trianon
15 Krieg Und Friede
16 Triumph Des Willens
17 Intermezzo
18 Elindultam...
19 Mars(ch)

This highly limited split album (fifty copies only!) from SkullLine is the first actualy release from two new artists in the martial industrial field of music. Vae Victus from Brooklyn, New York, USA focuses on communistic samples and creates communistic propaganda. It's focused on Marxism and the works of Engels. Peter Iolin was born in Ukraine, which has suffered majorly under the dictatorship of Stalin. In a blog post on his myspace he notes that his music is for artistic purposes only. In terms of politics, he claims to be a 'revolutionary socialist'.

The eight tracks of Vae Victus are really enjoyable. From the one minute 'Decree' to 'The Fall Of Capitalism', the music incorporates a lot of samples, background noises and martial drumming. The samples are obviously taken from communist countries, and the combination with martial industrial is very enjoyably. Standout tracks are 'The Red Guards', which incorporates children singing and accordeon, and 'Kowtow To Chairman Mao', due to the relentless continuation of the vocal samples merged with martial drums. On his last.fm page he offers his demo and several other songs for free download.

The second half of this split is for Durch Heer Und Kraft, which is a project by Ádám Bérces from Hungary. Lyrically he's focused on the role of Hungary in both world wars, while musically dealing with martial industrial, neofolk and folklore. Ádám also explicitly notes that his music is not to be interpreted in a political or religious way. Instead, it's 'just' art.

I was a wee bit disappointed to see the same tracks from his (web)demo appear on here as well, but on the other hand, it's also nice to have them on CD now. The initial track, 'Quis Contra Nos?' starts off really well, incorporating flute and synths in heavy martial industrial. The sung vocals and lyrics however didn't help. The vocals sound as if they've been through a vocoder and the lyrics are a bit simplistic. However, when the vocals are spoken instead of sung, it sounds a lot better already. Luckily, 'Чёрная Москва' is much more enjoyable! 'Krieg Und Friede' is the absolute top of this split. It's a relatively short track, and more folk oriented with the use of accordeon and increasingly speeded play, but it's done excellently!

For a first offering of two new projects, this split was exceptionally pleasing. I'm absolutely sure we'll be hearing more from both projects. Both have shown on here they can make enjoyable tracks, and with the experience they gain over time, things can only get better. As said, this split is released to a mere 50 copies, so you want to act fast if you'd like a copy. It's worth it!