Nihilistic in tone, brutal in nature, this post-apocalyptic release by Modular Reaper Imager stands as one of the most noisey and intense releases that I've listened to since "Too Dark Park" by Skinny Puppy. Infusing elements of all your favorite industrial genres, including harsh noise, thick bassey arpeggiators, distorted guitars, scraping metallic tones, aggressive piercing synthetics, and maddening evolving atmospheres; if you enjoy some dark horror sounding music you'll definitily find something for your tastes here.
Perfectly blending claustrophobic atmospheric intensity with the subtle digital abstractions of dynamic synthetic soundscapes, the Reaper creates music which you could quite easily burn the world down to. Perfectly noxious, and devilishly delicious all the way through, any fan of late 80s and early 90s industrial music will certainly have a treat with this album.
Never sacrificing musicality for heaviness, but also in the reverse never sacrificing intensity for melody and dynamics, this blend is all so often lost on the nu-school industrial of today that is so lost in a frenzy of EBM that it's forgot it's routes in noise and progressive song structure. And boy is this album filled with progressive song structures, with the songs building up and evolving to perfectly fit his heavily effected vocals, creating intense crescendos of drums, distortion, and processed vocals which will envelop the listener, truly transporting them to the dark visions of the Reaper.
The lyrics are as fittingly intense as the music at hand, with strong apocalyptic themes, both in the literal sense of the end of times but also in the metaphysical sense of questioning one's existence and the reality around oneself. Both a reflection of internal and external perceptions, this release captures a stark portrait of the character of the Reaper, allowing you to penetrate the creation of his consciousness, and see through his eyes as you progress through his stories and reflections.
Making the album that much better is the excellent mix job. The bass is heavy, the drums are fat and present without being overly compressed, the vocals are as clear as one can get with the amount of processing present, and everything feels full enough you can get lost in it, but spacious enough you can make out all the primary elements with clarity. A truly magnificent release through and through, and easy on the ears (well, regarding lack of pitchiness of audible cracking and whatnot... this album is brutal as hell so easy on the ears might not be the BEST analogy after all).
Like Industrial music? Then you'll like this album. It truly mixes all the best elements of my favorite eras of electro-industrial into a powerful cohesive package that will get you thinking "what would Skinny Puppy have sounded like if they never broke up, and kept going with Goettel". Well, this band may be the answer.
The album will be out on April 26th! Check out Modular Reaper Imager's Facebook for all the latest information:
Check out his music on his official Soundcloud for free streaming: