Hmmm, I hate to say it, but my hopes for this release haven't been met. I had been waiting for this thing to come out for ages, so I ordered one as soon as it was released, and I'm just now finally sitting down to check it out. It's a one-sided 7" with five brief tracks from five bands, obviously all of whom use drum machines. Wadge's "Programmed Deviation" starts with random drum machine beats and sounds (really crappy, basic old school shit) but then blasts into some raging grind with burly vocals, plenty of speed, and very well used drum machines. The vocals are mixed too loud so the guitars sort of fall back a bit, but this is well done. Nemo then blows through one of the fastest songs I've ever heard with "RoboSong1": Tons of manic vocals, obscenely fast drum blasts, etc. It's just over in a flash. Pilgrim Fetus (horrible band name) follows with some technical death metal with scathing vocal screams and growls, some electronic textures and of course... a drum machine. Next up is Alien Crucifixion (even worse band name) with more technical death metal that's all vocals and drum programming. The guitars fall way off into the background, and I can't hear an ounce of bass. The guitar riffs are awesome, but the drum machines sound fucking terrible and ruin the track. This stuff is seriously almost like Dying Fetus to some degree on a musical level, but those drums... god damn, and I thought triggers were bad. Fittingly, Agoraphobic Nosebleed closes out with "Malformed", a textbook track with plenty of tempo changes and thrashing grind riffs fronted by those maniacal vocals. There's even a little break of just drums. This is a killer song, it's not as forceful as their newer recordings, and it needs louder guitars, but they rarely disappoint. The record comes on marbled light green vinyl in a sleeve that's printed on vellum. I like the layout for the most part. The back cover is a bit busy, but I like the colors and textures, and the cover looks great. This was a great idea for a compilation, but I don't know, after all that time I was really hoping for something of a bit more substance. This is professional looking release that doesn't follow-up with a suitable level of content.
[Robotic Empire]
Running time - 5:00 (approximately), Tracks: 5
[Notable tracks: Wadge, Agoraphobic Nosebleed]
Robotic Empire - http://www.roboticempire.com
