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A review on Critical Mass (Lysergene) written by blackaudio

A complex writhing mass of machinery clatters alongside electronic whirs and oozing electronics as an opening gambit to this album, providing an unrelenting visceral montage, leading into the surprising mash off key electronica and Industrial ‘Twisted and Evil’.

Next up, ‘Monolith’ has all the energy of NIN initially and eventually fuses into a driven mass of precise programming and futuristic pads, reminding me somewhat of earlier Front Line Assembly if they were devoid of vocals. Concentration circulates heavily on synth work throughout Lysergene’s work and although the heavy trance like sound is not exactly to my liking, I cannot knock the craftsmanship and execution involved and the production is second to none.

“Shock Treatment’ is purely what I expected from this artist after hearing the impressive split with Dust to Dearth; a thundering distorted pit of ambience. Whilst not pulling apart what the project has accomplished on the earlier sections of this album, I cannot hide my preferences stylistically speaking and personally would have preferred more of this.

Overall however, whilst there may not be much on here that I would listen to day by day, there is a market out there for this kind of approach to writing and should appeal to fans of electronic music that loiters somewhere between sci-fi electronics and the tragically termed, Terror EBM; scoring on ability and production rather than my tastes alone.

7.5/10

Read this article on the author's website: blackaudio.
More info on Lysergene and on Critical Mass or browse the press archive for more articles.