Since the ’90s, Estonia’s Forgotten Sunrise have veered violently off the rails of genre, constructing their own contorted corridor through death metal’s debris, shoegaze shimmer, dark electro’s circuitry, and trip-hop’s skeletal swing. They call it “outdustrial” – outsider industrial – but that’s just shorthand for a sound that scoffs at structure and strips influence for spare parts.
Still helmed by Anders Melts, joined now by sonic conjurer Jaan “Suva” Pullerits and the spectral cadences of Bedless Bones’ Kadri Sammel, the band channels something both primeval and post-human. Think Skinny Puppy throat-slamming into Dead Can Dance in a haunted factory run by Trepaneringsritualen.
Their latest output, elu (“life” in Estonian), arrives not as a singular monolith but as a convulsive hydra: 21 tracks, each a reanimation of the original, reworked and rewired by a who’s-who of the industrial underground. Released via Ohm Resistance, elu features splintered perspectives from ESA, Statiqbloom, Detritus, Cardinal Noire, G.G.F.H., and Bedless Bones among others, each rendering a track down to the bone, then re-dressing it in rust, skin, and static.
elu is a collage of club-ready corrosion and ritualistic ruin. It marks the first installment in the trio’s upcoming triptych Hall elu jah! – a phrase that mutates the Hebrew “hallelujah” into an Estonian lament, one that walks barefoot through broken glass toward something that might resemble redemption or ruin, but never indifference. “Hall” means the colour grey, a mixture of black and white, representing the idea of yin & yang; and “jah!” is a confirmation word. Forgotten Sunrise weld the warped theatrics and martial menace of Laibach, forging a sound that slithers through scrap metal rhythms, guttural growls, and spectral synths. These sinister remixes feels like a derelict cathedral wired to a failing mainframe: ritualistic, dissonant, and out of step. Equal parts dirge and data-glitch, Forgotten Sunrise conduct séances through circuitry, summoning dread, beauty, and brutalist bliss in equal measure.
The album is out now on double CD. Listen to elu below and order it here.
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