"Elemental Cry" is the third single release from dark electronic folk band, Hem Netjer and appears on their upcoming album The Song Of Trees, scheduled for release at the end of February 2023.

"Elemental Cry" features themes of struggle, facing your fears and releasing your inner warrior to overcome odds. The song speaks from two different points of view; the verses from the warrior's view and the chorus from the general’s view. The warrior will have to fight in a battle they know they can’t win while the general's job is to support the clanmates so they can do the right thing even though they will not survive in the end.

The atmosphere, fueled by the lyrics is one of finding the strength within to be a part of something bigger. It's the realization that there are no divides between those who work and call themselves family.

Lines such as “we are the land and the flame, the air and the waves speak our name” speak to how your spirit and soul lives on in nature and the community around you when you are physically gone.

"Elemental Cry" is available on all major digital platforms including Bandcamp.

www.facebook.com/hemnetjer

On this day, 52 years ago, Kraftwerk released their self-titled debut studio album (1 December 1970). The album was produced by Konrad "Conny" Plank and is often refered to as 'Kraftwerk 1'.

On this album Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider used two drummers, Andreas Hohmann and Klaus Dinger. Their drumming provides the album a rock-ish edge, making it sound quite distinctive from Hütter and Schneider's previous work. The album contains instrumentals only.

The cover design, credited to Ralf Hütter, is a curious nod to the influence of Andy Warhol and the then contemporary pop art movement, featuring a fluorescent-coloured traffic cone drawn in a Warhol-esque manner.

No material from this album has been performed in the band's live set since the Autobahn tour of 1975 and, to date, the album has not been officially reissued. The band is seemingly reluctant to consider the album a part of its canon and in later interviews, Schneider referred to the first three Kraftwerk albums as "archaeology".

In 1971 the album peaked in the German album charts at position 30.

KRAFTWERK

All tracks are written by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider-Esleben.

Kraftwerk (1970)

• Ralf Hütter – organ, guitar, tubon, cover design
• Florian Schneider-Esleben – flute, violin, percussion
• Andreas Hohmann – drums on "Ruckzuck" and "Stratovarius"
• Klaus Dinger – drums on "Vom Himmel hoch"

DISCOGS

Gothic/occult wave duo Raven Said has just unveiled their new EP, Chants To Dissolve.

Chants To Dissolve is about the spiritual essence that represents a certain alchemical phase of Solve (a transitional process between the Nigredo and Albedo phases in basic Alchemy).

On the abstract, the EP represents the invisible and inaudible fluttering of a butterfly's wing to the deafening roar of the inescapable wave of the coming future. Physically, it's an effort aimed at changing the composition, without an exact result in a philosophical context. This means that the future is not defined and there is only the possibility of one or another existence; a certain point of polyfurcation, a set of evolution.

With pulsing vibrations of guitar and synths transformed into elegant canvases in cold tones, Raven Said is the flexible fusion of darkwave / goth rock / post-punk; the musical expression of symbolic mysticism and psychology.

Chants To Dissolve is available NOW on CD and digital formats via Bandcamp.

www.facebook.com/RavenSaidBand

Ohio-based industrial band, Silence Embrace has just dropped their new EP, Meta Queer Dolls. Cyberpunk soundscapes for a dystopian future. That's Meta Queer Dolls.

Dead hardware, obsolete programs & formats (VHS) summarize the album's themes. Even the cover is based on dead media and video games.

Individual tracks, however, have stories of their own. "The House Awaits" is a darkwave trance track that takes inspiration from pop culture characters. The album outro, "Pandemic" is an instrumental witch-house track that starts with haunting chants, thick soundscapes and summarizes the journey taken throughout the EP."

Meta Queer Dolls is available NOW on digital platforms including Bandcamp.

www.facebook.com/SilenceEmbrace23

Today it's exactly 42 years since Siouxsie and the Banshees released 'Israel' (28.11.1980 / Polydor Records) as a stand-alone single in between the albums Kaleidoscope (1980) and Juju (1981). The track was written by the band while touring in Europe in the autumn of 1980. The band wanted to write a Christmas song to be released in time for December of that year.

It peaked at No. 41 on the UK Singles Chart and it was the band's first single to also be released on a 12-inch, although the tracks are identical on both releases.

Even though it reached No. 73 on the US National Disco Action Top 100 chart as an import, 'Israel' did not appear on a Siouxsie and the Banshees album until the release of the Once Upon a Time: The Singles compilation (1981).

In 2002 the song was remastered for the The Best of Siouxsie and the Banshees compilation CD album and in 2006 it was also featured as a bonus track on the Kaleidoscope reissue.

Israel (Track listing)

A. Israel
B. Red Over White

DISCOGS

Israel (Lyrics)

Little orphans in the snow
With nowhere to call a home
Start their singing, singing
Waiting through the summertime
To thaw your hearts in wintertime
That's why they're singing, singing
Waiting for a sign to turn blood into wine
The sweet taste in your mouth, turned bitter in its glass

Israel, in Israel
Israel, in Israel

Shattered fragments of the past
Meet in veins on the stained glass
Like the lifeline in your palm
Red and green reflects the scene
Of a long forgotten dream
There were princes and there were kings
Now hidden in disguise, cheap wrappings of lies
Keep your hearts alive with a song from inside
Even though we're all alone
We are never on our own when we're singing, singing

Home, home
There's a man who's looking in
And he smiles a toothless grin
Because he's singing, singing
See some people shine with glee
But their song is jealousy
Their hate is clanging, maddening

In Israel, will they sing Happy Noel
In Israel, in Israel
Israel, in Israel

In Israel, will they sing Happy Noel

Songwriters: Susan Ballion / Steven Severin / Peter Clarke / John McGeoch

© BMG Rights Management, Domino Publishing Company