Coming out of a side project from Industrial Techno act, K-Nitrate, Audiowar’s 44 minute album is nothing short of bloody amazing!

The brainchild of Graham Rayner (songwriter for Cubanate), it’s easy to hear the musical influences on this album – it’ progressive, no nonsense metal-industrial noise. It’s relentless in its assault. The tracks are well crafted, and finely balanced – each track is a new adventure for the ears. Think Cubanate and Ministry (circa ‘Mind…’) and you’ll have a fair idea as to what this album’s about. Completely instrumental (the only vocals are samples, buried beneath the rampaging music), this album comes as a breath of much welcome fresh air. It has that one quality sadly lacking from most of today’s releases – originality, but with a hint of familiarity. Danger with a hint of safety.

The opening track merely builds us up, slowly with distorted electronic noise, growing calmer, until the second track, ‘One Drug’ slams home with Ministry-esque bass, and slap-down rhythm. This is good stuff. The metal influences are all too apparent in the next onslaught, which is ‘Super Freak’ – this is a crazed maniac with a chainsaw let loose on a dance floor, and I expect to see this packing the dance floors at clubs soon!

‘Retro Life’ is a little more stayed in its approach – more ordered, and yet equally as harsh as the preceding tracks. It all goes nuts for the track ‘Analyze’ – ordered noise and rhythm is the order of the day here – this is a beautifully crafted track, with loops, grinding beats, and progressive rhythm, this track does not disappoint. The sampled lyrics work well too – playing along with the track, and not dominating it.

‘Criminal’ can best be described as a track thankful to be let out of it’s cage after years of torture – again this is another dance floor filler, and again the track is varied enough to be different, and yet is so recognisable as an Audiowar product. ‘Money Shot’ is about as laid back as it gets on this album so far – melody and rhythm are free to breath here, and the sounds space is a lot less cluttered. Consider this the warm down track after ‘Criminal’ – chance for you to get your heart rate down to a reasonable level.

And yet the rest is not over there – ‘Dirty Link’ brings a touch of ambiance to the proceedings. Gone are the harsh pounding beats, only to be replaced by industrial-esque melodies, that guide and lead the listener to the track ‘Breaking Down’… another melodic, ambient piece… or so you think until it engages 1st gear and cascades into another Audio War classic – dirty, pounding beats, and that all too familiar driving melody. Nice! The final track on the album is ‘Audio Crash’ – crash by name and crash by nature – this is a mental head fuck just waiting to dance all over your face. Even at the end of the album there is no let up. Quality! Just the way it should be.

I want, no, need to see this band live. This album is by far one of the best I have heard to date, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It’s albums like this that will rid the scene of the electro bleep culture for good. Bring it on!
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