ALBUM REVIEW – ANGELSPIT – THE PRODUCTMarch 30, 2014 by Andy Haigh in Music.
Ever since their first release the “Nurse Grenade” EP appeared in 2007, Angelspit have been one of the most interesting and creative artists in electronic/electro-industrial music. “The Product” has Zoog Von Rock working with various other artists including, George Bikos of MeteorEYES, Adam Newman of hard dance legends Lab4 , Miss Ballistic, Helalyn Flowers, Chant and Teknocracy amongst others whilst regular partner in crime Destroy X focuses on other ventures.
The most immediate thing is this isn’t as accessible as the last few releases but this isn’t a bad thing, rather more of a side effect of the material being far denser this time around making last release “Hello my name is”seem rather simple in comparison as jagged chainsaw guitars vie with beats, synths and various other sounds blended into the sonic mayhem with Zoog and various other contributors varied vocal approaches finishing things off.
“Hot Mess” featuring George Bikos gets things off to an impressive start with some warm synth suddenly giving way to discordant noise, hammering beats and tortured guitar riffs with Zoog’s vocals part of the carnage and there’s some great lyrics as ever (“Too busy making a living, too broke to have a life”). “Because God” is a more guitar driven affair whilst “Ambassador” featuring Miss Ballistic has a great rhythmic back beat and is one of the more dance floor oriented tracks , there’s still some chunky guitar in there but it’s used more sparingly.
One of the real stand outs is “Fight Dirty” featuring Helalyn Flowers with some well utilised guitar, and a recurring Italian vocal refrain in Noemi Aurora’s sultry tones which contrasts with the sonic mayhem. “Velocity” dials down the multi-layered sonic barrage somewhat being very synth centered and building to a crescendo and the creepy atmospheric “Walking in the Woods” featuring Teknocracy is reminiscent of the opening music to a really good indie horror film.
One of the stand out elements of Angelspit’s sound has always been Zoog’s vocals, in a contrast to many male vocalists he doesn’t just rely on a barking shout and anger, some of the best moments here are the more restrained vocals.
With 13 tracks overall Angelspit’s “The Product” is possibly the best thing they’ve produced and the heavier and weightier material combined with the collaborative nature of its creation has produced an impressive deeply layered opus which you can get lost in.
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