Album: (Various Artists - 1998)
Label: Re-Constriction Records
Style: Industrial/Goth
Songs: 15

Reviewed by: Darklight

This is a compilation album with various industrial and goth bands doing covers of Mission UK songs. As with most compilation albums like this you get some really good tracks and some not so good ones. Fifteen songs is a good helping of music and most of the tracks delivered here are great. I would say that everything here leans more toward goth, so there wouldn't be too much for an industrial music fan to get excited about. But it does have its industrial moments as well, just not quite as many as I would have liked. The first track here "Naked & Savage" is performed by SOCIETY BURNING and I'm really impressed with how they did this track. They go for more of a gothic approach here as opposed to their usual coldwave style and it works extremely well. The next track "Deliverance" is performed by THE LAST DANCE and is one of the best songs here. It's very layered with a lot of mood and emotion and a quality that just makes is stand out in my opinion. Song three "Garden Of Delight" is performed by CHRIST ANALOGUE and shows more of an electro goth side to them that I really like. They back off on the guitars and create this song with electronic sequencing, haunting synth melodies and melodic singing. Song four "Tower Of Strength" is performed by WRECKAGE and is more of a traditional old school type goth song with a dated feel. It's good, but doesn't have enough modern elements to really make it stand out. Song five "Wake" is performed by HOTBOX and features female vocals that sing in a chilling manner. The song starts slow and then builds into distorted madness that gets noisy and messy. I actually find it to be rather annoying because of the noise. Song six "Spider And The Fly" is performed by STONE 588 and shows more of an orchestrated edge with haunting keyboard melodies. The singing of course is beautiful and the music is very dark. This is one of the best songs on the album and makes me want a new STONE 588 album that much more. Song seven "Serpents Kiss" is performed by TUNGSTEN COIL and is a very heavy coldwave track with extremely distorted vocals and thrashy guitars. It's still very dark and is a good change of pace for the album with its more industrial edge that blends more variety. Song eight "Wasteland" is performed by FAHRENHEIT and is another more traditional goth song that doesn't bring in a lot of modern elements. But it's still very good. Song nine "Severina" is performed by THE SHROUD and brings in a cold beauty with female vocals and soothing music. It's one of the more romantic tracks here. Song ten "Butterfly On A Wheel" is performed by PURR MACHINE and is more of an experimental track with noise and female vocals. It's actually very dreary and slow and boring. Song eleven "The Grapes Of Wrath" is performed by CRUCIFORM and is another very slow paced and rather dreary track that I find to be really dull and boring. Song twelve "Raising Cain" is performed by DESMO DONTE and is very well done and quality with a polish to it. It's more traditional in style, but is still very good. Song thirteen "Blood Brother" is performed by EX-VATO and is another traditional goth style song and is very well done and enjoyable. But it doesn't really offer enough modern elements to it. Song fourteen "Kingdom Come" is performed by HUMAN DRAMA and features good rhythms and beats with well sung vocals. Song fifteen "Love Me To Death" is performed by EVA O with STUN GUN and is very dark and beautiful and is a great way to end this album. While this is a very good goth compilation, it lacks a lot of industrial style music that is only given here in one or two songs. More industrial songs would have made this better. Also, some tracks just aren't that good while others sound too much like the original versions not allowing them to have their own unique edge. But the bottom line is that there is still plenty of quality music on here to please goth music fans.