| Artist |
| Plasmodivm |
| Title |
| Paradise Under Fire |
| Format/Cat |
| CD |
| Label |
| Caustic Records |
| Style |
| Dark EBM |
| Date of review |
| March 2009 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 6.5/10 |
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Plasmodivm is the musical vision of one Sandro V, who hails from Gran Canarias, not the most obvious place for a dark EBM artist, true, but hey ho. As soon as the first notes eminate from the speaker it's obvious that this is yet another artist who puts Johan Van Roy right at the top of his list of influences as the spirit of Suicide Commando is alive & well in virtually every note. The only hints of uniqueness come in the Spanish lyrics that grace certain tracks & even that's not the eye-opener it would have been a few years back so, if you're looking for a progressive & unique listening experience, you're gonna need to look elsewhere as Sandro plays it totally safe & totally within recognised dark electro parameters throughout. He's far from being the first artist towards whom such comments could justifiably be levelled, of course & it might not have been a problem if it weren't for the marked lack of power that marrs too many tracks, particularly early on with the opening pieces being far too flat & a touch too plodding to really hit the spot, needing a boost in power & more variety to emphasise the music's dark potential; even 'Be Impure Stay Impure' which the label was keen to hype up seems to just idle along rather than really grabbing you by the throat, making all the right moves but lacking any real heart or conviction & by the time 'Rise' started with it's opening sound effect that sounds either like someone trying to start a car or flushing a toilet I was beginning to lose interest quite badly! Still, if you make it this far your patience is then rewarded by a distinct improvement with 'Medication Time', 'Soul Destroying' & 'El Systema Se Ha Vuel To Extrano' all benefitting from a more immediate & powerful feel that should ensure some club play (the title might work against the latter, though, who's going to remember that in a club?) although it's the closing 'Outro' that you're most likely to be dancing to any time soon as some fine riffs make for a more memorable offering. Likewise, the slower 'Embrace My Fear' & 'Fade Away' finally get the atmospheric side right, as does 'My Ghosts Are Being Fed By Fear' which deserves a mention if only for the superb title!!! Most likely, this album will appeal to hardcore lovers of dark EBM but, for anyone else, it probably needs to be more consistent & have the sort of unique character to make it stand out from the crowd. That it lacks such qualities makes it hard to really recommend as there's absolutely nothing you haven't heard before although the better tracks prove there is some talent there so if he can learn from this then he could yet make a name for himself, let's see....
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