Elm – Death Of The North (Digital EP – Alfa Matrix)
Genre/Influences: EBM.
Background/Info: Peter Elm was previously involved with the excellent EBM/pop driven Restricted Area, but set up Elm to exorcise his EBM demons. After a successful debut album “Hardline” the Swedish artist based in Brussels (Belgium) has a new full length in the pipeline. “Extreme Unspoken Tension” will be released quite soon and has been introduced by this new EP.
Content: “Death Of The North” has been featured in 3 different versions. There’s not that much between the “7-inch Mix” and the “Album Version”. Both edits are pure old-school EBM reminding the sound formula of Nitzer Ebb and the roughness of Ionic Vision. The songs are carried by a solid and classical EBM bass line. The “Ultimate Truth Mix” has an early And One flavor on top.
Among the two songs left I especially want to mention “Thoughtcrime” for the guitar riffs accentuating the aggression of the song and the rage of Elm!
+ + + : If you’re into retro-EBM “Death Of The North” will push you to a frenetic dance. It’s a stereotypical, but damn great EBM cut. I like the bass line and the rough sound production while Peter Elm’s harsh vocals embrace the rage of the song. Next to the title song, “Thoughtcrime” sounds even more violent and merciless and is definitely another attention grabber.
– – – : The single critic I can think about is that Elm doesn’t bring anything new to an old-school music style each time again featuring a similar sound formula.
Conclusion: This is a strong introduction to the upcoming Elm-album. “Death Of The North” is a dancefloor killer!
Best songs: “Death Of The North – 7 Inch Mix”, “Death Of The North – Album Version”, “Thougthcrime – Mean Mugger-Mix”.
Rate: (8).
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