In Slaughter Natives – Cannula Coma Legio CD Cyclic Law 2014

Clearly not being a project to rush their releases, the long-standing and cult revered In Slaughter Natives has resurfaced after a 10 year break from the last formal album ‘Resurrection’, which in turn was preceded by an 8 year gap between it and 1996’s ‘Purgate My Stain’.  Despite these long passages of silence it is great to see that In Slaughter Natives is still active after all these years, considering that the debut release was issued way back in 1989.

Regardless of the slow pace of releases unquestionably In Slaughter Natives were hugely influential in establishing the ‘Cold Meat Industry’ sound and more broadly the northern European industrial underground.  Likewise in hindsight it can be acknowledged that In Slaughter Natives were a precursor the ‘martial industrial’ genre, although their trademark orchestral industrial doom has stood out from and has not been replicated by the majority of projects of a ‘martial industrial’ style (which are predominantly influenced by early to mid-20th century history and era).  Thus In Slaughter Natives stand apart with their distinctive and recognisable neo-classical compositions, which articulate a hellish atmosphere of religious laments and amounts to a sonic representation of purgatorial damnation.

With this necessary background out-of-the-way, evidently ‘Cannula Coma Legio’ is technically not the new album from the group, rather is billed a stop-gap release prior to the release of the actual new album in 2015.  So for this release it contains 3 new tracks which are set alongside a series of reworked and upgraded versions of earlier material.  Yet interestingly all of the material which has been brought together for this release works perfectly as a coherent whole.  This has been achieved by the fact that new versions substantially differ from the originals versions to the point of being almost unrecognisable, and in a number of instances the original melodies and structural elements of known compositions only reveal themselves after multiple detailed listens.  This is most evident for the updated versions of the earliest reworked material, where in some instances the programmed sound of the original versions have not held up fully with the passage of time.  Yet the reason why the new versions work so well here, is that they have ben elevated to full bombastic orchestral intensity.

With ‘Cannula Coma Legio’ seamlessly merging brooding and understated neo-classical passages with sections of booming orchestral bombast, the greatest reference point is with respect of ‘Purgate My Stain’ (THE classic in In Slaughter Natives discography), an album with a slow building intensity which explodes into passages of orchestral doom at appropriate moments.  Given this new album manages a similar sound and approach to ‘Purgate My Stain’, is clearly an indication of how ‘Cannula Coma Legio’ is appreciated around these parts.

Do not let the fact that this album is promoted as a teaser for the new album give any sort of impression that this material is second-rate.  ‘Cannula Coma Legio’ is as strong as ‘Purgate Mt Stain’ thus demonstrating In Slaughter Natives are still an underground heavyweight. It is also fantastic to see the project releasing some of their strongest material some 25 years since the debut. Bring on the next release!