What with Fear Factory combusting spectacularly recently maybe Pulse have stepped up at the right time with their “Cyber Future Metal”. First off if you are new to this band, they are not in the style of Burton and Dino’s Bladerunner bothering cyber death/Nu hybrid. Rather, Pulse, helmed by Nemesis from Austrian Black Metallers Astaroth is a much more dancy affair. Think Euro, trancey cyber goth with double kicks and goth metal vocals.
So, without further ado hands in the air, hair fall clipped in place, lazers on and Ein zwei drei – GO!
Pulse is Nemesis on vox, guitars and programming, Dom on guitar, Vidar on bass and Pulsar on drums. This is their second release following 2015’s Extinction Level Event and is chock full of cheeky extra-terrestrial bopalongs. Lyrical themes range from mythical ancient satellites on “Black Knight” the possibility of angry aliens punishing us for fucking up our planet “We won’t come in peace” to psychopathic sex disorder with a sex doll(?) with “New Elastic Freak”. (only the second sex doll song I know along with Sally/Be My Girl by the Police).
This is not hard industrial and will appeal to fans of Scooter more than those that want KMFDM or Revolting Cocks. However, I have been known to throw my hands in the air and wave them like I just don’t care – or at least am too drunk to care – so am happy to jump board the Pulse space cruiser.
The mix of cyber and metal works, there is just enough of both and, whilst the sci fi elements are a little campy Pulse carry it off without it becoming farcical. There are times when I am reminded of Laibach’s awesome Iron Sky soundtrack and others of Kovenant from the turn of the Millennium.
Midway through the album after a lot of big beat danceable tracks the proggy Floyd meets Gary Moore of “Encounter” cuts in. This instrumental uses rapid radio conversations, keys and the aforementioned licks to good effect and offers a breather before “Star Light” picks up the pace again. It is the sort of track that you see used on the TV adverts for Peleton. I can almost imagine some uber fit twentysomething shouting at me to “Go for the burn Peletonnnnnnnnnn!” . Great metal chorus here that will allow for some metal claw in between big fish, little fish, cardboard box!
The rest of the album keeps my fists pumping “Black Knight “ has a whiff of Rammstein about it but with one of my fave cheesey synth voices – orchestral hit – I don’t know why I just dig that shit!
The final track proper is “The Passage Entry” – ooh err missus! Austrian’s evidently don’t have the same predilection for double entendres as us Brits – rather than some vaudevillian saucy space shanty this is a synthy proggy piano laden instrumetal to go on a final space-walk too .
Before they blast into the cosmos Pulse have two further gifts – a cover and a remix. The cover is of the German original “Major Tom” by Peter Schilling – the English language version of which gained recent popularity as the theme to Deutschland 83. This version is fast and punky with a martial industrial edge. It maintains the Neu Deutsche Welle feel of the original. Could well be a dancefloor fave at Antichrist or other such fleshpots.
Finally, Venezuelan DJ/Performer and mad mask wearer Zardonic remixes Alienagel from Pulse’s first album. I have had my head rattled by Zardonic in the past so had an idea what to expect. This is a hard and heavy, staccato machine gun slice of metalstep (look it up). A gritty end to a delightful album.
(8/10 Matt Mason)
Leave a Reply