| Reviewed
by: Darklight
Die Form has been making their unique blend of industrial
darkwave hybrid music for what seems like forever now. I personally
have never been a big fan of their music as it's usually a little too
out there for me. I did like their previous CD Extremum,
but tired of it rather quickly since the entire mood of it was slow
and dreary, and all of the songs basically sounded the same. However,
I like this Inhuman CD much more. The band
has gone through some changes over the past four years since Extremeum
was released, and I'm happy with the outcome.
What this CD does exceptionally well is blend heavy industrial noise
and beats with the haunting beauty of darkwave. While this might sound
odd on paper, it actually works better than I thought it would. The
electronic programming is energetic with layers of crazy sounds and
club beats overlaid by beautifully haunting melodies and enchanting
female singing. Occasionally oddly altered male vocals talk quickly
in the music as well which adds an even more weird vibe to this bizarre
mix of music. There's also times when more traditional type distorted
growling male vocals come in and fit much better. It's too bad that
they're not used more in these songs as they really add a nice touch
to the songs.
This is one of the more structured Die Form CDs I've heard. The songs
aren't quite as experimental as they have been in the past. But the
music is still creative as ever with so many different things happening
constantly. I like the fact that the majority of songs are rather energetic.
There's the occasional mellow song, but they don't dominate the CD like
they did on past Die Form recordings.
The overall sound of the CD sounds like what you might get if you put
Dead Can Dance, Delerium
and X Marks The Pedwalk
in a blender. You get industrial/EBM programming and beats, altered
male vocals, gothic melodies and enigmatic female vocals.
The only things that bring down the CD are that some of the songs sound
too similar, the weird altered male vocals sometimes are added when
they shouldn't be, and the female singing never really changes. But
these are small complaints considering the overall quality of the CD
is so great and offers a fresh sound. If you think you would enjoy a
combination of industrial and darkwave music, this CD is for you.
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| Reviewed
by: Darklight
Die Form is one of the few old school industrial bands still
making music today. I will admit that I’ve never really been a rather
big fan of their music as I usually tend to stay away from the more
experimental side of electronic music. While I felt what I have heard
from them in the past was indeed good, it just wasn’t for me. But since
I was hearing so many great things about this latest release, I decided
to pick it up. I will admit that upon my first listen I wasn’t really
blown away. But this is the type of music that you have to allow to
sink in. So after a few more listens I started to really enjoy what
it had to offer.
The songs delivered on this CD mix a lot of different elements in them.
To my surprise, there are vocals on each track ranging from dreary male
spoken word, to hauntingly eerie operatic female chanting. One of the
reasons that I didn’t enjoy Die Form in the past is because a lot of
their material was lacking vocals.
This album combines structure with experimentation which is nice because
the tracks are structured enough to keep you from losing interest, but
experimental enough to make everything quite creative and interesting.
So there’s a good balance between the two throughout this album making
for a rather artisitc musical journey.
While there are a couple of songs here that are quite fast paced and
energetic enough for the clubfloor, the majority of the album does tend
to lean more toward dark and chilling feelings that are mid-tempo creating
frightening atmospheres. Basically, this is somber dark electronic music
with a lot of different moods and emotions.
The electronic effects are very creative with various sounds coming
and going constantly. The synth harmonies are dramatic with great orchestration.
The vocals are a blend of both dreary, slightly growled, male spoken
word and enchanting female singing that floats in the background like
an entity.
Some tracks are more layered with sounds than others. Some do sound
a bit minimalistic with mainly bass beats and chanting creating them.
But even the more dreary empty songs work because they still contain
the dark artistic beauty that this entire album offers.
Overall, there’s some really odd and strange elements included here
that you just don’t hear anywhere else. This is extremely dark, almost
gothic, music. But it’s quite technological as well featuring futuristic
sci-fi electro sounds and, at times, robotically altered male vocals.
My main problem with this CD is that the majority of the tracks all
sound alike. There’s just not a lot of differences from one track to
the next. They’re all basically slow paced with a combo of male spoken
word and female operatic singing. A little more variety would have been
nice. A few more hard driving club tracks would have helped out a lot
as well to give the album more contrast. But as it stands now this album
is like listening to one long drawn out track from beginning to end.
I do admit that I still don’t quite underatnd the popularity surrounding
this CD. While it’s good for what it is, I personally think that other
similar and less appreciated acts such as The
Dust Of Basement and L’ame Immortelle are much better.
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