Various Artists - Dependence 2012

Dependent used to be one of the big labels with having VNV Nation, Covenant and Suicide Commando under its roof. When all these went elsewhere i personally felt they where left with the lesser gods, though they still had some very good bands (Seabound for instance). They are also known for their compilations of which the septic series are well known. 'Dependence' is another one, and here we have the new installment in a nice black CD box. part 5 if i (or better: discogs) am not mistaken.

The disc starts off very good with Radioaktivists, which is a new project with Krischan Weisenberg and Daniel Myer in it. Its a very nice melancholic synthpop track with good vocals and a funky vibe in the beat. We better have an album from these guys soon. Next up is the Kapt'n K (who??) of "Amnesia" by KMFDM. Never been much of a fan of these guys. This remix is okish though. Good beat and the use of ugly metal guitars is not too disturbing on my ears.

Mesh follows and delivers what we know of them. Quality synthpop. Still one of the best bands around in my opinion. Excellent songwriters and very good vocals. Skold has itself remixed by The Birthday Massacre and i do not really like this. It sounds like some electro/hair metal crossover. The song is catchy, so i guess this will get some fans somewhere. Pride & Fall return here after a lengthy pause, and they disappoint. They were never a really good band, but some of their songs were real standouts. Unfortunately "Reborn" is not amongst them.

Informatik is a band i had heard of, but never checked out. The music resembles Mesh a lot, but with more use of guitars. The playing of that is the average boring power chord style, which degrades this otherwise nice song considerably for me. There is also a new Seabound song here, and that one is good, but not as good as i am used from them. I sure hope Dependent and Seabound are holding out on us, and the new Seabound album will kick our asses. I absolutely love the albums they did on Dependent, so i hope this song is not representative of what is coming.

Dismantled follows and is only a shadow of its former glory. "Whole wide world" sounds synthpop with whiny vocals. Mesh does this better by miles. The following Encephalon is not much better. Somehow it sounds all very familiar what these guys do. It's not bad, but also not very outstanding. The Project Pitchfork remix of Front Line Assembly's "angriff" is better then the original, but that doesn't make it a good track. I think the latest FLA is their worst album after that disaster 'Millenium' and that they should listen to "Tactical Neural Implant" again and wonder what went wrong with them. Stromkern was never a good band, and that hasn't changed a bit. "Ruin(ed)" is a song which lives up to it's title, and why people still put out tracks from this band is a mystery to me.

Acretongue follows with some darkwavy stuff. As with much of the tracks on this compilation it falls in the "not bad, but also not outstanding" category. Ghost & Writer, which is a Seabound/Weathermen collaboration, however is very good. A well crafted song which reminds me a lot of the better works of Wolfsheim in their later years. Easily the best song on this album. Old skool favorite Velvet Acid Christ tries it with a song which is covered from Edward Ka-Spell and fails miserably. Trying to cover songs from Ka Spell/Legendary Pink Dots seems very risky business to me anyway. You have to be very good to cover that and get away with it. And probably just as crazy as Ka-Spell is.

Decoded Feedback closes the album on a positive note with the dancy "Another Loss". Also a pity that they use those boring power chord guitars in the chorus. I am always astonished when EBM bands use that shit. Somehow i have the impression that if a guitar player is not good enough to play in a proper metal band, that one opts for an "Industrial metal" band instead. Not that Decoded Feedback is an industrial metal band, far from that, but why bother with third grade six string bashers when you can put in more nice electronics, right? Anyway, lets not hate on Decoded Feedback. Their song is good, and i will probably play that in my DJ sets here and there.

All in all this compilation with "next level electronics" doesn't deliver much "next level". Its more same old, same old, with a few stand out tracks, a lot of filler and a few misses. Some of the old favorites disappoint and i think Dependents upcoming releases aren't going to be very interesting. Though I'll be keeping an eye on Radioaktivists and Mesh. And keep my fingers crossed Seabound delivered a filler track for this compilation and leaved the really juicy stuff for the upcoming album. Jun 23 2012