| Artist |
| Dismantled |
| Title |
| When I'm Dead |
| Format/Cat |
| CD |
| Label |
| Dependent |
| Style |
| EBM |
| Date of review |
| 21st December 2007 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 8/10 |
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This latest opus from Gary Zon is less of a stylistic jump forward than Standard Issue was from its predecessors. Indeed, there are a couple of tracks that carry on where the last album left off with 'What A Tragedy', Wisdom', which benefits from an almost relentless feel, like an unstoppable reel of emotion is being unleashed and, to a lesser extent 'Stay On Target' being the most obvious examples but, overall, there's a notable progression on the layered, emotive feel of his preceeding work, emphasising the more melancolic elements of his music to the extent that quite a few tracks sound positively mournful. The opening 'Start Digging' is a good example of this as Zon's harder-than-usual vocals work in unison with the mournful melodics and ominous thudding rhythms that sounds like a funeral march, something that doesn't change even later when additional rhythms add more empetus. The expertly textured melodics are a major point of this album's appeal, providing a constant underlying theme, not just on the other ominous tracks such as 'Clench Your Teeth' and 'The Living Dead' (where the music easily lives up to the somewhat cliched title) but equally so on the straightforward numbers. Indeed, even the most instantly accessable track 'Simple Machines' is given further depth by the expertly executed strings on the chorus which work well with the memorable bass sequencing but all that it's still varied enough to avoid being predictable. For instance, I'm sure that the new wave-like guitar riff that opens 'Change The World' would have taken most people by surprise while some excellent piano/synth work forms the basis of 'Under The Flood' before further melodic elements succeed in fleshing out the sound still further, constantly bringing new possibilities to the track in a way that shows Zon is really on top of his game right now, as is further proven by the excellent closer 'Claim Me' with, alternating between a typically full-blooded sound and some startlingly intimate spoken voice moments which, devoid of any music, feel as if the artist ios really bearing his soul. Overall, this is an album better suited to deep and concentrated listening, all the better to fully appreciate just how well Zon has mastered this new strand in the ever-developing Dismantled sound.
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