(EBM\Electro\Industrial) Concrete Nature - :eNCRUSTED - 2000, MP3, 320 kbps

Concrete Nature was an electro-industrial band that formed in 1995 in the Baltic city of Kiel, Germany.
The core duo of Micheal H. Hartmann and Sönke Siemsen met by chance at a concert in Kiel and bonded over their mutual appreciation for harder-edged electronic music. Michael had just ceased working with his previous bands Nigra Nebula and Human Sacrifice and was seeking a new outlet for his ideas.
Their initial concept was to meld the dark ideology of industrial with the energy of electronic body music to achieve "some kind of harmony between art and music…in order to convey the beauty, energy, aesthetics and ideology of dark electronic music…a wild animal with claws extended and teeth gleaming". They jokingly dubbed the fusion IBM - Industrial Body Music, but in truth it was really a refinement of the electro-industrial genre and a precursor to harsh electro and aggrotech.
The pair were joined in the beginning by S. Staack of Hellfire-Productions on vocals and they went by the name of 'System Shock'. In 1996 after a year of refining their sound, Staack graciously left the band agreeing that his vocal style didn't quite match the direction the music was heading. Michael took over the duties of vocals and they renamed the band 'Concrete Nature' as they felt it captured the sense of "decay and decline of moral fibre that ravages our fragile world."
Over the next two years they worked at perfecting their demo CD ':Manslaughtered:' and in late 1998 they self-released it as a CDr under their Daggoth Studios name. After searching in vain for a German label to sign and distribute their material, the apathy of the labels drove them to make their material available on the internet to generate attention. This plan worked perfectly as they were soon flooded with praise and requests for more music by fans around the world. This brought them to the attention of the Canadian industrial label, Gashed!, who offered to feature them on the stellar compilation Virion Sequences and later a record deal.
At first they were daunted by the prospect of producing their own album until Michael was contacted by his friend Sunny Schramm who had been a bandmate of his in the formative stages of Nigra Nebula. Sunny's band Abscess had come to an end due to the unexpected departure of Jan Bicker and he was looking to get involved in producing and engineering. Bringing the expertise of working with X-Marks The Pedwalk's André Schmechta and writing and producing three of his own albums Sunny was able to help the pair add professional mixing & mastering to their sound. Six months later they completed and released their debut album, Encrusted, to universal positive reviews.
Happy with his contributions to their sound, Michael and Sönke invited Sunny to join the band officially as a full-fledged third member. After a brief rest from their labors on their first album the trio began work on a follow-up EP in 2001. Unfortunately, due to circumstances beyond their control their label, Gashed!, went out of business and they were forced to seek a new label. After a few months of searching around they were eagerly signed to the label MCT Productions in England. In April of 2002 that label shut down as well, leaving the band bereft of a label yet again.
Discouraged by having to start all over again the group announced they were taking a break and posted their EP, Plasma Drip for free download on their band website as a 'thank you' to their fans.
© last.fm

Michael H. Hartmann, Sönke Siemsen, Sunny Schramm