Genre/Influences: Dark-electro.
Background/Info: “Midget Vampire Porn” is the sixth full length album by Berliner (Germany) dark-electro act Agonoize. It also is their first opus in five years and the first one released on RepoRecords. Throughout the years some changes happened in the line-up, but front man Chris L. is still the captain of the crew.The new work reveals a disc with thirteen new songs and a bonus EP-disc featuring five tracks. Chris L has been assisted by Falgalas Duus (both are also involved with Darkness On Demand) and while Funker Vogt’s captain Gerrit Thomas did the mastering and additional programming.
Content: Agonoize’s sound and influences remain the same-old. The band is still driven by furious dark-electronics carried by heavy –and somewhat industrial-like kicks, icy melody lines –sometimes reminding me of Suicide Commando, and possessed vocals. After a cool epic-like intro, the album brings a succession of hard-damaging cuts. Next to the familiar EP-title tracks this work has a lot to offer and to discover. But the keyword remains the constant power running through the album. The tracks are elevated by great, melodic choruses while there also is a permanent dark, terror-like mood hanging over the songs. The lyrics are sung in German and English.
The bonus disc features 5 extra songs, which are much more than simply ‘disc fillers’. Here again Agonoize shows heavy blasting dark-electro music. One of the songs (cf. “Kingdom Of Darkness”) sounds pretty Funker Vogt-like in the used arrangements.
+ + + : This album simply confirms why Agonoize belongs to the leading formations in their genre. The songs are not only powerful, but still accomplished with great sound treatments and a mature production process. Just pay attention to the perfect harmony between the devilish tempo, the melodic leads during the choruses, the coldness supporting the songs and the production of the vocals. These different, but essential elements just make the difference between a great- and an average band. But you also can hear this difference in little details and I here especially like to mention the female chants running throughout a few tracks. This album features numerous potential hits. I have to mention “Kiss Me Kill Me”, “A Vampire Tale”, “Bullet”, “Antihero” plus the EP’s title tracks “Schmerzpervers” and “Blutgruppe Jesus”. The bonus disc is also worthy of examination. I also have to say a word about the great horror-like artwork of this digipak.
– – – : I don’t really see minus points to mention. This album is probably ‘the’ dark-electro work from 2019!
Conclusion: It was worth the five year wait to welcome the new Agonoize-album, which is without a shadow of a doubt their best work in history!
Best songs: “Kiss Me Kill Me”, “A Vampire Tale”, “Bullet”, “Antihero”, “Schmerzpervers”, “Blutgruppe Jesus”, “Weltenschmerz”, “Apeirophobia” + “Kingdom Of Darkness”, “Gleichschritt”.
Rate: (9).
Artist: www.agonoize.berlin / www.facebook.com/pg/AgonoizeOfficial
Label: www.reporecords.de / www.facebook.com/pages/Repo–Records/119590774857404
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