Vicious Alliance - Crushed by the System

Vicious Alliance is an EBM band from Philadelphia and in their world The Great War never ended and their music puts life to this world of decay. 'Crushed by the System' is their debut and in the EP format. With its seven tracks and two remixes, it's pretty massive for being an EP.

About 29 seconds into the first track you are faced with the dilemma that follows me throughout this debut. On one side you have great rhythm, nice melodies, and nice female vocals with hum along friendly lyrics, but on the other side you have the male vocal effects. The distortion sounds pretty much like it's been done with a digital bong. Since the music is pretty undistorted and the female vocals are not tempered with it seems like there's too much of a distance between the feeling of the male vocals and the rest. It just doesn't fit in.

If you like the distortion, you will have quite a joy ride. The music is good, melodies are fine and everything is well produced. As far as I go, I just can't swallow the effects. Apr 06 2009