“Hope is the only good god remaining among mankind;
the others have left and gone to Olympus.
Trust, a mighty god has gone, Restraint has gone from men,
and the Graces, my friend, have abandoned the earth.
Men’s judicial oaths are no longer to be trusted, nor does anyone
revere the immortal gods; the race of pious men has perished and
men no longer recognize the rules of conduct or acts of piety.”
Theognis of Megara 6th century BC

…And that was all what left inside the box after Pandora opened it, she accomplished her destiny as the ultimate guile play ever performed by the gods against mankind. This conceptual meandering is what the famous Pittsburgh based duo represented by femme fatale Nikki Telladictorian and his partner in crime Greg VanEck has reserved for us to be contaminated with, their latest album released on the ever brilliant Crunch pod label. The cover artwork couldn’t be any more eloquent, the instant before the box is about to be opened before us and what about the music? Well it is a literal commission from a cyber-punk standpoint over such a legendary and complex mythological play. Who the fuck else has done something like this with this type of music? I tell you who, No one. Their overly energetic ensemble goes all the way reflexive over the topic referring mankind and its apocalyptical destiny that gets more and more evidence and less of a theory.

Everything on this conceptual work is caustic, noisy, gritty, edged, so don’t expect gentle sequences to cover in lollipops your dance floor, this is an industrial override as the ancient (now forgotten) forefathers from the Electro and EBM used to consider and implement their works, more than simple entertainment, this is pain disguised in deranged and riveted synths, jagged analogue sequences, demented junkyard breaks, sado-distorted female shrieks and a drop or two of an acid bad trip represented in the faithful adhesion to the old school formula, the general atmosphere and the lyricism introduced; Ultimately meant to be mean and rude with a definable clarity in the rhythmic section that achieves to conduct the listener to the proper mood of frantic convulsions and imperishable concentration over the course of each track. Some influences come to mind: Leather strip in the sequence style employed, Clock DVA on the more sinister and left handed mood, the crazy and uncompromised psycho driven compositional values from Skinny Puppy, twisted and demented structural changes and abrupt cuts, the harpy driven voice command from Genitorturers and finally the monolithic slow paced beats and fatty analogues from early Ministry. Add to that repertoire their own set of fundamental rhythmic noise recipe constructed entirely over a vast arsenal of rude synthesizers transformed in such beasts by the malignant hand of their owners. The textures and frequencies from the sequences limit with extreme electronics at times while the harshness and crudeness from their torrent of multi rhythmic breaks comes as the works of a mechanic foundry running at maximum capacity. In this aspect the band remits to memories from the UK based band Leech Woman, sharing perhaps a bit of that incendiary sense for mixing typical industrial clanging in a hectic array of beats and rhythmic layers, only difference is the quality of the texture from Prometheus Burning which is exceptionally virulent and their breaks share space for varied dynamics familiar with IDM.

There is different moods and constant tempo variation during the course of the work. The first two tracks come as a storm but then darkness slowly engulfs it all, first with “Blackmagick Tongue” and then with the occultist themed “Ouroboros Deathride”, more sinister and less frantic and backing off the female front vocals to the chorus and residing the male ones on the first plane, whispering its anathema in a faded voice. “False Prophets” comes as macabre, slow paced instrumental that serves perfectly as a stated interlude, then the work retakes on a punching set of beat and gripping analogue sequences on “Confronting Pandora” that adds an acidic guitar chords amongst the synth driven riffs. Tracks 9 & 10 re-heightens the principles on velocity and jammed rhythms and prepare the way for the decline that inevitably approaches with the melancholic delayed cyber punk ballad “Elpis (Hope is not enough)”, indeed, as the terrible malediction released upon mankind, hope just comes as another sinister anathema. So the carnival of death masques is over, only to return back from the dead after 57 blank tracks with a re-vamped idolization on “You know what you are” from Ministry which is a decent cover but not mind-blowing. A critic would be the linearity from the female vocals as product of the relentless modulation and by preserving the same tonality; the voice gets annoying and virtually clouding the analogue sequences as side effect. For the rest, the work gnaws tongue and drips blood. Terrific work these duo have had just conceived, an honorable way of paying tribute to the legion of industrialists of the past with a good amount of varnish from the future.

- Jack The Ripper, Heathen Harvest