The first stand alone EP and second single from the highly acclaimed Armageddon album. Featuring remixes from Seabound, Haujobb, and cut.rate.box, Stromkern once again takes things to a higher level. This North American only EP contains 7 club friendly tracks and their own take on the Gang of Four's track "Anthrax". The mastermind behind this elaborate project is the classically trained Ned Kirby (vocals and programming). Ned's early experimentation with a 4 track and a sampler has laid the foundation for what Stromkern has become today. In its current form Ned has enlisted the help of long time friend and fellow musician Kelly Shafer (programming) to continue the bands progression. Stromkern is a band that has their own style of EBM and Ned's vocal style is quite unique in itself. He has a very distinct voice and singing style which combines smoothness with the strength of industrial. This EP has got some great club mixes by some great and rapidly rising EBM artists. The thump and pump of Stromkern's sound is heavily addictive in itself. When combined with the talents of other great artists you get one awesome EP/single. However, to be honest I do not like what cut.rate.box did to the vocals on part of their mix. It seems to detract from Stromkern's addictive pumping sound. The Seabound mix emphasizes the band's sound and brings it even more to life instead. There is a lot to be said for interpretation though. You will find quite a bit of varied musical interpretations in the mixes here like the heavier guitar additives on "Perfect Sunrise" which takes it much further into a rock-n-roll zone instead of the usual EBM/Industrial arena. Reminds me of when even Skinny Puppy went rock for awhile. It also shows that this type of music can rock just as hard if not harder than typical rock-n-roll as well. The remix of "Armegeddon" is quite bizarre and nearly indescribable. Bleeps, blips, pipes and factory sounds mix in atmospheric tonality on this one. The Echo Virus remix is a far cry from the original as well and has quite a bit of a Synthpop feel to it and some twistd piano sound structures. It is not without Stromkern's natural aggression and angst though and the pump of the beats remain with additives. "No Release" is a track I'm not familiar with but you can totally hear Haujobb all over this one and it has a sort of Techno-House overtone with a bleepy body and some almost Trance elements as well as some 'noise' samples - a bizarre mix for sure. Next is "Terrorist". The beats here, while remaining rather Industrial-ish, have a 'beat box' element to their form. I never realized how Ned practically 'raps' much of his lyrics but in his own bizarre style so that it almost doesn't sound like rap but this track makes it a bit more evident. This track, while containing mostly hard beats and noisey samples also has a bit of metal guitar and creates an odd assortment of chaos. Finally is the Gang of Four cover "Anthrax". Combining heavy synths with rock rhythms Stromkern proves again that they are not just a synth band but that they can totally rock too.