A prime example of why i get so fearful about posting my end of the year album lists prematurely. I saw their singer preform a solo set opening up for Cult of Youth somy expectations of what this should sound like were askew. Live it translated as more of visceral Jarboe gets gang banged by Godflesh and Darktrhone sort of thing. So Soren's one woman show is a different animal than this album and it's like when I found out Wreck and Reference were not called No Youth type of brain freeze, though I found I recovered more speedily in this regard as this album is pretty damn good in its own right.
"Light the way" has more ambiance and groove than I expected from seeing her live show. It's not until her vocals come in that I recognized this as being the same artist. The drone pound of radiant chords bears some likeness to the swans.
The subtle groove to "Burning spirits " almost makes this unclassifiable but if you look at the dark electronic scene or the debates of what goth is has encompassed every thing from the Legendary Pink Dots to Pyschic Tv and I would lump Rosenkopf into a harder more modern taken ont that sort of thing. The vocals are commonly the hardest element present. The mix of live drums with programmed ones creates an almost tribal sound.
The almost surf rock guitar drone of "Heed" goes left feild from the first couple songs until her powerful roars comes in to be met with those pounding Swans chords and a descent into frantic chaos, which I applaud because how many times in the darker electronic genre do we get almost prog playing and don't say Tool as they hold their Rush albums closer to their hearts than their throbbing gristle.
The sample narrated "Human love song" lamds in more familiar pseudo industrial territory , though the guitar line toys with melodies out side of what you would find on a Front Line Assembly track, the layer of live drums continues to add dynamics and provide and additional sense of movement.
"Troth" takes the ritual tribalism up a notch until it goes into the first riff I would consider having any type of death rock influence, the straight up punk beat the live drums goes into has a flat snare sound, I would have given some love on and the live drums on this album as a whole are the only instrument that wavers in sound quality on a production end.
The album closes with "Untitled" which opens with the pulse of a very dark wave sounding kick drum and some really cool shadowy guitar which uncoils around it. The vocals thankfully resurface though sparse , their harshness serves as a good contrast and the live drum sound is more blended here. The break down into the Bauhus like bass thump is great as well as how this part is transitioned out of , all the instrumentation. Flows smoothly across the board on this album, we have seen things like the Blut Aus Nord album where it has thrown me into a brain freeze over the the rest of the album when an awkward transition occurs.
Listening to this album sometimes makes me think of the audience that's missing out on this there are tons of kids out their listening to the same old tired Wumpscut albums who would love this even though the guitars are doing something different than recycling Kmfdm riffs. I think almost a more black metal approach to industrial vocals is what the genre need top breathe new life into an aging machine. Will the experimental elements of this album scare off Industrial kids? Sadly Sotheby's most care more about shaving their eye brows off and looking like a troll doll than they do music. This album has more balls to it than anything Combichrist has put out as of late and a woman is singing on it.
The tracks all succeed in the pictures they are trying to paint of this apocalyptic landscape, my only gripe is I could have used more vocals. I think this would have given the songs a little more definition, they sounds captured are otherwise exactly what I want to hear from music , dark yet transcendent guitar lines they create a trance like state with their serpentine dance. I will give this a 9 as I really want the vocals to bring this more shape,but it's still excellent as is and perhaps from what I saw their singer do live , it will influence them moving forward as I want to hear more in the future from them and they go in the bands Ill consider my self a fan of column.
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