Artist: 16Volt
Title: Beating Dead Horses
Genre: Machine Rock
Release Date: 13th May 2011
Label: Metropolis Records
Album Review
They say don’t judge a book by its cover, and in terms of releases I will rephrase it as don’t judge a CD by its first song. That 16VOLT are back with their seventh album is interesting, that apparently they have nothing more to offer is disappointing. The whole album clings between NINE INCH NAILS and MINISTRY. And if that is their best part, the fact that they’ve been influenced by the soft, almost Pop Goth and Industrial idiom, usually to be found in the States, and they’ve added a spice of heavier music and vocals is quite something. Where are SKINNY PUPPY to have a laugh at it?! ‘Assimilate’ would be so damn fitting!
Their lyrics are so self-obsessed, and self-centred that makes one wonder about their mental state when they wrote them. Maybe they are thinking that their listeners are bipedal failures and they want to express their frustration. If they don’t care about the audience they should have kept the lyrics in a drawer. One should listen to DRI’s ‘Enemy Within’ (from the ‘Thrash Zone’) and 16VOLT ‘Fight Or Flight’ to see how the former turns into dust the latter on the same subject over the field of lyrics, of music and of dynamics. There are a handful of bands that can actually write melancholic lyrics today and at the same time being able (poetically and musically) to throw light at the darkest sides of the human mind. 16VOLT is not among them. So, apart from the first song and some good moments of music throughout the album what is left?
The only thing is that you’ll find that your pockets will be lighter when you buy it and you‘ll be bashing your head on the wall for that. But don’t worry; maybe in their next album they will write a song about it. Or maybe I’m incapable of catching the delicate irony of the title of the album and the sheer observational skills of real life the band possesses. Their continuous effort and their unshakable faith so that people should be more “positive”. But allow me to have a try; this album should be used in special circumstances - like when one is outside his house and has put some music on the CD player to confuse possible burglars...
Tracklist
Beating Dead Horses – 3:46
The Wasteland That Is Me – 4:03
Fight Or Flight – 2:55
Burn – 4.16
You Will All Go Down – 4.14
Breathing Water – 3.23
Ghost – 4.25
We Disintegrate – 3.02
Dissembler – 3.54
Sick Sick Sick – 3.34
The Carrion – 4.22
Veins – 3.06
Somewhere New – 4.13
Line-up
Eric Powell
Mike Peoples & guests
Websites
http://www.16volt.com/ / http://www.myspace.com/16volt
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 4
Sound: 7
Total: 5.5 / 10
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