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Archived Reviews
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Vigilante's "The Heroes Code" remains, without doubt, one of the most exciting album releases of 2006 & certainly the debut of the year. The Chilean trio's blend of hard rocking guitars, danceable industrial beats & Ivan Munoz's superb vocals is second-to-none, even making KMFDM sound like mere also-rans so the fact that the opening 3 tracks are all taken from the album, but with Spanish instead of English lyrics, ensures that anyone who enjoyed the album will be on familiar ground while anyone discovering the band for the first time will have a good idea of the band's capabilities. I can imagine that this is where a lot of this EP's sales will come from as it's a cheaper alternative to the album for anyone who's curious (although I'm sure the band's website must be able to help in this regard). For those who have the album I'm less convinced that this is a must-have as there's very little new material to get your teeth into, aside from the admittedly excellent video of "The Other Side" (something which is fast becoming a forte of the band's, proving that they're ripe for widespread exposure on MTV) & the unreleased "Justice", which appears to be a new version of an older, pre-album track &, as good as the hammering beats, heavy industrial guitars & bombastic chorus are, I'm still not convinced that this alone justifies purchasing the EP. A couple of new tracks would certainly have made all the difference, perhaps instead of some of the remixes, which are a mixed bunch anyway with Funker Vogt's straightforward EBM remix of "The Other Side" sounding comparitively sterile while the rhythms that are added to Chiasm's version of "Survive" just seem to drain all the energy that the original possesses. Likewise, Amateur God's version of "Before" sounds too chaotic & messy so it's left to Z Prochek & Obszon Geschopf, both of whom had the good sense to retain the original guitar riffs, to raise the standards to more acceptable levels. The fact remains, however, that none of them come even remotely close to equalling the brilliance of the originals & that, of course, is exactly how it should be. |
