Album: "Artificial Breathing"
Label: Artoffact Records (2004)
Style: EBM
Songs: 10

Reviewed by: Darklight

After two extremely impressive demos, Blank has finally been signed and has released this exciting full-length debut. This album offers improved versions of the best tracks from their demos.

Blank is from Italy and consist of theMaze and derMate. This duo create some of the most energetic and infectious EBM I've ever heard. Every song on this album is a club smasher and will pack the dance floor. The electronic programming is manic with layers of sounds rapidly shooting off in different directions, the beats are bombastic and the melodies are dramatic. theMaze sings in a fast paced slightly raspy tone along with the driving music.

This music has crossover appeal as it features other electronic genres in the mix such as techno and trance. Every club that plays dance music should play Blank as they create some of the most dynamic and catchy electronic music there is.

If you want an album packed from start to finish with masterfully composed high speed EBM, this is it. From the second the first song begins the CD never slows down. It features one intense track after the other until the end.

Album: "Brain Trigger" (2001)
Label: n/a
Style: EBM
Songs: 7

Reviewed by: Darklight

I don’t know why this band hasn’t been signed to a label yet. A band this good shouldn’t have to put out a second demo. Their first was convincing enough, and should have had record labels knocking down their door to sign them.

Blank currently have enough quality material recorded to release a full-length album. So if they were signed now they would already have enough songs ready to go for a debut. A label like Metropolis Records should seriously be considering adding this act to their roster.

Blank creates action packed energy paced club floor EBM with a lot of style and imagination. The music is extremely layered and textured with electronic sounds, effects, beats and melodies. It’s very clean and polished with a dark futuristic sci-fi vibe to it. The vocals are somewhat altered and sing along to the music in a rather raspy tone. Everything goes together great and delivers real passion and emotion. You can’t help but want to move the second that these songs begin. DJ’s definitely need to be spinning these guys in industrial/goth clubs.

My complaints with this CD are that a lot of the songs sound alike. While they’re good, they don’t stand out quite as much as the tracks on their previous demo. Also, the vocals sing well, but sound the same on every song. I feel that the singer should maybe try some different things with his voice. Singing a little deeper would be nice. And finally the last rack “Void Ad Remover” is a power noise track that is completely out of place on this disc and doesn’t fit with the band’s other clean club EBM. It’s just a distorted noisy mess that I find annoying.

The bottom line is that Blank is a very good EBM band that needs to be signed. There are a lot of people out there that will really appreciate their sound.

Album: "42 4C 41 4E 4B" (2000)
Label: n/a
Style: EBM
Songs: 6

Reviewed by: Darklight

Blank is the italian EBM project of Der Mate and The Maze. This six song demo EP is extremely high in quality featuring some amazing songs that rank up there with other EBM greats such as VNV Nation. The electronic programming contained here is superb with meticulous layering and texturing mixed with driving bass beats and dramatic orchestrated synthscapes.

While the music is energetic and upbeat, it’s also rather dark as well. The vocals provided by The Maze are clean with an apparent accent. He sings in a somewhat raspy whisper along with the music.

The songs have so much happening in them that they’re a treat to listen to over and over again. They would especially work out on the clubfloor as they’re very alive and vibrant.

The only track I dislike here is the last song “Mechanoid Corp.”. It’s a powernoize experimental instrumental combined with samples and drum & bass. It’s too chaotic and noisy to be very enjoyable. It’s also out of place since the first five songs are all clean and polished EBM.

This promo EP makes me want a full-length release by this band, as six songs from an act this quality just isn’t enough.

*(BTW, if you're wondering what's up with the title of this CD, it's hexadecimal numbering for the letters B L A N K. Real clever, yes? ~Rabies)