Album: "Order + Joy" (2000)
Label: Metropolis Records
Style: Electro industrial
Songs: 11

Reviewed by: Darklight

What a surprise this album turned out to be. Crocodile Shop’s previous release Everything Is Dead And Gone was a decent effort; but included too much noise, distortion and drum & bass. Other than a few trademark Crocodile Shop sounds, this album sounds completely different than any of their previous releases. This is actually a good thing considering the fact that I have never really liked Crocodile Shop in the past.
       There’s a lot of variety to be found on this CD. So much in fact that upon the first few listens you might not know what to make of it all. While overall it does have a somewhat old school electro-industrial sound similar to Front 242, there are a lot of new elements in the mix as well.
       The first seven songs “Order + Joy”, “Blinding”, “New Ideal”, “Wahrheit”, “Was Ist”, “Finalism” and “World Destroyed” all fit together quite nicely including somewhat noisy and scratchy fast paced electronic programming, sampling and heavy driving drum beats mixed with Mick Hale’s rough accented distorted growling vocals. The songs feature a somewhat upbeat and catchy vibe to them. The only complaint that I would have with some of these tracks are the strange dreary background chorus’ provided by the other two members of the band. At first I didn’t like them at all, but after several listens they grew on me. They still sound a little out of place, but they’re listen-able just for the fact that they’re original.
       The album takes a turn on the song “Wrong” and beyond. “Wrong” is a clean modern sounding EBM track with nicely layered electronics, beautiful synth harmonies and melodic vocals. Track nine “One Voice” is also a clean EBM song with a colder more mellow edge to it similar to recent Covenant. Track ten “God Bring Life” is a dark energy packed electro-industrial song that has a long haunting orchestrated synth ending. And track eleven “Reason” is another rather dark electro-industrial song featuring creatively layered electronic programming with a lot of twists and turns.
       While every song on this CD is enjoyable, I would have to say that my favorites include “Blinding”, “Wrong” and “Reason”. They stand out the most in my opinion. If you want an original, yet strangely familiar sounding electro-industrial experience, this CD is a must.

Album: "Everything Is Dead And Gone" (1999)
Label: Metropolis Records
Style: Electro industrial
Songs: 13

Reviewed by: Darklight

The songs on this CD blend elements of electro industrial, techno and experimental noise to make for a fairly original sound. The problem that I have is nothing comes off very structured. It's fairly chaotic and messy with different sounds coming and going while distorted vocals are hidden in the background. There are good rhythms and beats found in a lot of the music, but they're generally diluted by the noise, samples and vocals. There's an upbeat techno edge to almost all of the tracks allowing them to be good for the dance floor. There's crossover appeal to the music here due to the major drum & bass influences. Nothing delivered is very dark as it all comes off sounding like club music. There are some structures and quality singing hidden behind the noise and distortion, but they never get the chance to come forward and take center stage. This is the main problem that I have with the CD. These songs would be so much better if they were cleaned up without all of the chaotic noise and distortion. There's an experimental feel to each of the songs that tend to make them all blend together without really allowing too many of them to stand out. The few that stand out in my opinion are "Useless", "Core", "Passion", "Ghettology" and "Claim". I will admit that I'm quite pleased that there are no instrumentals to be found here. You will have to like a noisy, experimental, techno, drum & bass style of electronic music to really enjoy what this album has to offer. It's good overall, but could have used a little more polishing around the rough edges to make it even better.