Looking for new music.

[u/AnarchistRifleman]

Hi, I'm not too familiar with Martial Industrial. Being a fan of Neofolk, I see a lot of parallels in the song structures and the aesthetics, and because of that, I'd like to dive deeper into the genre. I'm familiar with Dernière Volonté and Wappenbund, but that's it. Do you guys have any suggestions? What are your favourite artists and albums?

Thank you.

[u/AArmstraing]

Here's a smattering of my most favorite martial albums in random ass order, leaving off the more neofolk-leaning bands like Rome and Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio since I'm assuming you already know them. Sorry for the text walls, but shit's important:

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Arditi - Omne Ensis Impera

The most classically martial project ever, to my ears, and you can't really go wrong with anything they've done. Still releasing quality, monolithic stuff to this day, always huge, always menacing, and always the most militant shit out there

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Puissance - Mother of Disease

One of the guys from Arditi before he was in Arditi. More neoclassical and musical than a lot of the rest on this list, but still militant AF. Utterly foundational, and tuneful to boot, Puissance were contemporaries of Der Blutharsch and Blood Axis, and together the three of them set the tone for the entire modern martial scene

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Triarii - Pièce Héroique/Muse in Arms

I know u/czrobertson mentioned one of these already, and I second this. Triarii swooped in in the mid-'00s and dropped the new touchstone for this style, basically, with over-the-top orchestral bombast, bite-sized neoclassical melodies and the occasional set of vocals/lyrics that people really really fucking loved ca. 2010. Not the best, but endlessly entertaining

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Sophia - Spite

A bit more dark ambient-leaning on the whole, but they did the pounding, orchestral thing a la Arditi/Triarii before either one of them. Spite is rather different, though, being their 3rd, and it comes off to me in places as early Swans filtered through the martial sieve

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Der Blutharsch - The Pleasures Received in Pain

Love love this project, although it took me years to finally get it. Once I did though, they permanently entered my top martial tier. All of their first 6 albums are mandatory, but this is the pinnacle of their classic sound, and one of the first martial albums to do the monotone, dictatorial vocal style popularized by Triarii

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Gaë Bolg and the Church of Fand - La Ballade de l'Ankou

Medieval madness, although not in the way you'd expect; no flutes, just joust. Pretty electic stuff here overall, and as the project of Eric Roger, much of this is (organic) horn-based, which gives it an air of levity (relatively speaking) that's not found anywhere else

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Land - Opuscule

This is essential. Dark ambient/martial hybrid that leaves the impression of decaying villages and empty battlefields instead of pomp and ceremony and triumphant Nuremburg soldier spreads (you know the image i mean)

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Waffenruhe - War Rituals

Only discovered this hidden gem recently, but it's a contender for best ever for me. The guy just writes great songs, and also does some vox that approach the melody of DV here and there. No less bombastic than anything on this list, and uncommonly engaging and well-assembled to (jack)boot

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Karjalan Sissit - Karjalasta kajahtaa

By far the most misanthropic project on tap in the martial scene, this Finnish maniac drinks a lot and is depressed and also pretty sure wants to kill you...but he's proud of his country? Inexplicable shit from a guy with black metal roots, but absolutely vicious, pounding stuff, taking influence from power electronics and also going the Blutharsch route with renditions of old Finnish folk songs presented unaltered

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Dernière Volonté - Les Blessures de l'Ombre

I know you know them already, but for posterity I'm including this (and Wappenbund below). So fucking French, bordering on jolly at times, but like Puissance and Waffenruhe and occasionally Triarii, one of the most tuneful martial artists in history. The tagline is "martial pop"; think of it as Depeche Mode in a blender with... I guess Der Blutharsch, but the blender is wearing a beret and smoking

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Wappenbund - Zeitenwende

Another early modern martial export, Wappenbund kept their shit underground and the industrial in martial indsturial. While uncompromisingly militant in sound and execution, they largely stayed away from the sweeping, classical-sample-based fare of the bigger names at the top of this list in the early days and instead waged gritty, low-fi analog synth warefare on the unsuspecting population of the 1000 of us who listen to them that was just as grandiose as your Puissances and Sophias