seven

at last I got my hands on this ep, after its official release date back in april. first impression - johan seems to speed up the sound, still keeping heavy abrasive percussion as the driving element in the mix. danceable "comatose delusion (overdose shot one)" starts the disc with fast-paced ebm, spiced up with clean untreated synthlines and usual trademark contrast between noisy beats and clean soft elements.

torn and twisted vocals blends nicely with the music, creating demented aggressive atmosphere. if you remember hits like "see you in hell", "murder", 'desire", "somnabulist" to name a few, you will notice that "comatose delusion" is not nearly as minimal and precise; carefully calculated compressed, heavy-as-hell percussion and broken, dislocated creaking synths that were the trademark of suicide commando have been replaced by more solid and "friendly" sound that still keeps its harshness, but in a different way, similar to recent infact and even feindflug material.

second new track is "kevorkian" that seems to make up for the unusual danceability of the first track. it features the most brutal and heaviest beginning I have heard from the band. overloaded bass-filled percussion and torn synth elements start the track that breaks out to crushing attack where background consisting of explosive pulses, feedback-filled screeches and bizarre breaks is pierced by violent high-pitched frequencies. it is the track;'s structure that makes it even more enjoyable - starting out with unusually long and violent beginning, it continues with several moments of beatless atmosphere filled with slowly building tension torn apart by controlled ebm assault.

velvet acid christ alters the title track emphasizing deep elegant synthlines and high-bpm steady percussion. vocals has been pushed back; the atmosphere is a lot more relaxed and fluid, but somehow regular beat seems to plague the track, resulting in a sound that is a bizarre old school-sounding hybrid between harshness and precision of suicide commando and flowing trance of vac.

hocico, on the other hand, goes after more solid atmospheres, improving density of the title track. the result - anger-fueled, fast and melodic sound that is, undeniably, hocico. rhtyhm-intensive and danceable, this mix features a lot better balanced contrast between keys melodic elements and harshness. sounding a bit too old-school at the beginning, it quickly moves into interesting mix with many changes.

judging by only two tracks, I can say that I am glad to hear this new suicide commando ep. so far, it fits nicely amongst new infact, hocico and recent feindflug ep, still being one the harshest acts on the ebm horizon.