Title: Witness to our Collapse
Artist: Panic Lift
Genre: Harsh Electro
Release Date: 19th January 2009
Label: Noitekk
Album Review
PANIC LIFT caused quite a stir in the US Electro scene. Word-of-mouth and spectacular live shows led to a rapid sell-out of the self-released debut EP. ‘Witness of our Collapse’ now marks the full-length debut for the young US act.
A 15 seconds long ‘Prologue’ with parasitic frequencies and disquieting choirs starts ‘Witness to our Collapse’ ending a little too abrupt for me with no smooth transition into the first proper track ‘Everything I Have’ welcoming us with pulsing beats an driving sequencer loops. The track draws most of its dynamics from the seamless transition between very typical harsh electro elements like the all the way distorted voice, with soothing, emotive piano themes That you can’t only fill such bone-crushing beasts with demonic vocal parts shows the follow-up track ‘Hold on’ with a contrast program of the aforementioned and clean lines. The voice doesn’t sound bad but still could use some practice. The ominous sound collages of the title track tethered to old-school industrial drums are the foretellers of a heavy outburst of rage, coming when you wouldn’t expect it anymore and with its fierce riffs, morphs the track into an industrial rock monument.
The role of the instrumental intermezzo falls to ‘Seasons Change’ that, just like the title track, doesn’t floor the gas pedal, instead its slow rhythmic movements and compelling atmospherics will send your mind on a journey. The ‘Dawn of Fate’ at the same time is the dawn of pummelling beats. What is offered to you here is nothing more but also nothing less than a full-grown club stomper with lots of melodic accents that’s likely to set the dance floors in dark dance temples on fire. The relentless powers of industrial rock have been introduced to us already on the title track. The closing act, named ‘Butterfly Wings (My Only Hope)’ is like a hybrid of ‘Seasons Change’ and ‘Witness to our Collapse’ only that the emphatic verse parts are much deeper than before, and when the untamed guitars come in, it’s like they’re cutting deep wounds into the flawless melodic surface of keys and strings.
Harsh Electro fans certainly will enjoy the domineering dance floor attitude of most of the tracks on ‘Witness to our Collapse’, but also people who’re normally not into this genre should risk an ear .The clean vocal approach is promising and should be expanded and the fusion with Industrial Rock is pretty unique.
Tracklist
01. Prologue - 0:15
02. Everything I Have – 3:37
03. Failsafe – 4:17
04. Hold On – 5:03
05. Shelter – 4:43
06. Witness of our Collapse – 3:55
07. Remnants of a dead age – 5:02
08. No Trace to Love – 5:22
09. Seasons Change – 4:10
10. Dawn of Fate – 4:58
11. Save Yourself – 5:08
12. Butterfly Wings (My Only Hope) – 7:58
Line-up
James Francis - Music, Lyrics, Vocals
Dan Platt - Keyboards, Synthesizers
Website
http://www.paniclift.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/paniclift
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 7
Sound: 7
Extras: -
Total: 7 / 10
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