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Artist: DERDRAKOS
Album: Blood To Blood
Year: 2008
One of the more obscure projects that came to my attention for my works on the Industrialized Metal Webzine is the Czech father/son duo DerDrakos. This project exists out of Steve Drakos and his son Alex, with additional female vocals by Susi Medusa. Their debut album 'Lust for Chaos' had an excellent review two years ago. It was filled with all kinds of evil dark techno and industrial works, presented with evil lyrics and extravagant vocal combinations. After this release I kept a closer eye on this project, and I surely was glad to hear about the new 'Blood To Blood' CD. This CD, released in 2008 on the DIY way, contains 13 brand new tracks and one hour and 15 minutes of music, ready to be discovered.
The release opens with 'Burn Forever'. It's an uptempo, danceable track that features influences of electro and dance. The diabolical female vocals fit the song perfectly, as well the slightly added guitars. 'Young Obsessions' opens with metal guitars and brutally bouncing beats. What follows is a dark atmospheric track, with bashing beats and dark electronic synthlines. The interaction inbetween the preachy male vocals and soft and evil female vocals is an essential part on the track. 'Stronger Than Remorse' includes fast techno beats mixed with slightly electronic samples and wellfitting vocal lines. The female vocal parts are sung in Czech, which give the song an extra mysterious dimension. Overall this is a perfect track to dance on. 'European Hard Line' comes up next. It's a pretty electronic based track, with dark synthlines and a gentle though strong beat. The song hides some little ambient influences too. 'Welcome To Hell' has a more dark atmosphere, constructed by wicked electronic musical works and evil vocal lines. 'La Vipera' is a song all in Italian. The diabolical vocals of Susi Medvsa fits the spastic and wicked electronic sampling surprisingly well, which turns it into one of the most experimental though mature tracks. Overall the song is one of the most dark ones on the release. 'She-Wolves Are Rising' is again a track that invites you to dance, with dark electronic works mixed with trance and techno influences. 'Far Beyond Damnation' continues walking that path, although this song is more uptempo and includes slightly ambient touches on the more quiet parts. 'The Devil's Guard' is the most industrial metal track, switching from downtempo to midtempo programming accompanied by distorted riffing and preachy male vocals. 'I Will Have Your Eyes' sounds surprisingly different. It has a wicked beat and some gentle dark electronic sounds, but most of all the song contains orchestral keyboard works and dark, maybe even a little sensitive vocal lines. This track would probably affect a wider audience compared with the others, and it's basically one of my own favourites too. 'Deep In Violence' is a gentle industrial metal track, which features bouncing programming and strong guitarwork. The diabolical female vocals are spread excellently all over the track, and are in great harmony. 'Power of Imagination' features again some quality dark electronic works, mixed with old school house elements and modern techno. The release ends with 'No One Is Like Me'. Its a fast and dark track, mostly electronic based, but as well blessed with influences from out of the cyber corner.
Lyrically, DerDrakos offers you stuff you don't hear very often - not even in Satanic black metal bands. A few extracts: "We are Europeans, we don't need to be good. We are devils since millions of generations" - European Hard Line. "My own demon daughter, nine years old. You're calling me to free you from your flesh. Child in coma, I hear you. Do you really want to die and take my heart" - Far Beyond Damnation. No matter if you agree with them or not, you can't deny that they manage to etalage their views clearly - and the most important of all: it fits the dark and evil type of music they make very well.
When you compare this new release with the 'Lust For Chaos' debut album, you find some major improvements. First of all, in my opinion the artwork looks much cooler. Second, this new release is blessed with a much better production, which allows you to hear many more details that are hidden in the sampling and electronic works. As well, this new album has much more experiments within different genres, which turns out to be a blessing for the variation. Beeing able to experiment this much without sounding like they overdid it is a sign of their growth in maturity when it comes to song structure.
This release managed to fulfil my high expectations without any problems, which result in an improvement of an already nearly perfect score. 'Blood To Blood' is, just like 'Lust For Chaos', not recommendable for the weaker and the religious souls. For all the others, make sure you'll get a copy of this release in your hands if you're looking for something extravagant and unique. There are no excuses for missing it!
Vote: 99 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
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1. Burn Forever
2. Young Obsessions
3. Stronger Than Remorse
4. European Hard Line
5. Welcome To Hell
6. La Vipera
7. She-Wolves Are Rising
8. Far Beyond Damnation
9. The Devil's Guard
10. I Will Have Your Eyes
11. Deep In Violence
12. Power of Imagination
13. No One Is Like Me
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