Webster Hall
Feb 14, 2014

by Doktor John

This was a very special Valentine’s Day for lovers of industrial music. The object of their love, Skinny Puppy made this a most fulfilling holiday to a sell-out crowd of their fanatical metropolitan area followers.

The audience was surprised with a somewhat earlier-than-expected, 8:50 PM start. The eerie and somewhat hard-to-recognize strains of the rhythm-less “Chloralone” accompanied the advent of light on the stage and the entrance of frontman Nivek Ogre in the first of several horrific costumes he would don for the show. The music transitioned seamlessly into “illisit” in which SP accuses this of being “the criminal age.”

The backdrop and the performers were flooded with a crazy-quilt of broken, animated lighting that was disorienting and hallucinatory. A model of a slender canine appeared in silhouette on the stage and would later serve briefly as stage prop.
“Village” from the “Handover” album and the classic “The Choke” from the 1985 “Bites” album followed, then back to “Weapon” for “plasicage” and “wornin’.” A screen on stage ran LED figures displaying the rapidly-growing national debt at $55 trillion and mounting while images of electronic circuit boards, disasters, chaos and op-art flashed behind the stage performers.

“Deep Down Trauma Hounds” from the 1987 “Cleanse Fold and Manipulate” album provided a welcomed return to the classics as did their all-time favorite, “Warlock,” the uniquely cadenced, compelling and mesmerizing hit from the “Rabies” album.

The show continued in the same vein, alternating cuts from the current “Weapon” with such classics as “Hexonxonx,” “Pasturn” from “Mythmaker” and “First Aid.”
The stage performance included Ogre’s simulated cutting himself with a large dagger. An audience member invaded the stage and was quickly subdued and ejected. Ogre donned a hideous, expressionless mask and hood, vaguely resembling a nightmarish version of Death from Ingemar Bergman’s movie, “The Seventh Seal.” After performing “Solvent,” he bid “Thanks to New York!” and disappeared briefly. Upon return the encores included classics “Far Too Frail,” “Glass Houses” and the wonderful “Smothered Hope” before concluding with “Overdose” from “Weapon.”
Webster Hall

Throughout the concert, no effort was spared as Ogre donned, now a furry costume, then a hazmat suit, another terrifying headdress or two and poured himself and drank a tall glass of some repulsive, phosphorescent blue-green liquid.

As always, Skinny Puppy was magnanimous in the generous and unbounded efforts to please, entertain and shock their zealous and loving fans, for whom this will always be a Valentine’s Day to remember.

Psyclon Nine
“Order of the Shadow [Act I]”
Metropolis Records

By Doktor John

This San Francisco-based industrial/metal crossover band is back from a hiatus since 2010 with a new album due for release on November 12. There are 13 tracks, almost strictly for those in the head-banger (if that term still has meaning) crowd who are willing to accept techno-industrial elements on the menu.

There’s a fair amount of variety in this album. Several tracks are noted to begin with or have variable stretches within them consisting of formless, wind-like electronica and distant menacing samples. Numerous songs contain frantic, gasping vocals synchronized to artillery-like, pounding beats and are very danceable. Other tracks like “Suffer Well” and “Glamor Through Debris” employ death metal forms, such as machine-gun-fast vocals that are aggressive to the point of being vicious, but are better to dance to than your usual heavy metal.

Track12, “Penance” is barely a minute long and consists of wind-like noise without melody or rhythm, and then a brief noise bridge that could be the sound of two locomotives being violently slammed together numerous times before lapsing back into relatively soothing noise.

Track 9, “But With a Whimper,” contrary to T.S. Eliot’s line “…the world ends, not with a bang but a whimper,” contains a couple of series of loud bangs separated by desperate whispering, and is definitely not for dancing.

The final track, “The Saint and the Valentine” comes as an astounding melodious departure from the rest of the album, with pitch-dark minor-key symphonic elements and moments of pleasurable, carefully sung vocals in a theatrical whisper alternating with the abrasive screaming heard on the rest of the album.

Heavy metal is neither my favorite, nor my forte to evaluate. “Order of the Shadow [Act I]” has definite redeeming features, although it is not going to be within everybody’s comfortable listening zone. The best thing I can say about it is that it sounds like Skinny Puppy died in a horrible accident, went straight to hell, connected with some metal heads and from there produced this brutally seductive album.

Covenant
Leaving Babylon
Metropolis Records

By Doktor John

“Leaving Babylon” is used to exhort Christians to leave the sinful world behind and to refuse to participate in political and social life. I would venture that Covenant meant some other variant of meaning. I will leave the interpretation to the reader/listener.

The title track comes in two forms. As the first track, it is a mere 3.2 minutes long and opens with indistinct samples as if one were eavesdropping on a newscast, followed by bare-bones percussion one might hear from banging on a trash can lid a la Skinny Puppy or Einsturze Neubauten. Soon a slow-paced cadence supersedes and the title is repeated again and again as a disconsolate mantra. “Leaving Babylon II” is the seventh track and consists of a slow-paced monotonous10 minute zombie walk, I perhaps through a virtual cemetery.

“Last dance” picks up the pace and eventually evolves into symphonic, electronic strings and full-throated but grief-stricken vocals. “Thy Kingdom Come” begins with a mournful acoustic guitar then proceeds into a lush melody and dire lyrics sung over a moderately-paced rhythm providing a showcase for Simonsson’s uneasy, stressed-out vocals. “Prime Movers”—in ancient and medieval philosophy—is the term that refers to the creator of the universe, and was once employed by Aristotle and Thomas Aquinas as proof for the existence of a god. I can’t say exactly how the title was chosen by Covenant, but this track has a nice galloping pace, combined with a recurring synthetic riff that will pull everyone irresistibly onto the dance floor.

The 6.5 minute track, “Ignorance is Bliss,” starts with an eerie high-pitched drone of strings hanging over the introduction, with delicate synthesizer notation soon taking over as doleful singing brings it all together. A bridge of jubilant chimes intervenes, then a brief, bare-bones, techno-industrial run with simple vocals before the strings, vocals and compelling rhythm rise again in a grand crescendo to which the chimes gloriously return. The effect is an uplifting, emotionally triumphant experience.
“For Our Time” is real change of pace, with few if any techno or industrial conventions. It is sparse on instrumentals, relying heavily on Eskill Simonsson’s deep dark and up-front vocals.

“I Walk Slow” begins with the Eskill Simonsson’s intimately addressing the listener in pained, troubled whispers, his sad words punctuated by simple, sympathetic guitar strumming and disorienting bursts of static. “Auto (Circulation)” returns to the driving, techno-industrial style that won’t allow the listener to sit still, so compelling are the seductive beats. The final track, “Not to Be Here” is a lusciously beautiful, romantic, but anguished ode with a wistful narrative of the kind that sometimes motivates those on the dance floor to square off, embrace and dance two-by-two.

Whether one is looking for classic Goth, hard-core industrial, dark themes or uplifting, triumphal anthems, Covenant has put all these qualities together in their latest, must hear/must have album.

Click on the link below for a .pdf that you can zoom on for legibility:
10-16 Live – Modern English

Two bands could not have less in common and yet at the same time sound as near to each other as blood relatives. Disorder, a Joy Division tribute band, is comprised of members way too young to have first-hand familiarity with the music they resurrect. The group which they are covering has a repertoire built mainly from two studio albums with about a dozen songs on each, its full development having been cut short by the untimely suicide of lead singer Ian Curtis in 1980, a mere two years after having gotten started. At least ten of their songs are widely recognized and popular.

By contrast, the headliner band, Modern English, is comprised of mainly original band members, but for the drummer, who is new and, by appearances, young enough to be the son or grandson of the originals. Harkening from the same era as Joy Division and the same Brit-punk/New Wave scene, Modern English has reformed several times, put out six or seven studio albums and wound up credited and renowned for one of the most recognized and beloved songs of a generation, “I Melt With You.”

The Saint, a classic, Jersey shore dive bar provides a gritty, highly conducive environment for live, punk music. Besides the garish Xmas lighted walls and spacious, elevated stage, it boasts a superb sound system and sound engineer who delivered feedback-free audio which was clear and loud, but bearable.

Disorder opened with fast-paced “Shadowplay,” one of the darker entries of Joy Division’s notably dark body of work, then proceeded into “Disorder,” the emotionally charged, repetitious piece after which the band takes it name. It was increasingly apparent that these boys had succeeded in capturing every musical nuance of the originals as they proceeded with such perfectly executed songs as “She’s Lost Control,” the morose “Atmosphere,” and “Isolation,” from which a riff was taken as the basis for sequel band, New Order’s famous “Blue Monday.”

A particularly superb job was done with the unmistakable and widely covered “Dead Souls,” a mesmerizing and demented anthem that, perhaps more than any other piece, represents the mystique of the parent band. Lead vocalist Michael not only captures the vocal qualities of the late Ian Curtis, but his agitated and sometimes spastic gestures as well. Better than any grainy, antique film footage from 1979-1980, Disorder delivers the most credible, if vicarious experience of Joy Division that can be imagined.

Cynics who had assessed Modern English as a one-hit wonder had a real awakening coming. Despite their mature, unkempt appearance, these senior citizens of rock put on a brilliant, tremendously entertaining performance, drawing from their relatively vast repertoire of seven studio albums spanning 1981 to 2010! White-haired, unshaven vocalist Robbie Grey was charismatic and interactive with both the crowd and the band as he led them through a wide spectrum of new and old classics. Included of course was a moving, sing-along version of “I Melt With You.”

Here’s a comparison I can’t prove, but I believe to be true: Joy Division, an iconic band of great notoriety and with a cult following, existed for about 2 years, has two albums and not more than ten songs that can be recognized as hits. Modern English, still immensely entertaining and prolific after thirty-plus years has one hit that is probably essential to more record collections, iTunes libraries, on more iPods, iPads, and mp3 players than everything by Joy Division combined.

In any event, Disorder’s revival of the Joy Division’s body of work and Modern English’s ongoing greatness combined to provide a uniquely entertaining and satisfying treat for rock music fans who have a love for the genre as well as a historical perspective.

In the 26 years since Bill Leeb left Skinny Puppy, Front Line Assembly has moved in fits and starts through industrial, disco and metal to an increasingly electronic style but always featuring Leeb’s penchant for intensity and harsh themes. FLA’s latest release, “Echogenetic,” represents their 18th studio album, containing eleven tracks. Fans of FLA and of industrial in general, need have no fear: This opus upholds the every essence of the genre as they have come to love it.

The first track, “Resonance” is a slow-paced, emotionally burdensome slog through an electronic swamp with eerie male choral interludes, followed by “Leveled” which introduces a complex and disorienting rhythm, vocals in Leeb’s signature theatrical whisper, a vastly arrayed synthetic soundscape and a delicate bridge of light sounds.

“Killing Grounds” starts with a menacingly rapid, galloping rhythm, brings in distant, undecipherable vocals, and then intermittently slows to a very danceable march.
“Blood” starts out with growling synthesized noise, and then features Leeb’s full-throated singing alternating with the hissing, hostile cries that are the familiar voice of FLA. “Deadened” has a traditional industrial feel, is moderately paced, containing distorted voices, some interesting lyrics and melodious hooks. “Ghosts” starts with a weighty, menacing, slow pace then switches from minor to a major chords for most of the track, gliding back into minor key solemnity as soothing strings intervene to provide short term relief. It would be impossible to sit still while listening to these compelling anthems.

“Echogenetic,” the title track, begins with a misleadingly pleasant, pizzicato string opening, followed by harsh electronic distorted human and instrumental voices and a dragging rhythm that would actually be too slow to dance to.
“Exhale” returns to the signature FLA style, with Bill Leeb vocals and a mesmerizing cadence that will compel listeners to get up and dance. Imagine dancers alternating between frantic, robotic moves and zombie-like catatonia during the erratic beat and rapidly shifting scenario of “Prototype”.

“Exo” recalls classic FLA, sure to please industrial nostalgia buffs. Finally, “Heartquake” closes the album with computer-generated voices (a la Laurie Anderson) in a rondo of dialogue with Leeb’s natural growl.

Aspiring young rockers tend to study the guitar or drums less nowadays, favoring all the electronic, computer-generated and synthetic means of producing music. FLA has a generation-sized head start in that direction. This album, completely guitar-free, demonstrates their total mastery of the new and future genre of techno-industrial music.