Reviewed by: Darklight

I wasn’t too impressed with Kidneythieves debut release as I found it to be typical commercial industrial rock music with female vocals. And while the band has improved somewhat on this release, I still don’t find their sound all that appealing.

Basically, Kidneythieves make dark guitar heavy rock music with slight touches of industrial elements such as electronic programming. The problem is that the rock elements overpower the industrial ones making this a band that will appeal much more to the mainstream rock crowd than the underground industrial one.

The only thing that makes Kidneythieves stand out amongst other similar bands is that they have a female singer. But I personally don’t care for her voice or singing style. She sings rough and raw like a rock singer. I much prefer female singers to have seductive voices personally.

Since this is a six song EP with three of the tracks being different remixes of one song, it’s difficult for me to completely judge the overall sound that Kidneythieves will be producing on their latest full-length ‘Zerospace’. This EP offers up a good blend of more traditional sounding heavy rock songs to more pure electro pieces. But since most of the songs here are remixes, that would explain why they have more of an electro sound to them. The few album versions of the songs here are the ones that sound like generic industrial rock music with a lot of guitar and rough singing.

Even though this music isn’t really my thing, I do admit that it’s better than what the band has offered in the past. These songs are alive and exciting with a lot of energy. So it’s safe to say that if you like industrial rock music, you will most likely enjoy this EP and the full-length ’Zerospace’.

Reviewed by: Darklight

This band creates alternative rock music with scratchy noise effects layered with drum & bass electronic programming. Heavy guitar riffs come and go throughout the songs as well. There are female vocals on each track that are clean and sing well in a softer tone, but more power and passion in her singing would have been nice. There's a commercial and mainstream feel to this album. The songs are very structured. There is not as much variety from song to song as I would like. Some songs are fairly fast paced and aggressive, but they still don't feel very emotional. The slower paced songs are well done, but rather boring. The songs here just come off sounding very manufactured. This is cookie cutter industrial crossover music for the most part. The thing that makes this band a little more original is the fact that it uses female vocals. However, that alone doesn't save the music here. It's just not very interesting and doesn't have what it takes to pull the listener in. A couple of tracks seem fairly dark and angry, but overall the album comes off sounding mellow with a typical alternative edge. The music just doesn't have a punch to it that hooks you. I personally find this album to be quite dull and drab. While electronics are used here, the music still comes off sounding more like standard rock music with a lot of guitars and drums. I will admit that the production of the album is well done and people into more commercial industrial crossover music with female vocals should find this release appealing for the most part.

Reviewed by: Darklight

This band sounds a lot like Gravity Kills with a female singer. The music is very similar to that of Gravity Kills in that it's rather straight forward heavy rock with a dark edge combined with slight touches of electronics. Thrashy guitars, bass and drums are what are up front the most while electronics are mixed throughout with scratchy sounds and distortion. It's angry and aggressive and would fit with other guitar industrial crossover acts that follow in the Trent Reznor/NIN tradition. What gives it more of a unique edge is that the vocals are female. Free Dominguez, the singer, does have a good voice and combines both an angry delivery with a more melodic gothic one. This helps to give variety to the sound that just wouldn't be there if the vocals were male. Track one "S+M (A Love Song)" is thrashy, harsh and straight forward industrial rock. Track two "Feathers" has a little more variety to it as the moods switch between slower and darker drum and bass to distorted thrashing. These two songs make me want to hear more. Fans of bands such as Gravity Kills, Marilyn Manson and Nine Inch Nails will definitely like what Kidneythieves has to offer.