U-731 - By All Means...

The war against the inner enemy has started. Everybody is a target; nobody is immune against the filtration process. Does government have a divine right to judge whether and which citizen is useful and which is not? Who is sophisticated enough to understand the meaning of each person in social system? If you dare to dig deep enough into the history of modern civilization, you could have found a written documentation that it had been already defined more than 600 years ago by the noble English law (listen carefully, my reader, and admire this definition):

"The King has two Capacities, for he has two Bodies, the one whereof is a Body natural, consisting of natural Members as every other Man has, and in this he is subject to Passions and to Death as other Men are: the other is a Body politic, and the Members thereof are his Subjects, and he and his Subjects together compose the corporation, as Southcote said, and he is incorporated with them, and they with him, and he is the Head, and they are the Members, and he has sole Government of them: and this Body is not subject to Passions as the other is, nor to Death, for as to this Body the King never dies". (Royal lawyers, 1562 A.C)

If you remove all beautiful figures of speech, you will understand that what is hidden behind those words is a concept of political (or corporate) force being infallible in its decisions by all their meanings! When citizens allow their political system to put down its roots deep enough into their conscious setting a close control, then the mechanism of so called "Two Bodies of the King" starts to overpower all common senses.

And here, once again, power electronics becomes a trumpet of political and social protest, dissecting the system processes, warning the listener against his indifference. A debut album of US based resident Gordon Lazarus finds home on sub-label of Malignant Records right on time when a storm of crisis spins Europe once again. I am not sure about the origin of the project's name, whether it is a number of German submarine or a covert biological and chemical warfare research and development unit of the Imperial Japanese Army, but choosing a very controversial and even disturbing image for the cover of this release (homosexual prisoners in Sachsenhausen death camp during mid 30's of the previous century), Mr. Gordon prepares a mine field of heavy electronics and dark oppressive atmosphere.

And sure enough, the content doesn't deceive expectations. Generally, the material presented through "By All Means" is not classical power electronics, but a combination of various styles of extreme music, with a lot of elements from dark ambient and death industrial genres. The first track "Forced Neurortic Displacement" shows its sharp nails with a wide dark atmosphere that draws images of catacombs full of low-life scum and some monster chanting words of power to set a total control over zombified herd. "Asphyxiant Collapse" fills the air with a sound of working mechanisms beating as a heart of technological warfare. "The Mechanics of Embalming" is full of mechanical loops and scratches showing a depersonalized essence of the modern society. The track becomes heavier with each second while a distorted vocal session sets my soul on fire.

All tracks try to keep a healthy balance between being raw and dirty and between processed and sampled loops and special background effects. With the help and corrective input from external guests like John Stillings of Steel Hook Prosthesis and Andy Grant of The Vomit Arsonist, together with adding his own material , Gordon creates one hell of a sonic journey. "Aktion - Freedom, Reaktion - Resistance" starts with a political oriented speech and transforms into a heavy material full of analogue disturbances, harsh scratched sound, industrialized loops. "F.E.M.A. Care" continues to concentrate on the same level of tension describing the theme of a total federal control over masses and citizens. Presenting more than twelve minutes of aggression and brutality, the artists decides to continue with the rhythm and dives into another long composition "By All Means" that has a monotonous oppressive background and lots of violent machinery noises, sonic and radioactive impulses, sampled speeches of well-known dictator and many other features and tasty gadgets.

Dark is the day, grey and bleak are colors of the world, dictatorship and brainwashing prevail over the strongest species of human kind, culture for masses is replaced by mass culture of constant reality shows,- "Sou Gan / Last Rights" finishes the album of hatred, the album that turns into the warning, the recorded message addressed to the devoted listener and the follower of protest, a reminder of danger which is brought by modern society to each and every individuality and clear mind.

Once again Malignant proves that there is a leading force in power electronics and death industrial scene choosing wisely the content for his releases. Gordon Lazarus joins proudly the family of really creative comrades with a strong debut album setting a high standard for his future career. There is not much criticism that can be addressed to the presented material. Maybe those two long tracks could be a bit shorter while I feel that they were quite over-extended. Anyhow, all the better things compensate minor disadvantages to put this album into my favorites list together with its brothers in arms from Steel Hook Prosthesis, Nyodene D, The Vomit Arsonist. Mar 20 2014