Xenomorph : Demagoguery of the Obscurants (2007)

[exotic]

Xenomorph is the one-man band of Mark Petrick, based in Berlin (Germany). With over 10 years in the business, Xenomorph is one of the veterans in the trance scene who has played live shows in many countries all around the globe. He sees himself as the inventor of horror-trance, a unique style that was unprecedented in 1996 when he created songs like "Obscure Spectre" which has upset many goa-people and was considered "unspiritual" or "un-goa-ish". Regardless of the initial anti-sentiment against his music he has kept and refined his style throughout the years in which the community has become more open and appreciative for dark music. Unlike most younger trance artists who just listen to trance music, Xenomorph was exposed to a multitude of musical influences like new wave, punk/post-punk, Gothic, rock-music, death-rock, industrial, EBM, power-noise, death-metal, crossover/hardcore as well as classical music and soundtracks. With his 3rd studio album the German producer Mark Petrick presents 10 ambitious trance songs packed into an elaborate concept critically reflecting current, past and future world events.

 

 

1. Prognosis

 

2. Capitalist Infiltration

 

3. Enslavement by consumption

 

4. Totalitarian Democracy

 

5. Secret satanic hierarchy

 

6. Harbingers of extinction

 

7. Economic Sabotage

 

8. Cataclysmic Downfall

 

9. World War 3

 

11. Nuclear Winter

 

Review:

 

Prognosis

1776 .. What hits me first is the techy baseline with loads of snares thrown here and there .. it doesn't take too long before the guitar starts riffing and the track plunges into an atmosphere charged with ebm and heavy Gothic rhythms and bass ; an imagery of terrible doom and arid wasteland is inevitable .. awesome track to start off the album with.

 

Capitalist Infiltration

Kicks off with a sample about capitalism .. its obvious from here on that mark is building an album with a message , whether or not it comes across as cheezy is entirely up to the listener to decide. The atmospherics in the track are splendidly crafted with weird fx's filtering in and out between a tight bassline.. the ebm and industrial elements come forth and there's plenty of variation to keep the listener engrossed while maintaining that gothic dark mood. Quite dig this track! im indifferent to the samples as long as the musical content is kept up.

 

Enslavement by Consumption

EbC is heavily loaded in terms of bassline , sick twisted melodies and effects ..those howling voices and effects creep the hell out of me ..'we're losing autonomy and we're replacing autonomy with civil rights' and then another sample about the U.S and how they've created all these things which .. im not going too much into the samples, so you can look them up in your documentaries concerning those subjects when you do hear them.

 

Totalitarian Democracy

Guitars!! what separates skazi and xenomorph is that xenomorph is a much better guitarist .. it doesn't in any way sound bad or over done..again loads of variety and guttural vocals amidst samples of totalitarian democracy , military and government.. maybe those samples are getting in the way of appreciating the music. But this is apparently the main feature if the album so if we like it or hate we can definitely not ignore it. The overall sound is cutting edge which is what matters

 

Secret satanic hierarchy

The mood is a tad melancholic and there's a soothing melody softly appearing through the din , gaining momentum , the bass is not to dark. the psychedelic synth riffs along with the haunting melody provides a compelling atmosphere. What is god ? Is he/she/it both the embodiment of good and evil at different times to different people? makes me wonder . Another cool track imo.

 

Harbingers Of Extinction

A nice hypnotic baseline, good effects , equally good work on the synths. This is totally dancy material, the lack of too many samples which disturbs the listener between good musical moments actually brings out what xeno is best at.. maybe the samples should appear in places when there's nothing much going on like in this case.

 

Economic Sabotage

Cool intro , again the appearance of samples sorta detracts from the main theme and I cant help being reminded about vegetal's album where a similar situation ensued. This is weird totally dark trippy and disturbing all at the same time. There's lots going on here: the oldskoolish touches are sublime - acid!!!! One of the better tracks of the album , music wise. The sample here makes me larf because it is much more coherent then the rest of the samples and its true of course "International bankers deal not with the general public but with the industrial giants of the world, with other financial institutions and especially with governments. the key to their success has been to control and manipulate the money system of the nation while appearing to be controlled by the government. but another fact is to create money out of nothing : lend it to the government and then collect interest on it." and another one towards the end about low interest rates having an adverse affect on the investment and economy at large. Interesting but seriously coming back to the question whether such long drawn out are really necessary in a genre where people are there to enjoy the beats than being educated.

 

Cataclysmic Downfall

I like the fact that we're not really being bombarded by big samples straight up . This sounds like it'll do well in a forest party , derango would be proud . Xeno sticks to what he does best and im really happy with the non- appearance of samples and as soon as i say that a long Armageddon sample finds its way in. Phew! Im bordering now on whether I should take this as a serious education or try and ignore the teachery being hurled at me and concentrate on the music. A decent track nonetheless.

 

World War 3

Noyce start to things .. a juicy baseline and some good base guitaring makes for a solid combination. World war 3 - something on the scale of a nuclear holocaust with weapons of mass destruction( biological &chemical)- is it upon us ? who's going to be responsible in bringing this about ? No points for guessing who's already in the main frame!

 

Nuclear Winter

A very gloomy end to a bold album. Such a sad end to the world will be horrible. Images from the movie day after tomorrow appear in my head with the only difference being that nuclear war will cause such upheaval , bringing in the perceivable end before really threating global weather changes can cause any damage. Hope this will not be the case.

 

This is not your typical dark full power heavy metal influenced brain busting music. Xenomorph has put an emphasis on musical composition with soulful melodies to give the songs a special emotional moments surrounded by scratchy, psychedelic synthesizer riffs unique to the artist that will equally excite melody trance and dark trance listeners. Maybe not ideal for dance floors , it's good for home listening. If not anything else this album makes you sit up and think and take note of certain issues that maybe haven't crossed our minds before and even if they have to dwell upon them and reiterate them just in your own head. Those samples might tire you out in parts , but i'll give a two thumbs up to mark aka xenomorph for putting out an album that couldnt be more in sync in the global context. Give it a try and you might find yourself engaging in a worthwhile conversation about the topics that this album deals with. It did that for me, atleast.

 

Favorites: 1!,3, 5, 7!!, 8

 

http://www.myspace.com/xenomorphmusic

 

Get the album here :

http://saikosounds.com/english/display_release.asp?id=6858

http://www.psyshop.com/shop/CDs/gno/gno1cd002.html

[Sawfly]

Disappointing album. Too much guitars and those vocals didn't work. At least for me that is

[buzzman]

Disappointing album. Too much guitars and those vocals didn't work. At least for me that is

Same for me

[Gnome]

It has its good and it also has its bad moments.

There are moments where it sounds like VAC.Until now i only found VAC tunes to sound like Xenomorph.

The next step is a project between the two,that would be the best thing ever to happen on this reality.

[amphiton]

What did you expect from this guy? )

 

[mike.54]

good album,very special atmosphere

[buzzman]

What did you expect from this guy? )

 

[pawelek]

Godfather of dark psychedelic atmospheres is back. Even though i dislike guitars riffs in psytrance, xenomorphs does it realy perfectly. Well, its good album!

[Pandemonium]

good album,very special atmosphere

You said it all!!

 

 

Godfather of dark psychedelic atmospheres is back. Even though i dislike guitars riffs in psytrance, xenomorphs does it realy perfectly. Well, its good album!

 

He does do it perfect!!

 

 

The best thing about this album to me is that there is no other album in my collection that sounds like this, it adds even more diversity to my music selection, and plus its great imo

[Jon Cocco]

XENOMORPH - DEMAGOGUERY OF THE OBSCURANTS
2007
GENOSTIC RECORDS

Track list

1. Prognosis
2. Capitalist Infiltration
3. Enslavement by consumption
4. Totalitarian Democracy
5. Secret Satanic Hierarchy
6. Harbingers of Extinction
7. Economic Sabotage
8. Cataclysmic Downfall
9. World War 3
10. Nuclear Winter

I was initially worried of just the idea of purchasing this album after reading some of the comments regarding what turned out to be very few (though I wish none) songs incorporating singing and guitars. I generally do not care for either one in Psytrance, Goatrance, etc. Fortunately the melody/sound (synth) design, sound engineering/mixing, and atmospheric work is some of the best I have ever heard. The question is: How is the overall album? How much singing is there? And what about those guitars?

There are a total of 4 out of 10 tracks with alterated vocals and/or singing by the or an artist. These include tracks 2, 4, 5, and 7. At first I hardly recognized the altered (hissing) vocals in the second track because they're incoherent. Why even bother having vocals you can't understand was my initial reaction. Moreover, the music is so compelling, so captivating and powerful without the vocals. At least the artist was thoughtful enough to include the dialogue to the lyrics in the inside flip. One of the four artist's vocal related songs isn't even singing (Track 5) for the most part, but deeply, dark talking to interesting effect. Another of the four (Track 7) is absent, save for a brief spot in the end. So basically this album has two tracks with more alterated singing and two with less singing out of ten. And that's it-- not too shabby. So let's not blow things out of proportion. More than half of the album has no singing THANKFULLY. Same goes for guitars, and I really don't mind the minimal use of guitars here, though it's not what captivates me either.

1. Prognosis begins with the sound of a major ship/fog horn. Creatively, this sound associates to alarm, tension, concern, reckoning, and ushers in a slew of slow, brooding melodies. Also included is a sample regarding the year 1776, the year in which took place the "Declaration of Independence" and the start (and progression) of numerous secret societies globally, and relative to democracy. Musically the song is gritty, pumping, intense, and crunchy. At some point a guitar enters with angry emphasis. I don't mind it, especially when the music changes at 3:42. Act 2 is where the song really shines. The sound/melody (synth) work is strong and catchy, the mixing/programming top notch. The end is nigh. You can hear it, feel it with every act. This is heavy, hard-hitting, relentlessly driving and engaging dark Psytrance. Such a strong topic better capture the listener with its opening if it's in the best interest to tell a good story, and this is great, excellent. Brutally delicious, with enough crunch to impress Captain Crunch ). It's quite heavy (that beat and baseline) and sets the mood well.  A-

2. Capitalist Infiltration is where listeners will first experience moments of metal-esque hiss singing at 1:58. It's so high pitched and altered that I can't understand what the artist is saying. The melody/sound work is good, great even. It just bums me that there's this heavy-metal, tinny vocal work. I find it distracting from the great score, the darkly driving sounds, melodies, and rhythm. The artist's voice is gone by 3:15. A voice sample is initiated, relative to inflation, the economy. This helps to progress the story. The music is let free, unrestrained once again without singing along with some fantastic synths. I soak up every second. The industrial/metal sound is excellent. The voice work briefly returns again at 5:38. Again, I can't hear what the artist is saying. I love the musical work and I wish he'd remove the vocal bits. It distracts in an otherwise great chapter/song.  B+

3. Enslavement by consumption refers to those who are absorbed in their ego (fear, greed) and continuously buy material shit they don't need, feeding the machine that doesn't care about them as they (the general populace) remains distracted, lost, sheep, slaves by consumption. What a blunt truth. The track begins with one of the most gripping melodies so far on the album, followed by another that compliments it extremely well. There is no singing here. None. The song is strong, energetic, brooding, groovy, warm, and omnious throughout. This third chapter tells the tale of material corruption. The meanings are self-explanatory in the track titles but the voice samples offer so much more. This is an addictive song thanks to terrific synths, structure, and direction, however lacking in unpredictable moments. It's strong throughout. Thank heavens for no voice singing. I get to focus on the wonderful music and clear, direct voice samples that hit hard telling the story.  A-

4. Totalitarian Democracy begins with an interesting sample and great synth work. However the song is more Industrial/Metal than Psytrance. The evidence begins with guitars. This is the second song with Xenomorph's voice and it's in a different style and/or sound than the previous number. Here it sounds very heavy metal-esque. To be honest I wish he'd stop including singing because I'm suddenly investing my focus in this angry, distracting voice. The samples do a productive enough job to the story and theme without the singing. The voice here disrupts the otherwise urge I have to visualize the album's story in my mind coupled with my freedom to let go, dance, and enjoy the music. Trust your listeners more. Many are pretty aware. The samples do not hinder this experience for some reason. This song is also guitar heavy, so if a listener has a problem with guitar use in Psytrance, they'll likely enjoy this chapter less or skip it. To be honest, this is the most challenging song on the album for me. If you agree with me, the reward is that the worst is over. I don't care for this song. It's not Psytrance. It's Heavy Metal-esque, Industrial Electronica and sounds out of place, whereas this could have been another great song to compliment the album. If this artist wants to lose the majority of his Psy fanbase, he should continue making tracks like these. No disrespect to metal or this type of art. While there is some cool melody work at times, such work and various levels of atmosphere was stronger, more compelling on previous songs so far. Furthermore, these elements are distracted by the heavy vocal and guitar use. Damn it. I want something awesome and powerful WITHOUT SINGING and this is NOT IT. It's not even psychedelic! C'mon Xenomorph!  C

5. Secret Satanic Hierarchy is a big step up from the previous number, and one of the most unique dark Psytrance tracks I've heard all year. It begins with very emotive, female-esque tunes disguised as notes or vice-versa. Soon enters a low pitched, echoed voice talking/singing in a depressing, serious tone. It reminds me of a dark priest or something you'd hear in the movies. Strange as it sounds, I like it. It's gives the song an interesting flavor and character trait not yet experienced before. Moreover it doesn't last long. A short verse (hardly coherent) is voiced or sang by the/an artist followed by a sample. Soon after this dark preacher, whoever this is returns to continue. I feel like if this guy began full on singing, he'd sound very Synth Pop-esque. Thankfully the dark tone is consistent thoughout. The real star of the show is the layers of melodies which range from emotive choir-esque notes to crisp and chiming. The atmosphere's effective. At around 5:28 on, the sound showcases the combination of musical quality. It's catchy and somewhat pretty until a voice sample reminds us of the underlying reality-- vicious, angry darkness, hell. At 6:35 a strong musical moment takes place. A very short repeating verse about Jesus Christ via the artist whisper-singing near the end concludes the song. While I'm no fan of the vocal work, this is a lot more palpable than the previous number. I love the melody work in this song. It oozes with emotive, warm melodies and sadness relative to darkness. B+ / A-

6. Harbingers of Extinction involves a continuation of strong, emotive melodies. But unlike the few moments in the previous song, there's no singing-- the way the entire album should have been, without singing. Around 3:35 is one of the best musical moments I've heard by this artist (and in general) to date. It's so good! The technical production and sound/melody work in this song are excellent. The voice sample suggests the ramifications of certain chemical, biological, or nuclear warfare. Who are the Harbingers of Extinction? The sound of rain pours via effects, an approaching storm, thunder? The destroyer of worlds hasn't happened yet (is it humanity, freewill, Satan/Darkness, or a combination, ahhh.. it's all related), but we as a world people are getting close. This is a strong Psytrance number with great melody work, though I think the song could've been a bit more psychedelic. Great track. A-

7. Economic Sabotage is exciting! The track is loaded with unique and psychedelic sounds. Soon after the opening, the music breaks out into a driving climax-- angry, relentless, dark, effective! The economy is destroyed. Imagine how angry so many humans would be. Some would be offing themselves while others protest, crying, cursing, looking for someone or something to blame, self-destruction, their God via money and those projecting the dream was false profit. This is the last song to involve just a little bit of singing. A very short verse takes place in the second and final third. It doesn't bother me so much, as it's in the background mostly, though I imagine we could have done without it. The music is very well composed, storming, energetic. The voice sample is interesting, talking about what's really going on, allegedly ;). Musically this is great. It's just a bit predictable in direction and overall structure, but great nonetheless! Such energy is conveyed in the passionately composed, angry and intense music.  B+

8. Cataclysmic Downfall is a return to psychedelic crunchiness, raw power, dark intelligence, and holy shit moment(s). Few songs are this crunchy. Hux Flux's Cryptic Crunch is cruncy! This is very psychedelic. My favorite part is the build up to an explosive moment of WOW! This whole time the album is/was buildinig up. Destruction. Anarchy. Chaos. War. The powers behind the power associated people, pulling strings from the Deep Below, manipulating their minds. The war vs darkness and light. This song is bigger and more symbolic, the end of the old world. Echoed effects bounce, buzz, and hymn like electricity. Silence. An intermission. A voice sample at 5:05. The build up then climaxes at 6:00 like a barrage of fiery explosives sounding off with a literal BOOM. The music releases, flying forward with streams of visceral synths, sounds and melodies. The stomping beat full of rage/fire and intensity. WOW, what a superb song. I wish there were more moments like this on the album. The ambient notes, atmosphere, melodies, drum roll, and suspense works strikingly well. There's no singing thankfully. No more for the rest of the album. None! I wish the whole album was on this level, without anything remote of singing. This is the strongest, most fierce and overall best dark song I've heard all year along with Prognosis, more A-list tracks on this album, and several songs on Penta's - Horn Please. Superb track. A

9. World War 3 is very well done. You can literally hear the intelligence or soldiers being given the launch codes before detonation. The emotive and chiming melodies are effective and thought provoking. Apparently whatever anarchy or lack thereof has taken place already, or about to end worldwide. The combined sounds, atmosphere, melodies, and current events related samples create a near vivid, surreal feel. This song is another fine-tuned, melody driven, dark, threatening, and contemplative musical number with no singing. The plot really comes together with this track. I won't spoil the voice sample's meaning at the end here. This is a great, darkly melodic piece. A- / A

10. Nuclear Winter is the most emotive piece this artist has made yet. The track title and music says it all. I visualized (almost like tragic poetry here, to the music): bodies burnt to a crisp, frozen in time. Snow falls in a dystopian world. The streets are empty. Mass genocide. Silence. The piano takes the listener through mass graves, a gray and white, ghostly landscape. War is over but the ramifications have changed everything. It's a Tragedy. So many people have died. So many bits of consciousness 'we call spirits or souls' released. The Earth is void of noise. Calm. Warm. Peaceful. It sleeps... Wow what a powerful, instrumental number. This is so sad. Musically it's a slower, provocative and emotionally stirring piece. The piano work is excellent. The sample do not do justice to what this song, what it stands for and represents, especially when you hear the album in its entirety. This track will likely put the listener in a very thoughtful state. The epilogue-esque theme song here is deeply disturbing, alarming, its composition and direction superb. Overall this is an extremely well done number that captures the mood one may go into when witnessing let alone imagining millions of bodies frozen in a nuclear war.  A- / A

CONCLUSION

Demagoguery of the Obscurants is Xenomorph's best Psy/Goa trance album and one of the strongest dark Psy/Goa-Trance albums I have ever heard. You've seen Terminator 1+2 via governments becoming too powerful, and the FIRST Matrix film's stellar approach along with Star Wars and Hideo Kojima's Metal Gear Solid franchise in games. Each one is strong, distinct and different, but none of these translated over to Psytrance until now. Mark Petrick's angle is fresh, brazen, powerful, and timely, like a sledge hammer hitting you in the face, diving into the darkness balls deep, whimsically chaotic and technically achieved, groundbreaking. Here he creates a raw, uncompromising wake up message and view of dark times here and now.

If the listener likes dark Psytrance with strong melody work and can get past the several tracks with singing, he/she may be in for one of the strongest Psytrance rides of the year and decade, and the way it's looking the next decade as well. Stuff like this is RARE. I don't care for the few songs with singing. I wish the artist decided to cut them out completely, with exception to track 5 maybe (like a dark priest talking), and let the voice samples and evocative music do the talking as 80% of the album does so well. The singing distracts from the excellent music and captures me less when involved. Regardless of the artist’s intent (fame, stardom, passion, a bigger paycheck, record label requests, etc), Xenomorph has dived deep to release the strongest album of his career, and one of the best Psytrance albums of all time. Few will disagree. We know this genre inside and out. Mark Petrick improved as a musician. This album is different, both concept and sound-wise from virtually every dark Psytrance album out there. I get some inspirations people have made in the comments, but those are NOT Psytrance. This is theme driven, story driven, visceral, daring, technical WOW, industrial, storming, scarring, emotional, brutal, angry, haunting, disturbing, alarming, powerful, moody, provocative, shocking, violent, raw in subject matter, atmosphere, filled with captivating sound designs, programming, mixing, technicals, narrative acts, substance, sensation, unpredictable moments like plot beats, and direction, sound effects, samples that actually say something, are thought-provoking, and more. The samples I admit are more informative to the concept approach here rather than cool or fun before something sweet, music-wise happens. But for this type of concept album, I admire and appreciate the work invested. This scores points on being a huge narrative and technical achievement. The album thrives being wildly creative, unconventional, and darkly magnetic and ferocious.

There are several songs with guitar work, and I realize this works for some people. Others it doesn't. Guitars make a strong appearance in roughly 2-3 tracks. The synth work and mixing is so strong that I don't mind the guitars. They accentuate the melody work with their aggression. Guitars in moderation I say, if at all. They're not overdone here, but anymore may have been. This artist utilizes many unique metal sounds to enhance aggression. I LOVE his attention to detail, how technical sound-wise he can be. I'm impressed. The samples are here to tell the story. The theme includes a brave new world or one world order, from brain washing to... the track list sums it up. This album is BOLD. It goes ALL THE WAY like Fight Club, Goodfellas, Casino, Scarface, Terminator 2, The Crow, Dark City, Tetsuo: The Iron Man-- or any other story that fully commits to its vision and refuses to give in to the corporate machine it rallies against. The story even boils down to the tragic aftermath of nuclear war as reflected in the somber albeit emotionally disastrous, reflective, depressing and hauntingly instrumental song, Nuclear Winter. 

This is a powerful album that portrays a theoretical albeit dark and uncompromising vision without apology. Zero apologies. But it's darkness is self-aware. The artist went above and beyond for those who see it, hear it. Risk-taker with balls, shining a light on dark, Dark, DARK stuff. I like that.

Further words: I'm impressed and find interesting the musical accomplishment and this artist’s choice of theme. I recommend people hear the album rather than quickly judging or skipping because of the few metal-esque singing-related tracks, which to me, reflect a various sized annoyance, but most albums lack half as many tracks this strong. This release is more mature and sophisticated than Cassandra's Nightmare. It's more infectious melody-wise and cleverly composed than Qlippoth. I realize that's my opinion, and this is more technical, more technically involved than both. Intelligent darkness with tons of fire and spirit, and a less heart, but that's the mind piece that correlates with the visionary approach here. Demagoguery of the Obscurants is the best dark Psy-Trance album I've heard all year. I love the melody, sound, and atmosphere and mixing/sound-engineering, the driving, dark energy and rhythms. The only other dark Psytrance album in 2007 that I can recommend is Penta - Horn Please that's more accessible for the general Joe, but lacks the depth and impact of an epic story that delivers to this degree, as THIS album does in spades.

Favorite Tracks: 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10.

A-

Stream the full album on Youtube

 

[fosku]

I had pretty high expectations, because Qlippoth was AWESOME. But this is not

 

Sounds like bad quality ebm to me... Guitar riffs don't work at all, and those vocals are sometimes borderline funny. Very big dissappointment.

 

So please let the next album be something like Qlippoth!

[Pandemonium]

This might just be my favorite for the year of 2007!! Atmospheres that pull you in. This is deep stuff. Better and better with every listen

[abort_now]

I agree that the sampling really hurts this album. I'd release an instrumental version if I were him.

[Gutty]

Interesting concept and good music, but I also don't like the over-use of politics in trance.

Especially talk about finance and shit like profit motives I mean that's the last thing you really wanna hear at a party.

But then again some of it sounds pretty sweet, like track 3. And it's better than cliched drug samples.

 

I think it would have been better if he went more into subliminal messaging (and more 1984 samples (and no singing))

Good album though, he's got a unique style and it's recommended to anyone into gothic-darkish kinda trance.

[Pandemonium]

I think that his political views hit the hammer on the nail, I agree with mostly everything that is said on this album, it seems from my knowledge, and understanding to be quite accurate. The messages flow from song to song and atmosphere to atmosphere like a story.

[Melancholyman]

A great album! The only downside is that I think the voice samples are overused and ruins some tracks somewhat. It's not catastrophical and it's only on a few tracks that they are overused.

It's a bit cheesy at times aswell but I like!

[Melancholyman]

This might just be my favorite for the year of 2007!! Atmospheres that pull you in. This is deep stuff. Better and better with every listen

I've only had it on vbr encoded mp3's so far but I really liked it so I bought it and got it today. It's completely different when listening on my stereo with the retail cd. This just blew me away totally today. There is alot to discover in the tracks if you listen carefully. And I think I am obliged to agree that this might just be the best of 2007 uptempo. At the moment I cannot think of anything that comes close.

[Pandemonium]

I've only had it on vbr encoded mp3's so far but I really liked it so I bought it and got it today. It's completely different when listening on my stereo with the retail cd. This just blew me away totally today. There is alot to discover in the tracks if you listen carefully. And I think I am obliged to agree that this might just be the best of 2007 uptempo. At the moment I cannot think of anything that comes close.

+10,

 

thats why I voted it my #1 for best of 2007 (uptempo)

[agia_igoumeni]

so far so good so what?

[Ormion]

Awesome album. One of the best dark psy releases of the last years. Of course it's difficult to categorize this album as dark psy, not cause it's not dark, but simply it's unique.

Overall, I like it more that Qlippoth. After all the styles are completelly different. Qlippoth is scary, this one is more industrial and enjoyable.

Best thing about this album is that every track is unique!

Top notch! 8.5-9/10

[Trance2MoveU]

Such a total ripoff of Frontline Assembly it is almost laughable. This guy is just a little late to the party. That said, I enjoyed it. If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, the FLA should be flattered. While I thought it was good, I think that the boys from FLA are better synth programmers and arrangers.

 

P.S. The evil twisted interpretation of Moonlight Sonata at the end was chilling. Reminds me of the Depeche Mode single Mephisto.

 

Mdk

[fluffymushi]

i think the synths are insanely well programmed here

[Trance2MoveU]

i think the synths are insanely well programmed here

I will agree, but compared to the epic scope and "grandeur" of FLA synth programming, this pales in comparison. Like I said though, I still enjoyed this. Especially the final track with the geiger counter. Good storytelling.

[Jon Cocco]

Relative to the track list and story told, those who embrace light get light, for--

"If you look for the light, you can often find it. If you look for the dark, it is all you will ever see."

Those who embrace dark (which is essentially created in the mind, egotistical, symbolic and relative to fear, separation trauma) get dark. We are more aware than the story told throughout the album, though not everyone, and certainly not the dark cabal (and their dark lords) that inspired this. Raise consciousness and people will be less distracted, less addicted via slaves to consumption (well said via album) The news can be used for raising awareness, and as we know plays a major role with fear and keeping people in low vibrations, on survival mode, dependent on a system is influenced by wealthy ruling people well depicted on the album's cover.

I'm in AWE that this artist went all the way with this vision. In some ways he is shining a light on the darkness by embracing his darkness and light (duality) throughout, and the result is, well, BRAZEN, DARING (and the sound programming, mixing, synths, direction, etc. is amazing) WOW. 

We are all responsible for the roles we play, in doing our part to not be self-absorbed, we help raise the level of awareness in the world. Focus on the good. It is easier to control our behaviors (choices) than it is to control our thoughts and feelings.

Be the example. Lead by example.

Having said that, Demagoguery of the Obscurants is the most provocative, uncompromising, powerful, and relevant (timely, alarming, scary, intense but with a purpose-- an album that REALLY says something without choosing a side) dark electronic album I have ever heard in my life.

[Multi-Media]

Whow a lot of Deja Vu on here at least for indus/ebm/psy listeneres.........guess the guitar driven songs can be routed to Ministry also to guitar stuff by

FLA (eg. Millenium album). Other than guess he listens a lot to dark-electro bands like S.Commando, Hocico and the like Which is not a bad thing. I guess the

dancefloor Hocico songs would be a good comparison however cause of not much psy and more aggro in case of H. it is not really comparable. But close imo

 

Or Taktical Sect ?

 

Anyway I find this a bit less intriguing than the other album I have (Cassandras Nightmare)... First 2-3 tracks are quite killer but it get´s weaker imo.

Still 7/10 and I agree that FLA is a bit better lol But I am oldtime fan of Bill&Co. so comparison is not fair...