Cold Therapy - Masquerade Infinite

Formed in late 2012 in Jelena Gora, Poland, electro-industrial trio Cold Therapy have wasted no time in establishing themselves as an authoritative force in the genre. Despite being fairly new to the game, this busy outfit has already enjoyed some solid successes. In three short years Cold Therapy have released three full-lengths albums, appeared on myriad compilations and penned remix tracks for a number of industrial heavyweights, including Wumpscut. 

Cold Therapy's latest offering, "Masquerade Infinite", boasts an impressive palette of sounds to create sorrowful, wandering melodies and complex textures. The album's opener doubles as the title track, whose foreboding atmosphere introduces the listener to the morbid, majestic and tense beauty of Masquerade Infinite; it's a bleak world engineered by the evil genius of producer Jacek Wolanski. 

This is an extremely well-constructed album top to bottom. At its foundation is a robust rhythm section, powered by ingenious drum programming and gravid bass. Thick layers of languishing atmospheric soundscapes are then added, followed by synth-driven melodies and baleful vocals. Here, Cold Therapy have created a sound that spans across quite a few eras of electro-industrial evolution.  

The tracks on "Masquerade Infinite" stay mostly on the low-tempo side of things, which helps maintain the album's lumbering vibe. 'Mask of Deceit' treats us to an impressive trifecta of marching percussion, violins, and spoken word vocals by Jen Draven. To mix things up a bit, a decimating EBM beat wreaks havoc on 'Suicide Solution', which is something that could have been used to great effect on 'So Leicht'. The exquisitely crafted 'In Excelis', which features Wumpscut-esque theremin synth, best represents the albums's core sound and disposition.  

"Masquerade Infinite" is a refreshingly diverse and mature effort that will surely be appreciated by a varied cross-section of industrial music fans.