Lethal Injection
Artist: various
Label: Flaming Fish Music
Time: 64.35 / 13 tracks
Christian industrial music has startled adherents and critics, offering
some of the most intelligent and authentic projects in the industrial genre.
Many Christian industrial bands are forced to excel for survival's sake
against the prejudice that dismisses them: "Christians can't be industrial!
The two are contradictory!" Flaming Fish has led the Christian industrial
revolution, using sampler discs as the hammers and chisels with which to
carve a niche into a cold, often caustic musical counterculture. Sometimes
the results are stunning, and sometimes not. Lethal Injection offers both.
In general, the compilation is wonderfully loud, although the power
behind the music too often comes from the endless repetition of typical
drum machine beats behind throwaway keyboard phrases. LEVEL'S carries a
good rhythm reminiscent of Acumen Nation, but is guilty of excessive repetition
and one-note verses. At the other end of the spectrum is Audio Paradox,
the industrial project of the musically-diverse Josh Pyle. While some bands
on Lethal Injection lack ambition, Audio Paradox's music bursts at the
seams with competing intricacies, bound together by his commanding gothic
voice, in a song that works well in spite of its refusal to spotlight a
single, powerful musical spine.
Lethal Injection's problem is that although most of these
songs threaten to erupt, they never explode beyond mere wisps of warm musical
smoke, weak in passion or intensity. The bands seem timid, afraid to push
either the sonic volume or lyrical urgency into the red. Pivot Clowj almost
breaks this mold by trying to avoid intensity completely; "So Gullible"
resembles a tender Tear Garden creation with its mix of odd poetry, sorrow,
magic, vocal inflections and accents, and fairyland music that builds into
a work of awakening beauty and delicacy. Rather than escaping industrial
stereotypes, however, it sadly allows the usual techno beats to interrupt
the tone poem. Still, the song is a good one, despite being lyrical obscure.
On the other hand, Cybershadow continue to mature in their textured and
layered electronic sound, with even better lyrics than on their first full-length
album—although the vocals are still badly out of key. The song shows ambition,
but falls short of the aggro attack hinted at but not delivered.
Lethal Injection never reaches a climax, partly because too
few bands are courageous enough to set aside the "I have a computer and
drum machine" approach to industrial music. The industrial genre itself
is in constant risk of self-suffocation through total adherence to formula
and stereotype; quality bands like Circle of Dust and Cult of Jester have
proven that Christians aren't necessarily bound by those parameters. Unfortunately,
most of LI is an inclusive demonstration of the stereotypes and
generic formulas of industrial music. There isn't a bad band on here, but
LI is a compilation of astoundingly good bands that, for whatever reason,
opted to relax into the mold of generic industrial instead of really pounding
the limits of exploration and sound.
By Matthew Atkinson (11/4/98)
