“Controlled Addiction” by Cardinal Noire

The Finnish duo unleash an ear-melting assault of blistering industrial noise, just the way I like it.

It’s been awhile since I’ve enjoyed a slab of good old-fashioned ear-melting industrial music, but Finland’s Cardinal Noire more than fills the bill. Their 2018 album, Deluge, was recently re-released by Artoffact Records, and it has everything I could possibly want: punishing beats, dystopic ambience, ice-cold synths, and above all, Kalle Lindberg’s vocals, which are distorted beyond the point of recognition.

In other words, this isn’t the “pop” industrial of Nine Inch Nails and Circle of Dust, nor does it trade in any cutesy cyberpunk clichés, but rather, hearkens back to the likes of Skinny Puppy and globalWAVEsystem. In other words, a song like “Controlled Addiction” is a sonic assault so brutal and blistering that you start to fear for your speakers and eardrums alike.

Cardinal Noire are currently working on their official Artoffact debut, with a single to be released at some point this summer.

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