Seigmen – Radiowaves (1997)

Now this is an album I have been playing all day long, even though outside was a sunny and fairly warm day,  while Radiowaves is more of an ‘’dark rainy day’’ kind of album. First off I need to state that I have been looking for Siegmen’s music for years, before I actually downloaded got firstly Radiowaves and slowly then their other works. This band is hard to reach, even though they were a quite popular act on the alternative rock scene back in the 90s in Norway. Moving on, I also feel the need to say that I wouldn’t have come across this band if it wasn’t for Tristania’s cover of The Modern End on their 2001 album World Of Glass (which is a masterpiece in its own genre, but now is not the time to discuss it). As Tristania’s version of The Modern End sounded so very passionate and fragile at the same time, I just had to find out how the song sounds originally. And I did, even more; I got my ears on an exceptional rock album, blending gothic music with some electronic features, creating a very specific, dark and mystic atmosphere.

Radiowaves opens with an exceptional song, Performance Alpha that really gives you the feel of 80s darkwave, gothic rock and some Depeche Mode thrown in there and it’s actually quite representative for the whole album. The song Trampoline is pure gothic rock, goes the same for Bloodprints and Guilt, while already mentioned The Modern End has a more modern (coincidence?) sound, being a mixture of electronic music with some darkwave influences. When you hear Universal and The World Revolves Around You, you may even find a bit of Nine Inch Nails in there.

One more thing I need to expose as well are the haunting vocals that really bring that final touch of desperation, which is a cherry on the top of every dark, atmospheric rock album. 

This is a live version of The Modern End, the quality may not be the best, but it will give you a good presentation of the sound of. Radiowaves  

And if you wish to broaden your horizon some more, the famous Tristania's cover: