Not too long ago I was given the nod to review two albums that came from the same source, although not the same record label. The two bands, Freakangel and Suicidal Romance are both from Tallinn, Estonia, and share a key member ' Dimitry i., who on this album does vocals and seems to be the leader. What he does with Suicidal Romance we'll save for the next review. Although there are some dark-electro similarities between the two projects, Freakangel has the more aggressive style and Dimitry is definitely the vocal captain in this band. He is assisted by Art (ex-Kamaloka) on guitars, and frOzen (frontman of cB, aka Cyclone B) on keyboards. Also, these guys really seem to look the part; starkly goth-industrial at a time when most similar American bands just seem to be going with a nondescript look.

In the realm of dark-electro-industrial EBM music, it's hard to come up with anything that hasn't been done before. The style has been well-defined by the likes of Suicide Commando, Hocico, Funker Vogt, Leaether Strip, Wumpscut and so many others. Obvious comparisons to these bands are nearly pointless. So how does a band possibly stand out from the pack? Well, it ain't easy, but I have to give Freakangel credit for trying.

The opening prelude, 'Frailty,' on 'The Faults of Humanity' is a moderately slow industrial instrumental dirge with a bit a dramatic strings and crunchy percussion. That's followed by an old-school EBM style stomper called 'Gods Blind Game'. The synth riff sound is fairly standard and Dmitry's vocals are pretty much along the lines of Hocico, but perhaps a tad nastier. I have to say that it is catchy, and good dancefloor fodder. Rock solid guitar work by Art too. I like the triple-beat on the chorus; it adds a bit of character. There is also a cool bit of dark industrial ambience at the end. 'My Darling Bullet' is another straight ahead stomper but it has a couple of interesting things going for it- a sparsely interjected dialogue sample ('Do you want to die?') and smoothly gliding wordless female vocals, I'm guessing from Viktoria Seimar of Suicidal Romance. What a contrast, something really different in this kind of music.

'Crawling in the Dark' slows the pace down a bit and is plenty gloomy. Dimitry's vocals are no less malevolent though. Very gothy. 'The Last White Dance' picks up the pace again and frOzen's old-school analogue synth work is commendable. Nothing you haven't heard before, but well-done. 'Curse.Forgive.Kill.Cure' seems like it goes on for a little too long without anything of significance happening. 'Together Against It,' which follows is a little more sonically interesting, and also has a better chorus. 'It's Not a Lovesong' almost seemed like another piece of filler until the wordless female vocals saved it from being a fast train to nowhere. By the time I got to 'Price For All of Us' I realized there was little in the way of beat variation throughout most of the material. I don't think it's necessary to make them ALL dancefloor suitable. Some extended atmospherics and unusual beat-play would have been nice, but it is what it is. Since there really isn't any variation in Dimitry's vocals, some variation in the music would have been good. 'Under Code' carries on in a similar manner with nothing particularly outstanding. A little disappointing. 'Finale' is a brief atmospheric piece with wordless female voice, synth and piano, and no percussion. I would have rather have heard that expanded to five or six minutes and have skipped one or two of the lesser interesting tracks on the album. The band is to be commended though for not overusing dialogue samples, a flaw that a lot of dark electro-industrial bands succumb to.

Oh, 'The Faults of Humanity,' they are manifold, aren't they? For a debut album, this is still pretty good; not perfect, not great, but pretty good. Worth checking out. By the way, this album also comes in a 2 CD version (I only reviewed the 1 CD version) if you can't get enough Freakangel.