Psyclon Nine - Crwn Thy Frnicatr

Well. Oh my. This CD seriously threatened a spot on my top five albums of all time. Leaving conventional noise industrial in the dust, Psyclon Nine blows their own excellent previous albums out of the water with their third release. INRI sounds like nursery rhymes in comparison.

Crwn Thy Frnicatr still falls into the realms of aggrotech, but with decidedly death metal influences, meaning lots more guitar and faster and deadly drum beats. I was afraid when I first heard Ner0 mention in an interview that Psyclon Nine was taking this approach, but the band has successfully incorporated the best of this darker side of music without loosing that enticing beat that makes everyone want to move.

The new release is also intensly more gothic, giving a very erie mood that pervades throughout the album, both intensifying the overall mood and cohesivily intertwining the songs into one satisfying experience. The songs range from in-your-face death metal threats to synthesized based oontz tracks, but they all have this very specific gothic and grounded twist that allows for a whole range of interpretation.

Suggested songs:
"Crwn The Frnicatr"
"Flesh Harvest"
"Visceral Holocaust"
"Parasitic"
"[bonus track]"

Plumb - Chaotic Resolve

Plumb is one of my longterm music obsessions, who finally did what we hope all of our favorite artists would do: she went back to her original sound. Her self-titled album and first release will forever be one of my favorite CDs. From then, however, her music had somehow slipped away from hard rock and went progressively more country over the next few releases.

But thankfully, on her fourth album, Plumb has gone back to her roots and graced the fans with a mostly hard rock album laced with hints of gothic appeal. I say mostly, since there are a few weaker slow rock ballads that I can't do anything with (other than skip over to the next track).

But the stronger songs make the album worthwhile, such as "I Can't Do This", "Better", and "Good Behavior". These songs have an ethereal gothic quality, that would appeal to any Evanescence fan. With these tracks, along with "Motion" (which is sure to get you out on the dance floor) it's well worth owning.

Suggested Tracks:
"I Can't Do This"
"Motion"
"Better"
"Damaged (extended remix)"