It’s time for some industrial! But not the guitar-heavy metallic brand. The November Commandment (or often Nov*Com) were doing EBM/electro before it was trendy–or even before it was called that. Hailing from Sweden, the band emerged with an independent cassette in 1988 called Complete Structure. The tape featured a minimalist sound driven by synthesizers, not too unlike Coil and some of Wire’s more experimental material. They released another cassette in 1991, this time a 5-song EP. The band made their appearance in the consciousness of American fans via the fantastic SLAVA compilation, Voice of the People, co-released through Blonde Vinyl Records. The track “Saints” was dark and foreboding, and reminded me slightly of Front 242 but the deep baritone croon of Andreas Mattsson set them apart from the pack.
Their first CD was an EP called Exile Station. It’s a fantastic listen–one of those albums you want to pop in your car’s system while driving through the city at night. When the Christian industrial was aligning itself more and more with heavy metal (not necessarily a bad thing), Nov*Com was keeping things more subtle and nuanced, and to great effect. They released one more full-length, A Motorised Mind, itself a sort of compilation of all of their previous material, before the band called it quits.
However, band members have turned up in a wide range of other acts including Counterblast (hardcore), Sanctum (gothic/industrial), Parca Pace (dark electro/industrial), Azure Skies (industrial/experimental), Mago (ambient/industrial), Scrap/Grinder (noise/industrial), and several others.
“High” was released originally on Exile Station and is also included on A Motorised Mind.