If you were in Vancouver this weekend and lucky enough to be on the hella exclusive guestlist, you would have been a part of what is sure to become an annual Van City rivet tradition: The Borkaboo Society Swedish EBM and Vegan Pizza Cook-Off. Yes, the city’s elite cadre of SwEBM aficionados gathered at the ID:UD HQ to partake in delicious, cruelty-free pizza pie, with toppings and combinations thereof provided by each attendee. We at I Die: You Die take our pizza real-serious like, almost as much as our Sverige body music, so you know we were jamming out to Scapa Flow, Cat Rapes Dog, The Pain Machinery and Container 90 while downing slices of spicy adobo and soy-pepperoni goodness. Of course those celebrations don’t mean we get time off from writing up some interesting new songs of note, a selection of which we have assembled for your perusal below.

Also, we would you believe that tickets for AFTERMATH are now on sale and they are DUMB CHEAP, like $15 a night if you buy in advance cheap. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday are all available via Brownpaper tickets, step on up!

Not pictured: Dolph Lundgren movies on TV, Ekobrottsmyndigheten blasting on speakers

DSX & Sid Lamar, “Black Clouds Separated”
Frost Vol. 1 was a pretty succinct statement of purpose from Basic Unit Productions, a label comp that laid out the dark, cool techno-ebm crossover sound reflected in all their releases since. Volume 2 of the series is now on the horizon with a fairly impressive tracklist of its own; aside from established outside acts like The Horrorist and Marching Dynamics we’re getting a healthy dose of roster goodness from the likes of Blac Kolor, Square7, Liebknecht and of course DSX, appearing with a track featuring Keluar’s Sid Lamar. You’ll recall that DSX (aka Dejan Samardzic) previously kicked it with Keluar’s vocalist Zoè Zanias on recent single Shifted, which we were similarly impressed with.

Black Sheep Screaming, “Tri​-​Polar Maneuvers”
Serbian electro-industrial act Black Sheep Screaming are notable for their harsh and unpredictable nature, in the same way that rain is notable for being wet and ice cream is notable for being delicious. Their last release got some attention around the HQ by virtue of its unique and inscrutable character. Although we could draw comparisons to say, Chrysalide and late-period Mentallo & the Fixer, neither fully encapsulates the quixotic and aggressive tone of BSS’ output. New single “Tri​-​Polar Maneuvers” carries on in that tradition, where else are you gonna find brapped out soundscapes, samples of Doakes and screeching metal on metal in this day and age?

3 Teeth, “Catalyst”
We’ve written at length about how amped up we are for 3 Teeth’s debut, and about how no small part of that has been due to the steady stream of pre-release music that has magically balanced the feeling that they’re giving us something to chew on while also maintaining the mystique around their forthcoming debut. New track “Catalyst” is a pleasant example of how they work that division, an instrumental that calls to mind some of latter-day Nine Inch Nails’ more composerly moments, it displays a wholly different side of the LA act than the gritty industrial rock workouts that have become their calling card. Can this album just come out already, we’re dying over here.

Vandalaze, “So Real”
A little something for those who yearn for a simpler, more neon time. Not too far off from the stuff White Car did on Everyday Grace, Vandalaze is plumbing that mid-period Cabs, Severed Heads kinda style, where aggression and experimentalism gave way to smoothed out digital weirdness. Of course the benefit of hindsight allows for some interesting diversions, the single for this track finds the song interpreted in a variety of contemporary and classic ways. Not shabby at all.

Information Society, “Land of the Blind (Aesthetic Perfection mix)”
If you’re like us, you grew up during the dark days when InSoc was doing the remix/greatest hits rounds on Cleopatra, a shadow of their former MTV buzzclip selves. Those weren’t particularly great years for the Minneapolis-based group, but the latter part of the last decade has found the group receiving some acknowledgement for their role in the history of freestyle and electro. There are still some traces of their years in the goth/industrial salt mines though, as the remix line-up for new single “Land of the Blind” will attest; you got some Inertia, some Whiteqube and even a lil’ Aesthetic Perfection on board for remixes.