REVIEWS

Buy this album from Amazon.com

Severe Illusion
Shortcut to Civilization

DSBP

Posted: Monday, January 22, 2007
By: Matthew Johnson
Assistant Editor

Severe Illusion's newest offering dispenses with the concept album format of 2004's Accomplishments of Leopold II, and though there's still a thematic thread (violence as the primary motivating force of human history) running through Shortcut to Civilization, it works equally as well as a collection of diverse tracks. This turns out to be the right approach; since the album is less dependent on philosophical involvement, it really lets you see how brilliant the duo is from a purely musical standpoint. Listening to these tracks, it becomes evident that although Severe Illusion sticks more or less to the classic formula of EBM, the band manages to push the genre in far more directions than its originators ever expected or intended. All the elements of the early scene are in place; most tracks stick to the tried and true arrangement of stomping drum machine, minor-key bass line, distorted vocals, and perhaps some creepy synth melodies, with sampled screams and clanking machinery to provide the requisite amount of dark industrial attitude. The band's reverence for the early days of electronic industrial are clear; "Running Like a Madman," in particular, features some deliberately-placed vintage drum patches, and the otherwise oppressive "One Foot on the Cross" has a definite video arcade feel to it that's hard to resist. Still, though most of Shortcut to Civilization is perfectly suited to the dance floor, with "Erased" and "Killing Useless Nations" being particularly strong examples, this is hardly mindless club fodder. In addition to the intellectual thrust that has always set Severe Illusion apart from most of their contemporaries, they also manipulate the very form of EBM in surprising ways. "Erased" deliberately obscures its dance appeal by drenching everything in distortion, inspired perhaps by the band's Vanvard project, and by increasing the tempo to a dance beat so slow it's almost frustrating, while "Death from Above" is like a skeleton of a club track, stripped of all the dross and slowed down to plainly reveal the basic structure beneath. "Bad People" also takes a fascinating approach toward sound; although the synthesizer patches, beats, vocals, and other source materials all sound deliberately flattened, the way it's mixed together gives the song a rich three-dimensional feel. While it was clear from earlier releases that Severe Illusion were a smart pair, Shortcut to Civilization makes it abundantly clear that they're not only smart lyrically, but also sonically. The band's previous efforts stood out mainly because of the ideas behind them, but it's the music itself that elevates this album to a work of near genius.