Filter -- 'Remixes for the Damned' [review]

Filter - Remixes for the Damned
Pulse Records (11/4/08)
Hard rock (Industrial rock) / Electronic

Hot on the heels of Anthems for the Damned, Richard Patrick has put together a Web-exclusive album of remixes offering what he calls a more industrial take on Filter’s first new album in five years.

Rather than sounding more industrial, however, most of the tracks have a "dance party remix" feel to them, if for no other real reason than the repetitive club beats and expanded tracks with little "edge."

Sure, there are moments, like the mid-way point of "I Keep the Flowers Around (Love's Labor's Lost)", which features a haunting, driving guitar playing over this expansive, spacey beat, but for the most part, these tracks feel ultimately forgettable.

But there are a few high points where the songs exceed their original counterparts. The mellower take on "Soldiers of Misfortune" (The Justin Eyerly Version), which focuses on a backing string section and acoustic guitar to accompany Patrick’s vocals, is a real gem. Stripping away the pop sheen gives the song an added dimension of complexity and seriousness that really works well with the subject matter.

This toned-down approach also works well on the stripped versions of "Only You" and "Lie After Lie", too, which aren't remixes as much as acoustic versions of the songs. Nonetheless, the simplistic approach works so well that you can't help but wonder if an acoustic album of Filter material is in the works.

For a different take on "Soldiers of Misfortune", the "Turning Blood into Oil" mix has a steady drum beat, which gives the song a militaristic feel, but during the choruses a haunting synth riff kicks in, adding an ethereal element to the track.

That particular tone is present on "Cold (Desert Sky)" as well. Once again, with the pop sheen stripped off, the song takes on a new dimension (though the programmed backing could have been toned down a little). The best part of the song is where the female backing vocals, which are hardly noticeable on the studio version, spring to the forefront this time around.

The multiple takes of "The Take" aren't too bad, either. The "Rumsfeld Torture Party" version is more frantic and high-energy, while the "Declanator" mix is a little more low-key but somehow manages to be more urgent as a result.

There are two versions of "What's Next", and both probably could have benefited from being combined into one track. And the third version of "Soldiers of Misfortune" (the "10 hits of X in Baghdad" mix) comes across as overkill. The version is a far cry from the other takes on the collection (much more aggressive and club-sounding) and adds nothing to the song or the album.

The weakest moments on the collection come about when the tracks just sort of meander with no direction. "Kill The Day (Gonzo in the Club)" or the aforementioned reworking of "Soldiers" could have been any song mixed for clubbing purposes, with layered, never-ending beats looping to no clear purpose.

This was supposed to be a return to Filter's industrial roots, but much like the proper studio version of Anthems for the Damned, nothing on this set touches the intensity of "Hey Man Nice Shot" or the Crystal Method collaboration "(Can’t You) Trip Like I Do".

In the end, Remixes for the Damned offers up a mixed bag of new takes on the songs. Ironically it's the quieter moments that really shine on here, but one wouldn't normally think "quiet" when thinking of industrial remixes. Of course, being a download exclusive, you're able to download your choice of tracks as opposed to the entire set, so feel free to create the best album you can.

One Way Mirror -- 'One Way Mirror' [review]

One Way Mirror - One Way Mirror
Metal Blade Records (7/22/08)
Hard rock / Metal / Industrial rock

Side projects and super-groups are nothing new. It's usually just a bunch of friends drawn together by the desire to create a certain type of music that might not necessarily fit into what the individual members do in their respective bands. In this case, One Way Mirror looks to combine metal and rock into a fiery concoction, turgid with melody and anything else into which the band seems willing to sink its teeth.

A super-group of sorts, featuring members of Soilwork (drummer Dirk Verbeuren), Lyzanxia (guitarists David and Frank Potvin), Scarve (Loic Colin on bass) and Mnemic (frontman Guillaume), the band tackles this rock-metal goliath blending the best of both genres, leaning toward the heavier end of the spectrum.

Of course, it's not an entirely new approach, and throughout this self-titled album, One Way Mirror draws similarities to the likes of Atreyu or older Powerman 5000 (without the funk) and a bunch of turn-of-the-millennium one-hit wonders more than a few times while also throwing in hefty doses of industrial influence, heavy (as hell) metal and other melodic nuances for good measure.

There are plenty of killer guitar solos (check out the ending of "ReDream" or "Danger Calling"), and the band isn't afraid to let the bass work take center stage (opener "Destination Device" or "Sockracer"). One Way Mirror is happy to attempt to recast itself as an industrial beast, even if only for a few moments (check out the aforementioned opener or “Keeping Me Away”), though that usually means using distorted singing techniques more than anything else.

One Way Mirror also isn't afraid to infuse plenty of melody into the tracks, creating some truly catchy tunes in the process. The aforementioned "ReDream" is instantly infectious, and could probably find a home on plenty of modern-rock radio stations. The same goes for "21st Century", though it's refreshing to see a band take that approach without turning its back on what got it to the dance, so to speak—with plenty of screams, double-bass drumming and chunky riffs splattered throughout this album to keep metalheads happy.

In fact, the only misfire on the disc would have to be the questionable cover of Frankie Goes to Hollywood's "Relax". If ever there was a song that was not screaming for a do-over, it would be this one. And you can't even enjoy it from a "wow, that was unique" standpoint since Powerman 5000 did the same thing several years earlier. They try their damnedest, but the entire track falls way short.

Of course, one out of eleven ain't too bad—the other ten tracks are raucous affairs that are sure to satisfy plenty of metal and rock lovers out there. One Way Mirror isn't trying anything new, but you don't always have to reinvent the wheel to make a good album.

Ministry -- 'The Last Sucker' [review]

Ministry - The Last Sucker
13th Planet/Megaforce Records (9/18/07)
Industrial metal



If The Last Sucker truly is the final gasp for Ministry, then Al Jourgensen should surely be content to have his brainchild go out at the top of its game.



This is exactly what you'd expect from one of industrial metal's most destructive acts. The album, the culmination of a trilogy which was brimming with anger against the current Bush administration, picks up right where last year's Rio Grande Blood left off. This album, perhaps more than any other of the trilogy, sees Ministry return to the form heard in the band's landmark 1992 album, Psalm 69. The one-two punch from openers "Let's Go" and "Watch Yourself" are vintage Ministry -- machine gun riffing with an electronic tinge, Jourgensen's robotic barking spewing forth verses with plenty of topical sound bites incorporated into the mix.

But unlike 1992, Ministry is much more focused in its delivery these days. Each song drops like a precision-guided missile. "Life is Good" plays like the soundtrack to a forgotten wasteland, while Jourgensen takes aim at the U.S. Vice President with "The Dick Song" (complete with twisted samples of Cheney proclaiming, "And I don't think it would surprise the American people -- I have killed hundreds of people"), and the foreboding dirge of the title-track spills from the speakers like a crippling sludge.

Two of the album's strongest tracks actually end up being the most surprising of the bunch. First, the twisted, explosive cover of The Doors' "Roadhouse Blues," which sounds like an out-of-control train ready to derail. Next up, the album-closing (and perhaps, as far as Ministry is concerned, career-closing) "End of Days (Pt. 2)" which features Fear Factory frontman Burton Bell sharing vocal duties. Bell actually appears on three tracks, and his tone and cadence fits perfectly with Ministry's delivery. That he got to work with the band before Jourgensen closed up shop is a gift to both him and fans alike.

"End of Days (Pt. 2)" is unlike anything I can recall Ministry recording before. The 10-minute opus seethes with this haunting, melodic riff that sounds, dare I say, beautiful. Add to that Jourgensen and Bell trading off verses and chanting between a repetitive chorus of children chanting "
it's just the end of days" as the drums and guitars push forward in this massive, layered masterpiece -- truly the band's finest moment. A bulk of the song features a lengthy sample of President Dwight D. Eisenhower's farewell speech, and the entire package is just impossible to ignore. In the end, Jourgensen isn't making any motion to call attention to the end of Ministry. Rather, he simply keeps hammering home his message about the state of America and its affairs.

Love or hate his message, Jourgensen has undoubtedly crafted the perfect swan song. The purpose may be impossible to ignore, but the delivery is what really counts. Ministry has solidified its place as a true classic in metal and industrial music. The genre(s) will be a little less exciting without the anticipation of a new Ministry album lurking around the corner.

American Head Charge -- 'The War of Art' [classic review]

American Head Charge
"The War of Art"
(American Recordings)


"I think we probably put a little more thought into arrangements and I think we put a lot of thought into sonics, layering, melody, counter-melody, tempo changes and mood changes. You know you put on a record and the first song sounds like the second and the fourth sounds like the seventh song. Why even make a record? Why don't you just make a single? I'd like to believe our record kinda does this (gestures a peak and valleys motion). We got different moods and textures."

-- American Head Charge bassist Chad Hanks

Give seven guys some guitars, amps and drums, throw in some samples and a heavy dose of metal and industrial noise, and you're left with American Head Charge.

The group's debut album, "The War of Art," was quite literally a wall of sound.

From the opening, foreboding samples on "A Violent Reaction," you can tell you're in for a gritty, down and dirty ride filled with metal mayhem. Martin Cock is a sort of twisted master of ceremonies, growling through track after track with abandon. Each track bleeds into one another, barely giving the listener time to come up for air.

"Pushing the Envelope," with its machine-gun stutter-stop chorus, is one of the most abrasive tracks released in the past decade. Even when the band lets up for a moment (like the keyboard opening of "Song for the Suspect") the relief is short lived. Every track seethes with an abundance of emotion (check out the "Never get caught..." vocal bridge on the song of the same title).

In short, American Head Charge put together a turgid blend of unflinching metal and industrial haze. And with 16 tracks, the band hardly gave up an inch or cut things too short ... this is a full (read: long) album of material that fails to find a niche or ever get boring.

The Project Hate MCMXCIX -- 'Armageddon March Eternal' [review]

The Project Hate MCMXCIX
"Armageddon March Eternal"
(Threeman Recordings)


The Project Hate MCMXCIX is a metal band out of Scandinavia. The group is a brutal mix of European death metal in the vein of Dimmu Borgir only much tighter and more advanced from a music (and talent) standpoint. All this brutality is tempered with delicate (albeit operatic) female vocals. The band is largely known only in the underground metal circuit and that's a real shame. The music is much more complex and the band deserves to break moreso than the similar-sounding Nightwish.

***

This album can appeal to so many metal genre fans. There's a hint of industrial grind; there's the epic feel permeating each track; the European groove oozes out of each minute of the disc; the death metal vocals are clean enough to actually mean something. In fact, I applaud the vocal work on both ends of the vocal spectrum as it all sounds clean and it's clear a lot of work went into the recording process.

***

The theatrics of the female vocals sometimes seem wedged into the tracks. There's a way to make the switches work (and when they do, the juxtaposition is amazing) ... Project Hate knows how to do it smoothly, but too often prefer to simply ram the breaks in with little rhyme or reason.

***

Take Nightwish (or Lacuna Coil if you're unfamiliar with the former) and mix it with symphonic European metal. Each track feels like an epic with plenty of operatic filler.

***

If you are a fan of metal/rock bands that trade female and male vocals but wished there was more of a death metal edge, this band is for you.

Static X -- 'Shadow Zone' [review]

Static-X
"Shadow Zone
Warner Brothers


Static-X burst onto the music scene in 1999 with the release of "Wisconsin Death Trip." At the time, I had just seen Static-X open for Fear Factory and remember being taken with lead singer Wayne Static's vocal delivery. It was fast paced and urgent ... and he wrote lyrics that rolled off his tongue in such a unique fashion. The music sounded almost industrial in nature (think: Ministry without the edge), and over the years developed into a mix of programming and metal almost on par with Rob Zombie's band for the solo material (only with all the production effects added).

"Death Trip" was, at its heart, a nice little metal album. Static did some programming effects for tracks throughout the disc, but the album as a whole, was a nice little kick in the ass for fans of that type of music. Songs like "Bled for Days" and the title track are as good today as they were four years ago while other bands making disposable music at the time have since disappeared.


Static-X followed up "Death Trip" with 2001's "Machine." The album was much heavier than its predecessor. Songs like "Get to the Gone" and "This is Not" were louder, angrier and more fierce than anything the band had offered up previously. At some point the band also offered up a track for an animated Batman series that sounded like trance music and seemed totally out of character for the band.

"Shadow Zone" seems to have taken a step back from the foundation laid by "Machine": the band toned the "heavy" down, and added a lot more programming -- it just seems overly apparent in every track. Plus -- and this is a complaint I heard about the band from fans and non-fans throughout the years -- each song seems to bleed into the other and sound the same. In the past I'd have disagreed, but "Shadow Zone" seems to lack whatever I had heard in the previous albums.

Each song has nice parts, but most of them don't seem very memorable. It's nice to hear the trademark Static growls at the end of the opening track, "Destroy All." Tony Campos' underlying bass riffs on "Control It" are fantastic, but the guitar riffing gets annoying after a while. "Control It" is actually one of the strongest tracks on the album and I'm surprised it wasn't the lead off-single as it's a track that showcases the elements that fans of the band have come to love.


"New Pain" starts off with some potential, but then there's a strange bridge after each chorus with weird vocals that detract from the overall sound the song has going for it. The title track has some nice vocal delivery from Static, but the actual lyrics seem nonsensical, and the song again suffers from a weak chorus heavy on the keyboards. The singing reminds me of "Bled for Days" only less threatening. The guitar work done by Static and Tripp Rex Eisen on "Dead World" is another trademark of the band, the buzzing back a forth of the two creates a nice frenetic atmosphere.


"Monster" has some great vocals again from Static. He just rattles off line after line at breakneck speed while the guitars grind along with him like a locomotive. While it's mostly a list of words or phrases, everything flows nicely together and actually makes sense.

"The Only" is a little slower than the tracks preceding it, but has a nice edge to it. The drumming and bass lines at the end of the song are a highlight of the track. "Kill Your Idols" is the closest song to sound like the Static-X of old. Musically "All in Wait" is strong, especially the bass, but the vocals seem distant and bring the song down. The programming on this track also seems out of place. "Otsegolectric" was the song I heard touted before the release of the disc, but doesn't really do anything to stand out on its own.

"So," a song about pushing a loved one away, is the best song on the "Shadow Zone." It's a great love-type song with a nice edge. It's the type of song you could put on a mix tape for someone, but still listen to it alone and get into it.

"Transmission" is just a bridge of noise and sounds to the last track, "Invincible." The band goes out on a slower note with this melancholic track that doesn't seem to fit in with its normal sound.

Well, at first listen it seems like Static-X has lost it's edge. The songs have strong elements, but suffer ultimately from either bad choruses or weird structure. The strongest songs on the disc have to be "Control It," "Shadow Zone," "Monster" and "So." I know that the programming is one element of the "Static-X sound," but I just feel like it gets overwhelming after a while. On second and third listens the band still comes off angry and loud, but in the end this album just didn't quite do "it" for me.