Fatal Casualties – Lullaby For Helsinki (Album – i-Traxx Red Edition)
Genre/Influences: Wave-Pop, Industrial, Ambient.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Originally set up in 1986 and remaining active until 1991, Swedish formation Fatal Casualties went into hibernation until they started a second life in 2010. After having released three significant albums on Seja Records they now joined hands together with i-Traxx to unleash this new opus, which is the first one in four years.
Content: Fatal Casualties is a band in constant evolution. This new work is however the most difficult one to catch and that’s because of its eclecticism. It remains an Electronic composition, which takes off a rather Doom-like way to move next into Minimal-Electronics. We next get a kind of Trip-Hop cut reminding me of Massive Attack. There also is a strong Industrial approach running through multiple cuts. Some passages are into darker atmospheres while others are into 80s Wave-Pop melancholia.
+ + + : The main strength of this work is the sensation of travelling. Fatal Casualties is not dealing with one explicit genre, but travels throughout different influences creating their most versatile work to date. The album has something stubborn, but it creates the fascination for this work. Finally a band daring to defy established music genres. All I can say is that it resulted in a few little jewels like “Punk Ghetto”, which is a great Minimal-Electro piece with a carrying chorus. Another major song is “It Could Have Been You” for the link with the Massive Attack-style.
– – – : If there’s one single reproach I should make it’s precisely the album’s diversity. I’m sometimes missing a bit of cohesion between the songs.
Conclusion: Fatal Casualties remains one of the most atypical and personal Swedish Electronic formations, which is masterly exposed at this new opus.
Best songs: “Punk Ghetto”, “It Could Have Been You”, “Café Art”, “Repository World”.
Rate: (7½).
Artist: www.fatalcasulaties.com / www.facebook.com/FatalCasualtiesBand
Label: http://musex-industries.es / www.facebook.com/itraxxrecordings
About Fatal Casualties
Fatal Casualties is a Swedish electronic act formed in Stockholm in 1986 by Stefan Ljungdahl and Ivan Hirvonen. After playing live and recording demos for years, the project released its first official output, the EP “Paria”, in 2012. Fatal Casualties has since worked with guest vocalists including Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire, Wrangler) and Alex Spalck (Pankow). “Lullaby For Helsinki” is the band’s first album in four years.
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