CD, Black Rain, 2006
www.cyborg-attack.de
Black Rain, along with its three sublabels (Ars Musica Diffundére, Noitekk and Funkwelten) has been the home of many great names in the industrial, EBM and experimental scenes, such as Feindflug, Flint Glass and Oil10. Cyborg Attack used to be among the Noittek roster, which featured Aslan Faction, Grendel and Psyclon Nine.
One however may wonder what the actual reason is for all the name-dropping that’s been taking place so far in this review, instead of an actual description of the album. Most unfortunately, the reason is that the album, if compared to nearly any of the releases from the aforementioned projects, is a rather horrible release. Standing on its own merit (and if this was the late ’80s), this album may had been somewhat passable, but I’m afraid that, as it is, it’s little more than a smudge in the Black Rain list of releases.
While the theme of the group is post-apocalyptic imagery, machines, war, rage and all that happy stuff that’s pretty standard fare in the EBM scene, the project fails miserably in conveying it, mostly because it’s so narrowly focused in said theme, falling into every genre cliché imaginable. “Resistance Is Futile”? A harsh wake up call to the Borg generation, but this is 2k6. And in 2k6, a band is by default expected to sound better than my 19 year old Front 242 vinyls. The Fruity Loops demo tracks seem to have better synths and drums, as far as both quality of sound and actual arrangement is concerned. The only quality one can attribute to the so-called vocals is that they are aggressive. Aggressive enough to justify the “Vocal Punishment” attribute that the official website gives to the singer, only not in any good way. As a matter of fact, the only reason this release is getting a point as far as the actual music is concerned, is “Judgement Day” (originality alert and bad spelling), and that’s because bland and repetitive as it may be, it’s an instrumental track.
The lyrics are yet another detractor all by themselves. Even projects like Funker Vogt had initial trouble with the English language, but this release is absolutely hilarious in the sheer absurdity that the few tracks with English lyrics provide. However, even the tracks that are in German offer absolutely nothing that hasn’t been already sung much better in this genre.
Everything Cyborg Attack does in this album, there’s a multitude of bands that can do it better, and I mean better by some really serious leaps and bounds.
[1/10]
— George Mouratidis