Everything Goes Cold - Black Out The Sun

After a somewhat hysterical E-mail exchange with Eric Gottesman persuading me with tacos, and also a genuine interest in Everything Goes Cold's just-released-yesterday Black Out The Sun, I am here to give you the rundown on the four man act's most recent release. Never forget that their mascot is a big, angry refrigerator named Edgar G. Chillingston (He dominates the cover art once more, though he does have a cancel sign over his lovely face. Poor fridge.)

Anyway, if you haven't heard of EGC as of yet, it's an industrial band from California with Eric Gottesman as front-man and founder of the group (Notable founding member of Psyclon Nine, live musician with Ayria, Caustic, XP8, Unter Null, and a shit ton of other industrial bands), who seek to perform 90s American Coldwave with a tease of modern feel. When combined altogether, the act doesn't come out half bad.

Black Out The Sun is about, or at least supposedly about "...a wooden donkey and a guy in an ugly purple hat..." While it's hard for me to render what exactly that's supposed to mean, or even if it's supposed to be taken seriously, I guess you could say that I don't mind too much as the music is pretty good.

The album kicks off with the instrumental SL.R1S. Somewhat in the dark ambient field at first with a neat sci-fi twist that slowly beckons its way to a slow, but very nice electronic beat, I came out enjoying this tune. after that, The Joke kicked in with some drum work and a beat that made me feel as if I was running through a jungle. That feeling soon went away as the guitar kicked in. The vocals that were shouting, not necessarily screaming in any sense, just louder, and angry were well done. They were clean, and hardly touched, which was pretty neat in a field where vox effects practically dominate every song I listen to. Obviously, these guys are not afraid to let their chords go naturally. And to good results.

Crawl of the Nameless Beast brought in the next track that I dissected. Another nice electronic build up to a decent track with the guitar serving more as an undertone than anything this time around, but with a bit of an 8-bit sound to it through a few unique beeps here and there. Second well done song on the album.

Perhaps the first song on the album that I completely enjoyed to an extreme was The Iron Fist of Just Destruction. The chorus was astounding, as the shouting just echoed threefold and just made me feel like part of a movement. This fist hit me hard, and I was wanting seconds.

IAMERROR, which also released as a single via the Metropolis Records Bandcamp site, which also featured Charles Levi on bass, had a different feel to it. Perhaps a bit more easy going than previous efforts thus far, and never getting too harsh in its own right.

I suppose Serpent Crown followed in the footsteps of the last track, this one didn't really hit too hard, either. Not in a bad way; I mean that it was easy going and not harsh on the ears at all.

When the Sky Rips in Two You Are Free came in next with a plethora of sounds that belonged back with retro games. Not a bad song, either. In fact, it was quite well done, and uses the title of the album in its lyrics.

Ice Brigade, Part II served as a sequel to the first part that appeared on Vs. General Failure, was a nice break from the rest of the songs on the album. While the rest fit in with each other, this one has a slow drum beat, a synth based production, and a light chanting going on in the background. This almost served as a sister song to the intro of the album.

More retro sounds protruded Henchman Follows Hand, and although those sounds were kinda odd, they added a unique flavor to the song. The next one, All Sculpt Evil from the Clay Beneath Their Lips, got a bit more synth oriented, as well. Welcomed sound and even using some distortion to make it sound as if the vocals crap out at a few points in the song, I enjoyed it.

Lastly, Conqueror came along and, in this one, the drums were really the main show. Everything else came along in the package, but the drum work really stood out this time around, being a more powerful and more fancy than before.

And, altogether, this wasn't a bad album at all. Not only that, but it was my first time checking these guys out, as well, and I walk away well impressed. It makes me want to check out everything else they've done in the past, and in order to get my stubborn ass looking at your other musical outputs, that's an accomplishment. So, congratulations to this act; they've made me do something I don't normally do.

Check'em out, and go give the album a listen. And, if you enjoy, give the album an order. Jul 10 2014