London ( LND ) - United Kingdom
Joined : July 17, 2008
First, the positive aspects...
The title track of this album is actually quite good: a really dark feel it from start to it's unfortunately abrupt finish. Featuring a catchy lines, it's well programmed and despite the drums sounding a little too low and the synth a little too high in the mix, fairly well mastered.
Unfortunately, that's where I run out of good things to say about this album.
The rest is, quite frankly, banal. Gone are the guitars and, apart from a smattering of down beat percussion in Digistorm, the drums are absent too.
The soundscapes we're left with were reminded me of just about every release on the Cold Meat Industry label: interminable tuneless droning.
If you like dark ambient soundscapes, which I have to confess are not my thing, then perhaps you may enjoy this album, but if you don't then take my advice: don't bother with anything except the 1st track.
Listening to this album I couldn't help but think I'd heard it before... Sure, Reservoir Dogs is a cover (i think) and for me was the stand-out song on the album.
The band sounds Ministry-esque and do a fairly good job of making that kind of industrial music.
I couldn't help but notice though, that a lot of the songs on this album sounded a great deal like early Metallica...
After another listen to the tracks I'm pretty sure the following tracks sample some of Metallica's songs heavily.
Electric Chair - Blackened [...And Justice For All]
Gott Mit Uns - For Whom The Bell Tolls [Ride The Lightning]
It's Time To Get Phunky - Seek And Destroy [Kill 'Em All]
Digital Fury - Eye Of The Beholder [...And Justice For All]
The album's mastering could have been better too. Not that it's bad, but there's something intangibly awry that detracts from the work.
Whilst not a cohesively constructed album, this collection of tracks offers some very good listening.
My favourite track?
8. In everlasting Memory - somewhat reminiscent of Metallica's Nothing Else Matters and Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones.
Really like your work... keep it up
The first track is an atmospheric piece, and as such is pretty good. It's sinister and brooding in sound and by far the best produced of this release.
Unfortunately from this point onwards it's downhill...
The second track is the least bad of what follows; the intro is pretty promising, but it doesn't deliver. The song quickly gets repetitive the same guitar riff is used almost exclusively through the song and because of this it's about a minute too long.
The third and fourth tracks are more of the same, but this time the vocals are too loud and the echo effect used makes them sound as if they were recorded in an indoor swimming pool.
This release is blighted by poor production. The music's muffled and tinny and much too low in the mix.
This album rocks.
Quite why the cello is not used by more metal bands is a mystery to me. It fits perfectly with the overdriven guitars.
The mastering is very good: each instrument clearly audible in every song
One or two of the tracks become a bit repetitive in places, but other than that this is a really solid release.
There's something seriously amiss here... on paper, this music should sound like the sort of natty tunes you'd expect from japanese computer games.
The trouble is, it doesn't.
It's hard not to sound sycophantic when faced with describing this work. Right from the start it's toe-tappingly brilliant; the guitars work so very well with the upbeat psy-trance style accompaniment and boy, is it well written!
Can't wait to hear more work from Shtrafilclux
Firstly, allow me to qualify this review: the music is not typical of the sort I like.
19 songs in 45 minutes is a lot, maybe too many as a lot of the songs ended abruptly; some ceasing so suddenly it seemed like they were incomplete.
It is well recorded and, from what I can tell, well written... however, nothing about the album stood out to me.
Like raw anger in sonic form, these five tracks burst out of my hi-fi as if the music itself was possessed.
With aggressive drum loops and the guitars lifted straight from the heaviest metal, this is breakcore so fierce it may very well be dangerous to play in a club.
The Beastie Boys & Terminator 2 samples in "La 13eme piste" work really well in what is the softest track out of the five.
The shear energy of "Comment draguer dans un aéroport" and "Une mèche dans l'oeil" has to be heard to be believed.
top top music
It's a real shame these two tracks are recorded as badly as they are.
Both tunes seem to be pretty well composed, but it's just too tinny and compressed to hear what's going.
The first track, Tanks in Goa, would be a definite dancefloor hit it it were mastered better.
This is a very well written and recorded EP.
Searing guitar riffs somewhat reminiscent of KMFDM, catchy melodies and powerful vocals are the order of the day here... If you like industrial rock, then this is a record you'll be listening to for a long time to come.
The singers sound like a collaboration between Wolfsheim and Slipknot. A very good collaboration, mind.
The mastering of this record is top drawer; each element of a song is clearly audible and crisply recorded.
The downside? i don't think the newest album (neo:Noir) is nearly as good as this.
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