Doomsday Virus – Mutually Abusive (CD Album – Doomsday Virus)

Genre/Influences: Industrial, hard-core, cyber-punk.
Background/Info: Doomsday Virus is hailing from New-York and has already been active for a couple of years now. “Mutually Abusive” is their 5th opus to date.
Content: From start on you’ll notice this typical North-American industrial sound reminding me of bands like Ministry and co. The sound is harsh, unpolished and sometimes exploring hard-core influences. This is a dark and merciless adventure throughout a dense sonic jungle where dirty guitar riffs and enraged vocals are terrorizing the visitor.
The guitar playing has been joined by electronic effects, which are empowering the obscure and haunting format. Some beautiful synth lines merge with a real dirty guitar. The idea is cool, but it’s not always that cohesive. It sometimes creates a kind of anarchistic sound formula.
+ + + : I first saw the great artwork of this album. The great digipak clearly intrigues and invites the listener to discover its content. I like the mix of harsh guitars and electronics featuring some nice synth passages. I also enjoyed the rough and unpolished production.
– – – : I’m missing a real symbiosis between all the influences. It remains pretty fragmented and without a real climax.
Conclusion: I got the impression that there’s much more potential in this band then what came out at “Mutually Abusive”. The industrial approach is cool, but it remains a bit unaccomplished.
Best songs: “Flatline”, “Save Our Souls”.
Rate: (6).
Band: www.doomsdayvirus.com / www.facebook.com/doomsdayvirus
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
