Hocico's long, gothy intro builds into an explosion of heavy beats that made me think momentarily of gabber at half-speed. Edgy electronic melodies creep in and entwine with the beats. Finishing the sound is the threatening hiss of the vocals. Ultimately what is crafted is a dangerous, cutting bloody blade of electro steel cutting into the center of your brain. Hocico is certainly one of the darker acts on Metropolis Records (and that really is saying something), yet there's an uncanny ability exhibited on "Wrack and Ruin" (the new release) to bring to bear new wave influences that somehow enhance the overall dark intent of the music. Well-crafted and cynical aggro-industrial.

Horror movie atmospheres seem to undergird the dark synth-pop sounds emblazoning across the soundscapeof Flesh Field's new Metropolis Records release "Strain". There's also a certain soundtrackiness of another sort in that the compositional structure in places remind one of the orchestral stylings washed across movies sometimes. These are, you understand, mere whiffs, not outright styles, employed by the artists. The music calls these to mind. The core of the sound is sort of an aggro-synth pop. See, on one hand it's dark, acid-tinged aggression (sometimes with guitars) spearing you electro-industrial style. But there's a melodic consciousness, etc., that makes you feel like you're listening to really aggressive synth pop. What it all comes down to is that this is a multi-faceted and original dose of industrial electronica.

Presented as a breakcore compilation by Invasion Wreckchords, THE SCARIEST WEAPON is effectively what it is presented for: an in your face powerful distorted and rhythmical gathering of bands coming from all over the world and generally from the Ambassador 21's list of friends. The CD opens its battle with a live track by Axiome ("Poque") to continue without loosing any bpm with the Ambassador 21's remix of Synascape's "Wings". The following sixteen tracks don't tend to relax the tension created with the first ones and they beat the eardrums as much as possible by exploring each field of the breakcore/hardcore genre by focusing their tracks on distortion and noise (Cocktail Lytique, Lgor, Estonji, Thee Vaporizer, Retrigger, Eiterherd & Society Suckers, Low Entropy, Mimaku Spldat), rhythimcal based tracks with some melodic issue (Not Half, Kirdec, Frgment King, Fanny & Natasha, Sickboy and Ambassador 21) and ambient industrial with some incursion into rhythm craziness (Az Rotator, Matt Demmon and Somatic Responses). This compilation has been made for the fans of tension and noise. There isn't much variety about the sounds but there's enough breakcore for you all...

VIRGAE is the newest release by the Swedish project Genitor Lvminis. It is a 5" MCD and it brings to the audience two beautiful instrumental track. Without titles the two tracks enchant the listener with their slow growing of musical layers. The first one is based on acustic cyclic sounds which like a mantra hypnotize adding violins to the bass sounds which function as a metronome for the track. The 13 minutes seem to pass in an instant and at the end you are speechless and you don't know if playing the second one or skipping back the CD. "Virgae Pt.2" is shorten and ideally continue the ending of the first one as it has a darker sound. This time the main part is played by a louder rhythmical sample while the background textures (sounds of treated acustic guitars) thiken the sound adding new layers to the main one. A beatiful postcard package and a good new release thanks to Stateart, make it worth checking it out!

Panzer Ag is like tough, good whiskey. It's rough but clean burning. Dark like tenebrous but just the opposite of that word. Brooding and looming this music defines aggro-industrial on the electro side. Distortion armors the punching, stabbing beats, which sometimes so fill the audio field that melody is unnecessary. Yet it sounds distant, but in the same way that the churning machinations of a giant wall shaped spaceship would sound distant as it bears down on your tiny probe in the depths of space. Scary. Good.