Victor Love - Technomancy

Dope Stars Inc. is not a name uncommon in industrial households. With their style centered around 90s and early 00s cyberpunk rock'n'roll, they have had a very, very prolific career. The mastermind behind the project, Victor Love, has recently started out his own solo side project that has been garnering fans and attention left and right. When he teased his debut album Technomancy, the tracklist included a long and varied list of guest artists such as KMFDM, Deathstars, and Army of the Universe. This will be quite an early review as the album doesn't come out until May 6th, but, hell, since I have it I might as well give all of you a reason to get it. 


The album does start off with a weak song titled 'Bitchcraft'. Featuring KMFDM, the song devolves from an energetic industrial metal song to a repetitious piece of music with equally looping lyrical content. The production value behind it was absolutely amazing and it kept my attention for the first two minutes, but the appeal fell away completely after the first half. 

However, the album picked up as soon as Spiritual Front lent their talented hands to 'Irrationality'. This neofolk/classical rock group melded with Victor Love's love for all thing futuristic. A fairly simple EBM beat rolls through the song, but the magic happens during the chorus wherein a beautiful synth line creates an emotional backdrop to the whole song. 

I recently read one of my friend's Facebook statuses where they were asking for GOOD rap metal to make a return. I think they could find what they're look for with 'Cocaine', which features Psychedelic Industrial act Deflore. The rapid fire lyrical delivery and attitude charged instrumentation made this song a keeper.

Industrial metal group Deathstars offered their talents for 'Surrenders'. While the verses are very minimal with a simple rhythm appearing next to the vocals, the chorus again shines with heavy rock tendencies. Plus, I believe Whiplasher and Love do a duet when singing in those segments. 

Next up came the very biting and fire-fueled track 'Machine Gun' which featured Army of the Universe. This sounds more or less exactly like something Dope Stars Inc. would put out, just with a few more stomping elements involved. I could say much the same about the next song, 'The New System' which features Aborym, as well as 'Blind Or Dead' featuring The Enigma TNG. However, what I am not stating is that these songs are bad by any means; they're actually really good and rock my world. 

'I Curse You' features Luca T. Mai who goes by the name of Zu under the bane Mombu Mombu. This lovely gentleman recorded sax for the song, and his addition was most important towards the end of the song wherein everything goes a little more quiet to allow his solo efforts to shine. And some people have the balls to say that jazz can't roll with rock. 

Up next came a softer electrorock outfit joining hands with Love, and that band would be Hate Inc.. Their chorus effected vocals did very, very well, and they also helped form one of the less intense, not-as-hard songs on the album. It gave a break between all the madness, I suppose.

Soundtrack designer Orax was featured on 'Black Dreams', the final track on the album. While I have seen plenty of cyberpunk influences from the wonderful pixelated cover art (done by the extremely talented Valenberg), and while I have read that Victor Love has a lot of fondness for the cyberpunk genre, I haven't seen much influence in their song structure thus far that proves that. However, Orax and Love combined together are able to crank out an instrumental that bleeds pure cyberpunk goodness. It moves, it grooves, and shutting your eyes while listening to this song will transport you to a virtual reality. 

Now, this is a good, wholesome album with a ton of talent packed into it for ten songs. Each artist has brought their own unique flavor to Love's already dandy formula. I think the last thing I want to see from Love are songs that are made and produced by himself and only himself without any other musicians involved. I want to see whether or not he would be able to fully split himself from the sound of Dope Stars Inc. without the help of other bands. 

That, however, is just an opinion. It does not detract from the experience at all. Love's album is good, and I can't find many complaints about it. Kudos to him and all the other artists involved. 
Mar 24 2016