French Net label La Caverne Du Dragon has released this fantastic (and free!) 2 volume compilation of Neo-Folk, Dark Ambient and Martial music artists from all around Europe. Plenty of stuff that is keeping the genre alive and very well. Check this out if you like Rome, In The Nursery, Death In June, Sol Invictus, Current 93, Laibach, etc. Also, don’t be a dumb Fokker and confuse WWI with WWII. Anyway, support these bands & this release, it’s really worth your time especially if you’re into history.

DISC I (Tracks 1-10)

((((1)))) Cold, rumbling then neo-folk chords and female voice “en françias”, later duplicated.
(((((2))))) Simple, sullen, dark neo-folk, electronic swooshes. Kind of similar to Sol Invictus, samples in English and German about the fracturing of Europe.
(((((3)))) Percussion, acoustic guitars, fuzz guitars and odd, repetitive English & French vocals. Sample from classroom documentary on WWI.
((((4))) Brooding dark ambient with chains, piano, Italian vocals high in the mix. Odd metered but kinda works.
(((((5))))) Dark electronic warbles ‘ala Legendary Pink Dots, sullen “very Euro” deep & vocals. Gets more accessible around the 2:50 mark with more rat-a-tat drumming.
((((6)))) “Mini-documentary” mix of horn samples, piano, ambient & electronic randomness, string loops, German & British voices discussing the war + wolves barking & gun shots.
((((7)))) Cold, rainy (!), long piece of ambient, French narration(s), with “coming up the hillside” troops who later sit in a soaking wet trench playing harmonica & avoiding mustard gas. Gets hugely orchestrated & verrry random near the end.
(((((8)))) Acoustic guitar, bi-plane noise, moody keys, sparse ambience then a bunch of explosions and loud gun fire and maybe Kaiser Wilhelm II yelling into the acrid wind.
((((((9))))) Majestic, bombastic neo-classical, martial sound. Huge and cinematic as fuck!
((((10)))) Musty 78 record singing then contemporary hit for “our boys” as the Brits called ‘em. “But sod all that – there’s a feckin’ bomb comin’ yer way!-Bloody krauts!”

DISC II (Tracks 11-20 for ZK's use)

((((((1)))))) Beautiful, somber ethereal ambience.
(((((2)))) Air raid sirens, dark organ sound, trance-y drumming all looping around, some military dispatchers and even louder drumming.
((((((3))))) Cinematic strings, German or Austrian leader talking in the background.
((((4))))) Ambient electronic warbelings compounded by repeating percussive turret fire & der Kaiser (or one of his cronies) rambling on with a deep sullen voice droning about.
((((5)))) Sad piano, some distraught French solider talking and a shit ton of electronic/industrial bombast & Godzilla stomping atop of the fields of Flanders. Slow fade end.
((((6)))) French news report sounding thing. Very dramatic, cinematic, running to the front sound that loops around.
((((((7)))))) Very Laibach-ian stomp and march industrial with “iron singing” (translated title) & words “im Deutsch”. Some fantastic martial percussion and electronics.
((((8)))) Slow classical feeling with record static. A distant news report in English (sounds like it might be President Wilson?) on the then state of affairs.
((((9)))) Distorted duck noise (?) and floating classical ambience mixed together with a pastiche of voices in the distance.
((((((10)))))) Perfectly fucked up electro-techno weirdness with loud screams of terror (which is really part of all wars) trance-inducing loops. Not far off from a modern Throbbing Gristle.