Combichrist

Having had to put up with hearing this crap at goth clubs, which I state was not by choice, I can confidently say that this is music for frustrated emo teens with no fucking taste. You know, there are moments where Combi mash up the noise with some kinda funky electro rhythms which almost get me interested. But they almost always ruin it with one of many modern Industrial and powernoise tropes. Often this includes desperate-for-lozenge cookie monster vocals, truly lame, one-dimensional noise samples (please guys, go listen to Moctan, he does this shit RIGHT), and very poor arranging. Electrohead doesn't need to go on for 4 minutes, let alone 6!

If these guys had any redeeming features on their earlier material, they seem content to throw them away and pander to retard goths with dumb rhythmic noise and bad lyrics, and frankly stupid vocals. At least Zombie Girl have a vocalist that, you know, sings?

Update (2009.12.19):

In the almost five years since my original comment Icon of Coil have disbanded and Combichrist have devolved into the Manowar of alternative electronic music. I will leave my original comment for historical reference while I mourn the lost potential.

The original comment (2005.03.08):

Andy LaPlegua has been quite busy since the release of his debut album as Combichrist, in September 2003. He has since released four more titles in just over a year and a half, and his compositions have identified him as one of the more versatile and creative musicians in the "main stream" of alternative electronic music, ranging from hard, pounding electro industrial ("The Joy Of Gunz"), to rhythmic noise ("The Joy Of Gunz", "Kiss The Blade"), to EBM ("Kiss The Blade", "Everybody Hates You"), to atmospheric soundscapes ("Everybody Hates You" limited edition CD2).

Unfortunately the same cannot be said about the lyrical content of his work, which is, at best, clichéd and predictable, but anyone familiar with Icon Of Coil, Andy LaPlegua's other project, would have anticipated that much. Combichrist is lyrically, in its simplicity, however, superior to Icon Of Coil, since the lyrics usually consist of one primary catch phrase with one or two support phrases. Often less *is* more. In all fairness it should be kept in mind that English is not this artist's first language, and it is easily acknowledged that his compositions more than make up musically for what they lack lyrically.