Vault-113 - Cold Fusion

Vault-113 began in 2010 and is the solo project of German producer Johannes Scherer. Citing Suicide Commando, Noisuf-X, Grendel, Diary of Dreams and Dulce Liquido among the (to this point in research) 25 influences on his music, Vault-113 has a familiarity in his sound while at the same time not really sounding like someone else.

I mean by this that you can hear the hardstyle industrial techno influences but if you listen closer, you can hear other styles of electro in the music as well. And it makes for very interesting listening. The danger with having so many influences can be that the artists try to throw everything into a song, hope it works. and it all turns out to be a mash of shit. That is not the case in any way with Vault-113.

The debut release was the 18 track 'Leichenfeier' in 2010 and 2013 sees the massive 2CD, 28 track release, 'Cold Fusion'.

CD1 is 13 tracks at just under 55 minutes and starts with a short track "Enter The Vault" followed by "Human Perdator" and "Stellarator". These sound massive in headphones with sweeps , phases, metal noises and give a dark atmospheric feeling leading into distorted segments and finally big percussive kicks and snares. "Star Collider" has a trance feel to it but far to the dark trance side then we get "Devour" which is an odd track as it feels as if it needs percussion and then 3 and 1/2 minutes in you get them, and the song rises.

"Surreality", "Vampire Faces" and "Fusion Chamber" have that SAM/Soman feel to them with distorted beats and loops, clean cut breaks and messed up sequences and samples. Massive deep sweeps and pads bring a full sound to the tracks with big bass sounds added to the mix.

"Inner Chaos (feat Atomizer)" is a distorted hardcore noisy progressive track that is everything the title suggests it is, but too short. This track deserves more than 2.23 minutes.

"Misanthropie fur Fortgeschrittene", "Electrowelt Theme" and "Feel Me Twice" are slower and more based on the trance style but in a Vault-113 way, which is to use darker sounds, sweeps and noises. The vocals in the last two are quite a surprise when heard and add (obviously) that extra something to enhance the tracks.

"Desolate November Days" is the minimalist Vault-113. Again though, the sounds, the noises and the bits and pieces that are scattered throughout this track and indeed the rest of the album really make for something that while listening to it makes you go "oh, did you hear that bit!".

CD2 is the remix CD and has 15 tracks just tipping over 70 minutes. "Leichenfeier" is remixed four times, "Neutron Fun" three times, "Entruckung" three times, "Doomsday Device" twice while "Voice of Havoc", "Kranke Puppen" and "Mechanism" have been given the treatment just the once. Each of the remixes have been given a good working over and will fit into any set from the softer Trance style to the harder edge and up to aggrotech.

I've gone for the 8.5 score on this as the album flows well and the remixes are quite good in their own right. Its a fun bang your head stomp about album and all the tracks are well written and nothing seems to be messy or out of control and distorted beyond decent comprehension.

And the price for 28 tracks is a damn fine deal that you can't and shouldn't pass up. Oct 15 2013