Artist: 9th Evolution

Album: Retro Americana

Release Date: April 1st, 2012

Genre: Industrial, Rock

Parental Advisory: Yes

Recommended if you Like: Marilyn Manson, Chemlab, Nine Inch Nails

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again.  It’s tough to review a record when it’s your friends’ record.  It’s hard to distance yourself from the friend and his creative product, but I try and do my best and once again I’ll try with this.

On 9E’s last album I was impressed with the sonic landscape that Nicolas and company had textured together along with his political lyrics and aggressive style of delivering his message to his audience.  9E is back and they are ready to take over your stereo speakers.  Does anyone listen to stereos any more?  Any who back on point.  What 9E are best at are delivering a slab of industrial rock.  It’s not in your face ala Marilyn Manson though Nicholas does share a few characteristics with the pop culture icon and shock rocker.  It’s more about the timbre of the vocals than the subject matter, and it’s more about his phrasing.  Where Manson tends to beat his “shock” like a dead horse, Nicholas actually makes interesting use of his voice delivering dynamics and heartfelt songs about the world he sees around him.

While I’m not big on lyrics it’s not my forte what Nicholas is doing on this record works and it works with the music.  At times I kind of wish the vocals weren’t as far up front in the mix as they are, but I understand the importance of the mix he is going for.  This album could easily see some play at active rock radio and fit into any programmers playlist that has Nine Inch Nails or Marilyn Manson spinning in their current rotation.

As far as the production on the record goes this is great work.  Everything sounds crisp and clean and it’s easy to pick out all the sounds and tones which for me, as a musician and producer, is important for me to hear in the mix.  I like hearing everything and hearing where it lives in amongst all the other sounds.  Nicholas and crew have done a great job sculpting their music to fit into one cohesive unit and they are definitely delivering something here that needs to be heard on a larger scale than just a small scene of people in Florida.

9th Evolution isn’t here to take your daughters, they aren’t here to take your sons, 9th Evolution are hear to steal your ears and take them on a journey through their world and their mind for 60+ minutes and I invite you to trip down that path with them.  While this record doesn’t break any new ground in the genre it’s definitely done well enough to enjoy by anyone with a love of music and concepts.

3 out of 5 Stars.

This album was provided to me in advance by 9th Evolution.

Posted under Album Review, Music

Artist: Deconbrio

Album: Voyeur

Label: Bit Riot Records

Genre: Industrial Rock

Sounds Like: Nine Inch Nails, Stabbing Westward, Mesh

Well here is something I wasn’t expecting at all.  An extremely catchy record combining the best of modern production techniques with a classic 90′s era industrial sound to bring something a bit new to the table.  While Danny Rendo is not reinventing the genre but any stretch of the world he is making a sound that a listener can automatically identify with and feel comfortable in.

As soon as I loaded up the first track on the record “Now or Never” instant images of Stabbing Westward came to mind.  Rendo works with a bit of the same color palette as Stabbing Westward and even a bit of the same palette as Nine Inch Nails.  The production on this record is pretty impeccable too for a self produced record.  Every nook and cranny is filled with carefully mastered sounds.  Everything really feels like it has a home and a place.  In my opinion this record is ready for mass consumption and could be a huge hit at active rock radio (hint hint Rock 108).

The same things that give this record it’s strengths also hurt the record in my opinion to an extent too.  First off since it has such a familiar feel to it, long time fans of the genre may feel like they have been there done that before and not really let the songwriting fall on their ears and give it the time it needs to really digest the whole record.  Secondly the production is so clean and radio friendly that I found myself wishing the vocals were mixed just a hair further back in the mix to give the little sounds some room to breath in the full mix of the album.  I also think that while Rendo definitely has his own voice and his own style too much of this record sounds like Nine Inch Nails and Stabbing Westward.

I think if radio got behind this though, Rendo and Bit Riot could easily have a huge hit on their hands.  My rating is 3 out 5 stars.

This record was provided to me for review from Bit Riot Records.

Posted under Album Review, Music

Artist: Saltillo

Album: Monocyte

Genre: Trip Hop, Industrial, Gothic

Label: Artoffact Records

Recommended for fans of: COIL, Tricky, Love Spirals Downward, John Bergin

Rating: 5 out 5

Quite honestly this has been my favorite record this year so far hands down.  Seriously, I’m trying to think of another record that I’ve enjoyed this much and nothing comes close yet.  This is an album that is a companion piece to a comic that the musician and artist did himself, but I must be honest I’ve only just skimmed the comic book so far, I’ve been so deeply engrossed in this album that I can’t quite get past this beautiful piece of work.

What I find most intriguing about this album is that he doesn’t need lyrics to convey his message or his ideas, the music the timbre, the samples, the programming all speak volumes.  If Trent Reznor can get an Oscar for his sound design then surely menton3 can find his place in this business to do the same, and if he doesn’t this will be criminally over looked by the art community in whole.

What this album does is take you on a ride from beginning to end, using dynamic sounds to capture you, it could be easy background music or something you could just play and forget about while you focus on other more important things, but the subtle melodies and haunting female vocals grab you by the ear and lead you on a journey.  This album is a journey from beginning to end.  It’s engaging, haunting, beautiful and inspiring all at the same time.

A lot of times the albums I review are really for a certain audience or for a certain brave person who likes to take risks, but this album I could as easily recommend to my mom as I could to my 13 year old niece.  It’s like classical music, modern classical music with solid beats and excellent use of melody.

So now that I’ve gushed enough about the music how is the production you say?  Absolutely amazing.  Some of the best production I’ve heard in this genre in a long time.  Every thing is solid, you can hear every instrument, every note and every range.  Simply put this album is the first flawless record of 2012 for me.

So do yourself a favor, walk, nay RUN to your local record store, web store or Storming the Base to get your copy of this record today!  You will not be sorry and if you are leave me comments below.

A copy of this record was provided to me from Artoffact Record for review purposes.

Posted under Album Review, Music

Artist: [:SITD:]

Album: Icon:Koru

Genre: Industrial, EBM

Label: Metropolis Records

This is my second [:SITD:] record that I’ve listened to now and I’m still on the fence on whether or not I like them.  I will freely admit that I’m kind of old school with my industrial and I’m not always really into this new stuff they call EBM.  My biggest compliant with this is that it all starts to sound the same after awhile.  You aren’t sure who is who in the genre.  [:SITD:] falls victim to that too many times.  They don’t very it up enough to make it sound more interesting than anyone else doing what they are doing.  That is really my biggest complaint on the whole thing.  From a production and musician standpoint these three are on solid ground.  It’s well mixed and has some really nice melodies that contrast the harsh vocals.  Speaking of the vocals they are mixed squarely in the front of the music, and sung in a combination of both German and English.  Again not really a complaint for me since I’m used to listening to music sung in many different languages!

What we have here is a solid release in the EBM genre but it doesn’t really have a lot of meat on it’s bones.  I’m not much of a lyric guy and honestly when they are singing in German most of the lyrics are lost on me so whether or not this record possess some deeper meaning is beyond me, but musically I just wish it had more teeth and less repetitious sounds and themes.  After awhile it feels like this is beating a dead horse, or a one trick pony.  Maybe next time they will expand their sound a bit more.

I recommend this for fans of the genre and bands like Front 242.

2.5 Stars out of 5

I was given this MP3 download from Metropolis Records.

Posted under Album Review

Artist: Hate Squad

Genre: Metal

Album: Katharsis

Recommended if you like: Napalm Death, Machine Head

Explicit Lyrics

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars out of 5

One of my New Years Resolutions is to review material as soon as it comes across my desk and so this morning this came across my desk via me email inbox so I sat down with it and gave it a spin.

So 2012 is starting out pretty swell actually.  Katharsis is the sixth album by one of Germany’s underground metal heroes.  They’ve shared the stage with some of the top names in metal and played some of the biggest festivals while keeping themselves truly independent.  They recently signed to Massacre Records and are getting ready to unleash their latest assault of metal meets hardcore.

With guttural vocals and slashing guitars I was pleasantly surprised that this wasn’t just a one trick pony out of the gate.  The production on this is top notch and kept my interest through out the run time of the record.  Although the run time did get a bit long in the tooth for music of this nature.  Although the final song was different enough from the rest of the album to really inspire the listener to finish it out.  What I liked best about Hate Squad’s newest album was how it reminded me of other bands that I really like.  You could easily hear the influences from Napalm Death in there and even at moments it felt like I could hear bits of Monster Voodoo Machine (now there’s a blast from my musical past).

While the album does tend to get a little bit stagnant with the same kind of tones and lack of real dynamics from song to song, that shouldn’t let listeners of this kind of music to be put it off by it.  There is enough here to keep most metal fans happy while treading on a little new ground here and there.  I was pleasantly surprised by this release and I look forward to what these metal maniacs bring for the audience in the future, I’d also like to get my hands on their remix EP as well. 

Posted under Album Review, Music

Artist: SutureSelf

Album: Evolve

Genre: Industrial, Metal, Goth

Grade: B

Release Date: October 4th, 2011

Recommended if you like: Collide, Bella Morte, Evanescence

It’s always tough to review a friends album.  The line between being a friend and being a critic is always a very fine line.  You want to make sure that everyone is happy in the end.  Also, I must say in a moment of honesty, that I do have a vested interest in SutureSelf not only as friends with Brandon but also I’m working as A&R for the release of this record, so take that into account when you read this review.  It will be honest, but obviously I have an angle as well, don’t you wish politicians where this honest?

So here ya go.  SutureSelf, upon the first listen I was swept away by the atmospherics of the first track and the samples.  They seemed eerily poignant in this day and age of war and turmoil.  The main songwriter in SutureSelf Brandon Chase, himself is a veteran of our military and knows what it’s like to serve our country, adds a deeper level to the samples here.  The music finally kicks in.  What strikes me most on the listening of this record is the mixture of acoustic drums with the programmed drums.  At times it feels like they are at war with each other one trying to over power the other and a couple of times I actually thought I didn’t like what was happening but then they seemed to come together and mesh perfectly and create a thin red line between the two adding depth and a human element to a genre often times over run by sequencers and electronic drums.

I’m also really down with the vocals Ronay’s female voice completes the project nicely.  Balancing between the stabbing guitars and oscillating synthesizers.  Her vocals are mixed pretty far up front, and while that’s something I personally wouldn’t have done, I think it works for this album.  I’m also glad the Ronay decides to sing on this album and not try to be a screamer.  She let’s the music speak for itself and only compliments the melody, ton and timbre of the music as a hole.  My biggest complaint with the vocals is that at times they come across one dimensional and I would have liked to hear Ronay brand out a bit and push herself into different registers and try something new.  She’s got a wonderful voice and I’m glad they didn’t bury it under piles of distortion and reverb though.

As far as the bass and guitar go both seemed appropriately fitting for this genre.  The bass was never too over powering, in fact I believe it could have been mixed a little higher up in the mix.  The guitar work here is actually a bit more intricate than a lot of bands in this genre.  Single notes are heard and palm muted power chords are not the predominate guitar playing of choice.  I was surprise actually by the guitar work and I think when all is said and done it might be the most surprising part of the entire release.  The great thing about the guitar is that it’s EQ’d out to hit perfectly in it’s own world, but that also separates it from the music a bit more than I’d like.  I think a little extra bass on the EQ nob on the amp might have helped the guitar find a little more delicate place in the mix, but that is getting really really nit picky and you can tell I spend way too much time thinking about the nuts and bolts of the actual recording process. 

All in all Evolve is a very interesting record from SutureSelf, it surprised me in a lot of ways.  It’s far less Metal than I expected and far more Goth than I expected.  This is not a heavy record persay but a record you can put on and sit back with a nice glass of red wine and enjoy from beginning to end.  I look forward to hearing more from SutureSelf in the future.  And I hope you will too!

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Posted under Album Review, Music

Time for an album review.

I got this from the industrial label Van Richter Records which I’ve always been a fan of since the early 90′s through today.  I wasn’t sure they were still going but low and behold got an email with a link to this compilation for them!  I’ve heard of most of the artists on this compilation but the one that stood out to me the most was Underwater Pilots, mainly because of their well done cover of Ministry‘s “Every Day is Halloween” which is a favorite of mine since I first heard it.  Any who, here is the low down on this release.

As I was doing research on the compilation on the Van Richter Records website they suggested that this album would be a great companion for a Halloween party and you know what folks, not only are they right about that but listening to this on Halloween whilst in costume with all of your friends will make you dead sexy too!  Most of the tracks on here are either inspired by horror films or have elements that could be used in horror films and that my friends is a good thing.  The first track is a sound-scape from the “German Ministry” Testify and their track “Future Lust”.  It sets the tone of the compilation and lets you know what you’ll be getting with this collection of 12 songs.  After their sound scape you get a taste of what Testify is known for and why they get the nom de plum of the “German Ministry” with their song “Seeds of Wrath”, danceable beats with heavy distorted guitars on the choruses, I have a feeling that this song in it’s not so remixed version by the Chicago legends Die Warzau may not be this beat heavy, but who cares when you listen to this track it’s all fun and games in your best scary outfit!

The Fair Sex shows up next with their own brand of Industrial music via our friends up north in Vancouver or better known as Skinny Puppy.  I can hear a lot of the same tonal qualities between The Fair Sex and Skinny Puppy, but The Fair Sex seems to take older Skinny Puppy and make it that much more accessible.  The track doesn’t reach out and grab me by the throat but I also wouldn’t skip it if it randomly comes up on the iPod while I’m doing something else.  I was expecting something really cool with Plastic Noise Experience‘s cover of Motorhead‘s theme song to Hellraiser III but was kind of let down, despite the cool Hellraiser samples the track seems flat in production compared to the other bands songs on this entire compilation.

Sielwolf checks in next with their homage to Henry Portrait of a Serial Killer with their track “The Gun’s Eye”.  It’s a cool atmospheric track with samples from the film peppered in through the mix.  Beyond the recognition of Michael Rooker’s voice casual fans probably wouldn’t get much out of the track but I found it fun to hear those samples against a back drop of a sound collage.  The comp takes a bit of a lull for me with the track by Death and Horror Inc. called “New Vision” in fact it was so minimal that I didn’t even right a note down for this one.  Then I was brought right back into it with a track from Girls Under Glass called “New World Order” which sounds amazing.  It starts out with kind of old school industrial feel and then crashes into a full on goth rock anthem ala The Sisters of Mercy.  I think perhaps I enjoyed this track as much as I enjoy the Ministry cover by Underwater Pilots.  Then Girls Under Glass win me over again with their side project Trauma and their track “The Last Rose” that could easily fit into the world of Suspiria directed by Dario Argento and boasting a score my the MIGHTY GOBLIN!  It’s an incredible feat to conjure images in my mind of the beautiful and haunting horror film from arguably one of the greatest horror films ever to come out of Italy and one of the greatest progressive synth bands ever to grace this planet.  Kudos to them and kudos to the atmosphere they create with this track.

Three of the last four tracks on the album tend to run together, two of which are by Underwater Pilots and the third is by The Fair Sex again.  Each is a sound-scape and each one is OK but not totally sound changing but Underwater Pilots cover of Ministry’s “Every Day is Halloween” as I’ve said before is just simply amazing and really well done.  The production is amazing and it sounds great and adds a really interesting take on the song, more in lines with the original with more of a future pop direction.

When it’s all said and done Hellfire is a decent listen, probably not one that people will dig out all the time but it would be a great mood setter for a Halloween party or a spooky get together.  I recommend you check it out!

Hellfire at Van Richter Records.

Posted under Album Review, Music