Well, this looked interesting, at least by the CD cover and the band name - An Erotic End of Times. 'Chapter One' is the debut release by this French duo of Philippe Deschemin and Erwan Frugier. Deschemin had an on-again off-again industrial band called PORN between 1999 - 2012, and it may even be on-again still. Never heard them though. Don't know much about Frugier except that he was involved with PORN 2005-06. Okay, so to quote the one-sheet: "The first album of An Erotic End of Times is a gothic industrial rock and metal celebration of life and death. With 'Chapter One' the duo lay down the cornerstone of a musical work in the wake of dark and esoteric bands like Fields of the Nephelim, Type O Negative or Katatonia." Well, the comparison to the aforementioned bands is a stretch at best, and in reality, totally inaccurate. In fact, this outfit is only marginally goth-industrial and mostly alt-metal. A smattering of keyboard and synths doesn't entitle you to call yourself goth-industrial. On the other hand, there are plenty of grinding guitars and heavy-duty drum programming. I'd call this more akin to bands like Deftones, Disturbed, Godsmack, and White Zombie. If that's your thing, you might like these guys. Most of the time Deschemin sings with a gravelly growl which works well for the metal aspect. I'm not getting anything erotic out of this material, except for some lyrical allusions to sex.

The album opens with "I am become death," a tribute to the Robert Oppenheimer quote, the sample also to be found on this track, with a sludgey metal stew. "Love is the End" picks up the pace offering some headbanging opportunity, but the best thing about it is the chorus hook; otherwise it's the kind of metal you've heard time and time again. "No Rights" has a gothy synth/keyboard intro and backing but little else to offer in its self-wallowing dreariness. I swear I've heard the guitar riff(s) used on "Freaky World" by other bands. The clean chorus vocals make this track probably the best on the album. "One Second" attempts set a Nine Inch Nails-ish mood, but non-memorable metal breaks drag it back into the sludge. Similarly, "Writing on the Wall" utilizes the "Man on the Moon" dialogue sample for way too long sabotaging the mission. "The Hangman" is the first song that sounded really different, with maybe a ghostly nod to Nephelim Fields, but the JFK dialogue sample concerning secret societies just killed the mood for me. After that we're back to metallic pastures again. Finally ending with "The Origin of All Coming Evil," a crawling instrumental number with spooky synth lead followed by lengthy dialogue sample (Einstein?) hammers the nail into this coffin at last.

While I wasn't wowed by this work, some might be. I just don't think it's industrial. Moody alt metal at best. I didn't care much for Deschemin's overblown vocals, and way too much grinding metal guitar for my taste. As (he is also) a novelist, lecturer and political philosopher, I expected more from Philippe Deschemin here, but I didn't get it. (At least the songs were in English.) Maybe next time.