STATIQBLOOM : "Kain"

Fade Kainer has been making dark music for some time. He did a wonderful stint in Tombs that brought that band to darker places. He has a good ear and knows what quality music is, so this album is not going to suck. The question will be is it going to stand up to his previous work, The opening track is driving electronica, which is dark enough, and sounds great in terms of quality for this kind of thing. As an instrumental it sounds more like a great deal of other music that circles this same smoke-filled dance floor. Aggro-tech feels like a more appropriate label to give the listener proper expectations. There are vocals to this one, they are distorted with effects and sit deep in the mix. 

I appreciate the harsher edge to the thump of "Obsidian Obscura", but it's a beat-driving sound and not a song. Much like the rule about cool riffs here, a similar sentiment could be expressed regarding this sort of thing, it would go more like "Cool beats alone does not a good song make".  As a beat is a beat,  there are hundreds of faceless entities making them. These beats are not uniform, though the production of them can be. "Hidden From Form' works better as a song as the vocals give it a little more purpose. The beat is more droning but is still effective. 

"Cold Steel Howl" is propelled by a beat that carries a great deal of apocalyptic enthusiasm, but not much more than pounding one a single-minded groove. The rest of the album tends to pulse off this more tribal pounding. I'll give this album an 8, I like the songs with vocals, they help separate it out from all the other music like this. Not his best work, but he does better than most who do this sort of thing. 

pst228