By Mark Steele
The whole Cybergoth/EBM/Bleep/Aggrotech thing (for the sake of argument, we shall call it Cybergoth) is one of the more recent forms of music that I've got into over the past few years. This type of music usually catches the ears of Metalheads due to the aggressive nature of the music, combined with heavy keyboards, synths and samples with distorted mangled guitars; a typical 'gateway' into this world is usually Combichrist, Wumpscut, Psyclon Nine – via the path of Nine Inch Nails, Ministry and Skinny Puppy to quickly develop a sweet tooth for this acquired form of highly attractive noise. Some people disagree with it being Goth per se (especially Trad Goths), but that's a case of splitting crimped hair isn't it?
Psyclon Nine had disappeared for a good while, but have decided to return with their latest album that is [Order Of The Shadow: Act 1]. So, what has changed since 2009?
Well, it appears Psyclon Nine are steering to more of a guitar filled direction and to my ears are trying to be 'all things to all men'. Initially, they started off as more of a synth and samples based band that had its feet firmly entrenched in the Cybergoth camp – which was something that I preferred as they were quite an ear catching band, with infectiously catchy tunes that bored through your skull like some rampant form of Gigeresque mutated alien blowfly larvae.
However, they appear to be still hell bent on going as far away from this as possible, and proceeding to sound like the product of what would occur if Ministry, Fear Factory and Skinny Puppy jumped into bed for a weekend long orgy while the neighbours banged on the walls in annoyance and called 'The Feds'. The track 'Afferte Mihi Mortem' demonstrates this perfectly, with a sound so feral that it would make Slipknot mass urinate themselves in fear and sound like One Direction.
Occasionally, the tracks from this album have the occasional glimmer of their original sound – as heard with 'Use Once And Destroy' that has a prominent keyboard riff but combined with a pleasing Ministry style chuggorama, which in a live setting will no doubt get the crowds leaping around like PVC clad and glow stick wielding salmon trying to mosh their way upstream. 'Remains Of Eden: II' continues on in a similar path, but with a more controlled manner and concentrating on a slow then loud dynamic while exploding into a wall of distortion. There's a small musical interlude with 'But, With A Whimper' and then it carries on with 'Order Of The Shadow [The Heretic Awakened]' that has a pleasingly acerbic sonic attack. 'Take My Attack' continues this further but adds an anthemic guitar riff for good measure. A surprise ending comes with the moody number that is 'The Saint And The Valentine', with an acoustic guitar underpinning that catches the listener out with a sudden wall of noise and piercing vocals.
The thing is, would I go out and buy this myself? Yes, I certainly would as it is by no means a bad album. However, I feel that it's perhaps not one of the best ones that they've made. Basically, if you're a fan of Psyclon Nine from day one and loved their solely keyboard and synth driven works then you won't be so keen. If you are a new fan that is not familiar with their early work and have a love of Ministry, Skinny Puppy, and Nine Inch Nails and want to try something similar – then you will no doubt love it. The perfect 'halfway house album' that is straight down the middle of being on both sides of either camp would definitely be Crwn Thy Frnicatr in my opinion. No doubt, some of the purists will call them 'sell outs' with their new sonic direction but I wouldn’t personally go that far.
