Spetsnaz - Grand Design

When I was listening to this and left the room for a second, I found myself coming back asking me what unknown Nitzer Ebb track that may be. So Spetsnaz really do sound a lot like Nitzer Ebb, although they can't reach the anger and violence Nitzer Ebb were able to achieve - very good effort, though.
I wouldn't call it a rip-off but rather a very good tribute.
It's great to still see acts like that today, and for an 20 year old formula, it doesn't sound that old school and dated at all. Way better than most of what is called EBM today.

Obvious Nitzer Ebb rip-off, but indeed a good one! Vocals could have been mistaken for Douglas McCarty, all the Oooh's, Ohhh's and Argh's have been copied too in impressive detail. Look for this album 2004 re-release with bonus tracks and remixes, it's better buy then this one running approx. 39 minutes.

Grand Design features an excellent display of hard, old school EBM from Sweden's Spetsnaz (the name is the acronym for Russian special forces). The lyrics contain alot of violent outbursts, and darker content, which adds a great atmosphere to their sound. The music itself is somewhat simplistic (drums, synths), but is heavily complimented by the group's vocals: A raw throaty yell, which makes the album much more than it seems on the first listen. Some of the songs tend to blend together, but tracks like "Grand Design", "On the Edge", and "To the Core" speak loud and clear for the overall feel of the album, as this isn't your normal happy, druggy dance music, but something more vile and hateful for the masses.