i first heard the strand on an online-radio station, and liked the sound obviously so i bought this album! the album is alright on a whole, but i feel gets boring after 5 times through it. dave strand has AWESOME vocal skills however, very reminiscent of ministry's al jorgenson. another thing i got sick of was the female contribution on the vocal end. not enough there to keep me coming back for more. so so...

I'll be completely honest here... I'm flipping back and forth between the Remix album and the full-length album *constantly* comparing the remixes with the originals because it's just so much g.d. fun! They're both awesome renditions of what THE STRAND does with new music. Let me break into my own spontaneous review and totally give a shout out to THE STRAND vocalist KIMBERLY BROWN! Say it with me, now: "WOW!" Jesus F**king Christ! Her voice: You GOTTA hear it! THE STRAND is so F**KING COOL! I rarely say that about USA bands. Definitely exceptions would include THE AZOIC and COLLIDE. THE STRAND has never been more cool than they are right now with DIATOM and RMX vol.1 Absolutely these must be consumed together. Don't rip yourself off by getting only one or the other. You gotta breathe it all in! These remixes are just gonna rock your f**king world! hey, and let's even extend to the literal sense, okay? Seriously, THE STRAND f**king RAWKS! Okay.. let's go a little deeper... I'm still catching my breath. Give me a second. You know, this one is so hard because minute by minute, second by second, I'm just so blown away. I want to drift into the next room (as if I had a next room) and kick on the f**king strobe lights, the sweat machine, and invite everyone from the PIG-list (PDX Industrial Gothic) to come on down and shake that cyber industrial groove thing. This is just amazing! I'm torn between sitting here spreading the good news and pretending that I have a danceclub in my bedroom and ten million friends to share this with. If you don't hear this album, you've missed the 21st century. That's all there is to it! Don't miss the future! Wrap your legs around HAUNTED! (track 6 of DIATOM; t-1, 6, & 9 of RMX vol.1) And again, KIMBERLY BROWN! What an amazing vocalist! HOW COOL IS THE STRAND?? And let's not ignore the man himself, DAVE STRAND, also a prominant vocalist in many of the tracks on these albums... I've always liked Dave's vocals... and they're even better this time out. Dave's got that SOUNDS OF MASS PRODUCTION style of cyber industrial punctuation to his vocals. Think "Beyond Thunderdome" or maybe like the screaming Messiah from that film "CHILDREN OF DUNE" and then insert those moments into the awesome music provided by THE STRAND. You MUST explore this question of cool and THE STRAND for yourself! I dare say that you will feel compelled to make new friends just so that you can share the STRAND with someone new! Every body who KNEW THE STRAND in previous years always knew that there was something very kewl and up and coming about this band... in so many ways... live, film, music videos, collectible trading cards of the apocalypse from days in THE TRENCH... the list just goes on forever for die-hard fans of THE STRAND. and now... the enthusiasm comes even more alive because with the music melting through these twin releases ...Jesus H. Christ! IT'S HOT!! There's no escaping it! THE STRAND has got to be the hottest band in the USA right now! and this is NOT just a studio project that you will never hear about until the next album... this is a minimum of a half dozen desert dark-industrial music fiends blazing a trail through the wilderness with live performances. Now, let me make this clear for those few of you out there who really just don't understand, and maybe have never heard of THE STRAND This AIN'T no TECHNO-INDUSTRIAL, mamma's boy, wanna-be, wimpy ass shit. "You make death an entertainment!" I love it! Love THE STRAND!