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Archived Reviews
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Fancy some hard, shouty Industrial music that actually leans towards the Metal side of the genre rather than the EBM influenced side? Well, if so, let me introduce you to the angry sounding Salient by Blood and Batteries. This is music with some raw aggression, a good helping of angst, and some well crafted slabs of Industrial tunes. Male vocal fronted B&B are band who know their stuff – the balance and production of the album cannot be faulted. This is great as it leaves you to get on and listen to the music without any clutter. Thirteen tracks adorn this release, and from the excellent grinding guitar rifts on the opening track ‘Stray’, you know you’re onto something special. This is bit of an anthem of a track, and a great way to kick off an album – it’s a tune that gets in your head - a bit of a winner really. Calming down the pace, but not the angst, is ‘Grazed by Celebacy’ – more thoughtful tunes, but crafted out of the same slabs of concrete as most of this album. There’s a lot of rage on this album – even when you think you’re in for a gentle ride (take the track ‘Malady’ for example), the vocal style changes tack and leaps down your throat, leaving you gasping fro breath. This is a bit of a trademark for this album, and it’s a trick that works well, underlining the fact that this is an Industrial album, and if you want anything softer, then piss off and grab some east-listening elsewhere! There’s a far bit of thought behind the mixing of the tracks too – the record scratching on ‘Sarcasm’ is a nice touch, and is not out of place with the other instruments, lending a hip-hop feel to a another top grinding guitar laden number. We like this, as it’s one of the tracks outside of ‘Stray’ that really does grab your attention. The instrumental on the album is ‘Treaty’ – this is as close as it gets to industrial-dance-electronica on here. With it’s electronic beeps and buzzes, interwoven with some superb distorted guitar work, it leads us into the track ‘Digitized’- a pounding powerhouse of a track, slamming it’s way forward. Great stuff! The rest of the album carries on with this formula, and it works well. Tracks such as ‘Latent’ really do try and rip your face off with it’s pounding beats and whirlwind pace helped along by the (in places) screaming vocals and grinding guitars - this underlines the fact that B&B are not a band to be fucked with musically! But surely nothing can be so good can it? Well, I hate to say this, but I do have one criticism of this album – the vocals. For me they just sit on the edge of being spot on and well suited to the music, and just ever so slightly annoying to the verge of grating on your hearing. In places they are just a touch too high pitched for the music, coming across like nails down a black board in some cases. It’s this fact that makes listening to the album in one hit a bit of a chore. In small does it’s fine, but all 13 tracks sitting are a bit tiresome. This is a shame, ‘cos this is a good album, with some real talent behind it. Perhaps the guys want to consider deepening the vocals in the production of the next album? Just a thought. That said, this is still worth the cash, and well worth your attention if hard edged Industrial is your thing. |
