Review Summary: Dark tribal industrial with experimental noise, ambient and metal influence.
Sektor 304 is a relatively new industrial band that first commanded attention in 2009, with the release of their US debut
Soul Cleansing. Although the band has since expanded from a duo to a quartet, their artistic vision on
Subliminal Actions remains very consistent with that previous release, right down to founding member André Coelho doing the graphic design of the digipak. I found the cover art of
Subliminal Actions a little unprovocative for the genre (frankly, it would not look out of place as the cover of a popular video game) but of course, it is better that the cover does not live up to the music than the other way around.
Subliminal Actions is a dark album. While
Soul Cleansing offered some welcome moments of reprieve such as the sublime tranquility of "Final Transmission,"
Subliminal Actions feels unrelentingly dedicated to the grimmer, doom-laden facets of Sektor 304's sound. Although only released on CD so far (and, at over 64 minutes, too long for a single LP release),
Subliminal Actions can be thought of as having two "sides," structured around a stylistic shift in the middle of the album. After a 2½-minute harsh noise appetizer in the form of "A Carving on Metal Skin," the "A side" tracks are more song-like in their approach, heavy on the rhythmic structure and aggressively shouted lead vocals. "A Vessel of Guilt" is the obvious successor to Sektor 304's best-known song from their debut, "Body Hammer," using similar sonic elements (metallic junk percussion, punctuated by a whirring electric drill) but with a tighter groove- this is as close as Sektor 304 gets to body music, though it's a savage swing that has little in common with domesticated club styles. The use of synth in these tracks has more in common with dark ambient than with typical industrial, playing a role that is subliminally atmospheric but not overtly technological. The "B side" tracks include more instrumental or spoken vocal tracks, and generally take a somewhat soundscape-like approach. Some listeners will probably find this style less immediately accessible than the album's first half, but taken on their own terms these tracks contain some great uses of amplified objects and strange machine-like noises, with interesting experimental tangents. "Terminal Stage" takes ambient industrial to its very darkest, and "The Prismatic Sun" even breaks out into a heavy bass riff that allows the album to end in a "rock" mood, though a quite ominous one in the vein of such artists as
Aluk Todolo.
The word "tribal" is frequently used in describing Sektor 304, from their polyrhythmic drumming style, to some of the background voices, to the general themes of the project. Sektor 304's songs do not convey individual personas so much as they cast the vocalist in the role of a narrator or mythic archetype, dealing with age-old trials and horrors- human sacrifice or martyrdom, control by force, the existential abyss, and so on. "Vultures" gazes at the natural ecological cycle of death with a pounding beat and a chorus of simian grunts, accomplishing the rare feat of industrial music that the average caveman could relate to. Indeed, while Sektor 304's interest in the timbre of modern industrial materials and machinery allows us to label them an industrial band, the impression they create is not of cyberdelic transhumanism but rather a linkage between modern technology and man as a perennially primitive tool-using animal. Or, as one of the songs suggests: "We've come full circle."
Subliminal Actions is a recommended album for a diverse crowd of dark music enthusiasts craving something different, likely to appeal not just to the industrial heads but probably some fans of dark ambient and avant-garde metal as well.
