DDAR010 The Relic – ARK X: Oblivion Protocol VINYL: “The alarm had been sounding for so long that nobody remembered what it had been warning about. The protocol had become routine; every signal acknowledged, every command obeyed. Dreams were archived, memories rewritten, emotions reduced to corrupted fragments of data. The city continued to function with mechanical precision, while the last traces of humanity slowly dissolved into the noise.” With Oblivion Protocol, The Relic continues his ongoing ARK series, once again excavating hidden layers of industrial hardcore’s past while transforming them into something unmistakably his own. Across six meticulously crafted tracks, echoes of classic hardcore attitude, doom-like heaviness and early industrial brutality surface before being reshaped into a bleak, contemporary vision. Nostalgia is never the destination; it provides fragments for reconstruction. The release constantly shifts in weight and momentum. Crushing mid-tempo passages give way to relentless bursts of energy, while distorted textures, commanding vocal samples and melodic fragments create an atmosphere that is as oppressive as it is immersive. The archaeology continues, but the discoveries become increasingly unsettling: What once promised the future now echoes through abandoned systems, corrupted memories and hostile sonic environments.

DD14074 “For how many days had he been living like that? He had stopped counting after a few weeks and accepted his fate of functioning without thinking, like a part of the machinery he was surrounded with. He knew it was merely the leaders’ detestation for life had lead humanity to inflict mechanized extinction upon itself. It was the daily peek outside, before he had to descend again into this fortress of industrial warfare, where people live like the dead - to remain among the living. The muffled impact of bombs and missiles, the howls of death, a wiggly vision impaired by the long hours spent in darkness, despair triggered by the knowledge that these walls were just an illusion of safety – the tomb of war, the bunker.” “He had given up his site investigations a while ago. Since, he had disconnected from time patterns altogether. Hours, days, weeks, they lost their meaning, time just being an endless ocean, slowly rocking forward. He never even used what little energy he had left, while slowly consuming the water and food supplies. Disconnected from emotions, he felt no hatred, no fear, nothing. His survival instinct kept working on the lowest level. The bunker had become the topology of his entire universe; concrete was the only color that existed. He had become concrete himself, he had become the bunker.” The Relic presents the third of his bunker-themed albums, another collection of relentlessly pounding industrial hardcore bullets, filled to the brim with darkness and distortion. Of course you have followed him up to that point, and of course there is no escape now. Collaborators this time around are Starving Insect, Sidephex, Dep Affect, Sound Abuse and Moleculez – and there is no doubt about victory with a supporting army like that. Also included are remixes as The Relic and under his Hidden Rooms moniker and more remastered versions of tracks from SYMP.TOM releases. Pull yourself together for the decisive battle!