CD Review: Formalin - Wasteland Manifesto

Written by Thomas Winter Monday, 07 May 2012 09:44

Artist: Formalin
Title: Wasteland Manifesto
Genre: Ambient / Electro / Industrial
Release Date: 2nd March 2012
Label: Out Of Line

Album Review

FORMALIN now presents their second album ‘Wasteland Manifesto’. With this new album FORMALIN shows a new way to present them from an almost androgynous appearance changed to an MAD-MAX like look. They seem to be a real good choice for this kind of music, adorned with all the useful attributes like gasmasks, piercing, latex/leather outfits, tattoos and all the other gadgets. Thomas (Tominous) Liebchen and Gabor Poszt form a high fashionable and energetic duo which delivers a good but sometimes insufficient job this time.

The opener ‘Introduction: The Infernal Machine’ builds with his atmospheric and dark-future like sound a base for the upcoming twelve songs. Dark and depressing sound cascades sometimes reminiscent of KITARO open up the trip into the wasteland. With harder beats, ‘Wasteland Manifesto’ fires up this travel through the rocky desert. Sometimes twisted vocals driven by a relative cosy rhythm welcomed us into the wasteland. One of my favourite tracks is ‘Faker’, harsh bass-drums combined with nice hard riffs and an almost guttural voice demonstrated the strength and energy which lives in FORMALIN. The following track ‘The Great Armageddon’ shows with its dark and melancholic mood a familiarity to U.S. dominated industrial/electro. Unfortunately the fifth track ‘Collider’ doesn’t deliver much new a proven sound background united with a nice bass-line and the already known vocals.

With ‘Fruits Of Evil’, a little hope returns this album change a little bit. Cruel warped vocals merge with harsh industrial sound pull on your brain but after two minutes the track ends without having really begun. The following tracks ‘Dead Fashion’ and ‘Copycat Criminal’ are quite well done but no outstanding masterpieces. FORMALIN never leaves its familiar sound-base and also the voice show no great variations. ‘Antiheld’ raised my hope to find back to a fine album. Hard rhythms sharply demarcated industrial-electro sound combined with a German text ensures that you wake up from your sleep. ‘Tied and Blinded’ and ‘Fight The Enemy’ are much faster tracks which guarantee real tough synth-lines a hard-hitting bass fused with twisted electro and harsh vocals. ‘Burst Into Fire’ is another two minute piece which serves as  a transition to the last track ‘End Of All Suffering’. With this last track FORMALIN show again their ability to create impressive and unique musical landscapes.

At my opinion, ‘Wasteland Manifesto’ is an ambiguous album. On fifty percent from the tracks you can’t expect a real wow-factor or something new. Only at the end FORMALIN show what real good music and sound they could generate. I can only recommend that you first listen to this CD at a store next to you, cause it’s not everyone’s taste.


Tracklist

CD1
01. Introduction: The Infernal Machine
02. Wasteland Manifesto
03. Faker
04. The Great Armageddon
05. Collider
06. Fruits Of Evil
07. Dead Fashion
08. Copycat Criminal
09. Antiheld
10. Tied And Blinded
11. Fight The Enemy
12. Burst Into Fire
13. End Of All Suffering

CD2
01. Antiheld (Nihiled) 
02. Tied And Blinded (Blackened)
03. Dead Fashion (Wrapped)
04. End Of All Suffering (Extended)


Line-up

Tominous: Vocals, Lyrics, Music
Gabor: Music, Drumming, Lyrics


Website

http://www.formalin-music.com


Cover Picture




Rating

Music: 5
Sound: 5
Extras: -
Total: 5 / 10


Buy the album here!