Ice Ages

Buried Silence

Written by: PP on 02/08/2008 08:55:16

Many people refer to bands like Nine Inch Nails, Rammstein and Filter as industrial rock/metal, but I\'m sure none of these people have listened to Ice Ages, Richard Lederer\'s (Summoning, Die Verbannten Kinder) one-man industrial electro / darkwave side project, and its third album \"Buried Silence\". This album has single-handedly re-defined the industrial genre for this reviewer; its sounds are the perfect manifestation of what comes to mind when one thinks about the word - not necessarily the genre - industrial.

Lets start with the phenomenal drumming. All songs run at a deliberately slow, pulsating pace, commanded by the drums that honestly sound like ten blacksmiths rhythmically hammering various metals in their flaming forgeries. The raw production allows the drums to loosely echo around dangerous-sounding landscapes, painting an immediate picture of a chemical processing plant at night into your mind or something. I\'m tempted to use the word picturesque here, but somehow it\'s just not fitting to oil refinery imagery running through my head while listening to the record.

Once the electronic samples enter the game, you\'re starting to think of Ice Ages as a twisted, ultra-dark version of the grimmest corner of Trent Reznor\'s genius. Occasionally, it sounds like something out of a German goth-club you\'ve seen in the movie xXx, and at other times, darkwave trance elements strangely resonate in the industrial landscape. This is the kind of stuff you\'d expect to hear in a really, really, really underground industrial trance club or something.

If it wasn\'t for the drizzling Rammstein vocal imitation (which, to be fair, is only used rarely) contrasting to the otherwise great sense-of-danger atmosphere, most songs on \"Buried Silence\" would represent the ultimate industrial experience for this reviewer. Although most people can\'t say they\'re huge fans of the genre, the saying \"there is at least one brilliant act in every single genre, regardless of your personal music taste\" holds certainly true here, for Ice Ages and \"Buried Silence\" are just that - a brilliant demonstration of what a single man can do just with a few effects pedals and a computer.

9

Download: Icarus, From Grey To...
For the fans of: Rammstein, Nine Inch Nails
Listen: Myspace

Release date 27.06.2008
Napalm Records

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