CD, Black Rain, 2005
www.vigilante.cn
Vigilante hail from Chile and is the project of Rodrigo Ramirez and Ivan Muñoz, this being their debut release on Black Rain records. Unlike some of their recent South American counterparts they are not dealing in straight up Dark Electro and opt for a guitar/EBM crossover sound which, although setting them apart from their peers, also highlights some of their inadequacies…
The main problem is that after listening to this album a few times you are hard pushed to remember anything but (the admittedly powerful) metal riffs. The electronics are almost exclusively bass drum, pre-chorus breakdowns and familiar orchestral samples (which do compliment the singer’s key changes well). The vocal work on this album you will either love or hate as the vocals are very rock influenced, for example you can almost smell the lighter fluid in the air as tracks like “Lack Of Faith” and “Before” play. Conversely there are also plenty of fast tempo songs like “Freedom” and “Still Alive” that could provide good shout along fun, even if they do lack a depth to them which would suggest to me that Vigilante are probably much more fun live than they are on CD.
Overall this album is different enough to be noticed but not strong enough to be revered. Perhaps this is an album to play to your metal loving friends who are interested in getting into EBM and need a contemporary starting point to begin with before exploring electronic music further.
[5/10]
— Michael Hinchliffe