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Archived Reviews
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Painbastard has always been a byword for an incendiary mix of bombastic electro, top class songwriting & a real sense of feeling but while Alex P's previous albums have been a little inconsistent he's really got it spot on here with a quite superb third album where the excellence is unceasing. The opening salvos of this musical blitz are based around what seem to be pretty simple sequencer motifs but, thanks to that ever-present power & feeling that is so important to Alex, tracks such as "When The Rats Desert The Sinking Ship" & "Sternentanz" still manage to have plenty of oomph, as does "Poison For Your Soul" where the bombastic rhythms again make their presence felt in no uncertain terms. However, as good as these tracks are, it's when Alex starts stretching himself that the real highlights appear, led by the storming "Self (De) Termination", where the jet-propelled rhythms make for an almost electropunk feel mixed with Islamic vocal samples that add an exotic touch to the dynamic mood although if those anti-Moslem extremist lyrics don't earn Alex a fatwa he can count himself lucky, after all, look what happened to Salman Rushdie!! Similarly the slower "The Way" benefits from a more melodic but gruff vocal style which, in contrast to the usual harsh whispers, is afar more suitable for the emotive lyrics while "Tear Apart" mixes the two styles, again appropriately given that this is a track of lost love. There are also a couple of major surprises in the form of the very Nitzer Ebb-like "Kinky Species" which is something new for Alex & "Torn", which features guest vocals from Diorama's Torben Wendt & his smooth, emotive voice is perfect for this uplifting, expansive track that further benefits from some superb piano & string work; why, it could quite possibly tug at the heartstrings which means that the dark & hard-hitting "The Time Is Ripe" which follows provides a most startling contrast. This is all to the good, of course, making this another winner, infectious & dynamic, as is the excellent Feindflug remix of "Sternentanz" (breaking away from their usual style somewhat) before Christer H's remix of "Poison For Your Soul" closes the album in a slightly more clinical but still effective manner.
No doubt about this one, then, it's a winner all the way & if it doesn't propel Painbastard into the EBM elite then I don't know what will! |
