Radam - Conversion

Zachary Greig is the solo-producer behind the electro-industrial project Radam. The man, whose favorite piece of gear is the Twisted Electrons MegaFM, began his journey into music when he was a wee lad. Growing up playing the Sega Genesis, the sounds that came off the console put him in a bit of a trance and would later influence his musical career. As he states, “I always loved all the cool FM sounds on some of those games and it has most definitely influenced my sound design to this day.” Since the early 2000’s Greig has been creating music under names such as Exalted Exile, Trojan Swamp Monster, Captive Bolt Pistol, with various one-off songs and solo album released under the name ‘Zarule’. After his last project Captive Bolt Pistol went into an indefinite hiatus in August of 2022, Greig founded the electro-industrial project Radam. Though considered primarily industrial, Greig states Radam takes influence from chiptune, black metal, punk, folk, and jazz. 

Radam’s third release has just been released and is titled “Conversion”. The primary synthetic notes are jarring hits of jagged electricity. Chiptune elements scrape in and out, making me feel like I’m playing an old-school beat’em’up. And when it all comes together it sounds rather decent, even if the bassline is rather simple. What I find lacking in this song is the power of percussive elements; a bit more bass, a heavier drum element, could have turned this song into a true nightclub stomper. Without that, however, I find the song to sound a bit raw. Which might be the intention, but it does not work here. 

The second song on the album ‘Sea of Despair’ dives deeper into Radam’s chiptune roots. The initial beat sounds like something straight out of a sewer level from a video game. The drum’n’bass elements on the track aren’t that great and sounds like someone’s smacking sticks on a tin can. Which can work, but it doesn’t here. The blackened guitar decorating the background doesn’t add much to the song, either, and what I guess can be called the solo that begins around the two-minute and ten-second mark doesn’t add much to the song except confusion. The worst part of ‘Sea of Despair’ is Radam’s vocals. He chooses to go full goblin mode straight out of a black metal song. I laughed a little bit, not because I found it fun, but because I found it funny. And fairly dismissive. 

Now, don’t get me wrong by the score and the words that have followed above. I do think that Radam has potential, but whatever potential he has has been squashed in ‘Sea of Despair’. ‘Conversion’, however, shows that Radam can make a decent song. There’s a long road ahead, however, and polish is needed. Outsourcing mixing / mastering could definitely help, but I’m no audio engineer, just a guy on the internet. 5.5 out of 10.