Title: Crossing the Rubicon
Artist: Notes from Underground
Genre: Electronic / Rock / Metal
Release Date: 5th June 2009
Label: Danse Macabre / AF Music
Album Review
If you believe the press text to ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ then the debut release of the Spanish project is going to be the next big hit in Industrial Rock. But me and I’m sure many of you either are over trusting completely in all of those things so the best thing to really find whether this is extremely good or absolute crap is to listen to an album yourself and form your own opinion. That’s what I did and here’s me writing down mine.
The opener ‘Phoenix Uprising’ leaves no doubt that there’s someone having an immense rage piled up inside that needed to be unleashed. The complicated rhythm arrangements just fire out of the synths and drums and give everyone who’s not able to get out of their way fast enough a good kick to the midriff. ‘War’ is for that matter a little more tamed while still keeping on high a constant aggression level and if there’s one moment the raw guitars just aren’t aiming for your eardrums to shred them then little ambient collages are taking their place and the roaring chant has to make way for an insistent and melodic style. The first few seconds of ‘Game’ might feed your hopes of getting to listen to serene island in this raging sea of metallic madness but that only lasts until the voluminous marching drums break in and the expansive rhythmic and guitar make up manifests. With ‘Deadend’ I have found my undisputed highlight. Paolo Greco really sings in this song and pretty good if I may add that with occasional scream attacks in the chorus. All this is framed by an absolutely cutting-edge rhythm section and splendid ambient layers.
The threatening ‘Greed’ concludes ‘Crossing the Rubicon’ with a track that in spite of its slower groove is nothing that would allow a break. Attached to the tracklist is a collection of remixes of album songs from pretty prominent musical peers such as DAS ICH, EN ESCH, DIE KRUPPS or MELT (Sebastian Komor) and complete the package which makes it a total of 20 tracks to listen to whereas not every remix is a pleasure. So is this going to be the next big hit? I’d say it’s too early to say that already. Sure, the arrangements are meticulously crafted and also the balancing act between hard Metal and clean vocals works out but to praise a young project to the skies that early can’t be a good idea and raises expectations to a level the band might not be able to fulfil with the next release. But coming back to this album! It’s definitely a stand-out release in the genre and I’m curious what we can expect from those guys in the future.
Tracklist
01. Phoenix Uprising - 2:42
02. War - 3:09
03. Be Like You - 3:15
04. Another Time, Another Place - 2:30
05. Diagnosis - 2:25
06. Game - 2:35
07. Deadend - 3:45
08. Outta Hell (A Long Hard Road) - 3:48
09. Heaven In Hell - 2:46
10. Fraud - 2:36
11. Greed - 3:01
12. Game [remix by Die Krupps] - 3:44
13. Greed [remix by Das Ich] - 4:01
14. War [remix by En Esch (Ex-KMFDM, Pigface, Slick Idiot)] - 7:48
15. Deadend [remix by William Faith (Faith & The Muse)] - 3:49
16. Game [remix by Adrian White (Front Line Assembly, Silent Alarm)] - 3:11
17. Greed [remix by Melt (Ex-Icon Of Coil)] - 4:43
18. War [remix by Ulf Häusgen (Ex-The Fair Sex) & Tim Schuldt] - 4:06
19. Deadend [remix by Matter] - 3:52
20. Game [remix by Digital 21] - 4:52
Line-up
Paolo Greco - Vocals, Production
GUIGHER - Keys, Bass
MdA - Guitar
Pumuki - Drums
Website
http://www.myspace.com/enefeu
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 8
Sound: 8
Extras: -
Total: 8 / 10
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