Babyflesh "New Wave of Cynicism" CD
[Vendlus]
This is the proper debut from this Norwegian experimental outfit, but I'm sort of torn on what to make of it.  The label views this as "the only the death industrial release to come out of Norway", but I'm not even sure I'd classify it as death industrial.  There are definitely elements of such a style present, but I don't find the bulk of this work to be aggressive or harsh enough to fall into that classification.  "Bridges Are for Burning" is just a brief intro of eerie ambient soundscapes, while "The Fight is On" is somewhat of a boring composition built around nearly seven minutes of the same percussive loop that does have an interesting aesthetic, but wears thin due to its lack of movement.  Sadly that's the biggest setback I find on the entire CD: Most all of the songs run around six to seven minutes each (some more, some less) and revolve far too heavily around repetitive loops that don't carry enough weight to keep things interesting.  "Suicide Song" is sparser in its use of percussive sounds, and also brings in filtered vocals - and admittedly the vocals have their own kind of sound happening, delivered in sort of a distant spoken howl or something, which helps with the overall character of the song - but it's still not something that I'm overly impressed with.  "You or Me" is the only 100% death industrial track, without a doubt.  The distortion is a little louder, there's more grit involved, the vocals are more traditionally shouted and certainly have that UK power electronics kind of thing happening, and so on.  Then the nine-minute "Sleeping With Knives" is more of a minimal dark ambient piece, but again, its duration is a little heavy handed considering its content is rather unwavering and basic - focusing on low level hums and little else.  The layout is all done in black and white with lots of raw textures that sort of look like dirty xeroxes, but of course to a higher degree of quality and artistry, so it actually looks really stark and effective.  There's not much information in the booklet at all actually, so... that about says it.  You never know what you're going to get from Vendlus - metal, experimental noise, aggressive, laidback, etc. - and I really love that, but I have to admit that once I discovered that this was an alleged "death industrial" release I had my hopes set on something much better than the listen revealed in the end.  There are promising characteristics to the overall atmospheres of the tracks, and I do enjoy portions of the work, but as a whole it's too dull and stagnant for me to get excited about.  Despite being one of the longer pieces, "Here Comes the Pain" makes the best use of repetition by carrying along at a more subdued pace and adding in samples and additional layers of texture that aren't as stolid as the loops, and that's something I'd prefer to hear explored further, along with the more in your face stylings of "You or Me". (6/10)
Running time - 48:22, Tracks: 8
[Notable tracks: Bridges Are for Burning, Here Comes the Pain, You or Me]
Vendlus Records - http://www.vendlus.com

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