Lately this known German Electro/Industrial had a lot of trouble through lawsuit regarding the rights on the band name. Kai Härtel, long-time singer and front man of this act, left this after several disagreements regarding the coarse and outcome of the band. So we got here the result, Kai Härtel has left this band and concentrates now on his project SUPREME COURT, both musicians, Mario Fritzsche and Rene Müller, are allowed to keep the name and trademark alive for their further musically journey. DAVANTAGE also left their label Black Rain thanks to this bad happenings and can now take all concentration on their own label Rupal Records (www.rupalheads.de), with which they already released a female leaded side-project called FUTURE TRAIL in 2005. One final episode: Kai Härtel still runs a website at www.davantage.de with the permission to bring it out as a time documentary between the early years up to 2005. DAVANTAGE are now also a member of the X-Cem community, which could lately satisfy with excellent debut releases like WYNARDTAGE, MAY-FLY or ACYLUM. So "Split And Shatter" is somehow a difficult release, because it still features some influences under the old formation. The music is a fine and rich detailed EBM/Electro sound, well produced to be called modern and attractive, but still authentic enough not get called conform. The new vocalist named Beam (Ex-FEINDFLUG) can satisfy with his deep male and typical EBM-like sounding voice. This works great for the faster and danceable pieces here like "Crazy Great Warning" and "Split And Shatter", for the slower tracks like "Flash Of Despair" there’s room to develop. Globally we can recognize the quality efforts of the band, which should be able to hold their old fan base. Please note also the special limited edition, a bonus EP named "Conference" featuring 4 new tracks, two remix works both by WYNARDTAGE and an alternative version to "Crazy Grey Warning". Fans will purchase both items before they got sold-out.