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Artist: FREAK XXI
Album: Re-Cycle
Year: 2002
Freak XXI, wasn't that that Spanish band which nearly
had decent information all over the net? Yes, exactly.
Besides the declarations of several Spanish industrial
bands and freaks that Freak XXI can be seen as one of
the biggest Spanish industrial bands ever, I don't have
much more to mention. Fortunately, this time we have a
silly digipack with random quotes as "CAUTION! Do not
damage or mishandle this package. If package is damaged
the bandmembers must be quarantained, inspected and
repacked" and "This cd may contain NEW IDEAS! Guide your
children THROUGH THEM!". Sillyness über alles in my
world, so this is a good start... although, it’s still
all about the music, right?
The album kicks off with ‘P.I.N’. It opens very
mechanized and electronic, and gets danceable after a
short while. The song can be described best as an EBM/electro
track, with recogniseable vocal lines and powerful
guitars on the chorus. Overall the track has a modern
though atmospheric attitude. ‘Excess’ is more powerful.
It has very wicked and diverse sampling and FX sounds,
strong guitars and killer programming. The vocal lines
have a catchy sounding, specially in the chorus, which
makes it despite all the complexity quite an accessable
track. ‘Zero’ comes up next. It has a strong link to the
old school subgenre of industrial metal; a band like
Nine Inch Nails comes in mind immidiately. Fortunately,
Freak XXI manages to bring an own twist into the track,
most of all because of the characteristic clean vocal
parts in the chorusses and the experimental programming.
‘Visions’ continues to walk the old school path.
Musically there aren’t that many differences with ‘Zero’,
although this track sounds more accessable due to the
catchy chorus and stronger guitars and keylines. The
band goes back to more experimental and modern stuff
with ‘Mean Machinery’. The track is more uptempo and
danceable, the guitarwork is more wicked and diverse and
the programming is just insane. The tempo changes are
wellplaced, and the level of catchyness in this track is
very high again. ‘Freak21World’ is a little intermezzo,
preaching us about the Freak XXI revolution of the 21st
century, which is followed by ‘The Cathodic Men’. This
one is an uptempo cyber metal track, with danceable
rhytms and modern keylines. Hidden in the chorus we find
some wicked samplings and a strong guitar riff (the
guitars are more than decent all over the track anyway).
In my opinion, this is one of the best tracks on the
release, since it’s also pretty accessable. ‘Stimuli’
kicks off with heavy industrial sounds. What follows is
a modern uptempo track, which has some old school
influences (KMFDM, Ministry) hidden in the song
structure and the guitar work. Overall the track has a
cyberish approach, and is excellent to dance on. The
sensitive intermezzo sound surprisingly cool, and it
launches the powerful part that comes after perfectly.
‘My Longest Day’ is the final (and also the longest)
track of the album. It’s a sensitive track with violins,
strings and female backing vocals. It shows a different
side of this band, proving that they can write songs
like these as well.
Freak XXI is certainly a band with no borders. They are
not afraid to experiment with anything they can grab,
which results in one of the keywords of this release:
diversity. The different sampling, wicked programming
and FX works that are used in each track (most of the
times also within one track!) are exceptional for this
band. Their songwriting skills are like some kind of
guard, guarding their experiments to not become boring.
Furthermore, although each song has its own and
effective identity, nearly all the tracks are accessable
and catchy. So, you can not only use them to dance on,
but also to sing along on the chorusses. The modern
approach of this all might not only affect industrial
metal fans, but also fans of the other alternative
genres of today.
‘Re-Cycle’ is certainly an album that took a big
impression on me. It doesn’t happen a lot that I bless
albums with the full-score, but we found ourselves
another one over here. Referring to the quote – "CAUTION!
Do not damage or mishandle this package. If package is
damaged the band must be quarantained, inspected and
repacked" – tell the bandmembers that they are safe,
because the package will not be damaged at all by me or
any other industrial metal fan (I just can’t imagine
that). I wouldn’t trade this album for all the money in
the world.
Vote: 100 / 100
Review by: Gerardo |
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01. P.I.N
02. Excess
03. Zero
04. Visions
05. Mean Machinery
06. Freak21World
07. The Cathodic Men
08. Stimuli
09. My Longest Day
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