Kingcrimsonprog Before giving it a fair and honest chance, I had actually avoided listening to this album for a while. After hearing that the style and line-up changed dramatically and then hearing the song 'Wild World' on the radio I was ready to be dissapointed, this wasn't going to sound like the same band that captured my imagination back when I was only a little kid.

I feared that the album would be watered down one step too far, with their previous record Transform, Powerman 5000 had already altered their basic formula a little to incorporate more of a melodic American Radio rock element into the precedings, and I was a little worried that Destroy What You Enjoy would be just plain bad when they band got too far away from their musical roots.

When I actually got around to listening to it fairly and as objectively as I could manage, I decided that this is quite a good album indeed. It is well produced, full of simple and catchy tunes, and there is actually an artistic depth to the album that is only shared in their catalougue by the aforementioned Transform album.

If you just want an album that sounds like the platinum-selling Tonight The Stars Revolt album, then you will be undeniably disappointed and probably shouldn't pay this record too much attention. If however you are willing to look past the actual stylistic direction and give it a fair shot to stand or fall on its own merits then you may be pleasantly surprised. It is definitely different, but that doesn't necessarily mean that its not good.

Kingcrimsonprog 2012’s Born Villain is the eighth full-length studio album by Marilyn Manson. As with the previous two albums it was self-produced, mixed by Sean Beavan and no living drummer is fully credited throughout. The line-up features Manson, Vrenna & Ramirez like the previous album, only now with Fred Sablan on bass. Interestingly though, Vrenna left the band before the album’s release.

For many fans, the band’s golden period is considered to be The Triptych (Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals & Holywood), a trilogy of three interlinked concept albums that were released at the height of Manson’s fame, critical acclaim, cultural relevance and commercial success. Ever since then; after a decade of line-up instability, notably poor live performances and albums that didn’t meet many fan’s expectations, the band’s stock has diminished considerably in the eyes of the media and a large portion of the fanbase.

After hearing the best moments here, many people may rush to proclaim this a return to form and excitedly declare that he is back to his old standard again, just like they did last time around, only to lose enthusiasm pretty quickly. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this new record a comeback, but it is undeniably strong and consistent. I’d urge you to forget any pretentious interviews or music videos associated with it and give the music a fair and honest chance.

If you have liked the last three Manson albums, then Born Villain is certainly worth trying out. The album has some seriously enjoyable songs that would fit well into a live set or compilation album, and isn’t overly full of ballads or slow tracks that don’t go anywhere. It isn’t just a dull dirge… It is louder, more bombastic and more confident than any of the last few records. Even the rhythmic ‘Overneath The Path Of Misery’ when separated from its pretentious music video is hugely catchy and surprisingly heavy in album-context.

Stylistically, It seems that Manson is going for a mix between trying new things and delving into his back catalogue as well. Opening track ‘Hey, Cruel World…’ for example has a nice catchy chugging riff, and even some double-kicks at one point, but there is also a section towards the end that sounds like it would have fit well on Portrait Of An American Family. Then the album version of ‘No Reflection’ has a whole build-up section in it that is reminiscent of Holywood’s heavier tracks and there are even a few allusions to Mechanical Animal’s style in ‘Flowers Of Evil’ and ‘Breaking The Same Old Ground.’

There is also some material that is totally new for the band as well; ‘Slo-Mo-Tion’ is unlike any of his older material, ‘Lay Down Your Goddamn Arms’ borders on Stoner-Rock territory at times and ‘Murders Are Getting Prettier Every Day’ is deliberately in-your-face-heavy.

Overall, I think the right balance has been struck between innovation and giving the fans what they want. The album covers a lot of ground, but crucially doesn’t sound confused for all the diversity. There are loads of little moments like the hi-hat being way louder in the chorus or an effect on the vocals coming in the third time around etc that really give the tracks a power and ‘umph’ that has arguably been missing for a while.

In my own personal opinion Born Villain is my favourite Manson album since Holywood. That being said however, this album does not meet the same artistic height as any of the individual parts in the aforementioned Triptych and I suspect that if you only enjoy those albums, this probably won’t win you back.

To be absolutely fair, if the band’s career consisted of only their debut and then the albums from Golden Age Of The Grotesque onwards, then Born Villain would be readily considered a great album as it such a solid, creative and well-made album in its own right. It is only because it has the unfair expectation of having to compete with three albums that have been absolutely beloved by millions of fans for over a decade as well as having to redeem, excuse and justify the aforementioned decade of decline that Born Villain unfortunately doesn’t measure up.

In summary; if you try and be objective then the album will seem a lot better than you probably expect it to be, but at the same time there is no getting around that Marilyn Manson has made better albums than this in the past and this record isn’t up to the highest standards that the band have set for themselves.

I feel that this is easily his strongest non-Triptych album and if you have given up on Manson in recent years, it is good enough to at least warrant a cautious test-listen. If you have stayed a fan all along however, this will doubtless be an immensely enjoyable album indeed.

Kingcrimsonprog The High End Of Low was the seventh full-length studio album by Marilyn Manson. It was released in 2009 and saw Twiggy Ramirez rejoin the band after a two-album absence.

The album was met with mixed reviews, some happy that Ramirez was back and the music was more upbeat than on the previous record and some negative about that the music and lyrics not being up to standard.

In my own opinion The High End Of Low is actually an enjoyable album and there are some great moments on it. It is however let down by a few problems, and also in comparison to some of his other albums. The main problems are track sequencing, album duration, stylistic inconstancy and some of the same lyrical misfiring that has been present on every album after Holywood.

For the most part, the album feels a little confused and overlong. For one; the track order seems a little too scattered, as though the songs were hastily rearranged out of the correct order at the last minute and consequently several tracks don’t seem really to fit well between the songs the follow or precede.

Secondly, the album is 72 minutes long and the copious material within is in a wealth of different styles to the point where it almost feels as if it is trying too much at once. Variety is usually a good thing and it is often nice to have an album that doesn’t end too early, but The High End Of Low unfortunately doesn’t get the balance just right.

For example, there are a few up tempo heavy tracks in ‘Pretty As A Swastika’ ‘We’re From America’ and ‘Blank And White’ which sit alongside dark pop like ‘Devour’ and ‘Unkillable Monster’ as well as ballads like ‘Four Rusted Horses’ ‘Into The Fire’ and ‘15’ and even a trippy hypnotic number called ‘I Want To Kill You Like They Do In The Movies’ that lasts for nine minutes and feels like an album closer but bizarrely sits at the halfway point.

After a hypnotic nine-minute album closer the rest of the album seems a little bit like a drag, especially when thereafter tracks are generally slower and less dynamic. This makes the album difficult to digest and it almost feels as if you need to take it in across two separate sittings each time.

Despite these problems, there are quite a few highlights and there is a lot to enjoy on the album. Some of the tracks are very enjoyable, it grows on you with repeat listens and despite taking it too far, the variety on offer does give the album a much less one-dimensional feel than the two albums which preceded it. Should you wish to only listen to the best moments or to take it in across two sittings then you will find enough moments to enjoy without risking being overwhelmed in an avalanche of conflicting ideas.

In summary, The High End Of Low is a flawed album but ultimately it is still a decent album despite these flaws. It may seem a little lacking on first listen, but closer inspection will reveal hidden quality. While it isn’t up to the extremely high standards of the band at their absolute peak, it is still of a high enough standard to be worth a listen for both die-hards who like everything Manson does and casual fans who don’t just care about the three best albums.

Kingcrimsonprog I don’t think anybody expected this album. After the musically catchy but disappointingly shallow Golden Age Of Grotesque it seemed as though Marilyn Manson had given up on being artistic and had decided to concentrate on his image, as if he had chosen the superficial side of his music and given up on creating deep and dense albums that were better than the sum of their parts.

This shift in focus, coupled with the band falling apart and what were generally regarded as poor live shows all along the way made it seemed like he would settle into a one-dimensional comfort zone of knowingly iconic imagery, enjoyable but simple songs and lyrics full of puns and wordplay but little valid artistic content.

Eat Me, Drink Me was a surprising follow-up that defied this expectation while also refusing to return to the previous style either. The actual content is mostly emotional, slow and dark, and not really conceptual in any way. It is stripped down to the basics. It still isn’t an important piece of music and it doesn’t have anything informative to say, but it isn’t just a set of obvious singles either. It is the sound of raw and wounded emotion, mixed in with a renewed interest in making music that sounds dark. Manson’s voice is the focus and he tries a lot of different things that aren’t present on previous records while ditching a lot of things that were on previous albums too.

If you were feeling harsh you could say that it is a bit repetitive and whiney. Whenever I think of this as a Marilyn Manson album I always think of it negatively but whenever I am actually listening to it, I find that I do enjoy the experience despite myself. The biggest problem however is just that he has made much better albums before and while this is good on its own level, that level isn’t the same level on which his better material exists.

Stylistically, The two most noteworthy things about the album are firstly that the tracks are mostly slow, brooding dirges based primarily on vocals, jangly chords and piano, with little in the way of metal riffs or industrial touches and secondly there is some interesting lead guitar work worked in as well. There are still a few up-tempo tracks and allusions to his earlier work, but in much smaller quantity than ever before. It is one step closer to the dark pop record that he talked about writing in his book all those years ago.

Highlights include the slow and powerful ‘They Said That Hell’s Not Hot,’ and the brilliant and brooding Title Track as well as the catchy, if shallow rocker ‘Mutilation Is The Most Sincere Form Of Flattery.’

Overall; Eat Me, Drink Me isn’t for everyone and may be too morose and dull for a lot of fans. The lack of either intelligent political messages inside dense conceptual music or indeed catchy fun rock songs with amusing lyrics will make it uninteresting for the vast majority of his oddly polarized fanbase. I personally enjoy this odd, curve-ball album and have listened to it much more than I ever expected to, but would still concede that it isn’t anywhere near as good as Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals or Holywood.

Warthur Following the mild catastrophe which was Eat Me Drink Me, Manson made a fumbling effort on The High End of Low to get back to his roots, though this usually involved uselessly regurgitating the shallow surface motifs of his glory days whilst still pursuing the lukewarm gothy indie rock of the preceding album. Not that there's anything wrong with gothy indie rock - but there's plenty wrong with the way Manson does it, especially when he uses it to continue down this horrible downward spiral of his into becoming a total parody of himself. Arma-goddamn-motherfuckin-geddon, in particular, sounds more like a parody of a Marilyn Manson song than the real deal; unfortunately, the real deal is precisely what it is.

Warthur The Slip finds Trent Reznor in an uncharacteristically bad mood - and why shouldn't it? Having finally untangled himself from the contract tangle he'd been caught up in ever since the Pretty Hate Machine era, and having won critical acclaimed and proved that he could do without a record company altogether with the superb Ghosts I-IV release, things were looking pretty bright at this point for him.

The Slip, I think, is meant to be an expression of that. The title is clearly meant to refer to how he gave the record companies "the slip" and escaped their clutches; on top of that, this is some of the most outright happy music Trent's ever put out. Sure, there's still his breathy, angsty vocals, but those beats don't lie: this is a bouncy NIN party album.

Apparently it was originally meant to be an EP but Reznor found himself on a creative roll and ended up making it a full-length; to be honest, I'd say that whilst it's a fun industrial dance album it's no Pretty Hate Machine, so perhaps a bit of editing back down to EP length might have been called for. To be honest, at this point I think it was pretty clear that Reznor's creativity was far more in tune with the ambient soundscapes of Ghosts than the pop-industrial of his past - and his critically acclaimed soundtrack work in collaboration with Atticus Ross since then for The Social Network and The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo rather bears that out. At the same time, I can't hold The Slip against Reznor too much, since he did at least release this as a free download.

Warthur Possibly my favourite Nine Inch Nails release, Ghosts I-IV finds Trent Reznor fully indulging a side of his music which had only surfaced as very occasional instrumental snippets on previous albums (aside from the Quake soundtrack). This fully instrumental ambient industrial album is essentially Reznor's answer to Aphex Twin's Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, immersed as it is in an experimental tradition which can be traced back by the attentive listener to the electronic delvings of Brian Eno and Robert Fripp back in the 1970s. (Fripp sideman Adrian Belew even appears on some tracks.) All the sonic genius of Reznor with none of the embarrassingly bad lyrics or insincere stabs at the mainstream? Yes, please!

Balthamel Night Time - Killing Joke

If you really wants to get what Killing Joke is all about, this is the album that you should listen to, all that Killing Joke is, will be defined by the sonic spectre of this album, all the songs are the peak to what sonicly, vissionaly and artisticaly Killing Joke will pour out, all the songs in this album caries a spessial feal to them.

From the beginning track Night Time it introduces the listner to the raw, gloomy, gothic and deep sound of what the band will explore, and it is working very well for the band to try out the dark sounds of rock, which gives this album a cloustrophobic feal. You can feel the intencety of closed dores around you by listening to this album.

I will not pick out any particular songs as the album should be listend to as a whole, but the songs which i will recomend which stand out from this album is the title track, Darkness Before Dawn, Louder then Low, Kings and Queens and Eightees,

To tell which genere this album falls withing is a difficult task, it fits non but it is also defiened by its era, its 80s new/wave sound, wuth industrual and gothic rock/metal influence. the album is gloomy and powerfull, perfect for a time for reflection and thinking.

This album is a recomandation to all fans of metal in general, this is a different sounding band/album yet a vry important step for the development of metal, and this album is one of the most important steppingstones for alternative rock/metal scene.

enjoy

Warthur With a new relationship and a spring in his step, Marilyn Manson found himself in a decidedly lovey-dovey mood when it came to recording Eat Me, Drink Me. This manifests in a significantly lessened emphasis on his industrial metal roots, a lot of romantic gothy flourishes, and - once you brush aside the overproduction and spooky effects - something which sounds awfully close to rather anonymous alternative rock as opposed to anything particularly Mansony. See, for instance, the lead single from the album Heart-Shaped Glasses, a tedious little number notably only for its excruciatingly embarrassing and egotistical music video.

I'm not going to do the rock snob misogynist thing and accuse Evan Rachel Wood of doing a Yoko Ono thing to Manson's music - it was already firmly on a downhill slide when she came onto the scene - but both the music video and the romantic slant of the album as a whole seem constructed to allow Manson the opportunity to brag about how he's dating a significantly younger woman. In other words, it's Manson going through a slightly early mid-life crisis in the most public way possible, and whilst that might make interesting material for a concept album, Manson really isn't the guy to do it. When you put on a Marilyn Manson album, you know exactly what you want - mildly transgressive but ultimately kind of harmless and irresistibly catchy poppy industrial metal. More or less every time Manson has tried to operate outside of that niche has resulted in embarrassment, and Eat Me Drink Me is no exception.

Warthur With Teeth heralded the most prolific phase of Trent Reznor's career; getting within reach of finally fulfilling his contract with Interscope (a contract he only entered into in order to free himself from TVT, his original record company, and which he had always somewhat resented) clearly seems to have inspired the man because with Year Zero - released in an unprecedently short period of time - he sprints across the finish line to the wonderland of creative freedom awaiting him.

Unfortunately, the album itself feels just a little bit incomplete. The uncharitable might suggest it's little more than a quick knock-off intended to end the Interscope contract without the indignity of a Metal Machine Music-level piss-take, but I actually think Reznor wanted to make a serious effort to make the album work - if he didn't care about it, he wouldn't have put so much effort into the promotional teaser campaign and ARG (alternate reality game) intended to promote the album's concept. Rather, I think the problem with the album is that it isn't constructed to stand alone as a decent piece of music in its own right - it exist to stand at the centre of a multimedia "event". Removed from that context - and most people who come to it at this point in time aren't going to want to have to mess around reading up on the promotional ARG and all that gubbins - it's a decidedly inferior work.

Bmiler I'm not sure if I'd enjoy as much these days as back when I was 18 in 1991 when I bought the cassette, as my tastes in music has changed quite a lot since that time. I remembered when I bought the cassette tripping out over the packaging, the cassette itself was black, which was very uncommon. Most major cassette releases in 1989 used clear cassettes (as been a common practice since about 1985).

For those who fancy the idea of more accessible industrial music, it's little wonder why Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails had became so popular. For mainstream listeners, there's plenty to bring discomfort with. Most people are familiar with "Head Like a Hole", and you can tell right away this isn't exactly Skinny Puppy here. There were actual hooks, but this still won't exactly appeal to the mainstream audience. I always got a kick off the chorus that went "Bow down before the one you serve/You're going to get what you deserve". Obviously Reznor was critical of greed. There's plenty of other great stuff here, including "Terrible Lie", "Down in It", "Sanctified" and "Ringfinger". "Something I Can Never Have" is basically a ballad, given this is Nine Inch Nail, it's one rather disturbing ballad. I really like those synth rhythms to "Ringfinger".

As mentioned, I'm not sure if I'd get the same enjoyment now as when I was in my late teens, neither have I heard this for literally years, so this review goes by memory. While The Downward Spiral was more popular, if you're a fan, you don't want to forget this 1989 debut.

UMUR "Broken" is an EP release by US industrial rock/metal act Nine Inch Nails. The EP was released through Nothing/TVT Records in September 1992. Considering the grand commercial success of the debut album "Pretty Hate Machine (1989)", it´s thought provoking that it took Trent Reznor 3 years before he was ready to release "Broken". There were various reasons for the long recording break though. First of all Nine Inch Nails had spend time touring in support of the debut album, but the most significant reason was probably that Trent Reznor had a feud with TVT Records, who according to him, pressured him into writing an album in a similar style to the debut, which he refused. Trent Reznor vision to inject his industrial rock with a shot of metal didn´t exactly please TVT Records. After a long legal battle the two parties reached a deal though and Trent Reznor was released from his record deal with TVT Records, but only after the release of "Broken". He would subsequently sign a deal with Interscope Records.

The music on the 99 track EP is industrial rock/metal. out of the 99 tracks only 8 are "real" songs while the remaining tracks are 0:01 minute tracks of silence. It´s a formula that wasn´t uncommon in the early- to mid nineties, where artists sought to explore the CD medium to it´s full. While it may have been something new and exciting in 1992 that a band would chose to do such a thing, today it´s just plain annoying that we get 6 tracks and then a bunch of silent tracks before the last 2 tracks kick in. With that said the quality of the "real" tracks on the album is high throughout. Angsty/angry industrial rock/metal packed in a powerful and impressive sound production, featuring layers of sounds, samples, vocals and instruments. Most tracks are quite catchy and I can see why a track like "Wish" ended up winning the 1993 Grammy Award for Best Metal Performance. In 1992 this sounded fresh, energetic and inspired but that´s actually also the case today. "Broken" doesn´t sound dated at all and that´s a bit surprising but also a testimony to the high quality of the sound production! A 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is warranted.

Warthur So what if it's a bit more commercially minded than The Downward Spiral or The Fragile - albums which might have pleased the fanbase, but which I personally find greatly overrated? With Teeth is a crucial rebalancing of priorities for Nine Inch Nails, with more considered lyrics reflecting an increased maturity and inner peace on the part of Trent Reznor which also translates to an intriguing and smarter than average industrial dance-metal album which doesn't feature the excess filler or self-indulgence of the two preceding albums. After a series of missteps and Trent Reznor's much-publicised struggles with alcoholism and drug addiction, Nine Inch Nails finally ends up back on track.

Warthur The album might the the Golden Age of Grotesque, but Marilyn Manson's golden age ended with the Holy Wood album. With the conceptual trilogy of Antichrist Superstar, Mechanical Animals, and Holy Wood completed, Manson seems to have run out of ideas, resorting to the tired old "goth cabaret" idea as a means of staying relevant. It doesn't change the fact that this is another set of danceable pop-metal anthems which seem to lack the vigour and spirit that the ones on Holy Wood had.

Perhaps the issue is the complete lack of any musical growth evident. (If anything, the songs here are a degree more simplistic than the Holy Wood material.) Or perhaps it's just that this is the point where Manson's goofy philosophy really started doing a number on the lyrical themes. Whatever the reason, Golden Age is the first Manson album which is merely OK and rather forgettable - try humming something from it and if you're anything like me you'll either draw a blank or mistakenly hum something from Holy Wood instead.

Warthur I was actually surprised by how much this one has grown on me. As usual with Marilyn Manson, the album is improved if you can clear your head of all the pretentious, self-aggrandising, solipsistic nonsense Manson has said about it and give up on trying to interpret it as a narrative concept album. Instead, simply kick back and watch as Manson seizes the moment when the religious right made him the American scapegoat he'd always claimed to be - and uses it to its full advantage to launch an all out attack on the ugly tendency in American politics to embroil the three totems of "guns, god and government".

Indeed, Manson's lyrics this time around are actually the cleverest they've ever been - and not in an irritating way either. Paraphrasing the Beatles at one point, Manson deftly creates a dire warning of a youth culture which, turning its back on the peaceful political agenda and methods advocated by the Beatles, may yet prove to be a fertile ground for the encouragement of political violence - the sort of ugly assassination culture which has cropped up again and again in American history (and the reference to James Shelby Downard's bizarre King Kill 33 conspiracy theory is surely no accident there). Add to that a near-frightening obsession with death and what you have is Manson, for one brief moment in his career, actually presenting the sort of compelling and intelligent ideas he's capable of formulating when his pretentiousness isn't getting in the way.

And musically speaking, it's a real trip too taking on sounds from pop punk to Radiohead/Pink Floyd space rock - but always with enough of a grimy industrial tinge to remind us that we're no longer in the sterile territory of Mechanical Animals. Perhaps Manson's backwards narrative concept album trilogy doesn't make a blind lick of sense - but if you approach it as a rock music meditation on a culture out to both idolise and blame transient celebrities instead of turning its sights on the real and persistent issues affecting it, Holy Wood is a classic.

Warthur Many NIN fans have high praise for The Fragile, but I honestly have never been able to get into it. For me, it sounds like a double album version of The Downward Spiral - or rather, of material which might have got onto The Downward Spiral had it received a little more polished. The five years since the last official NIN studio album (if you don't count the excellent soundtrack Trent Reznor made for Quake) seem to have resulted in no musical growth on Reznor's part. If the lyrics are anything to judge by, depression may have had something to do with it, but even so this just makes the album an awkward listen if you don't want to feel as though you are Trent Reznor's therapist listening to his woes.

Warthur Anyone who dismisses this album as a rip-off of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is severely missing the point; when the inner booklet depicts Manson and pals as the alien rock band Omega and the Mechanical Animals it becomes crystal clear that we are in the realm of homage. (Now, Antichrist Superstar, there's the uncredited rip-off...)

Half the songs on the album are shallow and sleazy rock numbers that put a glammy spin on the band's poppy gothy brand of industrial metal, with the subject matters being crass promotion of self-destructive habits and a jaded dismissal of rock altogether. The other half are spacey, dissociative pieces which express at once a distressing emotional numbness and a powerful desire to reach out and feel something with someone again. Together, these schizophrenic halves come together to paint a more mature and convincing image of the pressures of fame and the distance between rock star image and the person behind the persona, just as Aladdin Sane was a more mature take on Ziggy Stardust.

It may be verging on dropping out of metal territory altogether, but I genuinely think it's Manson's best album. Unfortunately, the rest of his career seems to have been devoted to reassuring the fans who joined with Antichrist Superstar that he isn't ever going to do anything this experimental and unexpected again.

Time Signature Whispers of a dying sun...

Genre: avant-garde extreme industrial metal

With a release from I, Voidhanger Records and affiliated labels, you can be certain about one thing: it is bound to be an interesting experience – whether you actually like the music or not, you know that, at least, you are going to embark on an interesting musical journey. Thus, while quite different from many of the other acts associated with I, Voidhanger Records, the British madman electro-metal project Umbah is a fitting artist to release through this label.

Enter the Dagobah Core, which is the thirteenth album to be released by Cal Scott under the Umbah monicker, is definitely an instance of an extreme music release. Combining extreme metal with extreme electronica, Scott takes the listener on a chaotic and often mind-boggling journey to the Dagobah core and back (Star Wars reference noted, by the way) through songs that combine elements from death metal, thrash metal, grindcore and even some hardcore punk with various types of extreme techno music whose genres label I cannot name due to my lack of insight into electronic music.

The overall approach of the album is one of avant-garde chaos, as every song is a flurry of riffs and electronic drumbeats – most of the time emulating drum patterns from exterme metal and sometimes more obviously electronica-derived – and contains numerous shifts, changes and impressions. As a bonus, the guitar leads occasionally go off on a Spheres-era Pestilence-ish jazz fusion path. The vocals which are at times growled, at times screamed, at times sung, and at times processed and enhanced digitally, pretty much reflect the overall chaotic feel that there is to Enter the Dagobah Core. However, the more you listen to the album – if you can take it (in all fairness, this is not easy listening music) – the more you realize that there is absolute order to this chaos.

This release is interesting. Is it good? I think it is. I think that there are a lot of positive qualities to Enter the Dagobah Core, but it is also an extremely challenging listen that requires a lot from its listener. Fans of both extreme metal and extreme electronica who are interested to hear what those two genres combined might sound like should check this release out.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)

Warthur Marilyn Manson's first concept album sags a little in the middle - the teen angst woe-is-me ambiguous abuse songs really don't add much to it - but at its best it's perhaps the best shock-rock concept album ever, presenting what is essentially a cynical 90s take on David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust - a parallel Manson would wryly acknowledge on the thematically related followup, Mechanical Animals.

It's essentially satire which rips to shreds the idea of rock stars or celebrities as messiahs, and happens to do so in a particularly catchy way, combining the most poppy and dance-able elements of alternative rock and industrial metal into a package which metal purists might sneer at but which, when it works, is real good listening. The final track, The Man That You Fear, is perhaps one of the most beautiful songs about megalomania ever written.

Warthur Smells Like Children was originally meant to be an EP of remixes of Dope Hat from Portrait of An American Family, but Manson and crew went a little over the top with it and before they knew it they had an album's worth of remixes and reinterpretations of songs from their debut album, plus a brace of intriguing cover versions and a few tracks of spooky quasi-ambient sound effects and disturbing conversations to pad things out a bit.

In fact, that's the first problem with the EP - there's 12 minutes (not counting the concluding hidden track) of what is rather boring filler padding the thing out. On top of that, not all of the fully developed songs are equally interesting; in particular, Diary of a Dope Fiend is an attempt at a doom metal reinterpretation of Dope Hat which stands as convincing proof that you can't just slow down a regular metal song and get an aesthetically interesting doomy track, whilst Kiddy Grinder gets repetitive even for a dance remix.

To be honest, this disc could have been much better if it had been kept to EP length. On my iPod I've trimmed it down to the four best tracks: the band's excellent cover of Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This) to lead off with, followed up by Everlasting Cocksucker and Dance of the Dope Hats, which are the two most successful remix/reinterpretations of old material and addictively danceable with it, and then rounding things out with the cover version of Rock 'n' Roll Nigger, which is a dirty industrial reworking of the song which is a neat segue between the band's early material and the approach they would take on Antichrist Superstar. Those four songs are a hell of a lot of fun - the Sweet Dreams cover is an outright classic and responsible for knocking the score of this thing up by a whole star - and an EP with just them on would have got a high rating, but in its current form the disc just has far too much filler to get a high score.

Warthur The sheer rage and anger which drove Reznor through the Broken EP gutters out into depressed self-loathing on The Downward Spiral. Lyrically speaking, the album consists half of the sort of statements which really cut to the heart of the experience of depression, and half of the sort of embarrassing tripe depressed people try to distance themselves from once they're out of their low. Musically, there are a number of strong tracks here - I particularly like Mr Self Destruct and A Warm Place - but Reznor's gear shift into a more metal-focused sound which by now has purged most of the dance music influences of the first two releases results in a lot of the album feeling like filler to me.

Fact is, Reznor protegee Marilyn Manson had already done the shock rock Middle America-baiting pop-industrial metal thing much better, and so tracks like Heresy and Closer don't seem transgressive to me such as petulant. There are far catchier, more emotive, more experimental and more groundbreaking industrial releases to spend your time and money on - including Nine Inch Nails' own Broken - so the necessity of this release is questionable at best.

Warthur This is going to do little for my credibility as a reviewer, but I'm going to say it anyway: Marilyn Manson's debut album is an absolute classic of pop-industrial metal. Sure, the whole shock rock thing might have been old hat by the time this came out, and sure, it might not be particularly serious or experimental or groundbreaking - but it is infectiously, wonderfully catchy, a fun little album which I can't help bopping my head to every time I listen to it with songs that get stuck in my head all day after I've heard them.

Don't hold Manson's utter pretentiousness against him because this time around it really doesn't come out in the music; what you get here instead is some accessible, danceable, fun times pop-metal with a grimy industrial veneer. And if you approach the album with that in mind, I think you'll most likely have a really good time with it. I always do.

Warthur Broken is perhaps my favourite early Nine Inch Nails release; a short and to the point EP built around expressing the apocalyptic anger Trent Reznor was feeling at the time towards his former record company (and the world in general). Whilst the emotional stance of other NIN works tended towards the mopey and self-pitying - and, at points, didn't really seem sincere - Broken takes the vocabulary of industrial metal and uses it to create intense, impassioned invective which gets my blood racing every time I listen to it. Taking the NIN project firmly into the arena of metal and away from its synthesiser-flooded beginnings, Broken is a real treat.

Warthur Psalm 69 is the second Ministry album, after The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste, to place a heavy focus on Al Jourgensen's favourite hobby: saying mean things about people called "George Bush". Just as later albums would express Jourgensen's apparently inexhaustible reserves of anger directed against George W. Bush, so too does this album take aim at Bush I, though it also incorporates enough references to occult texts, occult sex, and sexy cars to make this a bit more varied than the Dubya-baiting albums of the band's later career.

It's a good listen, though it's a little too much like a rerun of The Mind Is... for my liking - if you've heard the preceding album, you already know precisely what this album sounds like, and if you haven't I'd recommend it over this one any day of the week.

Warthur Ministry's followup to The Land of Rape and Honey features significantly less in terms of singing, includes rapping on Trust, and makes even more use of samples and loops than its predecessor. The end result is a fascinating crossover work bridging the worlds of metal, dance music, and industrial experimentalism, and which draws on a few lessons here and there from hip-hop too. Metal purists may balk at it, but for my money this is an excellent experiment which shows the breadth and depth of Al Jourgensen's musical influences and his mastery of a range of styles. Not quite as groundbreaking as its predecessor, to my mind, but still a great companion piece to it.

Warthur Bearing a close resemblance to a much more synthesiser-focused and guitar-light version of Ministry's Land of Rape and Honey, the debut album of Nine Inch Nails/Trent Reznor may not be the most original industrial album out there but it's certainly one of the catchiest ones. Reznor proves to be an adept and skilled judge of the use of sounds, both musical and those which would be regarded traditionally as unmusical, to create a complete sonic landscape, from the anger that dominates most of the tracks to the frustration and sorrow captured in Something I Can Never Have.

Whilst it might not be devastatingly original in terms of the industrial music ideas it uses, it is unique in the extent to which it transforms what had been an austere and somewhat unapproachable genre into a compelling and accessible format. Some may sneer at it, but I think it's a great listen.

Warthur A savage and deeply uncomfortable fusion of gothy dance music with sick metal riffs, Ministry's Land of Rape and Honey wrote the rulebook for industrial metal and does so with all the anger, bile, vitriol and fury expected of the band. Like the other great man of industrial music Trent Reznor, Al Jourgensen has an uncanny knack for finding sounds that burrow into your head and worm around inside there and won't let you go. You'll be dancing to this one because it's too uncomfortable to sit still too, and too damn enjoyable not to get on the dancefloor for. A great starting point for any exploration of Ministry's music.

Warthur Ministry's first album - retitled Work For Love and given a different running order in Europe - is in no sense industrial metal, so anyone hoping for more of the band's harsh, abrasive music in that style might want to skip this and start their listening with Twitch. What it is, however, is a well-realised synthpop album in the vein of Gary Numan - Al Jourgensen even adopts a corny British accept in tribute to his synthpop heroes. If you like that sort of thing, it's a fun listen, but be aware that this is in no way representative of Ministry's usual sound.

J-Man Despite their roots in old school black metal, Samael have moved pretty far from that label since their formation in 1987. On Lux Mundi the Swiss veterans sport a sleek and modern industrial black metal style with plenty of bombastic keyboards and electronics - quite a change from what we would've expected around the time of Worship Him! Although I have a great appreciation for Samael and their willingness to change and innovate their sound, I feel like Lux Mundi is boring industrial metal by-the-numbers, and fairly uninspired at that. This isn't a bad album by any stretch, but it lacks enough memorability and inspiration to really grab my attention.

Musically, we're dealing with industrial black metal with lots of symphonic overtones. There are real drums and guitars present, but they are often complimented by electronic beats and symphonic orchestrations. Although it's a rather cool idea, the music comes across as pretty sterile and uninspired to these ears. Lux Mundi is seriously lacking when it comes to memorable songwriting, and it can make this fifty minute album feel much longer than it actually is. The musicianship and production are both top-notch and professional, but that only carries so much weight when the compositions are so formulaic and generic.

Lux Mundi is a pretty passable album from Samael, and I'd really only recommend this to die-hard fans of the band and industrial black metal at large. This album doesn't offer many new ideas, and the forgettable compositions make it a pretty mediocre affair. The strong musicianship and production save this from the garbage bin, but the most I can give is still 2.5 stars.

Sheavy (Original review from ProgArchives.com)

I still have not been able to find a Senmuth release that I truely like. I also have to say that downloading is pretty wonky and not easy for some Senmuth's early releases. Some I can not download anymore, others you have to download this special thing that lets you download from whatever website he hosted the album on, and that can be very annoying because everything is in Russian and you just have to click buttons that look like they would get the download started. Then for some reason the tracks on a lot of the early releases that I got are not the same as listed on here. Like on this record i got 10 tracks instead of 9. So I really do not know what is up, but that has been a common thing with a lot of Senmuth's early downloads. Anyway on to the actual music. It is nothing great. It sounds like stuff from Cognitive Discord, and it is extremely forgettable. I really do not care for his more straightforward Indutrial releases such as this one, and especially when he sings it gets rather bad. SAW I thought was going to be a interresting track, but it is just normal sounding Senmuth fare with some excerpts from the SAW series of horror movies.

A very generic and boring one from Senmuth, this one is.

Sheavy (Original review from ProgArchives.com)

Better than the debut, but still not there quite yet. First I will say that I like Senmuth better when he does not sing, it seriously destracts from the music. Thankfully, most of these songs do not contain too much singing. "Mesedjer of Ancient Self- Understanding" is a very good Senmuth, and I like the way it fades out with a siren blaring. Another highlight off this album is the closing track, Misericordia [ir-remediabilis], it starts off with some wierd sounding noise, then it starts off into metal territory. I have to give it to Senmuth, he does a good job of making interesting and addictive music, even if so far his discography has yielded anything above a three for me.

Sheavy (Original review from ProgArchives.com)

As the previous reviewers have pointed this is more of a concept album by Senmuth, than previous albums. It a lot with deals with runes and, and the tracks are either exactly six minutes or nine minutes long. The music is a fairly decent mix of ambient and quicker tracks here, some work, and some not so much. I like the darker ambient tracks a lot more than any of the other songs off this album. A lot of Senmuth's works does not get my jumping for joy, as I find his use of the guitar synthesizer, the E- Bow, a little much. It basically lets the guitarist mimic almost any sort of other instruments, and makes all sorts of sounds, and a lot of what might be thought for a computer generated sound, is actually more likely to be this little handeheld synthesizer, for example the flute like sound in the beginning is obviously not a real flute, but it is also not truly computer generated, it is made by this guitar synth. This album is not one of Senmuth's greater albums, best go look elsewhere in my opinion.

Sheavy (original reviewfrom ProgArchives.com)

Not my favorite record by any stretch, I actally am fonder of his more ambient stuff to be truthful, rather than this Industrial fast paced sound, on early records, which also gets revisited occasionally, in older albums. Overall I do like the music to a degree, but what really brings this record down is Senmuth's vocals which i do not like at all. The album also starts to get a bit old after the first listen, and there is nothing here that jumps out and grabs you by throat as being good, just one track after another, that might as well be the same track before it..... Wading through this discography is quite an interesting adventure and with the enormous out put by Senmuth there are going to be more than a couple of Lemons among them. Not a very good record, and it was a impression that almost caused me to not look any further into his work.

Sheavy (original review from ProgArchives.com)

This album by experimental muscian Senmuth has one too many things being crowded onto this little recording. I do not care much for any of the songs here, especially ludicrous is the rap song. The other songs are not that great either, and if I had to choose a favorite it would probably be Fog, which has some good background synth-y sound with the growling, snarling vocals, but other than that I do not like this album and pales in comparison to other works and this man's enormous catalogue of releases. Do not go for this one until you are familar with other works by Senmuth.

Kingcrimsonprog Marilyn Manson may divide opinion, he may be taken too seriously by some and not seriously enough by others and it just makes sense that if you don't already like Marilyn Manson then this Blu Ray isn't something you should buy. I'm not going to get into a debate with anyone about whether or not Marilyn Manson albums have been declining in quality over the years but I will say that if you think they have, then the track listing of this concert is perfectly suited to you, with all the material dating before the divisive 'The Golden Age of Grotesque' album.

You may already know this; but for those who don't, this Blu Ray is not a simple transfer of the previously released DVD 'Guns God And Government,' which featured footage from all around the world on different nights. The Blu Ray is taken entirely from one concert in LA during the same tour but also features the same bonus features as the original DVD (chiefly a documentary/montage entitled 'The Death Parade')

The concert is just over and hour and a half in length and features sixteen tracks, including the unreleased 'Astonishing Panorama of the End Times,'as well as seven tracks from the then new Holywood album in addition to a selection of live favorites from older albums. The band features John 5, Twiggy Ramirez, M.W. Gacy and Ginger Fish, in what many fans have come to consider the classic line up.

The video quality is pretty incredible and its surprising just what a huge improvement this is over the previously released DVD, especially when the house lights are up. When the lights are up, this 2002 concert looks better than many live Blu Rays filmed as recently as last year and the team behind this Blu Ray have clearly done an excellent job. In addition to the sterling video quality, the sound is utterly fantastic and as with the video it honestly rivals the majority of modern concerts on Blu Ray.

The performance is excellent, right from the start you know you are in for a theatrical and over the top experience as Manson arrives on stage in a chariot pulled by bikini girls to a stage featuring huge backdrops of crucified fetuses, crucifixes made of various rifles and revolvers, a tonne of dry ice and even naked dancers. The set also contains the infamous slit walk and 'growing,' as well as several costume changes for Manson and one or two minor costume enhancements for the rest of the group.

If you didn't already know, while the band do perform live Marilyn himself sings over a prerecorded live vocal track when he is doing anything theatrical such as the stilt walk or standing behind the pulpit and from repeat viewings I have begun to think that while he sang live over the track on the night, these vocals were erased from the mix and replaced with the live track entirely although I am not 100% certain.

The Blu Ray specs are as follows: 1080i HD Widescreen (1.78:1) LCPM Stereo, Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS HD Master Audio.

In summary this is an absolutely excellent product in and of itself, doubly so if you prefer this period in Manson's history, and an extra star is warranted if you aren't put off by the vocal track not matching up to Manson's mouth movements.

Kingcrimsonprog Marilyn Manson will always cause people's eyes to roll; either people with enough taste to see through his poorly thought out faux intellectualism; or people with a strong enough prejudice to simply write off everything the man does because of his numerous low points and cheesy gimmicks.

This live album is one of the best live albums in recent times; with an energetic performance, a smooth production and a great track list.

Live; the band come across as more talented, expanding and improving upon already good songs 'I don't like the Drugs,' and 'The Reflecting God,' being good examples.

The excellent and artistic songwriting of the Mechanical Animals tunes comes across really well here; but songs like 'Get your Gunn,' and even the usual unbearable 'Sweet Dreams,' (which many people will roll their eyes at) sound not just forgivable, but fantastical in their energetic and expanded live forms.

Highlights include an energetic version of 'Rock is Dead,' and a very good rendition of 'Antichrist Superstar.'

Sure Goths and Twelve-year-olds will always flock to Manson, but that shouldn't stop everyone else from enjoying his work. Manson is a great artist who may have some flaws... but the pros far outweigh the cons.

In summary, if you like Manson you will love this, and if you don't it will prove to you why you should, and how you could condone overwriting your preconceived notions about this awesome performer.

Kingcrimsonprog Powerman 5000 are a band that are a lot of fun; who write good, concise songs with interesting lyrics and who like to entertain their audience. If you expected anything artistic or deep you were being a little unrealistic, Powerman 5000 are a band who just write music that is simple, accessible, entertainment.

Realistically, if you like Spider One’s voice and vocal style and you enjoyed the Band’s early work you will almost certainly enjoy this album, however it would be an exaggeration to give the album high praise.

Somewhere on the Other Side of Nowhere sees the band returning in some ways to the style on Tonight The Stars Revolt and Anyone For Doomsday? which many fans like myself will appreciate and is the source of the album getting slightly better reviews than it actually deserves but the album is not an exact replica of their Nu Metal style and features much of the post Transfrom sound too, as well as some things which are entirely new.

Some of the music is very good indeed, and will doubtlessly become an integral part of the band’s live show for years to come. One such example is ‘Show Me What You Got,’ which is an electronics laden up tempo number with a chunky guitar part that exemplifies everything that was great about the band. Another highlight is ‘V is for Vampire,’ which is one of the most fun tracks the band have released this side of the millennium.

The best song on the album has to be ‘Make Us Insane,’ which seemed to be created specifically for advertising action films and wrestling pay-per-views but has yet to become outplayed like the tracks which are actually used to advertise such things.

One negative thing about the album is the sparse, empty sounding production which apart from a few distortion guitar parts sounds largely sterile and detracts a lot of the energy which was obviously intended to be present.

Another negative thing about the album is its short length, rather than seeming focused and concise it just feels like it ended too soon, as if it was only one half of a set or that the band were forced to put the album out before all of it was completed.

The album is alright for a bit of nostalgia or for a quick bit of easy listening fun but ultimately it is a little more disposable and unrewarding than you may expect after having heard about the direction of the music.

In summary Somewhere On The Other Side of Nowhere has some good music and the direction of the music is what the fans wanted, however the finished album is only a short 33 minutes and ultimately pretty throw away. This album isn’t likely to become a classic.

bonnek Fifth chapter on the speedway to the galaxy. Austal Alian is yet another highly enjoyable album from Alchemist. The tempo is somewhat higher then 'Organasm' and the sound is dryer and more aggressive. Due to the focus on tight playing and fast riotous rhythms, the album has a slightly more industrial feel then its predecessors. The songs are strong as ever and the vocals keep their distinctive diversity, so there’s more then enough to please a metal endorsing prog fan here.

'Alpha Cappella Nova Vega' is the high point for me and served as a perfect introduction for me to this band. With its fine echo laden guitar strumming, hypnotizing mantra and steadily building crescendo, the song is immediately accessible. The remainder of the album is close to the same heights but might take you a bit more time to digest.

Admitted, I'm a huge fanboy of these guy so I can't help rating it a 9/10. Recommend for fans of Voivod, space-metal and Neurosis-on-speed.

Conor Fynes 'Year Zero' - Nine Inch Nails (6/10)

Known for bringing the industrial music scene (innovated by such avant-garde ensembles as Throbbing Gristle) to a wider public attention, Nine Inch Nails has received a surprising amount of acclaim for being a relatively experimental act. An artist always pushing to throw a monkey wrench in the music industry in more ways than one, 'Year Zero' came to my attention not necessarily through the music itself, but the vast concept behind the 'plot' and marketing of the release. Instead of simple promotional work, Trent Reznor dispatched an entire 'virtual reality' web quest to depict his dystopic view of the future. While the music is inconsistent to match up with the fiery concept and subject matter, there is the sense here that 'Year Zero' is a vanguard for something up-and-coming, be it musically or otherwise.

Compared with earlier opuses such as his defining 'The Downward Spiral', Trent Reznor has gone a bit heavier with 'Year Zero', a development that perfectly suits the dark subject matter of the album. Essentially, the album follows no linear narrative, but instead paints a dystopic future of a Christian fundamentalist-controlled United States, allowing the listener to fill in the blanks, as necessary. While the music always has a touch of humanity with Reznor's distinctive, angry voice, the instruments rely almost exclusively on electronic instrumentation, with scarce examples in the album being the catchy 'The Beginning Of The End' and the piano tinged 'Another Version Of The Truth'. The music is very noisy, atonal, yet surprisingly accessible for such a seemingly dense work. Songs such as 'Survivalism' may employ incredible noisy and chaotic electronics, but are catchy (albeit dark) pop songs at their core, giving Reznor the added edge and commercial appeal.

While the concept itself is grand in scope, the lyrics do seem to fall a bit short in comparison. While I have never found Trent's voice to be particularly strong (especially when compared to his potent instrumental vision), the wordplay here is simple at best, and poorly clichéd at worst. Still, some of the album's best content comes in the form of Reznor's vocal hooks, which- as previously described- do give the listener something to grasp onto from first listen onwards.

Perhaps 'Year Zero's greatest fault lies in the fact that it is a dreadfully inconsistent piece of work, although the high points do serve to make the album a worthy venture. The first three tracks (the percussive introduction 'Hyperpower!' following through to the abrasive single 'Survivalism') comprise the most memorable portion of 'Year Zero', before the album degrades into a slower, less structured and more experimental form. Other highlights include the sporadic vocal work of 'The Great Destroyer' and the gospel-tinged finale, 'Zero-Sum'.

'Year Zero' is an album that didn't match the high expectations I had placed for it following the grand marketing campaign and intriguing concept behind it, but while being inconsistent, the album is graced with a handful of great tracks that make the album a relatively good album from Nine Inch Nails.

The Truth A definite step down from his previous release Cryptomnesia of Hidden Art, Trmmis seems to be a bit lackluster when compared to other releases in this prolific artist's discography.

Senmuth is a Prog Archives legend, mainly for his prolificality and the fact that all of the albums are released for free on his site. Somehow he has always managed to entertain me with his two-album-a-month way of releasing music up to this point. He's definitely doing something wrong on this record and it's hard to pin down exactly because it sounds alot like previous releases.

But in a nutshell, this album contains no raw emotion but rather a forced synthetic emotion that does not bode well for the overall sound of the album. From the first minutes the record starts playing, it is immediately noticeable that this is not the previous album which was more-or-less the best Senmuth so far.

Definitely go for the previous release, this record is not high-quality Senmuth.

J-Man Knigy Voznesenya I is an interesting release from prolific Russian one-man act Senmuth. Consisting only of one 20-minute piece and a shorter 7-minute track, Knigy Voznesenya I stands as one of the man's shortest releases to date. It also is certainly among Senmuth's more experimental outings, containing more dissonance and heavy guitar riffs than on most of his albums. I wouldn't place Knigy Voznesenya I among one of Senmuth's best efforts, but it's certainly a solid EP that I've enjoyed hearing.

The music here is unmistakably Senmuth, but with a harder-tinged experimental industrial tinge. Ambient sections are present, but mostly in "Тексты саркофагов". This 7-minute piece is much more melodic (and, in my opinion, more enjoyable) than its near-20 minute predecessor. "Тексты пирамид" is one of the longer Senmuth tracks out there, and focuses mainly on punishing dissonance and dynamics. Unfortunately, it is far too repetitive for my tastes, and I much prefer the more exciting "Тексты саркофагов".

Knigy Voznesenya I is a very flawed release from Senmuth, but it's still occasionally enjoyable. The over-emphasized repetition and lack of human touch can really make this EP seem drastically longer than its mere 27 minute playing time, and that is ultimately what makes Knigy Voznesenya I a fairly mediocre experience. This EP isn't without its assets, however - the spectacular production, careful arrangements, and the strength of "Тексты саркофагов" are all enough to save Knigy Voznesenya I from being considered a poor effort. 2.5 stars are warranted.

The Angry Scotsman Wagnerian Space Metal Opera at its finest

WHAT!?

That is what the CD had itself labeled as. This is the type of quality music you can only find in the used bin of a random store in South-Central Pennsylvania! So what have we got here?

This is an industrial metal album to the core. Repetitive songs with crushing guitar riffs, synths, powerful and straightforward programmed drumming, use of samples and harsh vocals. This is pretty much it, don't expect much else, (with some exception).

Thankfully, the songs are pretty short, so while it may not be very good, and can be boring...it doesn't last too long. Some of the riffs are damn catchy, as well as the melodies produced, (this is some fairly dense music). Vocals are generally screamed, sometimes lower register singing and spoken word. The lyrics are simple, short lines generally repeated over the song. All of it in fairly poor German accent and pronunciation.

It needs to be noted this album is a joke, literally. It starts off big with the song "Third Reich From the Sun" which took me a bit to realize the gag in that name...and is made better with the main verse: "Third Reich, from the Sun! Revolution!" and "Das ist mein Krieg, Das ist mein Blut, Das ist mein Reich!" (This is my war, this is my blood, this is my empire) and add a...German rally speech into the mix.

OK, for humor even this is tough to swallow. Made worse by the fact the song is somewhat catchy. Another winner is "SS Deathstar Supergalactik" which is as catchy as it is painfully titled. It's awesome riffing and dancy drumming really make me want to dance around. Some electronic punches are a cool lil touch. Thank goodness, makes it easier to block out "Deathstar Universe. Join the fight. Blitzkrieg galaxy" if you choose to.

They are good at making you rock and groove out to the more ridiculous songs, more examples being "Transplutonian Annihilation" and "Let the Planets Burn". "Mein Kommandant" is a pretty groovy and trippy song, with sitar, groovy bass and a pretty spaced out feel.

I really don't know what to do with this one. Pretty generic industrial metal, which by its very nature is lackluster and bland...though this album can be undeniably catchy and some songs are pretty good. At first the lyrics are horrifying, both for their content and surrealism, but quite obviously the concept is for kicks. Not sure what the concept is, I think a futuristic outer space WWII for the galaxy?? I hope the laughably poor German accent is part of it. This is self parody, campy metal in its most grandiose!

A stupid fun album (emphasis on both) that if you take purely as is, may provide some enjoyment...if not for its catchy rocking out at least some awkward laughs?

Two Stars

Time Signature God smacker...

Genre: industrial metal

This release by Marc Broude was, as far as I understand, originally released in 7'' vinyl and has been out of print for some time, but recently it has been released digitally.

The style of the two tracks on this release is industrial metal. Now, industrial metal - being metal which extensively incorporates electronic elements - could of course be a lot of things, and I must admit that it is not all industrial metal that sits well with me.

However, this release is actually pretty interesting, and I particularly like the first track "Psychological Warfare". What I appreciate about the two tracks is that, although quite influenced by electronica, the music still seems to be centered around guitar riffage. "Psychological Warfare" is build up around a simple and groovy riff, which suits the underlying heavy hiphop-like programmed drum beat quite well. I also like the use of atmospheric keyboard effects which are constantly buzzing about in the background. "God Smacker" is also a quite heavy affair, which is based on a kind of sludgy riff in the verse and an equally sludgy and heavy riff, but of a more chugging character though. This track is also full of weird atmospheric effects.

The vocals are heavily distorted on both tracks, and - true to the industrial genre - both tracks are characterized by characterized by repetition of the same figures, and, due to the heaviness of the style of music on this release, the repetition has a sort of trancelike effect upon the listener.

I think that this is a pretty solid release, and a very interesting one. If you like heavy and dark industrial metal which has sort of the same effect upon the listener as trip hop does, then you ought to check out this release.

Time Signature Not on the edge of oblivion...

Genre: industrial metalcore

The Interbeing is a Danish metal band, and, although this is their debut, they seem very determined in terms of where they are heading at - both musically and artistically.

The band delivers modern metal with influences from Swedish melodeath and American melodic metalcore. This, however, does not mean that we are dealing with a load of sticky sweet cheese-metallic commercial shite along the lines of Dead By April or Sonic Syndicate. You see, The Interbeing are obviously experts at groove, and virtually every track on this album offers a plethora of groovy guitar riffs which would make Korn green with envy and Pantera blush with pride. There are also a couple of more uptempo thrashy elements, and a track like "Celestial Flames" (my favorite) is practically a thrash metal tune.

Integral to the sound on this album is the use of futuristic electronic effects and synth melodies, and thus, there is an industrial aspect to the Style of The Interbeing - and I think that, unlike other bands who have tried a similar approach, The Interbeing are quite successful at what they do.

The vocals are delivered in a metalcore-fashion, combining aggressively yelled vocals in the verses with overly melodic clean vocals in the choruses, so there is something for those who like choruses that they can sing along to, too.

"Edge of Oblivion" is a solid debut and, with its groovy and futuristic industrial metalcore, it should appeal to fans of Engel's "Threnody" from last year.

The Angry Scotsman I am living in Amerika and Dieses Album ist wunderbar!

A guilty pleasure, perhaps...if it sounds really good then it doesn't always have to be technical, complex and cerebral! Good thing since Rammstein isn't any of those things. However, they do make some awesome sounding music, but unfortunately suffered from inconsistency. With "Reise, Reise" Rammstein finally make a solid album, from start to finish.

As with all their work this album is difficult to classify, falling best under Industrial Metal often featuring heavy, repetitive, (and usually simple) songs making heavy use of keyboard. There is also a strong alt/groove metal influence on the album, utilizing angular crushing riffs and a hefty dose of syncopation, all pushed along by straightforward drumming. While songs may be repetitive in nature (though not as badly as one may think) there is good variation from song to song.

To top it off, Till Lindemann's vocals are absolutely perfect. Fit the music, each song and section perfectly. Also, his voice is just awesome. Till's voice is deep and powerful. Even when he is singing clean! If you are someone who NEEDS lyrics...well his are almost entirely in German so that may be a problem for you. I personally like to "feel" vocals, make sure they fit and flow with the music, which they do here. 3 semesters of German at Uni also helped enough that I can get the basic ideas and know enough to lines as to not feel utterly clueless, which is nice since Rammstein can tell some intriguing stories...

The album kicks off with the title track which truly fits the word "epic". Right off the bat you also know what you are getting: Simple, heavy, and damn powerful. Still some touches of musicianship though.

Mein Teil is one of my all time favorite Rammstein songs, opening with a creepy bass and militaristic drum rhythm, and a cold keyboard melody. Alternates between this and some awesome riffing, all the time telling a real life story of a butcher who wanted a "well built" man to come to his house. The epic chorus translating to "Then you are, what you eat, and you know, what this is. It is my part" should be a big enough clue as to why he was there.

"Dalai Lama" is a powerful building song, while "Keine Lust" has a very alt metal feel to it. "Los" is pretty different, very cool and a bit trippy!

"Amerika" is one of the bands better known songs and a highlight of the album. Typical heavy/light keyboard tinged Rammstein song, with some nice subtle touches and even a keyboard solo! The song is a scathing criticism of globalization, as the chorus points out "We're all living in Amerika. Amerika, ist wunderbar" and going on to equate American culture with coca cola, wonder bra, and sometimes war. The band can be trolls but if anyone had any doubt, the lines "This is not a love song, I don't sing my mother tongue, no this is not a love song" should spell it out pretty clearly. All very true points and some interesting stuff to munch on, or if you'd like you can just mosh out to the awesome riffing, breakdowns and let yourself be swept up by a very catchy song.

"Moskau" is my least favorite and a kind of weak song. Even for laughs the dance pop feel is a bit much for me haha! Things pick up with the frenetic "Morgenstern" and the mildly post-metal sounding "Stein Um Stein". The album ends on a fantastic note. Pushing along at Rammstein's moderate pace "Ohne Dich" is a powerful and beautiful song of longing. Till's voice really is beautiful. This is followed by the much darker "Amour" where, yet again, Till's vocals are superb and fit the music perfectly. A very moving song, sit back and let it happen. Also you can hear Rammstein's softer moments musically, and it's really nice. Please look up and memorize the lyrics if needed, they really add another touch to the whole song.

Very good album, one weak song, a few moments that don't really work but overall, few complaints can be had. Straightforward but surprising album, a must for fans of Rammstein but also highly recommended for newcomers as this may be their best album. Please give this a listen.

Four Stars

Time Signature Chaos in repetition...

Genre: industrial metal

This release by Soundisciples is admittedly more on the techno side than on the metal side, as Soundisciples make consistent use of various types of electronically programmed drum patterns (ranging from frantic Prodigy-like drum patterns over groovy hip hop beats to slower and heavier drum & bass stuff [please bear with my inept use of electronica terminology - I know nothing about that kind of music]), synths and samples.

The only analogue instrument is a heavily distorted guitar, which is the primary contributor of the metalness of this album. The guitar appears on every track, and the riffage is unmistakenly metal, and I would argue that writing this off as non-metal would be incorrect. A lot of the riffs are actually pretty cool and they always fit the underlying electronic backdrop very well; the guitar is very dominant in the mix, but I have not decided whether I think that is a good thing or a bad thing. Oh, I should mention that a real human-played bass pops up every now and then, and there are also acoustic sections in some of the tracks. The vocals are very 90s-ish and sound a bit like Nick Holmes, had Paradise Lost been a grunge band.

I think there is a lot of good stuff on this album, but the tracks are very repetitive - which I am sure is deliberate - and that makes this release a bit dense or cumbersome listen at times.

mjayeh This is not the industrial metal they were known for in later years, With Sympathy is panto-goth new wave synth-pop feel to it and the song "Revenge" was an MTV staple in 1983 that got me to buy the album. The album fit the time with the keyboard laden melodies and catchy lyrics to match. It took me about four years after buying the album, (yes that "flat, black and circular" piece of pressed vinyl) before sitting down and listening to both sides. Over all I was pleased with the mastering performed by Greg Calbi. I would like to find it on vinyl again and see if some 20 years later it would still hold up.

UMUR "Absolute Dissent" is the 14th full-length studio album by UK alternative/ industrial rock/ metal act. The album was released in October 2010 by Spinefarm Records. "Absolute Dissent" marks the first recording in 28 years by the original lineup of Jaz Coleman (vocals and keyboards), Geordie Walker (guitar), Paul Ferguson (drums) and Martin ‘Youth’ Glover (bass). The members of the band met up in October 2007 at the funeral for former bassist Paul Raven and decided to work together as a band again.

The music on the album is the trademark post punk/ industrial metal/ new wave combination that just sounds unmistakably like Killing Joke. Killing Joke have such a distinct sound, that you´re always able to tell that it´s them you are listening to. It never cease to amaze me how effortlessly they can go from playing new wave pop/ rock in a track like "European Super State" to playing industrial metal in a track like "This World Hell". They even place those two tracks right after each other and make it work like a charm. If anyone thought the aging band had run dry of ideas or vitality, think again. The playing and the attitude on this album is vital, the lyrics are clever ( as ever) and with a suiting powerful production, this is probably one of the better albums that the band have released in years.

Jaz Coleman is one hell of a frontman and proves it here again. He varies his vocals between clean and raw vocals naturally and it works wonders. The rest of the band are also very well playing. One of the things I noticed was the rather raw guitar tone on the album. Something that really boosts the heavy/ punked nature of some of the tracks.

To my ears "Absolute Dissent" is a succesful release that proves that Killing Joke is still a force to be reckoned with. This band refuse to die and thank you for that. 3.5 - 4 stars are warranted.

topofsm Ask any Strapping Young Lad listener and they will point to one of two albums: Alien and City. While Alien is fantastic too, this came before all the over the top synthesized orchestras, gigantic layers of sound, and orchestrated goofiness. So basically what you're left with is an over-the-top pissed off album.

This album is mostly industrial metal with a few thrash elements. It's difficult to categorize, but most of Devin Townsend's work is difficult in that respect. You can see where Fear Factory got a lot of inspiration since there are tons of dry, pounding riffs all over the place. Admittedly, there is a lot that nu-metal seems to have taken from the album as well, most often through Devin's singing voice (The Track AAA is egregious in nu-metal too). But overall if you know Strapping, you know what you're getting into.

The album starts of great. The intro, "Velvet Kevorkian" is a crushing intro. It leads directly into "All Hail the New Flesh", which is filled with bombastic melodies and melodramatic singing that is completely headbanging worthy. The first half of the album is all a total mosh-fest. "Oh my Fucking God" and "Home Nucleonics" are particularly insane, as they are filled to the brim with blasting tempi and gritty riffs.

My main beef with the album is it slows down as it goes. After the blast that is "Home Nucleonics", you're treated to "AAA", which already stated is a midtempo groovy nu-metal track (albeit a good one). A couple songs later, "Room 429" and "Spirituality" close off the bunch, which are pretty slow tracks that don't add much to the album. Overall there's just a couple tracks that don't stand out as much as they could on the album.

However, as for most of it, it's a very cyberpunky angry, blistering, over-the top sandwich of metal. Devin Townsend and Strapping fans will of course have it, and it has a rightful spot in anyone's collection.

UMUR Destroy the Light is the debut full-length studio album by industrial metal act Circle of Animals. The album was released in October 2010 by Relapse Records. The band consists of Bruce Lamont ( Yakuza) and Sanford Parker ( Minsk, Buried At Sea, The High Confessions).

The music on the album is Ministry influenced industrial metal. It´s pretty well played and composed and it´s worth a listen for fans of the genre but I wouldn´t call it particularly original. As with most industrial metal the songs are repetitive and mechanical in nature. They are not that memorable though and even after several listens there´s nothing here that really sticks out. I simply can´t remember most of the songs after the album ends.

I think it´s pretty obvious that Circle of Animals is a project for Bruce Lamont and Sanford Parker. An industrial metal playground. It´s always interesting to hear musicians doing something that´s a bit out of their comfort zone, but I could have wished for something a bit more unique and memorable. A 2.5 - 3 star rating is warranted.