Review Summary: A whole bag of violent, pissed off industrial emotions.
One can look at industrial music as being simplistic and monotonous or as exciting and energizing. When you hear industrial there is probably a few bands that come to mind. Most would cite Nine Inch Nails, Ministry, Skinny Puppy and KMFDM as the forerunners of the genre. Over the course of its existence, industrial music has been an underground passion of those select musicians that would rather make beats by computer generation than use actual instruments to produce the music. Lately the hot item to come out of the wash is a genre coined as aggrotech, which is simply a harsh version of electronic body music or EBM. The combination of harsh vocals with industrial/electronic beats has become more popular as of late, with a prime example of the release of The Shizit’s new album in 2009.
Aesthetic Perfection is a one man project based out of Los Angeles. Reminiscent of dark electro or electronic dance music, Aesthetic Perfection combines fresh, dark beats with vocals like the devil is speaking directly to you. Unlike traditional industrial, aggrotech does not normally introduce instrumentation into the beat patterns but rather use snide, gloomy samples to fill gaps. The opening track is more of just an introduction to the album, with some sounds that resemble a dying person's cries for help with what could be thought of as an announcer attempting to talk over the cries that just utters the title of the album over and over again. Creepy huh? “Spit It Out” is a great but tedious track. The beats of the song are pretty similar with the reviving factor of the fantastic vocals. The lyrics are somewhat droning but still better than quite a lot of the self-made industrial you see on the scene. The second’s song title directly translates from German as pleasure derived by the misfortune of others. It seems that this album might actually follow on those tracks pretty well. It starts off with some beats that originate more so from electronic which is where this project gets quite a bit of its inspiration from.
The one thing that I think sets this album apart from others of the same genre is the use of samples and the unique vocals. It’s not like they are weird but they don’t really resemble any others. Not so much a post hardcore scream or a death metal growl but more so a mix of the two. Another quality to this album that it is cynical. Yes that can be a quality when you are in the mood for such a type of music. “The Siren” has equal parts harsh vocals and clean. It sports some spacey samples and refreshing beats that you will find in quite a few songs on this album. “A Quiet Anthem” has a serious, eerie opening that would be perfect for the next Resident Evil movie. Everything about this song screams dark and death. It could quite possibly be the best song on the album, only half way through it. A nice piano solo on the bridge and the line containing the lyrics “I finally resign, I chose to cut the ties and stop the bleeding” really help you almost visualize what the video for the song might look like.
The next couple tracks have more of an electro feel to it. “Living The Wasted Life” has some great vocal work once again with a nice distorted sample thrown in the middle as well. “The Great Depression” would definitely be the second best song on the album if you ask me. You can expect nothing less than exceptional from this project when it comes to the music he has created. The whole album is built around hard hitting blast beats and synth hooks. If there weren’t vocals to compliment this album it would still be a great standalone instrumental record. The rest of the album kind of plateaus. It evens off, which means there isn’t much of a high point left to go to but it also doesn’t degrade in quality. The closer “The Ones” has some more airy, light synth hooks that you would find in regular electronica. Having more clean vocals leaves it the option for listeners to get a full feel for his sound as a whole. The title of this album is a serious evaluation of the truth when it comes to the theme of this album. A violent emotion it is indeed.
