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REVIEWS
Buy this album from iTunes
Venal
Illusion Ground
Roots
My God
Memory Faces
Neurosickness
Diviner
Overblown
Loud
The Drown
RELATED REGEN LINKS
NEWS
- :Bahntier// and Black Sun Productions collaborate on album
- New Bahntier album due in October
- :Bahntier// releases new EP
- Bahntier releases third album
REVIEWS
Bahntier
Venal
Rustblade Records Web site
Posted: Sunday, May 03, 2009
By: Trubie Turner
By: Trubie Turner
A tightly woven tapestry of sound that brings together some of the best sensibilities from the past and present.
An exciting and complex amalgam of styles old and new, :Bahntier//'s fourth full-length, Venal hits an interesting balance that makes them both very familiar but very fresh. With elements that are reminiscent of classic Skinny Puppy, :Bahntier// manages to hit the nostalgia button but simultaneously adds a unique pinch of EBM and electro that prevents the band from simply sounding like a knock-off.
Hitting a definite stride with this release, :Bahntier// displays substantial skill in composition and complexity, with unpredictable and lively structures that do not fall into the typical electro traps that many other acts are susceptible to. Speaking of electro traps, it is very refreshing that the vocals show a very appropriate and complementary range and don't simply fall back on a heavily distorted and raspy cliché, but instead fall in between Nivek Ogre and Genesis P-Orridge, at times sounding like one, the other, or a combination of both. Venal also shows an excellent range of expression and mood with aggressive, fist-pumping tracks like “Venal," “Neurosickness," and “Overblown," slower and more sinister tracks like “Illusions Ground," "Roots," and “The Drown," as well as more chaotic and noise laden affairs like “My God" and “Memory Faces;" yet all of these tracks are distinctly :Bahntier//, bound together by a lurid style that permeates every pore of the album.
Though the comparisons to Skinny Puppy are hard to avoid, :Bahntier// is more of a spiritual successor than a carbon copy, arguably capturing the classic Skinny Puppy essence better than they themselves have in their recent releases. :Bahntier// embodies that old nightmarish experimental sensibility, but expands upon it, giving it a new and extraordinary energy that makes Venal superbly fun and invigorating.
Hitting a definite stride with this release, :Bahntier// displays substantial skill in composition and complexity, with unpredictable and lively structures that do not fall into the typical electro traps that many other acts are susceptible to. Speaking of electro traps, it is very refreshing that the vocals show a very appropriate and complementary range and don't simply fall back on a heavily distorted and raspy cliché, but instead fall in between Nivek Ogre and Genesis P-Orridge, at times sounding like one, the other, or a combination of both. Venal also shows an excellent range of expression and mood with aggressive, fist-pumping tracks like “Venal," “Neurosickness," and “Overblown," slower and more sinister tracks like “Illusions Ground," "Roots," and “The Drown," as well as more chaotic and noise laden affairs like “My God" and “Memory Faces;" yet all of these tracks are distinctly :Bahntier//, bound together by a lurid style that permeates every pore of the album.
Though the comparisons to Skinny Puppy are hard to avoid, :Bahntier// is more of a spiritual successor than a carbon copy, arguably capturing the classic Skinny Puppy essence better than they themselves have in their recent releases. :Bahntier// embodies that old nightmarish experimental sensibility, but expands upon it, giving it a new and extraordinary energy that makes Venal superbly fun and invigorating.
