Attrition - The Unraveller of Angels

Attrition has been around a long time. Established in 1980, and the wikipedia names them among names like Coil, Einsturzende Neubauten, Throbbing gristle and calles them a great contributer to the development of industrial music in England. Eehhmmm, what?

I have been aware of the name for a long time, but never came around to checking them out. Listening to this album and checking out their backcatalogue i know why. The output is pretty underwhelming. The only thing going for them is them being around for such a long time.

The big problem of this album is the old sound. It all sounds like a piece of work made at the end of the eighties. "Snakepit" sounds like an outtake of Clock DVA's "Buried dreams" and the drum&bass influenced "Karma mechanic" is a very weak attempt into that genre. It would most certainly be refused for a release on more liquid drum&bass oriented labels like Headhunterz or so.

"Narcissist" is the only song which stands out a little bit for me, but even this one sounds pretty uninspired to me. The guitar stabs even make it even sound pretty tired and unoriginal. This goes for most tracks as well. There is also violin playing by Matt Howden, and though i like his stuff, it doesn't work for me on this album.

The album finishes on a very low note with two long ambient pieces which make this already pretty uninspired album fade into nothingness. "The Unraveller of Angels" is something like a relic from a time long gone. It all sounds to me like i picked up a mediocre album form 1989 in a sale. If you hunger for music from those times, this album might be for you. If you like the sound of the now, better steer clear from this one. Apr 11 2013