Genre/Influences: Dark-Electro, Industrial-Trance.

Format: Digital.

Background/Info: Last year the German band Chainreactor released the impressive “Interlinked”-album, which to me sounded like a move back to the early sound of the project, but with a more sophisticated sound and more professional production. “The Essence” is a totally new work featuring four songs plus three remixes.

Content: This work is clearly revealing the most Trance-driven production of Chainreactor thus far. We’ve been used to hearing a kind of Industrial-Rave sound, but the new songs are moving a step further. This is a perfect adaptation of Dark-Electro into Industrial-Trance music. There are no vocals, just spoken samplings. Remixes were made by Crashzkitt, Antibody and Stromtod.

+ + + : This EP reveals a different side of Chainreactor; the sound isn’t totally innovative, but clearly into a kind of Chainreactor V.2-version. It’s a different kind of Industrial-Trance, which is more carried by Dark-Electro elements. It’s hard to say which from the 4 songs is the best one; they all are great artistic exposures, but I’ll tip “Nebula” and “Impulskontrolle”. There also is an interesting choice of remixers; except Antibody I never heard of both other artists. But Chainreactor has clearly inspired those artists and especially Crashzkitt and Antibody both did a really great job.  

– – – : I’m sure some ‘classical’ Dark-Electro lovers will not be that enthusiastic discovering this explicit Trance-direction. I really love it and I regret that there’s no physical format available for this masterpiece!

Conclusion: Chainreactor strikes back with a bang! “The Essence” is maybe not that innovative, but it’s a damned great production and one of the best I’ve heard this year.

Best songs: “Nebula”, “Nebula – Antibody Remix”, “Impulskontrolle”, “The Essence”, “HAL”.

Rate: (9 ½).

Artist: www.facebook.com/Chainreactor

Label: www.darkdimensions.de /  www.facebook.com/pages/Dark-Dimensions-Label-Group/486014725206