Resurgence of quality Hardcore - 3 - Radium & Micropoint

Part 3 of a series.

While Ybrid happily released a second album, also titled Animal, yet still different enough from the previous one to merit a careful listen in its own right, other interesting sounds emerged as well.

Or in some case a better term is re-emerged?
We saw a new test pressing of a record originally only released as a test pressing in 1999, nearly 20 years later, in december 2018. In januari 2019 we saw the record in fact finally released as a "proper" released, with artwork and all, thanks to the effort of Toolbox Records.

The record in case? Nothing less than an old Radium. One of his first, in fact.
And what a difference to his current sound.
Since the late 2000s, most of his released have long abandoned too high BPM's, and most kicks were rather bouncy instead of heavily distorted. Where his earliest released did feature some screaming industrial sounds, only for the advanced hardcore heads, ever since the late 2000s, most of his songs featured clear vocals and recognizable melodies. Frenchcore has come a long way. From dark bunkers to big event halls. It's basically the French equivalent to the Dutch hardstyle or mainstream, where the ticket-price gouging lightshow literally banished the dark atmosphere of a truly underground music. What a difference to the current epoch, of Radium and French hardcore as a whole. Can you imagine a hall filled with 16 year olds appreciating something as dark and industrial as this? This is the Radium that inspired so many subsequent "terror"-producers. This is the Radium, who together with Al Core, made Neurophonie and released on Headfuck and Epiteth. For an affordable price, lovers of real dark hardcore can once again enjoy these sounds of an earlier hardcore era, to sample what went on in the late 1990s and early 2000s, far beyond the Thunderdome and MOH-anthems. In Februari 2020, Simon Underground decided to help in releasing some hitherto unreleased works of Micropoint, which really shows you the same style as found on the re-released Rouge De Colère release and instantly transport you to the same time and atmosphere that was felt when Micropoint and Radium released on Headfuck, Dead End, Epiteth. Part 4 awaits...