THIS is what a real EP release should be like!

Fallout has been the subject of a lot of hating along the way. My guess is that this is because people were expecting a new full fledged FLA release, which this obviously isn't. This is an alternative take on a bunch of the tracks from the Artificial Album, as well as some new tracks. And most of it is 100% quality.

As much as I want to love Artificial Soldier, I personally had a hard time swallowing some of the new sounds and the breakbeat overload on the album, and while I still respect it as a good album, Fallout definitely fits my taste better.

The first three remixes are of the typical outsourcing-meterial-for-a-club-mix sound. And while they aren't particularly interesting, they are all solid and worth listening to.
More interesting to me are the reworkings of Unleashed, Lowlife and Antisocial by actual band members. They all capture the classic FLA sound really well, and especially the technoid "Antisocial" mix of Social Enemy is probably my favourite on the CD, being a fast paced dance floor track embedded in the cold sci-fi sound we have come to love.
Also, the remixes by Portion Control and Covenant add some entirely different sounds to the mix. These are among my favourites as well, and the Covenant remix alone is a reason to invest in Fallout. The new sound fits Eskil's vocals much better.

Finally some of the new tracks make out some excellent classic FLA-productions. Armageddon and Unconscious are both great tracks, and not rushed b-sides as you might think. This is the stuff that makes me anxious to hear what Front Line Assembly will whip out next! Even moreso than Artificial Soldier did.
This classic band is still living strong.

Possibly the most important futurepop release ever!

Anyone with the habit of dismissing anything with the label "futurepop" should go on reading, though - Because this is a record that truly challenges the boundaries of the term.
In its basics, this is an EBM album mostly build on structures from pop music, with influences ranging from trance to synthpop. But unlike your average VNV Nation clone, Rotersand manages to fill the album to its brim with unique and varied tunes, where every single tracks stands out.

With Rotersand, nothing is left to chance. Every single little detail in the sound (and that's a lot!) has been cared for until it sounds exactly like it's supposed to, the songs are all catchy without relying on weak clichés, the vocals are rock solid, and the beats are of the EBM-patented stompy kind that's bound to move the dance floor, as everyone sings along to easy lyrics like "Exterminate! Annihilate! Destroy!" or "Send the last ship home!". Not a single crack can be found in Rotersand's rock solid surface.

Among pop songs like "Undone" and "Send the Last Ship Home", and anthems such as "Dare to Live", the band have spiced the album with ballads that are almost accoustic in their sound (compared to the rest of the album anyway), as well as the bouncy electroclash track "Would you buy this?", and the instrumental and aggressive, tribal industrial opus that is "Storm"

It's hard to find a favourite track when they are all so good, but "Storm" is a definite floor filler, that always makes people curious to hear more from the band.
All in all an excellent album, that tops the similarly excellent predecessor "Truth if Fanatic" in terms of originality and production.


Do you like VNV Nation, Icon of Coil, Covenant or Apoptygma Berzerk? If yes, then you'll love this album.
If no, then you should check it out anyway, because Rotersand manages to take futurepop to a much more serious level, without ruining any of the fun.

A perfect example of a good maxi-single.
Instead of just getting other popular electro acts to put their name on the back of the CD cover, Bryan Erickson aka Velvet Acid Christ presents a small collection of vastly different takes on his two tracks "Fun With Drugs" and "Decypher".

Especially Decypher has gotten a really interesting treatment. The "Force = Authority" remix presents a light, upbeat dance/trance version, that is able to shake any dance floor into action, both within and outside of the EBM/industrial scene.
Luxt's "Serial Killer" mix changes the same track into an aggressive and dark electro track with an added harsh guitar riff, and more focus on the vocals. I like the original song, but both of these versions are a lot more interesting.

Fun With Drugs also got a more dance floor friendly update through the Amphetamine mix, which is not that different, but in my opinion better than the album version.

The Fun With Knives album is great, but it's not complete without this appendix of alternative takes.

This is the sound of L'ame Immortelle's Thomas Rainer, wanting to jump the industrial bandwagon. Over the past years, bands like Soman and Combichrist have been dominating the popular electro industrial sound, and now they have been joined by powerful acts like SAM and particularly Noisuf-X who have probably been acting as a great inspiration to this album.

The sound is pounding electronic industrial. Classic and very harsh, technoid 4-4 beats, spiced with melodic synths and typical clear, trance-like production.
Following the title track, every second track is instrumental, and these are by far the best on the album. Feuer Frei works, but on most of the other vocal tracks, the deep, overdistorted voice simply annoys me, and its attempt at sounding evil just doesn't suit the music.

Either way, this is a 100% dedicated club album, and at least half of the tracks will most likely get people moving on the dance floor, so in that sense it has succeeded in its cause.
However, I'd say the tracks are so alike that some of them pretty much kill the purpose of others. For example, Katharsis is a good, catchy track, but Ich Glaube is built up almost exactly the same way, and even though it still works on its own, it seems almost pointless to have it on the album as well.
Anyway, Leistung, Karussell, Enzeitstimmung, Ich Glaube and Katharsis still manage to get some decent playtime on my iPod and DJ playlist.

A good and very well produced club album, but extremely cliche and repetitive.
I'd make sure to buy SAM's excellent debut album and Noisuf-X's Beauty of Destruction before considering investing money in Nachtmahr's similar contribution to the latest EBM/industrial wave.

Maybe not the best Skinny Puppy album, but definitely a really good place to start out for someone who is not already into their sound.

The opener Rodent is a great, upbeat track, typical of Puppy, utilizing all the sounds and production methods we've come to expect from them, and followed up by Hexonxonx, probably one of the more "funky" songs we'll ever hear from the band. It's catchy, and it works. Two Time Grime keeps the par up, but doesn't stand out much following the first two tracks, and acts a bit like a filler.
However, the pace changes completely with Fascist Jock Itch. Based on a fast, hard hitting EBM beat with grinding guitars and manic drumming. It has a very raw and aggressive punk sound, which I like. While it might not have the unique integrity you've come to expect from this era of Skinny Puppy, it adds some interesting variation to the album.
Besides, the album more than saves its it own skin with Worlock, being arguably the best track SP have ever made - If not one of the best tracks in the world. Like a good book or movie, it feeds you with impressions without ever revealing more than it has to. The overprocessed vocals, samples and atmospheric sounds all come together in a perfect masterpiece that will have you in its grasp by the panic-ridden end of the song. Worlock alone is a reason to buy this album.
But that doesn't mean you should stop here. Rain works as a creepy like outtro to Worlock, before Tin Omen stirs things up a bit with its very characteristic guitars, that probably make this song the best evidence of Al Jourgensen's production. If you like early Ministry, you'll also like this.
Rivers and Choralone are two of my favourites here, finally taking the album into its more downtempo exit with a sound that could have been the soundtrack of a horror movie (both tracks come together in the masterful Riverzend three years later on Last Rights).
Amputate pulls the album even further into the depths of despair, before the live recording "Spahn Dirge" tears it all apart in a 16 minute terrible industrial opus, that truly shows why Skinny Puppy is a worthy successor of Throbbing Gristle's legacy.

Conclusion? It's impossible to buy a pre-"The Process" Skinny Puppy album and regret it later, and this is no exception...