Hard-Wired EBM Review
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Review ratings:  
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Artist
Xentrifuge
Title
Light Extinguished
Format/Cat
CD
Label
Noitekk
Style
Dark EBM
Date of review
15th March 2008
Reviewer
Carl Jenkinson
Rating
8/10
Owwww, this is one mean muvva of an album. This is really hard music. This is really really hard music. And dark. And unrelenting. And uncompromising. Basically, if you enjoy Hocico or Suicide Commando's latest work then you really need to give this a listen as this is one brutal powerhouse experience that catapults this American trio straight into the top tier of hard EBM. It's not that they do anything particularly new, indeed, you could almost be forgiven for thinking that either 'Cerebral Ruins' or 'Evolution' (where the tortured screams make for a spine-chiller in every sense!) are new Suicido Commando tracks, it's just that they do it so well & I'm pretty sure that even the most well-loved hard EBM artists have equalled the sheer brutality of 'Downcast' or the ferocity of 'Entombed' only at their best. Furthermore, the onslaught never lets up for one second as, right from the opening seconds of 'Disembodies' all the way through to the closing 'Paragon Void' this is just sheer unadulterated power. Mention must be made of the superb production which enhances every nuance of the music which means that 'Oblivion' is allowed to show its full splendour as towering rhythms & expansive melodics make for a masterful concoction of power & majesty while the masterful combination of powernoise-strength thunderous rhythms & gliding melodics that grace 'ICBM' make for another dynamically engaging number (there's even a sample of a nuke being launched, how fucking hardcore is that?). That the album plays to the established 'hellektro' template so readily means that neither originality nor variety are among this album's strongpoints but with music as intense as this who's complaining? Indeed, if you turn it up to full volume your brain will turn to mush & leak out through your eyes & ears, your insides will turn into goo while your house will be shaken to its foundations but so good is it that you'll STILL come back for another listen!