REVIEWS

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Prometheus Burning
nBoyde raRepi

Hive Records

Posted: Thursday, June 26, 2008
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

Electro/industrial music seems to only be getting noisier and heavier, perhaps as a reaction to the softer trance and synthpop-inspired sounds of latter day EBM and futurepop. More and more acts are emerging to incorporate liberal amounts of distortion and dark atmospheres to create a mechanized blend of electronic fury and scrap metal industrial mayhem. One such group is Prometheus Burning, the brainchild of Greg VanEck and Nikki Telladictorian; the Pittsburgh duo's music creates the audio equivalent of battery acid bleeding from the speakers, their instruments and vocals sounding as if processed through an organ grinder. The remix album nBoyde raRepi features some equally caustic takes on songs from the Beyond Repair album, courtesy of several acts the band has shared the stage with.

Of course, there is the requisite new song, "Battery Drain," which features the band's noxious formula of thundering club beats and discordant vocals with only a minimal amount of synth accompaniment. While each remix artist presented does well to infuse their own style into that of Prometheus Burning, each track transitions seamlessly into the next. With "Some Things are Meant to Stay Broken," Hypofixx enhances the original track with his own brand of thumping EBM grating as malevolently monotone vocals reverberate throughout, while Abelcain transforms "Deanimate" into a monstrous display of rabid breakcore. Similarly, both remixes of "Beyond Repair," by Suicide Inside and Xanapticon, could easily lend themselves to drum & bass if not for the excessive distortion, giving the song a somewhat edgier quality as they rip by at breakneck speed. Edgey's take on "Squelch" also goes down this route as vicious breakbeats assault the listener like a flurry of bullets, but by the time we reach Atomhead's remix of "Significantly Altered," we return to more industrial territory as intense synth lines scorch and sear the speakers furiously above a simplistic but effective stomping beat.

If there is any downside to nBoyde reRepi, it would be that each track barely allows the listener a chance to recover from the scathing beats and synths. This album is a constant attack, hitting hard and fast, and kicking you when you're down when all the noise has sent you hurtling to the floor clenching your ears. Still, amid the power drill textures, jackhammer rhythms, and buzz saw vocals, one can detect a clear sense of programmed intricacy on both the part of the remixers and Prometheus Burning. Despite the endless, almost steroidal adrenaline rush, nBoyde reRepi is but one of a few examples of the modern electro/industrial scene's intention to breathe smoke back into a genre too cleanly filtered by softcore trends. Not only a wonderful complement to the original album, but a sign of good things to come from both Prometheus Burning and their peers.