Statiqbloom – Beneath The Whelm (Album – Metropolis)
Genre/Influences: Industrial, Dark-Electro.
Format: Digital, CD, Vinyl.
Background/Info: One year after the astonishing “Asphyxia”-album the Brooklyn, NY (USA) based Statiqbloom strikes back with their fifth opus to date. It’s the second one released on Metropolis.
Content: The band claims to compose Post-Industrial music and that’s a definition, which totally matches with the global sound approach of this work. Several songs remind me of the obscure and tormented style of early Skinny Puppy, which has been transposed into a very own sonic mould. The atmosphere hanging over the tracks remains the main characteristic of the band, appearing a kind of trademark! But you’ll also notice harder, danceable cuts while other passages reveal some minimalism. The spooky production of the vocals creates a symbiosis with the sound. Notice by the way that the song “The second Coming” is featuring Metal singer Attila Csihar.
+ + + : “Beneath The Whelm” moves on there where “Asphyxia” stopped. It remains an album supported by dense and overwhelming Ambient atmospheres, but they this time moved a step further creating a sonic bridge with early Dark-Electro/Industrial music reminding the Skinny Puppy years from the late 80s. There’s an intelligent and sophisticated song writing resulting in multiple attention grabbers. The song together with Attila Csihar is a magic piece of Dark-Electro/Industrial music.
– – – : I’m just missing a few more club-orientated tracks at this album.
Conclusion: Statiqbloom is a very particular project; clearly related to other bands and specific genres although featuring a very personal sound.
Best songs: “The Second Coming”, “Restless”, “Ghost Deep”, “Black Lava”, “Alcestis”.
Rate: (8).
Artist: www.facebook.com/statiqbloom
Label: www.metropolis-records.com / www.facebook.com/MetropolisRecords
Since you’re here … … we have a small favour to ask. More people are reading Side-Line Magazine than ever but advertising revenues across the media are falling fast. And unlike many news organisations, we haven’t put up a paywall – we want to keep our journalism as open as we can. So you can see why we need to ask for your help. Side-Line’s independent journalism takes a lot of time, money and hard work to produce. But we do it because we want to push the artists we like and who are equally fighting to survive. If everyone who reads our reporting, who likes it, helps fund it, our future would be much more secure. For as little as 5 US$, you can support Side-Line Magazine – and it only takes a minute. Thank you. The donations are safely powered by Paypal.
