Customer Reviews

Burn Out At The Hydrogen Bar

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Everytime I encounter the word "classic," someone is always trying to recount a mountain-moving work that makes the clock stand for them. And I listen to the chatter, the sonatas and the movements and the nasty southern rock, and I smile and nod. But I never can relate to them because they aren't my classics, and I leave that table disappointed. I suppose its the age one is born into and the flame one seeks that determines how one views the word, be it rebellion or the rant of a piano, and I wasn't born into the hippie genre or to some outing by Mozart or Bach. To me, the "classics" are the albums that established a new way of doing things, taking both the "preamble that sound is" and the "sound itself" and resculpting it into something different. Feedback looping, distortion, building an electro-mousetrap; these are the poisons of my youth. KMFDM and Sister Machine Gun, Ministry and a sordid array of Wax Trax artists; those were the banner symbolizing - something. As KMFDM would later state (under the moniker MDFMK): The revolution will be synthesized!"
And, with albums like Burn Out at a Hydrogen Bar, it was.

While Chemlab isn't readily remembered in many an adoring fever-dream of what "the good old days were," Burn Out was actually pretty momentous at the time and turned me on to all kinds of sound. A lot of the work was seamless, the sounds were orchestrated and yet filled with random elements of noise, and it still had this rough edge to it. I've always like Chemlab because they've stayed pretty true to that system, using beats were would later tout as "industrial" to push vocals that were like some kind of punk within its genre.
It was good stuff then and has aged pretty well.

As far as tracks that I'd pick out from the album at a glance, I'd have to go with "Chemical Halo," "Summer of Hate," "Elephant Man," and perhaps a little "Coedine, Glue and You" loving. Chemical Halo was the first Chemlab song I heard and is probably still the best out of the bunch, with the meaning still burning bright: "with the sky pouring down every creature will drown this time there will be no Noah's Arc." O yeah. I also like the "kneel and kiss the hand you can not bite" message in Summer of Hate, and the sexual overture ringing out of Codeine, Glue and You."
All that hate and all those drugs never die.

An unfortunately obscure and almost forgotten gem in the history of industrial rock, this debut album from the now defunct industrial group Chemlab is a sonic fired up masterpiece. The album cover art should be enough to tell you the explosive nature of this CD. For the love of God, throw out all the nu-metal crap of Limp Bizkit, Sum 41, and Adema and try this. Listen to the industrial, burning angst of Suicide Jag, the stabbing sonics of Neurozone, the extremely threatening firestorm of Derailer, and the violently disturbing screams of Summer of Hate and see for yourself how superior all of Burn Out The Hydrogen Bar is compared to the muddy guitar riffs of the piece of trash album Significant Other by Limp Bizkit. The scratching record sounds in the Suture inteludes are so funny to listen to and make great transition between the songs. This whole album is a firestorm of loud, and extremely loud industrial rock that ranks up there with Nine Inch Nails and Nitzer Ebb and is a classic in Industrial Rock. Buy it! Just don't crack the windows or blow out the speakers!

i still remeber buyin this tape as it was back in the day, i have been surching for this cd for way too long. i love the sound of it, i really have nothing to say other then buy it

For God's sake, stay away from the very weak "Eastside Militia". It can't even touch the intensity of this recording. There isn't a bad song on the whole disc. Industrial or not, IT FREAKIN' ROCKS!!!

I put the Industrial in quotes because it's a little misleading to call this album industrial. Industrial really refers to groups like Neubauten who actually used industrial machinery to make music. However, Industrial has now come to signify the darker, colder, more rock influenced end of electronic music. If that's what Industrial is, then I guess this is industrial. To me, it's more synthrock (rather than synthpop), if that makes any sense. I listened to it frequently in the early 90's when I was in high school and I could relate to the anger and angst of this album. Listening to it again, I'm impressed by the consistency of the album. There are literally no bad songs on the album and there's a perfect balance between the hard metallic anger and well crafted songs. Some of the cyberpunk aspects, especially in the suture sections, come across as slightly silly in 2008 but that is easily overlooked. Give this one a chance if you like electronic music with some edge to it but with just enough melody to make the songs stick in your head.

What can I say about about Chemlab? A great debut from an *INCREDIBLE* INDUSTRIAL/ELECTRO band that still stayed together! They continue on to make kick ass experimental beats and music that's very pleasing to the ears! It's nothing I've heard before! Love this CD!...

Oh yes , this is the CD that chemlab fans are rquired to get , forget east side malitia that has nothing on this one , i require you to go buy it now!

I really like this album. Maybe the vocals are not perfect, but the rest is OK. One thing, that pisses me a bit is the Suture sections. They make me say ahhh!
Two days ago I have bought this album (new, in a shop) for about 2,5$. Isn't that nice?
Płyta była dostępna w Empiku na Nowym Świecie. Zapraszam do grzebadła. Płyty od 9,99 ,- , a kasety od 2,99,-