GIRLS UNDER GLASS

Album: "Zyklus"
Label: Metropolis Records (2005)
Style: Industrial gothic rock
Songs: 12
B
 

Reviewed by: Darklight

This album sounds like a combination of the two previous Girls Under Glass albums (Minddiver, Equilibrium). It features industrial rock assaults as well as more toned down gothic rock ballads.

As usual, the music and singing is excellent. The music is created mainly with guitar, bass and drums, but there's a decent amount of electronic elements offered as well. The primary vocals are deep and clear male singing, with the addition of female singing on some of the songs as well.

This album doesn't have as much of an electronic sound as 'Minddiver', and it doesn't have as much of a gothic sound as 'Equilibrium'. Overall it sounds like a rock album with electronic and gothic elements in the mix.

I still feel that 'Minddiver' is the bands best album. I haven't been as pleased with the more rock direction they've taken on 'Equilibrium' and this album.

 

Album: "Equilibrium"
Label: Van Richter Records (2002/2005)
Style: Gothic rock
Songs: 12
B

Reviewed by: Darklight

The press release for this album said that Girls Under Glass has gone back to their darkwave roots on this album, and that's true. This is definitely a much more gothic sounding album then their previous more electronic 'Minddiver'. While there are slight electronic elements to be found on this album, it's definitely the guitar, bass and drums that make up the majority of the music here.

The male vocals are deep, clear and emotional singing in a gothic rock style. And there's female vocals featured on almost every track as well giving the songs an even more gothic rock sound. There's a good mix of heavy rock songs and slow darkwave songs. But fans of 'Minddiver' might be a little disappointed by the more rock direction the band has taken this time out. This is definitely NOT an electronic album. This is a rock album with slight electronic programming in the mix.

I like this album, but being more of a fan of electronic music, I like their previous album more. But I can't deny that this album offers very quality music showing off the talents of the band members. Fans of their earlier more gothic sound should really like what this album has to offer. But if 'Minddiver' was more your thing, you might want to pass on this since it lacks the electronic edge of that album.

 

Album: "Minddiver"
Label: Aragon Records (2001)
Style: Industrial rock
Songs: 12
A

Reviewed by: Darklight

The only Girls Under Glass album I've heard prior to this one is their best-of album 'Nightmares'. That album showed the many sides of Girls Under Glass offering industrial rock, gothic rock and darkwave. This album is more electro-industrial in sound featuring more electronic elements and less rock elements. However, there's still heavy guitar used in a lot of the songs.

This is a very energetic, powerful and emotional album. The songs are a great mix of hyper electronics, dark synth melodies, heavy beats, guitars and deep clear male vocals that sing with a lot of range. The band does a great job of combining heavy elements with melodic ones for an outcome that is both infectious and memorable.

The band really does an excellent job of not sticking to one sound here. There are electronic elements, rock elements and even slight gothic elements. Some songs feature acoustic guitar as well which works great. This album might be a little too rock for the electro heads out there, but if you like some guitar in your electronic music, then you will like this. Get it for the amazing cover of Madonna's "Frozen" if for nothing else.

 

Album: "Nightmares" (1999)
Label: Van Richter Records
Style: Heavy Industrial/dark synthpop/darkwave
Songs: 17
B

Reviewed by: Darklight

This is a 'best of' collection of Girls Under Glass recordings from 1988-1999. The CD kicks off with an amazing cover of John Carpenter's Halloween theme. It was the theme music from John Carpenter's Halloween and Escape From New York films that first got me interested in dark electronic music. So hearing the updated version of the Halloween theme on this CD starting things off was just perfect in my opinion. The CD continues to be great with a lot of variety and diversity from song to song. Some songs are heavy guitar driven industrial, some are dark synth-pop, and others are darkwave. I don't care for the heavy guitar driven tracks too much, but the dark synth-pop and darkwave tracks are superb. Thankfully, they're the ones that make up the mnajority of this disc. Since there are so many different genres of music contained on this CD, it sounds more like a compilation of different bands than just one particular band. So if you want a CD packed with a mix of heavy industrial, dark synth-pop and darkwave songs, this would be a good one to choose.