Atrox has reminded me of one of the central tenets of my existence on this album, specifically the one about murdering anyone who thinks techno and metal are a good combination. This is very clean industrial-nu-metal without a hint of malice to it anywhere, even the Planet of the Apes sample.

The drumming is the requisite fast but danceable beat that all techno is based on combined with heavy guitars and lots of beeping. I checked but I was wrong about R2-D2 being the vocalist, but I’m sticking to my guns on that theory. They also use a lot of the heavy in the mix bass/guitar chug that all of these bands live off of. Ray Charles could see most of these riffs coming, and he’s dead. Add in some vocals that sound like a really watered down Jaz Coleman, with occasional rapping and you get Atrox. To be honest I wouldn’t mind this album so much if not for the constant beeping, which drives me up the wall in record time. I admit to having a short fuse but still this is impressive. I suppose I should congratulate them for introducing one new element instead going totally with the tried and true and five years outdated but I refuse.

Atrox manage to combine two of my pet hatreds into an album that should only be used during the act of extraordinary rendition. I really don’t get why albums such as this continue to come out as this trend is dead and all continuing it can do is damage the credibility of great underground labels like Season of Mist. I’ll give them a pass because no one is perfect but ye gods why would any label waste their time on this sort of hackery?

[Visit the band's website]

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