Album: "Defy Everything" (1999)
Label: Slipdisc Records
Style: Industrial metal
Songs: 11

Reviewed by: Darklight

N17 return with their blend of heavy and aggressive guitar chugging metal music with touches of industrial such as electronic programming and samples. The songs "Rust", "Left", "Brash" and "Minion" are all straight forward heavy rock songs that don't include anything creative or interesting. They're generic and boring. Guitars thrash, drums slam and vocals yell. Nothing out of the ordinary. However, the songs "Mirror", "Cleanse", "Mute", "Suffering", "Wasted" and "Baal" are loaded with excellent electronic programming and samples throughout. They are still heavy guitar rock songs, but the industrial touches are very apparent making the songs a lot more enjoyable. The song "Descent" is an excellent instrumental track with a more melodic feel to it. It's a nice change of pace from the more raw stuff deliverd here. While most of the songs on this CD are quality heavy industrial music, everything tends to sound a lot alike as well. There just isn't a lot of differences from one song to the next. The singer shouts with anger over guitar, bass and drum assaults. Not much else happens. The little bit of electronics included here do help, but not enough to make anything too interesting. If you like bands such as THE CLAY PEOPLE and DROWN, you will like N17 as well. This CD if for fans of guitar heavy industrial metal music only.

Album: "Trust No One" (1997)
Label: Slipdisc Records
Style: Electro metal
Songs: 10

Reviewed by: Darklight

N17 is a dark and aggressive guitar thrashing heavy industrial band very similar to that of Ministry and Skrew. The music here is basically thrash metal with sampling and drum machines. It's intense and knocks you to the ground. Harsh and brutal madness at its finest. The vocals are yelling distorted anger that roar with hatred. This band creates this sound better than most. They manage to make each of the ten tracks delivered here sound unique while still keeping them just as energy packed. Everything does remain guitar thrashy, but do feature elements in them that allow them to stand out. You don't have to worry about any slow or boring love songs here. This is all violent aggression. However, there is still a lot of style to the music found here. It actually has a groove with great hard driving rhythms and beats. Occasionally thrown into the mix are haunting synth melodies that really give this music its dark edge. I like the layering of the the guitars, bass, drums and vocals. It's done very well. This band is tight and the overall album is very well produced. This is very high quality music. I especially like the vocals in these songs. They are raw and rough with only slight distortion. They shout, scream, yell and are very pissed off. The singing fits in with the insane music perfectly. While I am fairly pleased with everything given here, I would still like to see much greater uses of electronics and synths. They do a good job for the most part of incorporating a lot of different elements and emotions into their music. However, they could even be better if they decided to be more experimental with the uses of electronic programming and synth melodies. Also, the songs are fairly short only playing for three to four minutes. But the bottom line is that this is very well done heavy and aggressive guitar thrashing metal industrial crossover music that will appeal to fans of bands such as Clay People, Fear Factory Ministry, Misery Loves Co. and Skrew.