Ultraviolence - Killing God

Johnny Violent, I hate you. This CD drives me mad. There is great material on here, dont get me wrong, but its inconsistencies and start/stop track arrangement make me grit my teeth in agony. The album starts with Dawn, a nice intro track that gets things off to a good start with its heavily digitized orchestral arrangement layered with nice hardcore techno drum-programming (the typical Psycho Drama, and later, Ultraviolence sound which I thuroughly enjoy).

We are now treated to, Adultery complete with a sampler-fucked, acidic bassline and rave-diva vocals by Didi Goldhawk. Ultraviolence creates disturbing vibes extremely well by enlisting the help of female vocalists who sing with a pleasure-in-pain mentality of self-destruction, and abuse (These bitches love it when you hurt them). Top this with more digitized strings and amp-the-club-up vocal chants by Stinky and this becomes an exceedingly fun track to listen to.

Track 3 is where things get screwed up for me. A cover of the Black Sabbath classic, Paranoid. WTF, mate? I enjoy this song more than I could have ever imagined, but in terms of making a cohesive album, it screws the flow up horribly. The fact that it is placed at track 3 (the typical spot where a record label would squeeze what it thinks will be a successful single) is no surprise to me as this was released on the label Earache. What better to make this hard techno more accessible to its typical metal-head listeners than the cover of a metal classic? NO.

Anyways, Still is up next. I absolutely love this song. The terrific modulation of a thick, overdriven kick layered with shrieks, breakbeats, more vocals from Stinky, nice rompler strings, and the introduction of vocalist, Laurie Dayill, make me entirely forget about the previous track. Wonderful. A very good track.

Tick-tock, tick-tock... Track 5; Bombs in My Head, with its double-timed kick, toyed-with breakbeat, screaming, & uber-distorted lead, a wonderfully-dismal atmosphere is created which is broken up nicely by some more vocals by Ms. Goldhawk.

Next we have a short instrumental track titled, Facilitator, that nicely uses some powerful synth samples and variatons of crunchy/clean kicks which lead us into the staccato stings of the best track on this release, Masochist. The fast tempo, distorted kick, female vocals ("Hurt me baby!"), choppy breakbeat & twisted synthline are great ingredients that arrange into a well developed song. A+ track.

With Killing God, Ultraviolence kills God. Brutal sampled guitar riffs, more vocals from Mr. Violent himself similar to those on the previous tune, and an up-the-tempo-'til-explosion ending make this a very satisfying stomper. A great song to name the record after.

Strangled is where things get sketchy once again. It would have been a great track if not for the exact sample used in the song, Paranoid, which comes in late, never leaves, and extremely outwears its welcome. Why? The voicing doesn't fit (at all) and gets in the way of some terrific vocals, ruining what could have been 4:43 of good music.

Second to last we have Horror. An almost acapella track employing the voice of, Marika. This would have worked well as an intro song to another, but nestled in between silence and being under 2:00 it just seems to be out of place and hidden as though the artist doesn't know what to do with it.

Lastly we have Immolation, a song using the same powerful synth sample as Facilitator, and the same vocal(ish) sample as Dawn. Goddammit. It seems as though the track was created out of boredom when creativity was running low, leaving a bad taste in my mouth after listening to an album that could have been a classic if it had been mixed more like a techno record and less like a metal one.

All things considered, buying this CD is worth it for the tracks, Adultery, Still, Bombs in My Head, Masochist, and Killing God. Ultraviolence cleared up a lot of the problems I had with Psycho Drama by making the songs a complete thought and trashing the concepts that got in the way of the music. The weakest tracks are crammed at the end of the record, making a complete listening session a dissatisfying experience. My recommendation: DO NOT listen to this in one sitting (unless you enjoy being tortured as many of the characters here do).