Distorted World - Shadow Empire

You know, I actually almost forgot about Distorted World in the sense that they just flew off my radar. Not necessarily because I didn't like their music, but perhaps it was because the wait between their previous single which served as a teaser for this album was released a year and some months back. However, here they are, the harsh EBM and darkwave essences of this act mixing and mingling as always. Releasing on October 31st of this year, Shadow Empire may just serve as a nice little slice to spice up your Halloween.

The solid two minute Intro did decent work in regards to what an intro should do; bring you into the album and catch your attention. A fairly spine tingling line reaches across, and a fair amount of what I would consider big circus sounds breaks forth, and eventually we're in Shadow Empire, the title track. Horns play off in effort to recreate that royal feeling. This is also where the first set of harsh, distorted chords come into play; rallying a deep growling voice paired next to choral samples in the background, and a decent beat to roll along with it, this track wasn't half bad.

Constellation lowered the growling, with a bit of a harsher beat to it, the choral samplings still remaining more deep pitched this time around. Dark Matter allowed piano work to enter the battlefield, offering a wonderful little tinge, and Mistress allowed the entrance of a second voice. Very soothing, very nice, perhaps the music was a bit overpowering, but Angelina's vocals rang out nicely.

Disease wasn't that great of an instrumental; it did what it had to do, and sort of relied on what's been presented. I felt there to be an uneven balance between vocal delivery and music in Endless Agony, once more, as if the music was too overpowering.

Belief Ordeal had another decent beat, more choral samplings in the back, but, again, it seemed as if the song was falling back on already presented ideas and themes. Sinister Reborns was alright, making way for a slower beat with one or two new noises added in the mix, and the Outro followed suit, only two minutes (same as the Intro), and offered a pretty laid back drum centric end.

Acylum and Vomito Negro both came in to remix Endless Agony. The first mix was stellar, the synth line powering a very heavy, somewhat ambient riddled main rhythm, and I preferred it over the original. Vomito Negro pushed in more of an industrial metal feel to the song, and this mix went well enough; in my opinion, better than the canon version.

And, well, though I did have to wait a little more than a year for this release, it wasn't half bad. Some songs I got tired of later down the line, as I felt that all that needed to be heard was already heard, and the later efforts were sort of something that didn't have enough love attached to them to make them unique, but, all in all, it wasn't a bad release. Plus, both remixes attached were pretty good. And that's always a plus. Sep 24 2014