REVIEWS

Cyanotic
Mutual Bonding Through Violation

I have often had the pleasure of listening to a myriad of different bands in the electronic genre, from the incredibly obscure to the super powers of the industry. That is one of the major perks of doing album reviews; you are exposed to things that you would most likely never hear on your own. That has many positives and some negatives. The negatives: sometimes you are forced to do a review on an album that is not very good and would be better suited as a nice addition to your garbage than your CD collection. This of course makes writing a review kind of difficult and more of a chore. Fortunately for me, the majority of the albums that I have reviewed have been decent and worth my effort to listen to and talk about. Cyanotic's Mutual Bonding Through Violation is fortunately a good one. Cyanotic is pretty much still in its early stages as this is their first real release and it is one that they released on their own label Glitch Mode Recordings. The band however has begun to gain some recognition through their vigorous touring with such acts as Bile, Nocturne, and Andrew W.K. The overall response to the band has been a positive one and I can agree to that. The album is a trip into anger through harsh and pulse-pounding drum beats, heavy guitars, and harsh vocals. The album is a good amalgamation of industrial, power noise, and rock. Tracks such as "Suspension of Disbelief" and "Order Out of Chaos" are prime examples of this bands heavy sound and intention on rocking the shit out of your ears and speakers; loud and powerful to say the least. The tracks are not all mosh pit-inducing such as "Higher States of Consciousness," which is a very laid-back tune with trip-hop like beats, airy synths, and echoed samples; a change of pace for the overall sound of the album, but not necessarily a bad change. This track is technically the end of the album as the two following tracks are remixes of two earlier tracks, so if looked at in that perspective, it is a nice relaxer after all of the anger of the last five tracks. All in all, a good premiere release for Cyanotic and one that should do well for the band.