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Archived Reviews
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Alex P has certainly been a busy fellow; not only has he been wowing audiences with his gigs (including show-stealing turn at Infest, so I hear!) but he's also found time to produce another album choc-full of hard EBM goodness, less than a year since unleashing the superb No Need To Worry on the world. This latest offering is subtitled into two parts, 'Rage' making up the first 9 tracks & 'Melancoly' the remaining five. It's no surprise, then, that the opening salvos are as bombastic & at times grandiose as PB followers would expect with the title track getting proceedings off to a lively start while 'Digging Our Own Graves' boasts an almost funky backing that forms the basis of this piledriving piece. The muscular 'Kein Vergeben' is embellished by agonised screams & anguished-sounding voice samples which are contrasted slightly by the lighter chords on the chorus. It's a slight shame that the vocals are the typical dark EBM whispers Alex's music has always benefitted from a more expressive voice, as he has proved in the past. As it is Nemrod's (Of Dementi) gruff vocals of 'Hope Dies Last' provide a focal point for another fine track while Amnistia's reprise of the title track adds some enjoyable new elements & marks them out as possibly a name to look out for. There are, however, certain tracks where the subtitling could be interchangeable & it's these that provide the album's highlights with 'A Fool In Love' & 'Web Of Lies' both hitting the spot through an expert combination of emotive motifs & typically bombastic backing as one emphasises the other & the result is two examples of top-class EBM with the following 'Madhouse Earth' also hitting the spot for similar reasons. The 'Melancoly' section sees Alex being inspired by Beethoven as 'Mondscheinmsonate' is given the industrial treatment on a track that lacks the grace to fulfill what is a promising proposition (some string samples could well have made a difference in this regard) while the theme crops up again on 'Liebe, Der Verbrennt' & is more effective for being incorporated into a more song-structured piece. Elsewhere, some effective guitar samples give 'Stirb' Noch Nicht' a more organic edge while the album ends on a high note thanks to the double header of 'Parting From You' which is all the more effective for taking its time to build from its sweet melodic opening & reach its full majestic potential & 'Beyond All Borders' which, again, would have been at home in either section, thanks to the incessant, surging feel that ensures the another Painbastard album ends on another high note, meaning that the quality of PB's output has not suffered one iota for the short gap between this album & its predecessor. This is good news all round & sets things up nicely for his forthcoming British gigs with SITD & Destroid. |
