Reviews:

From Musique Machine: (by Josh Landry)

  "Behavioural Decline" is the third release and first widely distributed album by noise / power electronics artist Lee Howard, who released his first double CDr "The Power of September" in 2007.
What we have here is not a chaotic wall of noise, but a meaty, fat, synthetic sound.  Lee uses what is called 'signal routing' to get a sound that is warm, thick, round and pleasant like the sensation of humming to yourself.  This is aesthetically minded noise - It is obviously intended to be an intense and violent experience, but it's obvious too that the creator actually likes listening to these sounds.  The attention to textural subtlety and detail lends class and polish to tracks like "The Power of New Septembers".  Howard channels the dream imagery and rich, granular hallucinatory textures of Cyclobe and Coil and couples them with heavily drugged emotional detachment and alienation.  Lee Howard has mentioned his Coil inspiration in an interview, and indeed these resonant mantras certainly recall the purity and harshness of Coil's singular 2002 noise album "Constant Shallowness Leads to Evil".  The semitonal loops and riffs are almost like basslines.

  That said, this album is still as sonically harsh as just about any release on the market.

  Several tracks on the album, with their simple pulses and screamed vocals, definitely recall Whitehouse as well, such as opener "First Movement of a Shallow Man", except here the music actually IMPROVES with the decipherability and audibility of the vocals, because it's not just the same meat-headed, clumsily written, serial killer's diary fodder.  Rather, Lee's simple but poetic phrases perplex with their myriad potential meanings and never resort to explicit or cliched violence or anarchist politics.  Just listen to "Smile Like Sword", one of the most memorable and anthemic tracks I've heard this year.  His catchy, powerful lyrics and chants make this old sound worth revisiting, and it's not overdone, as tracks in this style actually take up a little less than half of the album.

  This album has the authenticity of being created during a real life crisis - a crippling addiction.  The apparently quite inebriated Lee Howard bellows in single-minded, detached aggression.  The eerie specter of Princess Diana (his strange obsession) leers from the booklet, and from the cover of his more recent album "Blush".  This music exists in an emotional dimension only reachable by the obsessive addict.  Lee has not been explicit about the circumstances that led to the creation of this album, but it's obvious that, in an emotional sense, this album is deep and complex, and as real as they come.

  With tracks like "Didn't Stop Me Trying"  Lee lets it all out.  4 minutes of harsh noise.  His vocals are still sometimes present, but the sound is much denser and it's harder to tell which sounds could be his voice.  "Bluetack" is an absolutely mindbending track that eschews all conventions for a form of beautifully unhinged intuitive improvisation - Lee seems to just let his mind create a structure automatically, and the result is a trip into a truly alienating, strange realm.  His ragged voice howls out of the maelstrom, and though the words are indecipherable it feels as if this is because the message is simply nonverbal.

  Not content to let "Behavioural Decline" be as a solid noise / power electronics record, Howard adds a surprising finish to the album with the 15 minutes of "Concert for Evening Battle", which shift restlessly as if alive.  This is a less violent, more textural Lee Howard (even if some of the high frequency on this track are absolutely PUNISHING), and hints at more experimental music to come.  The track goes through several sections, and sounds like at times like a harsher version of the music found on the Raster Noton label.

  Conclusion - Lee Howard was born to create power electronics, and "Behavioural Decline" is a marvellously viscious, cathartic disk.  He also shows serious potential as a soundscape artist / sound sculptor along the lines of Aube, K.K. Null or his acknowledged inspiration, Coil, and I look forward to hearing more work in this vein from him in the future. (5/5)

From Vital Weekly: (by NM)

  ...Last album in the line comes from British power electronics artist Iron Fist Of The Sun. Present album titled "Behavioural decline" separates from the aforementioned albums with its old school oriented approach to the noise scene recalling the early days of Industrial pioneering. As you listen to the eight tracks of the album associations towards compatriot legends in Whitehouse shines through, though there are plenty of moments with high-tech violence to prove its existence in the presence of contemporary harsh noise scene. Again the vocals are a dominating parameter to create the brutality, but the vocal sound on this one is more human in expression with some pure shouting without the witchery hellish black metal screams of first reviewed album from NDE. Three great new exercises in extreme aggression from British essential label Cold Spring.

From Chain D.L.K.: (by Maurizio Pustianaz)

  Having tasted the classics during the 80's (see Whitehouse and the Broken Flag label's roster and similar) it's really difficult that today's power noise interests me. This genre is difficult per se, because it is really easy to pack a bunch of distorted noises and to cry out all the anger not caring about sound production just because this kind of music requires that you do things that way. For this reason I'm not looking for this kind of stuff to review. Anyway, Cold Spring Records fortunately always takes care of its releases and this is also the case of Iron Fist Of The Sun. BEHAVIOURAL DECLINE for sure falls into the power noise genre but even if it is full of analog/digital square waves and vocal cries, its minimal approach to elements helps avoiding the wall of sound effect. Taking inspiration from electro-acoustics and ideology akin to black metal/black noise and born from obsessions skewed by drug use, codes of behaviour observed by a misanthropic mind (so tells the info card), Iron First From The Sun succeeds into penetrating your skull without messing too much your brain.

From Alternativemusik.de: (by Marius Meyer)

  Der Rahmen „Alternativmusik.de“ wurde hier ja schon oft in einem so weiten Sinne ausgelegt, dass Alternativen zur Musik in Form von Hörbüchern und Filmen aufgezeigt wurden. Wenn dann aber doch CDs eintreffen, die sich die Bezeichnung „Musik“ in irgendeiner Weise auf die Fahnen schreiben und man sich fragt, wo noch die Gemeinsamkeit zur Audio-CD im eigentlichen Sinne ist, dann hat man es wohl mit einer Alternative zur Musik in einem anderen Sinne zu tun. Denn mit Musik hat Behavioural Decline von Iron Fist Of The Sun ungefähr soviel zu tun wie Weihnachten mit Ostereier Suchen. Stattdessen begegnet hier die volle Dröhnung Power Electronics.

  Wenn man dann im Infotext zur CD etwas von „personal obsessions skewed by drug use“ liest, könnte man auf die Idee kommen, hier hat jemand seinen ganz persönlichen Wahnsinn zu vertonen versucht. Hier kann man nur mit den Schubladen Begriffen Industrial, Power Electronics und Noise hantieren, denn Songs und Musik im Sinne von „Songs und Musik“ finden sich hier schlichtweg nicht. Stattdessen gibt es tiefe dröhnenden Frequenzen, hohe Frequenzen, Feedbacks, dumpfe Sounds, Samples, Schreie durch den Vocoder und collagierte Fragmente, die sich in ihrer Länge zwischen anderthalb und über fünfzehn Minuten bewegen. Immer wieder auf dem Programm: Der beliebte „Schön, wenn der Schmerz nachlässt“-Effekt.

  Wie immer in dieser musikalischen Sparte: Musik für Minderheiten, soviel ist klar. Man kann wohl konstatieren, dass der Künstler aus Birmingham hier gute, solide Power Electronics-Arbeit abgeliefert hat, die einen gewissen Qualitätsstandard hält. Wie gut das Album nun wirklich ist, entscheidet dann aber besser doch direkt die eigentliche Zielgruppe. Ist ja in Zeiten von MySpace kein Problem…

From Stigmata Magazine:

  Review in Russian - read full review here.

From Side-Line: (by DP)

 ‘Personal obsessions skewed by drug use, codes of behaviour observed by a misanthropic mind. Bitter and cold. Nihilistic and scornful. Elitist and Pure. “Behavioural Decline” documents the rise of treachery and the fall of honour.’ That’s how this album by the English project Iron Fist Of The Sun was introduced. It sounds a bit anguishing, but definitely intimate. Well, the experience will blow your mind away. “Behavioural Decline” goes beyond all codes and norms. We’re getting back to the essence of early 80s sonic experimental musicians dropping blasts of sounds and other noise layers on the poor neurons of the mortals. The heavy slogan way of screaming reminds me of a Last Few Days. It’s colder than ice and can’t leave the listener unmoved. “Behavioral Decline” sounds tormenting for having conceived a kind of horror soundscape. “The Power Of New Septembers” illustrates all the rage running through the mind of this composer. “First Movement Of A Shallow Man” and “Smile Like Sword” are two more heavy outbursts from this project’s sense of annihilation. The live recording let us easily imagine the kind of sonic aggression the spectators had to endure, but the real efficiency of such ‘noise’ can be only blasting to be good! You better get ready for a bomb of noise!

From Compulsion: (by Tony Dickie)

 After the opening buzzing layers of distorted noise that comprise 'Introduction To A Joyless New Start', the opening track on Behavioural Decline, 'First Movement Of A Shallow Man' appropriates the distorted phased vocal approach reminiscent of the first wave of power electronic groups such as Whitehouse, Sutcliffe Jugend and Ramleh. Iron Fist Of The Sun are obviously aware of early power electronics but this isn't a pastiche of their industrial forefathers. There's a knowing nod to their industrial heritage on Behavioural Decline, the first proper album from Birmingham's Iron Fist Of The Sun, but soon they pursue their own distinctive approach combining power noise with several tracks of electro-acoustic composition.

  Distorted tones rip through 'Smile Like Sword' spouting phrases like "honour is king" over controlled lapping buzz drones. It's forceful and brutal climaxing in a barrage of noise. Shrill frequencies and grating lowend rumbles comprise 'The Power Of New Septembers' with the gushing vocal holler pushed to the periphery. The strangely titled 'Bluetack' bustles with a rabid shrieking vocal, grumbling electronics and industrial hiss. Iron Fist Of The Sun steer clear of the provocative sexual themes to extrapolate on episodes of personal breakdown from their protagonist Lee Howard. Not that you can make out Howard's ravings, the savage delivery is all but indecipherable.

  There's a slight move away from power electronics to a denser more abstract approach on other tracks. 'Didn't Stop Me Trying' is a caustic blend of fizzing electronics and electrifying textures, while 'God's New Gravity' is reduced to a series of engine rev electronics. Iron Fist Of The Sun's more abstract soundwork appears on the final track, 'Concert For Evening Battle (Live)'. Recorded as part of an electro-acoustic festival put on by Radio Black Forest in Birmingham, the sounds here are more modulated; all controlled signal noise, and sputtering bleeps and whooshes. As it progresses it becomes a piece of industrialised improvisation with murky rumblings and jolts of wayward screechiness.

  Behavioural Declines rages with an inherent nihilism. With its minimal construction and varied approach it's an intriguing take on contemporary power electronics.

From Asgard Root:

 According to the ever-reliable Cold Spring notes, this album is an exceptionally personal message to the world regarding the rise of ‘treachery and the fall of honour’ a perspective that would sit comfortably in the worldview of many a right wing Eastern European black metal outfit, but here finds solace in the perturbing nightmarish soundscape of a power-electronics mastermind. This is a particularly suffocating release that grips like a vice and rarely eases off allowing only the most fleeting respite to us poor listeners. The sheer menace conjured by the alchemical concoction of high quality power electronics, introspective industrial and pure nihilism is quite overwhelming and at times the distinction between pleasure and pain is rendered utterly irrelevant. I would not, however describe this as a pleasurable experience, more like the entertainment equivalent of self-flagellation, but in an increasingly easy, hedonistic world this is perhaps a vital course to take.

From Filthforge: (by Simon V.)

  New sonic extremisms from Birmingham, England. An aseptic and minimal package frames eight tracks of interesting and articulated power-electronics. Following the steps of veteran neighbours Grey Wolves and Con-Dom, noise is utilized in the form of a brutal assault coupled with barbaric vocals ("Bluetack"), but more often to conjure sick and disquieting atmospheres ("Didn't Stope Me Trying"), based on the obsessive and stunning repetition of distortions and digital sputtering ("The Power Of New Septembers", "Smile Like Sword", "God's New Gravity"). The will to evoke disturbing feelings and frames of mind prevails over slapping the listeners in the face (or, like it often happens with this kind of productions, to simply disgust them). The approach doesn't change in the over 15 minutes of live improvisation, emblematically titled "Concert For Evening Battle", in which Iron Fist Of The Sun, with a certain ability, sutures filters, feedbacks and hissings directly on stage. In the overcrowded power-electronics environment, there's finally a new name worth of attention.

From Darkroom: (by Michele Viali)

 Debutto in CD per il progetto di Lee Howard, nuova leva della power-electro più ruvida proveniente da Birmingham, UK. "Behavioural Decline" trova linfa vitale in alcuni grandi nomi della scena inglese come Grey Wolves e Con-Dom, ripercorrendone almeno in parte le direttive di base. La struttura dei brani è alquanto semplice, basata su un generatore elettronico di rumore lineare distorto, a cui si aggiungono in alcuni frangenti ulteriori assalti sonori che rimpolpano e amplificano la violenza dell'album. Ruoli importanti vengono ricoperti sia dalla voce, anch'essa distorta e brutalizzata come tradizione comanda, che dai testi, purtroppo incomprensibili e non inclusi nell'inserto. Eccetto alcuni passaggi fondati su una stratificazione noise più rimbombante ("Didn't Stop Me Trying"), emerge un minimalismo di fondo che porta l'autore a reiterare all'infinito un singolo rumore analogico fino allo stordimento dell'ascoltatore, un approccio compositivo che ricorda assai da vicino la scena black metal più purista, ovviamente ripercorsa con mezzi elettronici. Non è un caso che a produrre l'album sia proprio la Cold Spring, che da sempre ha diviso la propria passione tra i rumori sintetici e quelli rock-luciferini. Le otto tracce del disco non si allontanano mai troppo l'una dall'altra, eccezion fatta per il lungo pezzo finale "Concert For Evening Battle", estratto da un'esibizione live al Radio Black Forest's Festival, dove il noise, epurato dai toni spezzati tipici del resto dell'album, prende pieghe ambientali e a tratti cervellotiche lasciando spazio a modulazioni su frequenze alte, con relativi rischi per i timpani. Prodotto indicato ai rari adepti del verbo power-electro, qui rivisto con lievi modifiche strutturali.