If nothing else this album showed me how out of the loop I am, and not just with ‘industrial’. We’ll get to that in a while though. Righty. 3teeth are an LA industrial band currently touring with Ministry and just got allowed into the UK #notbrexitissueshonestly. And industrial these days of course means industrial metal and they are that indeed. From the brooding intro to the machine hammer of first track ‘Affluenza’ this hits clean and hard. It’s a perfect production for this music; bright, in your face with enough distortion around the sharp edges to get the anger flowing. There’s a real early NIN vibe to the bleeps of melody here, and in the vocal style, but heavier on the riffs. ‘Exxxit’ follows pretty much on cue and down the same production line. It’s a nice noisy start.
‘American Landfill’ turns the tempo down a little bit into Marilyn Manson shadows, but I also am reminded of old Peace, Love And Pitbulls with the sheer weight of the riffs. Anything that brings back memories of those nutters is pretty cool by me. ‘President X’ weirdly splices all that to Alice In Chains’ ‘Sickman’ via a touch of FLA and maybe Stabbing Westward. Yeah, them.
It is getting a bit…odd for me in here by this point. I want to use my horrendous damning-with-faint-praise phrase of ‘there’s actually nothing wrong with any of this’ but the problem is…um…they grab my attention with initial hooks or refrains that remind me of other songs but then let me wander as 3teeth take the reins. I mean ‘Bornelss’ has a few pure NIN opening melody notes. ‘The Fall’ is the Sisters Of Mercy ‘This Corrosion’ for a couple of seconds before the Stabbing Westward style moroseness kicks in. No it isn’t bad, it just never really grabs me.
Until the last track which stops me dead. I am blown away. Dark, haunting, cynical but with eyes wide open it sounds like no one else and nothing else on the album. It dwells in the mind of a disturbed teenager with a spree killing on their mind and access to a gun. It’s a nightmare and done beautifully. I get shivers. Eventually I look at the title. Even the title doesn’t fit with the rest of the album.
Penny. Dropping. I google it. Yep it’s a cover. Sorry I’m so inside my little world I’d never heard of ‘Pumped Up Kicks’ by Foster The Family. But it’s a beautiful terrible song, perfect for the times and closer to older industrial music, or at least EBM, in this excellent cover.
I’m kinda lost then. It’s all I want to listen to again here.
But there’s nothing wrong with the album. It’s ok for modern industrial metal. Give it a go. Just pretend the last track is ‘The Fall’ or you might end up like me.
(6.5/10 Gizmo)
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