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Front Line Assembly > Epitaph
Metropolis Records MET 224.
Tracklist:
01 Haloed (4:45)
02 Dead Planet (5:20)
03 Backlash (5:37)
04 Epitaph (4:19)
05 Everything Must Perish (6:19)
06 Conscience (5:12)
07 Decoy (6:17)
08 Insolence (5:46)
09 Krank It Up (5:43)
10 Existance (7:58)
-11 Hidden Track: Submerged (feat J. Filipchuk) (~7:00)
The Limited Edition Digipack (unknown quantity) of the album comes with a bonustrack (which is a hidden track after "Existence", is called "Submerged", and is an ambient track made by Chris Peterson and Jason Filipchuck).
Credits:
All songs were created by Leeb / Peterson at Cryogenic Studio. Mixed and engineered by Greg Reely at Hipposonic Studio. Thanks to Valerie at Mushroom Studio. Mastered at Bernie Grundman's by Brian "Big Bass" Gardener. Published by Cryogenics / Nettsongs. Art + Design Dave McKean at Hourglass.
Review
01 Haloed
This is a fairly typically structured FLA track to open the album, a clanking electronic intro precludes a slow bassline and then a whispered Leeb vocal reminiscent of Modus Operandi from Hard Wired leads in to the chorus, which by the end of the song is firmly implanted in your mind. There's some interesting vocal processing later on and the percussion is more interesting than recent FLA material. 7/10
02 Dead Planet
Another cool intro and more whispery Leeb before this track quickly hots up, introducing us to the catchy chorus straight away. Some Numb style synth work and orchestral stabs are thrown in and there's a great breakdown using machine-gun Aphex Twin Windowlicker beats. But this track is really all about the catchy chorus, maybe it's slightly cheesy but this song is all out fun. Another one that you won't get out of your head. - 7.5/10
03 Backlash
The intro just about gives you time to calm down before you're hit with another up-tempo track. This is probably the most percussive FLA song ever - it's totally wild and will have you jumping around. Think Firestarter with loads of crashing cymbals thown in to the mix. There's a great angry vocal too. Very original, a lot of bands would kill for this track. Sonic mayhem. 9/10
04 Epitaph
You should be familiar with most of this already as it was released on the Sub-Out comp earlier in the year. Here it's been remixed and has vocals. 6.5/10
05 Everything Must Perish
The single. A very easily accessible and friendly FLA in evidence on this track which is the first single from the album. Featuring a strong double-chorus and good melodies The lyrics about 'mountains in the sun' and 'birds taking flight' may seem odd at first in an FLA song but you can't help but grow to like this. 8/10
06 Conscience
An instant classic. Very TNI sounding synths, dark brooding vocals and another great chorus featuring a piano melody, something different for an FLA song but it works brilliantly. Good percussion here too, something this album will be noted for. This is the ONLY track on the album with a film sample. Worth the admission price alone. 10/10
07 Decoy
The only track that sounds like anything from delerium. A deep slow bassline and 'real' drums but just when you're thinking it will be a stock delerium instrumental, along come the vocals and yet another infectious chorus, which again breaks into a double chorus later in the track transforming it in to something anthemic. Another fantastic song. 8/10
08 Insolence
Starts off sounding very like something from Delerium's Spheres before then quickly mutates into an Equinox style track with it's drum and bass loops, nice synth chords are introduced and again when you're expecting it to be standard fare you're hit with another sublime chorus that really transforms the song. Lovely. 7.5/10
09 Krank it up
A Caustic Grip/Millennium style mix. Starts off slow and then up's the tempo. Much more simple than the rest of the album, reminds me again of a Numb track with the synth work. Has a slightly silly chorus but I don't think it's taking itself too seriously - the sort of song that people sing along to at and jump about at a live show. 6/10
10 Existance
A long ambient intro followed by a trancey synth line starts off this very nicecly produced mid-tempo track. Has a cool metallic effect to the vocals but the chorus (another doubled up one) isn't quite up to the standard of the other tracks. 6/10
Overall: This is more of a well rounded album than Implode. It doesn't get bogged down in samples or material better suited to other projects. It also displays a maturity in the songwriting which Leeb seems to have gained from writing Delerium. Definitely Leeb and Petersons best work together.
Reviewed by unknown user
Second Review
After releasing the wonderful album "Implode", which almost reached the heights of the legendary "Tactical Neural Implant", Front Line Assembly had great expectations to fulfill for their next product. While I was thinking they would make another step forward in the direction of melodic hi-grade soft industrial, the guys susprised me by choosing to get back to a darker and harder sound in their new release titled "Epitaph", bringing to the light a new set of pure electro-industrial attacks in a fashion they are almost alone to perform.
Their previous album, was somehow quieter and less saturated, showing a new subtle sound and probably being their most melodic release, could not be better at not preparing us for the new charge. Why? This is the angriest hi-tech music I've ever heard since the "Caustic Grip" album released in 1990. I especially feel this new album could not appear at a better moment since, in the aftermath of September 11th, I think you cannot find a better music that is able to focus all the madness and the anguish floating all around us, all synthesized in this pre-apocalyptic ultra-modern audio artwork.
In my opinion, this is their best achievement in terms of qualities relative to industrial music. I don't think you can find better production, better programming, better precision, better abuse of aural bandwidth all together in any music done so far. Every detail has been managed in order to properly fill your capacity to hear and to manipulate your state of mind between rythmic addiction, sonic fascination and rage exaltation. There is absolutely no other album like this in the world, at least I have not found one yet, as no other band is doing this kind of ultimate hi-tech electronic industrial music for the information society. In the past they have often failed to maintain consistency in impressing us with their talent, but this time seems to be the good one.
Technically, I can describe this album as being less melodic, more abrasive, where use of sampling is really less evident than usual, leaving more room for intense use of synths, either in melodics, rythmics and sound effects. While samples are surely still there, this time I have not been especially able to recognize them. Instead, I am amazed on how they manage to get lots of synths and electro effects with proper dosage, showing a different kind of assault when I compare it to the over-saturated "Hard Wired" album. Vocals are quite good, produced in an very processed aggressive way. Percussion and rythmics are their best ever, even better than on "Tactical Neural Implant", made of subtle sounds, structures and effects and being quite creative on variations over the 4/4 theme. On the melodic side, most of them are dark, and we discover again those catchy anthemic choruses the guys have done in their recent Delerium and FLA releases, but when heard in this different context they gain a new dimension, brinhing a new value of addiction. You can't resist to get them in your head in the "repeat" mode.
The tracks also feature interesting intros made of synth works instead of ambient samples, and some of them are really cool. You have to listen to the impressive intro to the fast-paced "Krank It Up".
Many songs will hit you at the first listen, but most of this complex piece of musical artwork grows on you over time. It does not beat the raw punch and hard drive of the "Caustic Grip" album, but this new one achieves it in a richer and darker way. Chances are that you will need your daily dose, needing it stronger and stronger as each day passes. That is what is happening to me.
Most of the tracks are memorable : "Dead Planet" is a hard EBM track with catchy chorus, "Krank It Up", another hard one but quite fast and effective with a really cool synth intro, "Existance" with its addictive bassline, and finally and not the least "Decoy" which is quite slower, remniscient of both Delerium and Skinny Puppy, with two choruses you cannot forget. "Epitaph", which is used as the album title, is good but I don't understand why the guys have chosen to include a remixed version of a previously released track which was already re-using a vocal bridge of the previous album ("swimming in a world of creeps" from the "Unknown Dreams" song)
But there are two tracks that really shine over all the rest. First, "Backlash", an absolute industrial assault that can be ranked with "Gun" and "Plasticity", their two previous best EBM tracks for me. Hard and mad and massive. I can't find the words to explain how I feel when I listen to that wonder. The other gem is even more remarkable, you cannot ignore the fantastic hard darkness of "Conscience" : this song is almost perfect, with its well crafted rythms, the piano, the chords, the strings, the synths, the melody of vocals everything here fits into a very creative song that has no equivalent and no reference to be compared to in any previous work of the band.
You like electro and industrial music? So run to the store and get "Epitaph". That's all I can say. :)
Reviewed by Bernard Bastien (aka neonyme)
Quebec City, October 2001
From Rock Sound
Front Line Assembly - Epitaph (Metropolis)
Better to burn out or fade away? That’s the question here, on what may turn out to be the last album from Industrial stalwarts Frontline Assembly. And unsurprisingly, as a possible meditation on a passing, Leeb and Peterson are found in a mood a tad more poetic than is usual under the Frontline moniker.
Not that in the wake of Delerium’s chart success the duo have tried to turn Frontline into a Delerium Mk 2, but as on previous album ‘Implode’ the sound of ‘Epitaph’ is textured, subsumed in layers of complex arrangement, a melancholy sketch of the anatomy of outrage and regret, with Bill singing - rather than the former sonic confrontations with terror screamed through a voicebox. Certainly Bill Leeb has never sung of birds taking flight before. The momento mori aside, ‘Epitaph’ is typically strong Frontline Assembly material cutting consciously heavy-handed synth basslines across darkly claustrophobic drum structuring, resulting in something akin to ‘Hard Wired’ but without the immediate guitars. ‘Backlash’ discharges great balls of sonic corrosion, whilst ‘Conscience’ loses itself in a sea of precision percussion and piano. But there is something slightly uninvolving about ‘Epitaph’, as though in the intent of capturing a kind of middle ground between the speed metal-inspired ‘Millennium’ and FLA’s more techno-oriented roots, the duo found themselves with too little space to develop the music - and it lacks the kind of standout tracks that ‘Flavour of the Weak’ and ‘Millennium’ were stuffed full of. It also leaves a slight sensation of déjà vu, that in some ways the band have been here before, and more successfully - first single ‘Everything Must Perish’ in particular being a ‘Plasticity-lite’. [Mindphaser note: What????? It sounds nothing like Plasticity!!!] A swan song? I hope not. ‘Epitaph’ is good, but if Frontline Assembly want to go out, they can go out on something better than this. 3.5/5
Alex Whitehead.
From Sideline
Front Line Assembly - Epitaph
(cd - Metropolis Records)
A new Front Line Assembly on a new label, after having talked to Bill Leeb a few months back, I was kinda curious how the new FLA would sound like… everyone did I guess. First of all, let me tell you I’m not exactly what you’d call a big FLA fan, but ‘Epitaph’ has been in my CD player for quite a while and that should prove something already. It already starts with the very attractive ‘Haloed’ that has brilliant bass-lines throughout the chorus and just moves on to the upbeat ‘Dead Planet’ with those effective guitar touches. It sure sounds as if Bill Leeb and company have entered their second youth, grab those rolling tunes on ‘Epitaph’. ‘Everything Must Perish’, ‘Conscience’ (the piano itself is worth listening already) the fucking brilliant, eastern ‘Decoy’, the poppy ‘Insolence’ and tell me FLA is gone… They are back at full speed and should already be prominently visible in your CD collection, FLA fan or not. (bvl: 9)
Reviewed by bvl.
From Outburn Issue 17 2002
Front Line Assembly - Epitaph
(cd - Metropolis Records)
SMOOTH ELECTRO INDUSTRIAL: At times it may seem convenient To dismiss Front Line Assembly as a polished up formula band, more inclined to simply rehash old successes than forge ahead with anything new. Still, Epitaph is nonetheless a very strong CD. It sees the project turn once more towards the completely electronic sound they're best at, ditching the guitars that cropped up again on their previous release, Implode. Leeb's processed, cyborg whispers still define each track, gliding along next to familiar, agile synth lines and smooth, dynamic programming. The chorus for the first single off the disc, "Everything Must Perish," even cleans up the vocals for a melodic refrain, with a distinct Delerium-esque tinge to the programming (an influence repeated here as the hugely successful side-project bleeds into its parent). The energetic aggression I associate with Front Line Assembly's prime has been repeatedly shed in favor of a more melodic, accessible sound that will undoubtedly appeal to a far broader audience than any past releases. In the end, whether or not Epitaph is a conscious shift towards a more marketable style, or just a collection of songs reflecting some of the same tastes and inspiration that led them to Delerium's popularity, really doesn't stand in the way of a quality release, if somewhat predictable.
Ben Didier 4/5
From Industrial Nation Issue 17 2002
Front Line Assembly - Epitaph
It seems like most people in the scene have some opinion on Bill Leeb - the guy people love to hate.
Maybe you've been pissed off by his tirades against clubs and fans (possibly in the pages of this very magazine,) or laughed at at least one hysterically funny website damning him, or gotten into arguments with your friends over whether or not he could take Ogre in a round of Rivethead Celebrity Deathmatch. Or maybe you've danced so hard to an FLA song, sweat plastered your T-shirt to your back and your legs offered little support. Love him or leave him, there is no denying that Bill Leeb is a talented musician and fronts one of the genre's longest-running and most-influential bands. Epitaph is of course the latest release in a career spanning fifteen turbulent years. Whether it is the last release from FLA remains to be seen, though it is the final pairing of Leeb and Chris Peterson, partners in aural assault since 1990's Caustic Grip, If you haven't liked FLA since Rhys Fulber left, I'm not going to try lo change your mind if you're a die-hard fan, you most likely own Epitaph already. But for those still sitting on the fence trying to decide if this CD is worth owning, know this: this is not a bad album. It's not FLA's best, either. Epitaph is densely layered with electronics that shift between trance and heavy percussion work, often in the same song, Leeb whispers his was through an album about a world approaching extinction (yet again,) but more than that, one gets the feeling that this introspective album is a send-off for FLA as well - "A quiet moment to myself, reflecting somewhere in the past, I hope this feeling always lasts," he hisses on "Everything Must Perish." It would be an ideal memorial for a once-great band, as a lot of the songs contained here sound identical to earlier FLA offerings, Front Line Assembly covering Front! Line. For example, "Dead Planet" is reminiscent of "Plasticity," "Everything Must Perish" is similar to "Sadomasochism," and "Krank It Up" would do just as good a job of packing a dancefloor as "Columbian Necktie." Those were good songs, so then are these. But you could Just listen to the originals. Not everything is rehashed, however, as the influence of Leeb's various side projects, namely Delerium, is felt in the music, working best on the haunting "Existence," and the whole album is thankfully free of Event Horizon samples (Damn you Leeb! You kick-started an irritating industrial music cliche!) After such a long career, it would seem almost forgivable to recycle bits of a such a formidable back catalogue, but 1 for one expected something new from a group that claims it is full of fresh ideas.
Epitaph has a nice, solid sound, but it is a sound that has been heard too often before.
Theresa
From Metal Hammer
Front Line assembly - Epitaph
Launched back in the late 80s, alongside peers Ministry and Front 242, Frontline Assembly were at the forefront of the industrial scene with their 'Tactical Neural Implant' opus still widely (and correctly) regarded as a genre bench mark. With the 'official' departure of industrial wunderkind Rhys Fulber in '97 and the subsequent recruitment of Chris Peterson to founder Bill Leeb's side, FLA have mutated into a very different beast.
Where once the band were content to exist within the narrow confines of an unmade Terminator movie, they're now an almost perfect companion to the entire sci-fi film genre. 'Epitaph' may not be to the tastes of the hardcore Hammer reader but it's likely that something here will undoubtedly leave an impression, whether it be the shimmering beats and angstful wailing of 'Bad Planet' [sic] or the epic 'Everything Must Perish'. And hey - respect where its due - this is the harsh, bio-mechanical spawning ground that Fear Factory, Static-X, Spineshank and The Matrix broke from.
FLA were once set to become a parody of themselves but they seem to have pulled off a cunning reinvention which might see them through the next 15 years.
CHRIS INGHAM [7]
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Last updated 2006-01-20 03:45:04 by: Bahn™.
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