REVIEWS > NEGATIVITY
Hard Wired Review (UK)
Coming out of a side project from Industrial Techno act, K-Nitrate, Audiowar's 44 minute album is nothing short of bloody amazing!
The brainchild of Graham Rayner (songwriter for Cubanate), it's easy to hear the musical influences on this album - it' progressive, no nonsense metal-industrial noise. It's relentless in its assault. The tracks are well crafted and finely balanced - each track is a new adventure for the ears. Think Cubanate and Ministry (circa ‘Mind...') and you'll have a fair idea as to what this album's about. Completely instrumental (the only vocals are samples, buried beneath the rampaging music), this album comes as a breath of much welcome fresh air. It has that one quality sadly lacking from most of today's releases - originality, but with a hint of familiarity. Danger with a hint of safety.
The opening track merely builds us up, slowly with distorted electronic noise, growing calmer, until the second track, ‘One Drug' slams home with Ministry-esque bass, and slap-down rhythm. This is good stuff. The metal influences are all too apparent in the next onslaught, which is ‘Super Freak' - this is a crazed maniac with a chainsaw let loose on a dance floor, and I expect to see this packing the dance floors at clubs soon!
‘Retro Life' is a little more stayed in its approach - more ordered, and yet equally as harsh as the preceding tracks. It all goes nuts for the track ‘Analyze' - ordered noise and rhythm is the order of the day here - this is a beautifully crafted track, with loops, grinding beats, and progressive rhythm, this track does not disappoint. The sampled lyrics work well too - playing along with the track, and not dominating it.
‘Criminal' can best be described as a track thankful to be let out of it's cage after years of torture - again this is another dance floor filler, and again the track is varied enough to be different, and yet is so recognisable as an Audiowar product. ‘Money Shot' is about as laid back as it gets on this album so far - melody and rhythm are free to breath here, and the sounds space is a lot less cluttered. Consider this the warm down track after ‘Criminal' - chance for you to get your heart rate down to a reasonable level.
And yet the rest is not over there - ‘Dirty Link' brings a touch of ambiance to the proceedings. Gone are the harsh pounding beats, only to be replaced by industrial-esque melodies, that guide and lead the listener to the track ‘Breaking Down'... another melodic, ambient piece... or so you think until it engages 1st gear and cascades into another Audio War classic - dirty, pounding beats, and that all too familiar driving melody. Nice! The final track on the album is ‘Audio Crash' - crash by name and crash by nature - this is a mental head fuck just waiting to dance all over your face. Even at the end of the album there is no let up. Quality! Just the way it should be
I want, no, need to see this band live. This album is by far one of the best I have heard to date, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. It's albums like this that will rid the scene of the electro bleep culture for good. Bring it on!
Keith Elcombe (4/4)
Barcode Review (UK)
The third release from the MOMT label is an industrial-rock amalgam of industrial-techno act K-Nitrate (Christian Weber) and Graham Rayner, formerly of defunct industrial heavyweights Cubanate. This wasn't an album I was particularly looking forward to, as much of what the Industrial scene now brings us is rather derivative, however, Weber and Rayner decide to play it straight, avoiding many of the clichés that the scene is associated with, and instead drive headstrong into the storm with a number of pulsatingly aggressive songs.
Vocals are kept down to a remarkable minimum, which is unusual for Industrial music - where it's usually at the forefront. This means that Audio War have to impress with the music, and after a brief, dark opener, the duo leap into One Drug, a rather messily uninspiring rock track, with locomotive beats bludgeoned by sawing guitars. Thankfully, the following Super Freak is more inspired, as addictive loops are joined by Front 242-style feedback guitars and sampled speech excerpts. The song slowly builds into an epic, fast paced monster of electro-Industrial noise.
In truth, little of what remains on Negativity differentiates itself from the opening few tracks, yet there is no mindless over-reliance on technology here; the songs are basic, straightforward and addictive, mainly due to the fact that the production is not overcomplicated by technology, but sticks to a small armoury of intelligently handpicked hooks and samples, whilst the vocals thankfully avoid wittering on about death and necrophilia for an hour - unlike most of Audiowar's generic contemporaries. Therefore, Analyze is another standout track; whilst Criminal's vicious array of steamrolling drum loops is quite simply brutal - rather like a no-holds-barred Prodigy. Money Shot is also very well produced a feature of the album's consistency.
Predictable it may be, but Negativity remains one the most uncomplicated albums I have heard from the Industrial scene for a very long time, and is all the better for it. (7.2/10)
Chain DLK Review (Italy)
Released
by Miracle of Modern Technology
records, Negativity is the
first release for Audio War, a
project headed by Graham Rayner and Christian Weber of Cubanate/K-Nitrate fame. The duo already released an album but using Audio Warfare UK as moniker.
After the
first listening of Negativity
there's a thing (a couple to be true), I remembered most: the power of the
sound and the remix feeling that the tracks produce. I mean, the ten tracks of the
album seem to be composed as the band is remixing itself: distant vocals are looped;
the basic bass and drums parts are repeated, processed, etc. Only after few listening
you start to understand their approach to sound and music: sonic violence with
no limits, but don't get me wrong, melody and rhythm are the first things into
the Audio War's list of
priorities.
If you want
a reference, while I was listening to Negativity,
I thought about Pitch Shifter
or Final (one of the Justin/Godflesh
side projects) because of the band's attitude toward the guitar noise sound. If
you are into electro guitarism or industrial metal, this is the one for you.
Rage is next in line...
Rock Sound Review (UK)
The missing link on the evolutionary ladder between K-Nitrate and KreuzDammer for a band that are purported to no longer exist Audio War are certainly making a noise from behind the grave. (This is not correct as Audio War is still a functional band. - Ian MoMT)
Wishing to free themselves from the almost safe confines of K-Nitrate former Cubanate founder and long-term musical Christian Weber have taken the decision to engage a full-on assault on the nation's dance floors with a heavier, more cutting sound.
Eschewing lyrics in favour of looped samples and half-buried noises from another life, what personality a vocalist could have added is rejected in favour of a sleaze, 500mph no holds barred, Prodigy attack. The fact that these guys can create something that rivals the last Prodge album is cool in itself. Gilez Moorhouse (7/10)
Side-Line Review (Belgium)
Behind this project hides two familiar names of the UK underground scene. Audio War is the result of the efforts of Graham Rayner (Cubanate) and Christian Weber (K-Nitrate).
The name of the project perfectly stands for the music they create, which sounds like the offspring between Cubanate, Numb and The Prodigy. "Negativity" sounds like it's propelled by a sonic turbo reactor, combining influences like break beats and cyber-rock. The vocals don't get priority but feature as samples.
The main accent of this album resides in the heavy arrangements and powerful blasts. The frenetic drum loops reinforced by the electro-guitar sound assaults are leading the listener into a pure crossover universe. That's already what both musicians experienced inside Cubanate and K-Nitrate. Audio War sounds definitely more up to date and in a way, I regret the absence of Marc Heal (Cubanate) as vocalist.
F*** Marc Heal because Audio War doesn't need any extra input! This album is pure ecstasy in the form it has been conceived here! Recommended songs are "One Drug", "Super Freak", "Retro Life", "Analyze" and the devastating "Audio Crash"! (7.8/10)
Gothic Revue Review (US)
Graham Rayner and Christian Weber have devised a spectacular piece of aural sound in this release of Audio War. Very lo-fi akin to Portishead but way of Nine Inch Nails.
Audio War is a very fitting name for this piece of audio bliss. All of the tracks meld into each other and become indiscernible from each other upon a few listens. I accept this cd happily and group it in with Coph Nia and Dead Can Dance in that you need to listen to this cd all the way through for the complete travelogue induced herein.
This is hard edged Industrial/ambient that doesn't bother to try to sound like anyone else; they just seem to do their own thing, and quite well at that.
Neurozine Review (Sweden)
The music is easiest described as a kind of Skinny Puppy-techno experiment. Songs that have both high speed and standard. There's seldom a dull moment, the music changes and feels progressive. I can imagine that it's something that will be played a lot on the heavier dance floors around the world.
The album is a great example of how good industrial music might sound. With samples and distorted sounds the most mundane is transformed into something interesting. "One Drug" and "Criminal" are two brilliant examples of how music should sound. (8/10)