Customer Reviews

Coded Message: 12

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

 

 

it sickens me to see all these glowing reviews for the new vnv nation cd and not one review for this masterpiece yet!! [the new vnv nation was a complete disappointment in my eyes.]

if you were a fan of [:sitd:]'s last release "stronghold" you will not be let down one bit!! in fact this release far surpasses that disc in every way imaginable. if you were not a fan of [:sitd:] before, i suggest you give them another chance and i promise you will be blown away!

best songs on the disc "brand of cain" "richtfest" "crusade" "wegweiser" and "ascension" but trust me, every song on here is of the highest quality, not one bad song on the whole cd [i wish i could say that about the new vnv...but i can't]

as far as im concerned "coded message:12" places [:sitd:]firmly on top of the EBM/industrial-dance scene.

SITD's second album is a truly wonderful example of how the pounding distorted drums of Industrial and the beautifully orchestrated melodies of the recently-deceased style of EBM called "Futurepop" are made for eachother.

Truly, the best way to describe the sound here is VNV Nation circa Empires borrowing Suicide Commando's drum machine. And it works VERY well. The gorgeous, lush synthesis is pounded into your brain by extremely hard drumming while goth vocals in the background soothe you into a hypnotic trance.

Admittedly, it seems to sound a little less harsh than the first album, and they still havent made a track as good as "Laughingstock." There is also a definite formula in use here, and yes, the songs can sound a bit similar to eachother. But its not as bad as, say, Grendel's 'Prescription: Medicide.'

A special mention must be made for "Rictfest." This song is club-perfect, very hard, dark and even has an epic-industrial-trance-singalong Chorus that sounds Wagnerian. This song is about the Armin Miewes case (A serial killer whose dietary habits werent exactly vegetarian) and sounds ironically delicious in comparison to the subject matter.

Either way, I dont think these faults are sufficient to cost it a full star. 4.5 stars. Best Songs: Rictfest, Brand Of Cain, Weigweiser, Sentiment, Relief.

_coded message: 12_ is SITD's best, in my opinion. in fact, this album has become the standard with which i rate other albums from the genre. the production is lush; the music is dark and atmospheric. the vocals are spewed in slow, ghoulish-sounding gasps. i love the vocals, actually. they do sound slightly artifical, sure, but not in a preposterous way. not like the over-the-top vocal effects used by GOD MODULE or PAINBASTARD, which i don't care for at all. the vocals here remind me more of the early FRONT LINE ASSEMBLY records. the songs are done alternately in english and german, which might bother me if the music wasn't so strong otherwise. but seriously, this is one dark slab of atmospheric industrial-dance music. i almost hesitate to use the word "dance" cause it has that giddy-happy connotation, and this is anything but happy. in fact, as the author above admits, this is quite apocalytpic-sounding. and it's not really EBM either, because it's too murky-sounding, with its dense atmospherics and dark mists of keyboards. i don't know, there's a heavier feel to _coded message: 12_ too, though it manages to find itself amongst the more subtle-sounding dance records i own; and i think that's because the heavy atmospheres have a softening effect on the edges of the rhythms, making it an album that even opponents of the harsher-sounding EBM titles can appreciate. finally, i think a lot dance records in general can grow tiresome rather quickly. they're generally pretty catchy and straight-forward, so there's usually not a whole lot to wrap your brain around. and so they become a bore over time. but i don't find that to be the case with _coded message: 12_. the album's thick atmospheres leak its subtler melodies over time, giving it surprising depth and re-play value. good stuff.