NOT MY GOD fuse hardcore industrial music and electronic pop, and have been doing so for years. Vocalist Tim Sköld will be instantly recognisable for his extensive work with Marilyn Manson, KMFDM, and the Newlydeads, his production for Motionless in White, and his own self-titled industrial metal album ‘SKOLD,’ which was released to rave reviews. Meanwhile the other half of the duo, multi-instrumentalist Nero Bellum played synthesizer with SKOLD live. The duo are a special kind of electronic evil, and their collaboration is one that sends shivers of excitement through the industrial underground scene.
Their sound may be wicked, but it’s also extremely catchy, as Bellum and Sköld don’t just bludgeon their listeners, but also pull them in, hook, line, and sinker. ‘ASHES’, their latest single, builds on the aesthetic success of ‘NOT MY GOD’, the album debuted by the pair over the winter. You can feel the bloodstains in their synths; with piano plinky plonks straight out of a horror movie. Meanwhile they make good use of analogue-sounding riffs, along with industrial machine noises. Sköld’s raspy vocals fall halfway between a whisper and a terrible scream. Like so many vocalists of the genre however, when he wants, he can sing with a beauty that’s out of this world.
In a way, the video for ‘ASHES’ serves as a teaser for their upcoming album, ‘Simulacra’. We see Sköld and Bellum, in full-face makeup, while the frames of the clip are saturated in reds and blues. The footage blurs from time to time, before snapping back into focus, then jumping, stuttering, and doing it all over again. There’s a swinging upside-down cross, a fall of feathers, a bench for kneeling in cruel prayer. Yet, the most menacing shots in the ‘ASHES’ clip are the ones of the musicians themselves. Sköld seems completely possessed as he sings, driven to communicate pain, torment, and a kind of devilish excitement. Bellum, meanwhile, stands impassively at his synthesizer, twisting knobs like a mad scientist; with his synth he conjures up all manner of magic.
Watch the video for ‘ASHES’ below, if you dare. Find NOT MY GOD online on Facebook.
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