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To Avoid
Voyage into the Past

COP International / Dark Wings

Posted: Thursday, May 04, 2006
By: Erica Anderson

GrandT and m.a.r.c are the two sole members of To Avoid. Their debut album, Voyage into the Past is a blistering mix of old and new school electro, industrial, and EBM. To Avoid could have easily made a cookie cutter futurepop album like a lot of their peers are making nowadays, but they opted to go back to their musical roots like Front Line Assembly and Leæther Strip. The result is a mix of cold, crisp electro beats and harsh distorted vocals. There were even brief glimmers of old school synthpop in the music. The music is generally cold and sterile. Was this intentional? Perhaps, but the general sound of the album was nothing out of the ordinary. There were no songs that were immediate standouts. The whole listening experience for Voyage into the Past felt like big déjà vu all over again. The album sounded eerily like Velvet Acid Christ’s Fun with Knives with elements of Front Line Assembly’s Implode. It took a few listens to find a few of songs that were remotely interesting enough to listen to on a repeated basis. One of the few songs on the CD that is worth listening to is “Feel It,” with the atmospheric synth melodies, sinister vocals, and throbbing bass line. Although it was not very original, it wasn’t anything like “Last Resort Suicide” with its irritatingly repetitious lyrics. “Small Wheel” is another solid song, which actually has a distinct melody, a quality that isn’t heard very much on the album. There is a nice contrast between the abrasive vocals of m.a.r.c and the crisp synth melodies. “Sowing the Seeds of Violence” is another song on Voyage into the Past that was worth listening to repeatedly. It had a distinct synthpop flavor, and combined with the complex and aggressive drumbeats, the song easily stands out. There are not a lot of melodies in most of the songs. The bass lines and drumbeats sound all alike in each song. Voyage into the Past isn’t a terrible album, but there certainly isn’t anything compelling about it either.