The third full-length release by this two-man U.K. industrial black metal project is slightly less concerned than its immediate predecessor with injecting melody into the shrieking blast-furnace/blender noise that is their primary sound. There's a guitar solo on
"The Destroying Angel"
that's heavily indebted to
Slayer
's
Kerry King
, and a melodic chorus on
"Timewave Zero"
that recalls their previous effort,
Domine Non Es Dignus
, but for the most part it's a savage, ugly album produced and programmed with merciless precision. The programmed blastbeats create a foundation of cold inhumanity which is matched by the nihilism of the electronically altered vocals, while the guitar riffs, which seem doubled by heavily processed, in-the-red keyboards, saw at the listener's eardrums. These guys have taken
Motoerhead
's dictum of "everything louder than everything else" and blended it with the Tyrell Corporation (from
Blade Runner
) motto "More Human Than Human" to build something like a sonic Terminator. Some songs, like
"Between Shit and Piss We are Born"
and
"The Yellow King,"
offer a slightly more humanistic feel, and wind up approaching (if not incorporating --
Shane Embury
guests on this album and plays with
Anaal Nathrakh
live) the fury of
Napalm Death
. By the time it winds down, the album does grow somewhat wearying; its constant abuse of the listener eventually starts to exhibit diminishing returns. But for much of its running time, it's the kind of record that makes you take a step backward in welcome surprise. ~ Phil Freeman