annodalleb - Appologue

New to the Negative Gain roster, annodalleb is bringing wickedly paced experimental industrial sounds keen to that of Skinny Puppy to the already well established record label. Based in San Francisco, his full length album "Appologue" released just in mid-April and contains ten tracks of varying sounds and musical craftsmanship. 

Starting off with 't0nik', which has a lovely ambient based build up, the song immediately places the listener within the realm of annodalleb. Pulsating beats meet whispering vocals, followed by a much harsher, rhythmic section with tougher chords. Mixed in there is a softer segment with lighter touches, but the chimes stay with the song until the end. 

While 'blood bond' doesn't get as whacky as the first song, the firmer rhythm and focus on a linear song should easily resonate with audiences. 'revenge' gives off a much appreciated industrial rock sound, inputting guitar work and some wicked pounding drums to boot. 

'function generator' was a pretty streamlined club friendly track that was laced with all sorts of effects; hell, he even threw in crunchy guitars nearing the end of the song, which was quite a surprise. 'war' was another very club friendly track that mixed as much electronics as it did with guitar work. What you get is a solid track that is multi-layered and efficient. 

'eyes out' brings the focus back to electronics, utilizing everything from lazer like sounds to music that belongs like it sounds like a sci-fi shooter. 'jacked' dragged out a lot of deep pitched sounds, but I felt as if the vocals were a bit too suppressed underneath all the other sounds. Perhaps this was intentional; if it was, I'm not really digging the way it turned out. 

'distaste' put in firm work with synths for a good half of the song. After that, the track goes straight back into annodalleb's always surprising and ever growing mechanical segments. 'turmoil' sounded lovely, and 'neutonian', the final track, brought a lot of already brewing elements within the album to fruition. 

And, boom, that was a grand album. I feel as if there is room in here for better quality and production values, but musically this guy is sound. He has a very experimental and industrial based sound around him, and he's damned good at bringing all that out to play. Listen
May 12 2015