Artist: Severe Illusion
Title: No More Alive Than You Deserve
Genre: EBM
Release Date: 23rd September 2011
Label: Complete Control Productions
Album Review
After 5 years of hiatus, during which SEVERE ILLUSION had only released an EP in 2010, they are back with their latest CD, ‘No More Alive Than You Deserve’. And once again social issues are the major point the band focuses on as it unleashes its attack. The CD opens with the brilliant ‘Mockingbird’ with its harsh and raw aspect of EBM. Inspired by the bird who imitates sounds but more accurately by Harper Lee’s novel ‘To Kill A Mockingbird’ speaks about a “barbaric nation” where the scapegoats are a crucial factor in determining the group of “outsiders” and at the same time they help in “insiders” to develop their identity. And the truth is that this song overshadows the rest of the CD. It’s an album that stands on high grounds, not only thematically but also in terms of musicianship. The feeling you get is that the band is in a pit, covered with mud, fighting with bare knuckles a rather invisible plexus. ‘To The Wall’ would be a déjà vu Industrial song if it didn’t have the effect of someone bashing his head on the wall.
‘När Helvetet Kom Till Byn’ (‘When Hell Came To the Village’) has something cryptic (the Swedish speaking people will get it better than me) which is engrossed by the use of the synth horns. ‘Inside Your narrow Little World’ seems to draw something from Arthur Brown’s ‘Fire’ in terms of inspiration of lyrics and you should add elements of fury and despair to get the atmosphere of the song. ‘Cultural Identity’ is composed as a patchwork of identifiable elements, which are stretched to their opposites, in order to represent society as something more chaotic than the standard sociological research tries to establish. The last song, ‘Dirt’, is more of a mainstream direction both in terms of music and its subject. The EBM here holds something melancholic in the reality crash of the narrator - from a line of this song the title of the album comes- and the trombone that sounds in it is de facto an interesting add that offers quality and “character” to the song. The production of the album is as great as it gets. The feeling of a dirty “mud fight” is conveyed here with power. Whether you are or not in this “fighting mode” you’ll enjoy this album.
Tracklist
Mockingbird – 4:57
Try Harder – 5:32
Clear Head – 6:29
To The Wall – 4:35
När Helvetet Kom Till Byn – 5:55
Inside Your Narrow Little World – 5:38
Them Unwitting – 3:49
Rotating Knives, Yes – 4:34
Cultural Identity – 3:36
And Them We Kill – 6:53
Dirt – 5:43
Line-up
Karl Fredrik Djurfeldt
Ulf Lundblad
Websites
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Severe-Illusion/75567054789 / http://myspace.com/severeillusion
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 9
Total: 8.5 / 10
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