Mlada Fronta - No Trespassing

Mlada Fronta was a relatively unknown name to myself when I received his last album “Outrun” as a promo on this humble little site. I first began to question the project as everything that I read and the little that I heard about them indicated him to be an industrial and hard electronic based project, but the new album was coming off as a huge synthwave piece. With a little bit of reluctance, I downloaded the promo and let the music play through my speakers. I was left in shock and awe by “Outrun” and to this day find it to be one of my favorite albums of all time. 

Fast forward two years and I was left a bit conspicuous once more with the release of “No Trespassing”. With the release of so many other synthwave and dark synth albums on the market – especially around Halloween that are horror based – I was wondering what Mlada Fronta could bring to the table to make anything any different. While Mlada Fronta does not do much to take variation in the formula, what he does is hone his mastery of synthesizers and formulates a grand old horror album. 

‘Deathdreams’ finds us touring a venue of electronic sounds with a steady EBM beat running the background as dark, chainsaw-sounding riffs blast off every couple of beats. The so-called chorus of the album is a riveting conjunction of louder and more upbeat synths. When I finished the song I metaphorically through in my doubt towel and knew that Mlada Fronta had beat my skepticism once more. 

The second song titled ‘The Warriors’ begins with an organ playing a tune like the theme song from Scarface but ditched those spooky efforts and went on to become yet another fascinating dance floor production. What I also found enjoying about my experience with this album is that Mlada Fronta is the type of musician who does not keep within one rhythm or part for most of the song. Utilizing all the elements he presents slowly throughout the piece, Mlada Fronta can take all those noises and make the song break into anywhere between three and five segments. What I’m getting at is that Mlada Fronta makes sure that the songs are never boring and are always catchy. 

The title track of the album ‘No Trespassing’ finds itself playing with similar tropes as the first two songs, such as organs for the Gothic-horror-electro renaissance along with noise walls that serve as a backbone to the entire piece. While I would not say that that ‘Magnus the Avenger’ was not enjoyable, I would not say that there was anything to write home about this one either. It was good, but in respect to the other songs found on the album I found it to be a bit mediocre. 

However, ‘From Hell’ picks up from that slump with another fine electro-assault. Destructive synthesizers find themselves blasting forth. ‘Faceless Man’ is an immediate adrenaline shot to the heart as frenetic electronics kick up a storm. The softer parts of the song are met with dreary synths in the background as club lines crawl through the piece. It’s as if this titular Faceless Man is stalking the listener…

‘Arcade Rider’ finds itself offset amidst all the chaos and horror nonsense but sticks high and true with its retro roots. Feeling like the most 80s centric song on the whole album, those who have grown up with an arcade just down the road will find themselves visiting their youth. ‘The Night Hunter’ begins off with a positive trickle of bright synths but we all know how horror movies go – soon the terror comes, and the brightness goes away. As such the song finds itself sticking with this brightness but those chainsaw-sounding synths come back to rain a dark parade on all of this. 

‘Dead or Alive’ is an effective heart-pumping song which would serve well either on the dance floor or as one would be fighting through a gigantic hoard of zombies. The final song on the album ‘Imminent Danger’ finds itself flirting along the lines of harder analogue sounds. A stricter beat flirting with dance synths carefully takes us out of the ‘No Trespassing’. Perhaps this is not as spooky or cinematic as I had hoped it would have been for a final song, but the energy and fun was all to be had. 

While “No Trespassing” may not be a revolutionary album within the synthwave and dark synth scene, Mlada Fronta is able to outclass many acts within the scene with his production skills. Solid sounds and clean synthetic sounds ooze out like blood from a slit throat, and I do believe this is exactly what Mlada Fronta was aiming for with this album. The homages are found within, the retro aesthetic is pleasant but not overbearing, and it’s pulled altogether with a fantastic nod to the unique history of horror films and synthesizers.