Uniform : " Wake In Fright"

I would call what this duo from New York does lo-fi electro punk rather than industrial as it is even rougher than what we heard from their first album. Without question the vocals are punk. Sure Al Jourgensen would tell you Ministry was way more influenced by punk than metal. Killing Joke might even back up this claim. But I am going by what I think is industrial, a genre I have been listening to 27 years now. The tortured sense of his lyrical ranting on "Habit" are a few degrees more convincing that this is industrial, but it is going to take more from this album as a whole to sell me on that. "the Lost" has a drone to it, but doesn't have the apocalyptic scope that industrial should. The synth line in the muddled background reminds me a little of old Depeche Mode. The song throbs in a more meaningful way, but doesn't feel all that dark to me or really go any where. The guitar sounds like it was all improvised.

The vocals at this point remind me of Rowdy Roddy Piper having a temper tantrum. They thrash full speed ahead on the rapid yet, sloppy "the Light At the End". They keep up the jack hammering for the first minute then hang around the noisy aftermath. This turns into more of a spoken word ranting.There is more metal to the riff that kicks off "the Killing of America" . Here the balance between metal and punk is well established. The programmed drums might not have the depth or density there organic counter parts do , but the keep things tense til the guitar solo. They keep this machine like raging going on "Bootlicker". It is a little one dimensional.

"Night of Fear" is much darker than the songs that came before it, I am reluctant to champion it as the rebirth of industrial. The first song called "the Light at the End" is titled as the caused. The second song called the effect. There is a female vocals creating a chilling and despondent narrative over the song. The a sample begins to dominate the song. In the end I'll give this one a 7.5, not terrible as the bleak mood it creates is worthwhile and a few of the songs latch onto the intensity of industrial. I think the punk ideology often roughs up the songs more than attitude alone could convince you is worthwhile song writing.  At the end of the day this could detect who among your friends is really a punk rocker trying to be hip by listening to industrial.          


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