Tracklist is as follows:

1.)  Halloween ‘09
2.)  The Ones Who Walk At Night
3.)  The Darkness (Darker Mix by Komor Kommando)
4.)  I Want It (IVardensphere Mix)
5.)  Gonna Getcha (Drone Remix)
6.)  From Below
7.)  Creepy Crawler (Dirty Whore Mix by Virtual Terrorist)
8.)  Bleeder (Industrial Strength Mix by Seb ‘O’ Tron 2000b)
9.)  The Darkness (Demo Version)

1) This is a small niche market. It seems somewhat doubtful that much of the music is meant (or will) appeal to a major listening audience. Don’t get me wrong, I’d be amused to no end if I could turn on the Top40 radio station and hear Winterklate… but even considering that prospect is utterly absurd. Other niche markets that I watch closely (academic publishing and martial arts instructionals) mainly work on charging absurd prices, because it’s assumed that sales are going to be extremely low but are guaranteed regardless of price. But while Death in June can get away with printing limited-to-100-pressing-super-expensive releases, this is not really a viable business strategy for industrial (etc.) record labels to follow. We can always make the speak-out-of-our-ass speculations on the scene dying or growing, but chances are it won’t get that much bigger or that much smaller. But until someone figures out a better way to indoctrinate listeners into the cult (it’s hard to use any other words), we’ll probably maintain equilibrium in numbers.

2) Over-saturation! You can’t stop people from making music (and there’s nothing wrong with that). Access to equipment and means to producing music are getting cheaper day-by-day, thanks to the digital revolution. All of it will eventually be released in some way, shape, or form — the tree can fall in a forest without anyone hearing it. This means a niche market is slowly being divided into smaller and smaller pieces.

3) Less free capital floating around to spend on leisure goods. This isn’t that complicated and maybe one of the rare cases where larger economic trends may have some baring on whatever the hell it is teh scene thinks it’s doing. Inflation – regardless of how you measure it – is going up. There’s currently a trend in the west to focus more on subsistence then leisure goods.

4) Who listens to cds? Don’t get me wrong, collectors have been the backbone of scene from the very beginning (we all knew that one guy that bought everything, and then dubbed or burned us copies). I know plenty of people, myself included, that still on occasions buy cds – they are quickly burned and placed on the shelf to gather dust.

5) Parasites! I use the words somewhat lovingly and ironically (we all know a Bowie fan sleep agent). I recall being at a warehouse party in New York a few years ago. I was having drinks with this guy that worked for a PR firm, which worked at trying to push major acts on what he called the “goth scene” and other alt niche markets. The guy might have been a schizophrenic or a liar, but regardless of the fact, it worked quite well. A small part of me dies every time I’m out at ‘da club’ and I hear Goldfrapp. When your industrial (etc.) night turns into an alt top 40 disco, it’s time to politely resign – your scene has been co-opted.

6) There is no capital and little to no infrastructure. The means of producing are always rented out as a service from someone else. While everyone in teh scenes from artists, to club nights, to promoters loose money, it gives out money left and right to everyone from cd printing presses to the alcohol vendors.

You can look to the above and keep ignoring them (there’s also a few tracts in economic thought that claim that intellectual property rights are inassimilable to market capitalism). But quite frankly, if you want to maintain the same level of operation, rely on advertising, and depend on markets to sell your product – you’re going to be shit out of luck fairly shortly.

Quite frankly, the only way to hope for survival and to not loose money is for closer association. We’ve all grown acustom to isolating ourselves, and calmly sitting in our own convenient private worlds. But we’ll probably need to start associating with those in and close to teh scene, on a much closer basis – it doesn’t mean you have to be friends or even like them, just be aware that if you want anything you’re going to have to co-operate. This isn’t just meant as an interpersonal statement. In the near future it might be helpful to look into co-ownership of club venues, cd vendors, hell maybe even microbrewing. But unless there’s some internal circulation of capital, this scene is simply unsustainable.

Alrighty then. They plan on following up the February (tentative) Metropolis release with an extensive US tour and made mention that if you wish to book them you can contact sam @ bpmtalent.com.

In the meantime you gotta check this out; A west coast DJ who goes by the name Intoner recently completed an amazing remix of one of Cenotype’s tracks (much too late to be included on the disc unfortunately). Hopefully it’s a song that will find its way on a future release because it’s phenomenal.

If all you have available at your computer are some tinny speakers then just blow this post off. But if you’re hooked up to a subwoofer or have a quality pair of headphones handy then check out this version of “She’s Dead…Requiem.”

And keep your ears peeled for future works from Intoner. The guy’s got some damn talent.

Here’s your chance to acquire some Jizzheavy swag at closeout rates.

CAUSTIC POST-TOUR MERCH PACK ONE

• 1 shirt (Cock Blockin Beats or Viva la Revulsion, sizes S-2XL and girlie-T S-L)
• 1 copy of THIS IS JIZZCORE 2CD (30 tracks total!)
• 1 HITLER RUINED THAT MOUSTACHE FOR EVERYONE bumper sticker
• 3 CHEAPER THAN AN ABORTION condoms
• A few assorted other Caustic stickers or whathaveyou. WHATHAVEYOU!!!1!

$35 normally. ONLY $27!

CAUSTIC POST-TOUR MERCH PACK TWO

• 1 shirt (Cock Blockin Beats or Viva la Revulsion, sizes S-2XL and girlie-T S-L)
• 1 HITLER RUINED THAT MOUSTACHE FOR EVERYONE bumper sticker
• 3 CHEAPER THAN AN ABORTION condoms
• stickers n’ stuff

$20 normally. ONLY $15!

CAUSTIC POST-TOUR MERCH PACK THREE

• 1 copy of THIS IS JIZZCORE 2CD
• 1 HITLER RUINED THAT MOUSTACHE FOR EVERYONE bumper sticker
• 3 CHEAPER THAN AN ABORTION condoms
• stickers n’ stuff

$20 normally. ONLY $15!

You can place your order through an email request at causticmerch@NOSPAMgmail.com (take out the NOSPAM). Postage is included in the price for U.S. orders and it’ll be calculated for non-U.S. residents.

How awesome is that? They accept donations on the site but it’s not necessary. Also Eric Powell has encouraged people to share with everyone, saying in part: “We are in a new era of music, 16volt has passed through this era and we feel like we need to get our music out to new fans, what a better way? We have given people no reason not to listen and we hope that this translates into more sales for our future records, more fans at our shows, more people along for the ride with us.”

You know you love us here.

Enough already.

So it’s a relief to hear VLRK (aka Jos Tucker) of Grendel – in an interview with Noisescape TV at Festival Kinetic – talk about how the style is done and they’re moving in a new direction that isn’t so stale. Grendel has an EP due out in August with a new album following it by the end of the year. It should be interesting to hear.

Check out the interview footage below.

Suicide Commando will be out with a new single and album very soon but you can pretty much expect that it will sound like Suicide Commando. After all, it is Suicide Commando.

And if you’re looking for a change of pace check out the speed-rich, technoid Grendel side-project Urkom.

It’s time to dig the leather pants and Steampunk goggles out of the closet. After months of speculation over the release date, Goth/Industrial rockers Dope Stars Inc. present “21st Century Slave”, their third full-length album. Debuting in Italy and Japan (with new distributor Death Watch Asia!) on July 14th, across Europe on Trisol Records July 17th and coming stateside on Metropolis July 21st. For a review of the advance  ”Criminal Intents/Morningstar EP” click here.