Various Artists - Bench Audio Sampler

Compilation albums are somewhat of a gamble. Many people, like I, use compilation albums to find new interesting artists that the label might have in their stable. But the gambling part is that the artist featured will be judged by one track and one track only. So you, as the compilation composer, need to choose wisely.

Bench Audio have taken somewhat different, but far from unique, approach and let six artists contribute with three tracks each and therefore give the listener a bit wider spectra of the artist. This is an approach I tend to agree with.

Unfortunately, there are a bit too many tracks I dislike on this album and the genres are a bit too wide apart to appeal to electroheads like me or fans of goth/gothmetal on the other side of the line of genres.

For me, it's easy to see that statiCViolence and r@zorbla.de are the strongest artists on this label. While some other contributes might feel to be still on somewhat of a demo stage, their tracks are solid and of good quality. Even though I like blutzukker's "Yes" and Anorkia's "Strike Me Down", there's quite a number of let-down's from these two artists that really don't have the same high end quality as statiCViolence and r@zorbla.de.

Further more, the bands My Consequence and PaPerCuts really feel like the strange kids in the corner when they are squeezed together with the other bands with their gothrock/gothmetal like sound.

To be honest, I'm actually a bit disappointed in this release and I simply hope that the bands manage better in their stand-alone releases. You are able to download a free EP version of this compilation with 6 tracks (one from each artist), so my suggestion is that you first download it and see if there's something for you. Jun 29 2011