What’s better than world peace, inner contentment, and sunshine? Oh that’s right, a new industrial EP! Every music fan gets the ethereal feeling once in a while (or in this person’s case, every miserable day). The gaping hole in their soul that needs to be filled with something fresh, something undetermined, something…good. It’s a tedious and self-esteem reducing experience that can go on for an unbearable amount of time, but eventually, and for the benefit of their ever dwindling sanity, they get it, and in this case, it’s Armalyte Industries’ new addition Jensen.
‘Zero One’ is an exciting experience to put it lightly. Thirteen seconds into opener ‘Ghosts’ and it’s already epic, unrestrained and loud, so much that it could take days to get past that first track, it certainly took us long enough. It’s musical turmoil surrounded by electro-powah! And that’s only the beginning. ‘The Corruptor’ breaks in with a subtle God-like demeanour and then the flames rise up inside you as the first note strikes like a loud, cool alarm clock at 5AM (this makes no sense as alarm clocks are malicious c*nts that deserve to be pummelled into the sorry earth, especially if they go off at 5AM, but we’re still gonna go with it, because we have zero self-esteem). And like an alarm, it wakes you up on impact, searing your unsuspecting eardrums through to their very core.
‘Stars’ slows the pace down a modicum, drawing the atmosphere out before the satisfying chorus takes you over. This band know what they’re doing, mitigating the distortion during the verses and then unleashing all they’ve got. Props to Andrew Jensen here. The vocals are distorted in the first two tracks, here however, they’re clean and come across just as powerfully. If that wasn’t enough variety, get ready for (a drum roll or something equally as predictable and overused in a build-up would be useful here, despite it being impossible to listen to words on a shiny screen) Duran Duran’s ‘Wild Boys’ well and truly deconstructed. This is how a cover should be done, personalising the style rather than just recreating the song block by block like an egocentric plagiarist. The final third of this track is particularly engaging, the electronics bristling, electrifying every fibre of your being.
Now brace yourself. The last one’s a remix. We get nervous about these, because oftentimes they are a waste of effort and add nothing to the original. This one though, you might just wanna check out. It numbs the distortion and electronics down in the verses to make room for a different shade of vocalisation that stretches into the post-hardcore realm – maybe even hardcore itself. More electronics are introduced in different areas too, bringing out some brighter colours. Long story short, it’s a solid, exhilarating listen, and one of the most exciting industrial EPs this music fan has heard in the past year. We will be waiting with bated breath for the band’s next move.
