Grendel – Harsh Generation

Would be more inclined to be interested in this release if it came with any bonus tracks, but as it stands DWA once again creates a pointlessly scarce reissue with very little to offer apart from new art some postcards.

I cannot resist saying something about this album. I've a friend who is very much into the whole 'Future Pop'/'Nu-EBM'/'Terror-EBM' thing and I do not understand it. This music is an embarrassment to the term EBM or Industrial Music. I would definitely enjoy this coked up and high on painkillers in the basement of a sweaty German nightclub, but outside of that type of environment this music makes my brain bleed. This is dance music for goth kids in black lipstick. If Paul Van Dyk did industrial, it would sound like this. And although it's not that old it has this very 1990's sound, like what I thought all electronic music would sound like in the future, in the far off post-Y2K apocalyptic 21st century when I was a 14 year old Midwest suburbanite in 1998 who didn't know any better, or have access to much good music, and lept onto anything with a heavy beat called 'electronica'. If you like this, it must be because you have never heard real EBM.

If one is familiar with Grendel's previous works, on a first listen you might be led to think that this album was from a different band all together. Rather than the throbbing, noisy, "terror EBM" that Grendel has become known for since their debut Inhumane Amusement, it seems that they have adopted the melody of the electro-industrial sound that is overwhelmingly popular in the underground electronic scene these days. Though the music is quite catchy and dance-floor-friendly - and even though the album is good overall - the sudden change in direction still comes as somewhat of a surprise. The music still retains the pounding, dark edge that we would expect from Grendel, but this is definitely not what i was expecting to hear from this band. Yet i'm sure this will only help to further increase Grendel's popularity, as they once depended more on remixes of their material to make it to the DJ's play lists, but now their new sound should fit in its original form.