Title: When I’m Dead
Artist: Dismantled
Genre: Industrial
Release Date: 23rd November 2007
Label: Dependent Records
Introduction
At first it was only an experiment to create something similar to FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY, but when Gary Zon got only positive reply from online listeners, he started to develop his sound further and added influences of television, movies and music into his sound. The first and only demo was sent out in March 2001 and caught the attention of Dependent Records, who released the song 'Purity' on the Septic II Sampler. The self-titled debut album was released in June 2002 via Dependent. Preceded by the single 'Exit', the second album 'PostNuclear' was hit the stores in February 2004 and became a highly acclaimed electro-industrial release in that year. But Gary did not rest and already prepared the next full-length release called 'Standard Issue' which was released in 2006. The new and already fourth album is called 'When I’m Dead' and sees the light of day in this year's November.
Members
Gary Zon - Music, Lyrics, Vocals, Graphics, Design
Website
http://www.dismantled.org/ / http://www.myspace.com/dismantled
Track Review
01. Start Digging - 6:15
It almost sounds like the scene from a horror movie. It is a cold, dark and foggy night. The scenery is a field where we see someone digging through the cold hard ground in search of something...or maybe someone??? No, this person is not digging out corpses, well at least not literally. It is more like a search for something that is obviously lost in today’s mediocre society. All those empty faces on the streets, that do the same things over and over again, listening to the same music day in and day out, not willing to open up their minds for something new. Their ignorance and denial brought him here to this field, but will e find what he's looking for??? The song starts right away with a beat that has a similarity to a marching drum. In the background you hear a cold wind blowing. As the song goes on you'll also notice some chorals if you listen closely. When the beat fully starts, deep strings appear and you'll hear Gary's distorted voice shouting “Start Digging”. The verses are rather minimal focussing on the vocals and the drumming while in the chorus mighty and multi-layered strings appear which built up an intense dark atmosphere fitting to the mood of the song.
02. Stay on Target - 6:09
He found something but it was not the thing he was looking for “You're just looking for absolution for your sorry life before you realised the truth, but you'll not get it here, so don't follow me”. It's already too late. You had time enough. Now I’m gonna retire from here. I'm sick of all this. It only begins with a snare and you'll hear screams coming out of the dark that are suddenly sounding chopped-up. A very layered and diverse drum pattern starts. Various melodic layers appear and sounds get audible just to disappear some seconds later. A voice sample starts accompanied by dramatic strings and you'll hear screams from the background again. The part I really love in that song is when Gary is doing the chorus in the second part of the song and then you'll hear something like a thunderstorm coming up. It gets louder and louder while the beats slowly fade away. What remains are the strings, Gary's voice and tons of samples, where you can hear the people screaming and shouting like hell broke loose.
03. Clench your Teeth - 6:08
You wanna change something... maybe change the world but you're an outsider and the system and the society ignore you. You're totally irrelevant; another die-hard who's trying to fight the system and who is destined to fail miserably. The people love the way the way they live today. No surprises and nothing unforeseeable. Everything that doesn't fit into their scheme will be fully ignored because it is way too exhaustive to deal with something beyond outside the usual and now you come with the ideal to change that??? Deal with your own life. You've got problems in heaps yourself. You have no friends and you want to change something??? Just forget it and return to your own reality where such things are possible. After listening to this song for the first time I was more than surprised. The song starts in a rather ordinary way with a bass synth and sampled and reversed sounds followed by the massive beat, which makes clear that this will become a mid-tempo song. A polyphonic chants starts, where one layer is processed with a robotic sounding effect. I'm not sure if the other's distorted or if it's just a very angry sounding vocal style. After the first few lines, strings appear and they get even more layered and dense as the song goes on. What follows baffles all descriptions. Accompanied by the beat and haunting strings and chorals you're dragged into a cacophony of sounds, indefinable noises, screams and distorted vocals.
04. Wisdom - 4:11
You're still trying to fight...to overcome the wall. Why??? Do you still have faith that it would change something??? “We'll fail by design” is one line out of the lyrics. Are we destined to extinct ourselves in the end, because we're simply unable to comprehend the consequences of our doing. Is that just pure ignorance??? Do we just think devil-may-care and the following generation should deal with the fatal consequences. Or does it lie in our genes and we can't do anything about it. Bullshit. We're all able to do something. We just don't want to. What needs to happen before we get our asses off the couch? More hurricanes, maybe some more flooding or earthquakes and tsunamis before we realize that something has to happen. We act like we're the only living beings on earth. But there's one thing everyone seems to forget. Nature doesn't need us but we need the nature. The song starts with a blowing wind before the first electronic sounds. New layers are added constantly and then beats appear with some wide strings which give a monumental touch to the atmosphere. This strong interlude passes right into the strong and quite danceable beat with Gary starting the again multi-layered chant. The orchestral strings on this track are simply fantastic and add a threatening atmosphere.
05. Under the Flood - 6:40
“And I look back, where we started, had come so far to loose it all”. We're on the best way to loose everything. Maybe it would be better for this planet if a big flood would come to wipe us from the face of the earth. Then everything would be quiet again and the earth could start to recover from what we've done to her. Not that I would want something like that to happen in the near future but sometimes I’m asking myself if it wouldn't be better. The person from the lyrics obviously can't stand mankind anymore and has lost his last faith. He seems to long for the flood to come to clean everything up again. It seems to be a comforting thought for him. Slowly sinking down in the water, deeper and deeper. No more pain and suffering. He will never see any of those empty faces again. One of the most beautiful DISMANTLED songs ever. A ballad that will touch you deep inside and cause you goose bumps for sure. Piano chords and a laid-back drum sound start the song. Then sea noise appears. It sounds like waves broken by crag when they collide. While Gary's singing there's again a wind blowing in the background. But when he starts the chorus, there's an immediate change of the atmosphere. It gets a little bit wistful but also sad. After the first lines wide synth layers are added and carry you away. You can almost see a man who is slowly drowning in the sea with a smile on his face. “Oh what an ending to a wasted life.”
06. Simple Machines - 5:34
I can't be bothered to argue with you anymore because you obviously don't or don't want to understand. Your opinion is the only right thing and you accept no other so I’m just saving my power and let you believe in what you want to believe. Just live on in this small little world of yours, where everything matches your small limited mind. You’re obviously not able to understand anything beyond your world because you're just a “Simple Machine”. The song has a certain pop appeal, starting with a synth melody that is contrary to the melodies in previous songs somehow uplifting. A danceable beat is added and if I wasn't absolutely sure that it's DISMANTLED I’m listening to, this could also be a pop song to a certain point, but when Gary starts to sing, you're absolutely sure: This is not a pop song, even though it plays with pop elements. Nothing fluffy or nice to the lyrics but a lot of contempt.
07. Change the World - 3:53
The world is corrupt. I guess that's nothing new for most of us. If you got enough money or influence then you can get away with almost everything. But what do we do against this...nothing. We're way too busy watching our daily soaps or looking for the next fashion trend. We get manipulated day by day and we don’t even recognize that and those greedy bastards up there are laughing up their sleeves how easy it is top control the “ordinary people”. We're facing a matchless climatic change and all we do is living as if there's no tomorrow. Wake up people it is just before twelve. There's not much time left, so get out and do something more than just burning flags. That won't help anyone, but at least you got the feeling you did something right??? Some of you might already know this track as it already was included o the 'Thanks for Everything' single released in October 2006.The song still has the drive of the original with its fast drum programming and the integration of guitar chords into it. The atmosphere has been intensified in this version due to the use of wide synths and strings.
08. What a Tragedy - 5:27
You lived a life like many others. You ruined people for your own advantage and regardless of the consequences. You just didn't care. But now something has changed. You’re consciousness awoke and all those bad and horrible things you did now come back into your mind. All those people you did harm to, all those lives you destroyed within the blink of an eye. When you realised you're real self, you fell down on your knees and creamed “What have I done with my life???”. You start to run away from yourself, but the strings from your past you're tied to won't let you get away so easily. Now you realised everything it is too late for you to reverse anything again. As you did those things you didn't care but now the ghosts of your past will haunt you forever. Everyone gets the punishment he/she deserves. A synth melody leads you to the first beats which sound very peculiar but anyway pretty cool and after a few second the massive danceable beat starts Gary sings the verses with a multi-layered chant again One layer includes the normal and the other one the chant which is sung in a higher pitch. What would a song like this be without the great wide synth layers? Of course the also appear in the bridge and the chorus as well to intensify the atmosphere.
09. The Living Dead - 4:36
“Are we the living or are we the dead?” A good question. First and foremost I’d say the living but from the moment we're born we're inevitably condemned to die sooner or later no matter what we're doing. It's in our genes even though some folks try to manipulate them and trying to make us immortal. Great idea. A never ending plague. Immortality is the last thing we need. Everything has to die someday and as hard it may seems, we have to accept that and should not change or even break the cycle of life and death. It only a jingling and some string sounds sounding through a hall, but soon the first rhythm and vocal samples appear. Beats are added accompanied by some kind of noise. The sound gets much more layered in the chorus. At first there are only some strings but the further the song develops more melodic patterns are added.
10. Claim me - 6:53
I waited so long for you to believe in me, but now I’m tired of waiting that something happens. I tried so hard to change something, but in the end nothing's changed after all those years. Now I’m so tired of all this. “This should have been easier”. Maybe I will return someday, when the time's right but for now it's over. The unfortunately last song of the album is a mid-tempo track and is filled with resignation and the atmosphere matches that impression. Very detailed drum arrangements, atmospheric synth layers, strings, chorals and the voice of a Gary Zon which has become really remarkable are combined to this complex yet melodic kind of electro industrial.
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 9
Extras: -
Total: 9
Conclusion
Is this really the last DISMANTLED album? I hope it's not even though Gary said that DISMANTLED would not be able to exist any longer at this point, I can't believe he'll quit. With ‘When I'm Dead’, Gary made everything right again. It integrates elements of all the albums like the sometimes more danceable beats from ‘Standard Issue’ or the monumental darkness of ‘PostNuclear’. The ballad ‘Under the flood’ is in my humble opinion one of the best and most emotional songs Gary has ever created. You can feel with him in this song and it sends countless shivers over your body. So I remain with the hop that this is not the last thing we will ever hear of DISMANTLED. It would cause a whole that no one is able to fill.
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