| Artist |
| Concrete Lung |
| Title |
| Versions Of Hell |
| Format/Cat |
| CD ARMCD010 |
| Label |
| Armalyte Industries |
| Style |
| Industrial |
| Date of review |
| 26th September 2011 |
| Reviewer |
| Carl Jenkinson |
| Rating |
| 7.5/10 |
|
|
 |
|
The uniform grey & the photos on the cover makes it clear that the particular version of hell that the British duo Ed Oxime & William Reiver have in mind is everyday life & the music emphasises the same feeling of rage, boredom & frustration, delivering a kick in the head with its mix of epic synths & hard, brutal percussion being topped off by pile-driving guitars that mix punk, industrial & metal into one infernal whole. The vocals are of the throat-busting variety as Oxime screams his anger for all the world to hear, starting with 'The Outer Circle' & then continuing onto new & ever more brutal dimensions as the impenetrable wall of noise that forms the basis of the short, sharp blast that is 'Suicide High Rise' perfectly evokes the modern concrete jungle until it ends so suddenly the effect is almost vertigo-inducing. Elsewhere 'Wall Of Christ' provides a further uncompromising sonic blast while the slower 'Flux' proves that, had they been around back then, this band could have had Rage Against The Machine no problem! Not that it's all about the power, mind, as there are plenty of more subtle parts, too, as proven by the initially smoking mood of 'Mind Eraser' that, when joined by the usual harder elements, make for a more offbeat experience, likewise the way in which the various elements of 'Wall Of Christ' at first seems to be nothing more than a chaotic jumble that only fit together given time prove give the album greater depth & character , an aspect of the band which is taken to its most logical extreme during the superb 'Pylon Kingdom Pt.1' which is a slow, doom-laden piece full of forboding guitars & synths & tolling bells setting a decidedly gothic, almost supernatural mood that perfectly evokes the images of statues that appear on the label & inner sleeve while 'Dead In The Mind' takes this even further with its oozing soundpool setting a nightmarish mood that's bleak, abstract & dark, not unlike the neofolk act ROME, believe it or not while the sax that breaks through towards the end put me in mind of early Faust, acting like a last sentinel as the music fades away. At over seven minutes it's given the chance to really fulfill its potential & is all the more satisfying for that, in fact it would have been an excellent track to end the album on but as it is there's one last blast in the form of 'bonus track' 'Crash Reality', the bonus track that, if the preceding piece was the nightmare, jabs you in the ribs to awake you to the everyday despair that is this album's driving force. So don't go into this expecting just the power, this is a far more varied industrial offering that deserves widespread attention.
|