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FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY > ARTIFICIAL SOLDIER
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Metropolis cat no MET431 / SPV cat no XXXXXX.
Releasedate: USA 20.06.2006
Tracklist:
01. Unleashed
02. Low Life
03. Beneath The Rubble
04. Dissension
05. Buried Alive
06. Dopamine
07. Social Enemy
08. Future Fail (Featuring Jean-Luc De Meyer from Front 242, Cobalt 60 and more..)
09. The Storm (Featuring Eskil Simonsson from Covenant)
10. Humanity (World War Three)
10> Fawnchopper (hidden)
Review
FLA All-Stars! The first FLA album to feature all members of FLA (save for Michael Balch, who was actually on the Noise Unit CD 'Voyeur' that preceded this release a year prior, oddly enough), including a new lad by the name of JInkle, 'Artificial Soldier' brings the heaviness back after the last album, which some had taken to calling Delerium Line Assembly due to it's overall smoothness. Peterson definitely brought in a noisier, more aggreassive atmosphere. This album also sees Dave McKean return to do the art, with a nice number of interpereting "Artificial Soldier" to mean someone not meant to be a solider, such as the child on the front with the massive weapon, instead of something ham-fisted like a cliched cyborg warrior. Not as intricate as his earlier work (you can tell it was done somewhat quickly), it's still a great cover and overall package. To top it all off, 2 tracks have guest star vocals, a definite first for FLA & Co.
1. Unleashed (5:21)
The album kicks off with a good 'un. Your typical FLA intro segues into a head nodding breakbeat with some soft-synth guitar (or it might be real, I can't tell...it was certainly real live I'll tell you that) and Leeb hissing about his current disgust with the government and humanity in general. Great sung chorus ("To hell with humanity, the more I see the less I believe). Lot's of little sequences flutter in the background, providing alot of depth the the whole album. This track absolutely RAWKED live. With a name like that though, you'd think it would just explode right out the gate, but oh well...
2. Low Life (5:30)
Odd little track. Starts off with some arpeggiated sequences that run through the whole track and heavy bass drum hits similar to the begining of "Fatalist". A more tech-break kind of beat kicks in with Leeb shouting, sometimes vocoded sometimes not, about the decadence and demise of Hollywood. Total Rhys-chorus on this one, the strings just scream him. Track kind of coasts along like this until the end where the tempo suddenly goes double-time and turns into electro-thrash. Some hate it, but I feel it gives the song more character and makes it more unique.
3. Beneath the Rubble (6:26)
Slow understated intro, with the first appearance of heavily distorted breakbeats which will be a fixture on this CD, for better or worse. Heavier, Hybrid-ish type beat kicks in with a big, meaty Leeb bassline and more arpeggiated synths going on in the back. Complex chorus, very melodic. A more emotional track with a very thematic feel. Comes off a little bland though, IMO. Nice ending as the music stops and Leeb keeps reciting the chorus in a very sad, pained tone.
4. Dissension (6:07)
Slow staticy and glitch-ified breakbeat starts off, with more breaks layering on top until they give way to a heavy, slow beat/bass combo. This track brings the metal, with heavy, though not dominating, chugga-chugga guitars on top. Very 'Millenium'-esque. Awesome break with rolling metal double-kicks that give way to another melodic (but still very heavy) sung chorus, unlike the distorted verses. Did I mention heavy? This song is like a teaspoonful of white dwarf star.
5. Buried Alive (5:30)
The setlist opener from the tour, with good reason. Great track, starting with tinkling windchimes and an awesome building drone noise. Some more glitchy d'n'b breaks (OK, seriously guys, think of a new way to start your songs) before a nice speedy tech-step beat kicks in. Very atypical bassline that you really feel rather than hear that drives the track to a great chorus nicely sung by Leeb. Fast, melodic, shimmering and noisy all at once. One of the best songs on the album.
6. Dopamine (6:31)
Another fan-favorite from this album. Long atmospheric intro with tons of heavily distorted, scratchy, swing-style beats swirling around. The slow swing-style beat, a first for FLA I think, and its accompanying loud, evil bassline are pretty disctinctive. Good lyrics about getting back your life and happiness from those who stole it (cough government cough). Guitar feedback squeals and eerie strings round out a good track.
7. Social Enemy (5:23)
The first of three 4/4-beat tracks placed in a row, which is kind of a bad track placement but not VNV Nation bad :) Nice organic break-overlayed stompy beat with amplitude modulation distorted vox. The chorus makes this track, very soaring with Leeb doing a good job as usual since he found his singin' voice on 'FLAvour...' Not the most complicated song, but it's got alot of energy and is a million times better than some of the other EBM out there now at least.
8. Future Fail (6:11)
My personal favorite. Another building intro full of guitar snips and acid-y synths. 4/4 beat kicks in with more acid synths, and guest vox by Jean-Luc DeMeyer of Front 242, who sings about the government again, but much more eloquently as only he can. Epic strings layer on top of a very scratchy bassline, and trancey chords in the chorus, with the bassline sounding alot like the end of "Hydrogen." Only use of the word "barbarians" in industrial music I've ever heard. Ahh, Jean-Luc :) Very driving and epic, with more of a classic FLA sound.
9. The Storm (5:12)
This track features gues vox from Eskil from Covenant. Very linear, clubby track, starting with....oh just guess...and lots of trance-like sequences, although the beat is totally old-school FLA. Traditional Leeb bassline and Rhys strings come in, as Eskil sings brief snatches of lyrics, though not really noteworthy. Song is devided by this first part and then the second half which kicks in at the 3:00 mark with a nice heavy bassline change and then an absolutley massive breakbeat and crashing cymbals swim up to drive the track home.
10. Humanity (World War Three) (5:24)
Kind of an average closer, YET MORE distorted breakbeats yeild to a simple mid-tempo beat and Leeb bassline. Song gets right to the point, and in terms of everything else on this album is pretty stripped down. Classic vocoded vox appear, and Rhys chords abound in the chorus, with a very 'Hard Wired' feel overall. Not great, not bad, just kind of there. Best track to end with though, as it would have gotten lost anywhere else in the mix.
11. Fawnchopper (Hidden track)
In classic Corndog FLA fashion, there's a hidden track to be found. Very slow, building ambient piece peppered with airy sounds, distorted dog noises (hence the title...search the forum for meaning :), and a wicked, enormous WOOOM!!! noise that punctures the calm intermitently (and startled the shit out me first time I heard it).
Overall a good album. It's a bit samey in places (for Gods sake, enough distorted breakbeats!!!) and it's missing a real standout blowaway track, though "Unleashed", "Buried Alive" and "Future Fail" (to me anyway) come awfully close. No bad tracks however, and it's a pretty cohesive affair with a definite Decree/Peterson influence in alot of places and new ideas from Inkle if you listen closely. One of their heavier albums, to be sure.
Review by Doug Sudia (recoil)
Older album news previous to the release:
2006-05-29
For those of you who've recieved the album by now (Metro's been quick) there's a hidden surprise called Fawnchopper after the last official track. Chris did it with help from Jeremy. Hopefully we'll get a disc full of ambient, equally f:ed up stuff from Chris this winter.
2006-05-26
Adrian White states: "I'm playing some of the drums on dopamine and the chunky goodness that is the guitar's as well. I love playing guitar, 7 strings of death-machine !!!
I'm not just the live drummer anymore, but in the band and on the album. J Inkel is also on the CD, playing guitar on two other songs. I know he and I aren't Jean-luc or Eskil, not that we want to be, lol! We brought our ideas to this CD as well, and I think they sound pretty good."
2006-05-20
As you might have noticed the album has leaked out on the net. We admins have been listening to it non stop and so far it's really great. Dont forget to order your copy of the album to continue supporting your favourite band!
2006-05-12
Looks like we europeans dont have to ship our copies of AS all the way from the states:
http://www.musicnonstop.co.uk/store/erol.html#1528x46870
Thanks to Nicholas0 for the link!
2006-05-04
We've managed to get ahold of a full size version of the album art, click for popup:
Also, there's been a rumour about a hidden eleventh track on the album. Probably wont be able to confirm that until it's released.
2006-05-02
Metropolis has put up a small "preview" pic of the album art:
Classic McKean!
Also, two soundclips are up on the met site:
http://www.metropolis-records.com/artists/?artist=frontlin
Aggressive stuff!
2006-04-30
A new tracklist has been posted on the metropolis page:
Tracklist:
01. Unleashed
02. Low Life
03. Beneath The Rubble
04. Dissension
05. Buried Alive
06. Dopamine
07. Social Enemy
08. Future Fail
09. The Storm
10. Humanity (World War Three)
Hopefully it's correct this time.
2006-04-14
Album has been delayed, new release date is the 20th of June according to http://www.metropolis-records.com/artists/upcoming.php
Update
Apparently "Low Rider" isnt the real track name, just a working title. Hopefully metro will sort out the real name soon.
2006-04-06
The tracklist and a short description is now up on the Metropolis website.
Tracklist:
01. Unleased
02. Low Life
03. Beneath The Rubble
04. "Low Rider"
05. Buried Alive
06. Dopamine
07. Social Enemy
08. Future Fail
09. The Storm
10. Descention
According to Chris sound clips will be up shortly on the met site.
Older news and quotes:
Rhys states: Wrapped up my contributions (co writing and programming 5 songs and adding keyboards to a couple more) to the latest Front Line Assembly album titled "Artificial Soldier" which should be out around June.
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Old news items regarding this page:
Last updated 2007-02-07 11:39:11 by: Nicholas0.
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