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Industrial Music: Lynch Mob, Snog, Zeromancer, Zombie Commandos from Hell

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LYNCH MOB: Revolution (CD on Deadline Records)

This release from 2003 offers 61 minutes of savage heavy metal.

What happened was this: guitar virtuoso George Lynch hand-picked 13 classic songs from his past career (with Lynch Mob and Dokken & Lynch) and rendered new versions of these hits, mutating them from their original demeanor into raw and aggressive sonic attacks that will leave any audience bloodstained and breathless.

Blistering guitar is the keynote here. Blazing solos and gritty rhythms and guttural bass and searing screech vocals and exhausting drumming. Viciously paced, these tunes rage with anger and fury, crying out with the voice of dissatisfied youth. Heads swim, dazed by the emphatic delivery. Ears bleed under the kiss of guitar pyrotechnics. Feet pound with the compulsive percussion. Stomachs churn from the rumbling basslines.

Darkness rules in this music. Savage licks and brutal sensibilities conspire to incite the listener into a frenzy of expended energy. Music like this can transform a dancefloor into a killing floor.

Fans of Judas Priest will be especially pleased with this CD.

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SNOG: Beyond the Valley of the Proles (CD on Metropolis Records)

This CD from 2003 offers 49 minutes of industrial ballads.

Snog is David Thrussell. He is assisted on this recording by J. Kilbey, David Beattie, Francois Tetaz, Charles Peirce, Josephine Murdlem, Darren Ryan, Valdamar Valerian, Oscar Carlos, Ikoba Hirayama, with accompaniment by the Yandoit Municipal Orchestra and the Korweinguboora People's Choir.

Sampling is the keynote here, resulting in a sound that is versatile and unpredictable. Percussion alternates between electronic rhythms and cafe drums, producing a quirky blend of modern and traditional that generates a strangely timeless quality to this 21st Century music. Gentle keyboards stand beside gritty synthesizers. Heavenly choirs chaperon desolate lead vocals. Orchestral strings counterpoint harsh industrial rhythms.

Thrussell's vocal quality is rich and sternly compelling; his lyrical message is concerned with dissatisfaction over the intrusive nature of corporate interference with people's lifestyles.

The truly unique aspect of this music is the fusion of a Country & Western sound with the industrial format. This unconventional union results in modern ballads drenched with edgy flair and angry sentiments. Beautiful melodies are injected with a bewildering intensity that transform prairie sunsets into cybernetic panoramas of dazzling spectacle.

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VARIOUS ARTISTS: Zombie Commandos from Hell (Sonic Assault) (CD on Geska/Optikon Records/Boneyard Press)

This CD from 2002 delivers 75 minutes of aggressive music, an electronic soundtrack to humanity's final conflict. This music is a companion piece to the comic book series by Canadian artist Steph Dumais.

Featured bands include: Milligramme, Headscan, Implant, Mimetic Data, Cage Decay, Empusae, Negative Format, Tarmured, Mlada Fronta, PTSMC, SMP, Mind Confusion, Andraculoid, Flint Grass, and Babel-17.

Much like the comic book storyline (in which the dead return as zombie commandos to annihilate mankind for wasting the Earth's ecology), this music is vicious, attacking without remorse or quarter. The tuneage is intense and over-electrified, brimming with savage E-perc and nasty synthesizers that are eager to chew out your ears. There's a fair balance of instrumental tracks and pieces displaying harshly generated vocals. Monstrous beats and savage pulsations abound.

As a sampler of indie industrial groups, this CD offers a mega dose of such things. As a listening experience unto itself, this release provides an entertaining and exhausting excursion through realms of darkness populated by hungry evil.

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ZEROMANCER: Clone Your Lover (CD on Cleopatra Records)

This CD from 2003 features 42 minutes of industrial rock.

Zeromancer is: Alex Moklebust, Chris Schleyer, Erik Ljunggren, Kim Ljung, and Noralf Ronthi.

Harsh guitars explode with tortured manipulation, grinding chords into a seamless and shrill drone. Crashing drums thrash beats into driving rhythms that roll like monstrous tanks crushing mountains under their treads. Electronics squeal and wail with vicious intentions, generating a charged undercurrent that energizes the rest of the music to a frenzied level. Liquid basslines flow like delicious poison through the mix, establishing a growling immersion of intense quality. Enticing vocals apply a romantic sound to the savage milieu of this agro territory.

These songs are crafted as a futuristic template for urban relationships on the rocks. The emphasis is not on the negative, though, instead directing the audience to alternate solutions, asserting control over love and life through grit-teeth determination. This intensity is made more accessible through the application of sultry melodies that are spiced with slick and appealing riffs.

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