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Artist: CODE NAME
Album: Nitro Monsters
Year: 2009
Crazy Spanish monster formation Code Name is a band I follow with special interest since their 'Bizarre Action Figures' album pretty much blew me away. This Spanish seven piece mostly takes their influences out of (silly horror)movies, and mixes it with accessable electro metal tunes and catchy EBM rhytms. The band was formed in 2000, and so far releases three albums; 'Here Comes A New Challenger' (debut album), the preveriously mentioned 'Bizarre Action Figures' and now the brand new 'Nitro Monsters' album, which is available for free download on their MySpace profile.
The release opens with 'Cop Models'. It consists of a danceable beat, wicked electronic sampling, welladded and strong riffing - as well essentially recogniseable vocal lines. The interaction between the different vocalists fits the track very well. 'Street Trash' is the first song in Spanish on this release. It's a gentle song, with powerful drumming, excellent vocal interaction and EBM / future pop influenced keylines. The riffing mixed to the background give the song a certain metal edge. 'Copycat' opens with old school dark EBM sounds which get less threatning when the vocal lines kick in. It's a danceable track, mostly electronic based, with small influences from out of the ambient and noise corners. 'Demons' is a modern and bouncing electro metal track, with recogniseable synth lines and a sing a long chorus. The riffing fits the bouncing programming surprisingly well. 'Labyrinth' consists of midtempo drumming, orchestral keylines and recogniseable vocal lines. Overall this song has a certain dark and sad atmosphere, which comes essentially with the lyrics. 'Mutantes En La Universidad' switches from uptempo and heavy metal parts to easy going electronic based parts, giving the song a certain amount of experimentality. It creates bridges inbetween both genres, which sound - although beeing unnaturally - very natural. 'Neon Maniacs' contains the most wicked sampling of the record, with excellent electronic works and wellfitting programming. Overall it's a very catchy track, inviting you to hit the dancefloor and to sing along on the chorus. 'Society' is again a more metal based track. It consists of strong riffing, wicked drumming and catchy vocal lines, as well referring to the diversity within them. Starting with a radio announcement about the death of Adolf Hitler (!), 'Videodrome' kicks off. It's a future pop influenced track, with nearly preachy male vocal lines (even close to spoken word in the beginning) and welladded female vocal lines. 'Razas De Noche' follows. It's a song blessed with an electro metal structure, repetitive synth lines and wicked drumming. The song outbursts into a heavy chorus. 'Re-Animator' is mostly dark electro / old school EBM based musical wise, with dark keylines and bouncing programming mixed with experimental vocal lines and sampling. The release ends with 'Donnie Darko'. It opens with orchestral keylines, to be followed by dark electro sampling and female vocal lines. It's a sensitive track, bringing a surprisingly end to this release.
If 'Nitro Monsters' shows us the next evolutionary step of Code Name, we got both one reason to be happy and one to be scared. Where Code Name's debut album - 'Here Comes A New Challenger' - was mostly filled with hard metal tracks, including even influences from hardcore metal, the band clearly chose a more introvert and industrialized way with their smashing 'Bizarre Action Figures' album, without disposing their metal roots. When we look at 'Nitro Monsters', we find lesser tracks that include guitar riffing or a metal song structure. This scares me a little bit, because on 'Bizarre Action Figures' the band pretty much managed to develope their own style. This style gets confirmed on tracks such as 'Cop Models', 'Mutantes En La Universidad' and 'Society', but as well dissapeared for a large part on many other tracks. If the evolution of this band continues to be like this, maybe the next album will be without any guitars? I hope not!
When it comes to the reason to be happy - Code Name showed a clear improvement when it comes to songstructure, songbuilding and sampling. Where on 'Bizarre Action Figures' the band preferred to use the sillyness of the lyrics within the samplings too on a few tracks, this time this has been improved. As well, half of 'Bizarre Action Figures' existed of remixes, while we got a true full-lenght album here that takes over 53 minutes!
Despite my point of worrying, it's a proven fact to me that Code Name delivered another top quality album. If you liked 'Bizarre Action Figures', you'll surely appreciate this one too - and if you're more into modern future pop, synth pop and/or if you just like to dance and go crazy - you have no reasons to not get hold of this release. Remember, it's all free!
Vote: 94 / 100
Review by: Gerardo
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1. Cop Models
2. Street Trash
3. Copycat
4. Demons
5. Labyrinth
6. Mutantes En La Universidad
7. Neon Maniacs
8. Society
9. Videodrome
10. Razas De Noche
11. Re-Animator
12. Donnie Darko
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