Blackhouse – Hidden Beneath the Metal

Blackhouse
Hidden Beneath the Metal
1991 Ladd-Frith
Eureka, California, USA

Ivo Cutler – Voice, sampler, radio, chair, effects
Sterling Cross – Voice, sound module, percussion

Brian Ladd – Untuned guest guitar, mega-mix

Side 1:

1. Hidden Beneath the Metal A

Side 2:

1. Hidden Beneath the Metal B

To be honest, I don’t know enough about industrial to be able to tell you what sub-genre each Blackhouse album fits into. I do like their music, and they do change styles some each album. But people with more knowledge of industrial in general can probably describe this better than I can. To me, this one appears to be more ambient and subdued than other releases. If I am counting correctly, this was their 9th release, one year after Material World, but three years before Stairway to a Gospel Word – which I think was actually a compilation. So the next original album was 1995’s Shock the Nation. Each side is a single long 15+ minute track. On the CD reissue, it seems they were combined into one 30 minute track with some bonus tracks added.

Blackhouse – Hope Like a Candle

Blackhouse
Hope Like a Candle
1985 Ladd-Frith
Eureka, California, USA

Sterling Cross
Ivo Cutler

Side 1:

1. Hope Like a Candle
2. #11
3. What Do You Know About Me?
4. Roger Wasn’t…..
5. Let Me Count the Ways
6. Rhythmus

Side 2:

1. Mercy Seat
2. The 2 Classes of People
3. Judgement
4. Sentence
5. Blackhouse
6. Countdown

This is the second Blackhouse release, after 1984’s Pro-Life, but before 1986’s Five Minutes After I Die. Sometimes it is listed as a 1984 release, other places say 1985. The music gets closer to a more traditional industrial sound, with distorted vocals over rhythmic mechanically-driven percussion music. This one appears to add a high-pitched screeching noise on most tracks, along with some other noises that are not percussive in nature, but not really guitar or instrument based as well. Like the other Blackhouse releases, this one has been re-released many times on CD and vinyl through the years, sometimes with bonus tracks.

Blackhouse – Five Minutes After I Die

Blackhouse
Five Minutes After I Die
1986 Ladd-Frith
Eureka, California, USA

Ivo Cutler
Sterling Cross

Side 1:

1. Five Minutes After I Die

Side 2:

2. His Zion
3. Halo Hearth
4. Answer for You
5. A Thousand Tongues
6. Numerology
7. Five Minutes After I Die (Reprise)

The third album by Blackhouse finds the band expanding their industrial / noise sound into new directions. Following after 1985’s Hope Like a Candle, this one has one long song on side 1, and a few shorter and longer songs on side 2. However, the title track has several different parts to it, so you really have to follow the vocals to know it is one song. On the other hand, all of the songs on side 2 run into each other, so again you have to go by vocals (where present) to let you know these are different songs. This one has also been re-issued on vinyl and CD several times, but I don’t think any of those had bonus tracks like re-issues of their first tape Pro-Life did.

Blackhouse – Pro-Life

Blackhouse
Pro-Life
1984 Ladd-Frith

Sterling Cross
Ivo Cutler
Roger Farrell

Side 1:

1. Born Again
2. Love
3. Jesus Loves You
4. Always By Your Side
5. Long Live Life ….into…. The One Truth
6. Pro-Life

Side 2:

1. Power of the Lion
2. Go (Positive Path)
3. Prayer
4. Apparition ….into…. Abolition of Strife
5. Be Good

Pro-Life was the first Blackhouse album released way back in 1984. It has been re-issued on cassette, CD, vinyl, and digital many times since then, sometimes with extensive bonus tracks. Sometimes it is listed just with one long track for each side (side one is labeled as “No Rhythm” and side 2 is labeled as “Pro-Rhythm”). They followed this one up with their second album Hope Like a Candle also in 1984 (or possibly 1985). So the labels for the sides are pretty accurate. The first side is noise industrial often without much discernible rhythm. The second side has rhythm to it. It’s all made with various distorted vocals, sounds, random percussion noises, and guitar (or guitar-like) screeches and noises (plus some programmed rhythms on side 2). The next to last track on both sides are longer tracks that end up being two songs that run together (sometimes listed separately on some versions).